Number Five's POV

The gong goes off, it's begun. The battle for our lives.

I'm hesitating on my platform, deciding to watch the others kill each other for no other reason. I decide that I'll need some before cover before it's safe to come and join the Careers. I run for the woods and take cover behind a tree.

I watch the scattered forms of the other tributes wither and disappear into the woods, or fall to the ground.

I can't tell which one is my sister, but I know she's smart enough to run...plus she can't be killed...conventionally anyways.

I wait for the cannons to go off. Two blasts do go off, but I do see two tributes get up and run. I assume that John carried out his plan to help as many tributes as possible. Once the hovercraft picks up the two bodies, I stroll out nonchalantly and head towards the Cornucopia in the bright sunlight.

Once I get near the supplies I see Clove's face light up with a small smile.

"Hey" she says, sorting through the assortment of knives given.

"Hey" I say back.

Cato comes up to me and shoves me out of his way.

"Cyclopes." he mutters

"Douche bag" I respond with spite.

He grabs the collar of my coat and tries to lift me off the ground.

"Listen here, the only reason I'm not ripping your head off right now is because Clove says you're useful. I trust her more than anyone else, but I still haven't forgiven you for what happened in the cafeteria and once this alliance thing is over, I'm going to be on your ass faster than you can breath."

I'm hardly intimidated by Cato's words. I've had a lot worse said and done to me than what Cato's threatening. (Right Marina?) Once he lets go of my collar, I stare him in the eye and snort.

"Look forward to it." I smirk at him.

I know I could beat Cato easily. I'm a hell of a lot stronger than him, plus I can fly and make my skin metal whenever I want. I could snap his neck and move on to win.

I look over at Clove who's chatting with that other girl...Glimmer. Both are talking seriously and hardly look at anyone else, not the typical way that most girls their age would talk. I guess I'm so used to seeing my sister laugh and giggle with the other Garde, that I'd expect all girls to be like that.

I put my sister out of my mind and move towards the piles of stuff.

I decide the best place to start is by arming myself with all these weapons. I go through things from knives, sword, clubs, maces, tridents and sickles (some kind of farm tool). I pick up a knife at one point and use its reflection in the sun to shine it next to Clove. At first, she ignores it and continues talking with Glimmer, but I make the light reflection dance and see how much time it would take for her to get annoyed. Eventually she looks at me and glares. She goes back to Glimmer, but I make the reflection even more intense and make it act like a strobe light. This time she flips me the bird and mouths for me to stop it.

I don't know why, but I just want to piss her off. Make her feel angry so she'll pay attention to me. I do it once more and she chucks a knife at me. I manage to duck and the knife lodges itself in the metal of the Cornucopia. I can't help, but laugh .

"You missed." I taunt.

"I meant to. Next time you toy with this..." she indicates the knife. "will go through your fat head."

"Oooo so scary" I tease.

Clove sticks her tongue out and does her best to ignore me from then on.

I know I'm pushing my luck with Clove and her temper, but in the end, I just want to be near her. We kissed the other night and it was amazing, I loved every minute of it. She's the one for me and...

It suddenly dawns on me that our relationship won't get far, maybe not even start. Especially because of where we are and what we're supposed to do to each other. I don't really know what I was thinking being so okay with the games. Clove and I will never be a thing unless we sabotage the games like the other Garde planned to. I start to think about whether the possibility of Clove and I being the only ones left. Would she hesitate to kill me? Would...Could I kill her?

I swallow hard and turn back to the weapons. I find a container of dried meat, rip the lid off and start gnawing on it to distract myself. I keep looking at Clove

"Anyone want beef?" I ask.

The others look at me and raise their eyebrows.

"Don't eat that Dumb-ass." Cato says, grabbing the container and dumping the contents on the ground. He stomps on it in a fit of anger.

"What the hell?!" Clove and I yell.

"There was plenty for everyone!" Clove growled. "You're such an idiot Cato!"

"And a douche." I add with a small smirk

Cato's hands clench together before he plows at me and slams me against the metal of the Cornucopia.

"Want to take that back?" he offers in this inane hiss. "Alliance or not, I'm going to end you now!"

I can see the anger in his eyes, but it's not normal anger... like Nine's or even Marina's...it's a lot darker...deeper, like his entire body is mad. I can see one of his eyes twitch slightly and his fist also shakes erratically. I've only ever seen this in Mogs...the dude is insane...or at least on the path to it. He's a sociopath in the making. He has no sympathy, no grief, no anything, except anger...he's a killing machine and he doesn't think, he just does thing. I don't show it, but I feel slightly frightened by him. I've never been face to face with a psycho before and I definitely don't want to be like this again.

Clove's hand comes up and holds Cato's shoulder, trying to force him away from me.

"Cato stop it!" she orders.

Cato growls and keeps eyeing me, his arms become harder as he tries to restrict my breathing, kill me slowly.

"CATO, ENOUGH!" Clove says loudly.

