Chapter 6: Muttations
The sound of a gong rang three times throughout the arena, a sure sign that morning had arrived and that the tributes would need to be on lookout for potential run-ins with fellow tributes. It was Day 3 in the arena, Peeta remarked, and the gamemakers would want to shake things up to please the Capitol citizens.
Peeta was the first to wake, quickly adjusting his goggles onto his face. Passing a glance to his right and taking in the sight of a lengthy form bundled into a petite figure, Peeta came to realize that Johanna's paralysis must have worn off throughout the night. He watched as she lifted her head, and passing a glance behind her to be certain that Peeta was nearby, pulled her tiresome body up from its distorted form.
The sound of a chiming in the distance alerted Peeta and Johanna that their first gift had arrived from a sponsor. The silver parachute was lined with reflectors, which hung tightly to the vile that hung underneath. With a certain grace, Peeta marched over to the run down tree stump that held their gift from Haymitch. Disassembling the buckle that connected the canister from the parachute, and rushing back to Johanna who now stood rubbing her tired muscles, he began to remove the lid.
"Let's hope it's useful," Peeta said, worried that the gift before him would be an unnecessary token that would bear bad news of their missing allies. As Peeta tossed the lid aside, and removed the intricate steel object, he turned to Johanna with a questioning glare. "What the hell is this…?" he said, shaking his head in disappointment. In a perfect world the parachute would have come bearing gifts of food and water – each tribute not having much of either since they arrived in the arena. Peeta thought back to Johanna's incident near the woodland river sector, a shudder passing from the opening at the back of his neck and down through his spinal column. If it were the cold chill of the wind that wrecked havoc over the arena or simply the recollection of their potential death at the hands of the Career pack, Peeta would never know.
"Thank you, Haymitch!" Johanna shouted, before her enthusiasm dwindled when she saw the look on his face. "It's a spile. You know, typically it's used for sap from trees, but I think this is a clue," she started, her voice cutting off as she motioned toward the small slip of paper that lie on the ground where the lid of the parachute now rest.
Peeta pulled himself over to it and eagerly pulled the message from within. "It's from Haymitch, it says: 'Drink up'" Peeta spoke, finally catching on to what Johanna had been mumbling about. "Oh…" he stated, his voice faltering.
"Here, let me see it. I'll show you." Peeta hesitantly handed over the spile to Johanna who was quick to her feet, beckoning for Peeta to follow her to the closest evergreen. "Typically a spile is used on Maple Trees…but if you've noticed, the arena doesn't have any," Johanna began, before hammering the spile into a tree with a rock she had found lingering in the meadow. "Now, if you had any brains on you, you would see that this is a clue from Haymitch that the water in the arena is a façade used by the gamemakers to bring in tributes to their death."
"Makes sense," Peeta nodded as he spoke through clenched teeth. I hope she's right…he muttered. It wasn't long before an outpour of water began to drip from the spile followed by an animalistic growl and a gurgling sound from Johanna's throat.
"Thirsty?" Peeta teased. An embarrassed Johanna fixated her eyes on Peeta until the two burst out in laughter thinking how desperate they must have looked in the moment. Johanna gestured for Peeta to take a drink, stepping back a few feet as he leaned in to drink from the spout.
"You thought I looked thirsty," Johanna teased after which she began rolling her eyes and continued with a comment about their misfortunes. "Who would have thought that we'd end up in this position? Basically starving ourselves...I've definitely lost at least ten pounds," she stated, and typical of Johanna she then thrusted her hips and took a provocative stance.
"Let's go, we better get moving before the other tributes find us first," Peeta indicated. Johanna decided that it'd be better for them to leave their supply bag as it only added more weight. She had already strapped on the gloves that she had found on the first day, and after consuming the soup and water that they had received the evening of the first night, not much was left but added weight. She slipped the spile into her jacket pocket, and with the sound of a zipper closing, and a smile sent in Peeta's direction, she began to close the distance between them. At first Peeta thought that she was about to kiss him, before her hand took hold of his and the two tributes began their journey north.
