A.N- Hey guys! Sorry for taking so long to upload a new chapter. Had a whole lot of assignments to complete. I swear, I will be more consistent with my uploads now! This chapter shows Cato and Gwen's first meeting in the Arena. A whole lot of unknown feelings and mysterious looks. Tell me what you think of it, folks! Enjoy reading!
Chapter 11-
"Gwen, wake up!" Rue bellowed in alarm. I woke up to a start and realized that it wasn't just a dream. It was reality. I wasn't going to magically wake up in my bed back home in District 7 with a start. I was in the Hunger Games and Sam had died for me. The thought of Sam's demise made me teary eyed yet again. He was really gone. The boy I had begun to love as a brother was gone. He died in my place.
"Gwen, we have to go!" Rue shook me while her eyes were filled with horror. That's when the familiar smell hit me. A few years ago, there was wildfire in the forest back home. Dozens of men had lost their lives due to the fire. I remember shakily waiting in the living room near the door praying for my father's safe return. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
The smoke began hitting me and I knew that we had to wet our shirts and pull it to our noses; otherwise we'd be asphyxiated by the lack of oxygen and the intake of carbon monoxide. I told this to Rue who opened her tiny backpack to reveal a water skin. That's when I realised I had left Sam's and my baggage at the waterfalls. I'd have to go retrieve it soon. We began running through the forest following the fleeing animals.
I clutched Rue's hand tightly in mine as she tried to keep up with my long strides. That's when the gamemakers decided to up the ante by launching fire balls at us. We ran as fast as our feet could carry us when a fireball made contact with the skin of my right shoulder. I impulsively let go of Rue's hand and began hissing in pain. I knew that Rue would be right behind me.
"Gwen!" Rue screeched with fright and horror vibrating through her voice. I saw her trapped underneath a fallen log. I could just leave her here. No one would blame me for running for my own life. It wasn't like we were allies anyways. But would I be able to live with myself if a small girl had been burnt alive in order for me to survive? That's when I vowed not to kill anybody and to help as much as possible to those who deserved it.
I pulled the log off of Rue and we began running randomly as we had lost the group of wild animals. We came across a small pond where I hesitantly began cupping water and pouring it on my shoulder. The cool water on my shoulder helped reduce the pain quite effectively. I closed my eyes and groaned with pain. That's when I heard hurried footsteps coming towards the pond from the direction we had fled from.
"Rue! Hide!" I hissed. I could atleast protect myself as I had my tomahawk and my belt of knives with me. I didn't know what weapons Rue had or whether she had a weapon at all. I wanted to protect the little girl for as long as I could.
I saw Katniss running as fast as she could away from the fire. She splashed into the pond without even noticing me. I could easily kill her. She didn't even know I was there. She wouldn't even put up a fight. But did I want to take away someone's life, someone's future, like Sam's had been taken away from him? He didn't deserve to be in these games. Neither did she. No one deserved to be in these horrific, barbaric games.
Once she slowly began gathering her bearings, she noticed my presence. She immediately clutched her knife and held it in front of her protectively. I noticed that her calf had been burnt just like my shoulder.
"I won't hurt you if you won't hurt me. I just want to rest after this" I said pointing towards my shoulder with my other hand.
"I know what you mean." She said, putting away her knife away and pointing towards her calf.
"How about we make a deal that we won't hurt each other now while we're resting." I said, trying to sound as confident as I could. To tell the truth, I was exhausted.
"Okay" She said and began falling asleep with her calf in the lake. I gently began floating in the pond like I had done so many times before back at home in the lake in the forest near my home. I drifted off to calming, peaceful sleep until-
"Gwen, wake up!" Katniss screeched and began running away from me. I heard heavy footsteps and hollering in a short distance away from the pond. I hurriedly swam back to the bank of the pond and began running to the nearest tree I could find. I had climbed about 20 feet from the ground when they noticed me. My shoulder was screaming protestations but I forced myself to climb. I observed that Katniss was climbing the tree right next to mine.
"Well, well, well! Would you look at that! Looks like we've caught two birds with one stone!" The girl from District 2 screamed with excitement in her voice. By then, I had climbed about 40 feet from the ground. According to my calculations, neither of them had that same calibre in climbing as I had and most of them were much heavier than me. So I stopped climbing and began observing the Careers.
That's when I noticed Peeta, my friend, was one of them. How could he? All that talk was probably just to derail me. I was furious but then something inside me screamed at me to see clearly. That's when I noticed Peeta's physical demeanour. He looked anxious and kept gazing up at Katniss like he wanted to sweep her off her feet and run as far away from here as possible. That's when I realised he had joined the careers to try and protect her from them. That was such a loving gesture from him.
I continued studying the demeanour of the other Careers. The boy and girl from District One and the girl from District 2 seemed to be in a heated conversation. I tried to eavesdrop when I heard something along the lines of "she's my kill" "I get to kill her however I want", etc. Cato was looking up at me intensely with some mysterious expression on his face while the girl from District Four looked merely bored.
Katniss began teasing them which resulted in Cato trying to climb her tree and failing miserably. He fell flat on his buttocks and began swearing loudly. The girl from District One tried to shoot but was more inaccurate that Sam had been in his trial back in the training centre. Peeta suggested they try to siege our trees which they all reluctantly agreed to.
The careers began making camp and fell asleep. I slowly began formulating theories on how to escape from their clutches. Finally, I decided that I would jump from tree to tree as I had done many times back home in District 7. I knew that to execute this plan, I'd need some sort of protection for my hands. So I looked towards the sky as I knew Johanna and Blight would probably be watching me right now, hoping that I would make it out of this mess.
