Author's Note: Thanks 1 for the review on the last chapter, and thanks also to Mary Weasley Malfoy and Bellatrix Morgenstern for adding this story to your list of followed stories. WARNING: Major character death ahead. You have been warned.

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Chapter 27

Katniss and I went in different directions. As I walked through the forest, I stripped branches off trees. I didn't have Rue's sneaking but I was as quiet as I could be when moving through the trees. It didn't matter if I left a trail for the Careers but I didn't want to be caught before I could carry out this plan. I had to succeed for Rue's sake.

When I had a lot of branches in my hands, I built the first fire the way they had taught us after the Reaping: Pile up branches, cover with dead leaves, strike with a rock, blow to make the flames come to life. Dead leaves were everywhere on the ground even though the trees still had green leaves. Back home, we sometimes saw dead leaves but not this many. The first fire was quick to build. I would have been happy about it, but I had other fires to build too.

I ran through the forest the short distance to build the next fire. I broke branches from the sturdiest trees I saw and made sure to leave a clear path for any Tributes that might follow me. If it was Cato, Clove, or Marvel, I wanted them to find me. I wanted to kill Clove or Cato most of all. The Gamesmakers had decided that District partners could win the Games together. If Rue had to go back home to Nana without me, I wanted to die knowing I had killed a District Two career.

Was that really who I had become? I thought while lighting the second fire. Did I plan to kill people now? Was I a killer? No. No, I was doing it all for Rue. She couldn't defend herself. She could not fight back. She was too small. I was doing it all to protect her. Rue would live. Rue had to live.

When the fire came to life, I started running through the trees again. Katniss and Rue were counting on me. I had to move quickly.

Something snatched my foot and I flew into the air. I dropped all my branches and the rocks for starting fires. I looked up and saw a rope wrapped around my right leg. I tried to reach the rope to cut it and felt a sharp, stinging pain in my back. I screamed in pain and went back to hanging upside down. When I reached for my back, blood covered my fingers and hand. There was a lot of blood, more than I had bled before.

My head started to pound. I reached again for the rope around my leg. When I touched it, the rope cut deeply into my fingers. I screamed again from the pain. We had ropes back home, and unless they slid across your hands, they didn't cut anyone's hands. These ropes weren't normal.

How did I let this happen to me? I didn't pay attention to the forest around me, and I should have. I looked up at the rope around my leg. It was covered in something sharp and shiny. It didn't look like any rope I had ever seen. There was no way to reach the rope holding me off the ground. If I didn't die from bleeding, I would die from hunger.

Suddenly there was an explosion that ripped through the trees. I saw the smoke rising toward the sky. Katniss had completed her part of our duty. I hoped Katniss would be ok. I reached for the rope again, but my back hurt so much that I screamed in pain again. I was going to die, like this. Katniss would be ok. She would find Rue. She would protect her. Maybe one of the Careers would try to attack her, but Katniss would—

"Thresh?"

I looked up, and on the tree branch high above me, I saw Rue looking down. She smiled at me. Then there was a cannon boom.

Katniss was dead.

No.

"Thresh, are you ok?"

I had to get free. With Katniss dead, I had to protect Rue. The Careers would come after us. "Rue, what are you doing? You should be hiding!"

"I saw you when you fell into the trap. I can help get you free."

"Rue, no. Get away and hide."

"NO. I'm not going to keep hiding Thresh. You need my help for once. So let me help you." Rue vanished into the leaves. I reached up for my leg but couldn't reach the rope still. The pain in my back was too great. The branch over my head shook and Rue worked to get me free. "Look out!"

Instantly I was falling. I had no time before I hit the ground. My whole body hurt, but I was okay. I was alive. I had to get Rue to safety. I rolled onto my side, crawled onto my hands and knees, and watched Rue climb down the tree.

"Thresh, are you ok? You're hurt!"

"Rue, you're supposed to be hiding. Get back into the trees." I tried to sound threatening but it hurt even more to try to stand up. I was in pain. But Rue's safety mattered more than my own.

"Let me help, Thresh!" Rue, despite being so much shorter than me, put my right arm around her neck and helped me stand upright. "Come on. I'll get you back to our tree. I'll send out a signal to Katniss."

"Katniss…is dead. Didn't you hear the cannon?"

Rue smiled and whistled a tune of three notes. She whistled it three times, until the mockingjays in the trees around us picked up the tune and repeated it. "Katniss taught me that. She's smart. She's going to be alive, Thresh. And she'll find us because of that song."

We walked a little further. Rue kept singing the same song, and the mockingjays kept repeating it. "Katniss will find us, Thresh. And everything is going to be ok."

I heard the snap of a tree branch. "Katniss?"

"Thresh, no!" Rue pushed me to the ground. I landed facedown but I heard something fly through the air.

"Rue, what are you…" I sat up. Rue stood over me with a weapon stuck in her chest.