[Katniss]

[knowthyexits]

With Cromartie moved to her place, Sarah needs to dig another hole. She's got a shovel, but it's taking longer than it should. This goes faster when you have three people to help and one of those people isn't a person at all, but a machine who doesn't need to sleep. She's feeling a shade of sick again and lilts slightly as she buries the shovel in the sand, swaying and trying to find some stability again.

Cromartie's broken face peers out from the dirt at her and she lodges the shovel loose enough for just a moment to spill sand over him, until his eyes can't see a single thing.

She grips the handle of the shovel just a little tighter. "Damn it," she mutters, aware she should take a break, but too stubborn to just stop.

Comments

[burnwithus.livejournal.com]

This woman is not to be trusted.

Katniss isn't quite sure if they've exchanged names yet, but she's found herself growing increasingly weary around her. Maybe it's the marked interest she has about the future, and the way that her calm facade has cracked twice now in a way that Katniss understands well because it's been happening to her on a downward spiral since they descended on the Capitol. She recognizes that she's dangerous and therefore this woman, who could crack at any moment now, was also dangerous.

There's something about the metal man that crawls at her skin. Maybe because it's something the Capitol might have thought up. Who knows? Maybe they already did. She has this recurring dream about the people she loves dumping grave dirt on her face. Katniss moves forward if only to rid herself of those thoughts, standing at a distance. Still not inclined to trust anyone, even these days after the bombs have subsided.

[knowthyexits]

Sarah hears the noise a minute too late. It speaks to how distracted she is, but at least she hears it at all. She stiffens slightly, the shovel gripped tighter in hand like she's about to use it as a weapon if she has to. "Keep moving," she encourages. "You shouldn't be here."

[burnwithus.livejournal.com]

Katniss is never one to underestimate a weapon, even if the shovel is short range and she's too far away for it to be any good. Still, her grip on her bow tightens slightly but she doesn't want to turn her back on the woman for fear of an attack. She goes around instead, giving a wide berth, every muscle tensed as if Sarah was going to leap from her position next to the grave.

[knowthyexits]

Sarah just watches the girl, eyes on the weapon, and though she wants her to go, she can't help wanting to say something. "In a place like this," she says, her gaze only half-attentive on her, "a weapon like that can be easily outdone. You should be more careful."

[burnwithus.livejournal.com]

She knows it, too. Deep inside, Katniss knows that there are better weapons than her bow and her hunting knife out there, but she can't bring herself to use them. Guns are loud. Too loud to use in a forest like this, they'd scare away all the game. They speak of only one thing to her, and that was war. With her bow, she could at least pretend that she was hunting and it brings her back to a time when things were far less complicated.

Katniss shakes her head. Denies it. "It's the one I've been using for years. It won't be undone that easily," the bow feels like an extension of herself, almost, to the point where she could shoot it with her eyes closed and still probably hit a target. It's just what she's learned, and it's too familiar to let go.

[knowthyexits]

"If I had a gun," is all Sarah has to say, but she trails off. "I don't want to hurt you," she says. "I don't even know you except that you keep turning up at all the wrong points in my life." She leans forward, coming to the edge of the grave she's digging.

"Who are you?" she demands bluntly.

[burnwithus.livejournal.com]

The threat is still entirely evident, no matter what words were spoken, because they didn't count for much anyways. She's still tensed, eyes trained on the woman and not leaving, intense and disconcerting to anyone who was less strong willed. "Katniss Everdeen," she states levelly, knowing that there was a time when her name was infamous in Panem. But it doesn't mean anything to this woman, and it's not what she's asking.

"I used to be a lot of things. Now I'm not much of anything," her hands tighten around the bow, and it's strung, but she doesn't reach for an arrow. Not yet.

[knowthyexits]

"None of us are," Sarah agrees, and she's still on high-guard. Katniss Everdeen saw her with the body and now Sarah is going to have to make a decision about how much she says. "My name is Sarah Baum," she lies with ease. "And you've seen me twice now with a body. I need to know what you're going to do about it."

[burnwithus.livejournal.com]

"Did you kill him?" Katniss pauses for a moment, considering. "It," she finally corrects herself, because one look at the body could tell her that the thing wasn't human. It was terrifying, actually - the glint of metal underneath his skull hinting at something worse than just the Capitol's muttations.

It's none of her business, anyways. If Sarah thinks that she's the type to take things into her own hands when she absolutely doesn't have to, then she's wrong. Katniss has had enough of fighting to last a lifetime.

[knowthyexits]

"Not alone," is Sarah's response as her gaze drifts down into the hole once more to stare at the glint of metal from Cromartie's skull. Funny. Her shovel 'slips' the next time she lets it fall, clanging against hard metal. "It was necessary. This thing is a killer."