A/N: Hello, lovely readers! I've updated quickly this time because we're finally in the Games! I think you'll all like this chapter, since there's finally a some action and a little violence. I'll try to update quickly again, but no promises since I have finals next week. Until then, enjoy! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games. The passages used from the book were used to make my story seem canon. So chill, okay?
CLOVE
My feet pound against the hard-packed earth beneath me. I'm one of the first to reach the Cornucopia, thanks to my speed. I grab as many knives as I can, and begin my attack.
I throw my knife at the nearest tribute, the girl from Six. It hits her right in the heart, killing her instantly. The first kill of the Games, I think to myself and smirk.
All around me, I hear screams of dying tributes, the clash of metal on metal, and the wicked laughter escaping my lips as I find my next target, the boy from Nine. He's struggling over an orange backpack with someone else, though I'm not sure who. As my knife enters his back, I see him spew blood out of his mouth at the face of the tribute fighting him for the pack. As the boy slips to the ground, I see who was fighting him. Fire Girl. I throw my knife straight at her head as she runs away, slipping the backpack on her shoulders. Anticipating my throw, she pulls the pack up behind her head, saving her life and stealing my knife.
She'll pay for this, I think as I hit my next target, the girl from Ten.
CATO
As soon as the gong sounds, I head straight for the heart of the supplies, to my swords and spears. I pick up the first sword I reach and spin around. I see a tribute, the girl from Six, drop to the ground, a knife in her heart. Nearby, Clove smirks triumphantly.
I slice my sword into the stomach of the boy from Five. He slips lifelessly to the ground as I pull my sword out of him. I stab into the back of the girl from Nine, allowing her to have a slow, painful death.
As I pull the sword out, I catch the boy from Three impaling the girl from Seven.
"Hey, kid!" I shout. "You, from Three!"
He turns towards me, spear drawn.
"You any good with traps?" I ask him.
"What's it to you?" he asks, backing away.
"Because, if you set up a trap to protect the remaining supplies from invaders, I'll let you live and join our alliance," I tell him.
"Alright, alright. I'll do what I can," he says. The boy from Seven comes running at the kid from Three, knife drawn, but I shove my sword at him. It jabs Seven in the stomach, and he drops to the ground.
"You're welcome," I tell Three, before turning back to the battle.
CLOVE
The bloodbath has ended, and all our supplies have been carried down to our camp near the lake. Marvel, Glimmer, Cato, and I dig holes in the ground around our pyramid of supplies in the exact locations that the boy from Three instructed us. He reactivates the landmines that were originally buried around the plates we rose up on as the Games started. As soon as he's finished with one, it gets buried in one of the strategically-placed holes.
"Where'd Catalina go?" Glimmer asks.
"Checking to make sure we got everything back at the Cornucopia," Cato tells her.
Almost on cue, Catalina returns, with Lover Boy as her prisoner.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Marvel asks.
"I caught him up at the Cornucopia. I promised we'd let him live if he helps us find the Fire Girl. He's a damn good fighter, too. Cut my arm right open with his knife," he explains, and holds out her left forearm. Sure enough, there's a gash about four inches long.
"Alright, Lover Boy," Cato sighs. "Start helping us dig."
Catalina and Lover Boy kneel down and help. Suddenly, I realize something.
"Where's Mort?" I ask.
Everyone looks over at me, then back at the ground.
"Well?" I shout.
"He's gone, Clove," Catalina sighs.
"Who killed him?" I ask.
"Glimmer," Marvel answers.
I glare at Glimmer and she turns back to her work.
"Get over it, okay? He was gonna die sooner or later," she grumbles.
"Is his body still there?" I ask Catalina.
"Should be. It was when I was up there," she shrugs.
"Will someone go up with me?" I ask.
"Marvel will," Glimmer smiles.
He looks over at her. "Why me?"
"Because you owe me for ratting me out," she hisses.
Marvel brushes off his hands and stands up.
We head through the trees in silence. We break into the clearing, and sure enough, all the bodies are still there. I spot tiny little Mort, lying near the far edge of the clearing. We walk over to him, and find him in fetal position, lying in a puddle of his own blood flowing from a wound in his chest.
"I treated him so rottenly the last time I saw him," I say out loud, whether it's to Marvel or myself. "I really shouldn't have. He was just trying to make me feel better. I didn't even get the chance to apologize."
"Would you have?" Marvel asks, startling me.
"Probably not," I admit.
He nods slightly.
I take a deep breath, and we head back to camp.
