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Shoutout to:
Piper
Exploding bananas
Earthspirit10
Filia ab Neptune
Stormzy
guest
whycantifindanamethatfits
Pjohp121
justanopinion
Cruden
Chapter 42
Percy pov
The trudge back to the cornucopia was silent. He didn't know why, but he could not do silence. It made him want to yank the hair out of his head and scream like he belonged in a psyche ward. Of course, with everything that has happened a psyche ward might be the perfect place for Percy. If there were two things he hated most in the world it was probably silence and standardized testing. Twenty students answering trivial questions for two hours with only a rare cough or sniffle to break the silence while a teacher glowers at everyone life a prison sentry? Percy wondered what kind of vile demented person thought to give those to kids. He shivered just thinking about it.
His usual strategy to counteract silence was to fantasize. He could never concentrate on something for too long anyways, so contemplating his life and the tragedy it has become was actually pretty common for him. Sometimes he would check out and everything would be different in the world when he checked back in. He discovered pretty quickly however, that this wasn't going to work. The problem being that he seemed to lack the memories necessary to complete this act.
Percy wanted to muse about his life before the arena, or rather before the reaping because that was really when this mess started. He wondered what he'd be doing right now if he had never volunteered for the hunger games. School would've been starting soon judging by the sunlight creeping across the field. Wait that's not right, I work in the mines.Little details about his life seemed to get more and more hazy the longer he spent time in the arena. He tried to envision life in district twelve but his head throbbed anytime he thought too long. He tried to remember anyone really outside of the orphanage but nobody he didn't meet the day of the reaping came to mind. It was as if he had been reprogrammed to think that his life before the reaping was an after-thought. He had never thought much about it before, but it was as if his life hadn't even started until that morning. The only reason he kept this to himself was because no one else thought he was out of place. Everyone he met thought he belonged in district twelve. If he did not belong in district twelve, then how did the peacekeeper identify him that fateful morning?
The only person he could clearly envision from his memory bank was the girl he had been dreaming about almost every night. Percy was glad Cato wasn't looking because he could feel his cheeks heat up when she entered his thoughts. Percy couldn't get her out of his head. He thought about her constantly. In fact if he were to create a pie graph of the thoughts that go through his head, you would see a Pac-man getting ready to chomp down on a tasty ghost representing the amount of thoughts spent on food and the hot blonde girl, while the other five percent were spent on trivial matters like making sure Cato or the monsters don't eat him alive. The only thing Percy could be sure of was that she was undoubtedly not from district twelve.
Only now was he beginning to feel out of place amongst the other tributes. It wasn't just the memories, or lack thereof, but his innate control over water. It was weirdly unsurprising by this point that Percy could control water. It was almost as if he knew he could the whole time. Percy hated to admit it, but when he was manipulating the rain to trap the mutts last night it was invigorating. Offhandedly Percy wondered how the gamemakers would be explaining that to the rest of Panem. Anything that made their lives a little more difficult was a win in his mind.
Percy was suddenly jerked from his thoughts by a strange rustling sound to his left. This was confirmed when Cato stopped and turned toward the direction of the swaying wheat as well. Cato slashed his sword into the wheat in front of him, but whoever had been there a second before was suddenly gone.
"What do you think it could be?" Cato softly whispered.
Percy shrugged his shoulders, but he was sure they were being followed now. It wasn't the first time he had noticed a third set of eyes lingering nearby.
"I don't think it's a monster, but we really need to get out of this field," Percy warned.
"Monster?" Cato turned to look at Percy with an eyebrow raised.
"Yeah… like the wolves," Percy explained as if talking to a small child.
"You mean the mutts?" Cato asked with a clear edge to his voice. He did not like to be talked down to.
"Yeah, whatever same thing I guess," Percy brushed off without any clear acknowledgement to Cato's anger.
The rest of the trip was filled with silence again, but Percy made to sure to keep an extra vigilant watch. Whatever or whoever was following them seemed much more familiar with this area of the map then either Percy or Cato could ever hope to be.
