22: Mutts

Katniss POV

'I am running through the forest- I think I'm nearing the cornucopia. An eerie howling follows me and my heart is pounding in my ears. Brambles tear at my clothes and I hear Gale behind me. We are running from something that I can't see, running as fast as we can. I can hear my pursuer behind me, always close but never catching up completely.

The cornucopia comes into sight. The golden, gleaming horn is covered in blood. I don't know who's blood it is, but I don't hesitate to jump, gripping the metal with both hands. The blood makes it slippery and the sun is making it warm, so it is hard to get a proper hold on it. Desperately trying to get a foothold, I slip back slightly.

Gale is ahead of me and he holds his hand out to me. I grab at it and use the hold to pull myself up to the top of the cornucopia. Because of my weight, Gale falls off. He's abandoned to these faceless creatures of darkness because of me. I scream in sadness, fear and frustration along with Gale's screeches of agony.

Something gets a hold behind my head. I look away from Gale for a moment to see the grinning, face of Clove. She holds a knife to my neck and has a firm hold on my hair. "Oh look, it's your pitiful lover- let's watch him die together shall we?" She jerks my head up with the knife held under it. I see Gale struggling, blood flowing from invisible wounds. He collapses, unconscious from blood loss- or worse, dead.'

I wake up in a cold sweat, breathing hard. Just a dream, I remind myself. Just a dream. Something seems off though, as if something in the dream is still here. I struggle to put my finger on it. Looking around, I see that both Gale and Aravis are sleeping peacefully. Then I realise.

The howling sound- the one that was in my dream- is still here. I can think of nothing else that would make a noise like that except for mutts. I bend down next to Gale and shake him awake. He yawns and looks up at me, his blue-grey eyes blinking sleepily. "Katniss? What is it?" he asks.

"Mutts," I hiss. "Wake Aravis."

I prod Aravis myself and she gets up fairly quickly. "I can hear mutts," I inform her. "We should look around, outside our cave. We can't be trapped in if they come." I put the bow and arrow over my back and shove a few knives in my belt. Gale takes his bow and arrow and his sword, also putting a knife or two in her pocket. Foxface takes some knives and the backpack.

The moon is shining brightly outside our cave, casting a silver light over the forest. A shiver goes up my spine as I see dark shapes in the shadows. Everything is quiet, we are trying not to provoke these creatures. A loud snap sounds as Foxface steps on a twig. We all jump at the sound. A howl answers our noise.

Suddenly, one of the creatures bursts out from behind the bushes. It has the shape of a wolf, but the fur is a pale yellowish colour, like human blonde. It's eyes are an icy blue shade. A sick feeling rises in my stomach- this mutt reminds me of someone. Glimmer, before she was stung to death by tracker jackers.

The recreated the dead tributes in mutts. The wold snarls at us, revealing sharp, white teeth with long, pointed canines at the front. It jumps at us and we scramble back, running. My dream comes back to me as we run. These mutts are faster than us- they jump too. We need to get somewhere where they can't. The cornucopia. Gale seems to have had the same idea.

"To the cornucopia!" he shouts. "They won't be able to get us there."

I whirl around, following him. I trust his sense of direction. Twigs and leaves tear and my face and moisture coming from my eyes blurs my vision. I don't care though- I have only one goal. Get to the cornucopia. My legs are moving without me even thinking about it, propelling me towards safety.

One of the mutts is catching up to me. I can hear its paw steps behind me, much too close for comfort. I grab one of the knives from my belt and blindly throw it behind me, hoping for the best. The mutts gives and all-too-human scream of pain and I put on an extra burst of speed to get away from it before it recovers.

The clearing comes into sight. The cornucopia reflects the silver light from the moon- unlike my dream. I throw myself at it, pulling myself up. The icy metal bites at my fingers, but I ignore it, pulling myself up even further. The mutts jump and I hastily swing my foot out of the way of their jaws.

I slip down slightly, but Gale grabs my hand and yanks me upwards. Slowly, I claw my way up to the top of the cornucopia. The howling of the mutts is behind me, but in front of me is a sight even more terrifying. Without me even having to think, my bow is out, an arrow nocked and aimed.

A tribute stands at the edge of the cornucopia. He has Gale in a headlock. It is Thresh, his face and hair matted with blood, and a horrible wound running all the way down his leg. He has a knife pointed at Gale's back, and his face is twisted in pain and insanity. The Hunger Games have not treated Thresh well; I am almost certain that he is insane.

His mouth opens and he rasps, "go ahead." He gestures at my bow with his head. "Then we both go down and you live." He laughs, digging the knife in slightly. I stay still, he is right. If I just shoot him through the eye, he will die immediately and fall off the cornucopia down into the writhing mass of mutts below. I won't have time to save Gale and I can't sacrifice him now.

A whispered voice comes from behind me. "There's nothing he can do," Aravis hisses to me. "He knows that you won't shoot him in risk of killing Gale, but as soon as he lets Gale go then you can shoot him. He's desperate."