We enter the forest and begin our small trek, when the sounds of whispering and shuffling to our left stop us dead in our tracks. Marvel positions his spear to throw and I draw one of my knives. We inch slowly towards the source of the noise, sneaking up on our prey, when Marvel drops his spear in shock. I follow his line of view and gasp.
"What the hell?" I shout.
CATO
I watch as Clove and Marvel head to the Cornucopia to pay their final respects to Mort, though I'm not sure why. I think Clove's spoken to him once or twice, but the only thing Marvel has in common with the kid is that they're both part of our alliance.
As soon as they're out of sight, Glimmer nudges me.
"Did you hear that?" she asks.
"Hear what?"
"Over there," she points to her right. "It sounded like someone was running. Let's go after them."
I stand up and grab my sword. "Glimmer and I are gonna go check out what that noise was. The rest of you, stay here and keep digging. We should be back shortly," I tell them.
Glimmer and I head for the forest where she heard the noise.
"Where are we headed?" I ask her.
"Not sure," she says. "They could have gone anywhere."
Suddenly she comes to a halt. I stop and turn around. She looks up at me and motions for me to come closer to her. I walk over to her.
"Cato," she whispers as she leans up to me. "We would make a great team."
She grabs my shirt and pulls me into her and her lips crash into mine. She keeps kissing and kissing, but I refuse to kiss back. I can't seem to find the strength to pull away either, but I begin to get angry.
"What the hell?" I hear a female voice yell.
I push Glimmer off of me and see Marvel and Clove, standing thirty yards away.
CLOVE
"Glimmer…" Marvel breathes.
"Marvel, you don't understand. He was all over me," Glimmer says.
"What?" Cato bellows. "You're such a liar, Glimmer!"
"How could you?" Marvel shouts. "No wonder you were trying to talk me out of loving her during training. You wanted her all for yourself!"
"Marvel, you know that's not true," Cato says.
"Then what's the truth, Cato?" I ask.
He looks over at me, startled.
"Glimmer said she heard a noise, so we went out to hunt down whatever it was. Then she just stopped walking, pulled me down, and kissed me," he explains.
"Do you even realize how ridiculous that sounds?" Marvel says. He picks up his spear. "You both sicken me." He runs back towards camp, wiping his eyes.
I turn back to the two flustered blondes. "Whatever went on here, I don't want to see it again," I threaten, making sure they see my knife glint in the sunlight.
I turn back to camp, angry. How dare those two turn these Games into some kind of a joke! This isn't the Romance Games; this is the Hunger Games. They need to get over themselves before I kill them both with my bare hands.
I approach camp and find that Catalina and Lover Boy are finishing burying the last of the landmines. They look up and see me stomping back to camp.
"What's wrong? Where's Marvel?" Catalina asks.
"The hell if I know," I mutter.
I sit down on a log nearby. I saw off a piece of it and begin sharpening it with my knife. I keep sawing at it until supper time. We all gather around our fire and eat bread, fruit, crackers, and beef strips.
The sun begins to set, and the fallen tributes are projected high in the sky. The girl from 3, Mort, the boy from 5, both from 6 and 7, the boy from 8, both from 9, and the girl from 10 all make their appearance.
Eleven down, twelve to go, I think to myself.
As the anthem finishes, we decide to begin our sleeping shifts.
"Alright, here's how we're gonna do this. Each shift will be three hours long. Marvel, Three, and Lover Boy, you take first watch. Clove and I got second. Glimmer and Catalina, you take third," Cato orders.
"Woah, woah, wait a minute. Why am I on watch with you?" I ask Cato.
"I'll explain later," he says.
"Why are we going to bed so early?" Glimmer asks. "It's probably only around eight o'clock."
"So we can hunt before sunrise," Cato sneers.
We begin pitching our tents. Marvel, Three, and Lover Boy stay out by the campfire, each with a spear in hand, while the rest of us head off to sleep. Much to my dismay, it turns out we sleep in the same tent as our watch partner, so as to not disturb the others when we take our turn. The tents aren't big, so Cato and I must keep our sleeping bags uncomfortably close. I crawl into mine and face away from Cato.
"Hey," he whispers, nudging me.
"What?" I grumble.
"Why are you in such a bad mood?" he asks.
"Let me get some sleep, Cato. We can talk later," I hiss.
I fall asleep shortly later, only to be roused awake by Marvel.
"Cato, Clove, your turn," he says.
We crawl out of our tents and sit around the fire. I pull out a knife from my jacket and begin sharpening it.
"So," I say. "Is there a reason you wanted the same shift as me? Or is it just so you can say you slept with me?"
He chuckles. "I wanted to know why you got so mad earlier."
