A Game Of False Fates ✭ Cato Hadley

Twenty-Two - Leave (Get Out)

A few hours later, Clio rouses from her sleep to find Luna already gone and a note pinned into her bedside table with her knife that thanks her. She smiles to herself before pushing herself out of bed and changing into something more appropriate for the day than the silk pyjama set she had on before. Something more appropriate for sponsors.

The clock on the wall of the viewing room tells her it's almost one in the afternoon and as she sits down on her usual position on the central couch, she immediately looks to the screen; cursing her now fucked up sleeping schedule. Thankfully, Clove, Ajax and Marvel are all still alive, and are all still laying underneath the lopsided, low hanging branches. After another hour or so has passed, spent by the mentors simply staring at the screen ahead, the three tributes begin to move. Marvel is the first to open his eyes and Gloss lets out a quiet cheer when he notices but it quickly dies in his throat when the boy starts spluttering out coughs as he tries to push himself upright. But Clio finds herself silently thankful that the teen is seemingly struggling to breathe, as the hacking sounds and the strange, uneven breaths only serve to wake up the boy's two allies. The pair from Two wake up abruptly and manage to sit up with difficulty, forcing the trio into silence for a short while before Clove speaks.

"Can you take the stingers out?" She asks her district partner, turning to face him as she points to the right side of her neck and the exposed skin at top of her collarbone, assuming the location of stings by the pain she feels in each region.

He nods. "Only if you take mine out."

"Hey! Someone do mine too!" Marvel whines in protest, shuffling across a thick tree root to be closer to his allies.

Clove winches as Ajax reaches for her neck, blindly plucking the stinger out with his jagged nails and dropping it to the ground before moving his hand towards her collarbone. He looks uncertain as he reaches the area of her skin, looking at her with wide eyes until she rolls them and orders him to hurry up. The boy huffs in frustration but pulls at the stinger and drops it to the ground before pointing to this face. "Get this out, it's fucking up my vision."

"A please would be nice." Clove mutters under her breath, and Clio smiles to herself. She can't be that badly affected by the hybrid insects if she's fully conscious and able to make sarcastic utterances. They watch as Clove leans closer to Ajax and closes his right eye with her fingers. He grumbles as she does so but thankfully, doesn't object; instead letting her remove the stinger from the giant, swollen area on his face. He winces at the movement but Clove isn't about to let him get a moment of comfort as she quickly pulls at the matching injuries on the face of his chin and the palm of his left hand.

"Me next!" Marvel says, sounding awfully chirpy considering he has at least two visible stings. "Please."

At the mention of the polite adverb, Clove shuffles herself over to him and quickly removes his stingers as well, ignoring the groan he lets out at the site of the green pus leaking from the back of his wrist. He looks at Clove. "How do you know how to do this?"

"I've been stung by a bee." She shrugs. "But never a tracker jacker so that's as far as my knowledge on these things goes. I don't know how to stop it leaking this green liquid. Ew, it's so gross."

"It fucking stinks." Ajax says as he brings his palm up to his nose before gagging at the putrid odour and looking for something to wipe the fluid on.

It's Cashmere who points to the smaller screen below the one showcasing the three remaining members of the career alliance. Following her instruction, Clio watches as the small little girl from Eleven - Rue, maybe? - keeping a close eye on Katniss' body and applying some chewed leaves onto the tops of her tracker jacker stings.