Dear Readers,
For starters, to try and keep it as true to the book as possible, I've taken a few things from the book (like when Katniss overhears the Careers talking), so NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED! I just wanna write some fanfiction :)
Onto the next thing; this chapter has a scene that is a little graphic in the violent sort of way, so just be warned.
Also,I really appreciate all of your reviews, they make me happy :) I'm glad you're all enjoying my story so much! I hope you like this one too!
koyamon-lover: I know, Isn't he adorable? Glad you're enjoying it!
PropertyOfMe95: Thanks! Glad to hear that you're excited :)
Theatergirl6: Hahaha it's okay, it's fun to be punny :) Plus Marvel is just awesome (even though I love Cato best). No prob! Hope this chapter is just as enjoyable for you!
Thanks for all the love!
Enjoy! Read! Review!
-esl1852
The Careers were moving quickly and quietly through the woods. It had been a few hours and they hadn't encountered anyone, but that was most likely because those who had escaped the blood bath had retreated far enough into the forest to not be caught quickly by them. They just needed to go further and do so as subtly as possible so as to not prematurely alert any other tributes to their location; they didn't want them to have time to escape. Cato knew patience was required in order for them to successfully kill any more tributes at this point. Clove on the other hand, looked as if she was going to explode if they didn't find something soon; her impatience drove Cato crazy.
Tara was following a set of footprints while they were all following Tara. As it turns out, she was quite a skilled tracker.
Clearly, she wasn't moving quick enough for Clove, though. "I'm bored. We have been at this for hours and have not seen a single soul. I'm itching to kill something."
"These things take time." Tara said, not even looking up at her. She was too focused on the tracks. "Besides, these prints are pretty fresh; I'd say we are getting pretty close."
"You said that a half hour ago."
"Yes, and now we are getting closer."
"How can you even tell?" Marvel shot Cato a questioning look as Clove continued to badger Tara. Cato just shook his head, not really feeling like explaining the nature of Clove's impatience.
"I know what I'm doing." Tara said, looking up at her, clearly getting pissed off by Clove.
"That's debatable."
"Clove, would you just give it a rest and leave Tara too it?" Cato finally said, irritated.
"Why are you siding with her?" Clove said, whipping around to face him.
"Because, Clove, I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't give you what you want in the exact moment that you want it." Cato said with exasperation.
"Stop making me out to be a tyrant Cato, because I'm really not!" She said through gritted teeth.
"Yes, well, 7 years of life experience says otherwise." Cato said with a smirk and then exchanged a look with Marvel.
Before Clove could respond, there was a noise, like a branch cracking under someone's foot. Clove's eyes lit up as her head turned to the direction from which the sound had come. "Did you hear that?" She whispered excitedly.
"Clove-" Cato tried to warn her but she was no longer listening. Clove was off in a flash; she was faster than all the others. "Dammit." Cato cursed under his breath as he set off to try and keep up with her. Not only had Clove always been quick on her feet, but she was on a huge adrenaline rush because they were on their first hunt. And Cato was officially breaking a sweat just trying to keep Clove in his sights. Cato was most definitely not slow; he was pretty fast himself. But Clove herself was on a whole other level when it came to speed. The others were not too far behind Cato. Marvel had actually managed to stay generally by Cato's side. Glimmer and Tara were only a few paces behind them.
When Clove managed to actually run so fast that Cato had lost sight of her, he was worried. "Shit. I can't see her anymore." Cato said through his labored breathing.
"I can't either." Marvel huffed back. Cato pushed himself to run faster.
Up ahead, he heard someone, or two someones (including Clove, he guessed) hit the ground with a grunt. There were sounds of a struggle. Cato thought he could hear a masculine voice and started getting more worried. The thought of Clove going up against someone like Thresh freaked Cato out.
When the sounds of the struggle died down, even though they were closer, Cato got even more worried. "Clove!" Cato called out. "Where are you?"
