Raised to Fight, Born to Die: The District 2 Tributes
Personally, the last chapter I wrote was my best one so far, I think. Besides this one. Hopefully you guys think this chapter is a good follow-up! I literally reread parts of the Hunger Games for my next few chapters because of how many things I wanted to match exactly. Comments, reviews and feedback are appreciated. Thank you!
(Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games or its characters.)
Chapter 5: Bloodbath
Cato
I dart forward as fast as I can. Adrenaline runs through my veins, making my body jump as I run. A girl runs into my path, and then she sees me and runs in the opposite direction. I change course and quickly catch up to her, sticking my foot out to trip her. She falls, I bend down and snap her neck, and she is dead. I hear three cannons go off, telling me two more people have died.
I let myself go. My mind no longer controls me now; my body does. Everything from sixteen years of Training back in District Two rushes back to me. Even in the first two years of my life without training, I watched as older children practiced, watched as they won their Games. I always wanted to be like them one day. Now I am.
I run to the center of the Cornucopia, where I see Clove beating a young boy. He dies, too. I pick up spears and throw at any tribute I see that isn't in our alliance. I see Ellas, the boy from Four, holding a spear and I immediately chase him down. I throw my spear and it hits him in the back of his head and he tumbles forward. I run forward, retrieve my spear as well as the one Ellas was holding, and run back to the Cornucopia, stabbing another boy in the chest on the way. With every death, my body gets energized. There is no better feeling than the thrill of the kill.
I see Glimmer in combat with the boy from Eight, and as she aims for him he ducks and attempts to knock her off her feet. But it doesn't work. Glimmer is too skilled. She easily dodges his attack and stabs him with a knife. She turns toward me and smiles. I smile back.
All around me, I see people fighting, falling to the ground, dying. I see my fellow Careers and I whoop loudly, running toward the center of the Cornucopia. This is what I have been waiting for.
.
Clove
The gong goes off, and I dash forward toward the huge metal structure that is the Cornucopia. I dart past the useless items that litter the outskirts and run deep inside to find deadly serrated knives.
I turn to look over my shoulder. "Cover me!" I say to Marvel, the closest Career to me. I pick up each knife and store them in my belt, and then I run back outside with Marvel. On the ground, I see another knife. I pick it up and throw at the girl from District Three. It would have hit her in the chest but she turned at the last minute and my weapon ledges itself deeply into her arm instead. She'll be dead in minutes from the bleeding if she doesn't have good sponsors, so I leave her be.
Then I stab an older boy in his forehead as I pass him and run to Glimmer, who is in a fierce battle with Thresh. But right when I am about to throw at him, I see two figures battling over bread behind them.
And one of them is the girl from Twelve. The Girl on Fire. Katniss.
I ditch Glimmer in a snap. She is too busy to notice. I take my knife intended for Thresh and throw at the boy fighting her, and it hits him in his back. He staggers forward and falls. Katniss looks up in shock, and I am delighted to see fear spread across her pale face. She runs toward the forest behind her and I chase her. I throw a knife at her back, a good throw I have to say, but at the last minute she hikes her backpack up to protect her head, which is where the knife ledges itself instead. I scowl in disappointment, but I let her run off. We'll find her eventually. It's not worth leaving Cato and the bloodbath. Especially with the plan that has just formed inside my head.
.
Cato
Inside the huge metal Cornucopia, I see tons and tons of food, weapons, and supply boxes. I pry the boxes open, one by one. Some of the things I find are iodine, warm bread, heat reflective sleeping bags and body suits, etc. Then I come to a big one and pry it open with my sword.
Inside, I find three thick body suits. It looks like they are supposed to serve as body armor. I take two out, one for me and one for Clove, and leave the third one for whoever takes it from District One.
I turn around and find a truly astonishing sight: Clove and Lover Boy from District Twelve, whom I can't remember the name of. I instantly take out my sword and jump on him, throwing us both to the ground. I hold the sword to his throat.
"Cato! Don't!" Clove says, sounding panicked.
I stop. Still holding the sword to the boy's neck, I give Clove a questioning look.
"He stays with us," she says, sounding confident. My eyes narrow in confusion, but if it is Clove's idea then I should trust her with it. She's smart. She must have something in mind for him. After all, he did get an Eight in Training. It may be low for a Career, but it's also unbelievably high for anyone else.
