The next morning, we all woke up and had a nice breakfast consisting rabbit, bread, and dried fruit. I sharpened some of the weapons we were carrying so they didn't become dull. Perks of being raised as a blacksmith.
Our journey then continued on as we looked for Luna. Cato and I were serving as the front, Marvel and Glimmer were in the middle, while Clove and Adam were in the back.
Cato and I initiated a small talk while searching for the Luna. It was honestly just about what our districts were like. They were much different from each other, as in District 2 you were expected to train at an academy until you're 18 and volunteer. Whereas with District 7, some kids that are 14 took part time jobs after school to deal with lumber.
Suddenly, Marvel hollowed and pointed towards someone. I swear this dude has amazing eyesight. And it seemed we were all able to recognize this 17 year old. It was Luna. Everyone started running and cheering. Everyone except Adam. Why was I cheering? Ok let's just say I'm kind of pissed this girl got the same score as me.
We chased after her for a bit of time, and when the chase stopped, we found ourselves surrounding the tree where Luna had scurried up. I had noticed she was gripping onto her leg, almost as if it's been in pain.
Cato had tried to climb up the tree, but it was clearly obvious that he couldn't climb it. He fell down after grabbing a broken branch.
Glimmer then tried to shoot Luna with her bow. Remember how she didn't have the proper aim to use the bow? Yeah... that's the part where it comes back to now. Obviously she missed. And Cato tried to use the bow too, but to no avail. I'm guessing when they trained they took the time to only train with their best weapon.
"M-Maybe you should throw the sword?" Luna called from above. She seemed tired and out of breath. Before anyone could move, Adam spoke up.
"Let's just wait her out. She's gotta come down at some point or she starves to death. We'll just kill her then." It's an obvious move that he's covering for her. However, revealing it now will cause an issue. The rest of career band had no problem with it and went to go make a fire.
Nighttime approached and we made a fire, each of us relaxing as best as we can. We know she can't come down, it would be suicide. Cato dipped his sword in the flame and spat on it, making it dim and sizzle. Glimmer was giggling like a little school girl, while Clove was throwing knives at a lizard.
I decided it would be best to clean off any extra grime or blood of the axe while watching Adam, waiting to see if he'd do anything. All he did was lay and stare at the artificial sky.
After a bit of time, we got tired and went to sleep.
Time skip
I heard something being sawed. That's not a normal thing to hear. I know it's the Hunger Games, but in a forest you don't hear sawing as a natural thing.
My eyes shot open and I slowly looked up to see Luna cutting a branch, but the branch held something. I instantly knew what that nest contained: tracker jackers.
Highly engineered wasps, and the venom the tracker jacker produces and releases in its sting can cause powerful hallucinations, excruciating pain, and death in the worse case scenario. I quickly gathered my stuff and shook Cato awake.
"Cato, Cato! Wake up!!" I whispered as quietly as I could. He stirred a little in his sleep, but opened his eyes to meet my own.
"What is it?"
It was too late. The nest fell, and the tracker jackers went to attack all of us. The rest of the tributes started screaming, kicking, flailing around to stop the wasps from stinging as much as they could.
It was the most terrible pain I have ever felt in my entire life. It felt like tweezers pulling, pinching, and twisting all in one but ten times worse.
We all got up and fled as fast as our legs could carry us. "To the lake!" I heard Clove cry. She was probably already up ahead. We all immediately dove into the water to stop the tracker jackers from hurting us even more. I quickly ripped the stings from my flesh and felt the presence of three things gone: Glimmer, Adam, and the tracker jackers. Sudden realization hit me.
"Oh my god Glimmer!" I would've ran but I fell down, too weak from the venom to have my body move. I felt my knee scrape onto one of the rocks nearby, definitely gonna leave a bruise. Cato ran ahead, to go find Glimmer and to probably kill Adam. I felt two pairs of hands help lift me up and sit down properly.
I felt myself fading in and out of reality multiple times, and tried to take deep breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth.
Clove got me my weapons while Marvel stayed guard as we waited for Cato's return. A couple minutes later and that was all it took.
He growled with a pissed off look as he carried some of our backpacks. "Adam let the girl get away. I got his leg but I don't know his whereabouts now. We should move."
I tried standing up but a wave of naseau overtook me, causing me to fall backwards. Cato luckily caught me before I hit the ground. "(Y/N)!" The venom was getting to me, and I blacked out.
Two days later
I woke up to see Cato nearby me. I groaned and tried reaching out for him, causing his attention to advert to me.
"(Y/N)." He breathed out, sighing relief. "You had me so worried." He enveloped me in a careful hug, trying to make sure I didn't suffocate. I hugged him back.
"What happened...?" I asked, yawning a little. I looked around realizing we weren't near the lake nor the forest. We were back near the cornucopia, in some sort of shady thing built. I noticed a pile of goodies, food, weapons, essential supplies, all of it was stacked up like a pyramid.
