Clato

chapter forty-four

Peeta gasped. "What did they do to them? You don't think... those could be their real eyes?"

The mutts called the biggest of them to attack. It did.

"Kill it, Peeta!" Katniss called. "Kill it!"

Cato nearly fainted, his hands trembled and he whipped around to Peeta, grabbing him quickly.

Katniss turned and aimed her arrow at Cato's head.

Cato had Peeta in a chokehold, standing by the edge of the cornucopia. "Shoot me and he goes down with me." Cato laughed.

Katniss hesitated. She couldn't shoot.

Peeta was gasping for air, not getting enough. He finger-painted an 'x' on Cato's hand and Katniss shot it.

Cato felt the pain immediately, he gasped and his reflexes made him let go. He stumbled back as Peeta elbowed him in the gut.

Cato felt himself falling..falling..then thud. All the wind was knocked from him.

* * *

The mutts attacked without hesitation. All apart from the girl with 2 on her collar. She looked on. She felt sympathy for the boy.

She bit the mutation closest to her. She would now defend that boy with her life.

Cato held in screams of pain, even with the armour on, their bone crushing teeth sunk through and into his flesh.

The mutation that the Clove mutation had bit howled in pain. It turned around and the Clove mutation scratched out it's throat with her claws.

Cato tried fighting off the mutts, he noticed the one with the 2 on it's collar and was quite frightened. He had killed several mutts, but they still kept coming in. Dragging him back into the mouth of the cornucopia and sinking their teeth into his flesh again and again. Cato howled in pain.

The Clove mutation jumped on the mutt attacking Cato and bit it's neck, killing it.

The fight went on for the whole night.

The sun had begun to rise when the Clove mutation was attacked, yet again. She didn't see which one it was. She had many injuries and had been weakened severely. The mutt took her down and jabbed its long, sharp claws into her heart.

* * *

Cato had given up trying to fight them off, he waited to die. Only thought of Clove kept him going. Distracting him from the pain, if only a bit. They'd be together. Again.

Katniss saw Cato suffering and had sympathy for him. Getting her last arrow from Peeta, she aimed at him.

Cato saw the arrow pointed at his head and thought about the unborn baby. About it's mother. He remembered how he'd sworn that if she went down, he would go down with her. All those thoughts combined to form a single word on his lips.

"Please."