Chapter Text
The moment the nest hits the ground all hell breaks loose.
I hold my breath and watch with wide eyes as the chaos unfolds before me. The Careers were certainly not expecting to be woken up to a swarm of killer insects engulfing them. They abruptly spring to their feet and swing their arms about wildly, attempting to protect themselves from this unexpected threat, which seems to aggravate the tracker-jackers more. I hear Cato swear and yell at the others to run to the lake, leaving all of their equipment and weapons behind. Perfect.
I’ve only been stung three or four times, but I can’t imagine what twenty or thirty stingers would do to a person. I don’t manage to get a good look at Peeta or the other Careers before they fled, but Glimmer, the girl from District 1 isn’t so lucky. She’s mere seconds too late and is unable to evade the swarm of tracker-jackers that now engulf her.
I watch helplessly as she starts running around in circles, shrieking hysterically before she runs straight into a nearby tree and collapses onto the ground. Her screaming stops and the sound of the cannon immediately follows. I’m not sure whether or not she’s dead because of the impact of the collision, or from the venom pervading her system.
It doesn’t matter now.
The venom that has entered my system is already beginning to take effect. Although I’ve managed to rip the barbed stingers out, it's still not enough to prevent me feeling unsteady and woozy. I wait for another few moments until the tracker-jackers have left, presumably to chase after Cato and the others. It takes a great deal of effort to climb down the tree without falling, and I’m conscious that I’m not far from Glimmer as I descend. I have to remind myself that she’s long gone and I will be too if I don’t hurry up.
I reach the ground and before I can stop it, an agonised wail escapes from me. Glimmer’s body has almost tripled in size. She was a petite, pretty thing. I vaguely recall her in that beautiful golden dress that she wore during the tribute interviews. She was everything the Capitol loved about the Career tributes. They were bold, sexy and desirable.
Now, she is completely unrecognisable. Her eyes have been completely swallowed by the stingers which are swelling by the second. Some have even begun to ooze a pungent green liquid onto the ground beneath her, forming a pool of pus. She looks positively monstrous. At that moment, my vision starts to blur and the world around me becomes hazy. The trees around me begin to warp into unusual shapes and some seem to be… moving?
My knees weaken at the sight and before I know it, my palms hit the ground and my supper from the previous night makes its way back into the world. I cough and I heave as the smell of the ooze invades my nostrils. It's unlike anything I have ever experienced before. I’ve gotten used to the scent of decomposing game over the years; you need to have a strong stomach to hunt and clean game, but this is so rancid that I can’t seem to stop myself from retching uncontrollably.
I look down and am shocked to find that my vomit is also the same pungent green as the ooze spilling out of Glimmer's body, which provokes me to throw up again. I stare at it, dazed. What was wrong with me? Surely I was dying.
I can’t afford to dehydrate myself and I can’t imagine that I’ll be hunting anytime soon, so I need to keep as much food down as possible. Covering my nose with my shirt in an attempt to block out the scent of death, I turn away from Glimmer and start heading towards the opposite direction of the lake when a thought suddenly strikes me.
My bow.
I need to get it from her before I make a run for it. Securing it might just get me out of this arena. I’ve gone so long without a weapon that I feel comfortable and confident with. With that bow, I will have the upper hand and it might just mean that I can see Prim and Gale and my mom again. The thought fills me with a new kind of determination. It’s what drives me to turn back to Glimmer, who now looks as stiff as a statue. She’s still oozing, but I need to put my disgust and horror aside and retrieve the bow from her before the others return to hunt me down.
The venom makes the task extremely difficult. My legs struggle to support the weight of my body and the world around me starts to blur. I'm unsteady on my feet and have to crawl on my hands and knees to reach Glimmer’s disfigured corpse. The hovercraft will be here soon, and I need to get the bow and arrows before they leave with her.
It’s suddenly very quiet, in a very unsettling way. The sounds of the forest start to become weirdly muffled, like I’m submerged underwater. It oddly provides me with some reprieve from the chaos that I’ve just witnessed, however that feeling is quickly replaced with horror when the sound of another cannon booms in the distance. It’s a sound that’s so familiar that I’m almost certain that I heard it, despite the fact that I’m unable to completely trust my senses at this point.
