The sun peeks over the treetops, alerting us to the fact that dawn is approaching. My hand immediately goes to my jacket pocket, where I'd strapped the knives I'd collected from the Cornucopia—just after the initial bloodbath. Cato's fingers tighten around the hilt of his sword, and his brow creases. "You okay?"
"Yeah. Go," I mouth, and he takes off. I can see the trail his footprints make through the mud around our meeting place as he rushes off in the opposite direction, on the lookout for Thresh, for Redhead, for Katniss and Peeta. I turn around to face the Cornucopia again, where a table has risen from the ground—a table containing the very thing Cato and I need desperately, or so Claudius Templesmith says.
Before I can even take two steps forward, Redhead comes flying out of the Cornucopia's mouth and snatches her designated backpack from the table. My hand closes around the hilt of my favorite knife, but she's too far away—I can't stick her now, it's futile. I can only hope that Cato finds her and finishes her off. I hunch low in the underbrush, a crooked smile distorting my features, my feet positioned to run forward. Katniss is bound to make her move soon, and when she does I'll be ready.
Moments later, she comes barreling onto the plain, straight past the Cornucopia. I dart forward, flinging my knife at her as I run. It slices her forehead, but she keeps running—she grabs her designated backpack and manages to shoot an arrow at me, which I easily sidestep. After uttering a small scream of frustration, I kick her to the ground and sit on her, jamming my fist into her windpipe. Picking up my discarded knife from the ground, I jam it into the ground, pinning her shirtsleeve to the hard-packed earth beneath her.
"You have no idea how long I've waited to do this," I say breathlessly, digging out another knife from the depths of my jacket. "Where's Lover Boy? He dead yet?"
"Peeta!" Katniss screams at the top of her lungs, but I silence her by pressing the flat side of my knife to her lips.
"Hush, darling," I say softly. "No one's going to save you now. You're going to die like Rue, and there's nothing you can do about it." Just as I open a cut at the corner of her mouth, someone yanks me off Katniss like I weigh nothing, like I'm a rag doll, and throws me to the ground five feet away.
"You kill her? You kill the little girl? I heard you say her name!" Thresh's arm closes around my throat, and I'm left gasping for air.
"It wasn't me, I didn't do it! Cato!"
I see the rock too late. Thresh brings it down on my skull, a sickening crack piercing the air. My breathing becomes labored, and I grab my head in both hands and sob. I didn't want my life to end, not like this—not when there was a chance Cato and I might both make it out of the arena…for a few seconds, I lay coiled up on the grass. Thresh and Katniss are gone, and Cato has knelt beside me. He takes my hand in his, a single tear dripping down his sweaty face, and I'm still crying, my chest heaving, my heartbeat slowing, and then everything goes black.
