Raised to Fight, Born to Die: The District 2 Tributes
Sorry it took me a little longer to update this chapter. Like the last chapter, I had to go over the Hunger Games book several times to get the events and dead tributes right.
Comments, reviews and feedback are appreciated. Thank you!
(Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games or its characters.)
Chapter 6: Feel the Sting
Cato
Thegirl across the pond jumps up in panic and stumbles into the woods behind her. We all laugh and whoop, splashing across the shallow pond and we break into a sprint to go after her. Clove yells and Marvel yells back, and I laugh because I feel so at home, so at ease. This is what I call fun.
Adrenaline fills my veins. I let myself be taken over by the thrill of the hunt, chasing the girl in the braid in front of me. My body jumps with restlessness as I run, and it only occurs to me now how badly I want to kill this girl on fire.
Katniss stops running and practically leaps up a tall tree. We all slow down when we get there and then we look up, laughing and whooping and cheering. We found her. We finally found her. And she's trapped in a tree. What an idiot.
The girl finally stops climbing and peers down at us from her branch. She plasters a smile on her face.
"How's everything with you?" the girl asks us.
I raise my eyebrows, but I quickly hide my surprise. I play along. "Well enough," I shrug. "And yourself?"
"It's been a bit warm for my taste," she says, humoring me. She waves me over. "Why don't you come on up?" she says, still smiling.
I smirk. I smell a challenge. "Think I will," I say.
"Here," Glimmer says from behind me, "Take this, Cato." She hands me her sleek silver bow she scavenged from the Cornucopia, but I just wave her away. I'm not a shooter. "No, I'll do better with my sword."
I run up to the tree and jump, grabbing onto the thick branches. Once I get up about ten feet, Katniss resumes climbing. The farther I go up, the thinner the branches get. I vaguely hear "Kill her, Cato!" from Clove down below, her voice longing for spilt blood. Kill her, I will.
I lose myself in the chase, or more rather climb, and before I notice it I am too heavy for these thin, lean branches to hold me and the branch my foot is resting on snaps. I grunt in surprise and quickly grab onto the branch under it, attempting to steady my feet against the rough tree bark. It doesn't work. I cuss, losing my grip and falling straight down to the hard ground, landing on my back. I wince, the pain jolting down my spine, temporarily paralyzing me. I look up to see the girl up even higher up, maybe almost a hundred feet off the ground. I jump up, cursing my head off and I vaguely feel Clove's hand on my arm trying to calm me down.
"Glimmer, try and shoot her!" Marvel suggests.
She nods and lifts her bow, loading it with an arrow. I yell out in anger, and her arrow flies and flies…and hits the trunk of the tree twenty feet below the branch Katniss is perched on. Clove exhales in exasperation. I shake my head in annoyance as well as impatience as Glimmer shoots again and this time the silver arrow hits the trunk next to where Katniss is sitting. The girl grabs the arrow and waves it in the air, a huge smug smirk on her face, one I'd kill to wipe off.
My hands go up in disbelief, and Glimmer shoots me a look.
"Glimmer!" Clove snaps in anger. "Don't waste the arrows! If you can't shoot, say so!"
Glimmer turns on her with a snarl. "Oh, like you could do any better!"
"Actually, she can! I've seen her in training!" Marvel blurts in.
Glimmer abruptly turns on Marvel. "Stay out of this," she practically roars.
I growl in Glimmer's face. "Who are you to tell us to stay out of this?" I say too loudly, indignant that she thinks she can tell us what to do.
"It doesn't matter who's the better shooter! We have to get up that tree!" Leena practically shouts.
"Oh yeah, and how are we going to do that?" I say sarcastically.
"I'll climb!" Clove says. "I'm the lightest one here-"
"But I want to kill her!" Leena interrupts.
"Clove turns on her with a sharp growl. "You were just as happy to let Cato kill her not two minutes ago!"
"We should just leave so she can come down, and then hunt her when she's on the ground!" Glimmer says stupidly.
