Four Leaf Clover

Chapter Thirty-One

I felt all air leave my body, this creature's giant head turning and looking around.

"What the fuck is that thing?" Clove asked, her voice full of fear, dread. I quickly grabbed her hand, getting down low, laying on my stomach, pulling Clove down too. "What are you doing?" She asked lowly, me shushing her.

"It's looking for something." I muttered lowly, "Without a doubt other Tributes."

Clove looked confused, "But, if they're looking for other tributes, why are they out in the forest? I'm guessing they know the Tributes who're still alive and where we are, why don't they come here?"

I thought about it for a moment, it didn't make sense...until I remember one something, or, rather, someone.

"They're not wanting these things to kill us-" I looked to Clove, "-they're driving something else to us."

It took her a moment, before she realized too.

"They're looking for Cato." I looked back to the beast, watching as it disappeared back into the forest. "I'm guessing they got spawned in with the knowledge of who was still alive and where we are, though their knowledge isn't updating, so they wouldn't know where to find Cato, should he move."

Clove looked to where the beast had emerged from, "Wait." She looked back to me, me looking at her, "They?"

I nodded, "I'm unsure, I'd heard the scream come from behind the cornucopia, yet, that thing just came out from in front of it." I bit my cheek, "And, unless its insanely fast, there's no way that it had run from one side of the arena to the other, without cutting through here, the center."

"How many do you think there are?" She muttered, looking around.

"I don't know, for I also don't know how these things come to be." I sighed, "But, for now, we need to stay up here."

Clove nodded in agreement, "How long do you think it'll be? Before they find him and bring him here? Or do you think they'll kill him?"

I shook my head, "I doubt it, that would make the game too easy, not as entertaining."

Clove said nothing, instead reaching over, grabbing my right hand with her left. I looked at her wrist, the silver bangle that adorned her wrist, and the condition. It had some blood on it, some dirt, but wasn't nearly as bad as my own.

I grasped her hand back, squeezing it reassuringly, her doing the same.

Then, in the silence that enveloped us, as delicate as the finest China doll, shattered. The sound of a blood curdling howl sounded, from the direction behind us.

Both of us hesitated to look back, in fear of the horrors we'd see. Though, as it turns out, we had no need to turn around. Because at least ten other, corresponding blood-curdling howls came...from all around us.

I felt adrenaline start pumping through me veins, forcing myself to turn around, still on my stomach. I saw the brush moving, trees shaking, almost as though something was bumping into them with brute force, causing them to shake like there was an earthquake.

"Ellie..." Clove called, calling my attention to her, though she was looking back in front of the cornucopia. I looked forward, eyes widening and heart stopping when I saw what she was looking at. Not one, not two, but three mutts, emerging from the thick forest.

Though, instead of turning back like last time, the one in front, which is bigger than the first one we saw, looked right at me. From here, I could only see black masses for eyes, them looking right into my own eyes.

Without hesitation, the mutt let out another blood-curdling howl, before breaking into a sprint, right for us. Its muscles rippled underneath its hairless skin, each powerful stride forward bringing it closer to Clove and I. On top of it, the two smaller ones behind it, to its left and right, followed right behind.