Chapter Twelve: Hunting

I don't sleep. At all. Neither does Cato – both of us just sit at the mouth of the Cornucopia until the sun is high in the sky. Our allies haven't stirred – clearly, they're all exhausted, but we need to get back to the woods.

"Should we scare them a little?" Cato asks me, his eyes wicked.

The idea is tempting, but not brilliant. "That'd be great… but they'd probably kill us."

He sighs. "True. Come on."

Shell and Marvel both grumble a little when we wake them, but eventually all four of our allies climb out of their sleeping bags. They stand in front of us, rubbing their eyes, clearly unwilling to leave camp.

"We're splitting up," Cato announces. This causes some surprise – Career packs usually stick together while hunting. But Cato doesn't seem to care. "Clove and I will take the right side of the forest, and Glimmer, Shell, and Lover Boy will take the left. You," he says, turning to Marvel, "will stay here and guard. Make sure the kid is working on the mines, got that? And if you kill him, we will kill you."

Marvel starts to protest, but I cut him off. "We haven't forgotten your little stunt in training. Be grateful it's not worse."

"Fine," he mutters resentfully. "Whatever."

I roll my eyes. "Let's go, Cato. Everyone, be back here by dark."

I swear, we cover every inch of that forest in the next few hours. Of the right side, anyway. But there's no one there. Glimmer, Shell, and Lover Boy must not be having any success either, since no cannons have gone off.

"Where could they all be?" I ask Cato in frustration.

He glares at the ground. "How should I know? The important thing is that they're not here."

"Well, that's a bit of a problem, isn't it?" I snap. Then I look up at the sky. "We could use some help, here! Maybe you'd like to do something to draw the tributes together? Hmm?" I'm directing my words at the Gamemakers, of course. It's a bit of a risk, being so disrespectful, but I'm so frustrated that it'll be worth it… if they listen.

Nothing. "Wow," Cato says sarcastically. "Look at that! Come on, Clove, did you really expect them to listen to you?"

"I had to do something!" I exclaim. "Cato, we've been out here for hours and we haven't found anyone. And the others haven't either, obviously, or we'd have heard a cannon. I'm sick of this! You know, my mother is watching, right now, and she's probably calling me a failure."

I wince – why did I say that? I silently plead that we're not on screen right now, because I really don't want all of Panem to know that my mother is probably disappointed in me, or that I even care what she thinks.

Still, it wasn't a lie.

Cato's expression doesn't soften. "We can't give up. They're out here somewhere…"

"But where?" I sigh.

Are the others having as much trouble as we are? They must be… or we'd know. We would've heard a cannon. Unless… unless they've found someone and don't want to make their last minutes – or hours – easy.

"Maybe… maybe they're just… giving someone a hard time?" I suggest.

"I doubt it," he mutters. "Shell would enjoy that, but Glimmer doesn't really seem the type to draw kills out… neither does Lover Boy."

"True." I glance up at the sky – it's not quite dark yet, but it will be soon. "We should start heading back. We can go slowly and see if we meet anybody."

Cato scowls. "Fine. But if we don't find anyone tomorrow, I'm just going to kill Marvel. Or else the Gamemakers will send something to kill us all."

I smirk a little. "Can I help?"

"No chance, little girl," he says loftily. But I think he's joking.

"Fine. But I want Little Eleven," I inform him.

His eyebrows furrow. "Why?"

I shrug. "Just because."

Cato rolls his eyes. "They call me crazy."

"Shh!" I hiss, flinging my arm in front of him and forcing him to stop.

Did I really see that, or am I just desperate? Because I'm sure there was a flash of red – could it have been the girl from District Five, who our alliance failed to take out at the Cornucopia?

I press a finger to my lips and silently motion for Cato to follow me. We creep silently forward for a few minutes, and then we double back – there's no sign of the girl. Finally, I'm forced to conclude that she was never there.

"Who did you think it was?" Cato asks curiously.

"District Five," I tell him sullenly.

"Oh," he says, and I see understanding flash in his eyes. "Red hair, right?"

I nod. "I thought I saw… well, I was wrong."

"We'd better head back," he grumbles. "The others are probably there by now."