"Yeah, for what? To have her climb a damn tree again?" Clove yells with impatience, narrowing her eyes at the blond.
"Oh, let her stay up there," Lover Boy says over all of us. "It's not like she's going anywhere! We'll deal with her in the morning."
"I agree with Lover Boy," I say. Never thought I'd say that, but what do you know? "But we stay directly under this tree so we don't miss her if she tries to escape," I add, glancing upward. I can barely see her silhouette through the branches against the already darkening sky.
I can't believe this. To think that we, trained bloodthirsty Careers, are being humiliated by some nobody from the most pathetic district in the entire country! The nerve! Just imagine the laughter coming from the people in the Capitol, the head shakes of disappointment from our neighbors and friends back home. In my head, I picture my mother, scowling in disappointment at my actions. Rage fills me and I slam my backpack down on the ground, seething in uncontrollable anger.
Clove grabs my arm to keep me still, and she is saying something to me but I am not paying attention. Marvel is talking too, but his words are a blur. I feel the ground shaking. No, wait. I'm shaking.
"Cato," Clove warns. "Cato, calm down. Getting mad like this isn't going to help," she snaps. But I don't take her seriously because I can tell she is fuming, too. She just hides it better than I do.
"You're only giving Katniss more satisfaction," Marvel adds. "Quit it."
Since it is getting dark, Marvel and Clove take out torches from their backpacks. I take out the matches Glimmer put in my own backpack and I light their torches so we can see. They stick the torches in the ground so they don't have to hold them.
There are no deaths today. Which means the people in the Capitol are getting impatient. Restless. I know blood will be spilled tomorrow.
.
Clove
"Tomorrow, we don't leave until that girl is dead," Glimmer states.
"Does she have any allies?" Marvel questions.
Leena shrugs. "No idea. If she does, and we have to split up, we should make a plan," she suggests.
The five of us look at her suspiciously. "Split up? You're pretty hide-and-run for a Career," says Cato doubtfully.
Leena shrugs. "I was never the fighting type," she explains.
I waggle my brows at Cato. She unknowingly just admitted her weakness to us. She'll be an easy kill. The only reason she's still alive is probably because I wanted her in the Career alliance. She's proved herself useful so far, she's definitely smarter than Marvel and Glimmer, but…still. Split up? Not the Career style. At all.
"We should still have a plan," Leena says stubbornly.
"Tell you what," Lover Boy says after no one says anything. "If something happens, but I highly doubt it," he gives Leena a look, "I'll go after her. I'm the only one here who has even the slightest idea of where she might go, how she might hide."
I'm satisfied with the idea. After all, that was the whole reason I saved him instead of killing him back during the bloodbath, right? But at the same time, I find a little seed of suspicion sprouting in the back of my mind.
Apparently, Marvel does too. He tilts his head up in disbelief and his eyebrows narrow in suspicion. "How do we know you won't help her? After all, you are from the same district. I'm guessing you two knew each other back in Twelve, seeing as your district is so small."
"What do I look like to you?" he says, sounding astonished that we would ever ask such a question. "I'm a Career, am I not?"
Technically, he was. But only because we need him to find her. He was easily disposable if it came down to it.
I shrug in my indifference. Honestly, I couldn't care less. If he teams up with her, there's a better challenge to us. Either way, both tributes from District Twelve will end up dead.
Cato disagrees. "I don't trust you," he says skeptically.
Lover Boy shrugs.
"Just let him go, Cato," I say. "I doubt we'll need to split up anyway. That girl on fire doesn't seem like the allying type."
Cato gives me a doubtful look, but in the end he sighs. "Fine," he says, clearly upset that we are putting our trust in this boy from District Twelve.
I can't wait for tomorrow.
.
Cato
All I can think of is the girl up in the tree. I look up just in time to see a silver shape floating down toward the girl, barely visible against the night sky. So, she has sponsors. We haven't gotten anything from our sponsors yet. Probably because we don't need anything. Still, the thought that this girl thinks she actually has a chance at winning gets me all winded up all over again. I try not to think about it.
