A Game Of False Fates ✭ Cato Hadley

Nineteen - Late Dawn

14th July 74PD

After the lack of entertainment yesterday, Clio enters the viewing room at about half ten the next morning, Cato following behind her. The couple make their way into the kitchenette to grab a selection of the pastries on offer to them before they sit beside their mentors on the couch and turn their attention to the screen. The four careers, and their two stragglers - Marina and Peeta - are wandering through the jungle, swinging their arms around trees as they joke around, laughing and playfully shoving one another.

"How long have they been walking?" Cato asks the mentors around them.

"At least an hour." Brutus responds, eyes flitting to the clock. "We came down here at nine, just as they were rousing the stragglers from their sleep."

As they continue to walk, the air seems to be getting thicker, decreasing in visibility as they look towards the sky through the trees. On the screens, the mentors can see that there is a fire spreading rapidly through the forest. One of the smaller screens shows thick smoke, black and grey tendrils wisping towards and staining the camera lenses, and an angry orange glow from the flames that catches the branches of each tree. Haymitch can be seen watching this small screen intently, not taking his eyes off the screen for even a second. Suspicious, Clio thinks as she pays closer attention to that part of the forest. Then she spots it. Her. Katniss can be seen hastily dismounting from a tree, and running through the forest, desperately attempting to flee the forest and evade the roaring balls of fire being flung her way.

"Cato." Clio calls his attention, directing it to the smaller screen. "Look."

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Yup." The p pops as she laughs. "The gamemakers are burning the girl on fire."

Enobaria's attention is caught by that as she watches the screen and lets out a small chuckle before nudging Cashmere beside her and showing her too. Soon the entire room of victors can be found flickering their gazes between the two screens, one showing the escaping girl, and the other showing the careers. It's hard for Clio to tell how close the two parties are, but she lets out a whoop of joy when a fireball catches the thigh of the escapee, leaving her limping as she runs.

Meanwhile, the pack of six tributes seem to be walking right on the outskirts of the fire, and every one of their mentors sigh when they all take a deep breath in through their noses and end up hacking at the smell and the smoke travelling into their airways. They were suddenly surrounded by the thick smog and they all call out for each other, now being unable to see each other or navigate their way back to the river nearby.

"It's a fire!" The mentors hear Glimmer's voice shout from somewhere within the forest but it's impossible for any of them to tell where she or any of the others are, what with the fire crackling loudly around them, and causing trees to fall over in their path.

"No shit!" Clove coughs through the smoke, at exactly the same time her sister does. This leads to the room of victors erupting in laughter, with the careers bunched together on the couch teasing their youngest member immensely over the similarities with her sister.

"The river is back this way!" Ajax shouts, and everyone watches as all six teens hold their t-shirts over their mouths and noses and stumble forward in the direction of the river, screaming and yelling for each other as they do so. They keep running until they reach the edge of the river and the smoke doesn't follow them, instead it forms a wall around the treeline and the wisps evaporate into the air above them.

"We've not got the smartest bunch this year, have we?" It's Finnick who speaks and everyone turns to face him. He raises his hands in mock surrender. "I mean, come on, blondie shouted fire."