Chapter Five: The Games

A knot had formed in Clove's stomach as she and her stylist, Gem, rode to the arena. She urged Clove to eat or drink but Clove ignored her. She had been told that tributes often became close with their stylists, but that was not the case for her and Gem. Gem was the embodiment of a girly girl and every stereotype that Clove had always fought against and despised. So she was not fond of her.

When their train came to a screeching halt, Clove felt her mouth go dry. Gem pulled her out into a long hallway, lined with Peacekeepers. As they walked her to further transportation, she couldn't help but feel more like a prisoner than an honored guest as she always thought she would feel.

The Peacekeepers opened a door at the end of the hallway and Gem shuffled her inside. The door locked automatically behind them. All that the room contained was a table, with a jacket on top of it, and what looked like a giant glass tube. Gem grabbed the jacket and helped Clove into it. Clove turned back to face Gem, expecting a heart felt speech, but luckily an intercom voice sounded above them that deployment would occur in 30 seconds. Clove did not hesitate. She turned away from Gem and climbed into her glass tube. She turned back to face Gem as the countdown ended. Gem smiled and waved.

Before Clove could react to this strange gesture, the floor below her began to rise. She took a deep breath and looked up the tube. A few moments later, the top opened revealing a bright sun. Clove shielded her eyes as she emerged from the tube. Her eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the bright sun but once they did, she could see the arena before her. The giant cornucopia sat in the center, with hundreds of packs of supplies spilling out of its mouth. Behind that stood a giant forest that spread farther than she could see. On the other side of the cornucopia stood a giant lake and next to that a field with grass at least six feet tall. She would definitely be avoiding that area. The countdown started behind the cornucopia.

She looked around at the other tributes. Next to her stood the District 12 girl, Katniss and the District 11 boy, Thresh. Clove noticed that Katniss seemed to be having a silent conversation with her counterpart tribute across from them. She rolled her eyes at them. Their fake romance had annoyed her and had gained them top spot for sponsors, which annoyed her more. She looked out across the circle of the 24 of them and saw Cato. He flashed her a smile and a wink. She smiled back.

She looked back to the countdown just in time. As the gong sounded, she jumped off her platform and ran for the stash of knives inside the cornucopia. Time seemed to slow around her as many of the tributes ran straight for shelter in the forest or near the lake. Others foolishly ran toward the cornucopia, where Clove knew either she or Cato would take them down.

Cato reached it first, grabbing the biggest sword there was. He immediately took down three or four of the others and allowed Clove to have time to pick the best, if not all, the knives there were. Thresh tried to get at her at last twice with an impressively sized axe, but Cato sliced his arm as a threat, and he took off for the field of tall grass.

Once she picked all the knives she wanted, she joined Cato. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Katniss running for a pack at the edge of the cornucopia along with another tribute. "I'm going to get 12 out of the way now," Clove shouted to Cato who nodded and grinned as he ran off after another. Clove ran toward the two who were now fighting over the pack. She threw one of her knives with impressive force, hitting the other tribute straight in the back. The tribute slumped forward and she had a clear shot at Katniss, who now looked panicked. Clove smiled as she threw another knife straight for her chest. But, Katniss threw the backpack in front of her, blocking the knife.

Before Clove could strike again, Cato yelled her name. Clove turned to see another tribute running at her. She turned back to see Katniss running for the forest. Clove took a deep breath, let her go, and turned to the tribute threatening her now. She took him down easily, with one toss of a knife. With that, the blood bath seemed to be ended. All that were left standing were Clove and Cato and the two District One tributes, Glimmer and Marvel. Cato gestured for Clove to join them as they began to form their "Career Pack" as everyone else called it. She pulled her two knives out of her last two victims and ran to join them.

Once they had gathered all their supplies, they set out for the woods, ready to track their next victim. Once they were out of sight of the cornucopia, the cannons sounded. None of them bothered counting. It didn't matter how many were left because no one stood a chance next to them. After a few hours of hiking through the forest, they decided to rest a moment.

