Well here we go everyone, Clove and Cato's POV...
CLOVE:
On the day of the Reaping in District Two, Clove pulls the door to her house open and stands for a moment in the doorway, surveying the scene before her. People from all around her district making their way to the Town Centre, talking and laughing with each other. The Reaping is meant to be a time of celebration. A time of honour for those brave enough to be selected for the 74th Hunger Games, a chance to bring it to their district.
Would Clove be picked this year, maybe? Year after year of training to be a Career, and still she hadn't been selected.
Well, whether she liked it or not, she was about to find out.
As she walks to the Town Centre with her mother, father and older brother, she glances round for any sights of her friends. Through the crowd, it's difficult to see anyone who she might know. However, when she's standing in line in her age group, she casts her eyes across to where the boys are, and her eyes land on Cato. He's not really one of her friends, but still, she knows him well enough. But before she can call out to him, a woman from the Capitol wearing an orange dress with crazy hair and matching heels taps the microphone.
And District Two settles into silence, waiting for her to speak.
Clove's name is called.
She walks up to the stage, trying her best to ignore the stares she's getting from practically everyone. The woman dressed in orange is beckoning her up onto the platform, a beam on her face. She stands in front of the district, their eyes piercing her like she's the most interesting thing on the planet. Well, in a few short days, she will be.
"Now, for the boys." The woman walks over to the second glass bowl, teetering a little in her high heels.
Clove waits, listens...and it's Cato who volunteers.
Guess I didn't see that one coming, she thinks as he joins her on stage. His eyes meet hers, and he gives her a half-smile. In reply, she sticks her hand out so they can shake hands, although she doesn't smile back.
"Well, isn't this lovely?" The orange-dressed woman twinkles at them. "Let's have a big hand for the tributes of District Two!"
CATO:
Sitting opposite Clove as the train rushes at the speed of a bullet towards the Capitol, Cato remembers the last piece of advice his father gave him before leaving the district.
"Give them hell, son. Play to your strengths and you'll win."
He remembers his mother, with a smile on her face. "We're so proud of you." She gives him a hug, and even though she's trying to be strong, Cato can see she's attempting not to cry. Or something.
But he knows that he can win. He has to.
"We have to give them hell, Clove. All of them." The words are out of his mouth before he knows what he's saying.
Clove stares at him. "Of course we do. That's what we're here for." She turns to look out the window at the scenery flashing by. "Don't think that I'm going to go easy on you, either, just because we're from the same district."
"Noted." Cato says. "You too."
He can't help noticing a tiny flicker of a smile on Clove's face before she can stop herself. He grins back at her, before the two of them lapse into silence.
The next few hours pass so quickly that Cato can't quite believe they're getting ready to board the chariots for the parade. He's dressed in his costume, along with Clove, looking the part of a warrior, and looks around the busy room. Stylists are hurrying around, putting the final touches on tribute's outfits. Suddenly, he can feel someone watching him. Cato glances up, and sees the girl from District One staring at him. He raises his eyebrow at her, this action making her smirk at him. A second later, she looks away. Clove is glaring at him to hurry up and get in the chariot, to which he does. But, as the chariot begins to roll forwards, the the shouts from the Capitol greet him, he can't get the face of the girl out of his mind.
CLOVE:
Over the next few days, the tributes' training starts. Hand-to-hand combat, archery, survival techniques...there are so many things to learn. But at the moment, the only thing Clove is interested in learning, beside throwing knives, is the name of the girl from District One. Glimmer. Cato seems to be getting rather friendly with her. Hmm. Glimmer's district partner is called Marvel. Hopefully, before she kills the pair of them, Glimmer and Marvel could at least be of some use helping to pick off most of the tributes. Clove smiles to herself as she throws another knife at the target, and hits it in the centre.
Later that afternoon, everything appears to be going smoothly, when a commotion a couple of stations away catches the attention of herself and everyone else in the room.
"Where's my knife? You took my knife!" Cato yells at the boy from District Six. If it weren't for the Peacekeepers pulling them apart, Clove knows that Cato would have stopped at nothing to get his knife back.
Abandoning her position in the line for the fighting station, Clove marches up to Cato, grabs him by the arm and pulls him away.
"What was that for?" he mutters, still looking angry. "He took my knife! I had it with me, and he grabbed it when I wasn't looking, the little–"
"Cato, there are more important things to worry about than a knife." Clove glances over her shoulder to make sure nobody is listening. "Remember, we have to make as many people like us as possible, so that we get sponsors. And so far, we're not off to a very good start." She raises an eyebrow at him, then turns around and stomps back over into the line.
