Thanks to all y'all reviewing fast I am praising you with a bonus chapter! Thus no personal messages this time cause I want to finish and get this up asap! Hope you love it!
Note: sorry would've been up sooner but i had to wait until my account got unsuspended. Whoops
Previously:
An ear piercing scream that shatters the mornings stillness. And I only know one thing: only humans can make that sound.
And Cain is the only other person here with me.
Cato's POV:
I stop dead in my tracks. Maybe it's just a trick, a mutt. It could be. But I cringe as another scream fills the air. Now I'm jogging towards the noise.
"CATO! CATOOOOOOO!" I hear her again, this time it's my name. The second time my name dissolves into pure agony, as if something is literally ripping the skin off of her. I break into a dead sprint towards her. And as I break through the trees and see the scene on the other side of the lake I have to hold the bile in my throat from coming up.
Something is ripping the skin off of her.
She lays in the sand on her stomach, her pack and jacket lay on the sand a few feet away. But she's pinned underneath a mutt. It's knees are pinning her by holding down on the back of her knees. It doesn't have fingers, just one long ending of a hand that looks like a scalpel like claw. Its teeth, or long tooth is the same. Just one long tooth on the top and bottom, but not sharp, flat. Because if it was sharp it wouldn't be literally ripping a top layer of skin off of Cain's back with its mouth. I can see the outline of her back muscles where the skin is already gone. I look at the rest of the thing as I crash through the shallow part of the lake to the other side.
It's a feathered creature, black and silver feathers. A frilly crown is on top of its head too. Luckily it's not a big mutation. It has small wings, and I highly doubt it can fly. How could Cain not kill this thing herself, it look easy to take down. I draw my sword as I stumble to the other side and the thing looks up at me. The eyes stop me though, make me hesitate. I recognize the eyes, I should at least. I see them every day, in the mirror. The light blue eyes look human.
They look exactly like mine.
That's why she didn't attack it right away then. It looked like me. She wouldn't hurt something that looked like me, not right away at least. Now the thing is off of her and it charges towards me, but I'm ready. And I easily stab my sword through it, not looking at the eyes. Once it falls I look to Cain, she lays perfectly motionless in the sand.
"Cain?" I ask softly, slowly her head lifts up as she cringes and then whimpers in pain. She stares into my blue eyes with her green ones. Her eyes, usually cold, hard and showing no emotion, tell me a million things at once.
I'm in pain. Thank you for saving me. I feel like I'm going to die. Help me.
I go over and kneel beside her; I notice something that almost blends perfectly into the sand. I reach over and pick it up, but immediately drop it when I realize what it is. Her skin. I look to her back now. It's all blood red, I can see through the thin layer of skin that's left to her muscles. Somehow, miraculously, no blood is coming out. The layer of skin that's left is keeping it in, barely. I take my hand and slowly reach out and barely put my finger on it, she starts taking deep breaths and whimpers again.
"Sorry" I whisper. I hear something and immediately look up, just to see her tapping her foot on the sand. "What?" I ask and notice she's making the same motion with her foot over and over. I watch for a moment and realize she's making a 'P' with her foot in the sand. "What?"
She groans and I go to her to see her staring right at her pack. Oh, I get up and grab it and bring it back, opening it in front of her. "What do you want?" I empty it before her, she has pretty good supplies. I notice a cloth that's moist, but it smells kinda funny. "What's this?"
"Use on back" she whispers hoarsely. I go and set it on the edge of her back. First she stiffens, and then relaxes. When I take it off I notice some of the skin has grown in more. I continue until I've used the rag dry. Only a quarter of her back is done, but I made it so she can move her arms.
This is when I notice I can't really leave her and we can't stay out in the open. While coming up with a plan I go through her pack, finding a canteen of water and helping myself to some after I give her a drink. I have to pour it in her mouth, but she seems grateful. I think. I remember the little cave I had found beforehand that's in the side of the mountain and decide I'll take her there. We can cover the entrance so nothing else can get in without moving the rocks out of the way, and I can take care of her better there. But how do I get her there? I look at her and see her closing her eyes.
"No, no, no, no sleeping, you might blackout" I scold her and her eyes open a little. "Can you get up and walk?" I ask
"What do you think?" she says halfheartedly. I look back at her, she looks weak. I've never seen her like this.
