As soon as the gong sounds, I turn around and start running towards the woods. It only takes a short glance to confirm Rue is following me as our eyes meet, and soon we're running diagonally so that we'll eventually meet. I take one last glance at the scene behind me, and I notice that Peeta and the District 5 girl are also running away but everyone else is in the big bloody carnage.

Rue and I meet at one point but we don't stop. We run straight now, together into the woods. We keep running, and we don't stop. All we do is run, run and run some more until our lungs hurt. We run until we're both tired, panting. But we know we have to keep running. We have a slim, no, no chance of winning if we face the careers, and so we know we have to run away. We run until our small legs can't hold up anymore, and we both collapse. We try to sit up, but fatigue takes over, and our bodies reject any sort of moving. For a moment we just lay down there and look up into the sky. Then Rue finds her voice and asks, "Should we keep going?"

"I would if I could."

"Me too...so tired," Rue says.

"And thirsty."

We're both staring into the vast blue expanse when we hear some leaves rustle, and a snap of a twig. Rue and I are both startled and turn around to where the sound came from. I panic. What if it is a career tribute?

I let out a sigh of relief when I see that it is just a small bunny.

"Phew!" Rue calls out, obviously having been scared as well.

"You scared us," I tell him, at least I think it's a him, stretching out my hand and letting it approach me.

"What are you doing?!" Rue whispers.

"Um...I don't know...." I hesitate.

"It could be poisonous!" She scolds.
"I don't think so," I say and scoop the little rascal up. There's nothing weird about it or anything, it's just a regular bunny. Rue is still cautious about it. It takes a lot of convincing for her to finally even touch it.

"It's cute," she finally says.

"You hear that? She thinks you're cute~!" I tell her. Rue rolls her eyes with a grin.

"But if we're starving, or very hungry, then we eat it. Agreed?"

I sigh. It's a good compromise. "Agreed."

BOOM! The cannons start to go off. This means that the fight at the cornucopia must be over. They'll count how many people died, and fire a cannon for each dead tribute. The tributes are taken up into a hovercraft then sent to their parents in the districts. I count as the cannons go off.

"Eleven," Rue and I say at the same time, as the cannons finally stop.

"Eleven dead." I say.

"And thirteen still alive." Rue replies.

"I wonder if Peeta made it," I say, an edge of sadness in my voice.

"Yeah, I'm wondering about Thresh," Rue says.

"Oh I bet he made it, he's big, bulky, and well trained."

"Yup," Rue agrees, but I can tell she's not 100% convinced.

"I wonder about Noah too," I say, letting my thoughts drift to the cute guy, one of the only good things that has happened these Games.

"District 3 boy?" Rue asks. I nod.

"I've seen you with him a few times," Rue says with a smirk. "And the way you act around him~!!"

I feel my cheeks going red as I blush.

"You like him, don't you?" She whispers.

"Maybe," I answer back.

"Oh come on, I thought we were friends."

"Oh fine. Yeah I like him,"

"I knew it~!"

Soon Rue and I start walking again. Further and further into the woods.

"You can climb trees, right?" Rue asks me. I shake my head.

"Nope."

"Oh seriously? I can. I'll teach you."

"Thanks, but we should be moving now. But definitely sometime soon."

We continue to walk until the sun goes down. It's pretty dark and we need a place to sleep.

"Where should we spend the night?" I ask.

"I don't know, let's scout our options," Rue says and we start searching, but make sure that we can see each other. I look around and notice that the trees are hollow, and some of them have small holes at the bottom, and those holes are behind a turf of grass. Perfect. Soon we get back together.

"So what have you found?" I ask.

"Well we can climb the trees and tie ourselves to the branches, or maybe hide in the bushes."

"Well I found some trees, and they're hollow. We can sleep inside them!" I say with excitement, but making sure to keep my voice low.

"But that means we'll be sleeping standing up," Rue says. I shrug.

"The entrances are covered with grass, so we are almost guaranteed that people can't find us," I say.

"Ok, show me where they are," Rue says. Soon Rue and I are both in our own tree, right next to each other. The bad thing is that we can't talk to each other, but we will know that the other is there. Hopefully. I come back out of my hole after checking that it is conformable and a good size for me. I watch Rue crawl out of her hole as well.

"Not too bad," she says with a smile.

"Okay, to make sure the other is there, let's knock on the sides of the tree twice, and the other person can reply with two knocks if they are safe and one if they aren't. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

We watch the sky light up, as the Capitol logo flashes in the sky. It shows the faces of the fallen tributes. The girl from 3, boy from 4, boy from 5, both from 6 and 7, the boy from 8, both from 9- okay there is one more left. A picture of the girl from 10 is on the screen and Peeta's status is confirmed.

"Well, the other people we are close to are safe," Rue says.

"Yeah, I'm relieved."

"Me t-"

Rue is cut off by the sound of twigs snapping and the rustling of leaves. And this time, it's not a bunny. Because we can hear voices. We both crawl into our trees and stand still.

"Please don't kill me!" I hear a voice. Then I hear the career tributes snarl and laugh at their victim.

"Please don't kill me~!" they mimic. Then I hear a scream from the girl.

"Why isn't the cannon going off?" One of them asks.

"Oh, I don't know. We've got to make sure she's dead." I recognize the voice as Cato's.

"I'll finish her off," says another, followed by another scream. Then the cannon sounds.

"Twelve dead," I whisper to no one in particular.

"Let's go!" the other career boy says.

The next thing I hear startles me. Not because of what is said, but rather who said it.

"So where are we going?"

The voice belongs to Peeta.

~A/N~ The games are here! I know I wrote yesterday but I'm writing again anyways. I was really excited about writing this chapter and I wanted to publish it ASAP. This has been the most exciting to write so far and I hope I can keep you hooked throughout the rest of the games. See you next chapter :)

-Monica