I only reluctantly agree, although just a few minutes ago I was the one suggesting that we return to camp. "Let's go, then…"

The others are back before us. When we enter the clearing, Glimmer is practicing her aim with axes on some trees, Lover Boy is sitting by the lake, Shell is looking through the supplies, Marvel appears to be sulking, and the kid is digging something up near the Cornucopia.

"No luck either?" I ask Glimmer unnecessarily. She shakes her head.

"Nope." She appears to be as frustrated as I am – her jaw is clenched tight and she's throwing her axes with brute force. "I don't get it."

"Me neither," I sigh.

Cato walks over to us. "I'm going hunting," he announces.

I stare at him in disbelief. "Now?" I ask. "We've only been back two minutes!"

"Now," he confirms. He lowers his voice so only I can hear. "I know you're sick of hunting today. I'm taking Marvel, Shell, and Lover Boy with me. You and Glimmer can sort the supplies, if you want. Just make sure the kid keeps working."

I smile, relieved that I won't have to go back to the forest today. And out of all our allies – besides Cato himself – Glimmer is one I would have chosen if I'd known I'd have to spend a long period of time in the company of one of them. "Thanks," I whisper.

Cato nods. "Good." He rounds up the other three and says, "Right, we're going back out there. We'll come back in a couple of hours."

"Are you serious?" Shell whines. "We just got back!" Lover Boy doesn't comment, but Marvel actually looks excited. That at least makes sense, since he hasn't been hunting all day.

"Glimmer, Clove – sort the supplies while we're gone, will you?" Cato says, ignoring Shell. "We don't want to have to worry about that later on."

Glimmer shrugs. "Sure." I'm pleased to see that she doesn't object to staying behind – I don't really want to be here alone. And sorting the supplies will be boring, but less so if I have someone to talk to.

I shake my head, a bit frustrated with myself. I need to stop thinking of my allies as worth more than the other tributes. I don't seem to have a problem with that when it comes to Marvel, Shell, and Lover Boy, but as for Cato and Glimmer… well, they seem too much like friends, and I can't have that…

But… I'll still be able to kill them if it comes to that. I still want – need – to win. It's my destiny, and I refuse to let anything stand in my way. If that means killing Cato and Glimmer, then… there's nothing I can do about it.

There's one problem. The audience. I can't… I can't let them think I'm close friends with any of the other tributes. That's the kind of thing that will seem rebellious. Rebellion is the one thing the Capitol is afraid of – it's not that they couldn't handle it, but it would cause a hell of a lot of trouble.

Well… that's only half the problem. Because at the same time, I can't be too indifferent when it comes to my allies. Either they'll suspect me of something and kill me – I wouldn't be able to win a fight against all of them – or the Capitol will think I'm an unlikeable tribute, and the Gamemakers will be pressured into killing me off, making sure that I don't become the victor. It's important that the audience loves me.

I slowly turn to face Glimmer once the others have disappeared into the woods. "We'd better get started," I sigh. "There's a lot to sort through."

She wrinkles her nose. "Fun. It's better than hunting, I guess, though."

I look at her, confused. "You don't like hunting?"

"It's not that," she says slowly. "I do. But… it's just so… frustrating!" she exclaims. "We haven't found anyone all day, I swear we looked everywhere – I even got Shell to shut up for a couple of hours, even though Lover Boy is so loud. I… I don't want to seem like a failure, you know? And when we hunt, and we don't find anyone… well, that's exactly what I am."

My respect for Glimmer rises more than I would have thought possible – because I can relate. "I know exactly what you mean," I assure her. "I was about ready to scream when I was out there with Cato earlier. Plus, after a few hours, we were both tired, and grumpy, and it just got to be… too much."

She sighs in relief. "Thank God it's not just me. I was kind of worried…"

"It's not," I say, grinning. "Now let's go see what we have to get through today… you know they're not going to be happy if they get back and we've been slacking off."

"Probably not," Glimmer agrees. "Do you think they'll find anyone?" she asks as we walk over to the Cornucopia.

I bite my lip. "As much as I hate to say it… no. I don't think any of us will until the Gamemakers come up with something to draw us together."

"How is this possible?" she groans. "Here I was, thinking that the first few days of the Games would be some of the best, and – "

" – and it's boring as hell," I agree. "I know."

