In Another Life

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games, or the quoted lyrics.

"I woke up on this side,

Thought it was a dream.

At first we learned to walk, then learned to scream.

You can't understand, when you're fed from a TV screen.

You can't see the things that I can see."

~Real World by The All-American Rejects

"Ladies first!"

All of the girls in District 12 that're between the ages of twelve and eighteen wait with bated breath to see will shipped to their death this year.

Please don't be me or Prim, Katniss repeats over and over in her head. Please don't be me or Prim, please don't be me or Prim.

Effie Trinket unfolds the piece of paper in her hand, smoothing it out. In a dramatic, Capitol-accented voice she announces, "Madge Undersee!"

The pretty sixteen year old blonde walks stiffly up the stage, arms at her sides. There is a moment of shocked silence and a murmur runs through the crowd, wondering how this could've happened. Being the mayor's daughter, she only had the required four slips for her age, compared to Katniss's own twenty-two. Mayor Undersee tenses up in his seat, all of the color draining from his face. Somewhere in the crowd, his wife succumbs to a violent migraine.

Madge takes her place on the stage. As Katniss watches from the sixteen year olds' section, her heart sinks, and she feels guilty for the automatic thought that runs through her head. At least it wasn't me or Prim. Prim has survived her first reaping; Katniss has survived her fourth.

"And now for the boys," Effie says, walking over to the boys' bowl of names.

Please don't be Gale, please don't be Gale.

"Rory Hawthorne!"

And of course the odds have found a way to defy her silent prayer. Katniss already knows what's going to happen next, and she whirls around, facing the eighteen year old boys' section, where there's quite a bit of scuffling before a tall, dark-haired boy emerges. Gale.

"I volunteer!" he shouts, his voice carrying a slight tremor that Katniss is sure only she can detect. The words echo around the town square, silencing everyone. "I volunteer as tribute!"

Katniss drags away a screaming and kicking, almost six foot tall Rory away from the stage with the help of Darius, a Peacekeeper that she and Gale are on good terms with. Katniss restrains Vick and Posy when they start to run towards the stairss. She bites her lip and meets Gale's eyes as he climbs the steps and conveys a thousand silent messages to him.

The odds were never in our favor.

Her mother is trying to console Hazelle and Prim is clutching her as she watches her only two friends shake hands.

"A round of applause for our tributes!"

Slowly, silently, every citizen of District 12 touches the last three fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to Gale and Madge.

Katniss stands on her tiptoes and stretches her arm out as far as it can go.

Katniss rushes through the entrance and launches herself into Gale's arms, clinging to him.

"I won't let them starve." Her voice is muffled by Gale's chest.

"I know you won't. Teach Rory how to hunt, he can help you out. He's already got the basics down."

Silence.

"You have to come back. For Posy, for Rory, for Vick, your mother. F-for me."

"I'll try."

"You have to. Please, Gale, promise me."

"I can't promise you-"

"Promise me."

"I promise, Catnip."

Her resolve almost breaks at the nickname and she's fighting tears as the Peacekeepers pull her out of the room.

"Katniss, remember, I-"

She never does get to know what Gale wanted her to remember.

She visits Madge.

They don't talk.

Katniss doesn't ask her to promise to come back home, and instead offers the trembling girl a meager hug and kiss on the cheek.

That night, the Hawthornes stay at the Everdeens' house. Hazelle is collapsed in Katniss's mother's arms on the couch, and Katniss sits with all of the kids, trying to block out the loud sobs that she's afraid of breaking into herself. She hugs little Posy in her lap and strokes her hair. The little red-haired girl doesn't even know what's going on.

"He'll be okay, Katniss," Prim whispers to her, holding her free hand. "He's strong. You know that."

Vick sits on Katniss's other side, trying to look indifferent but wincing every time his mother sniffs. Rory has isolated himself from everyone, sitting far off to the side and looking lost in his own world.

"When's Gale coming back, Katniss?" Posy asks sweetly, innocently.

Rory's head snaps up and he opens his mouth in an angry snarl, but Katniss speaks before he can get a word out.

"I don't know," she tells the girl honestly, pulling her closer.

She spends all afternoon in the woods the next day, hunting quietly and trying to deduce how long she will have to hunt everyday and how many animals she'll have to take down by herself to support six people.

As she walks silently and tries to keep her mind off of Gale (the opening ceremonies are tonight), she finds herself glancing back every so often, looking for someone who is miles and miles away. She feels empty without the familiar presence behind her back.

