Raised to Fight, Born to Die: The District 2 Tributes
Sorry it took me a little longer to update this chapter. Sorry it's so short; it's mainly a filler chapter. Comments, reviews and feedback are appreciated. Thank you!
(Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games or its characters.)
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Chapter 8: Two Crowns
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Clove
I jerk awake, throwing up everywhere except where Cato is lying down.
I heave and heave until there's nothing left to come up, and then I fall back onto the ground, tired.
The action wakes Cato up. "Wha?" he mumbles, still half-asleep.
I cough, and I start to see stars in my vision. I blink a few times, and then my vision starts to blur. I close my eyes for a second.
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"Clove!"
I see Cato running towards me, and for some odd reason he is shining, as if he has a halo around him. Or some kind of aura.
"Cato?" I mumble.
"Clove, you have to wake up! Please!"
"I am awake…"
"Clove, answer me!"
"I am answering!"
Then my eyes snap open, my stomach growing loud with hunger.
Cato's tense face relaxes. "You okay?"
I blink a few times, and I look around. Cato isn't running toward me. He's sitting down on the ground. He was never running. It must have been a dream.
Then why does my body feel so horrible?
My stomach aches with hunger. My eyes feel like they've been stabbed, and I've thrown up again. Maybe it's a mix of the tracker jacker venom and my growling stomach? After all, we ate the last of our food yesterday.
Now that I look back on it, that wasn't a very smart idea. Normally we have more than enough to eat, even outside the arena back home. In the arena, we had the supply piles. I'm not used to being hungry like this. Neither is Cato. So we just ate what we wanted last night and that was that.
"I'm hungry."
He sighs. "Me too. We should've saved our food."
"I would say let's wait for our sponsors, but it looks like we can't count on them." I give a pointed look toward the sky.
It is noon now. When I first woke up, it was early morning. That means I was out for a couple of hours.
I dig through my backpack. I pick out some knives and stick them through my belt, so I have some backup if I somehow lose the knives in my jacket. And right before I zip the pack up again, I see something at the bottom. I reach in one more time and pull out a small piece of bread.
Cato grabs for it. I jerk my hand back. "Finders, keepers."
He grimaces. "I'm hungry," he says, as if that by itself is enough reason for me to hand over the bread.
"So am I."
"Well, you can't have it. Then there'd be none for me."
"So that means you should have it, leaving none for me?"
He scowls in irritation. "Just give me the bread, Clove. Don't make me take it from you."
"No. I found it."
Cato jumps on top of me, making me drop the small roll of bread. It rolls about three feet away, and I can't reach it. Cato has me pinned down on the ground. He crawls forward, but I jerk my knee up to kick him in his groin. I grin, thinking back to the Tribute Training Center back home, where I did the exact same thing.
I get up and shove Cato to the side. I dash forward, scooping up the bread. I smile triumphantly. Well, that is, until Cato shoves me to the ground again, his sharp sword meeting my throat.
I go to knee him again, but he blocks my blow with the hilt of his sword, making a stabbing pain shoot through my knee. While his sword is absent from the air near my neck, I take out a knife from my belt and move to stab him. He jumps off me, making me miss. I scramble up and we face each other.
"You didn't have to do that," he says, glancing toward my knife.
"You took out your sword first."
He sighs in exasperation.
"It's only a roll of bread," I say with a smart tone.
"At least split it in half!"
"Why should I? You've already pissed me off, saying you want it all for yourself. Why should I share with you at all?"
"Then why are we allies?"
I shrug. "We're Careers." But that's not a good enough reply. And by the look Cato is giving me, he knows that too.
He hesitates. Then, "Is this really how you want it to be?"
I know he isn't talking about the bread anymore. I shrug. "I could kill you any day," I say with a challenge in my voice.
Cato raises his eyebrows, his face darkening. "Let's see about that."
And then he lunges toward my throat.
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Cato
Clove jumps back and her arm shoots out, letting go of a knife. It comes straight at me, but I duck and the knife barely misses me, hitting the tough bark of a tree behind me. And believe me, when I say "barely missed", I mean her knife actually took out a few blond hairs from my head.
I feel a string on my head. My hand goes up to my scalp, and I feel a small cut warm with my blood. She grazed me.
I see a sadistic smile take over Clove's face.
