The next day was entirely uneventful. Not a single person had been killed. The sun above us was making me sweat through my shirt. It seemed a lot quieter since Glimmer and Ariel were dead. Clove was busy sharpening her knives, practicing on some apples that we found at the Cornucopia. Marvel and I decided to go hunt for some tributes before the sun set.
"So you really like her, huh?" he says suddenly, stopping me in my tracks.
I look away. "No. I don't. I can't."
"What do you mean?"
"If it comes down to me and Clove at the end..." I didn't continue because I wasn't sure what I would do. Do I like her enough to let her win? Would I really sacrifice myself?
Marvel looks at me expectantly. I just shrug and trudge ahead with my sharpened sword in front of me. We stop talking for rest of the way back to camp. Clove is napping under a big tree her head resting on her arms.
"Nothing?" The District 3 boy, Andrew is on guard again holding an extra spear that Marvel tossed at him this morning.
I ignore him and Marvel answers with a curt 'no' and we roast a couple animals that we caught this morning for an early dinner. I gulp down some water, wiping sweat off of my brow. It was still really hot, even though it was probably only around five o'clock in the evening.
**********
I'm due for guard duty at dawn the next day. Andrew is the first one to wake up. I tell him to get something for our breakfast. He scurries off into the woods with a spear. When he comes back, he's holding a rabbit. Our breakfast is trail mix with dried fruit, a handful of fresh berries, and a bit of rabbit for each of us. It is a satisfactory breakfast, even better than the ones that we had the week before.
"What's for breakfast?" Clove's voice comes from behind me.
I point to the food and she grabs a bit of each food and sits beside me. I had just finished eating when she woke up.
"How was the rabbit?" she asks, popping a berry into her mouth.
I shrugged. "It was alright. A little bit dry, though, but I can't complain."
Marvel wakes up and eats his breakfast next to us. He finishes his meal before Clove finished her piece of rabbit. He lets out a loud burp and I roll my eyes. He was going to attract predators with that smell.
"Ew, Marvel," Clove says, waving a hand in front of her face. "Do you mind turning the other way when you decide to burp?"
After eating, the three of us go out hunting for tributes again. This time, we found a prey. The boy from District 10 was huddled in a thin blanket next to a pile of burned wood. He must've lit up a fire last night and fallen asleep. In training, I remember that he had a bad leg, deeming him unable to run very fast.
We run to him and he jolts awake. But he knows that he's cornered and doesn't bother getting up. He looks as if he hadn't had anything to eat for a while. The boy's eyes widen when he sees our extra-sharp weapons and Clove sticks a knife into his chest. She twists it and I hear a sickening squelching noise. The boy's face contorts with pain and Clove takes out her knife.
"One more down," she says, wiping the blood off of her blade on a nearby tree.
The cannon booms and we hurry away before the hovercraft comes. The sun is just rising, and I trip over a couple tree roots because of the lack of bright light. Every time I do, Clove snickers until I stick my foot out in front of her and she falls flat on her face.
"Ha," I say, immaturely sticking my tongue out.
She gets up brushing herself off. Once we start walking again, she punches me in the stomach. I double over and try to breathe properly. For such a compact girl, she has a strong arm.
Clove smirks and says, "Ha."
Marvel rolls his eyes and pushes past us. We continue to search for any stray tributes, but find none. From what I recall, there are nine of us left. Although I'd love to kill any of the other tributes, the District 12 girl is my main target. But so far, after the tracker jacker incident, I haven't seen any sign of her or Lover Boy.
For lunch, we decide to eat what we have in our packs and take a big gulp of water from the lake. I scratch at my face and realize that the tracker jacker stings were still there. The stings haven't seemed to have gotten much better, except that they didn't hurt as much. Clove's and Marvel's stings haven't gotten any better either.
Since that there didn't seem like anything much to do in the woods, we get back to camp to see that Andrew had fallen asleep, his spear dropping down to the ground next to him. Clove hurries over and shakes him roughly awake. He looks a bit panicked.
"Sorry," he says.
"Whatever," she replies, waving an airy hand over her shoulder.
Marvel is about to sit down when I see a large plume of smoke in the distance. I point in that direction and shout out.
"Hey, look! Look over there."
They look over and Clove grabs another set of knives and put them into her pocket. Marvel picks up his spear and an extra knife from Clove. I unsheathe my sword and I look at Andrew, who is looking at us uncertainly.
"He has to stay and guard," Clove says, noticing Andrew.
"But he's useful," Marvel protests. "He has to come."
"Then who's going to stay and guard this?"
"We don't need someone to guard here. They'll get blown into the sky if they tried."
"He's coming. We need him in the woods, and his job's done here anyway. No one can touch those supplies," I say finally, glancing at Clove.
"What about Lover Boy?" says Marvel.
"I keep telling you, forget about him. I know where I cut him. It's a miracle he hasn't bled to death yet. At any rate, he's in no fit shape to raid us."
I am greeted with silence from the two, meaning that they didn't object.
"Come on," I say, and I pick up the spear from the ground and thrust it into Andrew's hands.
We head off in the direction of the fire, and there is only one thing that's going through my mind. The image of Glimmer's disfigured body flashes through my mind.
"When we find her, I kill her in my own way, and no one interferes."
**********
No one was there. The sight of the fire was either abandoned, or someone was toying with us. My second thought was proved right when there is another tower of smoke some distance ahead of us. I was furious. That meant that someone could be at our camp right now.
Clove notices my anger and she says, "Someone's going to be dead." Her voice drips with spite. "Let's go."
