We try to rember the route back to where we were, but we hadn't followed any particular path and seemed to be running in loops. The canon sound, It couldn't have been Marvel, his to strong. Nobody left in this arena could overpower him but Thresh, and there's been no sign of Thresh since the start of the games.
Boom
Another canon goes off it must only have been about a minute apart at most. We look at each other. I can see We both need to find our ally desperately. I know Cato had become close to Marvel over the past days. I had been close to him too. Maybe enough to call him a friend.
I look to the floor "Cato look" our foot prints are marked onto the floor next to the lake, this must be the route we took this morning. Cato immediately understands and we start running following the trail. We were running for about 3 minutes when we see the hovercraft appears. As we feared it appears right over the place marvel had made his trap. He halt immediately staring up.
We can't do anything but stand and gawp as we see our Allies body lifted into the air. Though I had thought it could've been Marvel, I wasn't prepared for it to be, if we hadn't have left him alone maybe he wouldn't be being lifted into the air. My heart beats at such a rate you'd think I'd been running for endless hours. His backpacks not on him, maybe we'll be able to retrieve it. His spear is still by his side covered in blood and an arrow protrudes from his neck, it must've been how he died. But I've only seen Glimmer with arrows. Katniss, when she was fighting glimmers body in the tracker jacker induced vision, she must've been getting the weapon off her. I expect the next body to be lifted to be katniss'
But it's not. It's the little girl from district 11. I try to recall her name. Rue. The little girl was called rue. She looked peaceful. Flowers fell off her body as she rose into the hover craft. She looked almost angelic. I lean into Catos chest, I feel him wrap an arm around me. He needs to hold me as much as I need to hold him. I think of Marvels girlfriend back home. Waiting for him, now he'll never return and his parents will be left childless. And little Rue, I don't know why but seeing her fragile body lifted into the air, I know she never stood a chance, but she was too gentle. She shouldn't be gone. She shouldn't have even been here.
"They didn't deserve to die" I whisper into Catos chest. The cameras wouldn't have seen. Cato nods his head. Nobody will understand why. We walk close to each other over to where Marvel died, when we get there his pack is nowhere in sight. But we're too sad to feel anger at the person who stole it. The person who we both figured out was katniss Everdeen.
We head back to the cornucopia, not knowing where else we could make camp. Cato had dropped the bird a while back when we were chairing after Marvel. I keep any eye out on the walk spotting a rabbit. I throw a knife into it's eye and pick it up holding it by it's legs. There's complete silence except the whistle of over head birds repeating the same tune over and over.
When we reach the cornucopia the sun is starting to fall again. We start to build the fire before we realise Marvel had all the matches. Cato kicks over the fire wood ,stalking to the other corner of the cornucopia and I drop the dead rabbit to the floor. There's nothing we can do with it. I walk over to Cato. I know I shouldn't Enobarias words don't let them see circulate my head, but I don't like to see the boy I love in this pain. I walk over sitting next to him, our backs against the wall. I lean my head onto his shoulder and curl my legs up. Hopefullly the capitol won't see this as anything more than a comforting gesture. We just lost our closest ally, surely they'll understand. Catos just about to wrap his arm around me when we see a parachute fall at the mouth of the cornucopia.
Cato clambers over to it almost immediatly and brings it back over. I know Enobaria sent this tactfully, probably seeing we were getting to close to each other. We open the container at the bottom of the parachute, there where two metal bowls with cutlery completely empty I sigh lifting it up but then another small meteal box I open it and it's filled with a single match. It was a majorly disappointing sponsor.
I throw the match to Cato and tell him to re-build and light the fire. He starts on re- building whilst I skin the rabbit. It's compleatly gross and I'm defiantly not skilled in this art, taking off some of the meat as well as the fur. Blood pours all over my hand, and the rabbit gives off a foul smell. I'm left with a bloody Caracas that looks good enough to cook.