CATO:
It's finally the day that everyone has been waiting for.
The day of the Games.
Cato knows he's got this in the bag. In the interview with Caesar Flickerman, he'd made sure that he appeared confident and charismatic. Just like many seemed to be.
"I'm prepared, vicious, ready to go." he'd said, earning a loud round of applause from the audience at the end.
Now, Cato watches as the big timer ticks away, counting down the amount of seconds left until the Games begin. The other tributes are getting ready to run, but some of them won't even make it past the first ten seconds. He readies himself to run, aiming for the closest weapon he sees; a huge knife.
The buzzer sounds.
And the next thing he knows, he's running towards the knife, clenching his hand tightly around the handle. He's slashing at the other tributes, ripping them apart, not even pausing before he attacks the next one. Because he needs to win this. He has to do whatever it takes.
When he finally stops, he's standing inside the entrance to the Cornucopia, taking in the wonder of the sight in front of him. A selection of weapons; knives and saws, just like the ones in the Capitol.
He takes a look over his shoulder. Clove and Glimmer are running towards him, with Marvel following behind them. Thoughts drift through his mind. It seems we've formed an alliance...we'll have to work out where to go if we want to hunt down the other tributes...
Time to take charge.
"Right, everyone." Cato glances round at the other three, who look slightly disheveled, but eager to hear more. "We're going hunting."
He's not really sure why they picked up a stray along the way. Peeta from District Twelve. Cato was going to kill him anyway, with Cato and Marvel nodding vigorously in agreement, but it's Glimmer who stops him, with the idea that he'd be able to lead them to Katniss Everdeen. Clove's eyes practically glowed with excitement. She'd told Cato that she'd been wanting to kill her ever since she escaped one of Clove's knives at the Cornucopia. Also because she'd been given a higher training score than her by the Gamemakers.
And since they don't have any other options, they're taking Glimmer's idea on board.
That's another thing that Cato likes about Glimmer. She's beautiful and smart.
CLOVE:
She trudges along behind Glimmer and Cato, listening to them mock the voice of the girl they've just killed, from District Eight. Clove doesn't know why, but she already hates Glimmer with a passion. Maybe it's because now, she's stolen Clove's only trustworthy companion away from her.
However, Clove's spirits are lifted when, a couple of days later, they find Katniss Everdeen. They manage to corner her up a tree, calling up at her and laughing. Cato immediately volunteers to climb up after her.
"Kill her, Cato!" Clove yells, amid the shouts of Glimmer and Marvel. But to Clove's alarm, Cato falls out of the tree. She's about to check if he's all right, but then Glimmer attempts to shoot an arrow up the tree. To Clove's delight, the arrow misses.
Now as night falls, she's sitting around the campfire, maintaining a distance between Cato and Glimmer. Marvel is slumped over on his side, probably asleep, and Lover Boy is lying on his back, staring up into the trees. He's probably lusting after Everdeen up there, Clove thinks bitterly. At least she's got someone to care about her until she dies.
She glances over to Glimmer, who is lying with her head on Cato's arm. As she does so, a tiny flicker of sadness washes over her, even though she tries to shake it away. I'll never have anyone that will want me, she thinks miserably. Cato has Glimmer now...I don't blame him. He probably won't care about me even if I end up dead.
She vents her feelings by throwing a small knife at a lizard, hitting it right in its middle.
All hell break loose as Clove and the others are woken up by the swarm of vicious Tracker Jackers. She screams in terror, running as fast as she can away from the swarm into the trees, closely followed by Marvel. The tree branches whip at her face, the stings from the swarm smarting over her arms and face. She can't see Cato or Peeta anywhere, or Glimmer...
Suddenly, she stumbles, nearly falling over onto the ground. The buzzing from the swarm seems to have receded, but like bad radio reception. Growing softer, then louder, then softer again. Her head spins, the sight of the forest growing blurry. A crashing of branches and snapping of twigs behind her signals Cato dashing through the trees, coming to a stop in front of her.
"I bet it was Everdeen who set the swarm onto us." Marvel hisses, his face swimming in and out of focus before Clove's eyes.
"She's-nexx...on-our-liss..." She hears Cato's voice, his words merging together into one. He looks at her with a mixture of impatience and concern. "Clove?"
Clove blinks, the forest starting to mix together in a kaleidoscope swirl. The trees branch off to either side, their branches reaching out toward her. In the centre, the sun appears out of nowhere, swelling to four times its size, before bursting into pieces and collapsing like a deflated balloon.
And as Clove collapses onto the ground, Glimmer's cannon fires.
CATO:
It's all my fault.