I immediately think of Peeta. Could it be him? It could be any of them judging by the amount of stings they sustained moments prior. It doesn’t take long for the venom to do its job. It's a painful, agonizing death and if it was Peeta, I hope for his sake and for the sake of everyone in District 12 that it was quick.
I know that my time is limited and I don’t know what other effects the venom might have on me. The thought of losing control of my body and seeing things that aren’t real while the Careers are nearby causes my panic to rise. I need to be completely in control and clear-headed if I’m going to get out of this.
There’s no point in delaying the inevitable, so I make quick work of trying to figure out how to extract the bow from Glimmer’s large, stiff hand. I pull at the bow, but it’s futile. Her fingers are so stiff and tightly fastened around it that I realise I'll need to somehow break her fingers in order to remove it. The thought is so repulsive that I start to hyperventilate. I can’t do it. The smell, the sight, the venom, my inability to breathe properly. It’s a complete nightmare.
This could mean life or death, and I need to get back to Rue before something happens to her, so I push on. I only hope that she’s as far away from here as possible. The burning desire to get back to her and to ensure her safety is what drives me to grab the nearest rock and proceed to smash Glimmer’s fingers with it, until all that’s left is a puddle of pus and flesh.
The bow is now freed, and now I need to make work on the sheath of arrows, which appear to be wholly consumed by her back. It takes a great deal of effort to roll her over and I try to ignore the sounds of the balls of ooze popping and seeping into the ground beneath her.
I force her onto her stomach. The stings have become so enlarged that they’ve ripped and protruded through her clothing. The whole thing is so harrowing I just want to scream.
The quiver itself won’t budge, but I think that I can extricate an arrow or two that aren’t completely embedded within her. It takes some pulling and tugging, which results in a freakish squelching sound that I wish I didn’t hear, but I am able to secure two arrows, but the rest are done for and I’m certainly not going to be digging through her decaying corpse to get them.
I vaguely register the sound of someone shouting. They don’t sound too close, but the fact that I could hear it at all signals that danger is nearby. How long have I been here? The Careers must be returning to the site for their weapons and equipment, now that the tracker-jackers have done their job and have likely left. I realise that I’ve spent too much time here. I could’ve put some distance between us by now if I had left the bow and arrows and I’m not sure if it was worth the risk. I know that I am deadly with this weapon in hand, but I’m not confident that I’m as deadly whilst under the influence of the effects of the venom, which seems to be intensifying by the minute.
Without warning, I notice a figure emerge from the trees, but they don’t look large enough to be Cato, nor do they look as small as his partner. Could it be the girl from District 4? Or…..Peeta!
I freeze at the sight of him as he lunges towards me with a weapon in hand, preparing myself for the blow that is about to come. I’m not fast enough to make a run for it or aim an arrow at him, so I just stand there in a state of pure shock. It’s his expression that startles me the most. It’s not one of anger or hatred, but one of fear.
It could be the effects of the venom, because surely he would’ve killed me by now, but all he does is shout in my face unintelligibly. I can’t make out the words, because everything is so indistinct and contorted that I can’t distinguish what’s real and what isn't. He grabs me by the arms with a bruising grip and looks at me with a pleading expression on his face and I’m somewhat able to make out the words “run” and “hurry” as he pushes me away. What is going on?
He looks oddly shiny and I notice that he has a large sting on his neck the size of an orange. Without realising what I’m doing, I reach out to him and then the look on his face becomes blank and he stills. That’s when I glance down and notice the handle of a knife protruding through his back. “No….No, no no! Peeta!” I shout.
I reach for him as he starts to sway, but my attempt at holding him upright is futile. He drops to his knees and I go down with him, gripping him tightly. He looks into my eyes as I cradle his cheek with a pleading and devastated expression. “Run…Katniss,” he wheezes. His eyelids flutter shut and he drops to the floor on his side. I scream his name again and again, trying to bring him back to me, trying to bring back the boy that I thought was here to kill me but was trying to save my life instead.
Why? Why did he do this?
Before I have time to process anything, I catch sight of a figure ahead who is quickly approaching us. Without thinking, I grab my bow and aim an arrow towards them, and it lands right through the chest of the small District 2 girl.