She shoots down a decent amount of game (three squirrels, one rabbit, two birds), but when her snares don't catch anything she screams in frustration and yells her fury into the trees that have only protected her all these years.

She knows she was only looking for an excuse to unravel like that.

On her way home, the baker's son, Peeta Mellark, stops her. She recognizes him immediately. After all, he saved her and Prim's lives once.

"I-I can help you. Take care of them, I mean," he says, stumbling a bit over his words.

"Thank you, but I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Would you like some help carrying your haul home?"

"I'm fine."

"I can-"

"Thank you, Peeta, really. But I'm fine."

Her voice must've wavered because Peeta Mellark lingers for one more moment before heading away, defeated.

They set them on fire.

She watches Gale and Madge burn side by side, and she thinks that the display is definitely enough to attract a good amount of sponsors.

The camera comes closer up to Gale's face, and she watches mesmerized as shadows and light dance across her best friend's face, making him look unforgettable. A moment later, the camera zooms in on Madge's face and Katniss notices for the first time just how pretty she really is with her high cheekbones and blue eyes and blonde hair.

The camera goes back to the normal view and Katniss notices something she didn't see before.

Their hands are entwined.

At first she's confused. Gale holding hands with the girl that he all but insulted a few hours before the reaping? Then she thinks again about how beautiful Madge looks and how Katniss has always suspected that her friend has had a small crush on Gale.

Something inside of her sinks just a little bit, but she doesn't know why.

The next day, she sees the mayor hurriedly carrying a bundle from the Justice Building to his house. She catches a glimpse of the labeling on the box. Morphine.

She figures that Madge's mother's migraines are getting worse and worse. Katniss wants to say something to the mayor, tell him that she knows what he's going through, but as he whizzes past her she sees the dead look in his eyes and all of her words are shoved back down her throat.

Katniss goes into the woods and picks a gallon of strawberries, lugging her bag to the mayor's house. She knocks sharply on the door, only once, and the mayor immediately opens it. Katniss holds out the berries as a offering, and the mayor disappears into the house and reappears with a large plastic bowl.

"How much?" he asks, watching Katniss dump the berries into the bowl.

"No charge," Katniss replies tersely.

The mayor starts to pull a few coins out of his pocket, but Katniss stops him.

"No charge, really."

She walks away quickly before he can stop her again.

The tributes scores are revealed.

The Careers get between an eight and ten. A boy with a crippled foot from District 10 gets a three. A District 11 Prim look-alike gets a seven.

Madge gets a six.

Gale gets an eleven.

"Some room for improvement there, huh?" Katniss whispers under her breath, but she's almost smiling as she says it.

Katniss's hunting goes well after a few days of getting used to being alone in the woods.

She makes her first trip to the Hob ever since the reaping, and is surprised to see a giant crowd gathered around Greasy Sae's stall. Her soups and stews are popular in the Hob, but not that popular. When people in the group recognize her they make way for her to get towards the front of the crowd.

"What's going on?" she asks Greasy Sae.

The old woman smiles crookedly. "They've started a collection for Gale."

Katniss gapes at her.

"I didn't know that-"

"You'd be surprised at how many people knew and respected his father and the boy himself."

"How much so far?"

"About fifteen gold coins' worth," Greasy Sae replies.

A feeling that's something like warmth spreads through Katniss, making her feel just the slightest bit more alive.

The Hawthornes and Everdeens all watch the interviews together. All of the questions and responses and jokes are a blur, and Katniss only gives the screen her full attention to the screen when Prim nudges her and says, "It's him."

"So, Gale, I think we're all wondering what you did to pull that amazing score of eleven," Caesar Flickerman says, once Gale is seated.

"I don't think I'm supposed to talk about it," Gale replies calmly, looking to the Gamemakers for a reference.

"He's not!" one of them shouts.

"That's too bad," Caesar says, looking genuinely disappointed. "Well, let's go back then, to the moment your brother's name was called and you volunteered. Could you tell us more about that?" he asks, his voice quiet now.

Gale tenses up the way he always does before his anti-Capitol rants. For a moment Katniss actually thinks he's going to launch into one of them, but then Gale starts talking.

"His name's Rory. He's only twelve, and I couldn't let him be reaped. I couldn't let him go into the Games," Gale says, picking his words carefully. Katniss knows there's a lot more he wants to say. Next to her, Rory starts a bit at the mention of his name.

