Chapter 21
I wake up to the sound of cannons, instinctively I grab the sword that is tied to my hip and stand ready to attack. I count the cannons and if my calculations are correct then only five tributes remain. I know what is going on now, this is the grand finale to take us out. I do a quick head count of our little group, Cato is sprawled out on top of his bag clutching a sword, Peeta is snuggled down comfortably in his bag and Mia, IS MISSING. I sprint over to where her things were and find a leaf with her good byes on it, I quickly read it and it nearly brings tears to my eyes. "Cato, Peeta get your butts up now!" I scream as I kick Peeta in the arm and smack Cato in the chest, these men sleep like rocks. "Get up we have to go help Mia!" I yell again, that is if she is still alive. This thought makes me even more driven to get these bumbling idiots up. At the sound of Mia's name Peeta's eyes shoot open. Cato however is still sound asleep. I'm fed up with this. I send my body down on top of him, laying out across his stomach. "OOPH" a breath escapes from an alarmed Cato. Peeta is scurrying in the background fumbling with weapons and trying to regain his footing from tripping over a backpack. "What in god's name are you doing Ander!" he yells. I roll off of him and stand up. I grab my bow off of my back, load it and then put up my sword. "Mia ran away and there are mutts out there ripping heads off, there are only five of us left and I'm sure wherever those mutts are you will find Mia." I take a deep breath because I have been explaining so quickly. "Now get your butts in gear and lets go find her!" I scream at them because they both have stopped what they were doing to look at me. "GO!" I yell again. I step outside the cave and thank the lord that Mia didn't cover her tracks. With the two boys behind me I take the reins of the "rescue mission" and follow. We have now gotten close enough to the mutts to smell the blood from the murdered tributes. I take and deep breath knowing that beyond these bushes is a creation of the capitol that would love oh so dearly to rip through my flesh. The boys crouch behind me, "on three" I mouth to them. I hold up my fingers, one, two, three! I jump through the bushes with my bow at the ready, two arrows already notched, when I see it. The grass is no longer green but a deathly red, human remains lay scattered all over the place. It nearly makes me sick to my stomach. The mutts are nowhere to be seen. I cautiously walk into the middle of the field and scan the tree line, it looks clear. I look up into the trees and spot Mia, I'm just about to tell her to get her butt down here so I can kick it when something black flashes across my vision. I am hit with force and fall on my back, I feel a hot searing pain in my cheek and a warm fluid runs down my neck. "Ander!" shouts Cato, he jumps in front of me and slices the head off of the blood thirsty beast. Peeta sprints over and I stand just as three more panthers surround us, but this time I will not fall. I will stand my ground and fight till my last breath, because everything building up to this moment has lit a fire inside of my very being that threatens to burn down everything in its path. I finally find my balance as Mia jumps down from the tree into our little defense circle while successfully stabbing and killing a panther. We both notice at the same time another one of the black killing machines headed towards Peeta. "Peeta don't move." Mia says slowly, she is about to kill the panther coming towards him when another jumps out of nowhere and slices him across the chest. Mia runs to Peeta, covering him with herself and checking his wound. The panther that was originally stalking Peeta is now in full attack mode and starts to run towards them, I send an arrow through its eye before it could move another step and it drops dead. "Ander look out!" Mia screams. I see the last panther out of the corner of my eye heading straight for me. The animal leaps into the air and sets its mark on me, but quicker than lightning I whip an arrow from the quiver and notch it sending it into the panthers chest, but I am a second too late and the large cat digs its claws into my abdomen right before it drops out of the air dead. I fall back from the force of the attack and Cato catches me in his arms. "Are you OK," he asks frantically as he sets me down gently and I lift up part of my shirt to inspect the wound. Mia comes over dragging a miserable looking Peeta with her. She looks over my claw marks and says, "You should be fine once we get back to the cave we can put the medicine we have on it and it should be healed up by tomorrow. But you will have scars on your stomach and face." I stand with a grunt as I feel the intensity of the wound. "Scars are better than being dead." I say coolly, "I can walk back to the cave, Cato you will have to carry Peeta." Cato picks Peeta up and I lean on Mia to make the journey back a little easier, we still have to hide out because there is another tribute left. It takes a good fifteen minutes for our injured group to return to our campsite. We apply medicine on all of our wounds, mainly focusing on mine and Peeta's, Haymitch was generous enough to send another jar of it, and then putting it on the small scratches. I am leaning against a wall of the cave and Cato's side, using his shoulder like a pillow. Mia is trying to coax some food into Peeta but he is refusing any efforts of help from her and not responding to anything she says. I know why, its because she ran away and the letter she left us ripped his heart out, Cato is still pretty upset about the whole thing too. To be quite honest they are being jerks. I sit up off of Cato and begin to talk. "Alright you two," I say pointedly looking at Cato and Peeta, "you two need to cut it out, Mia did nothing wrong, I was planning on leaving tomorrow too. We all know it would happen eventually so could you stop acting like little brats." I say forcefully. Cato's face softens and I know I won him over, Peeta on the other hand still will not even spit in Mia's direction. Mia has obviously had enough of Peeta's stubbornness and gets up