The trip back to the cornucopia took longer than Percy expected, as Cato managed to get surprisingly far while carrying Clove away from the monsters. Percy must not have noticed last night as he had so many other things on his mind. Percy was a lousy hunter, and he could not imagine Cato being much better, so if they didn't find a way back to the cornucopia they would have to survive on the field. Percy felt a bad taste in his mouth from the last time he tried to eat plants from the arena. Nope, Percy refused to do it, so they had to make it back. Finally, as the sun crept higher in the sky, they made it back to the cliff that loomed over the rest of the field. Cato and Percy looked for the best way to climb it.
"We'll have to throw our supplies and weapons over the top and climb without it," Cato reasoned eventually.
It wasn't an idea that Percy was particularly fond of beings as though they weren't alone, but he couldn't think of another way up. Percy nodded with a sigh and heaved his backpack over the top. He allowed Cato the opportunity to throw his sword over first, as Percy still trusted him about as far as he could throw him. Fortunately Cato didn't pick up Percy's slight hesitation when throwing his own blade over the top.
"Alright give me a boost so I can climb up," Cato suggested.
"What! Don't be ridiculous I'm going first," Percy argued.
"Why's that?" Cato blinked at Percy in genuine confusion.
"Because both of our weapons are up there and I know the second you get up you'll try and kill me," Percy quickly retorted.
Before Cato could reply, Percy felt a chill run down his spine. He knew whatever had been following them was nearby and they were defenseless and with limited visibility. They needed to act now before it was too late.
"Fine lets just get out of here. I swear if you kill me…" Percy didn't finish his threat as he positioned himself to boost Cato up.
"Why the sudden change of heart?" Cato questioned as he was hoisted up using Percy's face as a springboard.
"Mris ack" Percy grumbled through Cato's shoe.
"What?" Cato asked obliviously.
"It's back. Whoever has been following us is back. I can feel it." Percy rushed as he waited for Cato to pull him up.
"How do you…?" Cato stopped as he looked behind Percy with a startled expression on his face. Just before Percy could turn around and see who it was, he felt a heavy force like a linebacker shoulder check him into the side of the cliff. Percy was caught off guard and crumbled to the ground rubbing his shoulder. He looked up to see what had hit him and saw the district eleven tribute, Thresh, towering above him with his curved black sword raised high above his head blocking the sun.
"I should've known it was you. You seem to be a big fan of running into people when they aren't looking," Percy said as if he had just found the solution to an incredibly hard crossword clue in the newspaper. Not that Percy would ever be caught dead doing the crossword. He'd seen Annabeth do the crossword on occasion though.
"Wait! Annabeth!" Percy shouted with joy seemingly unaware of his imminent demise. Thresh looked at him in confusion while deciding whether he should lower his weapon, "don't you see? That's her name!"
Thresh seemingly came to a decision in his head and raised his sword with resolve. He brought it down on Percy's head, and Percy probably could have stopped him, but his mind was far too preoccupied at the moment to even notice Thresh's sword until it was inches from his face. Suddenly a second blade intercepted it and bought Percy enough time to clear his head and scramble out of the way. Percy looked at the owner of the blade and was shocked to see Cato and Thresh locked in combat. He was sure Cato would've allowed Thresh to finish the job before attacking him.
Thresh and Cato clashed and it was clear enough to Percy that Cato was actually more skilled than Thresh. This legitimately surprised him because Percy didn't think Cato could be more skilled than anyone. His footwork was better and his swings were more precise. Cato had delivered several gashes to Thresh, but Thresh was clearly stronger and his heavy blows were starting to tire Cato out. On top of that, the gashes seemed to cause no significant advantage for Cato, as Thresh fought on with reckless abandon. Thresh managed to hook his sword in Cato's whether by accident or on purpose Percy could not be sure. When Thresh yanked his sword back, Cato's blade was dislodged from his grip. It skittered across the ground leaving Cato open for attack. Thresh attempted to hack his sword deep into Cato's chest but the sword simply bounced off his body and clattered out of Thresh's hand. That was when Percy noticed that Cato's tribute outfit looked slightly thicker than Thresh's.
