I wake from my nap shortly after the re-wiring of the pedestals is done. "Good, you're up." Cato says "And just in time too!" Marvel jokes as works on digging random holes in the ground.
"What are you going to do with all of this?" I question as I follow Cato over to the middle of the field. "We are creating a booby trap." He responds, putting emphasis on the word 'we'. "Oh, fun." I reply sarcastically.
We stack up as many of the supplies that we can spare in the middle of a ring drawn into the grass with someone's heel. "Wouldn't it be more fun to just kill them with our hands?" I ask, after a good bit of stacking.
"Yes, but that's what they're expecting. They won't be expecting this." Cato answers calmly. "Fine, but I still think it would be easier to kill them ourselves." I say with a sigh as I grab the last couple of items to pile up.
As soon as I place the last item on the stack, Melvin begins his work. He takes the rewired pedestals and places them into all of the holes that Marvel dug and covers them with dirt.
"Now, it is very essential that we know the proper placement of the mines. If we don't we'll be the ones being blown sky high." Melvin says, matter-of-factly. "And how do we know the placement?" I question him, still annoyed at this whole idea.
"I've made some slight patterns using the dirt from the holes. As long as we only step on those marks, we will be perfectly fine." He finishes.
"But we shouldn't need anything from the pile. We took everything we'll use out beforehand." Cato adds, gesturing to a smaller pile inside of the Cornucopia.
"Fine, but I still don't like it." I say as I head to the lake to clean up. I strip off my clothes and ease myself into the cool water. I haven't bathed since before the trackerjacker incident, and the water causes the open sores on my arms, neck, and back to burn.
I wince from the pain as I gently begin to scrub at the sores. They've begun to get infected, and I make a mental note to clean and re-bandage my sores, as well as Cato and Marvel's. The last thing we need is to get sick from contamination.
I scrub my hair under the water, releasing the dirt into the clear, blue lake. I wade out of the water and dress myself. I slowly begin walking back to the camp, working the tangles out of my hair using my fingers.
I walk over to the supply pile and weed through it until I find the bandages and ointment. "Cato. Come here." I almost order him from across the field. "What's up?" he asks confused as he jogs over to my side.
"I need to clean out your stings. Mine have already begun to get infected, I want to make sure yours and Marvel's aren't too bad. "Um, ok doctor." He says jokingly as he pulls his shirt over his head.
Seeing him shirtless, I notice that he's lost weight, but his muscles all seem intact. I focus on the task in front of me and as gently as I can, I clean out his sores. He grimaces, and winces in pain, but I have to get it cleaned out. "There. The hard part's over." I tell him as I finish the last sore on his shoulder.
I dip two of my fingers into the jar of ointment and begin to slather every wound with it. I finish by slapping a bandage on any spot where I put ointment.
"Done. Now go and get Marvel for me." I say as he gets up. "Yes ma'am." He responds teasingly, but does as I asked and gets Marvel, who comes walking over to me.
I repeat the process on him, but I'm done sooner because he didn't have anywhere near as many stings as Cato. He leaves and I pull my shirt off, examining my own stings. I have three on my arms, one on my neck, one on my chest and two on my back.
I patch up the ones that I can reach on my own, but I have to call Cato back over to help me with the ones on my back. He obliges and bandages the 2 sores up. "You're burn is looking a little better." He says as I'm pulling on my shirt.
"It still hurts like mess." I mumble, slightly wincing from the stretch of the skin. "Well, I'll help you put some burn cream on it later, ok?" he asks with a small smile. "Fine." I say, rolling my eyes at his attempt to be flirtatious.
It soon becomes dark and we all sit around the fire, cooking our various foods over the flames. We eat in silence, not having much to say. I'm about to head off to bed when Marvel speaks up.
"So, more hunting tomorrow? Or are we at the point where we wait and see what happens?" he asks Cato. "We hunt until there's none left." Cato answers him curtly.
"Oh, gotchya." Marvel finishes as he stands up to go to his tent. "Whoa, where are you going?" Cato says after him. "To bed?" Marvel answers, questioningly.
"Oh no you don't. You have the first watch tonight." Cato tells him with a slight smirk. "Dang it! I always have the first watch!" Marvel yells, irritated. "Well, would you rather have the 2 to 4 am watch?" Cato questions.
Marvel contemplates this for a moment. "Nah, I'll stick with this one." He decides and picks up his spear. "That's what I thought." Cato says with a small smile.
"Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed." I say as I stand up and walk to the tent. "I am as well. " Cato says as he follows me.
"Will you help me with that ointment now?" I ask him. "Sure, you'll have to sleep on your stomach though. It won't be dried for a while after it goes on." He replies and I nod.
I carefully pull my shirt over my head and lie face down on the sleeping bag while he goes out to get the cream. He comes back in quickly, unscrews the cap, and he begins to smooth the cream on my scabbing skin.
I wince and bite my lip from the stinging, but the coolness of the ointment draws the burning right out.
"That feels nice." I mumble with a small smile. "Good." He replies and begins to blow softly on the burns to dry the cream.
I squirm a little from the coolness, but soon the cream is dry enough for me to move and get situated to go to sleep. I remove my boots and crawl into the sleeping bag. I leave the rest of my clothes on because the temperature has begun to get colder.
Cato does the same, just removing his boots and lays flat on his back to sleep and I know that there will be snoring from him tonight.
"Goodnight" I say with a yawn as I close my eyes. "Night." He answers before drifting off to sleep.