16: The Attack

Gale POV

Clove, Cato, Marvel and Mara were waiting for us. Damn. They're all prepared, this attack will be harder than I thought. I quickly fire an arrow aiming for Clove, because she's the biggest threat, but she dodges with incredibly fast reflexes. I duck behind a tree branch as a knife comes spinning towards my head. The knife impaled the wood with a sharp crunch and I thank any god that may be watching that it didn't hit its target.

Katniss is firing off arrows faster than I can, though the careers are doing an excellent job surviving. I look into Katniss' terrified eyes and a plan passes between us. I fire off the next arrow at the same time as Katniss, aiming for the space next to Marvel. Katniss shoots her arrows to hit Marvel. He dodges to the side, only to be torn through the gut by my arrow. A small red wound blossoms through his clothes and a knife from Foxface into his head finishes him off. The sound of a cannon resonates through the arena.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I catch sight of Cato running towards the tree. He seems to have picked up the spear Marvel lost. My body refuses to obey my mind as I watch the spear leave his hand and fly in slow motion towards my body. A millisecond before I am impaled, I manage to jerk my body out of the way. The spear catches me on the arm, tearing a long gash. It feels like somebody ran a rod of fire through my arm and I give a pain-filled screech. Blood drips down my sleeve and I take a few deep breaths, trying to keep the pain under control.

All my muscles are tensed as I release on of the knives, grazing Cato's upper leg. I nock another arrow and loose it towards the general direction of the careers. I hear a screech of agony, Mara I think. Katniss finishes her with an arrow, before Foxface is hit with one of Clove's knives. Not fatally, thank God, but she'll probably find it hard to fight longer with a knife wedged between the muscles of her upper arm. Katniss is the only one uninjured now. The cannon goes for Mara. Two cannons in the space of minutes, I think bitterly. The Capitolites must love this.

"Katniss!" I whisper desperately. "We need to go! We've done all we can, climb across the trees."

She takes one look at my and Rusty's conditions before hurriedly shuffling along through the branches and making a flying jump into the next tree. She climbs slightly higher and Foxface lightly climbs across in the other direction. A good plan, splitting up so they'll find it harder to find us. Especially with only the two of them left. I clamber after Katniss, rushing through the lower branches which hold my weight easily.

I need to pause for a second to catch my breath. "Are we safe yet?" I call to Katniss, who is somewhere above me in the higher branches of the tree. I breathe heavily for a few moments, waiting impatiently for her response. She's probably looking down, examining the ground and I do the same. No careers- yet. I listen for any sounds I can hear, but there's nothing but the song of

mockingjays.

"We're safe," Katniss calls back. "I can see for a long way hear. Clove is treating Cato's leg back where their camp used to be." I heard telltale slither of branches before Katniss lands on all fours beside me. I swear that girl is half squirrel the way she can climb and jump so gracefully. "Where's Aravis?" she asks, and I can see that she is preparing for the worst news.

"Don't worry, she got away." Katniss sighs in relief. "But she went the other way," I finish. "So I have no idea where she is. She isn't dead though, there hasn't been a cannon."

"Phew," Katniss releases her breath. "So we need to find her." She balances on the tree branch standing easily, but I pull her down.

"Not yet," I say. "Do you have a bandage for my arm? I don't want it to get infected or bleed out."

Katniss shakes her head. "No, do you think Haymitch would be able to provide one?" As if on cue, a silver parachute falls out of the sky and floats towards us, getting caught on a branch. "Disinfectant bandages," Katniss reads the label. Perfect. I'm glad Haymitch has stayed sober long enough. My wound isn't that bad, it's very unlikely to kill me, but there is the possibility of infection and that would hinder my usefulness to Katniss greatly.

Katniss takes out a bandage. "Hold still," she hisses to me. I rest my arm on her lap, keeping as still as possible. Katniss lifts up my arm and puts the bandage under the wound. Then she wraps it around tightly, putting pressure on the cut, which is painful at first, but gets better. She loops it around several times and ties it up at the end. "There," she says softly. "All done. How does it feel," she asks in a slightly anxious tone.

I flex my arm experimentally. It still hurts, of course, but not nearly as much as it did before. I don't think it will get infected and the bandage is doing a good job to stop the bleeding. "Better than before," I reply. "I should be able to continue as normal. Do you want a bit more of the burn cream?" I ask, remembering that her leg isn't completely better yet.

Katniss takes a look at her leg, then says, "yes, OK. It's still quite pink and I really hate burns." I unscrew the lid of the burn cream and apply a small amount to the pink patches of skin on her leg. "That should be fine," she says once I am finished. "It should be better by tomorrow."

"I hope," I say. "Do you think we should go find Aravis now?" I suggest. "My arm is fine and she may be seriously hurt. Or the careers may have found her."

