Well hello there! First off i want to appologise from the bottom of my heart for the long wait! I don't know what happened, but it's honestly been the bussiest 3 weeks of my life! Anyway, on with the story..

Chapter 10: The Game Begins

"Clove?" I yell when Katniss and I come into the clearing. The others obviously cleared out for a while since the bodies had been removed.

"Yeah?" she yells back, her voice coming from somewhere in the woods.

"Where are you?" I laugh back to her.

Five metres away a bush rustles and automatically I position myself in a stance.

"Relax, it's only me" Clove laughs to me as she walks out the bushes.

"Whatever" I mumble, lowering my sword but not fully relaxing. To my side I can see Katniss lowering her bow and walk towards Clove.

"Cato you're back!" Glimmer says with enthusiasm. I see her eyes flicker to Katniss and the bow, "Give me my bow" she coldly addresses her.

Without arguing Katniss hands the bow over and takes a seat next to Marvel.

"And the arrows" Glimmer adds when she doesn't receive them.

"You never asked for them" Katniss says sarcastically. I let out a low laugh, earning a glare from Glimmer.

Glimmer mutters something under her breath that no-one can quite hear; but Katniss knowing it will be about her smiles sweetly.

"Calm down you two, an alliance normally lasts at least one night" Marvel laughs, "Besides we have an hour to kill before it gets dark." he adds.

Last night we'd all agreed that we would hunt the stragglers once it got dark, picking off the easy ones stupid enough to light a fire because they can't take the cold.

"What shall we do then?" Clove asks, her voice laced with boredom.

"Set up a fire? And play a game?" Katniss suggests.

"How old do you think we are? 5?" Glimmer laughs.

"Not games like hide and seek Glimmer. Ones like spin the bottle or truth or dare." Katniss replies.

"Make the fire then, girl on fire" I say, using the irony of her nickname.

She smirks at me before going to gather some wood. "Pass me some matches" she says once she's arranging the wood. Clove rustles around in a bag before retrieving the matches and throwing them to her. Katniss catches them and lights the fire.

She takes her original seat next to me and leans back onto my arm. I wrap it around her and she snuggles into my chest. Clove sends me a smirk and Glimmer a glare.

"Truth or Dare then?" Marvel says once Clove and Glimmer sit in a circle around the fire.

"Glimmer, truth or dare?" Clove asks her.

"Truth" she answers. Her face showing that she would most probably never pick 'dare'.

"Out of anyone you like, who would you kiss" Clove asks looking at me with a huge coy smirk on her face.

Glimmer turns her head to me, and looks up at me through her eyelashes. "Cato" she answers, her voice full of fake lust. My body stiffens and I try to look smug and please about her choice. Katniss puts her head into my chest and lets out a laugh. The sound muffled by my body.

"Katniss, truth or dare?" Glimmer asks her.

"Truth?" she replies quickly.

"If Prim and your hunting partner were in a fire, and you could only save one of them. Who would it be?" She asks with a sarcastic smile displayed proudly over her face.

Katniss takes in a deep breath. Her body stiffens next to mine and she stays silent for a couple of minutes.

"Prim" She whispers.

"Sorry what?" Glimmer asks again.

Katniss lifts her head high and looks directly into Glimmer's eyes. "I would save Prim first" she answers again. "But I would go straight back in for him. Because he would do them same for me"

"Oh how sweet" Glimmer replies coldly.

"Cato, truth or dare?" Marvel asks me.

"Dare" I say.

"I dare you to strip naked and sit in the clearing without a weapon for ten minutes." he says. If it was anyone else I would say no straight away. Unarmed in the Games? No way! But since it was Marvel, and he wouldn't offer up much threat; and who else was there really? Peeta? He wouldn't dare, not yet anyway. The male from 11? He wouldn't risk it just yet.

I stood up and began unbuttoning my shirt. Once it had fell to the floor I unbuckled by belt and let my trousers follow. I walked over to the bush Clove appeared from and kicked my boots off. I continued walking, removing my under vest and throwing it to the ground. Only when I was at the very edge of the clearing did I remove the final item of clothing I had left on. Instinctively I placed my hands around my 'private area' to cover them. I kicked my boxers back over the bush earning a horrible high pitched squeal from Glimmer.

