Ya thanks for the reviews!
Agethebest: thanks! Bbymojo: thanks you! And ya, I figured hey it's district two, they're not that gentle. Plus when you want something to go faster you can whip it so that happens, so that's along the lines I was thinking. Rue-Evergreen: hurray for Cato…and..maybe..or maybe not..that's classified information. Lou the Third: thankies!
Well, here ya are, another chapter, personally I can't wait till year four, when their sixteen, that's gunna be one fun year! OH and I put up a video I made of the two. Well, Cato mostly, since I didn't really want to find an actually person and be like ya that's Cain, I'm sure you all picture her differently so in the vid I just took this faraway shot of Clove being badass with a knife and used that and boom Cain, though they do look different, but you can't see Clove's face so it works. Enjoy the chapter!
Cain's POV, a month later:
Once again, I'm stuck in a fucking glass tube. I let out a sigh as it begins to rise, lifting me into the year two Simulator. Cato is going to be here as well, but it's not just us this year. Me, Cato, Irma, Nathan, Mirav, and Bonny are all going to be in. We only all found out last week, but hey, District Two isn't really known for their warning system.
I'm momentarily blinding by the sudden appearance of light, but then I'm shocked at what I see. Sand?
"What the hell is this!" I yell throwing my hands up into the air. I'm already starting to sweat, it has to be at least a hundred degrees.
"It's called a desert pumpkin!" Nathan yells to me, it's a pretty damn small arena, so we're only about fifty yards away from each other on the sides, the cornucopia only about a hundred.
"I see it's a fucking desert! It was a rhetorical question! And call me pumpkin again and you'll get a knife in your skull!" That shuts him up. I look around more. As far as I can see, it's a pretty whacked up arena. There's like a forest to my right, front and back, the floor still sand, and you can see more miles upon miles to the left. You can see at least two water sources that are out in the open. I look back to the cornucopia and see the countdown is at twenty five.
Twenty four, twenty three, twenty two
I look around until I spot Cato, he's already ready to run, he catches my gaze and raises his eyebrows at me. What is this? He seems to ask. I shrug. I ready myself and look at the sand. I've never run in sand before, so I don't really know how it will be. Though he shoes have tread, I doubt that will help. Seems as though they want us to climb this time.
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six
I take a deep breath and stretch my legs, jumping in the air and kicking myself in the butt. I bounce on the balls of my feet.
Five, four, three, two, one
I take off as the gong sounds, bounding off the plate. It's awkward as soon as my foot hits the sand, I try to take a running step but I over stride and end up crashing to the ground. A face plant into the sand. Fuck. My. Life.
I push myself up and continue on, being sure to lift my feet higher so that I don't fall again. I stagger the first few steps, but I get the hang of it. I hate sand though, that's now official. I look to the cornucopia and see I'm not the only one who was slowed, though it seems no one else fell. Fantastic. Bloody fantastic. My eyes lock on a set of Twin Sais as I rush towards them. I easily grab them; I first used them a few weeks ago, instantly my second favorite weapon. I shove one in the loop on my pants and hold the other as I charge for a pack. I grunt as I'm slammed into someone else.
"Fuck you" I grunt as I knee Irma in the gut, all past acts of us being 'friends' forgotten. She instantly doubles over clutching her chest and I fling the pack over my shoulder, quickly getting to my feet. There's a rebelling force on the pack and I look to see Nathan clutching it as well. Without thinking I take my Sai and slice his forearm. He wasn't expecting that and lets out a scream of pain, I cut deep. He won't die though, naw, he'll be fine in a few days. I start backing away from him, then take off towards the woods, if you can even call them that.
At the edge of the woods I remember something kinda important. Cato. I suddenly stop, another thing you can't do in sand, I learn this as my face gets covered in sand again. I look up from the ground back at the cornucopia. I scan the bodies until I locate the largest one. There's my big arrogant partner. And true to himself, he's going in the wrong direction.
I guess I can't get mad, we didn't make any plans. But he sure as hell is not ditching me seeing what happened last time. I scramble to my feet and take off after him. Luckily he's only about thirty feet to my left; he couldn't see me because our clothes are also sand color. Or he just ignored me completely. I'm just going to tell myself it's not the latter. I take off after him sprinting. Please don't go faster, please don't go faster.
"SHITFACE!" I scream. Cato slows down to a walk and looks back. I run up and stand beside him since he's come to a stop.
"Hey asshole" he grins. "You sure looked like you had fun eating sand" his smirk comes on his face, I slap him upside the head and ignore that comment.
"You sure as hell aren't ditching me" I say between gasps for air.
"Come on then, we need water" we both start walking deeper into the sandy woods.
I look up and glare at me. "No shit shitface" I say with mock shock.
"I can ditch you if I want" he sneers
"Nugatory statement my friend, I'm faster than you"
"Not when you're sleeping" that shuts me up.
Five hours later, we still haven't found water, we're both dehydrated, and we're both covered in sweat, and we're in pissing moods. We've stopped and I'm sitting against the back of a tree, in the shade but it's burning my butt. Stupid sand. We've gone through the pack.
