I wake up early, too early. Neither Austin nor the careers are awake. I know that Glimmer was supposed to be keeping watch, but she probably clocked out a few hours ago.

"Psst."

Whatever I expected to see, it wasn't Rue, in a neighbouring tree, putting a finger to her lips.

I almost make a gasp, but I know I can't afford to wake up the careers. Rue soon removes the finger from her lips, and for a moment we stare at each other. Then she raises her hand again, and points to something above my head.

I follow her finger up the tree and see a nest, hanging off the branch. I instantly recognise it to be a wasps nest. However, this is the Hunger Games.

These probably aren't normal wasps, but tracker jackers.

During the Dark Days, when the Districts rebelled against the Capitol, the latter set many genetically altered animals and insects upon the Districts. This one was called a tacker jacker, a genetically engineered wasp so that when you get stung, the pain is ten times worse and it also causes hallucinations. Sometimes, if you get stung enough, death.

I turn back to Rue, who's now miming something else. Cutting.

I look up and see that the branch the hive is on is right over the careers. And then everything clicks into place.

I nod at her and then she's gone. Disappeared into the trees. I marvel at this for a second before pulling the knife I got from Clove out my pack and untying myself for the tree branch, putting that back in my pack.

I slowly climb the tree, not feeling a thing from my burns now that Haymitch gave me that cream. Once I'm up the branch enough, but not that close that I'm going to get stung, I pull the knife out, outstretching it to the branch and starting to saw.

When I'm about a quarter of the way through it, I jump as I see Glimmer stir at the base of the tree. She does wake up though, so I'm fine.

At one point, one tracker jackers turns its attention to me, and I feel a searing pain in my arm. I cry out, not caring if I wake up the careers. To be honest, it's a win win, because if they see me cutting the nest, they'll scarper anyway.

Another two turn to me as I nearly finish cutting the branch down. One stings my neck and the other my arm also. Tears spring to my eyes and I struggle to keep going as my vision goes blurry. But just one more saw and it'll drop-

It's as if I'm watching in slow motion as the nest goes down, but as it drops on the ground and smashes, it's certainly not slow.

The careers scream and try to bat the wasps off as I get ready to drop down the tree. I see Austin, Cato, Clove and Marvel run off, but Glimmer isn't so lucky. She falls to the ground as hundreds and hundreds of the wasps attack her and she's screaming like anything.

I scramble down the tree, now becoming victim to my own hallucinations. I'm about to run away from Glimmer and this horrible place, but then I see the axes in her hand...

I have to get them, I know I must. I walk slowly back towards Glimmer, the trees becoming fish and other animals. Slowly, I prise the axes out of her hands and savour every single one.

I start to stand up, but my feet seem too heavy to move. My head's spinnt and my body seems like it's going to collapse any second now.

"Willow, go! Get out of here, go? What are you doing, go!"

Suddenly I see Austin running at me, yelling at me to go and run before the careers come back. I wonder whether I'm imagining this for a second, but for some reason, I know it's real.

But I know this isn't. Once Austin disappears from my sight, I see Ceasar Flickerman appear from behind a tree.

"Not only is tracker jacker venom very lethal, it also causes powerful hallucinations... hallucinations... hallucinations..."

That's when I feel myself keel over and fall to the side, my eyes blacking over and my head going blank.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

After a only-Panem-knows-how-long spell of unconsciousness I've had, I wake up in a little hollow right near the tracker jacker tree. I notice that my hands are covered in leaves and that the pain and swelling from my stings has gone down by a mile.

I see my axes beside me, and I pick them up immediately. Getting my pack (which is also laid beside me) I get everything in order and stand up.

I wonder who has done this to me. Put all my things in order, helped me recover from my stings and not laid a finger on me apart from that. Austin maybe.

But no, a few metres along, I notice a little boot sticking out from behind a tree. I know it only belongs to one person.

"Rue?" I ask, and the scared little girl comes partially out from behind the tree. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

She comes out and I smile slightly. One look at her eyes and I know she knows she's safe.

In an hour, I manage to catch a few rabbits and Rue manages to make a fire that also rivals mine in quality. We roast my catch on the fire then settle down to eat it.

Rue eats her leg like a maniac, and to me it's clear that she's hardly ever had meat in her life. "D'you want mine too?" I ask, offering it to her.

"No, that's okay," Rue says politely.

"Here," I say, smiling, giving her the rabbit's leg. Once she starts eating, it's clear she really wanted it.