I sat down in the openness quickly, wishing the minutes away. It's quiet, not even the calls of mockingjays can be heard. The only sounds come from the rest of the careers talking amongst themselves, but even that sounds like it's been turned down low. I wonder if the Gamemakers have the ability to do that? To make everything quiet. To isolate you from the people who would possibly help. The snapping of a twig has me up on my feet, not caring about being exposed- literally.

The groan of a male can be heard to my left, the sound of someone realising I know they're there. I wait patiently for them to make a move, being in the situation I was in I didn't think it would be a sensible approach to run at someone unarmed, as careless as they might be. Finally the male came into view and simultaneously we ran at each other. Without stopping to think I put him into a headlock and snapped his neck. The boy fell to the floor with a thud and a clank. The clan coming from the knife that was splattered with blood. It was only then that I saw the slit he had made into my thigh, nothing that would cause me any problem though.

Katniss POV

I wince at how easily he can take a life. His ability to snap a neck as if it was a pencil. To chuck a lifeless body to the ground as if it was just one of the fake dummies. As I approach him I snap a twig and his head jerks to see me.

"Katniss" he whispers, the sympathetic look in his eyes. He stretches out his hand to me and I just look at it.

"Cato, you're naked." I state.

He laughs at me, "Well, yeah I didn't have enough time to ask him politely if I could get dressed" he replies with his usual sarcastic tone.

"Well you have enough time now, I'll cover you" I say, averting my eyes from anywhere that would be extremely awkward to be caught looking at.

"I wish you would" he mumbles half walking half running into the bush to collect his clothes.

I give him a three minute head start before making my way back through the bushes and to the rest of the group.

"It's getting late" I say to break the awkward tension. As answer to my statement a canon boomed. One, two, three.. nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Twelve dead. Half gone already. In one day.

"Come on, lets go" Cato's voice is full of authority and demand.

Cato picks up his sword and slides it in his belt, grabs a backpack and throws it over his shoulders. I watch the rest of them do something similar, Glimmer throws the bow across her arm and glares at me for having the quiver. Simultaneously we all start off in a jog that I think I can maintain for a while. For the next few hours we alternate between jogging and walking, never finding anything 'interesting'. We keep moving, pausing only when Glimmer complains or to check for other tributes.

I can go for a long time. I know that from my days in the woods. But I know that I wont be able to last much longer without stopping. The woods begin to evolve, and the pines are intermixed with a variety of trees, some I recognize, some completely foreign to me. The ground slopes down. I don't particularly like this. Valleys make me feel trapped. I want to be high, like in the hills back in District 12., where I can see anything that approaches.

"We're not finding anything, lets rest for a while" I say stopping to prove my point.

To my surprise Cato stops suddenly and turns towards me, "Can't take much more fire girl?" he laughs smugly.

"No, I just don't see the point in wasting energy running when we haven't even found anything yet" I snap back at him quickly, even though what he said was the complete truth. He doesn't need to know it.

"Alright, lets leave it for the night." he says to the rest of the group.

At his words I throw the backpack of my back and slump down next to it, exhausted. Rummaging in it for a while I finally find the flask of water I so desperately need. Without thinking I gulp down at least half before forcing myself to stop. Cato slumps down next to me and puts his hand out to me, I give him the flask and he drinks the remaining water, throwing me back the empty flask.

"You've drunk it all" I stare at him. What is he thinking? What if we can't find another water source? The lakes at least a day's walk away now.

"We have sponsors, they'll probably give us tea and coffee's" he says with a smile. I should have known his answer to everything would be sponsors. Who's ever heard of a career going without something? Never.

"And if they don't?" I say, because after all there is always the possibility.

"We go back to the lake" he replies.

"Its at least a day away now" I inform him.

"We'll survive Katniss" he says, looking at me. His eyes giving me reassurance.

