Rise From the Ashes

Chapter Fourteen

I find myself back in my home in District Twelve. My parents are there.

"Mom! Dad!" I run over and hug them tightly. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect Terra."

"Hey if you were protecting Terra who would've been protecting Drift?" My dad says. I sigh.

"I would've. I just couldn't breathe." I say.

"You've done so well for the past few years. I'm sorry we couldn't be there for you." My dad says brushing a piece of hair out of my eye. "You've grown so much."

"I miss you. I just want you guys back." I say my voice breaking.

"I know but Drift still needs you. That boy still needs you." Dad says. "Get home and take care of your family. You promised Prim."

"I promised Prim." I agree. I hug him tightly one more time. "I love you dad."

"I love you too Phoenix." He says.

I wake up hidden by a fallen log. I'm stiff enough that I must've been out for a while. It was morning when the venom finally took me down and it's now late afternoon.

"You're awake." Cato says obviously relieved.

"How long was I out?" I ask shifting. I carefully sit up. "Are you okay?"

"Two days." Cato says. "Gale got me in the leg. He was aiming for you."

"Oh my god." I sit up quickly and check his leg. "I guess we have to try and keep it clean."

It's deep. Down to the bone deep. It's beyond my capabilities to heal and I don't know how to keep it from getting infected.

"It's bad isn't it?" Cato says.

"No I can deal with this." I take a deep breath. There's a rustling behind us and I turn pulling back an arrow quickly. I relax when I see a child's boot peeping out behind the tree. "Rue? It's okay. We won't hurt you." I say. "Besides they aren't the only one who can make alliances."

Rue steps out and walks down to join us. "You really want me as an ally?"

"Yeah. You lasted this long and you're smart." Cato says. Rue smiles and sits next to me.

"Who died while I was out?" I ask.

"Glimmer and Marina." Cato says. "The girls from One and Four."

"Oh." I say. "Well I'm going to go hunting." I stand and start into the woods. I quickly pick off three of these strange birds I keep seeing. I walk back to Cato and Rue and smile. "I have dinner."

"Oh that's groosling!" Rue says recognizing it. "Sometimes when they wander into the field and we get a full meal."

"Well we should cook them." I say. I carefully build a fire and glance around. I fashion a spit and carefully cook the three birds.

"So what's the food situation like?" Cato asks.

"They've got it all stacked up in a big pile down by the lake." Rue says.

"That sounds tempting." I smile. "Maybe we could make this game fair."

"But they're not hungry." Rue says frowning.

"What if we changed that?" I smile.

"But what about Cato?" Rue asks. I frown. We really can't bring Cato along for something like this.

"Are there any caves around here?" I ask. Rue nods.

"No I can help." Cato protests.

"It doesn't look like you can walk Cato. We need to get that leg somewhere dry where it can heal." I snap. Cato sighs.

"So stick me in a tree." He says.

"You can barely climb trees with two good legs." I answer. He sighs and resigns himself. "So we find a cave and then we get everything set up."

"Yeah can you help him?" She asks. I glance between the two of us.

"Yeah." I answer. I pack away our other two grooslings and we eat quickly.

After we eat I force Cato to stand and we walk several hours to a cave Rue found. I mean him against the wall and spread out one of our sleeping bags. I help him in and zip it up.

Rue and I settle in the mouth of the cave and start talking. We slowly plan our attack and I keep glancing back at Cato. I can tell he's growing feverish.

"We should have a signal." Rue says. I nod.

"Any ideas?" I ask. I smile as a mockingjay lands near by. I sing a tune for it and it pauses before singing it back to me.

"Perfect!" Rue says. She teaches me a four note tune. "We use it at quitting time. I'm normally highest in the tree so I see the flag first."

"Yeah they're all around the meadow at home." I say. She smiles.

"I like birds. They make music." Rue says. "That's my favourite thing in the world."

I finally notice her burns. "Oh I have something for those." I say retrieving my burn ointment. I gently apply it to her burns and she sighs.

"I have something for the stings." She says. "Lucky you got the stingers out otherwise these would be worse."

"Cato must've done that." I say. I roll up my leg and she pulls a bunch leaves out of her pack. She chews it up and sticks the glob on my knee. "Oooooh." I sigh. "Do my neck! Do my cheek!"

She smiles and obliges. "So how much of it is true?"

"What?" I ask.

"You and him." She teases. I smile and cover my mouth so I can whisper and the cameras won't catch it.

"We just met after the parade." I confess in a whisper. I remove my hand and smile. "Yeah. It's all true."

"So tell me about your family." Rue says.

"Well it's just my sister and the Everdeens now. Drift is seven. She's such a brat in the mornings but every other time she's so happy to see me and she jumps on me with the biggest smile." I sigh. "I miss her."

"I understand. I've got a bunch of younger siblings." Rue says.

"Okay let's move onto Prim and Katniss. Prim is great. She's scared of a lot but she's the best healer. She'd actually be really helpful with Cato right now. Katniss is a lot like me. My mom refused to stop working after she had me so she would drop me off at the Everdeens and I would get put in the same crib as her. Once we were big enough we used to poke each other and help each other out of the crib. We one time made it all the way to the meadow by her house before her mom caught up. My parents came home to my hair being full of flowers and sticks. She's always been there for me. She's my literal other half."

"Got any other friends in Twelve?" Rue asks curiously.

"There's Madge. She's really smart and really pretty." I say smiling.

"Right." Rue smiles mischievously. I wrinkle and blush slightly.

"Anyway we should get some sleep before tomorrow." I say. Rue smiles and nods. I get out our second sleeping bag and slide into it. Rue joins me and snuggles up to me immediately. She must feel safe. I feel safe with her. I slowly drift off keeping my arm around her.

The next day I help Rue set up the fires and start towards the lake. I find the area she mentioned. I can see them but they can't see me. They soon spot Rues smoke and leave. I'm about to leave my hiding spot when a glint of red hair appears. The girl from five approached the pile and started jumping carefully. She jumped over a barrel and landed on her tiptoes. She squealed as she fell forward and her hands hit the ground. She gets back up carefully and then reaches the pile and carefully takes her hat they won't notice. She does her same strange dance back out and runs into the woods. The landmines.

I cross to the platforms and lift up the plate. It just confirms my theory. I chew my lip and put myself into range. Five arrows to get the job done. I pull back my first arrow and let it fly. It rips the the bag. I pull back my second arrow and let it fly. It makes the rip larger and an apple teeters on the edge of falling and I let my third arrow fly. It rips the bag wide open and the apples fall. The landmines go off and I'm blown backwards.