Background characters are always my favourites- the little tiny characters that nobody remembers but really play a big role in the story.
I am not Suzanne Collins and I do not own the Hunger Games or any characters in these stories.
Cordin Riley
Cato wants to kill me right away. "He's tiny. He can't handle a weapon. He's an easy kill. Let's just get rid of him." I cower down a little; I'm surrounded by the Careers, and this boy is four years older than me and at least twice my size. In the end, Marvel, the District Four girl (Kaia or something?) and Lover Boy convince Cato to keep me. Letting out a shaky sigh of relief, I step away from the Cornucopia and walk over to the tribute plates.
"We can't step off our plates for sixty seconds because of the land mines. Pressure activated, fairly powerful." Glimmer rolls her eyes, but now I ignore her- this is something I understand. "If these are anything like the bombs we work with in Three, they're disabled by the movement of a single wire that disrupts the electrical circuit inside. If I can get a hold of some, we could protect the supplies." Lover Boy kneels in the dirt beside me, laying his knife to the side. "We could probably dig them up, but we should set up supplies first."
Cato looks annoyed; I suppose he isn't used to letting other people make decisions. But I can tell he's out of his comfort zone, and has no idea what I'm really talking about besides blowing people up. Clove- she terrifies me almost more than Cato, she's vicious and sly- nods. "We can mimic the setup of the Cornucopia down by the lake, I guess. It would be easier to protect." I nod, looking at the supplies we've gathered. "Make a pyramid. String the netting around it too, just in case." Cato glares at me again. "Lover Boy, help Three with the first bomb while the rest of us set up the supplies. Kaia and I will come and help you, and Glimmer, Clove, and Marvel can guard." The others wander off, leaving me alone with the District Twelve boy.
The older boy starts digging in the dirt around the first bomb. I start to help, but he's much stronger than I am. After a few minutes of silence, he begins to speak. "You're smart, to have come up with this." Still digging, he looks at me. "And brave to take it to the Careers." I shrug. "A few more days to live. I won't last very long." The boy smiles. "That's one way to look at it. I'm Peeta, by the way." Without looking up, I reply, "Cordin Riley." This boy doesn't need to know much more about me. It's safer that way.
The first bomb is up soon, and I brush off the dirt. Just as I'd hoped, it ran on its own energy source, and the wires should be easy enough to manipulate. A red wire was moved, engineered to disrupt the circuit. This was District Three work.
Cato and Kaia reach us, barely sweating from the heavy moving. "Does it work?" Cato asks curtly. I nod. "It should. I'm going to test it. Stand back." Kaia pulls Cato and Lover Boy back while I hold the bomb carefully and move the wire back into place. The circuit starts up immediately, with an almost unnoticeable humming and a small amount of heat. Satisfied, I break the circuit again. "It works." We begin the grueling task of digging up the bombs and replacing them in a difficult pattern around the supplies.
The project takes two days. The bombs have to be placed just right, so setting off one won't set off the rest and destroy all the supplies. Sometimes I'm working alone, while the others Careers hunt. The Tracker Jacker day is the worst- we lose Glimmer and Kaia, Lover Boy runs off, and the others aren't in any shape to work. When they recover, it's scary how angry Cato is.
Several days in, far longer than I thought I'd last, we see smoke coming from the woods. Cato is eager to hunt. They pull me along with them- I'm done my job now, and I think they just want me to get myself killed so I'm not in their way. But they can't afford to leave me alone and alive, knowing how to get to their supplies.
We're hunting when the explosions start. For a split second, I think it's a cannon. But there are too many, more explosions than Tributes left in the arena, too frequent and loud. The four of us look at each other, and we're all thinking the same thing. The bombs.
As we run towards the supplies, Cato catches my arm. "If the supplies are gone, you're dead," he hisses. I swallow hard, then nod. We catch up with Marvel and Clove at the edge of the woods, where Clove is cursing like a fiend and Marvel is gripping his spear. Cato pushes me forward, and I approach the ruins alone.
Everything is gone. A couple rock throws later, I know that the bombs are too. The Careers approach the wreckage, poking around in the smoking remainders. Then Cato turns on me.
It's too late to run. His arms grip me, snap to the side, and everything goes black. My last thought is that, in a way, I've just ruined the Careers.
Reviews, por favor? I'm probably doing Greasy Sae next, but I'm not sure.