I charge at her again. She easily dodges, and she twists around to stab me as I run by, but I swerve away from her at the last second, and I take a swing with my sword. She ducks down to the ground, and her leg swings out. Before I get tripped I jump and somersault backward.
When I get up, she's already on me. Before she can do anything, I grab her arms and twist one back, making her cry out in pain. I shove her to the ground hard, making dead leaves go into her mouth. Gross. She spits them out and before I can stab her with my sword, she jumps up and darts away into the trees.
Oh, so that's how it's going to be? Since when does Clove run away from a fight?
I smile a cruel smile. That's okay. I don't mind chases, I think to myself. Let the hunt begin.
I know she's faster than me, but I'm stronger, with longer endurance. Sure, she's fast, but she can't keep up her speed for too long. And that's where I can beat her.
So I charge after her, not wasting any time. She's getting father and farther away from me, and I strain to catch up. Soon she's completely gone, and I stop running, my eyes darting all over the place scanning for some sign of her.
Then, all of a sudden, she's on me, knife in hand. I grab her arm and she pushes as hard as she can. I push back. I'm not about to let her knife anywhere near me.
For a second, the knife and our hands are still because we are so evenly matched. But I'm stronger, and soon the knife is slowly being pushed backwards, toward her face. I push upward, tilting the knife to face her instead.
And I push.
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Clove
It is dark now. The seal shows no deaths today, and I look back down to my own knife being pointed at me. The run has tired me out, especially with me being so hungry and that stupid venom still trying to take over my body.
I know I'm going to lose if I don't do something. Cato's stronger, and that knife is so close to my skin it'll cut me any second now. I jerk my face back, but that only makes him jump on me, pinning me to the ground under his weight.
I panic for the first time. I never lose a fight! And now that I have, I feel anger boiling inside of me. I will not let some obnoxious boy think he can overpower me!
And yet, he has overpowered me. Here I am, pathetic, pinned to the ground in the Hunger Games by my own district partner, about to be murdered.
I close my eyes. For a second, I think I don't want to see this. I don't want to see a knife coming at my face that will end my life.
But then I think about it. Only cowards are afraid of death. Careers are afraid to die at the hands of someone not worthy of killing them.
And it is in that moment I decide Cato is worthy to kill me. We may be enemies, but he is strong and skilled. He is not afraid of death. He looks forward to the kill.
And so do I.
So I open my eyes, waiting patiently for the moment when the cold blade of the knife will pierce the skin on my cheek.
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Cato
Goodbye Clove, I say in my head. It has to be this way. I have to win, and I have to kill you.
I have to kill you.
I raise my hand holding Clove's knife. I am about to stab the girl under me when a man's voice booms through the forest.
"Congratulations! Congratulations to each of you who has survived the Seventy-Fourth Annual Hunger Games down to the final six! The Gamemakers want to announce a very important rule change, so pay attention!"
A rule change? Since when are there rules in the arena?
Clove is confused too. My grip falters on her, and I am not paying attention to her anymore so she shoves me off her. We both look up to the sky, as if that is where the voice is coming from.
"As of right now, the rule change will take effect: two tributes from the same district will both be declared victors of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games if they are the last two alive."
Two victors. From the same district. It registers in my mind right away that I can win without killing Clove. She can win with me.
For a moment I think back to my dream, the one where Clove and I are both crowned victors and we head home, back to District Two. How everyone claps for us. How everyone is proud of us. I smile because my dream has become a reality. Both of us can win. Both of us can live.
The man, Claudius Templesmith, repeats the change."Two tributes from the same district will both be declared victors of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games if they are the last two alive. Thank you for listening, and may the odds be ever in your favor. Good luck."
Clove's gaze meets mine. "Guess we didn't need to fight after all," she laughs weakly.
I pull her into a hug. Her body is tense at first, but after a few seconds (well, more like a few minutes) her muscles relax, and her arms encircle me to hug me back.
So now there will be two District Two victors. I can't help smiling. Cato Larek and Clove Sevina. Cato and Clove. Now nothing stands in the way except those other pathetic losers who think they can win. And all we have to do is hunt them down.
I think we'll start with District Twelve.
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I'll hopefully update soon. I'm super busy what with school starting next week and everything, so I'll try to update as soon as I can. R&R please! -B
