I Volunteer

District 2

23: District 2

Gale POV

Light shines through the entrance of the cave. I stand tall, bow and arrow on my back, sword and knives at my belt. I rinsed my hair in the pool this morning, so it it quite clean and in decent shape. My body has lost the small amount of fat I had in 12, meaning that my body is now almost all muscle. According to Katniss, I look healthy even.

I feel like a career. Like I've trained my whole life for this moment and I have no intention of losing. I feel well-fed and strong- probably because I just ate half a rabbit and I won't let what happened last night happen again. I won't let another tribute come between Katniss and I.

I've decided that it is probably time to hunt down Cato and Clove. We are the last five tributes now. Three against two, we're probably not going to end up getting better odds than now. If the Capitol get bored then they'll end up sending mutts and fire and other horrible 'natural' disasters to us.

"Katniss, I think that we should hunt down Cato and Clove now," I say.

Katniss looks up at me in surprise. "I guess it is a good time," she admits. "Aravis, what do you think?"

Aravis shrugs. "I guess we aren't going to get a better time that now," she says. "None of us are really injured and we're all well-fed and have weapons. Now's a good time."

None of us mention that after we kill Cato and Clove- if we manage- then Aravis is going to get killed. Maybe she has a plan to betray us- I hope not. I've actually come to like and trust her, despite my wariness at the start of the alliance. She's been a good ally for us, and been fairly loyal.

For her it's a losing game though. There's the District 12 team- Katniss and I. We have the advantage on sponsors and long-ranged attacks. We're both smart and good with weapons and liked. And most advantageous of all- there are two of us. Then the District 2 team- some of the Capitolites like them. They are careers, strong, good with weapons. They have armour against our attacks and are smart enough.

Then there's her. I don't think the audiences like her that much. She's the only one from District 5. OK, she smart and decent at throwing knives, but not really victor material I don't think. Definitely not in the eyes of the Capitol anyway. The gamemakers probably won't allow her to win, even if she does deserve it. I think the only reason that they haven't killed her off yet is because she is our ally. And maybe to give us an advantage over Cato and Clove.

"Any ideas where they are?" I ask, breaking the silence.

"Near the lake," Katniss says. "Maybe they haven't changed from where they were before because they think we're afraid of them and want to avoid them."

"We'll check," I decide, leading Katniss and Aravis down the now familiar route down from our cave into the forest. Katniss and I are the proper hunters in these games now, I think with satisfaction. The strongest alliance- the careers, I realise with a jolt. We have essentially become careers.

There wasn't much difference to start with, we were both volunteers, both trained in weapons before, high-scoring. We used to be a part of the career alliance and now we are going hunting willingly. I wonder what the people back in 12 think of us now. They hate the careers, in fact, every District other than 1,2 and 4 hate the careers. Maybe they understand why we did it, maybe they don't.

I doubt that there's much chance of going back to a normal life after this anyway. People look at you differently after having seen you kill a bunch of kids on live TV. And while it the Capitol or career Districts it may make you cool or admired, it District 12 it makes you an outcast. I only need look to Haymitch for example.