Thank-you to everyone who has reviewed and followed so far. This chapter is about Cato and I hope you enjoy it, if you want you can give me some ideas about who to do next.
Cato
Some say that I was born to be a killer, born to be one of the tributes in the games. I disagree, no one was born to be a killer. Some say its was my destiny. I thought it were my choices.
Ever since I was born, people have told me how great I would do in the Hunger Games. They judged me by my size, I was always tall and muscular. But as they always say, "Dont judge a book by its cover".
When I was five years old, I started training for the Hunger Games. Everyone had brainwashed me into it. They say careers are born to hate and kill, in some circumstances that may be true, but in most it certainly isn't. I suppose most people expected me to become one of the tributes born to hate and kill.
I went along with the crowd and tricked myself into believing that if I entered the games, I would win and bring glory to myself. I trained harder and harder and soon became the best fighter in the Training Centre. The trainers told me that I was brilliant with a sword.
I actually never wanted to use a sword, I always liked the idea of bows and arrows. I thought it seemed the logical choice, you could fight from a distance so you could still kill people without putting yourself in that much danger. My father told me that was cowardly, he told me you should look your opponent in the eye before killing them. I wish I hadn't listened to him.
I intended to volunteer when I was 16, I thought I was ready. When they didn't choose me to volunteer I was disappointed and angry. I was arrogant enough to think I was the best. I almost dropped out of training in anger.
I finally got my chance to volunteer when I was 18. By then I was by far the best fighter in District 2. Everyone expected me to win. I though I would win too. I was surprised when a little 15 year-old girl volunteered as well. I thought she would never make it far, she was too young. I was jealous that she was chosen to volunteer at 15 whereas I had to wait till I was 18.
I watched the reaping recap and was happy. My allies from Districts 1 and 4 looked like fighters and all the other tributes looked weak. The only ones I were worried about were the massive boy from District 11 and the volunteer from District 12.
As our stay in the Capitol continued, I got jealous of that girl. She received one of the best stylists and no one in the Capitol paid attention to anyone but her during the Chariot Rides.
I thought I did very well during training, I was easily one of the best. I was very happy when I received a ten, that's one of the highest scores you can get. I was surprised that Clove got a ten as well, maybe she wasn't as hopeless as I thought. When the girl from 12 got an 11, I was jealous, I swore to kill her in the games.
I tried my best in the interviews to make mine really good so everyone would forget about Katniss. Of course that didn't happen and Katniss made a massive impression again. I swore to give her a painful death. Then my interview was completely forgotten when her district partner announced he was madly in love with her.
I wondered how the audience could have bought that, of course out of all the luck in the world, you get forced to fight to the death with someone you've had a crush on forever. What were the odds of that? I knew that it was an act for the Capitol to gain sponsors. And unfortunately it seemed to be working.
My odds, at least, were better than Katniss and Peeta's. Their odds of winning were only 23-1, shameful compared to my 3-1. Mine were the highest which wasn't surprising, considering everyone expected me to win.
I was a mixture of nerves and excitement the day of the games, I was nervous because I had no idea what to expect and excited because it was finally my chance to prove myself. Yes, Careers can also get nervous, we aren't cold-blooded killers born to hate everyone as some people think. We have hearts.
I remember the podium rising, at that point I was just nervous. I remember relief flooding through me when I saw the arena. Our trainers back home told us to expect anything, ocean, desert or even ice. Luckily this years arena was just a forest, a lake and a grassy plain. Easy.
I was very eager to go before the countdown finished. When it finally did I lept off the podium and rushed straight to the middle of the cornucopia. I killed four people. I still remember the list, the girl from 3, the boy from 6, the boy from 7 and the girl from 9. We lost an ally at the bloodbath, the huge boy from 11 killed him.
We camped at the lake. We had most of the supplies from the cornucopia so we didn't have to worry about dying from starvation or dehydration. I wondered if Katniss had been killed in the bloodbath. On one hand I wanted her to be dead, she could be tough competition, on the other hand, I wanted to be the one to kill her.
I remember seeing Peeta emerge from the forest. Clove immediately threw a knife, that pinned him to a tree. When we asked what he wanted he said he wanted to join us. We laughed when he said that, why would we want him to join us?
Then he mentioned that he could help us by finding Katniss. I wondered whether we should let him join, it would be easier to kill him and he could turn on us at any moment. We decided to take the risk and let him join. It paid off when he killed the girl from 8.
I remember that a few days into the games, we finally found Katniss. She was running away from a fire. We ran after her until she climbed up a tree. I remember her taunting me for not being able to climb the tree. That just made me want to kill her more.