The woodland began to dissipate as Peeta and Johanna made their way toward the northern force field, which shone brightly in the dark sky above them. It had only been a few hours since the gamemakers had woken up the two tributes, and they had made excellent progress with what little time they had in the morning hours.
Their silence was cut short when Johanna began asking Peeta questions about his life back in District 12, the bakery and his feelings toward Cato. Peeta reminded himself that he had to win over Johanna's trust with Cato, so he began to tell her about the first time he met the blonde boy.
"I wouldn't say we had the best of meetings," Peeta chuckled as Johanna listened to him attentively, watching that they were on the right track. "We met at the training centre, and we had a little bit of a run in. He was a little cocky and he threatened to kill me…" Peeta's voice trailed off when he seen Johanna's gawking eyes staring back at him.
"And that's the same romantic, mysterious Cato that you've been telling me about the last few days?" she asked.
"We got closer every day. We'd run into each other in the elevator, or he'd ask me to help him with his hand-to-hand combat, and then we'd meet on the rooftop of the Tribute Hotel," Peeta recollected, his mind wandering back to the first time he seen the blonde outside of his training uniform. He looked good in a uniform, but the way his regular clothes fit to his body was electric, Peeta reminisced. "Anyways, he's not what he puts himself out to be, Johanna. He's strong, guarded, and a little bit on the rebellious side, but he's also sweet…and funny…and he's good to me," Peeta spoke quietly. He longed to be reunited with the boy he had known for so little, but had grown to care for so much.
"He makes up for everything I lack, really. He keeps me grounded," he ended, wiping a tear from his eye. Was he really crying over this, he thought.
"Love is weird…but I think I understand a little bit better now." Johanna smiled at the other boy as she spoke, and then she began to feel the pain that struck her every time she thought of the sensation of love. "I don't think I could ever bring myself to love anyone after what the Capitol did to my family…" she said in a genuineness that struck Peeta with regret.
"You'll find someone," Peeta said, but it didn't present itself in the way Peeta had hoped it would.
"That's enough. Your sappiness is killing me," she said, more serious that Peeta had encountered in a while. He could see that she was hurting and discussing Peeta's relationship with Cato wasn't helping her feeling any better.
Their conversation was cut short when Peeta heard a frantic rustling in the bushes in front of their position. His night goggles were the first to react to the silver reflectors on the shoulder pads of two tributes who were headed directly toward them. Peeta decided that he could either hide or stand and fight the tributes. It was a fair fight after all, he supposed.
Passing a glance back at Johanna, who slowly began pulling her axe from her side in understanding, he started to draw two knives from his jacket pocket.
The two targets broke through the ferns into the clearing, their faces wide with fear and goggles fixated on the path before them, before screaming at Peeta and Johanna to run. Peeta thought he felt his jacket tug from the male tribute, before he released his grasp on his knives in his pocket and started to run after them. He took a glance back before registering three slim-lined shadows that crept after them, hard on their trail.
"What are they?" Johanna exclaimed, her body barreling after the other two tributes. Peeta was the last of the tributes that were making their way to the east, a few feet behind Johanna and countless metres behind the other two tributes. Their reflectors barely registered in Peeta's goggles at such a distance and yet he was positive that he knew which members of the tributes they were.
"Muttations!" Peeta heard the female tribute call behind her, as she and her partner darted left. As Peeta reared the corner of the tree line that the male and female tributes ahead of them had passed, he stumbled over a protruding rock that he had not seen until the very last moment. He started to pull himself up, desperately gripping the bark of the evergreen beside him, unable to catch his footing when Johanna's scream rang out in his direction.
Peeta braced himself for impact, letting his body go limp and accepting that these would be his final moments. He could not escape what was about to come to him. There were no strong arms that could protect him from the tearing of flesh that would be associated with the shadowed figures.
