I'm back! Okay so this is the beginning of the games hopefully you enjoy I've been trying to get all the mistakes out but there's probably a few in there. (This was written on my phone.)
Oh and I have changed the title to Everything's Not Lost, it sounds better :) Anyways thepandagirl16 gave me advice on how to make this chapter better, she's awesome.
Enjoy and review.
Katniss' POV
Fifteen seconds, that's how long I have until I have to enter the tube and rise into the arena. After I say goodbye to Cinna, I enter the tube. I look at him for the last time before I raise my chin and am lifted into the light.
The sun is blinding but once it's out of my eyes I can see what's ahead. In front is the cornucopia, a black horn. Inside and around it are bags of supplies, weapons and the luxuries the careers get. I could've gotten them if I would have agreed with Cato but there's no way I'm going to be near him.
To the sides are the tributes one by one in a row. By my side is Rue the little girl from district eleven, a lump forms in my throat; she's only as big as Prim if anyone here deserves to go home it's probably her.
Five plates away to my right stands Peeta, we haven't talked since he embarrassed me in front of Panem in his interview and I don't plan on finding him in the arena either, just like Cato who stands three plates to my left with a sick smile on his face. He disgusts me and sends fear and hate through me all at once. The thing is I knew the real him once but what happened?
'You're with me and the careers so don't run at the bloodbath,'. His voice echoes in my head.
I will run in the bloodbath, I need to get as far as I can away from here and hide.
But I need to get my hands on a weapon; the bow would be the best one. I have experience and skill with it.
I'm so lost in my thoughts I didn't know there was five seconds left. The clock over the cornucopia clicks one to zero, that's when the gong rings through the arena beginning the games.
I jump of the plate darting for a weapon, supplies, anything I can get my hands on.
I look around in front of me blood flies, the horror-filled screams cause my heart to beat wildly against my chest. Grab something, run.
I immediately lunge after a bag, but crash into the boy from six; he decides to put up a fight.
He tackles me, forcing me to the ground, I hit my head hard on the ground and all I can hear is the ringing. I try to escape but he pulls me back down and punches me in the jaw it stings. He holds down my arms and straddles my waist I can't hit or kick him. I struggle against him, when I get a hand free I hit and scratch his face trying to free myself; I have to free myself I don't want to die at the beginning of the games.
He grabs my arm and roughly twists it trying to break it; I thrash and desperately try to get out of his hold.
He twist it more, I scream out he's slowly torturing me; my arm is about to break.
He stills and blood pours down his body he falls on top of me. Suddenly the body is roughly yanked off of mine and thrown away.
Then I see the killer, he stands above with his sword that has blood dripping off the blade. He casts a large shadow over me that I get covered in instantly.
It's Cato.
We only keep eye contact a few seconds before he quickly sprints away and goes back into the fight.
While we we're fighting someone took the backpack, the only supplies left are in and around the cornucopia where the careers are, I have to run away now; empty handed.
I quickly dart into the trees without another thought; I need to cover some ground.
I dart through the woods weaving between the trees, I gain speed. My lungs burn and I gasp for air but I don't stop moving, I can't stop I will not be captured by the careers or killed by the other tributes nearby.
I run for an hour from the bloodbath, but now I have a new task at hand I need to set up camp and hide before the sun sets, who knows what creatures could lurk around the arena at night and harm tributes for the capitol's thrill; not to mention the darkness also gives my opponents a advantage of surprise and it would be completely unexpected.
A shiver runs through me these aren't my woods anymore, there aren't just animals in it but there are people that don't want you to live to see another day.
Panic begins to set in, its sundown I know from watching the games in past years that the careers always go tribute hunting on the first night. If I get found by Cato he'll hold me captive, and if I'm found by any of the other careers I'll most likely be dead if Cato didn't tell them his plan.
A layer paints the sky with a few bright stars that poke through the clouds and by that is a crescent moon; shaped like a bow.
That just reminds me if I am unfortunate and have an attacker tonight I am weaponless which makes me defenseless, I'd be dead.
I settle on sleeping in a tree, I have no rope or anything to hold me in if I do manage to get some sleep and am risking falling, but it is a risk I'll have to take.
I remember teaching Cato how to climb trees a long time ago; I regret it now, because if he found me he could get up here. I slump against the tree unsure what to do now.
After an hour my eyes begin to shut, I welcome the sleep I need after lying awake most of last night.
Once my eyes close I hear it the traumatized scream of a girl, it carries on for a few seconds then it stops and the silence seems to ring through the air.
Then a group of laughter is heard its sick they're laughing over a death this is one of the reasons I didn't join the careers. I will never be one of them, but there is a thing I am certain of now; the careers have begun tribute hunting.
I try to ignore it and try to fall back asleep but I can't, not with the fear rushing through my veins like an electric shock.