"What did he say to you? After the reaping?" Caesar asks. All of Panem is waiting for the response. Gale leans in closer, looking the slightest bit angry. The Capitolites mistake it for fierceness.

"He asked me to win for my family. My baby sister, my mother, and my other younger brother."

"And what did you say?"

"He made me swear I would."

There's a few moments of silence as Gale's words sink in. To lighten the mood, Caesar tells a few good-natured jokes and a pleasantry or two is exchanged, until the next real question comes up, although it's considerably less serious than the others.

"Handsome lad like you," Caesar starts, and pauses for the many cheers of confirmation, "you must have a girlfriend back home. I don't see how the girls could possibly leave you alone."

The ghost of a smile appears on Gale's lips. "I've had run-ins with plenty of girls, but none of them were the real thing, I guess."

"There's got to be someone special."

Gale hesitates. "There is this one girl," he starts. All of the eyes in the room lay on Katniss for a few moments. She blushes, ducking her head slightly to hide her face. "But I don't think she even knew I existed until the reaping."

"Now, I'm sure that's not true, but you have a pretty good shot at claiming her heart, don't you? You win, you go home, she won't be able to resist you." Again, all eyes fall on Katniss and she lowers her chin a bit more.

"Winning won't help in my case," Gale says slowly, "because she came here with me."

Katniss's heart stops for a moment as the words register, and Hazelle mutters softly, "That can't be right", looking at Katniss as she says it.

The cameras pan to a blushing Madge, who's already used up all her time so this is technically not allowed, but no one in the Capitol probably cares at the moment. There's cries of sympathy from the crowd who are eating up the tragic love story. The cameras cut back to Gale, who looks inappropriately disappointed and and angry, and Katniss swears she could've seen him mouth Catnip, but she's up and running through the door before the interview ends.

Katniss and Rory go hunting.

They don't talk at all, minus the times Katniss corrects his stance or gives him a tip. That suits them both just fine, because Katniss is still reeling from the interview- hell, she's still reeling from the reaping- and Rory still blames himself for Gale getting shipped off, and doesn't let anyone tell him otherwise. The only person who can get through to both of them these days is Prim.

True to Gale's word, Rory does know the basics and takes down a squirrel on his third try, although the shot is a bit messy and Katniss has to stab the animal once to make sure it's dead. Rory has also inherited Gale's deathly silent footsteps, so that while they're treading through the trees Katniss can almost imagine that it's really Gale who's behind her, watching her back as always.

They bring home a bigger haul than the past few days, but it's not bigger by much. Winter is coming closer and closer, and the animals have started to go into hiding.

The 74th Hunger Games start the next evening.

Katniss immediately spots Gale in the ring of tributes before the gong sounds. Madge is four tributes away from him, and pinned on her black jacket Katniss notices a golden pin. The very Mockingjay pin Gale had commented on dryly before the reaping. Observing all of the tributes' surroundings, Katniss knows Gale will go a few feet into the bloodbath, just to pick up something minor, and then he'll probably run into the woods.

With Madge, of course, since they're lovers now, she adds, the slightest bit bitter.

The gong sounds and Gale starts towards the Cornucopia, but then the cameras cut away to show what the Careers are currently doing. Katniss itches to see what's going with Madge and Gale.

After the camera cuts to each of the individual tributes, a panorama of the bloodbath is shown, and Katniss is relieved to see Gale running away from it with a dark green backpack in one hand, and Madge's arm in the other hand. She stumbles behind him, looking back for any danger while Gale keeps his eyes trained in front of him. There's overly dramatic music playing in the background so that Katniss can't hear a word anyone's saying.

Katniss sees one of the Careers; Cato, she thinks, turn around to see Gale and Madge fleeing. He says something to the tall, blonde girl beside him and then takes off after Gale, a terrifyingly big, serrated knife in hand. Katniss watches anxiously as Madge notices Cato charging at both of them and shouts something at Gale.

Gale pushes harder and Madge is screaming something and then Katniss sees Cato's knife fly out of his hands and towards Gale. Even though Cato's throwing from at least three hundred feet away, the knife makes a beeline for Gale's head and Madge yanks him down roughly, making them both trip over the other. Gale reaches a hand out for the knife that's caught in the dirt, and pulls the blade out.

