July 11th, 74ADD
I wake up to a sliver of light hitting my eyes. When I open them, I see Katniss scanning the treeline for any present threats.
I do a quick scan with my 6th sense and feel nothing in the area. "Morning" I grumble out.
She looks over to me and flashes a smile before saying back "Morning there. Sleep ok?"
"As well as can be expected tied to a tree rumble." I say before my stomach rumbles earning me a giggle from Katniss.
"Sounds like you could eat. Here." She says handing me the bag of nuts and dried fruit.
I only take a handful before we decide to get a move on and check out snares from last night. As we climb down the tree, I see the path the Careers hacked through the nearby trees and grass in all their stomping and gallivanting. Obviously not caring if someone tries to hunt them down or not.
We check the 5 snares we managed to set up and are pleasantly surprised when 2 of them have a dead squirrel for us. One of them had a pretty small rabbit, but the last one we check seems to be empty, even though the trap had gone off and there was a small smattering of blood where the animal would have been.
I do another quick scan with my senses but again see nobody. Someone must have come to take our game in the middle of the night and split because there is too much blood to indicate that the animal just got back up again and kept moving.
Foxface…
Well, she's not very dangerous and not around us at the moment so I'll just have to keep in mind that we are probably being watched, or at least we were last night.
I tell that to Katniss and we decide to continue our walk in the same direction as yesterday. We spend the next few hours walking stealthily through the woods trying to spot any more game to hunt. We have enough right now but you never want to miss an opportunity for more.
After we manage to pick off another rabbit, we decide it's far enough from the cornucopia that we can take the time to cook the 2 rabbits and 2 squirrels. We don't really pay any mind to the level of doneness, taking the meat off the fire before the smell can spread too far.
After cleaning, cooking, and chowing down on the food, we continue our journey.
Nothing else of note happens, and when the sun begins to come down from its zenith, we start looking for appropriate shelter for the night. We manage to find another tree large enough to support the two of us but it's not quite as stealthy as our last home.
Beggars can't be choosers though so we scramble up the tree and tie ourselves to it once again.
It's not night time, but I can tell Katniss is exhausted from all the walking, hunting, and the fact she didn't get a ton of sleep last night so I offer to take watch as she has a nap.
She thankfully doesn't argue and before I can even say 'goodnight' she's out.
I do what I did all of last night to stave off my boredom. Not much progress today, but I think my 'vision' is getting clearer. I managed to single out a bird and its eggs in a tree not too far away.
'If I weren't tied to a tree, you'd be so fucked right now …'
We're less than an hour into her nap when I hear a faint wooshsound. I look up and far away on the horizon I spot a forest fire quickly making its way towards us.
I take no time to think and am already shaking Katniss awake with fury. "Kat… KAT!" I yell.
"Mmm… WHAT?!" She awakens with anger before quickly changing to fear as she sees the fire in the distance rapidly approaching us.
We don't take any time to communicate or plan, we just each grab our weapon and backpack and climb down as fast as possible. Katniss seems to be panicking slightly because her foot slips on one of the branches. She falls 10 feet towards the ground and when she lands, her ankle twists in an awkward angle.
"AH!" She yelps in pain before trying to hobble in the opposite direction. Not nearly quick enough to escape it.
I don't even have to think twice as I scoop her up and start running with as much strength as I could gather. I don't really have a destination in mind but I angle towards the lake next to the cornucopia, hoping to find water or a clearing on the way.
"LIAM NO! Just leave me! You have to get out of here!" She begs me after I scoop her up.
When I don't reply, she begins hitting the bag on my back. "I WON'T LET YOU DIE HERE! YOU HAVE TO LET ME DOWN AND GO!"
"Pfft, if you think I would even think about leaving you here then you don't know a thing about me Kat… it's either both of us or neither of us." I say quietly, almost unheard over the crackling fire that is currently gaining on us.
"You'll die…" She says, an audible tremble in her voice.
"Then we'll do that together too!" I shout back, not quite in the mood to deal with so much selflessness.
"...together" She replies as she grips onto me harder, finally ceasing the pointless punching of my backpack.
I keep running, having to dodge the 'totally random and not at all targeted' fire and falling trees. Eventually I get a blip on my radar-like senses. I turn to the side and see a small figure also running away, about 20 feet to my left.
Someone that small? It could only be Rue.
I try to ignore her, if it were any other time I probably would have helped but I just can't with Katniss already slowing me down a little. My 27 MPH top speed has been slowed to around 23 MPH. Not because of her weight, but because of the awkward carrying position.