When the anthem plays it takes all of us by surprise. None of us had even noticed just how dark its gotten. Through the branches I can see the seal of the Capitol, which appears to be floating in the sky. I'm actually viewing another screen, an enormous one that's transported by one of their disappearing hovercraft. The anthem fades out and the sky goes dark for a moment. At home, we would be viewing full coverage of each and every killing, but that's thought to give an unfair advantage to the living tributes. For instance, if someone had a secret weapon and killed someone using it, we would all know. No, here in the arena all we see are the same photographs they showed when they televised our training scores. Simple head shots. But now instead of scores they post only district numbers, I take a deep breath and prepare myself for the possibility of Peeta's face being shown on the screen.

The first to appear is the girl from District 3. Telling the rest of the tributes what I already know. The careers from 1 and 2 are still alive. Then the boy from 4. The boy from 5... I guess the fox-faced girl made it. Both tributes from 6 and 7. The boy from 8. Both from 9. And both from 10. The boy that Cato killed out in the clearing.

Peeta's still alive. I breathe out a sigh of relief, Cato raises his eyebrow at me and I shake it off. He must know that I would want Peeta to survive at least one day? Cato begins to say something but is cut off by the arrival of a parachute. We have a gift from a sponsor! Marvel bends down and picks it up. Showing us all 3 bowls of steaming soup, along with a note.

"It's for Katniss" he says, and then passes it to me.

I take it quickly, thinking that he would be reluctant to hand it over to me. A small piece of paper folded in half and stuck together with something sticky. On one side it is addressed 'Katniss' in typed letters. I unfold it and begin to read the short note.

Be careful, and stay alive H

Instinctively I fold the note up and shove it in my backpack, not wanting anyone to be able to read it.

"What did it say?" Cato asks suspiciously. His eyes darting to the pack that I shoved it in.

"It was just Haymitch telling me to stay alive." I say as convincingly as I can. "It was our little joke leading up to this" I say. It wasn't a lie, we did have a little joke about it. It just wasn't the whole truth, but Cato didn't need to know that.

"Lets eat the soup before it gets cold" he says. He takes a bowl of soup and tow spoons, giving one to me.

"Thank you" I say politely, and then very quickly eating as much soup as I can. The fish soup was lovely. If I closed my eyes for a moment I could imagine Haymitch and Cinna talking about the up and coming interviews. Effie would be telling me to "Mind your manners!" for eating the soup too quickly.

"It's not a race you know" he laughs at me. I couldn't help but notice that he finished at the same time as me.

"You could remind yourself that" I laugh back at him.

"Hey look. In the sky. Smoke" Clove says pointing up through the trees, a cunning grin on her face.

My eyes follow her hand and, like she said, smoke was appearing from the woods.

"It's not far from here, lets go" Cato snaps, picking up his sword.

"And if it's a trap?" I say, the possibility unlikely though.

"There's 5 of us, we'll be fine" he replies harshly.

By the time I get up and replace the backpack on my back the rest of them are running off into the woods, Cato leading. Silently I follow them, never snapping a twig or rustling a leaf. Hunting back home had taught me at least 3 helpful skills. Archery, foraging and silent running. Maybe Gale was right, maybe I could come home. Not the time Katniss, not the time.

Within minutes we're near the source of the smoke. Cato slows down and signals us to create a circle around the unsuspecting tribute. Trapping them.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" Cato says mockingly.

The girl turns at an instant towards him, her breathing suddenly increasing. She must know it's the end for her.

"Please, I'll do anything. Take what you want." she begins to plead, begging for her life like a dog begs for treats. She moves her head around and looks for an exit. My stomach drops when I realise that I'm playing a part in her death. I'm cutting off her only exit from us.

"Take what I want?" he asks rhetorically, "I want your life" he says with a sadistic grin.

"No please, anything" she begs again, but is cut off my Cato lunging forward.

She lets out a liquid choke and falls to the floor with a thud.

"13 down, 10 to go!" Glimmer squeals her excitement. Does she not realise that she is going to be part of that 10? Does she not realise that she has no chance of winning as long as Cato and Clove are alive?

A cannon sounds, signalling the end of her life.

Thank you for sticking with me! Big big big thanks to Strawberryluv for the amazing review like always, i really don't know what i'd do without them! They cheer me up so much, aw! Hope you enjoyed this, and i promise (cross my heart, hope to die) I will get back to the a chapter a week! Love you all x x