Author's Note: Thank you everyone for the reviews! I loved reading them and seeing what you thought about the story, so I decided to get writing and get a chapter out earlier than I originally intended. So many exams right now... Anyway, enjoy this chapter! You'll start to see the tributes' personalities a bit more now.
Crowd of Two
Chapter Nineteen
Grey's POV
There's a collective murmur of confusion when the pedestals rise up into the arena, giving the tributes a first look of the arena where 23 of us will die, because it's the exact same arena as last year. I even except to see bloodstains on the ground that still remain from the year before. Instead of focusing their gazes on the cornucopia and the weapons housed inside, everyone looks wildly from side to side, as if expecting the conditions to suddenly change and leave us on a snowy mountain or in the middle of a desert. I find Finnick's eyes out of habit – surely he would know what to do – but he merely shakes his head at me and mouths, "I don't like this."
My gaze flicks to each tribute in turn: there are those who are staring at the area behind them in preparation to run as soon as they can, the careers that look between themselves in well-hidden confusion, and Titus in a running position with his foot poised to step off his pedestal as soon as he can. Haymitch is nearby, watching me out of the corner of his vision. Cato is blatantly staring at me, his arms folded defiantly with not even a glance at the beautifully crafted swords in the cornucopia. Enobaria and Gloss have somehow ended up on either side of them and a look passes between them while looking at the stubborn victor, trying to use his refusal to fight to their advantage.
The sound announcing the beginning of the quell catches everyone by surprise and without thinking I begin to run. Except I run towards the cornucopia instead of away from it, my eyes focused towards a sheath that holds numerous knives that is hanging off a large crate. I can hear someone screaming at me to come back, but I don't bother turning around to see who the voice belongs to. I half expect someone to tackle me from the side – possibly Finnick or Titus – but no one does and surprisingly I reach the knives without suffering any harm.
There's the sound of heavy breathing approaching the entrance of the structure where I am standing, partly hidden from the other tributes, and I hold one knife in my hand, grasping for a backpack and preparing to run when my attacker is distracted. Suddenly Cato comes sprinting in and he reaches the back wall of the cornucopia, leaning against it and breathing heavily as he pulls a blade from the wall and swings it experimentally. He looks up after deciding it's adequate but he freezes when he sees me.
"No, no, no!" He screeches, and I take a step back in shock at his words. He brings his arm back and throws his sword like a spear, and I instinctively drop to the ground before it can hit me. There's the boom of a cannon and I peer behind me, seeing a slender figure fall to the ground. I stare with my mouth open for a couple of seconds, scanning my memory to try and remember who this is, and it hits me like a ton of bricks. Cato has just killed Cashmere, his ally.
"It's you again!" Someone screams and I cringe as I see the hulking figure of Enobaria standing above me, and I scuttle backwards wondering why Titus and the others haven't arrived at the cornucopia yet. Had they all decided to run instead, thinking it was too dangerous in the thick of the bloodbath?
Enobaria must see Cashmere's limp body because she gasps and her gaze immediately shoots to Cato, who is standing weapon-less beside me – his blade still protruding from his victim – as if about to pull me to a standing position.
"Cato, you did this?" She asks, looking genuinely shocked for the first time, "What did Cashmere ever do to you? She is your ally!" The blonde says nothing and Enobaria's shock turns to anger and she takes a step towards him, ignoring me, as she punches him hard in the face. It sends Cato stumbling and falling backwards, straight into a spear standing vertical from the ground. I let out a gasp, thinking he's impaled himself on it because I suddenly see blood splatter onto the ground underneath him, but I realise quickly that the weapon has only scraped – albeit deeply – up the side of his body, tearing some of his shirt.
Cato makes eye contact with me and his expression is mostly empty, but I can tell inside he's screaming at me to run. My boots scuffle on the ground as I manage to get into a standing position and I make a run for it, a knife in one hand and the backpack I had grabbed in the other, with my sheath of knives thrown quickly around my hips. I don't look back and I pray that Cato will be okay.
