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I enter a nightreater terror awaiting s I dread for others manifest in such vivid detail I can&039;t help but believe they&039;re real Each time I wake, I think, At last, this is over, but it isn&039;t It&039;s only the beginning of a new chapter of torture How many ways do I watch Prim die? Relive my father&039;s last moments? Feel my own body ripped apart? This is the nature of the tracker jacker venoet the place where fear lives in your brain

When I finally do coht of iery But eventually I accept that the poisonon my side, locked in the fetal position I lift a hand to my eyes to find them sound, untouched by ants that never existed Si out my limbs requires an enormous effort Soinventory of thee to sit up I&039;e bubbles of &039;s damp, but I don&039;t knohether pond water, dew, rain, or sweat is the cause For a long time, all I can do is take tiny sips from my bottle and watch a beetle crawl up the side of a honeysuckle bush

How long have I been out? It waswhen I lost reason Now it&039;s afternoon But the stiffness in ests more than a day has passed, even two possibly If so, I&039;ll have no way of knohich tributes survived that tracker jacker attack Not Gliirl from District 4 But there was the boy from District 1, both tributes fros? Certainly if they lived, their last days must have been as horrid as my own And what about Rue? She&039;s so small, it wouldn&039;t take ain the tracker jackers would&039;ve had to catch her, and she had a good head start

A foul, rotten taste pervadesently pull the staue The sweetness spreads throughmy veins with memories of summer, and my home woods and Gale&039;s presence besidecomes back to me

"We could do it, you know"

"What?"

"Leave the district Run off Live in the woods You and I, we couldof Gale but of Peeta and Peeta! He saved my life! I think Because by the time we met up, I couldn&039;t tell as real and what the tracker jacker venoine But if he did, andthe Lover Boy angle he initiated at the interview? Or was he actually trying to protectwith those Careers in the first place? None of it makes sense

I wonder what Gale made of the incident for aout of my mind because for soether in ood thing that&039;s happened since I landed in the arena I have a bow and arrows! A full dozen arrows if you count the one I retrieved in the tree They bear no trace of the noxious green slime that came from Glimmer&039;s body - which leads ht not have been wholly real - but they have a fair amount of dried blood on them I can clean them later, but I do take a minute to shoot a few into a nearby tree They areCenter than my ones at home, but who cares? That I can ith

The weapons give me an entirely new perspective on the Gah opponents left to face But I aer merely prey that runs and hides or takes desperate ht noouldn&039;t flee, I&039;d shoot I find I&039; the et soain andI was able to put on by gorging one, plus several more pounds as well My hip bones and ribs aresince those awful months after my father&039;s death And then there are my wounds to contend with - burns, cuts, and bruises fros, which are as sore and swollen as ever I treat s as well, but it has no effect on them My mother knew a treatment for them, some type of leaf that could draw out the poison, but she seldom had cause to use it, and I don&039;t even remember its name let alone its appearance

Water first, I think You can hunt along the way now It&039;s easy to see the direction I cah the foliage So I walk off in the other direction, hoping my enemies still lie locked in the surreal world of tracker jacker venom

I can&039;t move too quickly, my joints reject any abrupt motions But I establish the slow hunter&039;s tread I use when tracking game Within a few minutes, I spot a rabbit and make my first kill with the bow and arrow It&039;s not h the eye, but I&039;ll take it After about an hour, I find a stream, shallow but wide, and more than sufficient for my needs The sun&039;s hot and severe, so while I wait for my water to purify I strip down to my underclothes and wade into the mild current I&039; myself but eventually just lay down in the water for a fewit wash off the soot and blood and skin that has started to peel offthem on bushes to dry, I sit on the bank in the sun for a bit, untangling ers My appetite returns and I eat a cracker and a strip of beef With a handful of moss, I polish the blood from ain, braid backthe sun will dry theainst its current see uphill nohich I prefer, with a source of fresh water not only for e bird that must be some form of wild turkey Anyway, it looks plenty edible to me By late afternoon, I decide to build a s that dusk will help conceal the sa alarger than a chicken, but it&039;s plump and firm I&039;ve just placed the first lot over the coals when I hear the twig snap

In onethe bow and arrow to my shoulder There&039;s no one there No one I can see anyway Then I spot the tip of a child&039;s boot just peeking out frorin She can ive her that How else could she have followed me? The words come out of my mouth before I can stop them

"You know, they&039;re not the only ones who can form alliances," I say

For a es around the trunk "You want me for an ally?"

"Why not? You saved h to still be alive And I can&039;t see to decide "You hungry?" I can see her s hard, her eye flickering to the meat "Come on then, I&039;ve had two kills today"

Rue tentatively steps out into the open "I can fix your stings"

"Can you?" I ask "How?"

She digs in the pack she carries and pulls out a handful of leaves I&039;m almost certain they&039;re the ones my mother uses "Where&039;d you find those?"

"Just around We all carry them ork in the orchards They left a lot of nests there," says Rue "There are a lot here, too"

"That&039;s right You&039;re District Eleven Agriculture," I say "Orchards, huh? That ot wings" Rue ss she&039;ll admit pride in "Well, come on, then Fix me up"

I plunk down by the fire and roll upon my knee To my surprise, Rue places the handful of leaves into her ins to chew them My mother would use other methods, but it&039;s not like we have a lot of options After a reen wad of chewed leaves and spit on my knee

"Ohhh" The sound comes out of my mouth before I can stop it It&039;s as if the leaves are actually leaching the pain right out of the sting

Rue gives a giggle "Lucky you had the sense to pull the stingers out or you&039;d be a lot worse"

"Do

Rue stuffs another handful of leaves in herbecause the relief is so sweet I notice a long burn on Rue&039;s forear for that" I set aside my weapons and anoint her arood sponsors," she says longingly

"Have you gotten anything yet?" I ask She shakes her head "You will, though Watch The closer we get to the end, the more people will realize how clever you are" I turn the , about wanting me for an ally?" she asks

"No, Ias I team up with this wispy child But I want her Because she&039;s a survivor, and I trust her, and why not admit it? She reminds me of Prim

"Okay," she says, and holds out her hand We shake "It&039;s a deal"

Of course, this kind of deal can only be temporary, but neither of ushandful of some sort of starchy root to the meal Roasted over the fire, they have the sharp sweet taste of a parsnip She recognizes the bird, too, so in her district She says soet a decent lunch that day For a while, all conversation stops as we fill our sto has delicious rease drips down your face when you bite into it

"Oh," says Rue with a sigh "I&039;ve never had a whole leg to myself before"

I&039;ll bet she hasn&039;t I&039;ll bet meat hardly ever comes her way "Take the other," I say

"Really?" she asks

"Take whatever you want Now that I&039;ve got a bow and arrows, I can get ot snares I can show you how to set the "Oh, take it," I say, putting the drumstick in her hands "It will only keep a few days anyway, and we&039;ve got the whole bird plus the rabbit" Once she&039;s got hold of it, her appetite wins out and she takes a huge ht, in District Eleven, you&039;d have a bit row the food," I say

Rue&039;s eyes widen "Oh, no, we&039;re not allowed to eat the crops"