Author's Note: I've gotten so many favorites and story alerts- but only one review. Seriously guys? Weak sauce. Hopefully, another chapter will rouse some of you into action, but I'm leaving a cliffhanger, and holding the next chapter hostage until I get some reviews. It's evil, I know, and borderline Capitol behavior, but an author's got to do what an author's got to do.
So review! I'm begging you!
All shameless groveling aside, I give you Chapter 2.
Disclaimer: If I owned the Hunger Games franchise, I would be married to Alexander Ludwig by now.
Chapter 2
I wake up from the first peaceful dream I've had since the Reaping with a start. Cato is shaking me awake, and his eyes are widened with urgency.
"What?" I slur groggily, still half-asleep. Before he can respond, the earth shakes beneath us. I am wide awake now. The Cornucopia trembles dangerously above us, and without another thought, I am on my feet and sprinting out of the Cornucopia. I look back, and to my relief, Cato is close behind me.
We run into the open field surrounding the Cornucopia and brace ourselves for the next tremor while catching our breaths. However, it never comes.
.
I look at Cato in confusion, unable to figure out the point of the earthquake. There are no cannon shots, and the clearing is peaceful- as if there had not just been a violent earthquake.
Cato, however, is skeptical. He keep his head cocked, and his eyebrows are furrowed in concentration. I am about to ask him what he thinks about the situation when I am cut off by a blood-curdling scream. Redhead.
I whip my head around in the direction of the scream, and to my horror, Redhead is being chased towards us by some large wolves. No doubt the Gamemakers have given them some sort of mutation to cause maximum damage.
I stay rooted to the spot, and it is only when Cato grabs my shoulder roughly that I collect my wits and run.
.
The Gamemakers sent that earthquake to draw me and Cato away from the Cornucopia, and this is what makes me believe that the Cornucopia is the safest spot to be right now. Unable to form words while running for my life, I point vaguely towards the golden horn instead. He seems to understand, and I hope we make it in time.
With Ginger and the mutts hot on our trails, I clamber up the side of the horn. The hot metal burns my hands, but I cling to it like it's my salvation.
Cato is having a harder time. Climbing has never been his strong suit, and he struggles to maintain a strong grip on the Cornucopia. Once I reach the top, I bend down to pull him up, but he's heavy, and I am weak from my encounter with Thresh so it takes me a while.
It takes me too long, it turns out, because one of the mutts has clamped its gigantic jaws around his leg, and Cato lets out a strangled yell. Panicked and desperate, I rally all my remaining strength, and yank him onto the Cornucopia.
Thankfully, it works, and we both collapse into a heap. His leg is mangled and bloody, but I'm sure the Capitol can fix that with ease. As I pull both of us up, and he brushes me off, I hear the sound of a third person climbing onto the Cornucopia,
.
Ginger reaches the top of the Cornucopia with relative ease. It seems Cato distracted the mutts enough to allow her to run around to the other side. Smart girl. I am mentally hitting myself for constantly underestimating the other tributes.
No matter, I can kill her easily now that I have found her. I reach for one of my knives- but with a jolt, I remember that I left my jacket inside the Cornucopia. Stupid Clove.
Redhead smiles. She must know that I don't have my knives. Still, I sense her anxiety- it's two against one, and there's no way her fighting skills rival mine and Cato's combined. She tries to stall, and slowly backs away from me and Cato as her gigantic eyes flick everywhere, searching for an escape route.
Cato and I share a look, and we both start to approach her from different sides. Cato talks to her in a low, reassuring voice. It's the voice he uses to lull his prey into a false sense of security.
"Just give up now. It's two against one." he murmurs seductively- and it's sick, but I get shivers up my spine when he talks like this. "Besides, two people can win this time. Wouldn't it be noble to die, so two can survive?"
Smart Cato, maybe she'll just jump off the Cornucopia for us. Maybe I won't have to kill another to escape this hellhole.
She just laughs. "Do you really think they'll let two tributes win? Don't you see? They're just building you two up so when you fall, it'll be a better show. And you two are falling for it."
And maybe she's just talking empty words to stall us, but the words hit me like a punch to the gut. Red notices my shock, and turns to face me.
And I could just kiss Cato, because he uses the momentary lapse in her concentration to push her off the side of the Cornucopia.
.
She falls off with a shriek, but manages to grab a hold of my ankle while she slides off. I try to shake her off, but she claws at me in a desperate bid to survive. The dead weight causes me to topple off my feet, and suddenly, I am in danger of going down with her.
In the ensuing chaos, I feel Cato keeping me from sliding off, and I kick Foxface in the face. I'm sorry, I try to say with my eyes when she falls off the Cornucopia and glares reproachfully up at me. I'm sorry, but rather you than me. The last thing she sees is my guilty face before the mutts engulf her.
.
Gratefully, the mutts make quick work of her body. There's nothing worse than a drawn-out death. I should know. I've caused many of them.
While Cato and I watch her die before our eyes, I wonder when I began to lose my thirst for blood. Was it during the Bloodbath, when I killed the girl with the sad eyes? -or was it when the Four girl, Ripple- who taught me how to throw a trident- suffocated from trackerjacker stings right in front of me? Maybe it was when I saw Marvel's face in the sky, when just that morning he helped me calm down Cato after the supplies exploded.
All I know is that I silently hope for the cannon boom to come sooner rather than later. I suddenly remember my district token, a ruby ring that I fastened to the end of my braid. It passed by the Gamemakers, who didn't realize that if I swung my head fast enough, the centrifugal force could easily crack open someone's skull.
I rip it out my hair, and chuck it at the crowd of mutts. It's a difficult shot, but I never miss, and the ring hits her skull with a resounding crack. The cannon finally booms, and next to me, I hear Cato let out a breath that I didn't realize he was holding.
The sun is still rising when the mutts eventually scatter and the hovercraft lifts Redhead's broken body from the ground.
.
Cato and I gaze at each other in shared shock, when reality sinks in. A genuine smile spreads onto his face, and I let myself shoot him the biggest grin my face can manage. We jump off the Cornucopia together, waiting for Claudius Templesmith's nasally voice to announce us winners.
Instead, there is a deadly silence, and Ginger's final words creep back into my mind. A chilling dread creeps down my spine, and I hope she was wrong for once in her life. I pray for Templesmith's announcement.
His voice comes blaring through the arena, thank god. But as I listen, I realize his voice is saying the wrong words.
.
"Greetings to the final contestants of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games. The earlier revisions have been revoked. Closer examination of the rule book has disclosed that only one winner may be allowed. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor!"
His voice clicks off, the words sink in. And this is the moment when I can finally say, without a trace of doubt, that I hate the Capitol.
.