I slowly get off him. He doesn't say anything, just stands up. "Thanks, Clove," he says to her.
"No problem," she says. "You are officially a Career," she mocks, and then she hands him two knives. Probably just ones she doesn't want.
Now that I've calmed down from the action of the bloodbath, I notice Lover Boy for the first time. He's got a huge cut on his arm, and he is placing almost all his weight on his left leg. Which means his right one must be injured. Someone must have beaten him up, too, because the bruises on his face are prominent.
"I'll go around and collect all the weapons," Lover Boy says.
I nod. "Clove and I will gather all the food. Put the weapons over here, and the food pile will go next to it," I demand.
"Wait," Clove says. "We can't just leave them in piles! What happens when we leave to hunt? Anyone nearby can just walk in and take whatever they want." She pauses. "That means we have to split up our group."
"Lover Boy can handle watch duty," I say.
"No," she says sharply. "He stays with us."
Her sharpness takes me off guard. I cannot figure out why Clove wants the boy from Twelve so much. What use can he be? We could just kill him already, and then all we'd have one less tribute to hunt!
Twelve. Just the name of the district brings his district partner to my mind. The girl with the Eleven.
All of a sudden I see Clove's motives. Now I know why she wants him; he's our best chance of finding the girl with the Eleven. Katniss.
Once again, Clove has proven to me how smart and valuable a Career she is. I give her a knowing smile when Lover Boy is not looking. Then the three of us get to work. Marvel is scavenging any other useful items from the dead bodies and Glimmer is going through the items that litter the entrance to the Cornucopia before we all walk to the huge lake nearby; there we wait for the hovercraft to collect the bodies, and then we quickly resume work. But then I see one of the bodies has not been collected. I run forward with my spear, and Clove gets out two knives and runs beside me.
We get to the figure, the boy from District Three. He is crying out, begging for us not to kill him, but Clove ignores him and moves to stab him. But sure enough, right before her knife hits his throat, he says something.
"I can keep your food safe," he gets out in a ragged breath.
This stops Clove completely. Only for a split second, though. She jumps on him and holds the point of her knife to the boy's throat. "How?" she questions, the word coming out quick and sharp.
"Around every metal plate," he says, "there are buried bombs. They-"
"Yeah, yeah, they blow up the tributes if they leave ahead of time," Clove interrupts impatiently. "So what?"
"I know how to disarm them."
"Why would we need-" Clove cuts herself off. She knows.
"The food," I say. Then I say louder, "We need him, Clove."
She looks at the boy skeptically. "You're telling me you can dig them up, move them around the supply piles, reactivate them, and cover it up, but keep them so we can still access the supplies without getting blown to bits ourselves?" she says, raising her eyebrows sarcastically.
"Yes," the boy chokes.
"What's the harm?" I tell Clove. "The worst that can happen is he can die trying," I say persuasively.
She looks at the boy for a second, and she finally gives in. "Fine. But make sure all the bombs that protect each supply pile can't activate each other, or all our stuff will be gone if one of the bombs is provoked," she says intelligently. She shoves her knife to his neck for emphasis. "Got it?" she says in a brutal voice. He nods and she jumps off him.
Clove and I walk over to Marvel, Glimmer, and the boy from Twelve. "We found a way to protect the food," I say. I nod over to the boy from Three and Glimmer nods, but Marvel doesn't understand. Clove explains the plan to him, and that is when it occurs to me that Marvel isn't very smart.
While the boy from Three begins the tiring process of moving the bombs, Clove, Marvel, Glimmer and I load up on food and weapons for our hunt. Clove and I are deep inside the Cornucopia and I see her scavenging any kind of knife she can find, and each one she finds she arranges on the inside of her jacket. I pick up spears and attach them to the side of my backpack with a rope I find near the edge of the Cornucopia, giving me easy access to them if necessary. Clove gives me a few good knives, and she points out a mighty sword to me under a pile of clothes. I take the sword and stick it through my belt.
