The Hunger Games

Chapter Twelve

I feel a huge lump in my throat begin to form. My arms are shaking and I can feel the food I scarfed down beginning to make a reappearance.

"We weren't alone?" I croak out. Peeta shakes his head.

"I was alone." He says. I stand silent and think about what he said. There was no one in the crevice when I was in there, so when I left, someone must have crawled in, unknowing to Peeta's presence of course, and then just left? It didn't make any sense.

"But why would whoever was in here just leave? Why didn't they stay?" I ask. Peeta puts his hand to his chin like he's thinking real hard.

"Maybe they did know I was in here." He says finally. I furrow my eyebrows and give him a look. "But--what?--that makes no sense. If they knew you were here, why didn't they kill you while they had the chance?" I ask, confused. Peeta makes no sense. How can-

"Cato!" I blurt out, understanding who was in the cave suddenly. Peeta looks at me as if he's asking for an explanation. "It had to have been Cato. He's the only one who's after both of us. He wouldn't kill one of us at a time alone. He would want both us of present to witness each other dying-"

"So he waited to catch us both together to attack again!" Peeta interrupts. I nod.

"So we need to move out of the cave now. Before he can strike again." I load my bow with arrows and we silently sneak back into the crevice to grab our things. Peeta--poor Peeta--is as loud as can be. I wish he warned me before that he wasn't the quietest sneaker.

"Peeta, could you be any louder?" I whisper. He shrugs and gives me an apologetic look. I creep into the crevice and grab our stuff, then make a run for the trees. We walk through the forest, which is greatly increasing in temperature, and try to find a new home.

"We'll never find any home that was as close to water as that crevice." Peeta says. I shake my head in protest, even though I know it's true. That stream was the closet thing to fresh water. There isn't any clean water like that for probably miles. It might take days to find it. And we don't have much time left to be searching for water anymore.

"Why don't we just find a tree to rest in?" I suggest. Peeta agrees. I scan the trees, and finally decide on a massive one that's been perfectly hidden among the branches. I stealthily climb up the branches and estimate it about twenty feet up so far. I keep climbing until I"m sure I have to be forty feet and place our packs down.

"Alright, Peeta, your turn." I say. Peeta starts to make his way up the first branch, but can't push himself up and crawls back down.

"I'm not a tree climber," He says. "can you help me get up?" I roll my eyes and grab his hand and pull him up the tree. We eat the rest of the crackers and dried fruit and finish off the water. I groan and hold my stomach as it lets out a gruesome growl. I'm starving. I haven't eaten much, even when I cook the food I catch. I'm a saver. I save everything so I have surpluses later.

The other tributes are probably feasting, with the food they found. I know that Cato, Clove (Before Peeta killed her), Marvel, and Axel were using the food supplies that they had. The rest of us had to hunt. I grit my teeth and ball up my fists in envy. How I wished that I didn't have to always be starving. How I wish I lived in the other districts that never ran out of food. How I wish-

"Sh. Do you hear that?" Peeta asks me in a low whisper. I strain my ears and can barely hear the soft rustle of leaves being crunched under someone's boot. I peer down to the ground, and see Cato making his way across the tree. He doesn't see us, and I clamp my hand over Peeta's mouth and put a finger to my lips. I notice Cato holding his leg--the same leg I stabbed him in--and limping. He cuffs his mouth with his free hand and calls out for Clove.