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Chapter 10

The next morning Peeta woke up and walked out of the cave. There was an evening rain so the blood trail that he left last night had washed away. 'What luck I have sometimes.' He chuckled to himself as he went out and checked the trap lines. All but one had game in it. He took the rabbit and squirrels to the river and cleaned them out. He tied them up to a log in the water to keep them cool. He wasn't going to eat till he found Katniss. He looked north and saw a fire on the canyons ridge. He began walking towards the fire thinking that maybe Katniss may be in danger.

Katniss was still asleep in the tree when she smelled smoke. She looked next to her and saw the flames. She untied herself and quickly jumped down the tree. She began running as fast as she could but it seemed no matter how hard she tried to get away from the flames they were still in front of her. A fireball flew towards her and she tried to jump out of the way. It hit the rock next to her and exploded. Some of the flames caught her pants on fire and she quickly hit the flames till they were out. She looked at her leg and it wasn't burnt badly but the pain was intense and when she looked up another fireball was headed straight for her. She moved quickly out of the way but as she ran away from the flames her leg seared in pain.

Peeta saw her running and ran to her. "Katniss!"

"Peeta!" She ran to his arms, but the flames kept coming. They quickly turned down the path that Peeta had come from. Peeta did not notice that Katniss was limping. "Peeta I'm so sorry. I was stupid."

"Let's just get back to the cave. Come on let's go." Peeta said as he ran as fast as Katniss could. He held Katniss' hand tight as they ran up to the river. Peeta released her hand to walk across a log that was a make shift bridge. He went across easily and turned around to Katniss and said, "Come on it's safe."

Katniss right leg was very tender. As she crossed it pulsed in pain and as she tried to keep her balance across the log but her leg gave out to the pain and she fell face down into the water. The water was fast in this part of the river and the rapids quickly moved Katniss into the middle of the river. Katniss kept her head above water trying to stay calm and catch her breath. Peeta tried to catch up to her but the current was too fast. He soon lost sight of her as she went around the river's bend. She tried to swim towards the soft river bed to rest upon and instead as she reached out for a branch she smashed her head against a large boulder.

'Oh no. I'm going to die here,' Was the last thought in her head before her vision went black.

Further down the river Cato and Clove were finishing off a tribute from three. They had grown tired of torturing him and finally Cato slit his throat. They tortured him for hours trying to get the location of the girl from his district but nothing had worked. The cannon fired in the distance marking his death and they smiled at each other.

"For now she is safe till we find that little bitch." Clove laughed. She pushed his limp body in the river and when she looked up she saw something floating down the river north of her. "What's that?" She pointed in the direction of the object.

"Fuck if I know. Let's go before I get hungry."

"Wait it looks like a body. The only cannon fire today was the one that we just finished." Clove was right in that aspect. There was a fire to the north which she didn't understand why there was one, but something human like was floating towards them. "Just wait one second." As soon as she saw the black wavy hair in the water she instantly knew who it was. "It's that bitch from twelve!"

Katniss' limp body was face up in the water and she was slowly drifting towards the edge. Clove ran into the water waist deep to keep her from going down stream any farther.

"Is she dead?" Cato asked.

"I think she is alive, but she's bleeding really bad out of her head." She said as she inspected the gash in her head.

"What are you waiting for. Kill her!" Cato rushed into the water as well and raised his sword to strike her though the chest.

"No. Cato. I need another toy to play with." She laughed evilly. "We can torture her like we did with the others. We can find the boy from twelve if she talks."

"Who cares where he is. She is the one that scored the highest and it didn't work with the last one. Let's just kill her now."

"It may have not worked with the boy from three, but it did work at the start of the games with the boy from ten. As soon as he started he gave up the location of the girl. And isn't this a game to kill everyone. We want to be the last ones standing. We can torture her for a while and if she doesn't say anything good we will just kill her flat out. OK?" She laughed again at how easy this hunger games were turning out to be.

"Alright! Let's take her back to camp then!" He also laughed as he lifted her out of the water. They walked out of the river and into the woods. Peeta watched as Cato threw Katniss over his shoulder and carried her off. His stomach ached with a pain because he did not know how to save her, but he was going to do everything in his power. He quietly and quickly followed after them. He stayed in the shadows and near trees to not be noticed.

When they reached camp Glimmer and Marvel were nowhere to be in sight. "You think they went out for food?" Cato asked in hope. He may have been one of the strongest tributes but foraging for food was not his forte. He threw Katniss' limp body to the ground.

