Chapter Twelve
As I reach the dying girl I kneel down beside her. She can't be anymore than fourteen, and she's murmuring for her mother. Her chest rises and falls quickly, and through the slash in her stomach I can see her intestines moving. She can't have long left, I take her hand.
"I want to go home," she breathes, tears glistening in her eyes. I touch her cheek.
"You will," I promise quietly. "You'll go home soon."
Her grasp on my hand tightens, as if she's trying to cling to life itself. Within thirty seconds she lets out a shuddering gasp, and lies still, quite dead. I lift my thumb and forefinger to her eyes, and slide them gently shut. I let go of her hand, and walk away, turning one last time to look at her frame.
"I'm sorry," I whisper. I walk slowly back towards the careers, feeling their eyes on me as I move towards their flashlights.
"Was she dead?" asks Cato
"No. But she is now," I say. Just then, the cannon fires. "Ready to move on?"
We take off at a run moving swiftly through the forest, but not finding anymore tributes. Dawn breaks and we decide to head back to our camp by the lake. We eat some food from the many boxes we have, and the Cato tells me and Navicula to take the first watch.
We sit in silence, our muscles poised in case of attack, but it never arrives. She's the first to break the silence.
"Who was it?" she says very quietly, and I know she's talking about the canon.
"The girl from 8, I think." I reply.
"Who—" she begins, "Cato," I reply.
"Poor girl never stood a chance," she says softly. I'm alarmed to see a single tear sliding down her face.
"Thinking of home?" I ask. She slowly nods, brushing the tear away, and tucking her long auburn hair behind her ear.
"I'm just worried about my mother." She says after a few minutes. My father died when I was very young, and my sister was killed at the games three years ago."
Something tells me that she isn't like most careers, who only focus on killing and bloodshed. Her mind is elsewhere.
"I'm all she's got left," She continues. "and if I die, she's left with no-one."
I reach over and grasp her hand, it's the best show of comfort I can give.
"I'm so sorry Navicula."
"It's Navy," she says, "my friends call me Navy."
We don't say anything else, and a couple of hours later, we're relieved from our watch duty by Marvel and Clove. I lie down on the soft grass and close my weary eyes. Sleep finds me a lot faster than I would have thought. When I awake it's early evening and the sun is beginning to sink.
Glimmer is sitting by the pile of food and weapons, but I notice two other figures up by the Cornucopia. I grab a knife ready to arm myself for attack, the figures are coming closer. But on closer inspection I see that it's just Cato and the boy from 3. They're both holding small circular objects with wires sticking out of them.
"Mines, Lover boy," says Cato with a sadistic grin. The ones under the podiums. "We're going to put them around the supplies, and anyone who tries to steal will be blown sky high!"
Of course, District 3 is responsible for electronics. That's why Cato bothered to keep him alive. I help them dig up the remainder of the mines and bring them over to pile of supplies. Cato jabs his spear at the boy, "You stay and sort this lot out, while we go and hunt." I see Glimmer has got her hands on the bow and arrows that Katniss so desperately wanted. I fight the desire to snatch them out of her hands.
All of us except the boy from 3, head back in to the eerie grass field. If I felt uneasy in the woods, the feeling is majorly increased standing here. The grass is tall, very tall, stretching way over my head. You get the feeling that just about anything could be hiding in there. We stay there all night, still finding no one, Cato getting more and more frustrated. It's the early hours of the morning when we make it back to the lake.
"Right, tomorrow we head for the woods, and we don't leave until we've got someone!" Cato growls.
By the time we've all rested and are ready to head out, it's late afternoon, and we see smoke rising from the woods. Clove immediately gets exited thinking it's another tribute fire, so we all rush off in to the trees. The boy from 3 stays behind, as he's still working on re-activating the mines.
I immediately know that the game makers have intervened by the heavy smoke that lies on the air. It makes my eyes stream and we all start coughing. My instant thought is "girl on fire." I have to remind myself that I didn't hear any canons and Katniss must be still alive, though what state she's in, I have no idea.