Now weaponless, Cato sprints back towards the Cornucopia, leaving Gale and Madge alone.

Later on, Gale inspects the contents of the bag he snagged. A vial of iodine, a bottle of water, some dried meat, a sleeping bag, and a few other odds and ends.

"Not bad," he mutters to himself.

They have survived the first day.

Katniss and Rory go hunting again.

Even though there's two of them and Rory has improved greatly, they catch a dismissively-sized haul.

Katniss doesn't know how much longer they can keep everyone going.

The District 9 girl makes a fire, in the dead of the night. The Careers all shake each other awake at their camp and point at the smoke excitedly.

They're excited. Genuinely excited.

Katniss shakes her head in disgust, but that soon turns to horror as she realizes that Gale and Madge are camped only a few hundred feet away from the District 9 girl. Gale wakes up with a start, smelling the smoke in the air. He gently shakes Madge awake and points towards the fire, clearly visible from where they're situated. They huddle together in the bushes, in a slightly intimate way that irritates some part of Katniss, although she ignores the feeling.

The Careers start their trek through the woods, arguing in whispers about who gets to kill her. When they're only a few feet away from the District 9 girl, they play some sort of hand game to decide who tonight's murderer will be, and a wide grin spreads across Cato's face as he wins.

Someone hands Cato a knife and he stalks towards the girl slowly. She's seemingly unaware of what's happening, and she puts her hands as close to the flame as she dares, desperately trying to warm herself. Cato takes a few more careful steps, and suddenly jumps out of the shadows and sprints towards the girl. A look of sheer panic and realization crosses the girl's face, and she jumps up, ready to run, but she's too late.

Cato plunges the knife straight into her heart and she drops to the ground with a dull thunk.

Back in the thickets of bushes, Gale buries Madge's face in his chest, a gesture that has probably drawn out countless sighs from the Capitol audience. Katniss briefly thinks about just how perfect of a couple they look like. The dark-haired, gorgeous boy from the Seam and the rich, beautiful mayor's daughter. They're day and night. They're a couple that could've never been in District 12, but the Games have brought together.

Katniss is snapped out of her train of thought by the small cry that Prim emits from beside her. Katniss grits her teeth and scolds herself for not covering Prim's eyes or warning her.

"She was just cold," Prim says shakily as Katniss pulls her into her arms.

"She made a mistake," Katniss says.

Gale and Madge silently gather up all of their things and creep away from the sight, using the girl's cannon blast as a cover.

Twelve tributes are killed on the first day.

Gale and Madge still go undetected, but their water has run out, and even with their careful rationing their food supply is dwindling. The Careers are making plans to kill them. Elaborate, gruesome plans.

When a bird's eye view of the whole arena is shown, Katniss spots a creek not too far away from Gale and Madge.

She silently urges them to hurry, hurry, hurry.

Katniss spends all day in the woods, on high alert and desperately searching for any game.

In the end, she catches four squirrels and fills her bag to the brim with berries.

As she makes the return trip home from the Hob, she passes by the bakery and Peeta rushes out to stop her.

"Katniss, wait!" he whispers urgently, glancing back nervously at the bakery.

Katniss pauses.

"Take this," he says, handing her a large bundle. Two loaves of cinnamon bread, she guesses, from the delicious smell and size of the bundle. "Please."

She eyes the package warily, but then thinks of the four hungry children waiting at home and reluctantly takes the bread into her arms.

"Thank you," she whispers. She will be forever in debt to this boy. "Thank you."

Peeta nods and sprints back into the bakery.

Katniss runs the rest of the way home.

Gale runs into the little District 11 girl while looking for a source of water. She's carrying a compact sleeping bag, similar to the one Gale had in his backpack, but that's all she has and she already looks starved.

After a few minutes of talking quietly with her, Gale and Madge become allies with her. Rue is her name, and she's only twelve years old. Katniss knows this isn't good. That Rue will only turn out to be another obstacle for Gale, but the more she observes the girl the more she thinks that she herself would've done the same thing, had she been in Gale's place.

When night comes and they still don't find the water (It's right there, Katniss wants to scream at him. Just go a bit more west, and you'll find the damned creek.) They all share a few berries that Gale found, and sleep strapped to a thick branch of a tree. Madge and Rue share a sleeping bag, curled together, and Gale lays in his own sleeping bag, eyes wide open.

Another cannon goes off, somewhere else in the Arena, and the cameras quickly cut to the scene of a young girl dying.