"Over here!" She called back and he followed her voice. She was only a few feet away. Cato saw her come into view. She was on the ground on top of someone. Cato and Marvel came to stand beside her. Cato was relieved that Clove was okay. He didn't even know why he worried in the first place.
Clove didn't even really notice them at first; she was still focused on the conversation she was having with the boy. "Has anyone ever told you that you walk through the woods like a bull in a china shop?" She didn't seem any worse for the wear than she had been before her tussle with the tribute she has managed to take down.
"Well I'm sure not gonna be walking any quieter after you busted my kneecap with your heel." The boy said, breathing heavily. Wait a minute, Cato thought to himself, I know that voice.
Marvel re-lit his torch and shined the light in tribute's face. Cato couldn't believe their luck when he realized who Clove had managed to take down. It was the District 12 boy, Peeta, that Clove had managed to tackle to the ground. His face was a little bloody and bruised, his arm was cut pretty deep, and Clove had a knife at his neck.
"Well, well, well. Look at what Clove found wandering through the woods on it's own." Cato said to Marvel, who looked pretty damn excited again.
"Oh, Cato." Clove said, finally noticing their presence at his words. "Good timing. I was just trying to figure out where to start cutting." She looked up at Cato when he didn't respond right away. "I can have him, right?" Clove asked.
Cato looked to Marvel, and the other girls who had just gotten there. "There will be plenty of other kills, buddy." Cato said to Marvel.
Marvel looked a little let down, but nodded in agreement. "True. Besides, it's her kill anyways. She already took care of the hard part."
Clove looked satisfied, turning her attention back to Lover Boy. "Say goodbye, Lover Boy." Clove said maliciously, raising the knife above her head, driving it down towards his head.
He dodged his head out of the way, and Clove stabbed the ground instead.
"Why you little-"
"Wait!" He shouted.
Clove let out a noise of frustration, grabbing him by the neck. "What?" She snapped at him.
"I want to join you." Clove let out a loud, sadistic laugh. The other two girls were laughing as well; even Marvel sniggered a bit.
"Is he serious?" Glimmer giggled.
"Yea, right. Like little Lover Boy here would ever dream of teaming up with us." Clove said, raising her knife again, holding him steady with the grip she had around his throat.
"Hold on, Clove." Cato said. The wheels were turning in his head. He had an idea. Even if Lover Boy was doing this as an act of desperation, they could use him. He would probably know where his district partner went; and he probably knew what her special skill was. He was just ripe with information; information that Cato wanted.
"What now, Cato?" Clove said with extreme irritation.
"Why do you want to join us?" Cato said, looking at Lover Boy. All the others looked at Cato with wide eyes and confusion.
"Are you serious?" Clove hissed at him. "Don't tell me you're actually listening to this-"
"Clove if I don't like what he says, you can cut him up, okay? Would you just give me like five minutes?" Cato asked with exasperation.
Clove pouted, but nodded. "Fine. You can have five minutes, but after that, I start cutting off fingers."
"Go on." Cato nodded to Lover Boy. "Answer me. And make it fast, because she's not kidding about the fingers thing."
"Isn't it obvious?" Lover boy said. "Allying myself with you is a smart move; you're the only real competitors I have to worry about in this game, aside from one or two others. If I wanna live, this is the way I have to go. Besides, I'm also not a complete waste of space. I can be an asset to you; I do have some talents." Cato knew that was probably true; he had gotten the same score as Glimmer and Tara during his private training session. He also knew he was probably lying about why he wanted to join; he most likely wanted to find his little girlfriend, and he couldn't do that if Clove cut him up into a thousand tiny little pieces.
"That's all good and well," Clove said in her sickly sweet voice. "but can I kill him now?" She was clearly not having any of it.
That's when Cato noticed there was a knife almost a foot away from Lover Boy, and it wasn't one that he recognized. He saw that Clove had a tiny red line on the side of her neck. It looked like a scratch, but Cato bet it wasn't. He couldn't even believe his eyes. "Hold on, Clove."
"Not unless you give me a good reason, Cato!"