A sleeping bag, which I won't be getting into, two knives, rope, and one canteen for water. Bone dry. Cato's pack just had a switchblade, one empty canteen, a water purifier, and small packets of dried food. The only weapon he had picked up was a sword.
I sigh and start to take off my thin shirt; I have to literally peel it off.
We didn't have much for our outfits. Just cargo shorts and a thin short sleeved shirt. I knew it was going to be hot, but not scorching. They also gave, at least to me, black underwear. Cato apparently sees me taking off my shirt.
"What are you doing?" he asks, his voice raspy from no water.
"Keeping cool" I say simply, by the time I get my shirt off, Cato is working on his. If we were in any normal situation, I would be practically starring at Cato's sculpted chest that has only gotten even better to look at without him noticing, but for now. I really don't care.
"Maybe there's no water over here" Cato contemplates.
"Maybe, I'll check from the trees" I say, then I just sit there. I don't want to move. Cato can't really climb many trees, since he's heavier, and to be honest, he sucks at tree climbing.
"You gunna check?" he asks after two minutes.
"Yep" I say, then ever so slowly, push myself off the ground and face the tree I was leaning on. My vision is a little blurry, but it clears quickly and I jump up and grab the lowest branch. I hoist myself up, finding that the shoes do indeed help greatly in climbing.
Once I'm at the top I look out and see just how small the arena is. And that it's a rectangle. And we've been walking the long way. I groan, then look for water.
It's hard, trying to decide if the huge lake my mind makes me see is real or not. I'm pretty sure it's a mirage, so I keep looking. Then I spot a small clearing about five miles away. There has to be water there. I begin to descend the tree slowly. Until my foot slips, the tread having only gone in one direction and I let out a very embarrassing high pitched squeal as I go crashing down. Fuck gravity.
My leg gets clotheslined by a branch and I'm flipped over, landing smack on top of something that's a lot sweater than sand is. I don't move though until it groans and I discover Cato was looking up watching me.
"Sorry" I moan.
"Did you see water?"
"I think so" with that said I'm unceremoniously rolled off of Cato and into the sand. I get up to my feet and point in the direction of the clearing, "That way" I tell him.
Surprisingly, when we get there, there is water. It's a small pond, but hey, water is water. It's brown and murky but I'd drink black water right now. We purify it and then take our time drinking.
We decide to camp out here; clearly the point of this arena is surviving the elements, so I'd be surprised to find many mutts. We roll out the sleeping bag and I lay on top of it under the shade of the trees.
And we stay there for the next three days, the pond getting smaller and smaller as the sun makes the water evaporate. When the sun is at its strongest the water actually begins to boil. Cato and I spend our time trying to stay cool, covered in the always present thick sheen of sweat. We eat from the packets of food Cato had in his pack, which is a lot. Other than that there are lizards, which, when you cook them over a fire, taste a lot like chicken. Cliché I know, but they really do. We don't see much of anyone else, though we are informed that Bonnie had been taken out of the arena, heat stroke we're told.
I had nearly wet myself when the cannon had suddenly went off and her picture appeared in the sky, 'Heat Stroke, back at Academy' was shown underneath. I had also caught a glimpse of Irma and Nathan walking across the flatland, most likely surviving on the water sources we had seen from the starting disks. Nathan seemed to be favoring his arm, I almost felt bad. Almost. I had seen nothing of Mirav.
Day five in the Simulator Cato and I wake up to find our water supply empty. All dried out, we did have the warm water in our canteens though. That would last us a day, maybe.
"We need to find more" Cato says as I walk around, scuffing up the sand that was once our watering hole. That's another thing; I hate sand with a burning passion. Cato hasn't let that drop, always reminding me how I ate sand, twice.
"I know" I say, groaning in frustration.
We pack up and set off back towards the flatland, the only real water source we think should still be there and accessible.
As we walk I'm sure that it has to be at least ten degrees hotter than usual. We both drag our feet, not having the energy or adrenaline to try in this place that has the temperature of hell. Neither Cato nor I have put our shirts back on since taking them off. You would think we would at night, but whoever controls this has chosen to make it scorching hot, twenty four seven.
It has to be around noon when we stop for a break. I tip back my canteen and let the last of the warm water to roll down my throat. Increased temperatures have made us drink faster, though I know I'm dehydrated. When I tried too, I wasn't able to urinate very much. Our bodies are using the intake of water to be made into more sweat.
I'm sweating less and less, which isn't a good sign.
"I'm out" I announce and look to Cato, his hair sticks to his forehead, he had changed his hairstyle so it wasn't spiked up in the front a few months ago, it wouldn't have mattered now though. I'd stick either way. His face is slightly red, as it always is in here.
"Same here" His face goes skeptical. "I bet they're going to try something soon, they want us to have no water"
And as if on cue I hear a sharp crackle. I turn around and see my greatest fear since leaving the first Simulator. It's coming towards us from the direction we came, and at an alarmingly fast pace.
Fire.
Ya! Please please review! Love you all! If I get six reviews I'll put up the next chapter TODAY!
Mocking Verse