Instead, I look over at Clove, the shadows of the flames dancing on her face as she laughs with Marvel. I think about how I will have to kill her soon. We still have time, seeing as there are still eleven of us left, but I find myself being taken over by that worry again. Worry I've never felt before. She doesn't have to die, I think. But at the same time I know she does.
As I begin to fall asleep I find myself dreaming that both Clove and I win. I dream that we both go back home to District Two, and we greet the smiles and words of congratulations and pride we get from our friends, our families, even from complete strangers. Clove hugs me and I hug her back. Ronan's there, too, saying how great we were in the arena. How we killed the girl on fire. I dream of how Clove and I will join the generations and generations of past victors in the Victor's Village.
What are you thinking? There's only one victor! She can't win, and you know it.
Right. One victor.
And it's going to be me.
The last thing I register in my mind is how my heart sinks at my previous thought, and then I sink farther into unconsciousness.
.
Clove
All around me, I see Cato. Well, a lot of Catos. They all look exactly alike. They all have weapons. And they are all advancing on me.
I try to run; I can take one Cato, but twenty Catos? I try and try to move, but I am not budging from the spot on which I am standing. I am panicking; I can't move, not an inch.
Then the Cato clones start running away, and bright green birds with sharp beaks start to surround me, pecking at my face and scratching my skin. I wave my arms around, trying to wave them off, but it's no use. Some weird green stuff starts to ooze from my scratches, and my wounds start to sting with pain.
And then I open my eyes to mayhem.
There are little wasps everywhere, flying all around me and the other Careers. I scramble up with a scream and then I look closer at the tiny bugs to see the bright yellow hides that can only belong to tracker jackers.
I drop everything and run, without thinking. I wave my arms to swat away the little wasps all the while, but I'm too late. I feel little pinches and stinging sensations all over my body where they have already stung me. The pain is paralyzing, slowing me down, and I stumble and falter many times as I run. "To the lake," A voice yells during the chaos. Cato's. I notice his voice sounds unusually loud and garbled. "To the lake!"
I glance behind me to see Cato and Marvel catching up with me. Glimmer, Lover Boy and Leena are nowhere in sight. We run and run and run, and I hope we can get to the lake on time. We aren't very far from it. We'll have to completely submerge ourselves to get rid of the remaining tracker jackers.
I can already feel the deadly venom making its way through my veins. I have enough sense to pull out the stingers from my skin, and I turn my head to see the two boys already doing the same. The pain subsides a tiny bit when I pull the dreadful stingers out, but my body still feels as if it's on fire and I feel my vision is still playing tricks on me. I don't know what's real anymore. I already see those same green birds from earlier flying around me. I remember all the Cato clones and I start to doubt if even the Cato running beside me is real.
We finally get back to the Cornucopia meadow. We all dash toward the massive body of water behind it, past the boy from Three and the supply piles and practically jump in, making the cool water splash everywhere. I hold my breath and duck, staying under for as long as I can. I vaguely see Cato through the murky water.
After a few minutes, I cannot hold my breath any longer. I emerge, wringing out any water from my hair. The tracker jackers are gone, so I signal for the two boys to come up.
"What the hell was that about?" Cato explodes, shaking any leftover water from his blond head.
"Don't know, but Glimmer and Leena are done for," Marvel says. "When we left, Glimmer was practically covered head to toe in those things and Leena was stumbling around in circles."
Why didn't they run? My guess is that Leena had already been stung too many times to think straight and Glimmer was probably preoccupied with gathering her supplies. Stupid. Maybe Marvel is the smarter one of the duo after all.
"Wait a minute," Marvel says. "Where's Lover Boy?"
"I got him with my sword before we ran off," Cato says proudly.
"Yeah, don't worry about him," I say.
"Where'd you cut him?" Marvel questions.
"His upper thigh. He'll bleed to death by tonight," Cato responds.
Marvel and I nod. We don't need to think about him anymore, then.