Then I noticed some piles of dirt. "Why are..."
"The boy from District 3 had proved some use with handling the mines. He'll be with us for a little while." I nodded, sitting up a little to face Cato.
"Is Glimmer?" We both knew the answer to that. She died. All thanks to Luna. I clenched my teeth in frustration and anger. I never knew Glimmer that well but she was still my friend.
"Anything else I should be aware of?" I asked as I looked around, seeing the boy from 3 holding a spear.
"You got a few bruises on your leg, so you'll need to rest here in case we go anywhere." Cato showed my leg with a nasty blue mark. Probably from when I fell or during the chase from the tracker jackers.
Marvel immediately sprung up from something. "Guys, look look!" He pointed towards something. We all looked over to see smoke. Smoke means fire, and usually there's a tribute. Cato, Clove, and Marvel got up.
"You stay guard until we get back. Get some rest (Y/N)." Cato called out to the boy and I as he sprinted off with the other two.
A few minutes past and I didn't feel like sleeping. Maybe moving around will make me feel better.
I got up and grabbed a knife just in case, and walked around the camp. My leg was a little shaky but once it gets used to moving around it should be ok. I also should be aware that my stings are healed. Perhaps a sponsor did something? I remember none of the Career tributes going to a plant-station. Or maybe it was the boy from 3.
Speaking of the boy from 3, I felt something about to try and impale me. I instinctively moved away from whatever was trying to attack me and spun around to see the boy from 3.
"What the f*ck do you think you're doing?!" I yelled. He had his spear in position, about to attack me once more.
I did not want to kill someone at the time being, and I did not want to have the others turn on me. As the boy tried stabbing at me again, I moved backwards and drew my knife.
Before we could do one more thing, I saw an arrow fly and break a sack that contained some apples. I could only think of one person who could do that: Luna.
Time seemed to slow down. The apples fell off the crates one by one and rolled down to the ground. When they touched a pile of dirt, all hell went loose.
BOOM!!!
꧁Third P.O.V.꧂
The explosions that followed up were so powerful, they knocked back both Luna, and (Y/N). The whole pyramid had turned into a rain of fire in only a matter of seconds. The District 3 assailant had taken cover, while (Y/N) was not so lucky.
A crate had slammed down on her already bruised leg, causing it to bleed like crazy. She wasn't able to get up, the pain was too much and the crate was too heavy. She screamed in agony, and if the explosion hadn't already been enough to alert the Careers that something happened, her piercing cry did.
Luna had opened her eyes while her ears were ringing like crazy to witness an eventful sight. She quickly turned her body so she can see a bit better.
The three Careers ran back to camp, furious, while Cato was absolutely outraged. "What the hell happened?!" He yelled at the boy from District 3.
The dark haired boy flinched, scared of Cato's intimidating appearance. "I-It was her! She blew everything up!" He lied, pointing directly to the injured girl.
Cato looked over to see her in a horrified state and ran over to her, shock filled his face. The (h/c) haired girl screamed one more time in pain, which was enough to make Cato's heart squeeze. He immediately lifted the crate up and away from the girl to see her leg covered in blood.
He scooped (Y/N) up and helped her stand, causing her to collapse again and lean on Cato for support. He wrapped his arms around her and whispered softly into her ear.
"What happened?" His voice wasn't filled with anger or rage. No, it was filled with concern, sorrow, and care. (Y/N) was shaking violently as she was trying to make sure she could still stand.
"The boy..." she started, pointing to the same one who almost killed her just a few moments ago. "He tried to stab me..." (Y/N) didn't get enough time to finish her sentence as Cato placed her down gently, and marched over to the boy, ripping the spear off his hands and grabbed him by the collar.
"You were going to kill her?!" He roared. The boy instantly knew that he messed up badly.
"No!! It's all wrong, I-..." The District 3 tribute stammered.
Cato had enough, immediately snapping the defenceless boy's neck.
The familiar boom of the canon signalled his death, and Luna scurried to pick up her bow and run off into the woods. She was shocked. Cato helped and cared for a girl that wasn't in the Career districts? That thought didn't matter now. What matters was that she ran off to immediately go and find Rue, the one who was her ally, before the others found out what happened.
Cato was so enraged that he continued kicking any garbage or rubbish from the destroyed pyramid around. Clove helped (Y/N) stop the bleeding and wrap it up as best as they could. It wouldn't do much, but at the time, it would work.
Marvel went to check in on (Y/N) as well. "It was Luna who set the explosion, I think she was working together with someone to create a distraction." She muttered, loud enough for the others to hear. Marvel nodded and ran off to go see if he could hunt down both Luna and her ally or one of them.
Cato finally calmed down and headed towards (Y/N). Clove told him what (Y/N) had said. Although he was enraged, he needed to shove his anger aside and take care of the injured (e/c) eyed girl.
He embraced her once more. "Everything's ok now, we're here."
And right they were. They weren't going anywhere.