THE GAMES
Each Tribute stood tensely at their designated metal plate, awaiting the countdown to finish and for the gong to sound. Clove's feet shuffled on her plate, anticipating the signal to start. She was edgy as she felt spasms of excitement rush through her body. Or perhaps it was anxiety. Either way, she just wanted to get started.
The Cornucopia stood before them, near a gigantic lake that shone sparkly and clear. At the mouth of the Cornucopia was an abundance of supplies. Food, weapons, backpacks full of sleeping bags or first aid kits. Near Clove's feet stood a loaf of bread and a cheap, plastic flashlight. Seeing as she slightly far away from the Cornucopia, the supplies that were near her weren't as useful as the ones at the mouth of the giant, golden horn. But she could run. Petite and quick, she could reach the area where the provisions were plenty, and hopefully get some knives, because with her knives, Clove would be unstoppable.
"5, 4, 3, 2…" bellowed the automated voice. Its metallic sound cut through the silence of the Tributes, and once it finished its countdown, the gong rang.
It was chaos.
A few of the Tributes ran for the forest immediately, only grabbing small rations on the way there. Others ran straight for the Cornucopia, hoping to outrun everyone else in an attempt to get the best of the bounty at the horn. Clove darted out as soon as the gong sounded; her muscles relaxed as she finally let loose all of the bundled energy that she kept inside when she was on her metal plate. As her first priority, she ran over to Cato as quickly as she could, seeing as he was already at the mouth of the Cornucopia, slashing away at Tributes like he did the dummies at the Training Center. Bodies fell all around him and Clove tore through the pandemonium right into the Cornucopia, hastily locating her precious knives.
Once she got a hold of them, she didn't waste a second in killing. Her arms sliced through the air, sending her knives into the backs and throats of her adversaries. She relished the sensation of accomplishment each time her knives found their mark. In the corner of her eye, she saw Katniss Everdeen shuffling around confusedly until she spotted a backpack to take. Another boy tried taking the same backpack and they grappled over it for a minute before Clove threw a knife at the boy, which cut right into the back of his neck. While he spewed blood onto Katniss Everdeen's face, Clove chose a serrated, long blade and hurled it at the girl's back, only for it to be lodged into the back of Katniss's bag which she instinctively hitched up right before the blade could hit her.
Flushed with rage at the fact that Katniss had gotten away, Clove swung around, viciously lobbing knives at the few who were left in the arena. Soon, all who were left were the Careers; the others either dead or hidden in the thick forest that took up half of the giant arena they were placed in.
"We need to move out for a bit," commanded Cato, his clothing already splattered with the blood of his victims. "The hovercrafts are going to move in to collect the bodies and we'd better get out of the way."
They collected anything they deemed important off the bodies and the ground. As the Careers collected themselves in the Cornucopia, the high, clear whistle of a Mockingjay was heard, and soon a few hovercrafts materialized from the sky, a robot arm of a sort reaching down and collecting the bodies. When the Capitol finished its cleanup of the dead, Cato, Clove, Marvel, and Glimmer left the opening of the Cornucopia and arranged all of the supplies neatly, putting everything in crates and bags and stacking them up in a pyramid after taking an inventory of what they had.
"What now?" asked Marvel, who was from District One, tall, and good with the spear. His partner, Glimmer, was blonde and beautiful, but really only good with the hatchet.
"We should wait until nightfall to go hunt down anyone else," replied Clove as she cleaned her knives with a towel from the rucksack she grabbed. "Unless two of you will stay here and have two of us go out and hunt. Either way, we need to watch our supplies. We don't have any way of protecting it yet."
"I say we should just go and hunt, the faster we kill, the better. Besides, no one's going to touch our stuff, they know we can kill them in two seconds flat!" argued Glimmer.
"No." said Cato, sheathing his sword. "Clove's right. We can go and track a few down, but someone needs to stay here until then."
"Then let her stay!" said Glimmer, her eyes flashing as she glared at Clove. "If she's so insistent on guarding our supplies, she should be the one guarding them."
As Clove began to protest, Cato interrupted and said in a sharp voice, "She's coming with us. She's the quietest and can sneak up on the Tributes if we need her to. Or she could just throw her knives, too. Marvel, you can stay here for now."
Marvel's face twitched with disapproval, but he didn't complain as Cato glared down at him.
Soon, they were searching for the other Tributes to kill off deep inside the forest. It was slightly unsettling for them, because Districts One and Two didn't have much greenery. District One mainly consisted of tall, glassy buildings. District Two was more of a barren wasteland only accompanied by cruel looking buildings and one or two high-tech facilities for training. But other than that, the thick green trees, smell of pine, and chattering animals was mostly unfamiliar to them.
They had found an older boy hidden in the forest after an hour or two of searching, and Cato immediately swung his sword, cutting the boy's head clean off. A cannon went off.
"Nice job," praised Clove as she kicked the head away from her feet. "That was pretty clean cut."
"Yeah, well, his neck had the thickness of a twig," said Cato as he wiped the blood on his sword off on the dead boy's clothing. "Wouldn't take much to cut his head off. You could have probably done it with your little knives if you wanted to."
Glimmer snorted and Clove narrowed her eyes, her fingers on the handle of a cruel dagger that was unevenly serrated. Quickly pulling out the knife, she shoved Cato against a tree, his body crashing loudly against the rigid trunk of the tree.
With the cold and sharp blade against his throat, Cato glared at Clove, not daring to move with the knife so close to his neck.
"You think that I can't do anything," said Clove softly as she took pleasure at the sight of her District partner wriggling under her dagger cautiously. "But I've already told you that I can kill you in second. I've told you that a lot of times."
She moved off of Cato and placed her knife back inside her jacket. Cato glared at her as Clove said, "Let's move out. The hovercraft will be here in no time."
As she walked ahead of her group, Cato jogged up until he was next to her, looking angry while he insisted,
"You can't jump me in the middle of the Games. I don't care if anyone makes you seem weak at the moment because we can't afford to be distracted. If you keep doing this, someone might just attack us from behind!"
"Fine," agreed Clove, silently seething. "As long as you don't insult me all the time. It's like you want me to fight you!"
"I don't want you to fight me; you know I could kill you with a blindfold on—".
A rustle made both of them freeze in their tracks and pull out their weapons. Glimmer, who was behind them looked back and forth frantically.
"What is it?" she hissed as they all heard another rustle and crack of a fallen branch.
"Someone's here…" muttered Cato as they silently moved towards the source of sound.
And as they pushed aside a curtain of moss that hung down from the branch of an aged tree, they found the most pleasant surprise in the Games so far.
Peeta Mellark stood before them, dirty, injured, and frozen in shock.
end THE GAMES