"I guess not." I get up and grab my sword and her pack, putting the pack on me and the sword at my hip. My pack is still in the cave where we're heading soon. I go next to her and slip my hands under her. "This might hurt and be uncomfortable, but I'll get in the water so I can flip you around and carry you the right way." I explain as I put one arm under her across her chest and the other by her hips. I lift her up and she stiffens, clearly in a lot of pain but not voicing it. I carry her until we're deep in the water. I flip her around and she sighs as the water cleans out her back. I hold her under her knees and her shoulder blades and let the water clean her for a while before continuing onwards. It'll take a while to get there, since I can't run. So after a few minutes I look down at her to see her eyes closing. "Hey, hey you can't sleep" I tell her, she groans and I snort out a laugh. "Can't have you going unconscious and then they take you outta here. I'd be by myself"
A while later I duck down and carry her inside the small cave, gently I lay her down and instruct not to fall asleep again while I take the sleeping back out of her pack and lay it out, then I move her so she's on top of it. "Don't sleep" I warn her as I go over and begin to block in the entrance. I stack rocks for a few minutes before I hear a soft noise, I look over to see Cain asleep. I panic. I rush over and grab her shoulders, shaking them. "Wake up" I beg "Cain, wake up!" I yell and she wakes with a start, I let out a sigh. "Stay awake" I tell her exasperated.
"Talk to me" she says
"What?"
"Talk, give me something else to focus on"
"About what?"
"Yourself, we're supposed to know everything about each other anyways." I laugh, that's true.
"Well, I have two younger siblings back home. Terra and Balik. Terra is my sister, she's only nine years old. She has blond hair, blue eyes,"
"What color blue?" she interrupts.
"What?"
"What shade? I'm trying to get a picture. Like your eyes or a more subtle blue?" she explains
"Like mine, but a bit darker," she nods. "Balik is seven. He has dark brown hair and blue eyes, my eye color. He looks exactly like my father. I think he'll be strong when he grows up. They both like to go hiking though. They like climbing on all of the rocks. I take them out there a lot, to the reserve." I explain. She should know what the reserve is. It's like the woods, but inside the District. "Terra likes to sing, though I don't understand. Balik likes to fight, gets in trouble a lot the little punk" I laugh.
"He sounds like you" Cain tells me
"Ya, I guess he is like me"
"What's your favorite color?" she suddenly asks.
"Favorite color?"
"Yea, mine's yellow" she tells me, like it's the easiest question in the world.
"I don't have a favorite"
"Everyone does Cato. What color do you like to see most?"
"Red" I say instantly, thinking of the satisfying feeling when the fake blood comes out of some of the dummies back at Academy.
"See you do have a favorite" she says smugly. Her stomach growls then and I look at her, realizing I'll have to leave her to go hunt for the both of us. "Open my pack, there's packets of food there. Only get one though, we'll ration it" I nod and walk over to her pack. Once I find the food packets I feel my eyebrows furrow. It looks like she hasn't eaten anything, I grab one and go and sit beside her, since she can't get up herself.
"Did you eat anything since we've been here?"
"Of course I did, I had gotten a rabbit the first night"
"How'd you get a rabbit? I can barely take anything down"
"That's because you only use swords, I use my knives, so I don't need to get right next to something to kill it." I just nod and open the food packet, pouring some in my hand and offering them to her. Slowly she moves her arms so they're in front of her and puts her palms out. I put the food in them and she begins to eat and so do I. It's not that bad, and the food is filling, even if there is a small amount. Never knew dried fruit was this filling.
"What was your life like back home?" I ask once we're both finished. I know I had seen her around at school sometimes, but never paid much attention to her. All I knew was that she could be a real bitch sometimes.
"Pretty normal. My father works in the quarry and mum works in the factory, cutting and polishing the stone. They live on Fisher Avenue. Our house isn't too big, just a living room, kitchen, and the bedrooms and baths. But it's nice, and its home. I was usually home by myself until three hours after school. Mom works the evening shifts and dad works from morning to evening. Then there's Brian of course. I used to always have him until he left, we'd do everything together. But that was only for a few years, before that I was put through pre-training. Now that is hell" she chuckles then winces as her back moves too much.
