Anywhere But Here (Foxface/Marvel) THGFic

Chapter 2

"Well, I, umm...no, sorry. I've got a plan already, I'm sorry, I really am." I say, my voice wavering. Rue nods as if she understands and smiles. Just then, the boy from 1 enters the room and I can’t help but dive behind Rue, even if she is a lot smaller than me.

Marvel’s POV

Glimmer, Cato, Clove and I begin to laugh as she runs from the room. How pathetic! Yet something deep, deep down inside of me pains, I just can’t figure out what. I decide to make an excuse to leave the gym and go in search for her - not to apologise, I'm too stubborn to do that. I don’t even know her name, how can I try to apologise? I get to the elevator and press floor 5, to go to the District 5 floor. I knock on her door, but there's no answer. I decide to call through the door, still nothing.

“Excuse me, young man; this is not your floor. Are you not a District 1 tribute?” comes a Capitol accent from behind me. I turn to see 5’s escort standing behind me.

“Yes, but I…” I start.

“Then, I would not like you harassing my tributes, there’s enough time for that in the Games. Finch is not in her room, she is down in the training centre, as should you be,” interrupts the escort.

“Finch…is that her name? I…She…She’s not in the training room, that’s why I came looking for her, she walked out and I wanted to find her,” I say, hoping the escort will let me off.

She nods, “Her name is Finch, yes, don't you worry about looking for her. Now, take yourself back to the training centre and I shall find Finch by myself.”

I apologise and walk back to the training centre where I see Finch talking to a District 11, how low can she get? As soon as she sees me, she dives behind the little girl. I give one of my signature smirks.

Aw, little 5’s scared! I think. Good. And the longer she spends with that 11, the easier it’ll be to get them both. Yet, something about saying that does’t seem right. I've trained all my life for these games, since I was a boy. How to throw spears, how to use swords, how to strangle someone with my bare hands, but the Capitol disgust me. They think of it as entertainment and I used to view it in that light as well, but ever since getting reaped, the idea of killing somebody innocent repulses me. I suppose I’m just scared of my own death. That’s it, it’ll be fine after I’ve had my first kill. I survey the room to see what other tributes are doing. That way, I can feed off their weaknesses and challenge them when the Games begin. Quite a few of the less well-off tributes haven’t turned up to training. Their loss. They’re the ones that will die first.

After a few more days of training, I am able to pick holes in everyone’s performance easily - apart from Finch and my Career friends. It’s strange, really, how Finch could be so flawless when she only comes from a district that supplies electricity and nuclear power to Panem. All they have to do is sit in a factory all day, I don’t know where she gets her knowledge from, or her speed and agility. I stop concentrating on her, and when I'm called for my private training session just after Glimmer, I show the gamemakers my capability with a spear and swords. I'm overwhelmed with my training score of 9, but I know I could have done so much better. What if I used the knives? Would I have got a 10? 11? I watch through the rest of the scores, Finch only receiving a 5, that little girl she was talking to gets a 7 and…no. Impossible. A District 12 gets a score of 11? I need to know what she did. Nothing she did in the training hall with all of us was worthy of an 11. But fair enough, they did look wonderful in their burning outfits at the tribute parade.

The next day, we're thrown into the arena. I catch eyes with the rest of the Careers and we all nod towards the Cornucopia to signify we're going to run in. We then nod at the tribute that we're going to try to take down first, just to be sure. Glimmer goes for 10’s girl, Clove goes for 9’s boy and Cato nods towards Finch. Straight away my eyes dart to Finch. She has seen Cato nod towards her and now has her vision set on me, her eyes wide with fright and disbelief. When the other Careers have looked away, I lock contact with Finch and then look to the woods and back to her. She nods and mouths, “thank you,” just as the mines are disabled and the Games begin. I run to the Cornucopia, looking back to check Finch has made a run for the woods, but she's nowhere to be seen. I take this as a good sign and continue to retrieve a spear, two knives and a sword. By the time I've turned back around, Clove's got her knives, Glimmer's grabbed something from the floor and Cato is raiding the mouth of the Cornucopia trying to find his swords and machetes. I spot the girl from district three with her back to me, leaning over to pick something up. I take the liberty of kicking her down and stabbing her multiple times with my sword.

Okay, first kill, I think to myself, but I still don’t feel any better. I shrug it off and continue on with killing another female. I approach yet another female, sword drawn, and stabbed her in the back, watching her fall to the ground. By this time, almost everyone has cleared the Cornucopia, apart from the lifeless bodies our victims, of course. Only one boy remains that is not part of our alliance, Lover Boy.

Cato approaches him and starts draws his sword, but I manage to stop him attacking before it's too late. I know Cato wants to kill Katniss. He envies her for her high training score, but maybe we can get something out of Lover Boy. I explain this to Cato whilst we are out of 12's earshot and he agrees, along with Clove and Glimmer.

Over the next few days we bundle our supplies from the Cornucopia together and manage to pick off another feeble girl who decides to light a fire. Was she begging to be killed?

By day 5, we're chased off-course by a wall of fire, possibly leading us to Katniss, and I'm right. We chase her up a tree and I'm the only one to spot the tracker-jacker nest above her. I take it upon myself to sleep furthest away from the tree when we camp below her, just in case she tries anything funny. And I'm right again. Early the next morning I awake just as the nest drops to the ground. I grab Lover Boy and drag him to the lake. Clove and Cato make it with us, but Glimmer isn’t as fortunate. I'm beginning to see a pattern emerging from myself, I've saved two peoples’ lives so far, and it's only day 5. Cato is in tears, begging us to go back for Glimmer but Clove tells him we're too late. By now she'll be unconcious and there's nothing we can do. From the corner of my eye I see Peeta running off and through the trees I see a woozy Katniss prying the bow and sheath of arrows from a purple, swollen body that I can only assume is Glimmer's. The sight of her skin makes me vomit a little in my mouth, but I swallow it and try to delay Cato so he doesn't see Peeta helping Katniss escape. Why am I saving people?

I yearn for another kill by day 8 and this opportunity comes around when I manage to ensnare the boy from 10 in a trap and spear him. The rest of the day includes clocking the District 3 male when he enters the clearing at the Cornucopia. I raise my spear to throw just as he turns around.

“STOP!” he yells, “I can help you!” We accept him into the alliance after he explains how he can trap our belongings by surrounding them with mines. He says he can reactivate them because they're taught to incase of an invasion in their District. We settle down for the night and in the morning, I spot smoke coming from two places in the woods. We leave D3 to guard the supplies, just in case, and Cato, Clove and Peeta go to check out the first fire, I head off towards the second as it's just near my trap. After a couple of minutes of waiting, the girl whom Finch had been talking to in training is tangled in the net. I smile as I lift my spear and just as I'm about to throw…

“Psst!” I hear from behind me. My eyes dart from tree to tree until I see one eye and a long, loose strand of fire-red poking out from behind a tree. I let my spear drop to the floor and walk towards Finch. She steps out timidly from behind the tree.

“Don’t kill her, she’s working with Katniss, and now that Katniss has the bow and arrow, she could easily kill you and…and I wouldn’t want that to happen.” She says, fiddling with her shoe again and brushing the strand of hair behind her ear.