I awoke that day, to the sound of buzzing. Wasps, Tracker Jackers to be exact. It was pandemonium, everyone was running and screaming everywhere. I followed Clove, Marvel and Peeta too the lake. I remember seeing Peeta help Katniss run away. I was angry that he had betrayed us, was he working with her the whole time? I tried to kill him, slashing him with my sword, but he ran away, but he wouldn't last long.
Glimmer and Marina died that day. We were devastated at their losses. We also recruited the boy from 3, he'd been stung by the wasps as well and we agreed to let him join us if he helped us. He seemed very smart as he discovered a way to re-activate the bombs to help protect our supplies. We counted that as helping us and let him join.
The next few days were quite uneventful, we tried to track down other tributes but only found the boy from 10, he tried to put up a fight but was no match for us.
The next day we woke to see that in the distance, there was smoke, what tribute was stupid enough to light a fire in the middle of the day and create heaps of smoke?
We tracked them down but when we got to the fire, there was no one there. We saw more smoke in the distance so we hurried over there. Then we heard the explosion.
We hurried back to our camp, fearing the worst. Had someone set off our bombs? When we saw the smoking remains of what had once been our supplies, anger took over me. I stormed over to the boy from 3 and snapped his neck, killing him instantly. It was his fault for setting up the bombs and blowing up our supplies. Later I regretted killing him.
We thought the bombs had killed whoever set them off, but at night only the boy from 3's face shone in the sky. Whoever set them off must have survived. That made me angrier, I wanted to know who they were so I could track them down and kill them.
We hunted the next day, Marvel had the idea of setting up nets in different places. We set up three and each guarded one, waiting to see if an unfortunate tribute would wander into them. Later that day there were two cannons.
When we rejoined each other we discovered that Marvel was missing. When we went back to where he had set up his net all we found was a bloody spear lying on the ground and a broken net, Marvel probably dead. The little girl from 11 also died that day, maybe she had been caught in the net.
The next day we received brilliant news, two tributes from the same district could both win. Clove and I celebrated that rule change, we could both go home. The only other tributes that could benefit from the rule were the tributes from 12, Peeta and Katniss. And both Clove and I had sworn to kill them. They didn't stand a chance.
We tried to find where they were hiding that day, but we couldn't find a trace of them. The next day an announcement was made that there would be a feast, and that each team needed something desperately. We decided to go, Katniss and Peeta would probably be there. This could be our chance to kill them.
We made a plan, Clove would go to the cornucopia and kill whoever was there and grab our pack, and I would scout around the edges trying to find out where the other was. I remember looking as hard as I could, but not finding anyone.
I remember hearing screaming, followed by shouts of Cato. It was Clove. I ran too her, but by the time I reached her, it was to late. The cannon went off. I noticed that our pack was missing as well, the idiot from 11 must have taken it.
I was overcome by grief. I wasn't that sad about Glimmer, Marina or Marvel's deaths. I suppose I was closer to Clove than any of them and I knew her better. I swore to hunt down the boy from 11 and kill him.
The next day I achieved my goal. After a long battle with him I finally overpowered him and I was happy when the cannon went off. In my pack there was a whole-body armour that could protect me from most things. Now I was unstoppable.
The girl from 5 died the day after and I knew that the final battle would happen soon, I also knew that I had a disadvantage. I had to kill two people but Katniss and Peeta only had too kill me. The next day I knew that the finale had begun, all the water had dried up, except for the lake. And I could hear mutts in the distance.
I ran as soon as I saw the mutts. Big, ferocious dogs, and they looked like the tributes that had died. They scared me. One mutt bit me as I ran to the cornucopia, the one that looked like Thresh. When I reached the cornucopia, Katniss and Peeta were already there, on top of the cornucopia.
I climbed the cornucopia to reach them, I just had to kill them and then this would all be over. I could go home. We fought for a bit, then I grabbed hold of Peeta. I knew Katniss would never kill me if it meant he would die as well. Instead she shot my hand.
I remember falling off the cornucopia, knowing I was going to die. I hit the ground hard and the mutts came swarming over me. Clove, Marvel, Glimmer, Marina, they were all there. And they were all causing me so much pain.
Pain was all I felt as the mutts attacked me. I could see Katniss and Peeta standing on the cornucopia looking down on me. I stared at Katniss, she had the bow, she coupl shoot me, put me out of my misery. She did.
As I watched the arrow flying towards me, I didn't feel sad, angry or scared, as I thought I would. I felt grateful. I felt pain.
And then nothing.