Katniss looks away.

As soon as she gets home from school, Prim tells Katniss about how the teachers are wondering where she's been for the past week. Katniss knows their concern is just a formality. Everyone knows how close she and Gale are. They won't care if she doesn't show up for school.

It seems as if Katniss's silent shouts reached Gale, and Katniss watches as he finally discovers the tiny creek that Katniss has spotted so long ago. Half-dead of thirst, Gale runs back to where Madge and Rue are still concealed in the trees and calls out to them.

They fill up their water bottle, put a few drops of iodine into it, and pass it around.

Katniss does a quick mental count of the remaining tributes.

Eleven.

Katniss goes to school the next day at her mother's urging. The Peacekeepers will start to wonder what she's up to if she doesn't turn up for class every once in a while.

The school day passes by in the same old routine of lessons on coal, reading, Panem, the Hunger Games (more than a few looks are cast Katniss's way at this), and more coal.

At lunch, Katniss stands at the cafeteria's entrance, looking for something but not knowing exactly what. People pass by her, avoiding her even more than usual, and casting the occasional glance at her, followed by hushed whispers. After a few minutes, Katniss realizes what she's been scanning for. Madge. Shaking her head, she instinctively turns to look at the group of older boys, to find no Gale.

Feeling more alone than ever before, Katniss spends the rest of break hanging out in the hallways, wandering around and wishing desperately for school to end.

"Hey," someone calls, only a few feet away from Katniss. She turns to find the source of the voice, only to find herself pinned to the wall a few seconds later. She gasps, the breath momentarily knocked out of her, but grits her teeth when she looks up into the face of the smug blonde boy that's trapped her.

"Hawthorne's not here to protect you, is he?" the boy asks, a smirk playing on his lips. "He'd established a sort of restraining order against you. Always went berserk on anyone who even teased about you."

Katniss winces at the mention of Gale, and the boy misinterprets her action as fear. Katniss squirms, keeping her face passive and trying to shove the boy off of her, but he's too heavy. He moves closer until she's completely sandwiched in between the wall and the boy's body.

"Hey! Axel!" someone shouts. "A Seam girl? That's how low you've stooped?"

Katniss recognizes the voice. Peeta.

"Hawthorne's Seam girl. Just wanted to see what's so special about her," the boy huffs, easing his grip on Katniss. Katniss hears Peeta step closer and after a few moments she's freed.

"Wasting your time," Peeta says, his voice hard. As he leads the boy away from Katniss, he glances back at her and gives her a shaky smile. Katniss manages to give a half-smile back.

"Thank you," she whispers, turning towards the school's exit. She runs out of the door and towards the woods and doesn't stop running until she reaches her and Gale's meeting place. Katniss collapses onto the large, flat rock she has sat on countless times with Gale and lays down across it, trying to fill the space left by the absence of her hunting partner.

A night or two later, when Rue falls asleep in the thick bush that the trio's camped in, Gale and Madge talk in the darkness.

"How are we going to survive?" Madge asks Gale shakily. Gale pulls Madge closer, and something flares up in Katniss at the gesture.

"I don't know," he answers softly, "but we'll figure something out. I-I just can't picture living without you." Gale looks up at the sky, his brow slightly creased.

If he's acting, Katniss thinks, he's doing a hell of a good job.

Madge burrows herself deeper into Gale's arms, and Katniss has the sudden urge to wrestle her out of the hold. Gale pulls Madge back slightly, and in the dim moonlight Madge's eyes seem to be the brightest blue possible, and Gale's own gray eyes look conflicted, making the moment seem the most tragic and romantic thing that's ever graced the screens of Panem.

When they both lean in towards the other, Katniss hurls the shabby cushion she's clutching at the television, missing by only a few inches. Prim looks up at her older sister with confusion.

"Katniss-" her mother starts, but she's already gone, back into the woods.

She sits against the rock for hours and hours, not worrying about any animals possibly attacking her because if there were any animals everyone wouldn't be nearly starving right now. She eventually falls asleep after tugging at her hair and beating the ground, afraid to admit to herself about what's really bothering her.

Prim visits the Hawthornes' house, and a worn-out Hazelle sends Rory after Katniss.

Madge is separated from Rue and Gale.