I just abandoned Glimmer and ran.
I shouldn't have done that.
But then again, I would have had to kill her anyway to win...
Thoughts pound rentlessly inside Cato's head as the next couple of days pass. The guilt he feels about Glimmer is fading, though gradually. Clove, thankfully, has recovered from the Tracker Jacker stings, leaving her more bloodthirsty and more ready to kill Katniss then ever. Marvel has managed to acquire another tribute that could be of some use to them, a boy from District Three. Cato let him join their alliance on one condition–that he'd rewire the mines to protect their supplies.
There's one thing that he doesn't regret, though. The fact that he injured Peeta's leg badly, for letting Katniss get away felt satisfactory. Let nature finish him off.
It''s late afternoon when something catches Cato's eye, not too far from their camp. A spiral of smoke, rising from the trees. A fire, lit by another tribute.
"Look." He points in the direction of the smoke. Clove, Marvel and the boy from District Three rise from their seats to look. Without hesitation, Cato grabs his sword. "You stay guard til we get back." he tells the boy from District Three. Marvel and Clove follow as quick as they can behind him, as they rush into the forest towards the source of the fire.
Except they don't see anyone. The fire is blazing, smoke rising heavily into the air, but there is no sight of any of the tributes anywhere. Cato grinds his teeth in frustration, the feeling rising up inside him.
"Where are they? Nobody's here!" Clove growls, scanning through the trees.
"Looks like it was just a trap." Marvel adds unhelpfully.
"God damn it." Cato hisses. "You can have Katniss Everdeen to finish, Clove. When I get my hands on Peeta, I'll–"
BANG!
The loud explosion shakes the trees and the ground around them. Leave fall down in a torrent, the bushes shake.
"What was that?" Clove gasps, whipping around to face the direction of the explosion.
In a second, all three of them are running as fast as they can back to their campsite.
He doesn't know why he does it, but the next minute, the body of the boy from District Three is lying on the ground. Out of anger, probably. The minute Cato saw the campsite, blown to pieces, all of their supplies gone, something inside him snapped. Ignoring the boy's protests, he throws the weapon out of his hands, and with one sudden movement, twists the boy's neck, instantly killing him.
When he comes to his senses, he notices that Clove is standing behind him, looking as though she's not sure whether to approach him or not.
"Where's Marvel?" Cato spits, glaring at her.
"He ran off somewhere into the forest." Clove snaps at him. "And Cato, whoever set off the explosion is probably dead by now, anyway. All we have to do is wait until nightfall to check."
Cato sighs in exasperation. "That's probably the only sensible idea I've heard all day." He throws his sword down, joining it on the ground a few seconds later. "Now, we wait."
CLOVE:
It's nightfall. Clove lies down on the rough grass to go to sleep, beside Cato, who said that he'd take the first watch. Everything is quiet, except for the faint rustling of the trees and grass, when suddenly...
"Attention, tributes." A loud booming voice seems to come from all around, reverberating. Clove opens her eyes wide, listening. Surely, this is the grand time when the death of Katniss Everdeen is announced!
But the voice goes on to announce a feast, set to take place at sunrise, with something that each of the tributes desperately need. The voice then cuts off as the anthem plays. Clove glances up at the sky and sees the faces of the girl from District Eleven, Rue, and Marvel flash across. She feels a sort of grim satisfaction seeing Rue's name up there.
Rue deserved to die because of what she and Everdeen did to us, she thinks, almost joyfully. And I don't feel bad for Marvel, either. Abandoning us like that...
"Did you hear that, Clove?" Her thoughts are pulled back to reality as she watches Cato through the semi-darkness. "We need a plan for tomorrow."
"How Katniss Everdeen will be delighted to be reunited with her little friend." Clove mutters, smiling at the thought. "Well, what should we do?"
"So I go in for the pack, you scout round for any of the others, and we meet back at the lake." Clove states, stowing her collection of knives carefully in her pockets. She runs a hand through her dark hair and surveys Cato's face, his expression pensive.
He nods. "I won't be too far away."
She laughs at him. "I'll be fine, Cato. I don't need you to babysit me." She narrows her eyes, intent on completing the task at hand. "Let's do this."
Clove crouches around the side of the Cornucopia, her eyes scanning the area ahead of her. There's the table, with the bags for every district. She's tempted to just grab her bag and run, but she has to stay focussed. Katniss Everdeen could be anywhere...
A flash of red catches her eye. She watches as the girl from District Five sprints towards the table with the bags, grabs hers and sprints off in the other direction. Clove's hand tightens on her knife. Should she? No, let her go. Better to save her knives for Everdeen...