I take advantage of our alone time. I dig into my backpack and pull out the two body suits I saved. "These are for us," I say. "There are only three, so don't tell One. I left the last one where I found it so if they find it they'll think there was only one to begin with," I continue. She nods and we strip down to our underwear, not looking at each other of course, slide into our body suits, and then put our arena clothes back on again. Just in time, I might add, because Marvel comes in not two seconds after Clove zips up her jacket.
"Let's go," he says. The three of us walk outside. Marvel is loading food into his backpack as well as Glimmer's when he stops and looks at us.
"I have it all sorted out," he begins. "You and Clove will carry the weapons, and Glimmer and I will carry the food. That way we have a lot of both."
Clove is already shaking her head. "No," she says. Marvel looks at her quizzically and I elaborate. "What if we have to split up? Then one group will have no food and the other no weapons. We should all carry a little of both in our backpacks, just in case."
"And don't forget Lover Boy," Clove cuts in.
The boy from Twelve walks up to us, his backpack already filled with food. I see Clove's knives under his belt. "Are we ready?" he says.
Glimmer and Marvel refill their backpacks based on what I said. Then we set out. I also make sure to tell the boy from Three that if he leaves, we will hunt him down mercilessly and kill him on the spot. Then we set out into the forest.
.
Clove
It isn't long until we come across the girl from Four, who is attempting to track someone through the forest. Cato runs to kill her, but I stop him. I remember how smart she was during Training and I remember her interview; I want to ally with her. She finally agrees to be a Career. Her name is Leena.
After hours of trekking through the trees, we stop to rest for a few minutes. We all drink from our water canteens. It is night now. Any minute the faces of dead tributes will show up in the night sky.
"So who's dead?" Glimmer says. "I killed the boy from Eight."
"I killed the girl from Three, and the boys from Four, Seven, and Nine," Cato recites.
"I got the girl from Seven, and someone else I don't know," Marvel says. "What about you?" he asks Leena.
"I grabbed some apples and a knife, and then I ran for it," she says. When we make faces, she adds, "Well, I didn't run. I just hid behind the Cornucopia until everyone died," she elaborates. Right. Careers never run from the Cornucopia.
"Look, the anthem's playing," I say, pointing to the sky. Sure enough, the Panem seal shows up, followed by photos of the girl from Three, the boys from Four, Five, and Six, both from Seven, the boy from Eight, both from Nine, and the girl from Ten. That means Thresh and the Girl on Fire are still alive.
I stabbed that girl from Six in the arm," I say.
"Guess loss of blood got to her, then," Cato says, and we all laugh. The seal reappears and the sky goes dark. We decide to set out and we begin walking again.
.
We are walking only for a few minutes when I see some smoke high in the sky to my left. I laugh because that was the easiest hunt in the world. "Look!" I yell, excitement filling my voice. Everyone looks, and Glimmer and Cato whoop with energy. We all run straight for the fire. I think for a second that we should split up and surround the tribute so they can't escape, but I figure if a tribute is stupid enough to build a fire when they are being hunted by Careers then they can't be that hard of a catch.
It turns out to be the girl from Eight. She panics and starts to cry when we find her, and I laugh in disgust.
"Please, please don't," she pleads, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Please don't kill me!" We ignore her and Cato slits her throat, not hesitating, blood spurting from the girl's fresh wound. She falls to the ground, and we all laugh at her. "Good job, Cato," Glimmer says sweetly. I feel a flicker of annoyance at her voice. "Nice one," I tell him louder, and Cato and I exchange high fives. We whoop and laugh loudly, warning any others nearby that we just killed someone and aren't afraid to kill anyone else. "Twelve down, Eleven to go!" Glimmer calls out with bubbling energy, and we all hoot in agreement, our voices echoing around us.
"She doesn't even have anything good!" Cato says, rummaging through her small, raggedy bag.
"What makes you think she'll have anything good if she was dumb enough to build that fire?" I point out.
"Good point," Cato replies, and he scoffs in disbelief of how easy she was to find.
"Let's move on," Leena says.
Cato agrees. "Better clear out so they can get the body before it starts stinking," he says. Lover Boy and I murmur in agreement.
"Shouldn't we have heard a cannon by now?" Leena questions after we have walked a little.
"I'd say yes," I respond. "Nothing to prevent them from going in immediately," I add, thinking of the hovercraft.
