I'm sorry for the late update guys, I had a moment off where I felt really bad and I wasn't able to write anything
Anyway, you guys cheer me up with all your lovely reviews! :)
so this is just for you!
Chapter 15
That's the moment Marvel chooses to poke his face through the bushes. The more time I spend with him, the more tempted I am to wrong his neck.
"There you are! We're going west north-west" he announces. He's playing with one of the things we had at the Cornucopia, a compass I think. I personally think it's no use, we have eyes to see, that's enough, but he seems to enjoy playing with this thing.
I sigh and re-adjust my backpack's webbing.
When we reach the first camp fire, nobody's in sight. I bet the one who set this fire must have hidden hearing us approach.
"Come on, get out!" Cato shouts, searching playfully the thickets with his sword.
I quickly mimic him, hoping to find a scared face looking at me but it's a total failure.
"Screw it, he's well hidden!" I finally drop
I throw a dagger to a tree trunk but the short relief I feel is not enough to contain myself when I see a plume floating in the sky.
"They're playing with us!" I shout, shooting another time my improvised target.
Cato starts swearing heavily and Marvel looks at us in disbelief.
We've been caught so easily I curse myself. Clearly no one would be that stupid, we are the fools. I should have seen it. The smoke was too dark, the place too obvious. No one seems to be around though, but as another fire has been lit up I guess the tribute must be there. Or planning another fire.
"Move! We've got to find the new one!" I shout
"That's what they want us to do, we're not going there" Marvel points the smoke
"Not that one. I bet there is another one, ready to burn somewhere else"
So we move quickly in the woods, passing by the second fire without seeing anyone. We progress straight in line, not even stopping there. No doubt I'm right; we will necessarily find another pyre. I run now. I have to find it, there must be one; the whole plan would have had no sense otherwise.
We finally find it, an amount of green wood in a clearing. Again, the place appears desert, we probably took our little player short.
"What are we doing now?" Marvel asks, visibly exhausted. Slow minded, not even resistant, why did he volunteer?
"Why don't you trap him?" It's District Three speaking. I almost forgot he came with us. Anyway, his plan doesn't sound too bad
"I don't know how to set snares" Marvel admits.
"Neither" Cato grumbles. They're all looking at me now, waiting for me to say I'm not able to do it. But I won't; it would be screaming my weak point to the whole Panem.
"Fine. Prove you worth something" I say and begin the watch the surroundings
Marvel gives me a suspicious look and I can see Cato repressing a smile. Ok, they both know I'm unable to set traps, do I care? I'll win anyway.
And suddenly, there's a huge sound booming all around us. It's not a cannon, nor capitol made. That was a blow, something exploded a little further.
The supplies.
I'm visibly not the only one who thought of that. Cato is already up and I follow him as he cuts through the bushes. Without our supplies life in the arena promises to get harder. I like a little more challenge, but by blowing out our food, this stinky tribute divided our chances of winning. But what he didn't think of was that an angry Clove is ten times worse than the actual one.
We arrive near the edge of the woods, and my fears are confirmed. There is thick dark smoke coming from our camp. We can't see much but it's clear almost everything eatable has been burned down. All our supplies. Gone.
Cato screams, powerful hoarse shouting that could make you chill. He sounds like an infuriated beast. He falls on his knees, beating the ground with his clenched fists. It's like I'm in a trance. I see everything that happens, but I can't move; because we all know what that means. Careers have always had the benefit of food. They never had to search for it and hardly ever needed sponsors to send some. But now it's gone. All disappeared in the smoke which threats to choke us soon. The simple idea of being equal with others tributes make me sick.
And finally I recover.
"Holly shit!" I head to the camp but change my mind and grip District Three by the collar "You ignorant bastard! You go!" I throw him on the flood and he rolls down the slope leading to the camp.
He looks terrified. I don't care. He's responsible of our supplies disappearance and though it must have cost a life in the arena, we're left with nothing. The only advantage we have now is our training. So he's the one who's checking everything exploded.
Cato is still screaming and I bet Marvel stands behind him, his toad face left agape by the events that just occurred.
"It's…It's safe" District Three stutters.
We move towards the camp, discovering the extent of damage. Marvel looks around for things to grab, and so do I, but is seems everything has been reduced to tiny pieces. There's not even a bag of dried fruits left. Only the tent is still standing. Cato is hitting anything in his reach, metal parts of our former cans that fall heavily to the ground.
And suddenly he turns round and heads to District Three who was just standing there awkwardly. I know it's too late for him. He's doomed. Cato strangles him and with a skilled motion he breaks his neck, causing him to collapse on the ground like a stupid puppet whose strings would have been cut.
Marvels rushes to Cato. What an idiot! Does he really think he's able to calm him down?
"Why have you done that?" he exclaims. Ho dear, he'll end up like Three if he goes on "We could have needed him!"
"Get off" I hiss and tries to drag him away from Cato
"No! Why did he kill him?"
"Get the fuck off!"
"It's all because of him!" Cato shouts "It's his fault we're going to starve! And yours too!" he steps forwards and I can see the madness in his eyes while he stares at Marvel "You allowed him to join!"