"I'd really appreciate some leather gloves, you know." I whispered casually towards the sky.
A couple of seconds later, I saw a silver parachute falling through towards the branch I'd settled on. I gingerly opened the parachute to see brown leather gloves in them. I put them on and waited for the right moment to put my plan into action. I decided to observe the career gang again. Peeta was looking at Katniss's tree with longing and desperation in him eyes. Cato was looking at my tree with an expression I couldn't identify.
Once the careers started falling asleep, I heard someone whisper my name from the tree next to mine. I looked at the tree to find the voice's point of origin and found Rue's big, brown eyes looking at me. She pointed to Katniss's tree where I saw her eyeing the branches above her and slowly making her way towards it with the blunt knife she hand from before. What the hell was she doing? We all know that trackerjacker poison at small doses can cause hallucinations whereas at large rates are even fatal. That's when I realised she was going to cut it down and drop it on the careers.
I slowly jumped from my tree to hers. When I landed on a branch below her, Katniss again looked at me fearfully. I held my hands up to indicate that I had no intentions of harming her. I gave her a small, sharp knife from my belt and began preparing to jump to the other tree when she gently nudged my arm. I turned around and saw her rummaging through her pack. She took out a parachute and held it out towards me. I noticed that it was probably some sort of Capitol medicine. I looked at Katniss confusedly when she pointed towards my shoulder. I gently applied some on my shoulder and felt instant relief.
I smiled at her and she smiled back. Then, I turned away and hopped from branch to branch until I was a safe distance away. That's when the screams began.
Cato P.O.V-
We began to run as fast as we could. You could almost smell the fear in the air. It was every tribute for themselves. No one was ready to risk their lives to save another if they were in trouble. Every essence of camaraderie we had developed over the past few days was dissolved in thin air. We followed the track of the animals fervently running away from the fire.
I felt bizarre. It almost felt as though the Gamemakers were herding us together. After the ghastly show of torment that Marvel gave yesterday, one would have thought that the Gamemakers would be satisfied, but the spectators probably felt that every day without any killings was one in vain. After running for about a quarter of an hour, we successfully all made it out of the fire.
Shelly tripped over a root which had us all howling with laughter. Seeing me laughing, she turned bright red. This was so annoying! We heard a twig snap in the distance and heard instantaneous shuffling towards the direction of the treeline. There was another tribute within our whereabouts. I knew what this meant, another session of soul wrenching torture.
Feeling dread in the pit of my stomach, I walked past the treeline and saw a small pond. It looked tranquil and peaceful. Towards my right, I heard more shuffling and saw firegirl trying to climb a tree. The way she carried herself indicated that she had been injured. I had estimated rightly as I saw her ankle burnt badly. I saw loverboy from the corner of my eyes and saw how he instantly paled. It was obvious that he cared for her. He might not have loved her as he announced on national television, but he still felt something for her.
I heard more shuffling on the tree next to her and immediately looked for the source of disturbance and saw Gwen swiftly climbing the tree. She moved as fast as a squirrel and just by watching her climb trees, you could tell she was indeed from District 7. After climbing a safe distance, she turned towards us and started observing us with those calculating, mesmerising eyes of hers.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here! Looks like we've caught two birds with one stone!" Clove said almost bursting with excitement. I suddenly felt fear in pit of my stomach, not for me, but for Gwen. Suddenly, I felt furious with myself. Why did I care so much for a girl who hadn't had a single civil conversation with me as of yet? Why did I feel obligated to protect her from everything that wanted to cause her harm? It made no sense! I barely know the girl for god's sake!
I mentally reprimanded myself. I didn't need to care for someone in the Arena. I had to make it out of here for mom and Lila. To distract myself from Gwen, I put on my mask again and tried to torment Katniss and climb her tree. That was very stupid of me. I fell flat on my ass!
After that rather embarrassing moment, we decided to siege them. They would have to climb down from those trees sometime. I busied myself in preparing a fire and slowly begun falling asleep after assigning a guard schedule. Randall plagued my dreams again. I was seeing him more often than ever since I joined these horrible Games. He slowly walked to me with a bright smile on his face. Slowly, his face began swelling up and it burst into a million pieces.
Shaken, I woke up only to hear buzzing. Focusing my eyes, I saw hundreds of insects swarming towards us. When one came in contact with my cheek, I knew what these creatures were. Bloody trackerjackers!
"To the river!" I screamed and ran to the river. By then, I was bitten once on my collar bone and once on my chest. As soon as I entered the river waters, the trackerjackers stopped chasing me. I slowly carried my broadsword and made my way back towards the camping ground. I saw a mutilated, swollen body in front of me with blonde hair. Gwen! Gwen was dead! Fire girl must have dropped the nest which caused this entire ruckus.
I felt anger bubble in me. Gwen was dead because of Fire Girl. I was going to kill her slowly and make her feel the pain Gwen felt in the final moments of her life.
"Katniss, go! Run!" I heard loverboy shout at her. So he was helping her? I would make him suffer too. Anyone who was associated with Firegirl would suffer a painful, excruciating death by my hands.
"You! You helped her! You lied all along!" I screamed at Loverboy and tried to fight him with all the strength I could muster. I ended up cutting his thigh deeply and he began running away as I began feeling groggy and bleary. The world seemed to close around me and the earth gave away at my feet. The last thing I remember seeing was a blonde plait and shockingly beautiful brown eyes.