Marvel stops walking. "Unless she isn't dead."
"She's dead," Cato says firmly. "I struck her myself."
"Then where's the cannon?" Marvel challenges.
"Someone should go back, make sure the job's done!" Glimmer says loudly, trying to talk over them.
"Yeah, so we don't have to track her down twice," Marvel agrees.
"I said she's dead!" Cato yells in Marvel's face.
Lover Boy finally inputs something into the argument. "We're wasting time! I'll go finish her, and let's move on!" he says impatiently.
"Go on, Lover Boy," Cato says, mocking him. "See for yourself." With that, District Twelve's boy tribute turns on his heel and heads back toward the campfire and the supposedly dead tribute girl.
"Why don't we just kill him now and get it over with?" Marvel asks impatiently in a half whisper.
Glimmer clicks her tongue and says, "Let him tag along. What's the harm?" She smiles a knowing smile. "And he's handy with that knife."
"Besides, he's our best chance of finding her," Cato inputs. He is thinking the same thoughts as I am.
"Why?" Marvel questions once again. "Do you think she bought into that sappy romance stuff?"
"She might have," I suggest. Then I shrug. "Seemed pretty simpleminded to me. Every time I see her spinning around in that dress, I want to puke." I imitate throwing up and Cato agrees, laughing in disgust.
"Wish we knew how she got that Eleven," Leena says quietly.
"Bet you Lover Boy knows," I say with a smirk, raising one eyebrow.
We all fall silent because the boy we were talking about returns. "Was she dead?" Cato questions loudly.
"No," the boy says, "But she is now." Then we wear a cannon fire in the distance, proving his statement. "Ready to move on?"
Cato
We decide to keep going through the night, since this is the time when most tributes are asleep or unaware of their surroundings. Every now and then, I take sips of water, careful not to drink too much. The more we conserve, the longer we can survive hunting our competitors without having to retreat back to the Cornucopia for supplies. I had to tell Marvel this because he was gulping down his water down like there was no tomorrow.
"I'm bored," Marvel says.
"I bet you something will happen today," Glimmer says.
"Yeah, if nothing happens today we'll all be driven together by tonight at least," Leena says.
"I agree with you," I say to Marvel. "This is getting boring."
Clove laughs. "Hey, Gamemakers!" she calls to the sky. "We're ready whenever you are!" This gets a laugh out of all of us.
When nothing happens, she frowns in mock disappointment. "Something will happen, though," she says to me. "I'm sure of it!"
We are walking for a long time now. I notice Clove has slowed down so she is in the back of the group. Glimmer, Leena and Marvel are busy pretending to kill each other for them to notice that I fall back so I am in step with Clove.
"Having fun?" I say.
She elbows me. "Are you?"
I shrug. "Could be better."
"You know, we'll have to split up from them sometime," I say, looking at Marvel fake stabbing Leena with his spear, making Glimmer laugh loudly.
"Not now though," I say. "There's still ten of us left. No one died yesterday except the girl from Eight, so after the Gamemakers do something to bring us together, we'll see how many of us are still alive. How about that?" I say.
She nods. "And when do we split up?" I can tell she means the two of us.
Now I have nothing to say. I won't go killing her in her sleep or anything. More like I will let someone else kill her off.
But at the same time, I don't want someone to kill her off. I don't want her to die at all. I know by now I will definitely not be pointing my sword at her. She's my friend. Marvel and Leena, I can kill off in a second, but the moment I touch either of them, Glimmer will know to turn on us, too.
I hope the Gamemakers aren't filming us now. They probably aren't, but still. What I am about to say is private and not for the cameras. "I won't kill you," I say quietly.
When she doesn't say anything, I repeat myself. "I won't kill you. I can promise you that."
"Why would you say that?" Clove says slowly.
I did not expect this. Or, more like, I didn't think about how she would react to my words. "I can't kill you. I mean, at first, I didn't really think about it, I just figured someone else would, but now…" I look at her. "I don't want you to die."
"Well, I won't die then."
That means I have to die. Which I won't. I don't even know what I am thinking anymore.
.
"So, Peeta," Glimmer says, "What do you know about the girl? Your district partner?"
