Chapter 20
I open my eyes as Katniss shakes my shoulder. I notice It's light outside. "I slept the whole night. That's not fair, Katniss, you should have woken me."
Katniss stretches and lays in the sleeping bag. "I'll sleep now. Wake me if anything interesting happens." she says and falls asleep. I sigh and play with her braid.
It's afternoon when Katniss wakes up. "Any sign of our friend?" she asks.
I shake my head. "No, he's keeping a disturbingly low profile." I say.
"How long do you think we'll have before the Gamemakers drive us together." Katniss asks.
"Well, Foxface died almost a day ago, so there's been plenty of time for the audience to place bets and get bored. I guess it could happen at any moment." I say.
"Yeah, I have a feeling today's the day. I wonder how they'll do it." she says.
I frown but stay quiet. I don't want to think about what they could do.
"Well, until they do, no sense in wasting a hunting day. But we should probably eat as much as we can hold just in case we run into trouble." I pack up our things while Katniss takes out the food. She takes everything but the squirrel from yesterday and an apple.
Once we get out to the stream, Katniss touches the dead river bed. "Not even a little damp. They must have drained it while we slept." she says, and I can tell she's worried.
"The lake. That's where they want us to go." I say.
"Maybe the ponds still have some." she says, like she's not so willing to go to the lake. To run into Cato.
"We can check," I say.
Once we get there, we find the pond empty. "Your right. They're driving us to the lake. Do you want to go straight away or wait until the water's tapped out?" she asks. I know Katniss is trying to delay killing Cato. But I still remember how she wanted to go home. I have to be strong for her now.
"Let's go now, while we've had food and rest. Let's just go end this thing." I say. I watch Katniss nod silently. I wrap my arms around her. "Two against one. Should be a piece of cake."
"Next time we eat it will in the Capitol," she says.
I grin. "You bet it will."
We stand there for a while. In that moment I have some hope. We can win together.
We break apart and head to the lake.
We stop at the place where the carriers and I had trapped Katniss. She looks around. "Let's move on." she says.
I stand and we leave. We reach the Cornucopia. We quickly look inside it to make sure Cato's not hiding in it. Then we head to the lake. We fill our water bottles. The sun starts to go down.
"We don't want to fight him in the dark. There's only one pair of glasses." she says.
I frown. "Maybe that's what he's waiting for. What do you want to do? Go back to the cave? I ask.
Katniss nods. "Either that or find a tree. But let's give him another half hour of so. Then we'll take cover,"
I nod and we sit together. Katniss sings a short song. The birds fall silent. I chuckle, Katniss repeats the song and the birds mimic her. "Just like your father." I say.
"That's Rue's song. I think they remember it." she says. I can tell now, how much she cared about Rue. We listen to the birds sing. Then some of them start to cry in alarm.
Katniss jumps up and I follow. We position our weapons just as Cato bursts through the clearing. He has no weapons, but he runs straight fur us. Katniss shoots an arrow at him but it falls to his side. "He's got some kind of body armor!" she shouts.
Cato runs right between us. Katniss looks around. A strange creature jumps out from the same direction Cato came from. I watch as Katniss turns and runs off the same direction as Cato. I sigh and run too.
I watch as Cato climbs up the Cornucopia and Katniss runs to it. If only I could make it up there and then, I could protect Katniss. She reaches the Cornucopia and turns to fire at the creatures behind me. "Go, Katniss! Go!" I shout. Up there she stands a chance against Cato. I run. I'm not giving up a life where Katniss likes me. And I wont let her face Cato alone. I reach the metal of the Cornucopia, but the creatures are right behind me.
"Climb!" I hear her scream. I grab the metal and pull myself up. Katniss pulls me up when I reach the top.
Katniss turns to Cato. "Can they climb it?" he asks terrified. I feel bad that we'll have to kill him soon.
"What?" Katniss shouts. She can't hear out of one ear.
"He said 'can they climb it?'" I tell her.
They are mutts. A Capitol creation. They are dog like. One mutt jumps up and lands on some metal ten feet below us. I hear Katniss scream. I look at her, she seems to be having trouble holding her arrow in place. Then she fires, even though the mutt slides down the metal.
I grab Katniss's arm. "Katniss,"
"It's her!" she says.
"Who?" I ask confused. She looks down at the mutts. I shake her shoulder. "What is it Katniss?"
"It's them. It's all of them. The others. Rue and Foxface and... and all the other tributes." she says.