"Hey look" Cato shouts .I look up and see his smiling, his re lighting and blowing out the match. The match never seems to burn up. The fire formed at the end never burns it down a bit. I smile.
"We got something usefull then" I shrug
We push a stick through the rabbit to roast it on a spit over the fire. Cato devours most the rabbit hungrily. The anthem appears in the sky. We don't bother watching it the only faces that will be there today are Marvels and the little girls. Cato puts the new supplies into his pack and we get ready for sleep. My face falls when I realise we only have one sleeping bag. Cato offers it to me as he sits by the fire on watch. I tell him to wake me when he gets tired and fall into sleep easily. Completely exhausted from the day.
When Cato wakes me for my shift his eyes look puffy. All I want to do is comfort him but I know he would've been careful to hide his sadness from the camera. The night consists of us taking turns to sleep until the sun rises and we both wake.
We sit around for most the day inside the cornucopia. Our pack of 7 had quickly deteriorated to two and we were definitely feeling the Loneliness of it today. We sit opposite each other sharing a bag of nuts. I let Cato have the majority again. I can tell he needs more. Maybe we'll hunt for food again today. I don't think etheir of us want to go hunting for people, the less people in the arena the closer we come to fighting each other.
"Who's left?" Cato asks. He must be thinking something along the same lines as me
"Katniss, Thresh, Peeta, Finch and us" I say
"I'm surprised Peeta's still hanging on, he should've bleed out by now" he says
We don't speak for a while not knowing what to say
"Maybe we sho-"
Cato cuts me off
"No we're not splitting up not yet" he knows what I'm about to say
"Well we're going to have to soon the competition is thinning out"
"No! Not yet" the urgency and need in his voice is clear
I look down at the floor. I don't want to split up anymore than he does but I also don't want to be the first to turn on him.
"Hey look" Catos pointing to smoke in the distance
"It might be katniss" I add
But netheir of us make any move to go for the hunt. So we don't. We seem to have lost the will to be the gladiators we were portrayed as. Or we built ourselves up to be. I head off into the woods leaving Cato behind guarding our very few supplies. I leave my pack behind so he knows I'm coming back to him. I see a flock of birds and take them out before they even hear me. I pick them up by there feet and start heading back to the cornucopia. The audience probably saw it as tactical we didn't go after katniss. Now we know she's got arrows. Besides the fire could just be another trap.
We cook all the birds by the last
bird I skin it almost perfectly and we wrap some of the bird meat in leaves and put them into our packs to save them for later. When I get back Cato has filled the flasks as well. By early evening were all ready to go to sleep again. We avoided talking about the people we've killed, the capitol the games as a whole. But we end up retelling stuff we already know about each other. All I want to do is hold him.but I know I can't. I think of Marvels girlfriend who probably had the same longing to hold him right now as well. Me or Cato need to win these games. To houner the memory of the boy who could make a joke out of anything, to tell the story of Chase, to show there's more depth to Glimmer than the girl she portrayed herself to be. The anthem comes on again today showing no deaths again. The days been completely uneventful I wonder if the capitol will send and other fire to push all the tributes towards each other.
I roll onto my back after the anthems finished. But then I hear trumpets I bolt back up. I can see Cato staring at the sky where the voice comes from as well. I've studied enough games to know the trumpets mean an announcement. We'll probably invited to a feast like the years before. The game makers do this when the food is scarce. It's often somewhere well known like the cornucopia ,which is where we're staying. Sometimes there's a whole banquet, other times there's nothing but a stale loaf of bread. I hope for the former.
Claudius Templesmith's voice booms across the arena. He congratulates us for getting this far in the games. But he doesn't invite us to a feast like we had expected. He says there's a rule change. But there aren't any rules, except the unspoken rule not to eat your kills, but even that's not official. He tells us that there can be two victors crowed as long as there from the same district. He repeats it again. Almost knowing we're in complete disbelief. Me and Cato. We we can both go home!