"So, how long was I asleep?" I ask nervously.

"A couple of days," Rue answers, nawing on the rabbit. "I changed your leaves twice."

So what happened when I was out?" I ask, also nervous.

"The girl from One and the boy from Ten," Rue knew what I was talking about.

"And the... boy from my District?" I ask. "And Nina... the girl from Five?"

Rue smiles warmly. "Yeah, they're fine. I think they're both down by the lake somewhere. That's where most people are hiding."

I nod and look down, before she asks again. "Is all that true, about you and... Austin?"

"What?" I turn to her.

"You and him," she says in a sing song voice.

I chuckle. "So where are Cato and the others?"

I know the audience won't forget that I've completely forgone this question, but I don't care at that moment.

"They're down by the lake as well, but Austin's split up with them now. They've got all their supplies piled up in this big pyramid."

"That sounds tempting," I smile, and the look of excitement on her face is something I can't ignore. She's up for an adventure.

That night, we climb a tree and I tie us both in. We sit in the sleeping bag and see the anthem play, but there's been no deaths today. After that I face Rue, who seems amazed that she's here and that we're allies.

I can't help but think of Nina, and how I feel like this is a slight betrayal to her. But Rue is so like Prim and Posy... and I don't want to turn her away.

"It's warmer now, huh?" I ask her as she looks at the sleeping bag.

"Much," she nods.

"I used to sleep like this with my sister, before she started to share with my mother," I say quietly.

"Is she the one who-" Rue begins.

"No," I shake my head. "That's Prim. Her family and mine are very close, but we're not sisters. My actual sister's called Posy."

"That's a nice name," Rue says before moving on. "So do you like that boy, Austin?"

I look towards her. "Will you talk about anything else?"

"Well, if you don't like him, how come you asked about him?" She asks.

"Because..." I paused. "I think he might have saved me, but I might've been imagining it because of the tracker jackers."

"No, they never make you see good things," Rue shakes her head. My heart leaps. "Nobody would save you in those dreams."

I turn away and look up. "I guess he really did."

The wind whistles a bit before Rue speaks again. "There's a boy I like, too, back home."

"Really?" I ask. "What's his name?"

"I can't say here," Rue whispers, looking around.

I pull the sleeping bag up over her head and she whispers her crush's name into my ear. I pull the sleeping bag back down. "That's a nice name."

She puts a finger to her lips. "Shhh," I copy her and promise I won't say a thing.

"We better get some sleep, we got a big day tomorrow, we're gonna hit those supplies." I smile and her face lights up again before I turn on my back, close my eyes and try to stop the nightmares from flowing in.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

"Now this green stuff's gonna smoke like crazy, so as soon as you light it move onto the next fire."

The plan was simple. Distract the careers by sending billows of smoke into the air, bringing them away from their precious hide out. Apparently, according to Rue, they're on the plain of grass that we started to games on.

Anyway, after they're drawn away, I'm going to sneak in and steal their supplies, then destroy the rest that I can't carry. I know this'll enrage Cato and the rest, but their fury, I think, will be entertaining to watch.

"I got it," Rue nods.

"So light that one first and I'll meet you over there," I point to the biggest fire.

"We need a signal, in case one of us gets held up," Rue suggests.

"Okay, like what?" I ask.

I notice Rue looks at my chest before answering. Soon I know why. "Here, watch this."

She utters a little four note melody and the birds atop the arena copied her. "Mockingjays..." I say in wonder.

You see, the mockingjay on my pin isn't just a silly bird, it's a symbol. During the dark days, the Capitol released jabberjays into the wild. These birds could memorise conversations and feed them back, and so the Capitol used them to spy on the rebels. Of course, soon, the rebels realised what was going on, and fed the Capitol endless lies. This led to the birds being left to die off in the wild.

But they didn't die off. They mated with the female mockingbirds, creating a new species which could memorise melodies and sing them back, but had lost its ability to memorise speech.

"We use them to signal at home all the time," Rue tells me. "You try."

I whistle out another four note tune, and then hear it played back to me a hundred times. "Okay, so if we hear that, it means we're okay, and we're gonna be back real soon."

"We're gonna be okay," I nod. Rue rushes into my arms, hugging me. "Hey," I brush a strand of her hair out of her eyes and she looks at me. "I'll see you for supper."

"Okay," Rue nods. I give her a kiss on the forehead and then start to walk right towards the careers.

Just like they want me to.