Cato growls and tightens his fists. He looks down at his feet and takes in three sharp breaths that are strangled and harsh. He's having a hard time letting go. The dude is trying to come back to sanity...if he has any to begin with.

Slowly, his grip loosens and he lets me go. He forces himself away from me and doesn't look back. He picks up his sword and goes to a nearby tree and starts stabbing it repeatedly.

Clove comes to see if I'm okay. I pull myself up and brush myself off.

"I'm fine." I say. "I could have taken him."

"Don't get on Cato's bad side...At least not right now." Clove whispers. "He has a serious anger problem and doesn't do well with rivals of any kind."

"The guys a psychopath in the making." I say under my breath.

"I know he is...sometimes it seems that I'm the only one who can talk him out of his insane state."

"Something tells me it'll eventually be permanent."

"Let's not talk about that." she mutters.

Suddenly, there is snapping and crackling, like someone's approaching us. All the Careers get up and arm themselves, thinking it could be an attacker. The only one who I'd see as a threat is that big guy from D11. The snapping gets louder until the blonde kid from D12 comes through the brush. We all stand in surprise.

"What do you want?" Glimmer asks.

The guy looks at his shoes before looking at us again.

"I was...wondering if you needed an extra hand with the hunting and...uh... killing."

We're all pretty shocked. This kid wants to join the alliance? That's like a death wish in the making. Does he want security? Food? We can't say for sure. This kid might kill us in our sleep. I look at the kid again and that theory goes out the window when I see how innocent and non-threatening the guy appears to be. Maybe that's just a cover for a more sinister plan.

"Why the hell would we need you?" Cato barks.

The kid kicks some dirt and shrugs.

"I can help you catch tributes and I'm pretty good with heavy stuff."

We all eye him suspiciously. Cato walks around him a few times, taking everything in. He looks like a tiger waiting to pounce, encircling his prey. The kid is well-built and he seems that he's smart enough to run from the Bloodbath earlier. He doesn't seem like he's really resourceful, having nothing on him, not even a weapon. I can't see how he'd help us at all.

Cato goes back to us and we all stare at him.

"I can help you catch her." he adds quietly.

Her?

There's a long pause as we think it over.

"Give us a second." Cato says.

We're all pulled into a huddle to discuss in private.

"We can't trust him" Glimmer interjects. "Plus he's useless to us anyway."

"I agree." Marvel says. "I think we should kill him now. He'll never see it coming."

"Hold on." Clove says. "He might be useful."

"How?" Glimmer protests.

"Remember who he's in love with?" Clove says.

"I swear that love thing is a ploy for sponsors" Marvel interjects.

"Maybe, maybe not, but we could use him as diversion or scapegoat" I add.

The others look at me. I can see a bit of hesitation

"If he can't help us find the threats, he can distract the tributes, like the beefy guy and if he doesn't work out, leave him for the others to kill so we can get away."

They nod in slight agreement at my idea. I'm proud of myself that I'm being included in the group decision and coming up with ideas. I shift a bit closer to Clove.

"He does live in the same district as her. He'd know her well if he loved her, know her habits and skills. He could be our best chance of finding her." Glimmer says.

Her?! I guess they must mean his district partner Kasey?... Katie..Katniss! I guess because of her score, she's a threat. For a second I thought they might've meant Six or my sister, but I guess the Careers are focusing on the bigger threats. Besides, unbeknownst to them, Six can turn invisible and my sister can camouflage and use any material she has against us.

"If he's useless... We kill him." Cato concludes.

The others nod in agreement and we get out of the huddle. I get a little closer to Clove and I bump my hand next to her. My heart beats faster than before and my cheeks start to turn red. She shoots me a quick glance and shifts away a bit.

My heart sinks. Guess our make-out session was just a...then I realize that we're on T.V. nothing is private and everything is being broadcast to the Captiol and districts. I start to wonder if Clove wants to keep our...thing a secret, at least for now. The love card has already been played. I think that our relationship could get us even more sponsors than the D12 wimps. Our relationship would be strong, something fans could root for. I assume that Clove wants to wait until the two other lovers are dead before we show our feelings...If she has those feelings.

"Alright Lover boy." Cato says. "You can stay."

Marvel goes over and hands the kid a spear.

"Just don't think of double crossing us." Marvel snarls.

"Deal." the kid says.

It's just before night fall after Glimmer got a fire going and we've all eaten. We sit in silence, milling over our supplies and fiddling with our weapons. Occasionally, Clove and I exchange side glances. I smile at her a few times and she returns the gesture.

"Grab your stuff Cyclops. We're going hunting." Cato says.

"Hunting?" I say in a confused voice. "But we have tonnes of food."

Cato snorts and Marvel also laughs. They pick up their weapons and use a rock to make sure it's nice and sharp. Clove arranges the knives in her jacket while the blonde kid...Peeta watches me wearily and just clings to the spear he was given. Glimmer checks her reflection and fixes her braid before arming herself with a bow and quiver of arrows.

"We're going hunting for humans."