He was astonished when just as he felt the hot, rancid breath of the muttation on the back of his neck, a whizzing sound cut through the air, passing Peeta's face by centimeters; the yelp of the mutt was quick and agonizing before the beast fell to the ground with a thud that shook Peeta's surroundings. It was now or never, Peeta said to himself. With that he turned around and taking his final two knives from his jacket, launched them into the air striking one of the shadows dead in its tracks.
Peeta launched himself to his feet and ran for his life, passing Johanna who stood open-mouthed and joined the other two tributes.
"Thank you," Peeta said between deep breaths.
"Thank me later," the blonde started, "we still have one more to worry about!" She was slender and from what Peeta could see from the reflection of her goggles to his, she had long and thick blonde hair that rose to a bow above her head.
"Good point," the other male replied. "Let's get out of here. We should be close to the most north-eastern point of the arena." Peeta was struck by his deep voice first, but did not have time to admire any of his features before they were on their feet and running again. What seemed like minutes had only been seconds in time, and the final muttation was hard on their tails – most likely aggravated by the death of its littermates, Peeta noted.
Johanna flashed him a look of concern as they rummaged through the woodland ferns and bushes, alert to any tributes that may have been informed of their locations. He was not sure if they could trust the other two tributes, who had stayed relatively to themselves throughout training, but who were lethal in combat if he remembered well. Haymitch had warned his tributes, including Peeta, about these two; if Peeta remembered correctly, Haymitch said that they were "great allies, terrible troublemakers." If he and Johanna branched off to escape their potential fate, he could not guarantee that the muttation wouldn't follow them – they were closer targets, he reminded himself.
Peeta could feel the muttation gradually closing in the distance between them and he was unsure if he was imagining the claws raking behind him with each bound by the mutt, or if they were truly close to sinking themselves into his back.
He watched as Johanna stopped and turned back toward the mutt and listened as a bloodcurdling scream escaped from her lungs as she threw her axe into the beast; the sound of ripping flesh piercing his ears and embedding itself into his memory.
Peeta observed as Johanna walked over to the mutt and ripped her axe from somewhere along its surface. She pulled the axe out with a hard tug that resulted in an explosion of blood, which then sprayed itself out across her jacket. With a sigh and heavy shoulders she made her way back to Peeta.
"The axe sank right through its collarbone. Must have pierced an artery. The thing bled out before it would have had a chance to recover," Johanna revealed, watching his eyes widen when she did not bat an eye at what had just happened; and went off to join the other tributes. Peeta followed shortly behind, eyeing Johanna's axe as they closed the distance between them and the others.
"Stupid Gamemakers. We were hardly awake before three muttations appeared outside the cave we were resting in. We had no choice but to make a run for it, or else we would have been a meal for the hounds," the male said, shaking his head in rage.
"Calm down, Gloss" the girl responded, "at least we made it out alive."
"The gamemakers must have wanted more action. As you two have probably noticed," Gloss began, gesturing to Peeta and Johanna, "there haven't been any deaths since last night."
The female tribute shook her head as she squinted her eyes to take in the sights of Peeta and Johanna, who were currently resting on a tree listening to the pair argue. "We're being rude, Gloss," she stated. "We're thankful we found you two when we did. I'm –"
Peeta cut her off before she could introduce herself to Johanna and himself. "Cashmere, District 1," he said, smirking.
"The one and only," she chuckled. She turned her eye to her brother, Gloss, and nodded for him to join them over by the thick evergreens. "Haymitch told us you were looking for allies in the arena…" she trailed off as Peeta glared at her with uninterested eyes.
"Really, now? And how do we know we can trust your word? You're Careers after all," Johanna retorted. Her reply encompassed what Peeta was trying to say, but his would have lacked the coldness present in her tone.
"For starters," Cashmere replied, her tone sharp, "if we had wanted to kill you then we would have left you to the mutts. Secondly, Haymitch told us that you had a previous alliance, but expected that you would need more than a select few allies if you two were going to get anywhere in these games…" she said matter-of-factly.
