Saving the Tributes || Demigods in the Hunger Games

.oOo. Annabeth .oOo.

Katniss and I walked in a tense silence. Her face was stony but her eyes were filled with sadness at losing Rue. I, on the other hand, wasn't so sad about losing Jason and Nico because I knew they really were safe, but I wasn't sure if Nico got Rue over. Katniss refused to relive Rue's death, so I got no information out of her. It was really quite annoying finding someone as stubborn as I could be. But Rue's death was a delicate matter, so I didn't press. I wasn't heartless.

At this point, the only remaining tributes besides us were Cato, Clove, Percy, Thresh, Peeta, and Audrey. We had no way of knowing how the other tributes were doing— if Peeta and Percy were in the same place, if Thresh and Audrey were fighting or allied, if Cato and Clove had split up or were out hunting. We could only walk on and survive until we had another plan.

"Think about it," I said. "Their supplies are depleted. If we can wait until they're barely getting by and starving, then we can take them down easily."

"Biding time just gives them an opportunity to get more supplies," Katniss argued. "Their sponsors might give them something important. We need to kill them, now."

It was another one of our banters that we had been going at for some time now. I wanted the Careers to grow weak so that Nico could bring them to safety (but I didn't tell Katniss that— she was suspicious of me enough). Katniss on the other hand wanted to make sure there was no chance of any career winning the Games.

Both of us, I'm sure, have considered splitting up. But neither of us could risk being caught alone, and not to mention we were both heading in the same area so running into each other immediately again was too great.

But being allied wasn't exactly pleasant either. Without Rue or Jason, Katniss was so tense and suspicious of me that we'd pick trees to sleep in that were about fifty feet apart. I barely got any sleep for worry of her stabbing me in the back one night, and I'm sure she did too. But we were a competent team. She could hunt and prepare food and gather, and I could remember every inch of the arena I had traveled through already. We navigated as far as possible, never travelling near or away from the career camp.

We were completely torn in our goals. I had to find Percy, Katniss had to find the Careers.

That night, I lay awake (as usual). Crickets chirped amiably below me. Everything was silent, until a voice boomed to life above us.

"Attention tributes. There has been a... revision to the rules."

I sat up, my face hitting some leaves, but I was listening too intently to notice. Rustling away from me told me Katniss was sitting up as well.

"Should there be two tributes from the same district left standing, they will both be victorious. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor."

Naturally, the next day, Katniss couldn't wait to leave and look for Peeta, so we set off immediately.

But after walking for a few hours, Katniss paused. "Annabeth," Katniss muttered suddenly to me, crouching down. "Look at this."

I peered at what she was studying, puzzled. "What is it?"

Two straight grooves, perfectly parallel, snaked over a tree root.

"Not an animal track," she decided. "Not a natural animal, at least."

"It's indented so it's not blood," I said. "Maybe the Capitol just messed up when they made this tree?"

Note to self: The Gamemakers are basically the Fates. You say something that might taunt them, things are going down.

A low hiss resounded above us. Katniss and I both looked up at once, and my grip tightened around my knife. Two snakes curled around a branch in perfect synchronization, hissing in harmony. They peered at us, and I realized they were mirroring each other. They left a trail of what appeared to be black marks, but as the snakes travelled further, the marks paled and I could see they were grooves carved into the branch.

Katniss cursed. "Back away slowly," she muttered, and we both began to step back carefully. The snakes hissed and coiled on the branch, and I could imagine they were burning straight through it. I reached for my knife, then looked at Katniss. She was unarmed and in complete danger of dying. I was safe. She wasn't.

"Knife," I murmured, pressing the handle into her hand. Her eyes didn't leave the snakes, but I could feel the tension in her muscles diffuse. Katniss was born a fighter. I could appreciate that.

Suddenly, the hisses grew louder. Movement caught my eye, and I glanced to our left and right and my mouth dried. Hundreds of snakes, all in perfect synchronization with each other, all in pairs, seemingly emerging from the tree branches. The trees were suddenly striped with indents like a candy cane.

"Fight or flight?" Katniss asked.

Fight, fight, fight, my body chanted.

Flight flight flight flight flight, the logical part of my mind yelled.

"Clear a path straight ahead. I'll watch your back," I whispered back. "When you're ready."

Katniss nodded, I watched the snakes carefully as they wove in uncanny synchronization closer.

"Go!" Katniss shouted. We both launched into a sprint forward, and the snakes around us lunged. I smacked a pair backwards and it they flying. Wrenching a groove-covered branch from a tree, I ran backwards, fending off the snakes. Scaly ropes launched themselves at me, but I clawed and kicked them off.

Katniss slashed her way through particularly thick shrubbery and we sprinted into a clearing. The snakes hissed and coiled on the edge of the clearing, hissing, but not advancing. Then they all turned at once and melted back into the forest.

The pain hit me at once. My arms and legs were covered in deep, inch-wide, five inch long cuts that were bleeding profusely.

Katniss cursed again, dropping to her knees. Her face was pale, and she was covered in her own cuts. Well, cuts was the wrong word. More like gouged flesh marks.

"What the hell were those?" I managed to say through my haze.

"No idea!" Katniss gasped. I sat down and the movement made me cry out.

We were both going to die.

Come on, Nico, I thought blurrily. Get Katniss.

Then two figures burst from the trees.

Happy Thanksgiving, all you Americans!