She has a look on her face that I can’t immediately decipher. Shock? No, she’s… laughing? Maybe it is the effect of shock, because why on earth is she laughing? I sit there, stunned as I watch her fall to her knees with a manic expression on her face, one that I wouldn’t expect from someone who just got shot through the chest. Before I’m able to ready my second arrow, I register a pain blossoming in the right side of my abdomen, and that’s when I see the hilt of another knife protruding from me.
I quickly glance back at her, because she could have a number of those knives stashed on her person, but by the look of her eyelids fluttering shut and her body swaying forward, I know that she’s done for. The sound of another cannon booms echoes through the arena.
I know that I have to get up and run before Cato and any others find me. The shock of being stabbed hasn’t quite hit me yet and before I think too much about it I slowly pull the bloodied knife out of my abdomen. I wince at the pain. Thankfully it's a small knife, and it doesn’t seem to have hit a dangerous spot, but it really freaking hurts. It’ll make running far easier if it's out, but I'll need to keep my hand pressed on the wound to slow down the bleeding, and there’s a lot of it. More than I was expecting.
This is not good.
Cato suddenly emerges from the trees. I can’t seem to locate a weapon which is a relief and I can see that he has a large sting on his forehead that’s covering his left eye almost completely. He notices me and staggers forward, clearly affected by the tracker-jacker venom in his system. I hastily grab another arrow and try to secure it in the bow, but my hands won’t stop shaking and it’s becoming more and more difficult to breathe now that I’m bleeding.
Cato abruptly stills when he recognises his partner on the ground. He looks momentarily shocked. I don’t think he was expecting that last cannon to be for her. His expression hardens at the sight of the arrow lodged into her chest. He takes several deep breaths before he turns to my direction and storms towards me like a predator about to hunt its prey. I quickly stand and ready my last remaining arrow and aim it towards him. This is my only chance to kill him before it’s over for me. It’s now or never.
I release the arrow and I….miss. Well I don’t miss, but I don’t exactly hit what I was aiming for. The arrow ends up in his left shoulder. It won’t kill him but it might slow him down just enough for me to escape. Before I can witness his reaction, I drop everything and make a run for it.
It’s as though the forest has sprouted hundreds of trees. It’s so dense that I end up colliding with several of them as I retreat into its depths. I try to keep my balance, but the shock of Peeta’s death, my wound and the threat of Cato chasing after me causes me to stumble repeatedly.
“Twelve!” I hear Cato shout in the distance.
He doesn’t sound too close, but I don’t risk turning around. I know that I’m faster and lighter than he is, but I’m also injured. I also don’t know what sort of effect the arrow will have on him, either. It’ll certainly hurt, but I doubt it’ll hold him off for long.
I have to grab onto the trees as I run past them as the world around me spins. Out of the corner of my eye I spot someone else, but it’s not another tribute. I recognise that blue hair and shiny suit anywhere. Caesar Flickerman? Here, in the arena? I really was going completely insane.
He starts running towards me at lightning speed. No, this can’t be real. It’s not real. I know I am just imagining this, but something about it unsettles me deeply, because he’s running straight towards me with a wide, deranged smile on his face. I stumble backwards and when he’s just a few feet away from me he suddenly morphs into an enormous glittery blue tracker-jacker. I try to remain as rational as I can, but the beast's thorny legs and enormous black eyes prompt me to turn and run as fast as my legs will carry me. I can hear Caesar's voice behind me, calling my name tauntingly in this shrill voice of his.
In the distance I hear an agonised scream and I immediately think of Rue. I need to protect her from the tracker-jacker before it eats her alive. I need to protect her from Cato. I have to get to her, but I can’t let Caesar or Cato get to me first.
The screaming continues for an alarmingly long time as I run, like the person hasn’t even paused to take a breath. I try to follow the sound of the scream, hoping that it might lead me to Rue, but I can’t seem to pinpoint the direction that it’s coming from. Suddenly it’s coming from every direction and I’m being swallowed whole by the piercing shrieks. I have to cover my ears to block out the noise, fearing that if I don’t my eardrums are going to explode. I’m so disorientated that I barely register that I’ve tripped over a root. Before I can even register that I need to grab onto something, I’m tumbling down into a large ditch and then everything goes black.