"When?"
"You know. When you and Marvel saw Glimmer and me in the woods," he clarifies.
"I wasn't mad," I say coolly, keeping my eyes on my knife.
"You definitely were. You said, 'Whatever went on here, I don't want to see it again.' Sounded pretty angry to me," he says.
"You really wanna fight me about this?" I ask, making sure he sees the knife in my hand.
"I'm not fighting. I'm discussing," he says. "Can you discuss with me what your emotions were when you saw me with Glimmer?"
"Annoyed," I tell him.
"Annoyed at what?" he asks, genuinely confused.
I look up from my knife again. "Are you serious? Please. I'm annoyed that you're turning these Games into a joke. This is a competition of strength and skill. Not beauty and love."
"You think that's what I'm doing?" he asks me seriously. "Clove, she kissed me. I can't believe you'd take her word over mine."
"Well, you both seemed to be enjoying yourselves. Your argument wasn't very valid. 'Oh, look at me, poor Cato being kissed to death by beautiful Glimmer. I so don't think she's attractive and I'm repulsed by the fact that we're kissing.' Please, Cato. Glimmer's love for Marvel is more believable than your story," I tell him.
"Alright, Clove. Believe what you want," Cato sighs. "I just thought you of all people would believe me."
"Well, you thought wrong."
We sit in silence for the rest of our shift. We wake up Glimmer and Catalina and awkwardly lie in our tent for about a half hour. It's so incredibly cold, even in this tent in such close quarters, that I begin shivering violently.
"You alright?" Cato asks.
"I'm fine, Cato. Go back to sleep."
"I wasn't asleep anyway. Do you need another blanket or something?"
"Don't worry about me. Just keep worrying about yourself," I reply.
"I am worried about myself. I won't be able to get any sleep if I have to hear your teeth chatter all night," he tells me. He reaches into a backpack on the other side of him and pulls out a blanket and spreads it over the two of us.
"Thanks," I grumble, and eventually fall asleep.
About two hours later, Catalina pokes her head in our tent. "Hey, it looks like there's a fire about half a mile away. Wanna go have some fun?"
"I wonder if it's Fire Girl," Cato growls as he crawls out of the tent.
We head off to the site of the fire, leaving Three behind to guard the supplies, just in case the mines don't work. All six of us are deadly quiet as we sneak through the woods. Dawn is about to break, just as we find her, the girl from Eight, the one who set the fire. We wait for the right time to make our move for about fifteen minutes. Finally, she lies down and dozes off. We break out into a run, which startles her. She stands up to run, but Cato's sword pierces right into her back, which triggers a blood-curdling scream. He pulls his sword out and she slinks to the ground, weeping.
"Twelve down and eleven to go!" Cato hoots. We all laugh and cheer in celebration.
I crouch down and flip her body over. She's still breathing for now, but I don't care. I check her for any useful supplies, but come up empty. All she had were fire starters and some crackers.
"Nothing good. Let's move on," I say.
"Yeah, better clear out so they can get the body before it starts stinking," Cato agrees.
We head off deeper into the woods when I stop dead in my tracks. "Shouldn't we have heard a cannon by now?" I ask.
"I'd say yes," Catalina says. "Nothing to prevent them from going in immediately."
"Unless she isn't dead," I say, turning to Cato.
"She's dead. I stuck her myself," he argues.
"Then where's the cannon?" I counter.
"Someone should go back. Make sure the job's done," Marvel comments.
"Yeah, we don't want to have to track her down twice," I agree.
"I said she's dead!" Cato hollers.
We all begin arguing amongst ourselves until Lover Boy shouts, "Stop! We're wasting time! I'll go finish her and let's move on!"
"Go on then, Lover Boy. See for yourself," Cato says.
Lover Boy turns around and walks back to the Eight girl.
"Why don't we just kill him now and get it over with?" Glimmer says as soon as he's out of earshot.
"Let him tag along. What's the harm? And he's handy with that knife," Cato says,
Catalina nods in agreement and looks down at the wound on her arm. "Besides, he's our best chance of finding her," she says.
"Why? You think she bought into that sappy romance stuff?" I ask.
"She might have. Seemed pretty simpleminded to me. Every time I think about her spinning around in that dress, I want to puke," Catalina gags.
"Wish we knew how she got that eleven," Cato growls.
"Bet you Lover Boy knows," Catalina says.
Lover Boy breaks into the clearing behind Catalina.
"Was she dead?" Cato asks.
"No, but she is now," Lover Boy says. The cannon fires on cue. "Ready to move on?"
We break off in a run and head into the woods.