Glimmer screams and starts running, I look over and see why. There's a wall of fire in the trees, making its way towards us. We run coughing and spluttering until we escape it, collapsing in a clearing and falling unconscious. By the time we all awake its late morning, and the fire has gone. We're all suffering from the effects of it though, as we desperately try to cough up the smoke from our lungs, rub our streaming eyes, and clear our sinuses.
The trees are thinner here, and I realise that we must be near the edge of the woods, near the lake. We walk around until evening falls, finding nobody. We reach a small stream, and my heart sinks. Lying asleep by the side of the water is Katniss. She obviously hears us and jumps up sprinting in to the darkness. It's too late though, they've seen her.
"There she is!" Screeches Clove. The others point excitedly and begin the chase. The smoke has deadened our senses slightly so they're not as fast as they we're in the days before. Run Katniss, I think desperately. I pray that we take a wrong turn, and lose her. But then they start encircling a tree, and it feels like a bucket of ice has been tipped in to my stomach, as I look up and see her scaling it.
The looks on their faces are disgusting. Cruel smiles are curving their lips, sure that they've cornered her.
I can see that she's been badly hurt. Her hair's singed and there are cuts and bruises all over her. Nonetheless she smiles.
"How's everything with you?" She calls down cheerily.
"Well enough," Says Cato, still maintaining his cruel smirk. "Yourself?"
"It's been a bit warm for my taste," She says. The Capitol must be loving this. "The air's better up here. Why don't you come on up?"
"Think I will," He says.
"Here, take this, Cato," she says, handing the bow and arrows to him. I don't want to look at what happens next, but I need to keep my act up. I take a knife from my belt and pretend to polish it, all the while praying that the tree won't bare Cato's weight.
"No," says Cato. "I'll do better with my sword."
He starts to climb the tree, my eyes flicker upwards and to my delight, I see that Katniss has started to climb higher. The tree doesn't bare his weight for long, and soon enough he falls, bringing a branch down with him. Glimmer has a go, but she has the good sense to stop when she hears the branches starting to crack.
She comes down and we re-group. I need to think of someway to get them away from Katniss. Cato is fuming. They're starting to cook up a plan, so get up that tree and drag her down. I need to buy more time.
"Oh, let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning." I say.
"Fine," Cato snaps. "I'll take first watch," and he positions himself against the tree.
I can't bring myself to sleep though, I need to stay awake, just to make sure that Cato doesn't come up with another plan, and kills her before I can stop him. I lay on the ground with my eyes half closed, so I can still see her frame high up in the tree. She climbs up and down the tree many times during the night, but I can't make out what she's doing. Eventually stopping after the anthem finishes. There have been no deaths today; the gamemakers must be getting impatient. The situation here should hold them for the time being.
After a couple of hours Cato tells Navicula to take watch. Another few hours after that Glimmer takes over. As a new day dawns fatigue overcomes her and she slumps against the tree trunk, falling in to a deep sleep. After a few minutes a hear a loud thump, and an intense buzzing fills my ears. I jump up, dropping my weapons and run, as fast as I can.
"To the lake! To the lake!" I hear Cato yell. Not before I feel the sharp stings of the tracker jackers. We make it to the lake, and I throw myself beneath its depths. The damage has already been done, the tracker jacker venom is working its way through my system and I'm starting to feel woozy.
I hear a canon fire, and still dripping I stagger back to the woods, thinking of Katniss. I grab a fallen spear, and crash through the trees. That's when another canon fires. Terrified that it might be Katniss I move faster. I see the hovercraft picking up the swollen remains of what had once been Navicula. I run in to the clearing and raise my spear, before making out the blurry shape of Katniss, holding a bow and arrow poised. My arms drop by my sides, and panic rushes through me.
"What are you still doing here?" I hiss. Cato and Clove could be back in seconds.
I push her with the end of the spear. "Are you mad?" I say still poking her.
"Get up! Get up!" she gets up, and that's when I hear the thudding behind me. Cato is back.
"Run!" I scream. "Run!"
I turn to face Cato, his face falling in to focus for just a few moments, the sunlight glinting on his sword. I hear it swish through the air, before I feel the blade plunging deep in to my flesh.