"Clove, I said hold on. That means I have a good reason." He looked at Lover Boy with newfound respect. "Did you nick her neck with your knife? Did you actually manage that?" Cato asked him. Clove tensed, and Cato knew in that moment that Lover Boy had indeed done it. Clove hated being bested, by anyone, ever, in any way shape or form. That was probably why she wanted so badly to kill him. Lover Boy nodded hesitantly. "So you're not too bad with a knife. No one I know has ever managed that." Except himself he thought, but decided not to bring it up because Clove already seemed ticked off enough. "And you're sure you want to be a part of the alliance?" Lover Boy nodded again.
Clove looked live she was going to literally explode with rage. She pressed her knife against his throat. "I'll give you ten seconds to start telling the truth about why you want to join us; if you don't, I'll start by cutting out your tongue!"
"Clove, That's enough." Cato told her tensely.
"Oh do me a favor and just bite me, Cato." Clove snapped at him. "I don't have to listen to you, ya know? I am the one who found him, I'm the one who took him down, and I should be the one who decides what we do with him. So I'm doing this my way, and there's nothing you can do about."
Cato rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay, sure I can't." He grabbed her by the arm and yanked her off of Lover Boy. He slammed her into a tree, and then pried the knife out of her hand, pocketing it.
"Oh come on Cato! Let me at him! He's my kill! Besides, he's not even that skilled. He's practically useless!" Clove pulled out of his grasp, but he grabbed her back again, holding her tightly to his chest.
"Now, Clove. I think you're just mad he landed a cut on you." He tsked at her, but in reality, all he did was tick her off more. She continued to throw her temper tantrum; she was thrashing in his arms, kicking and screaming obscenities aimed at Cato and Lover Boy. Cato just tried to contain her as much as he possibly could.
Glimmer and Tara looked shocked; none of the others had ever really seen Clove like this before. Marvel, while never having seem her in complete tantrum mode, seemed a little less surprised. That being said, he still rose his eyebrows at her.
"Tara, you brought medical supplies, right?" Cato asked her, and she nodded. "Well help fix the kid up, will you?"
"Alright." She conceded, moving to Lover Boy. She was also pretty good with medical stuff. She might not have been the fiercest competitor, but she had a skill set that was definitely useful.
Cato was getting a little annoyed with how she was repeatedly kicking her heels into his thighs. He threw Clove over his shoulder as she continued to kick and punch his back, calling his a lousy son of a bitch. "Right well, you guys have this who thing under control, so I'm just gonna go talk to her for a bit. Holler if you need us." Then he turned around moving a few feet away from them, just making sure to obscure the two of them from the rest of their allies.
He put her on her feet, and as soon as he did, she pushed him as hard as she could. "What the fuck, Cato? Why did you stop me?"
"Dammit Clove, keep your voice down!" Cato said, hushing her. He went on to say, "And the reason I didn't let you kill him is because he's got something we want!" Cato said, making sure to keep his voice quiet enough that the others wouldn't hear; or more specifically, so that Lover Boy wouldn't hear him.
"Oh please," Clove scoffed, but kept her voice quieter. "What on earth could he have that we would want?"
Cato put his hands on her shoulders. "Information." He breathed and suddenly she looked less angry. "More specifically, information on your favorite competitor."
Clove's eyes lit up. "Katniss." She said, spitting the girls name like a curse. Suddenly it dawned on her, and she understood.
"Exactly. Now, can I trust you not to slit his throat when we go back there?" Cato asked.
"Fine, I won't kill him yet." She said. "But the minute he becomes more trouble then he's worth, we get rid of him." Then as an afterthought, she added, "Well let me rephrase that; I get to get rid of him."
"Deal." Cato said, and turned to go back to the others.
"Um, Cato, aren't you forgetting something?" Clove said, crossing her arms over her chest. Cato looked back at her with confusion. "My knife?" She said, raising an eyebrow, holding out her hand.
"Right." He said. He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it back to her.
