Hey everyone! Fun fact: Camm Levi, who is mentioned in this chapter, is a character from another fanfic I wrote, called Bending the Rules. Glimmer makes an appearance there. It took place two years before this story.
School starts soon, and updates will become less frequent. Like, really really infrequent. But here's the chapter, enjoy! And please please please REVIEW! Thank you.
No cannon shot. That's the first thing we realize after we've walked away from the body. No cannon shot, which means she's not dead yet.
"Damn it Glimmer," Clove snaps. "Can't you do anything right?"
"Shouldn't we have heard a cannon by now?" Marvel says. Clove glares at him.
"I'd say yes. Nothing to prevent them from going in immediately." Cato says.
"She's dead," I protest. Or she will be. She'll bleed out before dawn. "I stuck her myself."
"Then where's the cannon?" Clove says. "Oh that's right. You can't do anything at all. You can't even kill a tribute correctly."
"I wasn't aware there were correct ways to kill people," Selkie mutters, too softly for Clove to hear.
"Someone should go back. Make sure the job's done." Cato says.
"Yeah, we don't want to have to track her down twice." Marvel says. I glare at both of them.
"I said she's dead!" Like, there's no way that girl can recover. In fact, I bet the cannon will go off right when they find her again. I hate this, everyone ganging up on me. I want to yell at them that I tried, that it's not my fault. But who will listen to me?
"We're wasting time! I'll go finish her and let's move on!" Oh goody. Bread boy's decided to speak up. Just at that moment I hear a rustling of leaves. I whip around, but my torchlight doesn't reach where I heard the sound. I look back at my allies. None of them seem to have heard that. Really? Really? Ugh. I bet there's a tribute around here somewhere, hiding in a tree or something. Maybe it's that kid from eleven, she said she could climb, I think. One of the tributes definitely said that. I think back, trying to remember which girl said that during the interviews, but all I can remember is thinking that everyone's dresses were really pretty. The girl who could climb was in a blue dress. Or was it lavender? Whoever it is, I'm sure there's a tribute in that tree. I open my mouth to voice my discovery when Cato cuts across me.
"Go on then, Lover Boy. See for yourself." He stalks off. We're just letting him go alone? Won't he run away once he's out of our sight? That's what I would do in his position.
"Why don't we just kill him now and get it over with?" Clove says. "I'll do it." She grins, and fingers one of her knives. Marvel rolls his eyes.
"Let him tag along. What's the harm? And he's handy with that knife." Selkie says. What's the harm? Oh, I can tell you what the harm is. It's that he's using us and manipulating us, and probably isn't even leading us in the right direction to find fire girl. It's that none of you seem to understand that, and let him do whatever even though I can tell he's probably dying to stab us all in the backs. And we don't even need him.
"Besides," Marvel says. "He's our best chance of finding her." No he's not. We could do fine without him.
"Why," Selkie asks. "You think she bought into that sappy romance stuff?" Sappy or no, that is one area where I am sure bread boy was telling the truth. I've seen a lot of boys tell girls they love them, just to ditch them two weeks later. A boy did that to me once, and dumped me for that idiotic airhead named Camm Levi. Two weeks later the boy was brought into the hospital. I challenged him to a fight in training, and he lost. Camm didn't seem to mind. I hated Camm, so much. She thought she was so much better than me, but really, she couldn't do anything. She couldn't fight, she couldn't run, she failed in school, she failed at sports, she wasn't like, artistic or musically gifted and she wasn't nice. All she had were her looks. I mean, I've got looks too, I'm gorgeous and beautiful, but I still have a brain. Camm Levi died in the 72nd Hunger Games. She was killed by one of Clove and Cato's best friends. I'll have to be careful that I don't meet the same fate.
"…I want to puke." Marvel says. What? I must have missed part of the conversation.
"Wish we knew how she got that eleven." Cato mutters.
"Bet you Lover boy knows," I tell him. Speak of the devil. Peeta walks up behind us, holding a bloody knife.
"Was she dead?" Clove and Cato ask together, both sounding way to eager.
"No. But she is now. Ready to move on?" The cannon fires. And what could have been listed as my kill was stolen from me by district twelve. What is this world coming to?
We run back towards camp, (well, I try to run but it's more like a jog since I'm still stuck holding the dumb torch) and find district three sitting on a crate of pears.
"You're supposed to be working," Cato growls. The boy jumps, and looks up groggily.
"I finished already." He hands Cato a box. "Here's the button to turn the mines on and off. Right now, they're off." Cato takes the box from him, and turns it over in his hand. He's about to press the button when we all cry 'wait!' We run up to the pile of supplies, and take some food for breakfast. Once we're out of the range of the pile, Cato presses the button, activating the mines.
"No one get close to that, okay? The mines are activated." Yes Cato, we're not idiots.
Selkie starts a fire and begins to cook some bacon. Clove looks around, then closes her eyes and goes to sleep. I suppose the girl has to sleep some time. Marvel tries to stifle a yawn, but lies down as well. Selkie tosses me a piece of bacon.
"Hey Cato," she says. "Can I use our frying pan as a weapon? It would be kind of cool." Cato's laugh causes Clove to wake up. She gives him a death stare and half heartedly chucks a knife in his general direction. By the time he ducks, she's rolled over and gone back to sleep again. Selkie tosses a piece of bacon at Cato which he catches expertly in his mouth. I smile. He's so cute when he's acting stupid. I wonder if we're on camera right now. Even careers can have fun. Although, I suppose this also makes us look rather incompetent.
"Hey Glim, look at this!" He tosses the bacon in the air and slices it in half with his sword. The pieces fall on the ground, and Cato scoops them up and crams them in his mouth.
"Ewww," I say, though I'm laughing too.
"We can't waste any food now, can we? Where are we supposed to get more?" Then he laughs at his own joke as he points to our towering pile of stuff. "Oh that's right. I guess we can waste a little food." District three silently takes a piece of bacon and goes to sit by bread boy. The two of them don't join in our conversation, and don't laugh when we do. They don't belong with us. Three seems to have lived past his usefulness but hasn't realized it yet. Selkie tosses me an apple (that girl is really fond of throwing food at people) and I catch it with one hand. When I'm done, I drop the core into the fire and lie down. I should get some sleep now, while I have the time.
"Hey," I say. "I don't have a pillow." Out of the corner of my eye I see bread boy raise his eyebrows.
"Well," Cato says slowly, looking over at Clove's sleeping figure. "I'm going to rest too. Selkie, you're on guard." He lies down next to me, and extends his arm. I move so that my head rests on it. This would be the best moment of my life. If only I didn't have to worry about being killed in my sleep. If only I wasn't trapped in the arena. If only there could be more than one winner.