"What entitles you or Haymitch to make that judgment?" Peeta said, before Cashmere could list another reason why he and Johanna should allow them to live any longer.
"I mean just look at you two…You're unarmed and Johanna looks like she's going to keel over any minute," Gloss remarked. Peeta shot a glance back at Johanna who was leaning her arm against a tree for support, and shook her head with a sense of unfortunate agreement with the other boy.
"He told us that there were supposedly two others…Katniss and someone else?" Cashmere said, looking back toward Gloss for help.
"That district 2 blonde with the temper," Gloss replied, a low chuckle escaping as he shook his head in disagreement.
"God, what's wrong with Cato? Jeez," Peeta exclaimed as he lifted his arms into the air representing his frustration.
"Cato! That's it!" Cashmere exclaimed, a little too prideful in her ability to pick out a simple statement, Peeta thought.
The sound of three cannons shot off in the distance, toward the western point of the arena. Peeta's expression turned to one of terror and he felt his knees begin to buckle. Please let Cato be safe…he whispered aloud.
"It's roughly past noon, we better get a move on if we're going to find that boy toy of yours," Cashmere boasted, a twinkle in her eye and a smile forming on the creases of her lips.
"Wait, how did –" Peeta started in protest.
"Why else would you be looking for him, lover boy" Gloss pointed out, to which he received an annoyed glare from his sister, which made him shrug his shoulders and continue to gather his supplies in silence.
Peeta blushed at the realization that Gloss and Cashmere were aware of his growing fondness of the tall blonde, who he had not seen for two days since the morning of the launch. Peeta jumped when a reassuring hand rested itself on his shoulder, and to his surprise found that Johanna had pulled herself over to him.
"If they were lying, do you really think we'd be standing here?" Johanna inquired. It made sense when Peeta thought it over; they were experienced killers after all. Yet somehow Peeta could not shake the overwhelming feeling that something was wrong.
"'Deception is as much as killer as brute force,'" Peeta reiterated.
"Where did you hear that expression?" Johanna replied, a smug look on her face with brows furrowed in confusion.
"Haymitch. He warned me to watch who I trust in the games. If you think we can trust them, then I believe they can lead us to Katniss and Cato with better luck that we could have on our own. Besides, I've run out of knives," Peeta responded.
"Exactly. We could use them," Johanna added, receiving an approving nod from Peeta, who watched as the District 1 tributes finished packing their supplies and were issuing for the others to join them.
Johanna was the first to join Gloss and Cashmere, Peeta once again following behind the pack, wary of anything that could go unnoticed. He was certainly not going to let his guard down around the Careers. Why were they not with Marvel and the others, Peeta examined.
They began at a steady pace - not straining themselves too hard - as Gloss sliced through the thick greenery that overshadowed them. The terrain was changing and even Peeta was aware of this: it had become more groggy, thicker, and less reliable for walking in. Swarms of insects would pass by the tributes while they walked, completely harmless, but causing shrieks every now and again from Cashmere who relentlessly batted at them.
The sound of chiming caught Peeta's attention before the other tributes, which continued to follow behind Gloss in a single file. He called out to the others to hold on while he went to investigate the chime that echoed the sound of a silver parachute. It was not long before Peeta caught sight of the parachute hanging from a large branch. It must have got caught on its way down, he noted.
"Hey, Gloss!" he called out to the stronger tribute. Peeta noticed the broad shouldered male had stopped and turned around when his reflectors motioned the movement.
"Yeah, what's up?" he responded, before his eyes could catch glimpse of the parachute that hung just out of Peeta's reach. "I can give you a boost, but no funny business," he said, chuckling at his own humor. Peeta shook his head and placed a foot into Gloss' clenched hands. It was enough to close the gap between the dangling parachute and Peeta's outstretched hand. Peeta quickly started to unknot the rope as to take only the canister, which contained a valuable gift from the sponsors.
Peeta opened the canister when he was set down by Gloss, allowing for the other tributes to gather around and observe what Haymitch had sent for his tribute.