"He… He protected our supplies!"
"He blew them up!" Cato yells
"He didn't! Someone else did! Tris was with us!"
Why does Marvel want to defend this boy so bad? He's dead anyway and he's likely to be too if he does not stop soon. But his argument seemed to work. Cato is now pacing back and forth like a lion in cage.
"Then we'll find him"
"Find what?" I ask "You're probably just crushing him now. Whoever did this is dead by now"
"I want revenge!" he barks and charges in my direction.
I reach out my arms and the shock of his strong shoulders hitting my palms actually sends a wave of electricity in my arms. It's like all my bones suddenly broke in the violence of the impact. Though he seems eager to crush me too, he doesn't and stands still.
"You'll have. But later"
He groans a few more minutes and finally back to discharge his tense on tree trunks. He's not the only one who's in a rage, but right now, my brain is focused on surviving. Anger will come later.
"Give me your backpack"
Marvel looks at me suspiciously. It's really not the moment to be annoying
"I told you to give me your backpack!"
I grab it as he doesn't want to hand it to me and begin an inventory before the sun sets.
After a thorough search, I find we're in possession of eight cans of food, a few bags of dried fruits, two nearly empty bottles of water and a bunch of breads.
Without sponsors, we'll be gone soon.
I refuse it. They're not killing me by lack of food. They're not killing me at all. I'll win, with or without supplies to help me.
Cato comes back to the camp when the sun sets. The moment he collapses on the ground, a silver parachute hits the grass. I open it, revealing a fresh loaf of bread from Two and a bag of dried meat.
"And that's all. Screw you" I mutter looking down.
"Thanks!" Marvel exclaims.
He seems really grateful until his gaze meets mine. He's telling me the same thing Brutus did once. You can't tell sponsors to go to hell because you preferred bread over dried fruits. In one word, if you want to eat, you better thank them. I flash a smile to the sky, pretending to be really pleased with the tiny loaf of bread and the dried beef strips. I break the bread in three and fill mine with two strips.
Capitol's seal appears in the sky as I take my last bite. Let's see who tried to trick us. First, District Three is shown and I feel even happier he's gone; that would have made another mouth to feed. Then, it skips directly to the boy from Ten Cato told me he got that morning. I wonder who tried to take our supplies. Fire girl? Probably the tiny one from Eleven, maybe helped by her district partner; I bet she's unable to fend for herself. But then the clouds appear again.
He's still alive.
"What the…" I just can't believe it. How can that be possible? There were mines everywhere! Everything exploded!
"Maybe they forgot to show it" Marvel suggests
"No. Gamemakers never forget" I say
With an awful scream, Cato gets up and throws a backpack of food against a trunk. I don't try to calm him down. This time we'll need his anger to take revenge.
I open my proper bag and grab night vision glasses an. Marvel lights up a branch to turn it into a torch.
"Cato, glasses!" I bark and throw them. He catches it and pick up his sword.
I'm so angry I bet my knife's blade is heating up and my blood is boiling. I can't believe this bastard managed to get out of the trap.
"Marvel, backpack!" I hiss as he's about to leave his at the camp. With what just happened, I thought he could figure it out himself.
And with that we're off in the woods. I quicken my pass; that bitchy tribute must be long ahead. But we'll get him. The only problem here is that we don't know which road he went, so we roam aimlessly but I swear, as soon as we reach him, he's dead. We outnumber him, him and the ally he must have had to set the fires, we overpower him and we have weapons. But we must not neglect one thing. To get out of the trap, he must be clever.
After hours of walk in the woods, my anger has increased even more. We didn't find anybody and we can't set a fire in there. Marvel is grumbling but Cato is strangely quiet. We unfold the tent that fortunately survived the explosion.
"I'll take the first guard" Cato announces, sitting on a strain.
Marvel shrugs and gets into the tent and I'm about to follow him when I hear a soft whisper.
"Stay with me, maybe?" I was not expecting that. The tone of his voice is so calm and sweet that I can't help but sit on the ground next to him.
"Maybe" We can't see each other in the dark, but I guess he's smiling.
"Clove? What are you doing?" asks Marvel, visibly eager to zip the tent's enter
"Protecting your stinky life!" I hear a light laugh besides me "I'm guarding the camp"
He growls and closes the tent.
"What a strange way to guard you have, you're not even watching the woods" Cato mocks
"What strange manners you have, you're the one seated whereas I'm the girl"
He laughs and gets off his cut trunk. We're now seated back to back feeling his deep breath while facing the dark trees in front of me.
"Why did you want me to stay?"
He hesitates before saying "Because you're better company than Marvel"
"You could have stayed alone"
"You're better company than silence"
"Really?" I wonder
"Really" If the rest of the conversation he was joking around, it seems he's suddenly not anymore. I start to know Cato well enough to say he means what he said.
"Well, you're not that bad either"
We enter a period now where the Careers' actions are really vague so I hope you won't mind if I sometimes I am too
I hope -as always- that you enjoyed it and I'll try my best to post soon ;)
And when I say you guys are amazing, I mean it : Look what I got on last chapter after less than 24 hours! /34d0e1a
I love every single one your lovely beings!