Luckily they had found water at the cornucopia. The arena was sweltering at this time of day. But everyone knew that they would be freezing once night came, so no one discarded their jackets.

"We'll have better luck finding one at night," Cato said as he paced back and forth in their clearing. "One of them will be stupid enough to light a fire."

"Ooh that is a brilliant idea Cato," Glimmer said as she paced next to him and stroked his arm. Cato looked at her a little strangely at first and then smiled. Clove rolled her eyes as she took another drink of water. She couldn't help but notice that Glimmer was beautiful with her pale skin, bright blue eyes and long blonde hair, but she didn't seem Cato's type. Even though she was tough, she was giggly and ditsy.

Glimmer continued to giggle and flirt as Cato paced and Marvel went back to the cornucopia to look for food. With each stupid giggle or flirtatious statement, Clove rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. She tried to ignore it as she took her knives out of her pack to sharpen them. After a few hours, Marvel returned from the cornucopia with packs of food for each of them.

As they formed a circle around a small fire that Cato started to eat, Glimmer continued to flirt annoyingly. At first, Cato seemed annoyed by her, but now, must to Clove's dismay, he began flirting back and telling her stories of his many conquests back home.

"I taught this one everything she knows," he said pointing to Clove.

"What?" I snapped, thinking we were still sticking to the 'we met at the reaping' plan. Cato had obviously forgotten that plan though because he continued.

"Yeah, we met back at the academy almost ten years ago," he said, "Been coaching her ever since."

"Yeah right," Clove snapped, "I taught myself almost everything I know thank you." With that, she threw her remaining beef jerky into the fire and stormed off toward the other side of the clearing. She heard Cato say he'd be right back and follow her.

"What's wrong?" Cato whispered, "You seem upset."

"We were supposed to stick to the plan," Clove snapped, "That we had ever met. Now you just blew that cover. All of Panem now knows that we have known each other for almost ten years!"

"I didn't think it was that big a deal anymore," he said looking back over at Glimmer who waved and smiled at him. Clove rolled her eyes again as Cato waved back. "And your eyes are going to roll out of your head if you keep doing that."

"Stop it," Clove said and started to head back to the fire but Cato grabbed her arm.

"Come on Clove," he said, "We're already here! It doesn't matter anymore." She shook of his arm and nodded.

"I know," she said, "I thought you'd just like to get back to your girlfriend." Before Cato could respond, a twig snapped behind Cato and made everyone jump. Cato grabbed his sword, Clove her knives, Marvel a spear, and Glimmer drew an arrow into her bow. They were all poised for the attack, as they had been trained, as someone emerged from the trees. Much to their surprise, it was the District 12 boy, Peeta.

"Kill him," Cato said to Glimmer, whose would be the easiest. One arrow to the throat and he'd be gone. No one else would have to move.

"Wait," Peeta said and he held up his hands, "I'm here to help you." All four started laughing immediately.

"What could you possibly help us with?" Cato asked.

"I'm going to help you find Katniss," he said. This intrigued all of them. She had been their initial target from the start. "I know you've been after her from the start."

"Why would you do that?" Clove asked, her knives still ready to strike, "Aren't you two in love or whatever?"

"My reasons are my own," he said as he came closer. Everyone else had lowered their weapons as he approached Cato. "I just know that I'll be able to find her. I know her pretty well." Cato eyed him suspiciously and turned to look at Clove, who shrugged.

"Alright," Cato said as he put his sword down and Clove lowered her knives. "But if we don't find her by sunset tomorrow, you're dead." Peeta nodded. After a few awkward moments, he joined Marvel and Glimmer at the fire.

"You sure about this?" Clove asked Cato and he shrugged.

"Even if he's tricking us, I think we can take him," he said and Clove laughed. Cato smiled before turning back to the group and joining Glimmer again. Clove resisted the urge to roll her eyes again at them as she sat on his other side. Soon, they put out of the fire and were on the hunt again.