"Ah! Some warm bread!" Peeta called out, snapping the bun in half and breathing in the warm scent of freshly cooked dough. Memories of the bakery flooded back into his memory, and thoughts of the many desserts made Peeta squirm in delight.
"There's enough here for the four of us," Johanna said. Tossing some bread to Gloss and Cashmere was a big step, but it proved to Peeta that her trust in the two District 1 tributes was strong.
Shouts of delight came from Cashmere first, followed soon after by Gloss who managed to smile at Peeta. I think he thinks that I like him…Peeta said, embarrassed that he had even thought of it. He had his heart set on Cato, and nobody could take that away from him.
"What does the note say?" Johanna asked, shaking Peeta from his thoughts of Gloss and Cato and the warm scent of heated bread.
"Oh, I completely forgot!" Peeta said, rising to his feet and walking over to where the run-down canister now lay. The tributes had become overly excited when they first laid eyes on the bread that they had managed to disfigure the jar.
Peeta pulled out a white paper, which glowed under his goggles, which had a distinctive "H.A." at the end of a small message, which stood for 'Haymitch Abernathy'. He nearly squealed when he seen what the message read, and sent a silent "thank you," to the open night sky, hoping Haymitch could see his appreciation.
"We're on the right track guys. It says, 'Keep moving. You're almost there.'"
The tributes spent most of the afternoon indulging in the bread they had so graciously received from Haymitch, and had mentioned little things about themselves so as better to know one another as they trudged further on.
Peeta recalled Cashmere mentioning that she had always aspired to become a stylist. This sort of job was something that District 12 would never be able to appreciate, and Peeta had known from the day he first started working in the bakery that he would work there for the remainder of his life. It was the sad truth that was understood by all of the citizens of his district that forced families to suffer under great poverty.
When nightfall approached, Peeta and the rest of the tributes made their way further into the thick foliage that led to where he would hope to rendezvous with Cato and Katniss. He noticed that Gloss did not have to use his knife to tear away at long ferns that blocked the path anymore, because most had already been destroyed. Peeta took this as a good sign that a tribute or two had passed through this way and he hoped that it was Katniss and Cato.
Peeta followed closely behind Gloss now, which left Cashmere and Johanna who were whispering small comments back and forth to one another. Peeta thought he would take this time to make small talk with Gloss, who had seemed to rub him the wrong way earlier.
"So…" Peeta began, not quite sure what conversation to start with the broad-shouldered male before him. "You're pretty good with knives, I see. I saw you in the training centre. I swear you hit the target in a vital spot every time!" Peeta exclaimed, hoping that his excitement would get the other boy to speak up a little. If Peeta was going to put this much effort into their relationship as allies, then he expected as much from the other boy.
There was a small huff from Gloss as he replied without turning his head back once to look at Peeta: "Yeah, I guess I'm alright…"
"More than alright, I'd say!" Peeta said, unsure as to why he kept complimenting the other boy. He guessed that Gloss would be used to people gloating over him.
"I've got a wicked backhand, I'll say that much," Gloss started. "My sister, Cashmere, has been training for as long as I can remember, right Cash?"
Peeta kept walking slowly, laughter filling him from the relationship Gloss and his sister had. They were either praising each other, or at each other's throats. It had been several seconds, without reply, before Peeta turned back to see why Cashmere had not responded. Looking back he could see that both girls had stopped numerous metres from them. Their jacket arms shook, as their arms seemed to be waving them back. Peeta gestured at Gloss, who had stopped to see why his sister had not responded either.
Just as Peeta and Gloss started to double back, it began. It started as a low pitched squawking sound, which eventually erupted into a screech that came from the foliage; he began to be thwarted by innumerable flying creatures. As both boys fell to the ground, the smell of blood filled Peeta's nostrils, and a warm substance began to flow from either ear.
Author's Note: I surprise myself sometimes – worked on this all night for you guys. Here's the next chapter! Don't worry; Cato's coming soon (hallelujah!).