There! There's Katniss, running towards the table with the bags. Clove sprints towards her, letting her knife fly from her hand. It misses, but leaves a streak of blood behind. She dodges two of Katniss' arrows, then slams into her, knocking her down. Adrenaline rushes through her body as she grabs as many knives as she can and pins Katniss down onto the ground, who is struggling but to no avail. Something to give the audience a good show, she thinks, holding her biggest knife to Katniss' throat.
"Where's Lover Boy?" she taunts Katniss. "You know, it's too bad you couldn't help your little friend...what was her name? Rue? Well, we killed her." She grabs Katniss' hair, pulling her head down so she can't escape. "And now-" Clove flicks open a smaller knife, and strokes the blade along Katniss' cheek, "we're going to kill you."
Suddenly, the knife is thrown from her grasp, and she's slammed against the Cornucopia by a heavy, strong pair of arms. Gasping in terror, she looks into the face of Thresh. Rue's District partner.
"You kill her?" he demands in fury, his eyes fierce and frightening.
She shakes her head, gasping for breath. "CATO!" she screams, terrified. Where was Cato? He's not there. She needs him. Now, or she's going to die. "CATO!"
Thresh grabs her, throwing her back against the Cornucopia. Her head smashes against the side, and she's barely able to do anything else, when Thresh grabs her again. For a second time, she's slammed against the strong wall, she can feel something in her head crack open, and–
CATO:
He runs towards the Cornucopia the moment he hears Clove's voice screaming for his help. Faster, he tells himself, the rustle of undergrowth and snap of twigs indicating that his feet were, at least, moving somewhere. Cato bursts through the trees, running faster at the sight of the Cornucopia, looking for a sign, anything, from Clove.
But as he rounds the corner of it, he knows he's too late. There's Clove, lying on the ground, her eyes wide, mouth slightly open in a mixture of surprise and terror. Cato notices blood splashed on the ground, on the area behind Clove's head.
As Cato kneels down on the ground beside her, he waits to feel something. Pain, sadness, or anger, maybe. But instead, he feels nothing. Or maybe, numb is the better word.
As he runs his hand carefully over Clove's hair, he thinks, They're going to pay. All of them.
But he doesn't know whether he's talking about the other tributes or the Capitol.
The sound of brute snarling echoes behind Cato as he rushes towards the only shelter left, the Cornucopia. The wolf-muttations had just appeared out of nowhere. One second, the night had been quiet, the only sound being the rustling of the forest...then, suddenly the bang of the cannon. He had looked up to see the face of Thresh flash across the sky. Good, he had thought. One less of them to worry about.
But the next second, a loud, snarling noise had caught his attention, and something that was very big and vicious had leaped out at him. He had done the only thing he could; ran as fast as he could towards the Cornucopia. Now, suddenly, there were more of the muttations, pounding after him, shaking the ground, barking and howling.
He's almost there, he can see the twisted shape of the Cornucopia getting closer, now he's hauling himself up, the muttations snapping below, baying for his blood...but there, there, sprinting to the Cornucopia on the other side are Katniss and Peeta, three muttations rushing after them.
They've barely pulled themselves up, when Cato grabs Peeta from behind, forcing him into a fierce headlock. Katniss attempts to shoot at him, but due to the body armour he's wearing, from the bag, the arrow bounces off. She pulls the bow straight, ready to shoot again, arrow at the ready.
And Cato knows that this is the finale. Blood is running down the side of his face, he can taste it in his mouth, on his teeth. He's bruised, his face is smeared with dirt and he's used up nearly every ounce of his energy.
Only a tiny part of him–a very tiny part–still wants to bring honour to his District.
Because he knows, deep down inside, that he doesn't want to do any of this any more.
"Shoot. Go on." Cato smiles, as if mockingly. "I'm dead anyway." However, the sentence seems to come out in a sob. His grip around Peeta's neck tightens. "I can still do this. One more kill. Because that's all I know how to do. Bring pride to my District."
Cato's voice chokes up, and suddenly, all he wants is for Katniss to shoot the arrow at him and get this over with. He's tired of everything, and just wants for it all to end.
Then, suddenly, it does end.
He's falling over the side of the Cornucopia, landing on the grass with a thud, victim to the muttations. They're ripping at him with their teeth, their snarls not quite muffling Cato's screams of pain and terror.
He hopes that Katniss' arrow finds him quickly.
District Twelve would sure be proud.
Hope you enjoyed Part 2! Foxface's chapter will be up soon, but am not really sure how long it's going to take, but I'll try my BEST not to make it too long!