Are The Odds In Our Favor? ~Cato~

18. Day Eight

I feel Cato's warm breath on my neck as the sunlight hits my eyes, waking me up. I pull out of his grasp and sit up, looking around. The once crackling fire is now nothing but a pile of ashes. My gaze travels back to Cato, who's shifting around, mumbling something indistinctly in his sleep. I run my fingers though his hair covered in dirt and dried blood. I remember when it was blonde, nearly golden if the light hit it perfectly. I wish I could go back to that. Times were simpler then. Simpler than now, at least. Then I realize it.

I love Cato.

His eyes open and I pull my hand back, blushing. He looks up at me and smiles.

"That felt nice," he says in a raspy voice, propping his head up on his elbow. "Why'd you stop?"

"I-" I clear my throat awkwardly. He smirks at my reaction and leans up to kiss me.

"I'm just teasing," he chuckles, sitting up and stretching out his big muscular arms.

I look at my wrist and move around with it a bit. I barely feel any pain. "Look, it's healed!"

Cato lifts up his shirt to see that the gash has closed up and returned to its normal color again. "Look, it's healed!" He mimics my reaction.

"What are we gonna do today?" I ask him as we both get up from the ground, dusting ourselves off.

"Dunno," Cato shrugs, "whatever you want, I guess. We should probably stock up on some supplies though."

Cato takes out the leftover rabbit meat from yesterday out of my backpack. His face wrinkles in disgust when he starts peeling off the plastic wrap. "There's something growing on it. Guess we definitely have to go hunting now." He sticks his head out of the cave and throws the rabbit into a nearby bush. I groan just as my stomach lets out a horrible grumbling sound.

We get ready and packed for the day. I swing my backpack over my shoulder and look back at Cato, who's throwing around some leaves, which is quite a poor attempt at making it look like we've never been here.

"You can leave it like this, Cato, it's fine. Besides, there's a small chance someone will find this place. How many of us are left?"

"Hmm.." he stops to think for a bit, "six of us, I think."

The sound of a cannon going off cracks through the air.

"Five now," I say. A chill runs down my spine as I realize how many kids have died in these horrible games. Innocent children. My thoughts go to Rade, and an image pops up in my head, of him lying motionless on the ground, Cato standing above him. I shake my head to get the image out of my mind. That's the past now. If I want to survive, I have to focus only on the present.

"Jeneah?"

I snap out of my thoughts. "Yeah?"

"Shall we go?" Cato looks down into my eyes. He slightly shakes his head as if trying to tell me that he knows what I'm thinking about, and to not think about it. I smile at him and he takes me by my hand. Before I walk out, Cato sticks his hand out in front of me, gesturing for me to stop. He looks around outside the cave, checking if the coast is clear. He nods curtly and lets his arm fall back to his side.

"I know there's only a few of us left, but that means they're probably the best if they've survived this long. So we have to be alert at all times, okay?" We start walking through the forest, our weapons ready if anything was to come.

"Yeah," I nod. I look at one of the berry bushes, but before I get the chance to say anything, Cato, as if reading my mind, walks over to it and starts picking the berries. I follow suit and we soon have a little bag full of them.