"We've been reduced to sorting the supplies," she scoffs. "Never would have seen that coming."

"Me neither," I admit. "But I'm not complaining. I think Cato could tell I didn't really want to hunt anymore. I'm glad."

"Are you two friends?" Glimmer asks curiously. "He doesn't seem like the type of person to help you like that – to help anyone at all, really."

I don't really know how to answer that. "We're not friends," I say carefully. "We're district partners. I guess that counts for something."

She snorts. "Maybe for you," she mutters. "Not for Marvel and me. I can't stand him, and he seems to hate me even more."

Grateful that she didn't press for details about Cato, I reply quickly. "Oh, please. Marvel doesn't like anybody."

She smirks. "And no one likes him. Hmm, there seems to be some sort of pattern here…"

I laugh loudly. "You're right." Then I reluctantly look at the mountain of supplies waiting in front of us. We're only putting off the inevitable. "Let's get started," I say sadly.

Glimmer giggles. "Wow, you sound excited."

"Very," I mutter. "Come on – we don't know when they'll be back, and we need to have some progress by then, so we'd better hurry."

"Okay," she sighs, and we circle the supplies. "So… how do you want to start this?"

After a few minutes, we've come up with a basic plan. It's Glimmer's idea, and it's actually very creative. But before we do anything, we need to check with the kid.

"Hey, kid," I say as I approach him. My tone is not friendly. "When can you have all this done by?"

He looks up nervously. "At most, two more days. But I should be done by tomorrow night, if nothing happens between now and then that would keep me from working."

"Good," I say. Then I have him show us exactly where the mines will guard – we tell him to set it up so that it will surround the supplies, leaving a few paths so we can reach our bounty safely – that's to say, without being blown up.

"Perfect," Glimmer breathes as we walk away. "This is going to be so easy."

The setup is relatively simple. We have to remove all the supplies from the Cornucopia, of course. The supplies won't be sorted in the way Cato expects, but it'll be very effective in killing other tributes. We'll build a huge pyramid – and then we'll spread some supplies around it in a similar manner to the way it was at the bloodbath. When we find some netting in the giant horn, we decide to lay it out over the supplies, to guard it from birds if nothing else. If any tribute tries to steal supplies – well. It won't go well for them. The only downside is that we won't get the chance to kill them ourselves… but it'll be worth it.

The time goes by quickly, and by the time we're finished the sun is setting. However, I find that I'm really, really tired. And that is bad. I swore I wouldn't sleep in the arena, but that's going to be difficult if the Games continue at this pace.

I'm stifling a yawn for the third time when Cato, Shell, Marvel, and Lover Boy return, all looking sullen. I don't bother asking – no cannons.

"I'm tired," Shell moans. "Let's just go to sleep and try again in the morning."

"Agreed," Lover Boy says tiredly. "We won't get anything done if we can't keep our eyes open."

He does have a point. "I'll guard," I say wearily. Even though I'm about to pass out. I haven't slept for too long…

As the others climb into their tents – the four who went hunting were very pleased to find them set up – Cato approached me. "Clove, you can't guard again," he says, sounding almost concerned. "You haven't slept at all since the Games started."

"I'll live," I say. "I did tell you I wasn't going to sleep here. Besides, you haven't slept either."

He shrugs. "I can go a long time without sleep."

"Go to bed, Cato," I sigh. Arguing with him is making me even more tired.

"Forget it," he says sternly. "You're not guarding. Get in the damn tent, Clove!"

"You know what?" I snap. "Fine. I'll sleep. If you kill me, Cato, I swear I'll come back as a ghost and haunt you for the rest of your life!" I'm trying to sound aggressive, but Cato just looks amused.

"Sure. Now go get some sleep. We need you to be rested tomorrow. I have a feeling something big is going to happen."

I don't say another word – I just crawl into my tent, exhausted. Cato's right. The Games can't become boring – and there have been no deaths since last night. Surely, something exciting will happen tomorrow…

It takes me about seven seconds to fall asleep – those seven seconds are filled with anticipation of what tomorrow will bring.

So, not my best chapter, but not the worst either. Please, please, please review! I love hearing what you guys think. :)

Chapter 13 will be up in a few days, I'm not totally sure when.

~What the Quell