Katniss doesn't know exactly what happened because the broadcasts obviously don't always focus on Gale, Madge, and Rue's whereabouts. From glimpses of Madge and Rue are huddled together at the Careers' camp, though, and a few brief recaps, Katniss has been able to put together the main details. Cato snuck up on them at night, and immediately took Madge and held a weapon up to her, threatening to kill her. Gale backed off, and Cato walked away with Madge backwards.

"How'd you do it?" one of the Careers, the boy from District 4, asks Cato.

"I told Lover Boy I'd kill her," Cato says, chuckling. He toys with a long, deadly knife.

"What use do we have for the girl?" someone asks (Glimmer, Katniss thinks), sounding bored.

"We use her to tear Hawthorne to pieces," another boy says.

"Exactly. Marvel has some brains," Cato says, rolling his eyes. "Lover Boy obviously cares a lot more than necessary about the girl."

The cameras cut to a distressed Gale, pacing in circles in the thickets of trees. Rue sticks her head out of one of the trees, calling out to Gale. "I lost them. Sorry," she says, sounding guilty. Gale beckons for her to come down, and Rue navigates the branches with ease.

"It's not your fault," he says. "Put whatever you can into the backpack and take it into the trees with you. I'll walk on foot and you can follow me in the trees, alright? Just call out if something happens." Rue nods and climbs gracefully back up the tree, sticking her head out a few moments later to show Gale she's ready.

Gale walks quickly through the woods, eerily silent, and Rue navigates from tree to tree in the same manner, the leaves barely rustling under her. Gale looks up at the tree nearest to him after a few minutes, and a small hand comes out of it, pointing left. Gale turns left, walking slightly faster, Rue hurrying to keep up with him.

Gale walks and Rue travels by trees for what must be at least an hour. During the middle of their journey, the cameras cut away to show what some of the other tributes are doing, so that the audience doesn't get bored. Katniss taps her foot on the floor impatiently, waiting for the cameras to go back to Gale and Rue. When they do, Gale and Rue are only a few feet away from the Careers' camp.

"Stay in that tree, okay?" Gale says to Rue, pointing at a large tree about twenty feet back. Rue nods, quietly jumping from branch to branch until she reaches the tree Gale specified. Gale takes a deep breath and charges into the Careers' camp, armed with the serrated knife he got from Cato on the first day. There's a few cries of surprise as Gale goes straight for the first unarmed Career he can find.

His eyes land on Glimmer and he grabs her and holds the knife up to her neck. Even though Glimmer is tall and stronger than most of the other tributes, Gale easily restrains her. Madge scrambles to her feet, only to be pushed down again by Cato.

"Hold her down for me," Cato says to another boy, and the boy nods, roughly yanking Madge to her feet and holding her against him. Gale's eyes narrow in anger, and Glimmer gulps, making the knife press closer to her throat.

"Let him take Glimmer," Cato says angrily. "She's useless anyway." Swiftly, he pulls out a concealed weapon and holds it up to Madge's throat. Madge's eyes widen.

"I'll kill her," Gale says, his voice low. "Don't think I won't. Get that knife away from Madge."

"And why would we do that, Lover Boy?" Cato asks with a smirk. Gale press the knife even closer against Glimmer's throat, leaving a thin cut.

"Go ahead and kill her. See if I care. Your precious Madge will die with her," Cato says, lazily tracing a light circle against Madge's skin.

Gale lifts the knife slightly and holds it so that the long side of the blade is aimed directly for Glimmer's throat.

"Wait, stop!" Marvel calls out. "Stop being stupid, Cato. This is stupid. Just give Hawthorne his girl back. Glimmer's more useful to us. It's not worth getting her killed." There's wild desperation in his eyes, although his voice is steady.

"So you're willing to make a trade now?" Gale asks before Cato can reply.

Cato's eyes narrow. "I never said-" Marvel glares at him, and even though Cato is obviously more powerful and can easily get rid of Marvel, he sighs, "Fine."

Carefully, Gale walks forward with Glimmer and Cato does the same with Madge.

"On the count of three," Cato says. "Okay? One, two, three."

Madge is thrust into Gale's arms and Glimmer is shoved roughly to the ground. Gale turns and runs as fast as he can, with Madge barely keeping up. As expected, knives come flying at them both, and Gale deflects one of them with his own serrated blade and the rest they dodge as best as they can.

"The girl's in the tree!" one of the Careers shouts excitedly. Katniss immediately realizes what the Career means, but it takes Madge and Gale a few moments to figure out what the Career's talking about. Gale glances at Madge, and then turns to his other side, realization suddenly dawning on him.