She slid it back into it's rightful place on the black vest. "If you keep making a habit of this, I'm gonna have to start cutting you more often." Clove said with irritation, stalking ahead of him.
"Of course you will, because things can't ever just be easy with you." Cato said under his breath as he followed her back to the group.
They rejoined their fellow Careers, which now included Lover Boy. Clove breezed right past him, ignoring his presence for the most part. Tara had done a good job with him, but he was still pretty damaged. Clove had done a number on him for sure.
They kept moving, trying to find other tributes to dispose of. Clove was clearly unsatisfied since she had basically been cheated out of a kill, so Cato was hoping some idiot would trip up and do something stupid so that they could kill someone. Then maybe she would stop ignoring Cato.
Instead of standing at the front of the pack with Cato, she was back a few feet, walking with Marvel. This pissed Cato off to no end. So when Glimmer bounded up to him, flirting and flattering him, he gladly welcomed the attention. Lover Boy, for the most part, stayed nearer to Tara. She was the least volatile of all of them, and he was smart to realize that she was the least likely of all of them to attack him. Tara found a different set of footprints, a smaller one by the look of the print, and Lover Boy stayed at her heels. Tara would tell Cato which direction to move in based on the footprints.
After over an hour Clove was starting to get tired of Cato's antics; and Glimmer's laugh. She glared murderously ahead at them as the two were shamelessly flirting away. Clove forced herself to focus on Marvel in order to keep herself from murdering Cato and Glimmer on the spot. That's when Tara noticed some smoke blooming in the distance. "Look!" She said quietly, pointing at it so they all could see.
"It seems to be our lucky day." Cato said.
"Luck has nothing to do with it; whoever the tribute is, they're just a giant idiot who couldn't brave the cold for a couple more hours." Clove said, rolling her eyes.
Cato ignored her. She was only picking at his words to piss him off. "How far are we from that tribute?" Cato asked Tara.
"I'd say an hour and a half, two at the most." She said.
"Then let's get moving." Cato said, and they picked up the pace. Once they had been traveling for another hour, they all stopped talking completely to try and not scare away their pray or alert other tributes to their whereabouts.
Then, almost another hour later, as dawn began approaching, they start seeing the actual light of the fire. Clove looked to the rest of them with excitement and broke into a sprint. They all followed her.
They came into the clearing, seeing a girl by the fire, leaning against the tree. She had dozed off. That was a mistake; one that would be her last. She woke up as the rest of them hooted and hollered, coming into the clearing. Clove had pinned her down before she could escape; before she could even react really.
"Please! Please!" She's begging, tears in her eyes. "Please don't kill me! I'm begging you. Please, please, please!" She's sobbing now.
"Pleading for your life? Ugh, you're pathetic." Clove sneered.
"She's not even trying to fight back." Marvel laughed gleefully.
"Please, I'll do anything, just don't kill me!" The girl is practically screaming it at them now, but it is only met with a round of laughter from the careers.
"If you're not gonna fight back, you should at least try to die with dignity, you know." Clove said, disgusted. As the girl continued to beg for her life, she looked at Cato. "Can I kill this one? Or are we going to start taking in more strays?" She said sadistically.
Cato knew she was trying to get a rise out of him, so he chose not to react. He instead handed Glimmer a knife, "Here, you won't need a bow and arrow for this." Then he stalked toward Clove. "I'll hold her, if you want to have some fun." He said, knowing that is all he could do to get Clove to stop being mad at him for robbing her of a kill and then flirting with Glimmer.
Clove's eyes lit up at his words. "You mean it?"
"No, no, no! Please!" The girl screamed.
"Oh shut up you sniveling insect." Cato snapped finally. "Yes." He said, and Clove moved off the girl. She tried to run away but Cato grabbed her, holding her arms behind her. "But let the others get a stab in too, okay?" Cato told her and she nodded eagerly.