"He's suicidal," I hiss back. "He doesn't care whether he dies now. He's insane."

My eyes flick back to Gale. His eyes are racing rapidly, from one side to the other. Suddenly, I understand what he is trying to say. His eyes are gesturing to Thresh's hand- if I shoot the hand then he'll let go and fall of the cornucopia without dragging down Gale. Silently, I thank the telepathic bond that Gale and I have and aim the arrow.

It's a bit of a risk, but the least risky choice that I have. My fingers tighten around the bowstring as I try to keep them from trembling. Everything depends on this one shot and for the first time I feel slightly unsure of my skills. I shake away the worries and let the arrow fly.

It impales Thresh's hand- a short stream of blood stains it. Thresh gives a short gasp of pain before his hand slowly uncurls from Gale's neck. He falls off the edge of the cornucopia, screaming as he goes down. Gale stumbles further onto the cornucopia and I sigh with relief.

The wolves howl, and jump in on Thresh's body. They maul him, tearing at the flesh. Blood soaks his whole body- it won't take long before he bleeds to death. Earlier in the Games I probably would have put him out of his misery with an arrow to the head, but now I just watch with sadistic pleasure as they bite into his throat. After what he was going to do to Gale and taunting me about it, this is what he deserves.

His neck falls back at an odd angle and his eyes glaze over- Thresh is dead. The cannon booms, the noise echoing through my head and through the forest, telling everybody of the latest death. Only Cato, Clove and Aravis left before Gale and I can win. I hope the Aravis is killed by the careers so I won't have to. I don't think I'll be able to even, after she probably saved Gale's life yesterday.

The mutts give a long howl, then run away through the forest. I rush over to Gale and hug him, pulling him closer to me. "That was so close," I whisper. "You need to be more careful, how did Thresh catch you?"

"Thanks for the save Katniss," he murmurs back. "And Thresh caught me as I came onto the cornucopia, he was insane."

I let him go. "We should get back to the cave," I say recovering. "Before the mutts chase Cato and Clove down here."

Gale and Aravis follow me to the edge of the cornucopia. I slide down the metal and land easily on my feet. I look around carefully before continuing. The mutts left the cornucopia- not the arena. If the Capitol want then they will be sent back to maul and kill us. Or to chase Cato and Clove towards us.

All of us are on edge until we get back to the cave, jumping and gripping weapons at any sound, any twig snapping, leaves rustling or bird tweeting. Luckily, nothing happens to us on our journey back to the cave. When we reach the cave again, we all sink down into our sleeping places.

Though I didn't feel at all tired whilst running or killing Thresh, the exhaustion has now caught up to me. I yawn loudly as I look up to the sky, where the face of Thresh shines. District 11, Thresh Alderson is written in blood red letters below the picture. After a few minutes it disappeared and the Capitol seal shines in the sky.

I think guiltily of Rue, how she wanted Thresh to win for her. Was it that she knew him before? Maybe before the Games he was just a nice boy to her, maybe he was even like Peeta Mellark was to me. Perhaps they had a history. Or maybe it was just that Rue was loyal to her District and wanted another victor from 11.

Twelve has the least amount of victors of any District. District 1, 2 and 4 all have many victors because they are careers. Probably around two thirds of all the victors are from one of those Districts. Then probably District 7 because they can use axes. All of the other districts only have about two or maybe three living victors if they are very lucky.

District 12 only has had two Victors so far. Only one of them living- our mentor, Haymitch. If Gale and I win the Games it should even things out with the other Districts. I wonder why Haymitch started drinking though. He won, why would he want to drink away the life he tried so desperately to preserve.

Maybe he just had nothing left; as far as I know Haymitch has no living family, no wife or children. He has few friends, I guess being a Victor of the Hunger Games alienates you from most people. He doesn't need to work, he has everything he needs. And every year he has the almost hopeless task of guiding District 12 tributes through the Games.

I guess I can see why he fell into depression. But it's different for me, I remind myself. I have family, friends. I have Gale. I'll probably hunt as something to do and give the food I catch to the other kids in the Seam. Maybe I'll even start up a club to train others to hunt- or to train kids with the most tesserae how to use weapons.

Or maybe I'll start a family with Gale. When I get to a decent age for that, right now I'm only sixteen and Gale is eighteen. I don't want to be raising children fresh out of the Hunger Games. But maybe, if I have the money, I'd like to have children. Having children, my mother says, is the purpose of life.

Or perhaps I'd try to start a rebellion, I think hopefully. To make a difference to Panem, to inspire the Districts to rise up against the fear-control of the Capitol. To do something worthwhile. To end the Hunger Games, to change the fact that the Capitol have everything and the Districts are starving. The thought appeals to me, I have to say.

I fall asleep with thoughts of victory and rebellion in my head, slumped against Gale's shoulder.

xXx-X-xXx

So what do you think of the chapter? I'm thinking of doing another thoughts chapter at the end of this story (which including the thoughts chapter will probably be chapter 26). Maybe this one can involve Snow as well, any ideas?

-MoonOfPluto