A high-pitched scream resounds through the woods. From miles away, Katniss turns cold.

"Rue," Madge whispers, pressing a hand to her mouth and starting to run towards the direction of the scream. Gale snaps out of his daze and charges ahead, running faster than Katniss has ever seen him run.

"Rue!" he yells, his voice choked with emotion. Madge is close behind him.

They arrive in a small clearing to see Rue laying in the middle with a spear thrown through her stomach. Madge gasps at the sight and her eyes fill with tears as she rushes to Rue's side, holding her tiny hand and stroking her hair. Gale tenses, and in a few quick strides, stands in front of them, acting as a barrier.

"You did this," Gale says in a low voice, pointing his knife at a figure in the far end of the clearing. Marvel steps forward and nods mutely, staring at the dying girl on the grass.

With a moment's hesitation, Gale throws the knife at Marvel, and it sticks in his chest, causing him to collapse. He lays on the grass, gurgling for breath and then becoming still. The rest of the gathered Careers retreat and run back into the woods when Gale retrieves the bloody knife. A cannon sounds for Marvel.

Madge gets up and Gale takes her place by Rue's side, whispering to Rue. Madge returns with a handful of wildflowers and puts one in Rue's hair. She starts to sing softly. Katniss recognizes it as a old District 12 lullaby.

The broadcast ends.

Katniss can't help the thought that automatically races through her mind.

Only nine left.

The Careers start killing each other. Supplies are dwindling.

Six left.

Back home, Katniss takes the sponsor fund from the Hob and gives it to Mayor Undersee. He promises to make sure the money gets through.

By some miracle, a small, weak bow with three arrows is sent to Gale and Madge, but it's an extremely useful weapon nonetheless. Katniss wonders just how much money the Capitol citizens have spent on District 12 this year.

Gale goes hunting, and that night Madge and Gale have the closest thing to a proper meal they can get in the Arena.

Capitol crews come to District 12 to interview Gale and Madge's family. When the subject of their friends come up, the reporters are all directed to Katniss.

"So how does it feel to have your cousin and your best friend make it this far in the Hunger Games?" a man asks her.

"Cousin?"

"Yeah, Gale Hawthorne. Any thoughts, Ms. Everdeen?"

"He's not my cousin," Katniss snaps. She wonders where this crazy man got that from.

"Well, you look similar enough to be cousins," the reporter says.

Katniss's mother appears by her side at the porch. "Just go along with it, Katniss. It's for their own good," she whispers into her hear.

Oh, Katniss thinks. Don't want to sabotage their angle, do I?

Angrily, Katniss goes along with the act and spits out answers.

While Gale's hunting the next day, some sort of mutt attacks Madge and leaves her with a giant gash in her arm. Conveniently, a feast is announced soon after Madge's injury, and Cladius Templesmith announces that he has all of the things each of the tributes need. They need to be at the Cornucopia at sunset to receive their items.

Madge makes Gale swear on his life that he won't go, but sundown soon approaches and Madge falls unconscious (Gale's medical skills are even more limited than Katniss's). Gale picks up Madge and hides her in a small patch of grass in the midst of a bunch of bushes. Softly kissing her on the mouth, he sets off for the Cornucopia, his bow in hand.

The cameras cut away to show all of the other tributes making the same journey against their better judgement.

Katniss only sees Gale again onscreen again when the cameras show the actual Feast, and all of the tributes hidden on the outskirts of the bloodbath area. Claudius Templesmith announces that the barriers around the bags of supplies will be put down in ten seconds. The bag marked with a 12 is the smallest of all.

"Ten." As Cladius Templesmith counts all the way down to one, Katniss feels a sick sense of deja-vu, and when a gong sounds, the barriers are put down as promised. All six tributes charge at the packages, and a girl named Clove is killed by the other District 11 tribute, Thresh, much to Cato's anger. Cato swings wildly at Thresh but misses, and Thresh snatches up his package and runs back into the field he came from.

Gale narrowly dodges a weapon thrown at him, and swiftly grabs his own package and sprints away from the Cornucopia. Another knife comes flying at him, but he drops down and does a somersault, stumbling as he gets up but getting away unscathed, save for a small cut on his cheek.

Katniss takes Rory into the woods again.