Clove sliced into the girl and she screamed in agony. The whole time, Lover Boy looked away, as if he would be sick if he watched. So Tara pretended to need to change his bandages to give him an excuse not to watch. She didn't necessarily understand Clove's need to torture instead of just killing. Clove's eyes were alive as she cut her a few more times. Then she moved aside for Marvel, who sliced into her stomach pretty good. He then moved over himself for Glimmer, who got a good slice on the girl's leg. The girl continued to scream. Clove got a couple more slices in, and then told Cato, "You can have the death blow if you want."
"Don't mind if I do." He said, and Glimmer handed him the knife he had handed her. He then stabbed her from behind right through the stomach. Her screaming finally stopped. He let her drop to the ground like a rag doll.
Glimmer and Marvel laughed, and Clove looked pretty content. They congratulated him on the kill. He knew they had basically killed her together, but he hadn't minded it this one time. "Twelve down and eleven to go!" Cato said with a grin. The others laughed, cheering in agreement.
"Let's check her supplies and see if she has anything useful." Tara said, and they all agreed with her. Marvel pulled open a small backpack on the ground by the fire, checking it out.
"Well let's see; there's a bottle, and some matches we can use, but for the most part she's got nothing of any use." Marvel said, pocketing the matches, discarding the bag on the ground next to her body.
"Well then I guess there's no reason to stick around." Clove said with a shrug.
"Better clear out so they can get the body before it starts stinking." Cato said, turning and walking out of the clearing. Glimmer was on his heels and then the rest of them followed.
About ten yards away, Cato stops. So do the rest of them, looking at him. "Have you heard anything yet?"
They all shook their heads. "No..." Clove said, catching on to what Cato meant. "That's odd..."
Glimmer spoke aloud what they were all thinking. "Shouldn't we have heard a cannon by now?"
"I'd say yes." Marvel chimed in. "Nothing to prevent them from going in immediately."
"Unless she isn't dead." Tara said cautiously.
"She's dead." Cato said with certainty. "I stuck her myself."
"Then where's the cannon?" Clove demanded.
"Someone should go back." Marvel said, looking at Cato. "Make sure the job's done."
"Yeah, we don't want to have to track her down twice." Glimmer chimed in. "Tracking is so boring."
"I said she's dead!" Cato said forcefully.
"How can you be so sure?" Marvel argued.
"Yea Cato, it's not like you checked her pulse." Clove taunted.
"If I say she's dead, then she's dead dammit!"
"Your word isn't law Cato!"
"Like hell it isn't!"
"We're wasting time!" Lover Boy finally shouts, silencing them all. "I'll go finish her and let's move on!" Clove could've sworn she heard a rustling in the trees when he spoke. But she didn't see anything as she looked around, and none of the others seemed to hear it, so she dismissed it as nothing.
"Go on then, Lover Boy," Cato said. "See for yourself." Lover Boy rolled his eyes at them and then grabbed the torch from Tara, heading back to the girl who had so idiotically built the fire.
They were all silent until he went out of earshot. Clove clearly was not tolerating him as easily as Cato had hoped. "Why don't we just kill him now and get it over with?" She said.
"Let him tag along." Tara interjected. "What's the harm? And he's handy with a knife." Clove made a noise of indignation but said nothing.
"She's right, you know." Cato said, giving Clove a look. "Besides, he's our best chance of finding her."
Glimmer, Tara and Marvel suddenly seemed to get that the reason Lover Boy was alive was because they wanted information about Katniss. "Why? You think she bought into that sappy romance stuff?" Glimmer asked.
"She might have. Seemed pretty simpleminded to me. Every time I think about her spinning around in that dress, I wanna puke." Clove said darkly.
"Wish we knew how she got that eleven." Marvel said.
"Bet you Lover Boy knows." Cato said with a glint in his eyes. They heard him returning and quickly fell silent. When he came into view, Cato asked, "Was she dead?"
"No. But she is now." Lover Boy replied, and the cannon fires right after he does to confirm his words. "Ready to move on?"
Cato looks to the others and nods, "Yea. Let's head back for a little, okay? Refill on some supplies and such." The others agree and then they are heading back towards camp just as day begins to break.