"She wouldn't talk to me much," he says, but I can't tell if he is lying. He might be, which would support the whole publically-declare-your-love thing. Or he may be telling the truth, in which case the publically-declare-your-love thing is an act to get more sponsors. If the latter is true, this boy may be smarter than I think.
"But she does know her survival skills," he adds when he seems to sense we are getting suspicious. I know he knows we are only keeping him alive because we need him to find his district partner. "She's intelligent."
"Knowing her, where do you think she'd hide?" Clove asks curiously.
He looks up. "In trees," he says. "She can climb."
"Any particular weapons she prefers?" Leena says. "Though I think it's unlikely, seeing as you guys are from poor old Twelve," she laughs.
Lover Boy ignores this jab. "I don't know," he says reluctantly. "She asked to train separately from me."
"But you guys were practically glued to each other during Training," Clove says skeptically. "You have to know something."
The boy only shrugs. "Nope. That was a public act only. She didn't want me to know any of her talents, if she has any, so she would just tie stupid knots and stuff," he finishes.
"Maybe there really is nothing special about her," I conclude. "Maybe it is all just a big act." But I know that is not true.
"No," Clove reminds me, "She still got that Eleven."
Oh," I say, annoyed we are not coming close to finding an answer to this girl's Training Score. "Right."
Glimmer wants to eat. She takes out her backpack and unloads most of her food and we all share it.
Now, during the silence, is when I notice our surroundings. It is daytime now. There is smoke in the air behind us, but too much for it to be from one or two fires. I turn around to watch it.
The other Careers notice me turn and they do the same. I cannot figure out what it is. We travel toward it for a while, and soon it becomes apparent that the smoke is coming from a huge wall of fire. Finally, some action.
.
Clove
"Run!" I yell, warning the others. We all run back the way we came, but the fire is already too close; we are all coughing and gagging and most of us have the good sense to put our shirts over our mouths. Leena trips over a tree root, and Glimmer doubles back to help her. Cato, Marvel and I run for our lives.
I hear a hiss to my left and before I know it Marvel shoves me out of the way, into Cato. Cato catches me and we fall backward, me landing on the dirt next to him. Marvel is behind what is a huge fireball burning into the ground. I stare at it until I sense Cato jump up and he says, "Let's go!"
I scramble up from the ground and run.
"Where's Leena and Glimmer?" Marvel shouts over the roar of the fire. He coughs because he is inhaling too much smoke.
"Cover your mouth!" I say, and put the neck of my shirt over my mouth and nose. When I run, I look back and Leena and Glimmer are nowhere to be seen. I shrug and keep running. Two less people to kill, right?
Apparently Cato thinks the same. Marvel turns back, which I know Glimmer would never do for him, and he calls out for her. Cato and I leave him.
We run for a while, and I realize the fire is getting father and farther behind us. The smoke, however, is what's slowing us down. I can barely breathe; the smoke is so thick I cannot see anything past fifty feet ahead of me.
Cato, Lover Boy and I stop to rest. We tumble to the ground, on our hands and knees, coughing and gagging. We stay like that for about ten minutes, and then we hear footsteps behind us. Glimmer, Marvel, and Leena.
"Let's keep moving!" coughs Leena, and Glimmer yells in agreement. Glimmer helps me up and we run once more.
I run and run and run. Little by little I can see farther and farther ahead of me, and little by little it is easier for me to breathe. Glimmer laughs, which turns into a cough.
"We survived!" Marvel yells in mock-relief.
I whoop and take a huge gulp of water. Cato lost his bottle running from the fire, so I let him have a few sips out of mine. We keep walking until we hear a splash ahead of us.
I stop in my tracks. Jackpot. My guess is another tribute. A grin creeps onto my face as Glimmer bursts through the trees. We follow to see a clearing with a small pool of water. At the other side of the pool, I see someone that makes my heart thump loud and hard with pure excitement and adrenaline.
The girl from District twelve. Katniss.
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I especially liked writing this chapter. I enjoyed writing the scene where the Careers are arguing about killing the girl from Eight the most. I had to match everything they said in the book to everything I wrote, which was a challenge. Next chapter will be up soon. Please review! I don't have a lot of feedback so far, and I'd really like it if more people reviewed my story. Thanks! -Brittany