I try to keep her in my line of sight as we continue to run but the fire and smoke makes it difficult.
I can see a clearing just up ahead. We're gonna make it.
It's then that Rue manages to spot us. I think I spooked her because she recoils in shock and that makes her stumble to the ground. The fire is thankfully following us so she isn't immediately burned but it won't be long before it begins engulfing her.
"RUE!" Katniss yells next to my ear. I hadn't known she had spotted her as well.
I think quickly, not wanting Rue to die such a horrible death, and give a quick apology "I'm sorry for this, love." as I put Katniss back into a princess carry and chuck her towards the clearing.
She tumbles in the air, but doesn't scream. Like she knew what I was going to do and had no problems with it. I don't see her impact the ground but I can feel that she's managed to land just out of the treeline.
I adjust my angle and end up having to dodge a fireball coming straight for my face before I can get to the poor girl.
She's already started running again, but seems to be favoring her left leg because her speed isn't as fast as it was before.
When she sees me coming towards her again, a look of panic and resignation crosses her face before she closes her eyes. Probably thinking I was going to kill her.
'What fucking psycho would back track into a burning forest just to kill an already likely dead girl?'
I don't say a word as I scoop her up and throw her over my shoulders before doing a 180 degree turn and making my way for Katniss once again.
A tree manages to fall perfectly in my way, there are no more paths to escape so I do the only thing I can.
I jump over it.
I knew it was going to hurt before I even left the ground. My senses telling me how stupid such an idea was, but it was our only option.
I'm sailing through the air, definitely going to clear it before my danger sense goes off once again. This time though it's different.
I can almost feel the fireball slam into my back and Rue's head. I freak out for a second thinking I screwed up and got us both killed but I realize that I'm still ok, it was just in my head.
Moving on instinct, I flex my core to adjust my position mid-flight and that's when I see the fireball coming from the woods, right where I thought I had just gotten hit.
I don't have any time to contemplate the new aspect of my abilities as the fireball collides with my left arm, causing the jacket sleeve to go up in flames quickly.
I'm still holding tightly to Rue as we make contact with the ground again, rolling to a stop. My arm is still on fire, burning my skin. I attempt to take the jacket off, but it's melted with the longsleeve I have on under it.
"LIAM! THIS WAY. HERE!" I hear Katniss shout in panic.
Gazing up, I spot her running towards us and pointing at the small pond behind her.
I glance at Rue once more to check if she's ok. Thankfully she is, she's panting trying to catch her breath and staring up at the clouds. I spot a singe on one of her legs but the fire on my arm distracts me from checking more.
I sprint to the pond as Katniss goes to gather Rue and when I dive in, it's the most wonderful feeling in the world.
I stay underwater for a few extra moments, appreciating the cool relief. 'Fuck that hurt!'
I see 2 more splashes in the pond and resurface as Katniss and Rue's heads poke out to join me.
No words are spoken outside of mine and Rue's winces. Must have been more than a singe on her leg.
"Thank you…" Rue quietly mutters. "Why… why did you do that? Save me?" She asks as hidden tears fall down her face, not looking at Kat or me.
Katniss floats closer to her and gives her a side hug before gently replying "Because we wanted to." with finality.
That causes her to look up and check both of our faces. A look of confusion and innocence that does more damage than the fire that was just eating me alive.
I go to open my mouth before emergency bells start ringing in my ears, louder than any other moment so far.
"You two have to go! Now!" I tell them quickly.
"What? Why?" Katniss asks in confusion.
"Shhh… hear that?" I say, and when the sounds of our flailing in the water dies down, we can hear the loud boasting typical of the Careers approaching this way.
Both Katniss and Rue's eyes go wide and they scramble to the nearest edge of the pond, trying to climb out. Katniss gets up quickly but has to help Rue as she struggles to put weight on her right leg.
Before they can get fully out of the water, the Careers come around the bend and Marvel immediately spots us. "Look there they are!"
Both he and Glimmer have looks of excited pleasure as they jog our way, while Cato has a look of pure malice as he follows along.
"Come on Liam!" Katniss offers me her hand as I get to the edge of the pond. Rue is standing right behind her and the Careers are getting close. They'll be right on top of us by the time we start running.
"Just go Katniss, get her to safety. I'll find you."
"What?! Liam you can't expect me to…" She begins saying.
"GO KATNISS!" I yell back, pulling myself up out of the water and shoving her hand away.
She looks back at Rue, then at the approaching Careers, and finally back to me. "You better survive Liam… if you don't… just… be safe please." She says before grabbing Rue and running into the woods once more.
