If Cato saved Clove

Chapter 8

The next night I lay down next to Cato and sleep. Marvel keeps watch. After an hour, we smell smoke. A lot of smoke. I turn around to see a giant wall of fire descending on me. We run for the lake unharmed, but I think a lot of tributes were affected. When we reach the lake, Marvel finds something.

"Look! There she is!" Marvel cried. He points to the lake where Katniss is sitting . She gets up and sprints for the woods. We cheer and laugh as we chase her. When we finally reach Katniss, she climbed 20 feet up a tree. She smiles at us.

"How's everything with you?" She asks.

"Fine." We say.

"The weather is nicer up here. Why don't you come up?" She asks.

"I think I just might." Cato answers as he reaches for the first branch to begin climbing. Katniss climbs higher. When Cato is halfway up, a branch breaks and he goes flying to the ground. We help him up and he curses up a storm.

"I'll just kill her myself." Glimmer says while pulling out her bow. She shoots, but missed by 10 feet. Wow I thought she was supposed to be good. Cato takes the bow from her, shoots, but missed by 2 feet. Close, but not close enough. Katniss takes the arrow from the branch and waves it teasingly at us.

"Why don't we just wait her out?" Peeta asks. "She's got to come down at one point. Either that or starve to death."

"Okay. Someone build a fire." Cato instructs. We gather wood and build a fire. After 3 hours, we fall asleep with Glimmer on watch.

I wake up to a loud buzzing. Then a pain in my hand. They were tracker jackets. I get up and sprint. I hear someone yelling for us to head to the lake. I hear two cannons. I keep sprinting. I get 2 more stings, one in my leg, and the other on my chin. It hurts like crazy. When I finally reach the lake, I pull the stingers out. I get healing cream from sponsors, and I rub it on my stings. The affect is magical, it's like it erased the pain. The medicine is made to prevent the hallucinations as well. I put some on Cato's 4 stings, and then I hand the bottle to Marvel. I noticed Glimmer and Maria are gone.

"Where's Glimmer and Maria?" I ask. Marvel and Cato look at each other.

"We heard two cannons, so we think they're dead." Cato answers.

"Oh." Is all I managed to get out. Sure, I didn't like Glimmer, but in the end, she was my friend. So was Maria. I know only one of us can win, but... I just remembered what Enobaria told Cato and I before the games. The star crossed lover stuff. I hug Cato, and he kisses my cheek.

"Umm, hello? I'm standing right here!" Marvel says. I roll my eyes.

"Where's Peeta?" I ask. Cato smirks at Marvel.

"I cut him when he tried to escape. Deep in the leg. There's no possible way he will survive." Cato replied. I smiled.

"I never liked him anyway. He's too stuck up." Marvel says. We laugh. Then I see him, the boy from 3, just sleeping in the cornucopia mouth. I pointed over to him.

"We've got him." I say. We sneak up to him and shake him awake. His eyes slowly opened, and when he saw us, they went wide. He crawled backwards to the wall of the cornucopia.

"Hey 3." Cato says while pulling out a sword.

"Please don't kill me! I can help you protect your supplies!" He cries.

"How?" I ask.

"I can reactivate the mines under the starting platforms, and bury them around your stuff!" He says. Cato looks at us for our opinion.

"We could take him. What's the harm?" Marvel says. Cato turns back at him.

"If it doesn't work, you're dead." Cato says to the boy.

"What's your name?" I ask.

"Ian." He says.

"I'm Clove, that kid is Marvel, and the other one is Cato." I say.

"I'm not a freaking kid!" Marvel shouts. I laugh at him.

Ian spends all day setting up the mines while the rest of the Careers go hunting. I find the boy from district 10 and kill him. He had a broken foot, so anyone nearby could hear him easily. I remember who's left. Marvel, me, Cato, Ian, the redhead from 5, both from 11, and both from 12. Only 9 left. The betting must be getting high now. When we returned to camp, Ian was done. We tell him that he was to keep an eye out for any other tributes while we sleep. That night, Glimmer, Maria, and the boy from 10 were in the sky. I sleep peacefully in Cato's arms, and Marvel snores on the left of us.

The next mourning, Marvel awakes me, pointing to something. Smoke from a fire. I smirk. Easy kill. We make Ian stay and keep watch while we follow the smoke. When we get there, another fire is lit nearby. Then it happens. An explosion. It couldn't be anything except our supplies. I run with Cato back to our base, to see that the supplies were completely destroyed.