"Did you pull all of the stingers out?" I say, wanting to double-check.
"Yeah," Marvel nods.
Cato reaches up to the back of his neck and yanks out another stinger. "Now I did," he says, the annoyance making itself clear in his voice.
Marvel looks up into the sky and says, "Medicine." No luck. Maybe we can scavenge something useful from the supply piles. I signal to Cato and we both head over, me pulling out one last stinger I missed along the way.
"Leena's probably dead," Cato says.
I shrug. Glimmer was definitely gone. "I didn't hear any cannons, but then again we were probably too busy to notice."
Cato raises his eyebrows, a grin creeping across his face. "Two less people to kill, right?"
I nod and laugh. I was never able to admit this before, but now that Glimmer is dead I realize how much she liked Cato. And how much I hated her for that. For a brief moment, I wonder if Cato ever liked her, too. Hopefully not. Anyway, I find myself reveling in her death more than necessary when we reach the supply piles.
"We need to restock on food," Cato states. I nod and we both watch the boy from Three, Nero, as he demonstrates where to step to avoid the buried bombs. While we do that, I see Marvel grab three brand new backpacks for us; we lost our original ones during the mayhem of the tracker jacker attack.
I step forward. "Don't mess up," Cato says, mocking me.
"Never," I reply.
I walk forward and stick out my right foot, only daring to step on my toes. Right, diagonal, two steps forward, one to the right, and so on. Not too hard. But one false step and I'm dead. I grab these for each backpack: a bag of apples, a box of berries, a bag of meat strips and some dried fruit. One by one, I toss the packages back to Cato and Marvel, who just joins us. They stuff the food into each of the three backpacks, and then I make my way over to the weapons pile. I grab some spears for Marvel, more knives for me, and a brand new sword for Cato. I toss those over.
"Before you come back, get me some of those nets on that side of the pile," Marvel says, pointing.
My eyes furrow in confusion. "You use nets?"
"I know how to make traps with them," he replies. I look at Cato for approval, but he just shrugs, so I grab seven nets and toss those over to him. Then I jump my way back across the fragile ground.
After we are all packed and Marvel went to refill water bottles at the lake, I glance at Cato.
"Should we give Marvel that body suit?"
Cato hesitates, and then shakes his head. "That'll only make it harder for us to kill him off," he says.
Oh, yeah. Didn't think about that.
.
Cato
Marvel comes up to us. "No medicine," he says simply, having just searched the supply piles for any kind of tracker jacker venom antidote.
"Hopefully we have sponsors, because that stuff's starting to mess with my head," Clove whines.
"You guys got stung by tracker jackers?" Nero asks, eyebrows raised.
Clove turns around to face Nero. "Why so surprised?" she asks, her eyebrows narrowing in accusation.
Nero shrugs. "No reason," he says. "Just thought you guys would be smarter than that, running into tracker jackers. Didn't you even check around you to make sure there were no nests or anything?" Nero asks, shaking his head.
I've had enough. He needs to know he can't talk to us like that. I jump on him, my sword already at his throat. "Watch your mouth," I snarl viciously.
"If there were any nests nearby, we would've seen!" Clove spits indignantly, narrowing her brown eyes.
Nero raises his eyebrows again, ignoring my sword. "Bet you didn't look up into the trees-"
My sword pushing harder on his skin cuts him off. I notice a thick sheen of sweat shines on the boy's forehead.
"Watch your step, Nero, or I'll have no problem slitting your throat. Or," I say, taking a dramatic pause, then smirking for added effect, "I'll just let Clove do it herself. She's very creative with her knives," I spit, then shove him onto the ground and stash my sword in my belt. Nero rubs his neck with an utterly shocked look on his face. I turn away from him and toward the other Careers.
"Ready to go?" Clove asks with a grin.
I nod and the three of us set out, leaving Nero and his supply piles behind us.
.
Okay, so this took me SUPER long to write. Hope you all enjoy. I know it's a sucky ending, but next chapter will be filled with action. R&R Please! -Brit
