Return of the Mockingjay

Chapter 44

We both sit and wait in the tunnel while the sound dies down above our heads. Cato thinks we should move on and head along the tunnel but I need to know that Rue's okay, that she survived.

"They could find the trap door anytime Katniss, we must move on while we've got a head start on them"

"I just want to know that she's okay"

"Listen to me, first, we're never gonna know for sure that she's escaped unless we actually go up there, and second, she's still just a Mutt Katniss, the same as me and all the other tributes"

I look at Cato with a face like stone but he's impervious to my angry stare. Like he just said, he's a Mutt and immune to my feelings. His only goal is to get me out of this arena alive, somehow.

Cato suddenly grips my arm and starts pulling me along the dimly lit tunnel. I stagger on behind him silently accepting his argument about Rue and as I stumble on I look around me. The tunnels remind me of the ones we found under district 2, dark damp and foreboding. In a number of places tree roots had broken through the ceiling dislodging bricks and causing small cave in's. The only sound is the drip, drip from the leaky ceiling and the gentle trickle of water which runs along the tunnel floor.
I finally snatch my arm back from Cato's grasp and follow, still unimpressed by my rough treatment and his indifferent attitude to my feelings.

"How far are we gonna go, we can't stay down here forever?" I say irritably.

"We'll go as far as we have to, at least far enough that we don't have to worry about the careers anymore"

We continue on in silence for about another 30 minutes until we reach another ladder which leads back up.

"Wait here" he says as he starts climbing. I watch as he starts up the ladder but after only a few moments I become impatient and start climbing up behind him. He reaches the top and pushes against the hatch cover, forcing it up slowly. Bright sunlight bursts through the opening hurting my eyes which have become accustomed to the dim light of the tunnel. Cato pushes the cover back and cautiously looks around.

"It's okay, you can come up!" he yells back down into the tunnel only to see that I'm already right behind him. He grins at me then climbs out and I follow him into the bright sunshine. We're in an overgrown meadow, the grass is much higher than us and I think I recognise where we are. We're near the cornucopia a short distance from the lake so we should be safe, for now at least. Cato closes the hatch behind us and we head for the surrounding trees hoping for some place we can hide out for a while. Peeta would know that we're still in the area and would be sending out the others to search for us. We make for the forest, walking past the cornucopia on our way but as we pass by my senses are assaulted by the worst stench you could ever dream of. It's sort of a cross between damp mouldy grass and rotting flesh. Cato picks up on the smell and mop steps inside the golden horn and I follow him. Inside is a complete mess, scraps of clothing and half eaten food litter the floor and my stomach turns at the bones which lie around the area, human bones.

"It's their camp, Peeta's obviously been using it for a while" says Cato

"But these bones, is he...?"

".....eating the other tributes" Cato finishes for me, nodding.

I pull my hand up to my mouth in shock at the depravity of it all, and to guard away some of the stench. Flies swarm around the rotting food and bones and when we look closer we can see the remains of tentacles from the water spider.

"What should we do with it, we could burn it?" asks Cato

"No, I think if we let them know we were here that could put them back on our trail, let's just get away, this place gives me the creeps"