We start running back to our camp, but we're evidently fast enough. I hear a loud explosion issuing from the Cornucopia. I can see our supplies flying in the air. Three more blasts follow the main blast. I nearly scream in frustration. I sprint ahead of the other three and discover our campsite in ruins.
It had to be the girl. That District 12 girl on fire: Katniss. Who else could it be? No one else would've done it. And I hated her even more for it. I couldn't restrain myself, knowing that I had just been tricked by the person I hated the most. Not only that, but she had destroyed every single one of our supplies.
I collapsed onto the ground, grabbing fistfuls of my hair. I stamped on the ground, pounding my fists against the dirt. I was beyond angry, I was livid. Marvel and Clove were sifting through the rubble, their faces contorted in anger as well. Andrew was throwing rocks around making sure that there weren't anymore stray mines.
I got up, still fuming, and kicked open random containers, seeing them empty. My head was pounding and I couldn't think straight. I took a sharp breath and looked at Andrew who's poking through the mess. It was him. It was his fault that it was that easy to screw it all up.
"You!" I shout. "You should've thought that something like this would happen! It's your fault. You're dead!"
Andrew's face is white and barely has time to turn and begin to run away before I catch him in a headlock. I jerk his head to the side and hear a satisfactory snap of his neck. I'm still breathing heavily when Clove and Marvel run over to me.
"Cato," breathes Clove. "You have to calm down." She lays a hand on my arm and I don't say anything.
I want to go back to the woods to hunt for whoever did this. She can't have gone far. She was going to pay for this.
Marvel seemed to know what I was thinking. "Whoever set this off must be dead, Cato. The cannon shot was probably lost in the explosions." He points to the sky.
I finally let my anger subside. They were probably right. Maybe she'd been killed. Maybe she was blown into the forest, and died.
"Let's head to the other side of the lake," I say finally, gripping the hilt of my sword.
We head over as the cannon goes off for Andrew. When we settle under a tree, the hovercraft picks up the body from our old campsite. Since we didn't have any food, and all of us were exhausted, we didn't have a dinner to eat.
As soon as night falls, we fall silent. We are all waiting to see whether or not the bomber had survived or not. The seal appears in the sky, and the anthem rings out. The picture of Andrew is shown. The boy from District 10 is shown as well. The seal appears again, and then the sky is dark.
I clench my jaw. I see the other two tense up as well. Picking through my jacket pockets, I retrieve a night-vision goggle that I had picked up from an extra pack yesterday. Clove does the same. Marvel breaks off a thick tree branch and ignites it as a torch.
"Come on," I growl.
We stride back into the woods to hunt. For a few hours, we stay in the deep of the trees. But when we run out of water, we travel uphill and find the stream. We stop there for a couple minutes just to refill our bottles.
None of us could spot anything suspicious, nor could we catch a glimpse of any tributes. I remember my grandfather saying something about setting up traps to catch unsuspecting prey. I suppose that this idea could work with people as well. I tell my idea to the other two and they agreed.
Marvel found some mesh and a bit of rope that could make a trap. I attempted to make one trap and it turned out acceptable and we decided that we would set up a few more around the woods. Each of us would be watching over two traps.
By late afternoon, not a single one of us had caught anything. I hadn't even caught a squirrel. Just then, I hear a high-pitched girl's scream. It was probably that District 11 girl. But who had she been caught by?
I don't move, in case that someone could come my way. I hear a cannon shot and I assume that it was for the girl. But it was also likely that Marvel or Clove could've been killed. I don't budge, though, despite my uncertainty. A few minutes later, another cannon is fired. Now my panic is rising even more.
In the distance, a hovercraft drops down and picks up the body of a small body wrapped up in netting. There was a spear sticking out from her body. Then, to my surprise, the claw drops down again in the same spot, picking up a familiar looking person.
Marvel.
I shout out Clove's name and she answers. I run towards the sound of her voice, and I slam into her, knocking her down. I help her up and she looks at my troubled face.
"Who was he killed by?" she says.
I shake my head. "I have no idea. Maybe that District 11 guy. He probably wanted to avenge his little friend's death."
"Let's just stay low for a little bit. I'm sure whoever killed Marvel might be waiting for us. It could've been a trap."
That evening, we can only scavenge a little bit of dried fruit from our packs and don't bother to ration any of it. I can tell that she's a bit upset, because like me, she felt that Marvel was a sort of friend. At night, she falls asleep on my shoulder and I let her.
Definitely, I want to take revenge for Marvel's death, but I wouldn't know who to take it out on. I don't want it to be like Andrew's death. I don't feel guilty, but if I happen to win the Games, I don't want people sending death threats my way. Just like the previous victors, no one from any other districts appreciated their winnings because they had most-likely killed someone from their district.
I never really understood the games. Ever since I was little, my father was always encouraging me to stick up for myself; to protect those whom I care about. When I was younger, my sister was bullied by a couple of older kids. I punched them both in the mouth. Sure, I got into loads of trouble, but it was worth it. No one ever bother Comyna or me again.
Now, I realize how much these games had affected everybody in Panem. I don't know if I'm ready to stand up against the Capitol in any way, but maybe I should've play right into their hands.
I'm jerked out of my train of thoughts as Clove jerks in her sleep, obviously having some sort of dream. She's moaning and suddenly, she screams. Nice and loud. I quickly cover her mouth, but she's still squirming underneath my grasp. Clove was still asleep, but I lean down and put an arm around her.
She suddenly jolts awake, sitting up straight. She's sweating and breathing heavily. Seeing my arm around her, she looks at me.
"Cato?"
But I'm already asleep.