"I doubt it," Katniss responds. "I think they went back to their old camp almost immediately to treat their wounds. So we should go now. Any ideas where she might have gone?"

"She's smart," I say, deep in thought. "She'd know to go somewhere we could find her, but not so close to the career camp. Do you think maybe somewhere near there?"

"Perhaps," Katniss replies. "But that's still quite close. I don't want to risk going so near to their camp, especially if another attack will be on their terms."

"We could just head the other way to find her," I suggest. "Or we could leave it for tomorrow and hunt for a new camp now. We might find her whilst we're searching."

"I want to find her tonight," Katniss protests. "By tomorrow we will have no idea where in the arena she is."

"How about we search for a new place in the side of the arena she might have gone to?" I ask. "We can't just sleep in the trees here very well, it's too exposed, and too cold."

"Fine, but finding Foxface should be our first priority." I'm not sure why Katniss is so obsessed with finding Foxface, yes, she's our ally, but we can survive on our own. She can survive on her own. Us being together isn't so necessary that finding her absolutely must be our first priority. Maybe she formed an attachment with Foxface over having a younger sister like Prim, or maybe it's just that she likes Foxface. She does seem trustworthy, I guess, and she's quite smart.

I edge across the branch I'm on to get to the trunk. From there I jump down a branch at a time where the branches are the thickest and will hold my weight. Of course, Katniss is down much faster than I am, but that's only to be expected. She's better at climbing and she's uninjured. I land at the bottom with a small thud and look around for Katniss. "Come on, Gale," she calls quietly. "Over here!"

I chase after her and catch up fairly easily. We wander to the left side of the arena, more towards the grain field. I don't want our new camp to be there though, I like forest. I feel at home in the forest. I know that I can survive here. And anywhere that Thresh is is probably unsafe for us.

We've gone quite a way now and I'm beginning to feel quite thirsty. I wish we'd thought to take more from the careers while we could, maybe a backpack or two, or a tent. Our hands are full carrying Katniss' medicine and my bandages which will give us a disadvantage in a fight. Perhaps I could hint to Haymitch that a backpack may be useful. Maybe later though, when we find Foxface or a new camp.

Now we have mountains on one side of us, probably signalling the edge of the arena. We won't be able to get out, I think sadly. The mountains are too high for us to climb and even if we had the energy I doubt the game makers would allow the two most popular tributes to escape. Pity.

I keep my eye out for caves though, where there are mountains there should be caves. A cave would make a good place to stay. "Look out for caves," I tell Katniss. "If there's a cave here then I think that would make a good place to stay."

She nods. "We're far from the careers, but still in the forest. Water might be a slight problem, but maybe we'll be sponsored some. If not going to the lake shouldn't be a huge problem."

"I also saw some ponds a few minutes ago," I respond. "We could go there for water."

"Fine. I think that might be a cave, up there," she gestures forwards and slightly upwards. There seems to be an opening in the rock. I climb up with Katniss behind me to check it out. It is a cave, a decent sized one. It's sheltered from the wind and other tributes probably won't find it. It's quite close to water and near to the forest. It's perfect. Katniss seems to agree with me, she's already taking off her bow and quiver of arrows and putting them in a corner.

"Decided you like it?" I ask.

"It's fine," she says. "There's nothing more that we can do to find Foxface now. It's getting dark. I'm going to sleep."

I take off my bow, knives and sword and put them next to her weapon. "Do you mind if I give you a kiss goodnight?" I ask grinning.

"Not at all," Katniss replies and I kiss her softly. "Goodnight Gale."

"Night Katniss," I murmur.

It takes me a while to get to sleep. For starters I just can't get comfortable. It's probably because of my injured arm, a stone floor isn't the best place to rest with it. And I'm just not tired, I know that I should save my energy, but sleeping just doesn't feel right right now. And there's also the fear of my dreams. Pretty much every night I've dreamt of Katniss being threatened, being killed by different tributes. She screams for my help, but I don't come in time. I see her dead. Then I wake up in a panic to see if she's still here.

"Katniss?" I whisper, checking if she's still awake.

"Yes," the muffled reply comes. "I'm awake."

"Do you get the nightmares too?" I ask. "About dying and I dream about losing you."

"I've dreamt of losing you too," she admits to me. "Why?"

"I couldn't sleep. And I was wondering if I was the only one."

"No." She wriggles a bit closer to me and I can feel her warmth. "But so long as I can feel you here, next to me, I think I should sleep just fine."

xXx-X-xXx

Next chapter and the attack! Please tell me what you guys think of this story in a review, or follow or favourite it. And thanks to all of you who've reviewed, followed and favourited so far.

-MoonOfPluto