I am quickly forced to a stop when I realise that there is an unusual silence in the clearing and it becomes apparent why Enobaria went to the cornucopia entrance in the first place; the "beta careers" have forced them there.
The three young careers have all managed to find weapons and are now prowling the area. There are a few motionless bodies scattered around but other than that there is no movement, let alone the typical fighting. I quickly realise that I'm out in the open standing only a few meters away from Kaine and I know it won't be long before he turns around to survey the area and he sees me. The rest of the tributes must have made a run for it and I will my frozen legs to do the same.
"Hey look, it's Cato's girlfriend." There's a gruff voice from behind me and suddenly I am shoved the distance between Kaine and I and the force sends me sprawling. The red haired tribute looks down his nose at me and smirks, and as I try and get up I feel a foot pressed down on my back.
"Well, well, well," he purrs, "Look who came straight to us. That was a little too easy wasn't it, girlie?"
"Don't call me that." I hiss, as my head is pressed to the ground so all I can see is his boots positioned close to my head.
"I don't think you're in the position to negotiate, girlie."
There's the sound of soft approaching footsteps and the newcomer starts talking.
"Kaine, there's no one here now. Those other careers left a while ago by the looks of it. They lost one of their own though, the District One chick." It's the tough-looking girl from One talking, and I can only assume that means the quiet one – Target – is the force on my back. "What are you going to do with this?" At 'this' I feel a prod in my ribs, and I know she's kicked me with her boot.
"Be patient, I'm thinking about it," comes Kaine's irritated reply. He's obviously the leader here, and the one I'm going to have to grease up if I want to get away unharmed. He reminds me a little bit of the old career Cato, and I use that knowledge to my advantage.
"I could be helpful to your alliance you know." I begin, but I am quickly interrupted.
"We have a knife thrower already." Litty says icily, and although I can't see higher than her knees from my spot on the ground, I remember seeing that she had a belt similar to mine around her hips earlier.
"I meant for a different reason." I reply with equal malice behind my words. I hear, "Kay, let's just kill her now!" before a voice speaks and puts us all into silence.
"Quiet. She has a point, we could use her." It's Target speaking for the first time, and suddenly I'm dragged up off the ground into a standing position.
Kaine is standing with a look of slight interest on his face, his arms folded and his posture relaxed. Litty has lost interest and is prodding each dead body with her foot, either for fun or to identify them. I take a step back instinctively at the action and a hand instantly wraps around my arm; obviously Target is much more intelligent than his quiet demeanour reveals. Kaine speaks.
"Cato wants to hold you, Enobaria wants to kill you, and your large alliance will most likely want you back with them. All the more reason at least one of those people will come here and attempt to retrieve you. I didn't think I would be using bait so early in the game, but it can't hurt. Target, get some rope and get her to the cornucopia. I'll deal with her soon."
Target man-handles me all the way to the cornucopia, basically shoving me at every step. He picks up a piece of coiled rope on the way and when I'm inside the cornucopia it only takes a second to remove my weapons and tie my wrists and ankles together. I overhear a conversation between the two District One tributes while Target is silently tying the knots. Someone paid attention in the knot tying station.
"There were only three deaths Kaine, two from Three and one from Twelve. That's not good."
"It was because of that giant alliance; they didn't come into the bloodbath to fight, they were smart and left as soon as they got the weapons they wanted."
"This is all because we split from Enobaria's team…"
"It's not! And if I hear you say that again, you'll be the forth one dead in this arena."
Target stands up and leaves as Kaine comes stomping in, and I stay seated where I am without acknowledging his presence. My gaze has instead fallen on the spear that grazed Cato and the splash of blood on the dirt below. Kaine approaches me and peers down, thinking that I'm staring at the spear and planning my escape.
"I know you could easily cut the ropes," He says gruffly, "But it's mostly for show. This is all going to be over in a few days anyway. Worst quell ever." He groans and sits down next to me, causing me to shift away. In doing so, I reveal the blood stain, and Kaine raises an eyebrow at me. When I don't immediately reveal a bleeding wound to him, he questions who it's from.
