Chapter Three: The Announcement

When Katniss awoke some time later, she was aware of three things.

First, it was dark and cold inside their prison.

Second, the rain had stopped, leaving a thick layer of mud in the centre of the hole.

And third, to her side, was a muscular, warm mass breathing deeply.

The memories from the day - night? - before came flooding back to her as she shook the sleep from her system and she instantly regretted the survival decision that she had made. She felt strongly, now that she was no longer in dire need of warmth, that she simply wasn't cold enough to seek Cato's body heat, even though deep down she knew that she had made the only decision she could.

Cato.

The big, hulking mass that was Cato's muscular body was incredibly comforting beside her. It was an intrusive thought not unlike the ones that urge you to jump from a cliff, however it seemed o affect Katniss deeply. She was comforted by Cato's body beside her. She instantly felt sick.

Gently - why was she being so gentle?- she tried to move away from him, however realised that she was trapped under his thick arm. He was pulling her closer in his slumber, snoring lightly as his grip tightened across her stomach.

'Like a large python.' Katniss thought to herself, 'constricing it's prey.'

She tried - and failed - to move his arm off of her stomach. She was truly trapped under heavy arm and there was nothing that she could do about it unless he woke and moved his arm himself.

She wondered breifly how he would react upon waking. Would he be angry at the sight of her? Would he take his hands and place them around her neck, squeezing tightly until her lips turned blue? Panicking slightly, she quickly looked around her to see if she had a weapon on her, just in case he did manage to hurt her, howver calmed significantly when she remembered that a quick kick to his broken leg would render him defensless.

"Cato." She said, peering at his face. It was strange how little his face, when he was sleeping, resembled his awake persona. In this moment the brutal killer that was Cato didn't exist. It both fascinated and terrified her.

She waited a moment before repeating his name, this time a little louder. "Cato!" She insisted again.

This time Cato awoke, groggy from sleep. He looked around wonderingly for a moment, taking in his surroundings, before his gaze settled on his reluctant companinion.

His reaction to her surprised Katniss, who was very much on edge, ready to kick his leg if he didn't co operate. He smirked down at her, not lifting his arm or pushing her away. He had found a weakness in her, and he would do anything to exploit it. Katniss Everdeen was, at her core, a survivalist. In a sitation where she might die, she would put her pride away and do whatever she could to keep her heart beating- all he needed to do was push her to the edge.

They stared at each other in silence for a moment, Cato smirking and Katniss glaring, never once breaking eye contact. Katniss wouldn't back down. She couldn't back down. Stupidly, she felt that she needed to redeem herself after her episode last night.

Just as she saw Cato was about to speak, however, a canon blast went off. Cato let her go in shock as the sound of the canon vibrated trhough the hole. Katniss jumped away, free from his arms. She wondered how many blasts had happened since they had been out- there was no way to know for certain.

She hoped that it wasn't for Peta.

She looked back at Cato and knew from the way that his brows furrowed and his mouth tensed that he was hoping it wasn't for Clove.

Katniss was silent for some time after that, despite Cato trying, unsuccessfully, to get a rise from her. He was so annoying. She decided that as soon as they got out, she would kill him. For her it would be like unplugging a broken radio from it's outlet. A human, broken radio that would count as a murder.

Her stomach growled more in the breif silences that occured when he ran out of something to annoy her about. She couldn't bare to look at him when it happened, not that she wanted to anyway, because she knew that he had food on him. She didn't want to see his smug face on the other side of their prison when her stomach growled, knowing full well that he was planning to let her starve.

Soon, the thin beam of light appeared again and Katniss mentally calculated that they had been trapped together for around five days. She wondered when she would go stir-crazy.

Apparently, she didn't need to wait very long.


On the sixth day, as the beam of light steadily disappeared, Katniss huffed. Cato, who had given up on trying to get a rise from her became startled at the sudden noise.

"What are we doing in here?" Katniss hissed seethingly. "I can't believe that I'm trapped in here with you!" She pointed indignantly at him. "We can't climb the walls, we can't move the roof- we can't even reach the roof!- we haven't got food and the only water that we have is disappearing very quickly. This is such a ridiculous situation!"

Katniss huffed again, angry, crossing her arms over her chest. She had never been trapped in the one place for so long. Once, when she was eleven, she had been stuck breifly under an old tree branch when it had fallen suddenly. She had been trapped for a few hours before Gale had come looking for her. She breifly wondered about Gale, hoping that he was okay.

"Why hasn't anyone found us?" Cato asked. "You'd think that they would be trying to at least shove a camera down here so that they could watch us murder each other."

Katniss admitted that he had a point.

"Maybe they really do think that we're dead." She replied stonily. If they thought that they were dead, they wouldn't be rescued. On the other hand, if they were rescued, they would just be put back into the arena anyway.

"Our trackers-" Cato started.

"They could have been destoryed in the explosion."

Cato was silent, takinging it all in. She imagined that he must be feeling irate over the fact that he wouldn't be able to bring pride to his district. He was considered dead, a weakling. No better than the boy from District Five. He was a disgrace.

"This is your fault." Cato said to her. She looked at him, anger pricking at her ears. She had been trapped for so long, she was positively itching for a fight. She wanted to hurt him, to do something that would make him suffer at least a little bit. She wanted, for a breif moment, to make his life in this hole with her absolute misery.

"My fault?" She started. "My fault for doing what exactly? Trying to win the games?"

"You blew up the supplies!"

"I was doing what I needed to!"

"You are so stupid! Didn't you think about scouting the area first to check for massive fucking holes!?"

"I'm stupid!?" Katniss fumed, her voice becoming shrill with anger. "You're the one who decided to prance into the woods after a plume of smoke! At this point in the game who would even be stupid enough to light a fire that close to the cornucopia! It was obviously a trap!"

"It's your fault!" He boomed at her again.

"I was trying to survive!"

"Yeah? Well good fucking job! Now we're both trapped in here and by the looks of things, neither of us are getting out!"

"I hate you." She spat at him.

"The feeling's mutual." He responded shortly.

They were silent again for a short while until another canon sounded.

Katniss's heart beat faster. She mentally calculated how many were left but she couldn't know for certain. It was when she heard the announcement, however, that she felt nauseas.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to announce the victor for the seventy-fourth annual Hunger Games: Clove Woodbury!"

"I'm going to be sick."