Cato looked down at his chest and grinned, but it seemed more like the snarl of a wolf sensing weakness, before striking Thresh square in the jaw. Thresh stumbled backwards as Cato grabbed his sword.
Percy realized he should probably be defusing the situation instead of watching it like prime time television. He could almost understand the sick fascination people had with gladiator fighting back in the day as well as why the capitol enjoyed the games so much. Unlike gladiator fighting Cato wouldn't wait for the okay before killing his enemy.
Just as Cato was preparing to swing his sword into Thresh's head, Percy grabbed his arm. Cato whipped his head around in shock to see who had stopped him. "What are you doing? Let go of me!" Cato roared.
"No. No more death," Percy said with quiet resolve.
"He almost killed both of us and you stilldon't want me to kill him?" Cato shrieked incredulously.
Percy looked over at Thresh to see he had his sword back at his side but made no move to strike them down. Percy locked eyes with him and found curiosity hidden inside. Thresh nodded to Percy and Percy nodded back.
"No more death," Percy said with the same quiet resolve before releasing Cato's arm.
Cato didn't attempt to kill Thresh or Percy as he slowly lowered his blade to his side. They all looked at each other like it were a Mexican standoff, but the hostility was slowly fading away to be replaced with apprehension.
Loony's pov
The bar was packed tonight, as it always was on Friday nights during the hunger games. The business Luka makes during hunger games season covers most of his expenses for the year. He never really got invested into the whole hunger games craze like most people. Luka much prefer settling down in bed at night with a good book. He wanted to be an author once upon a time. He knows he can write, but between work and raising a family he just never had the time. Luka still appreciates the hunger games for bringing good business to his bar because he knows they certainly don't come for the food.
Everyone was packed around the bar counter and watched the games while sipping drinks and ordering appetizers. His usual bartender is out sick, so Luka had to fill in for her. He overhears everyone's conversations and they seem to be centered on some boy from district twelve. It's not the first time he's heard them talking about the kid. Luka doesn't follow the games, but even he was impressed when they said he received the first perfect training score in hunger games history.
Tonight they seem to be discussing his apparent "powers". He had to listen more carefully to make sure he heard correctly. Yes, they were definitely talking about some special ability he seems to have. Most people assumed it was some trick of the game makers, but they haven't released an official statement yet.
"Loony get me another Johnny Walker neat will ya," Lysander, a regular, uses his nickname teasingly. It was a nickname he had gotten in school a long time ago because whatever interests the rest of the kids had, he always thought the opposite.
"Running up quite the tab tonight aren't we? You better be able to pay for this?" Luka replied playfully while preparing the drink.
Suddenly the whole bar erupted as they started chanting FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! You would think we were in a middle school hallway the way everyone was chanting and jeering. I looked up at the television to see two boys attempting to hack each other to death with swords.
"Not bad for two kids that have never held a weapon before," Luka said to no one in particular.
"Of course they've held a weapon before. They train for the hunger games all the time in the districts," someone spoke out over the chanting.
"Isn't that not allowed?" Luka asked naively.
"Jeez you really are loony aren't you. Besides it makes for more entertaining fights," Lysander said as he sipped his Johnny Walker while staring intently at the television.
Luka went back to watching the fight and saw that the blonde kid was preparing to give the final blow. Before he could another tribute grabbed his arm. He thought this would mean that the tables were about to turn on the blonde tribute, but the boy, he could recognize him as the district twelve kid, made no attempt to hard him.
"No more death," the district twelve kid was saying.
Surprisingly the situation began to diffuse itself as the tributes began staring at each other unsure of what to do. Now Luka may not be a hunger games expert, but he could tell that was not supposed to happen. It was as if a vampire had came and sucked the life right out the bar. He looked around the bar and noticed everyone seemed to be squiring while staring at each other with a look that could almost be considered shame. Suddenly no one was buying drinks or eating appetizers. No one seemed much in the mood to watch the hunger games at all. This is bad for business Luka thought sullenly.