I can only hear it because I have the hearing of a hunter, but nonetheless I hear it; the sound of boots crunching on the fallen leaves and the distinct voices.
As they approach me the more squeamish I become; I can't help this feeling and my stomach the flipping it makes me want to throw up.
I can hear some of their dialogue, and what they say sets my nerves more on edge and speeds my heartbeat and causes goose bumps to rise on my bare arms.
"No Clove, I want to get the girl with the braid," a girl says giggling annoyingly, with her high pitched voice.
The girl with the braid. An image immediately pops in my head of me looking at my dark brown hair in the cracked mirror back home. I am the only girl with a single braid in the arena surely, they must mean me.
The leader of the pack; Cato is the first to appear out of the bushes first with the same hard expression on his face and a spear in hand next, The district one boy; Marvel follows after him.
A few feet behind a girl appears her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail allows me to look at her face; her dark brown eyes are seen easily through the dark they move around in all directions with alertness, on her lips is a sadistic smile. I spot a glint in her hand and see a large looking knife with a mean looking dagger at the end; she must be the girl from Cato's district Clove. I've heard about her.
Behind her a giggling blonde comes into view her hair in two braids that she keeps running her hands through and a mischievous smirk on her face, her green eyes quickly sneaking glances at Cato.
Determining by her high pitched giggles, I know she's the one who has made the last remark.
"Like you could kill anything if it was tied down in front of you," Clove says sarcasm laced through her words.
Glimmer is obviously offended by the look her posture. "I will get a kill and I want it to be her, I mean who does she think she is just going in and taking the highest training score, she's just worthless trash."
Cato turns around with than blank look on his face, "Stop you're bickering, your allowing the other tributes to hear us."
Clove rolls her eyes, but they immediately got quiet Glimmer with a small flush on her face with embarrassment; she obviously likes Cato; I can tell she acts like those lovesick girls back home that Gale hooks-up with.
My heart pounds a little harder when I see Cato quickly run his eyes over the trees, I know what he's looking for.
Me.
He still remembers that I always used to climb the trees in the woods back home; he knows exactly what I did. I gulp.
Tomorrow I need to find a new strategy before nightfall, one he won't predict.
My heart drops when he begins looking at the base of my tree, his eyes move upwards closer and closer to me, I hug myself tightly to the tree hoping he won't notice me.
He won't, he won't, he won't, I tell myself to try and calm myself. I'm shaking out of fear of being caught, I need to calm down; I have to.
His eyes look like some mystical creatures, they're light blue and stick out in the dark as if to haunt you and chill your insides.
That's when they get to me his eyes stop, so does my heart.
I hold my breath and count the seconds he looks.
1.
2.
3.
His linger before he turns his head in front of him and shakes his head twice as if to rid the thought.
Cato continues to walk into the shadows of the dark woods and the group follows; I watch until they're all enveloped in the shadows of the night. The fear stops running through I'm okay now.
Once they are out of sight I can finally sleep, not peacefully, never peacefully; I wonder which memory will haunt me tonight, they all have something in common, Cato's always there in them.
Unless it's one of those rare dreams about my father being blown to pieces, those are bad.
I still can't find which ones worse dreaming about the cold-hearted killer less than a mile away or having a nightmare about my dad's life being taken away.
I close my eyes as I let myself drift away into sleep hoping I stay hidden well enough in the trees to be safe for now.
(13-14 year old Katniss' POV)
*memories/ dreams*
"I'M GONNA CATCH YOU KITTEN!"HE yells from behind me as I run from him crazily giggling. I quickly pull myself up a tree knowing he won't be able to get me.
He spots me and throws his hands up in surrender.
"Aww kitten come down." he playfully whines.
I come down the tree and land on the ground with a thud.
"You need to teach me how to climb kitty, "he says looking over to me.
"Oh great," I say sarcastically.
"Come on Cato, one more branch," I say, it's his millionth time trying to get on the branch next to me.
He grabs a tiny stick on the tree like it'll hold him and snaps it falling down the tree landing on his back.
I don't stop myself from laughing at him. Luckily he's not hurt because we're not really high in the only grunts picks himself up off the ground and tries to get to me again.
"Hey Cato we just found something your not good at,finally!"I say enthusiastically.
"How's my favorite little sister?" Cato asks a giggling Prim.
She jumps up and hugs him her reply muffled in his shirt.
I don't even notice the small smile on my lips as I look at them.
I climb up a tree as Cato watches from the ground he still has problems climbing.
Suddenly I don't pay attention to where I'm going and I'm falling through the air.
I hit the ground hard and my left leg gets most the impact, all the air is knocked out of my lungs causing me to choke and gasp for air.
Instantly Cato is holding me up against him. Once I regain my breath he picks me up and carries me.
"It'll be alright kitten," he whispers leaning his head down and kissing my forehead before sprinting through the woods in the direction of home.