"You okay?" I instantly ask, she waves me off.
"Nothing I can't handle"
"What was pre-training?" I wonder aloud.
"Oh, that's just training beforehand. You go off and live there for a while. You still go to school, and get to visit your family every day, but you spend nights there. You pick a weapon and you train in that for three years. Obviously I chose knives, fun little things. They teach you survival tactics early on. Like how to sleep,"
"How to sleep?" I interrupt.
"Ya, quietly. I don't snore, I don't roll around. If I have a nightmare then I don't scream. I don't talk. I just go stiff. Plus I learn that if someone covers my mouth to panic and go into defense right away. We also learn how to hold our breath when we're stuck under water. How not to panic when that happens."
"Oh" is all I say.
"What about you? How was your life?" she turns the question on me.
"Well, I'm from the richer part of town. I told you about Balik and Terra. Then there's my mother, she's nice. She doesn't work, so she's home most of the time. My dad is a jerk though; all he cares about is my training. All he wants is for me to bring honor to our family."
And so for the rest of the day we just talk, I leave once or twice to go refill our water supply, and to go take care of other needs. I have to help Cain outside too so she can go to the bathroom. But other than that it's not too bad. Whoever is controlling this seems happy that we're getting along and is letting us be safe for as long as we're together. I learn a lot about Cain. Her favorite season is summer, mostly because there's no school and she likes hot weather. She broke her arm in a fight when she was ten against an upperclassman. Her favorite food is pudding, which she's had once in her life.
In turn I tell her about myself. How my favorite season is fall, since that's when my birthday is. I only lost a fight once, to her. And my favorite food is chicken, which works out well since that's what we eat almost every day back at Academy. I tell her about the time when I and my 'friend' Duke thought it would be a good idea to try and climb one of the rubble piles down in the quarry, which resulted in many scraps and cuts on my part; a broken leg on Duke's.
Now it's dark out and I just hold a flashlight that I found in my pack. I'm taking first watch, so Cain is in her sleeping bag. I finally decided to let her sleep since she seems stable now. She was out like a light as soon as I said she could.
I rub my hands together; they make it really cold at night. I can already see my breath, and it's early still. I wrap the jacket tighter around myself, attempting to get warm without success. It's only been about two hours, I'd start a fire, but then the smoke might build up in here and that wouldn't be good at all. I decide to distract myself and busy myself studying Cain's face without shining the light on her too much.
She really is a pretty girl. She had high cheekbones, broad shoulders. She didn't look mean when she was asleep. She looked peaceful for the most part. Her black hair covered some of her face now.
Then I watch as her whole body goes rigid. What? She doesn't make a noise, doesn't move, and just stiffens. I watch and notice her breathing gets ragged too. But she's silent, and I don't know what's going on. Until I remember out conversation hours before.
If I have a nightmare then I don't scream. I don't talk. I just go stiff.
Nightmare, she's having a nightmare. I put the flashlight down and walk over and crouch next to her. I put my hand on her arm and notice the goose bumps. I shake her softly.
"Cain, Cain wake up." I call to her gently. She still doesn't move, I shake a little harder. "Cain" I resort to just stroking her arm with my thumb and slowly she relaxes, then her eyes open. "Hey"
"It's cold" she whispers as she starts to shiver.
"I know, I'm cold too"
"I can share" she tells me.
"Share what?" I ask, I see her poke to sleeping bag.
"This, get in" she holds it open for me.
"Cain, I don't think"
"Please, you helped me." She argues. I sigh and climb in next to her. I lay on my side and she moves closer to me, instantly I feel the warmth coming from her. "You're warm" she murmurs sleepily. She rolls so she's on her side, her back not on the ground, but facing me. I put an arm over her and pull her a little closer, then draw circles on her shoulder like I do when Terra or Balik have nightmares. "Thank you" she tells me softly.
"Mhmm, sleep, I'll wake you when I get tired" and then she drifts off again, and the nightmares don't come again.
;::;;
Cain's POV:
That's how the next three days go. Cato and I stay together. My back heals up until I can move around and run and jump with only a little pain. We spend most time in the cave, I hunt for us and Cato usually gets the water. We run into some mutts though, but they're easy to take down when we work together. I'm not saying we become friends; sometimes he's still a real arse. Though at night we still go to our same setup, we share the sleeping back. Though I've made it perfectly clear that, once we get back, we are most certainly sleeping in separate beds.