"Well I'm going to go check the traps that we set this morning and see if we got lucky. We should have paid more attention to that part of training I guess." She grabbed one of the packs that was in camp and headed out. "Don't kill her. Just torture her for the whereabouts of the boy from 12 and any other information you can get out of her. I'll be back soon." With that Clove walked out of the camp.

Katniss began to stir on the ground. Her head hurt very badly and she could barely open her eyes, but she was trying to figure out where she was. Then the scariest thing that she could think of at that moment spoke. "What's the matter little girl. You a bit lost?" Cato laughed at her bluntly.

Katniss tried to get to her knees but slipped due to her dizziness. Her heart was racing and she could barely see out of her eyes. She obviously had a very severe concussion and could not think of how to get rid of it. When she rose to her knees this time Cato put his foot down into her back and shoved her hard back to the ground. "Where are you going sweetheart? Isn't that what your mentor called you all the time? Do you not like my company?"

Katniss rolled over so that she was facing Cato. She hated that he just called her sweetheart. The thought of it made her gag. She kept trying to adjust her eyes, "What are you going to do to me?"

"Well we want to know where your team mate is. So I have permission to torture you." Cato's laugh was haunting her.

She rolled back over onto her knees and tried to stand up. Unsuccessfully she fell back to the ground. Her vision was becoming clearer and clearer, but Cato noticed that she was feeling better so he grabbed her by her hair and tied her to the nearest tree. As soon as she was secured he slapped her hard in the face. "How did that feel?"

"Thanks can I have another?" Katniss smirked at him. Her vision was back and she started to think of a way to get out. Cato walked over and slapped her hard again.

"Where is he?!" Cato yelled.

"I don't know. I must have knocked it out of my head when I bashed my head in." Katniss laughed this time. Which only made Cato more furious. He went and grabbed his sword and was about to run her through when Marvel came back to camp. He stopped dead in his tracks.

"Hey I thought I heard you talking to someone." Marvel seemed un-amused to this situation so Katniss figured out in her painfully throbbing head that this is how they are taking out tributes from each district. Catching one and making the other tell them everything.

"Well she saying she don't know where Lover Boy is. I think we can't use her for anything else. Might as well kill her now." He shrugged his shoulders at the thought of killing just another tribute.

"Well she can be used for other things." Marvel looked around and then stepped closer to Cato and whispered something in his ear which made Cato laugh. "Besides Glimmer and me ran into Clove and there was nothing in the traps so they are going fishing at the river. Should take them awhile to actually catch something."

Katniss had no idea what they were talking about but suddenly got the feeling that she should be elsewhere. She looked around for any signs of escape and she wished Peeta would save her now.

Peeta had climbed a tree close to camp but not to close. He could hear them, but he could not see them. He heard that Katniss was not going to give up their camp which was good news to him. Now the boys were talking to quietly to hear. He looked towards the river and saw the two girls from one and two trying to catch fish. They were not doing a very good job, but he was sure that attacking right now was not wise.

Back at camp Marvel was grabbing a weapon then he walked towards a path leading towards the river, "Don't take too long. I want a chance too. I'll keep watch." He again started laughing as he leaved camp.

Katniss still was clueless to what was going on. Cato came closer to her. He grabbed at the rope that was keeping her bound and tied her tighter to the tree and farther up its trunk. Katniss was now standing.

"I think I'm going to enjoy this. Better give the people back home a good show." He slapped her again across the face. Katniss hung her head to the side that one really stung. Cato went to undue her pants and Katniss realized what he was talking about. She started flailing her legs to try and stop him. He grabbed her throat and shut off her oxygen. "Now you're going to give me what I want and you're going to be nice about it or I'll just kill you now." Katniss lifted her leg and kicked him in the stomach.

"Get away from me!" Peeta heard her loud yell and knew there was no way to help her. He knew that Marvel was underneath his feet somewhere and close by were the women. They would instantly kill both of them if they could.

"Ha I like a little fight in a woman." He got up from the ground and dusted his pants off. He walked over to her and put his face right in hers. "You are tied to a tree what can you do?" He smiled at her.

Katniss threw her forehead into his which she connected right above his left eye. She knew there was nothing she could do but fight. This time Cato clenched his fist and aimed for the wound on her head and punched her as hard as he could. It did not knock Katniss out, but it made her very dizzy and she felt as if she was losing her balance standing. The ropes that had her tied up kept her against the tree standing even though her legs could not hold her. She tried to keep her head up but was even having difficulties doing that.