After a lot of arguing, Rory takes home all of the game. (Two squirrels, one rabbit.)

In only two weeks, everyone has thinned considerably. They're all on the brink of complete starvation, and Katniss can barely drag herself out of bed these days.

Glimmer gets stung to death by Tracker Jackers after trying to climb a tall tree and coming across the nest. Even when her cannon goes off, the Tracker Jackers are still at her, stinging her flesh until it's completely distorted.

Four more left.

A sly girl from District 5, Cato, Gale and Madge.

It's almost the end.

While Gale is hunting the next day, Madge lays in the grass, the medicine having killed the pain and stopped the infection. The gash on her arm is finally scabbing, and she feels fine enough to wander around, being careful not to go too far. She finds a bush of dark berries.

"Nightlock," Prim says from beside Katniss. "She'd better not eat them."

After coming this far, Katniss doubts Madge would do something as stupid as eat strange berries without confirming what they are first. As expected, she plucks a bunch and collects them in her shirt, inspecting some of them quizzically. She doesn't bring one anywhere near her mouth.

She goes back to sitting in her previous position, the small walk having worn her out. Gale returns after twenty minutes, holding a skinny rabbit.

"What've you got?" he asks Madge, pointing at the small pile of berries beside her.

"I found them over there," she says, pointing in the vague direction of where she went.

"I thought I told you not to move around," Gale says, his brow creasing. Madge doesn't answer, and with a sigh Gale plops down across from her and picks up one of berries.

"Nightlock," he says, gently putting the berry back down in the pile. "It can kill a person in seconds. You didn't try one, did?"

"I'd be dead by now if I did," Madge says. Gale starts to skin the rabbit. The only thing Katniss can think as she watches him work is that that same knife killed a human being, even if it has been thoroughly washed.

"We should start moving. Cato'll be looking for us. I don't know about the District 5 girl," Gale says, carefully wrapping the meat in a piece of tattered, but clean, cloth. He slings the bow over his shoulder, holds his arrows in the other hands, and hauls Madge up to her feet. As an afterthought, Gale tucks a few nightlock berries into his pocket. They start moving.

The District 5 girl dies by eating the berries. She must've missed the conversation about the berries being deadly, or she might've heard Gale talking and decided to eat the berries anyway. Maybe suicide seemed like a better option to her.

Three left.

Katniss can't sleep that night, and stays awake up until the next broadcast.

Cato is chased out of the woods by muttations. They all have the faces of the tributes he killed, and leading them is a mutt with Glimmer's eyes. He sprints out of the woods, screaming and carrying a knife he doesn't dare use on the mutt.

Gale and Madge come out of the woods, thinking that Cato's trying to charge at them. They all end up in the Cornucopia area, the mutts now chasing them all. Leading the assault on Gale and Madge is mutt with Rue's young, brown eyes. Madge screams as Gale drags her along, until they're both backed up against and trying to climb it.

Gale manages to get himself and Madge onto the horn, even with Madge's gash suddenly splitting open again and her legs giving out under her. Cato remains on the ground with the mutts, screaming and yelling. Even the boy's vicious, it tears Katniss apart to hear anyone screaming like that.

The mutts start to tear at him and eat him, and Madge starts sobbing loudly. Gale just watches Cato. For what seems like hours Cato is being torn apart and is begging for mercy.

"Just shoot him," Madge hiccups. "Shoot him, please, Gale."

Gale nods and takes the bow off of his back. He aims and shoots Cato in the chest. His body convulses for a few minutes but then he's still, and a cannon goes off.

Gale and Madge are the only ones left.

Katniss holds her breath, wondering what'll happen.

They both stare at each other for a while, and Gale pulls out the berries from his pocket. "Together, alright?" he says, smiling sadly at Madge. They kiss once, softly, and raise the berries to their lips.

No.

"You promised, Gale! You promised!" Katniss screams at the television, startling Prim. She doesn't care how insane she looks.

"Three," Gale says.

"Two." The berries just barely touch their lips.

Katniss is on the verge of having a fit when Gale says, "One."

"Stop! Stop, stop! I am pleased to announce the victors of the 74th Annual Hunger Games, Gale Hawthorne and Madge Undersee!" Cladius Templesmith says frantically.

They both drop the berries immediately and latch onto each other's hands as the hovercraft comes to bring them back.

(A/N)

Well, that took a while to finish.

Hope you enjoyed, and remember, reviews are always welcome ;)