Prim in the Games

Chapter Seventeen

Peeta? Peeta killed that tribute. I'm shocked. Peeta is like the kind of guy who wouldn't hurt a fly. Or at least when you look past his muscular baker's appearance.

What if he didn't mean what he said? What if he doesn't care to really protect me? What if he doesn't love Katniss at all? Why am I assuming all this? Just because he killed that other person it doesn't mean he will kill me.

"Prim, I've been looking over this entire arena for you," Peeta says.

"Did you just kill someone?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replies, and he looks ashamed of it. "The boy from district 3. He saw you carving into a tree and he was about to go up and kill you, so I broke his neck."

Oh, Peeta did that for me. I know he didn't want to kill anyone. I feel a little guilty about this.

"Peeta," I say, "Can you climb trees?"

"Um, no." He replies.

"Okay, well I have to go do something really important. That tree I carved in should have a 4 at the base. Could you try and hide around there until I get back?" I hope this isn't to much to ask from him.

"Oh okay, sure." He says.

We head in opposite directions. I'm on my way to the cornucopia, but I stop in my tracks. The careers are just a few feet in front of me. They don't seem to notice me, perfect.

I climb up a tree, and I swing to the other trees until I'm right above the careers. They set up a camp for tonight. I take the parachute out of my pack and I try to make it look brand new.

Then I drop the parachute onto the careers. "Alright," Marvel shouts, "our first parachute."

"Yeah, about time," Cato says.

Their first? I thought careers always get the most sponsors. I guess this batch of careers are too dumb for the Capitol to care about.

I swing back from the trees. Then when I thing I'm far enough walkway from them, I jump down and I start running to my tree. A cannon goes off. I guess someone are my berries.

By now they should have figured out a tribute did this (if they are even THAT smart) and they will be looking for me. By now I'm at the lake. I look for Peeta but I couldn't find him.

To my surprise I found Peeta in a tree. He learned to climb while I was gone. He gets down from the tree but he looks startled.

"What did you do?" He asks.

I explained to him about my parachute and the berries and he looks like he is in total shock.

"Prim, that's brilliant!" He exclaims.

"Yeah okay, but let's get back into the tree before the careers start looking for us now." I say. He nods and we get back into my tree.

The Capitol anthem plays and the faces start to show up in the darkening sky. Marvel, he must have been the one who ate the berries. The boy from district 3, and the girl from 5. I didn't hear her cannon go off.

"Peeta," I call out.

"Yeah," he says.

"Do you know how the girl from 5 died? I didn't hear her cannon," I ask.

"Oh yeah," he replies, "I forgot to tell you, the boy from 3 killed her right before he tried to go after you."

Oh.

"How many people are left?" I ask.

"Seven," he answers.

Seven people, six more kills, only one victory.