to walk outside. "Leaving again are we?" Peeta spits. I can't believe he just said that, all Cato and I can do is sit there with our mouths open. Mia begins to cry and run outside. "Mia don't leave." Cato begs. "I'm not, I just need some fresh air, but your more than welcome to watch me if you think I will run off." she says bitterly through her tears. Oh I am about to tear Peeta Mellark a new one. She barely clears the entrance of the cave before I'm bounding over to Peeta, he looks ready to pea himself because he obviously knows he is going to get it from me. We have been friends for a while and he knows by now that once you push me off the edge there is no coming back, my anger takes control and the fire consumes me. "Peeta Mellark you better hope you don't come within five feet of me or Mia because if you do I will skin you alive!" I shout as Cato literally lifts my entire body over his shoulder and hauls me out of the cave and away from strangling Peeta. Cato cups my face in his hands and chuckles because it makes my cheeks big and my lips pucker, adding a sense of hilarity to my deadly scowl. "You two just need to stay out here for a while and cool down OK" he says as he rubs his thumbs across my cheeks, being careful to avoid the claw marks on the right one. This soothes me a bit and I'm not quite as angry anymore, but I could still punch the crap out of Peeta. "Fine." I sigh. "I'm going to take her hunting, see if you can't get Peeta to pull his head out of his butt." Cato laughs and helps me up, seeing as though I still am injured. I start to walk away when he grabs my wrist. "Be careful." he says. I shake my head yes and walk over to Mia. "Come on we are going hunting." I say as I put a hand on her back to motivate her to stand. She nods her head and wipes her eyes. I grab my bow and we walk into the woods. "Ignore Peeta, he is just angry because he is always getting hurt." I joke trying to cheer her up. She gives me a small smile. After that I completely lose myself in concentration for the hunt. "I'm going to go look for some berries OK" Mia says, I just nod as I try to track some rabbit prints. She is only gone for a moment when she says "Hey Ander." "Yea is something wrong." I ask, looking around for her. "Nope I was just wondering if you could check these berries and make sure they are safe." she says a bit strangely. I walk to her and give her a small smile in case the problem is Peeta related. She shifts her eyes up, I don't understand, why is she-. I can sense it now, there is something here that shouldn't be. I look up into the tree we are under, her bright red hair is a dead giveaway. The girl tribute from five whom I refer to as foxface sits perched on a limb, her face could only be one of true terror. I aim my arrow at her, "I'm sorry." I say loudly so that she may hear me. The girl gives a slight nod, I release my arrow and it finds its mark in her eye. I tried to give her a quick death. The cannon sounds. "Let's head back before Cato freaks out." Mia says solemnly, I nod and head towards the cave. We run back to the cave and when we get there we see weapons and backpacks being thrown around by two very frantic boys. "Are you guys OK?" I ask them, the second that sentence leaves my mouth their heads snap up. "Thanks for scaring us into thinking you were dead again." Cato booms, obviously upset. I walk over to him and pull him into a hug to calm him down, he relaxes and then says absentmindedly to me, "I guess I'm gonna have to carry you around with me everywhere I go after all." I give a small laugh. I remove myself from Cato's grasp to see Mia and Peeta wrapped in each other's arms, well its about time those two made up. We all sit down in a circle, finally coming to the realization that only two of us can go home, but I refuse to accept this and apparently so does Mia, she sets one of her knives into her lap, we all follow suit. This could be it. I say to myself as I aim the sword in my hand at my throat. One. Two. "Stop Stop." the speaker's boom, "Ladies and gentlemen I give you the winners of the 74th annual Hunger Games! Cato Stone, Chromia Basanite, Peeta Mellark, and Oleander Evanthe!" We've done it! We are all going home! I stand up and drop my weapon out of shock. Cato jumps up and gathers me into his arms, he then proceeds to pull Mia and Peeta into it so we are just a giant clump of people. We hear the hovercraft coming so we walk outside, the ladder comes down and I step on, being frozen to the spot immediately. We are reeled in and once I step onto the hovercraft I am once again gathered into someone's arms, but this person smells slightly of booze. Haymitch releases me and gives me a once over, probably checking for serious injuries. He gives me a smile, "You did good sweetheart." he pats me on the shoulder then moves on to Peeta who is just now arriving. I slump down into the seat, just as I see an unconscious Peeta being rolled into another room. I completely lose it, we just managed to get him out of that arena and now those capitol freaks are taking him away again! I run over to them, grabbing the first attendant I see and shoving him to the ground while yelling, "Don't you dare touch him!" I mean I have to protect Peeta, sure he was being a jerk but he is one of my best friends from 12. I am punching and clawing at the other capitol people when I'm yanked back, Cato, Haymitch, and Brutus the mentor for two are trying to tow me away from the disgusting creatures. I'm screaming all the while as I watch Peeta be rolled away once again and doors cut him off from the rest of us. I give up and slump to the floor, dragging the men down with me. "Go on," Cato says to them, "I got her." He lifts me up into his arms like a baby and I bury my head into his shirt, he sits down in a chair and keeps me in his lap. I hear a sniffling sound coming from beside us. Mia. I climb out of Cato's lap and walk to her, sitting in the seat beside her. I wrap my arms around her shaking figure and she rests her head on my shoulder. I'm about to tell her everything will be OK when I feel a prick in my neck, I instantly feel drowsy and all I see after that is darkness.