"Someone out there already hurt, huh?" He ponders when I don't answer, and he peers at my expression, trying to gauge who it is. I try to shield my emotions from him but it must be obvious because after a few seconds he smirks.
"Cato." He says with a laugh, and I instantly look away, wondering how he knew. "You just told me with your reaction."
"Leave me alone." I growl, looking out of the cornucopia and away from Kaine's black eyes.
"Oh no, we're just getting started here."
Cato's POV
I sit furiously on a large overturned tree-trunk as Enobaria and Gloss stand in front of me. If I am furious, they are livid. I can feel the beginnings of a black eye and the new cut above my left eyebrow is starting to ooze blood. Gloss had gotten a few punches at me before Enobaria had managed to pull him off, furious and mourning through his anger that I had killed his twin sister. "Why kill her and not both of us, it sure feels like it!" He had screamed at me in the midst of the attack.
We were at a stalemate now. Enobaria had been the one to drag me away from the cornucopia and into the forest, with Gloss carrying bags and weapons behind us. I had called out for Grey as long as I could, until Enobaria had threatened to throw a knife into her head herself if I wasn't silent. Grey hadn't heard me at all; she was probably too petrified to hear anything other than what those rats were telling her. Gloss had seemed at least slightly sympathetic, tugging me by my jacket sleeve away from the clearing. That was of course before he had found out the reason why his sister hadn't followed us into the forest. And now here we were nursing bleeding noses and bruised knuckles, our chests angrily heaving from the exertion of fighting each other. Stalemate.
"I knew this wasn't a good idea." Gloss hissed, running his fingers through his blonde hair and attempting to cover the bald patch where I had ripped out a chunk.
"Brutus told me to take him into the alliance before we left Two. He said it would be a good idea, that he would fight for us and be a strong tribute," the District Two victor growls in reply as if I'm not sitting in front of them.
"Are you absolutely finished?" I hiss back, staring murderously at a tree beyond the two tributes in front of me. Gloss looks like he's going to start a whole new argument, but Enobaria silences him with a look.
"Yes we are, Cato. We all need to calm down. We can't go hunting tributes if all we want to do is hunt each other."
"I want to go and rescue Grey."
"Don't even speak of her here boy," Gloss warns, "But if it's any consolation, from the way it's looking we aren't going to be the ones to kill her."
Third Person POV – Finnick's Alliance
"How could you let her out of your sight?!" Finnick hisses, stalking around their makeshift campsite. Their plan had worked perfectly and each of them now had a backpack and their chosen weapon. Even Luke had managed to find a scythe, a weapon that none of the others had even seen before. But the humour about that was short-lived when they realised they were missing someone.
"I had other things to worry about!" Haymitch growls back, his temper rising. "If you hadn't noticed, we lost one of our own too!" Katniss and Rory look around uncomfortably at the mention of the death of one of them.
"Finnick, calm down," Titus speaks up, holding a sword tightly in one hand. He hadn't let go of it since the cornucopia. "She might be safe with Cato, we have no idea." Finnick pauses for a second but begins his pacing again a moment later.
"No, I'm sure she isn't. Last I saw of her, she was going into the cornucopia. Enobaria and the others left quite quickly after Cashmere died." He said, thinking about how he saw the District One female fall as he ran into the forest.
"We're going in circles. Can we just say it? Kaine and his allies have Grey." Luke's comment does nothing except produce another large argument.
"There haven't been any cannons, so they have to have a purpose for her. I think she's bait for us – and Cato of course." Titus comments.
"We can't just walk into a trap…" Katniss argues, "Even if it is for Grey. At least not all of us, we need to be strategic." There's a murmur of agreement around the group.
"That's it then," Finnick says, stopping and staring at each of them in turn, "We're beating them at their own game and rescuing Grey!"
Some distance away from the group, by a source of water, a parachute gently comes floating down. There's no one to receive it, but it opens on its own as if it has a timer mechanism. No one is there to see the dark shadow with the red eyes slither out, and no one is there to see the note left in the bottom of the canister.
May the odds be ever in your favour.