I fish myself out of the pond, and pick up my hammer. I don't move a muscle as I wait for them to approach.
That seems to shock them because their jog slows to a saunter before stopping 10 feet in front of me. We sit in silence for a beat before Cato looks at Glimmer and says "Go get the other 2. We'll handle pretty-boy ourselves." His tone dripping with hatred.
She does so, splitting off from us as Cato and I maintain eye contact.
"What? Still mad over your little district partner? How's her leg by the way? Sounded like stale bread when I hit it earlier. Bet she was sooooo confident about her chances in here. Now she's no more than a wounded deer… helpless… already dead." I quip sarcastically.
Cato just growls like a rabid dog and Marvel winds one his spears back to throw at me. I don't even pretend to care about that, as I use the hammer to bat it out of the air like I did in the bloodbath before planting it in the dirt, using it like a cane. For style purposes of course.
That seems to piss them off more as Cato snarls back "No better than you will be. You only have one good arm. You think you can kill us?"
"Beat you? Yes... obviously. Kill you? Probably. Definitely one of you though. See, I got a couple girls to check on so I'm only gonna be able to end one of you right now. Which one wants the honor of an express delivery to the afterlife?" I say in exaggerated condescension, hoping to anger both of them to cause them to flight sloppily.
"AHHH!" Surprisingly it's Marvel that attacks first. I guess me swatting his attack out of the air damaged his inflated ego.
He runs straight for me with his spear held 5 feet in front of him, hoping to skewer me. When he gets close enough to stab me I sidestep, causing him to completely whiff.
He seems to have expected that though as he shoots out an elbow to hit me in the throat. When he does so Cato begins stalking closer, making sure not to get into melee range in case he gets stabbed as well.
I use the hand from my burnt arm to redirect his elbow and in one smooth motion, I use my right hand to take my dagger from its sheath and give it a new home in Marvel's pharynx.
His body goes completely still and I notice Cato tense up. Shocked at the ease with which I killed his ally with.
When Marvel's body crumples to the ground, I flash one last cheeky grin and say "This was fun… let's do it again soon. Maybe bring Clove with you next time." before booking it into the forest.
The cannon goes off and I can hear Cato let out another scream of rage before he starts to give chase.
===
I run for only a few moments before I can see Glimmer yelling up into a tree. Katniss and Rue must be up there, the same tree as in canon.
I extend my hammer as I run towards her, hoping to redeem myself from the blunder with Clove. It doesn't work out though because Cato screams her name in warning before I could get close enough.
When I am almost on her, she does the same acrobatic dodge as Clove, only this time I assume she heard my advice because her legs weren't extended enough to shatter them as well.
'Pity.'
I keep running past the tree with Rue and Katniss giving them a quick glance and throw a cocky grin over my shoulder before yelling "Man, you guys sure you earned those evaluation scores?!"
I don't bother looking back anymore, I can feel them chasing me. I just hope Kat and Rue use this opportunity to escape.
They have zero chance catching up and once I get enough space between us to the point it's impossible to even see me anymore they give up, backtracking to the tree.
I keep running for only a bit longer before slowing down and taking stock of my surroundings. I don't think I've been in this spot of the forest yet. I'd say I'm lost but… I don't get lost!
I feel the burn from earlier start to truly hurt. Thankfully it wasn't on my leg, but it still hurts like a bitch. When I try to peel the jacket off, the longsleeve shirt wants to come with it. Looks like they both got ruined.
It takes me 10 minutes to fully change into the spare shirt we got in the big backpack. It only took that long because the pain from the burn keeps getting worse the more I touch it.
I need to clean it. Katniss has our first aid kit with the burn cream, and I would rather not have it get infected. I don't know if my minuscule 'healing factor' would prevent such a thing from occurring but I'm not really in the mood to test such a thing. Especially not in this environment.
30 Minutes of Walking Later:
Ok, maybe I do get a little lost.
I sit down and tear into one of the squirrels from earlier before deciding on my next plan. The last place we said to go was the lake next to the cornucopia, hopefully that's where Kat and Rue have gone as well.
It's almost time for the sun to set, but honestly? I'm not too tired, my belly is full, and there aren't really any true threats at the moment for me to be wary of.
With all that, I decide it's worth it to walk through the night.
'Welp. it's a few miles to the center of the arena… better get started.'
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A/N: Next chapter will be split POV between Katniss and Liam, then once they reunite I'll do a reaction chapter.
Hope you enjoyed it!
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P.S: I literally just realized I named my MC Liam and that's the real name of the actor that plays Gale...