Cato again approached her only this time he was careful not to be kicked or head-butted. He pushed his forearm into the side of her head to keep her face pointed away from him. Before she could struggle away from him he dropped her pants and pushed himself inside of her. She screamed out in protest but her cries for mercy fell on deaf ears. Her face was being scratched by the bark of the tree but that was the least of her worries. She tried to use her body to push him away, but that only made it worse for her. He pushed harder into her and held one leg up on his hip so he could go deeper into her. "You enjoying that sweetheart?"

The girls had heard the scream and had caught three fish so they started to head for camp. They came up to Marvel just standing guard in the woods. Clove asked, "What are you doing out here?"

"Well Cato is taking care of some business. We can't go back there yet."

Peeta could hear them talking in a nearby tree. They were 20 or so feet from him and he cringed inside because there was nothing he could do. He then remembered that he had land mines in his bag. Even though he could not assemble it onto the ground he could charge it and give it a good throw. 'It might go off close enough to distract them.' He thought to himself as he read the instructions on the front. 'Stabilize mine before pulling pin. Pull pin to set firing mechanism.' He hoped for the best as he pulled out the pin and threw it towards the three tributes. He held onto the tree tightly for dear life as it fell through the trees and landed on the ground. The other tributes heard the noise and went towards it. 'Guess it's not going to work…"

KABOOM!

The explosion was so close to the three tributes from district one and two that the explosion knocks them all unconscious. Peeta's ears were ringing from the blast but he stabilized himself the best he could and jumped down the tree. He ran away from the area as fast as he could and he was running strait towards the camp. He was ready to give his life to get Katniss out of that situation.

The explosion stopped Cato from further harming Katniss as he zipped his pants off and ran out of camp towards the sound. He ran right into Peeta at full speed. Both tributes fell to the ground before pulling out their weapons and start battling each other. Cato swung first and plunged his sword deep in Peeta's upper left thigh. Peeta screamed out in pain but took his much smaller knife and cut Cato in the arm. Cato withdrew his blade and stood back to look at his arm. Peeta grabbed a nearby rock and when Cato came at him this time he threw the rock and hit him right above his right eye. Cato feel down to the ground in a large pile and was not moving. Peeta thought he may have killed Cato but when a cannon did not sound he knew he must have only knocked him out. Knowing that precious time was wasting Peeta ran as fast as his wounded leg would allow him into camp and saw Katniss hanging from a tree by her wrists. The rope was cutting into her skin and starting to make it bleed. She looked up to him and said his name in a soft voice. He ran up to her and pulled her pants up. He quickly cut the rope on one side and began to drag her off.

"My bow and bag. It's over there we need it." Peeta set her down on the ground gently and ran over threw the bag and quiver onto his back and picked her back up.

"Here take the bow in case we run into anyone." They ran away from the camp, but keeping in close proximity to the river so they could cross when it was safe. They sat down to rest for a bit. Katniss was still very dizzy, "Hey you doing ok?"

"I'll be fine. I'm just so happy you got me out of there." She started crying softly. She had not noticed the wound in Peeta's leg yet.

"Why are you crying?" Peeta grabbed her and pulled her head against his chest. "You are out of there and safe in my arms again. And don't you worry I'm going to kill Cato for what he did to you." He kissed her forehead and rubbed her back.

"It was so terrible Peeta. I never want to feel that again. I can't believe that the Capitol allowed it. Why didn't they stop it?" She was going to keep going but Peeta silenced her with a small and gentle kiss.

"They just want a good show. Katniss. That's it. I bet all of Panem was watching you as well as they are watching us right now. Don't worry it is over and it will never happen again. I promise." He motioned her to get up and she did. They walked towards the river and not seeing anyone near they crossed it in a shallow part. Their cave was very close by and the water from the river had cleaned out Peeta's cut. He tore off one of his undershirts arms and wrapped it around the wound.

"Are you injured?" Katniss asked.

"Just a scratch. Nothing to worry about." Peeta did not want her to worry.

Peeta walked up to the log that he had tied the game to this morning, "Hey we got dinner all lined up." He gave her a very reassuring smile.

"Good I'm starving." They walked into their cave and Katniss quickly started a fire. Haymitch was right about the smoke. It looked as if it was going out a tiny hole in the stone, but at least they were able to get warm and cook their food.

Back at the Capitol Seneca was watching once again silence fall on Katniss and Peeta so he switched the cameras to different tributes. Everyone was going crazy for the District 12 tributes. They loved how Peeta rushed in and saved Katniss, but one person was not happy. President Snow intended the fire to kill Katniss, but it had not worked. It had worked to split up some of the other tributes so it would cause the games to get more interesting. He will make this work out for only him