"Will you hurry up Cato? I want to get food!" I call to him; he said he wanted to come with me to hunt today.
"Yeah yeah, just a sec." I groan at his response. Then I grin to myself, crouch down and then spring up and do a backflip, landing on my feet. My back withstands the movement, so I do another one, it feels good since I haven't done one in a while. I find joy in the simple but complex antics. And soon I'm doing a back handspring, then another, then another, all in a row. I tuck in the air and land firmly on my feet, a smile taking up my features. "Well that was impressive" I hear behind me. I look back at Cato and give him a smug smile.
"Common"
I start making my way down to the woods and Cato follows me from behind, soon enough I stop walking in the middle of the forest. "Now don't make a sound" I tell him, he nods and stands a few feet behind me. We stand there for a minute, then two, then three.
"How long will this take?" Cato asks.
"Shhh shut up and it will go faster!" I hiss, he shuts up after that. Five minutes later the game starts to appear, I set my sights on a rabbit again, which I've found is actually one of my favorites. I slide the knife from my pocket and grip the silver hilt and slowly draw back my arm. Then, with near perfect form, I let the knife fly from my hand. With a thud it lodges into the rabbit and, before a nearby squirrel can react I've reloaded, jerked to my left, and taken away its life as well.
I go collect the game and then turn and smirk at Cato. "See, you just need to keep your trap shut"
;;::;;
The next day at noon a gong sounded throughout the arena.
"Congratulations you two, now, in order to go back, you both will need to make your way to the cornucopia, which has resurfaced. Once there, go inside and you'll see a similar launch plate, once on it, it will take you down and out of here. Good luck" Enobaria's voice comes to us. I let out a whoop of joy.
"Bye Cato" I tell him before grabbing my pack, which is mostly empty except for food and water, I'm leaving the sleeping bag and cloth and other things here. No need for them now.
"Where are you going?" he asks
"Cornucopia dumbass" I say.
"Wait five seconds for me then." I think for about three seconds, then shake my head and bolt out of the cave. I can here Cato running behind me, but I'm faster. I go and jump at the edge of a ledge, do a flip in the air and land and keep going. I let out another whoop and run down the mountain and then start going through the forest.
I'm in the middle of the forest when I hear it and stop short.
Hissing. Low, threatening, hissing. I watch in front of me as a giant lizard appears a hole above its right eye. I'm dumbstruck staring at it, fear consuming me. I've never taken one of these mutts on by myself, Cato's always been here. I feel a hand on my shoulder but don't move.
"Told ya you should've waited for me" I hear Cato. I just nod. "Come on, just like the others" he coaxes me on and I take out two of my knives. Simultaneously I chuck them at the beast and they hit square in the eyes. Cato takes over from there, rushing forwards and stabbing the thing through the heart. It's our system that we've been using.
I take a few gulps of water before we start off again, walking through the brush listening for any signs of a mutt. The sound we hear after ten minutes of walking isn't a mutt though. I hear it first, since Cato is walking about ten feet ahead of me, mumbling to himself about lazy girls. Stupid asshole.
There's a loud snap, then another, then another. I whirl around and my eyes grow wide, but I squint quickly. You would too if you saw a wall of fire barreling towards you.
"Cain run!" I hear Cato and when I turn around I see he's already taken off, leaving me behind him. I take off after him, pushing myself faster as I feel the heat from the fire on my back.
"Cato help!" I yell, but he doesn't even look back, but I know he hears me, I'm only a few feet behind him. And that's when my foot snags on a root and my face collides with the ground. Blood fills my mouth and that's all I taste. And then I'm on fire and the world goes black.
Ohhhh cliffy. Dunananan ohh whats gunna happen dunannana ohhh no dunannaan we gotta save Peach! Lol I've been watching Josh Hutcherson youtube videos again haven't i. why yes I have. Never gets old, omg that should be my ringtone. If you havn't seen it look up josh Hutcherson Mario theme song. Its hilarious. Anywho please review it means the world to me and thus is the reason why a capitals game hasn't been updated cause Ive only gotten one review out of my usual four or five, so yeah.
Mocking Verse