The Hunger Games, Cato's story (Finished)

Chapter Thirty

Everything is blurry and I am seeing double, maybe even triple. The world seems to be rocking back and forth even without me moving. I loose all feeling in my arm after a few seconds, but it almost immediately comes back. I scream out in agony again and look around for an escape. I reach my arm out and feel the hot metal of the cornucopia. I am almost instantly pulled away and viciously dragged inside the cornucopia.

The last time I was inside the cornucopia, it was for shelter from the rain, a place to stay warm, and safe. A place to morn Clove in peace. Now its a place of nightmares. Thresh and Glimmer, obviously the leaders, each take a side of my armor, bight down, pull, and the only protection I have from these beasts is gone. All of the other wolfs are crowding in the far end of the cornucopia, standing, sitting, pacing, and laying down, but all of them surround Kamberlee, who has hostage of my arm and is slowly eating it away. There is loud growls and barking coming from the wolfs, all trying to get my arm. One or the larger wolfs lunges at Kamberlee for my arm and she, obviously one of the more powerful wolfs, bights his neck easily, snapping it almost in half. The gray wolf falls to the ground and the others start chewing away at it.

The collar that Kamberlee is wearing must send some sort of an electric shot through her, because she jerks back harshly and starts whining. The gamemakers must not want them to kill each other. Well, that is a good thing to keep in mind. If these where the real tributes, that wouldn't happen at all. I will use that as a reminder when I remember Kamberlee ripping off my arm. Kamberlee and I had some sort of a bond, and the real Kamberlee would never hurt me unless it came down to it. And I would never hurt her either.

 Glimmer starts barking at the other animals excitedly and they all swarm around me. None of them do anything though. I guess it is like being at a barbecue and the food is done, and no matter how hungry you are, you refuse to be the first one to get food because the small kids should get theirs first. I think of this because none of the large, grown wolfs take a bight of me, but they make room for the little twelve year old boy from Four, and Rue. They make room for Rue. For the little girl that picked me out for her death, who I took on a Hostile for, who died because I gave Marvel orders to kill. Rue. She bows her head but doesn't lower her eyes when she takes a bight out of my thigh, doesn't look away from my eyes, holds eye contact as she rips me apart. I make an awful sound that no matter how awful and terrifying it sounded, will never describe what pain I am it. The boy from four takes a bight from my leg and walks with Rue to the back of the cornucopia to sit with Kamberlee. I grit my teeth, but it doesn't stop the awful sounds from escaping my lips.

Imagine cutting yourself badly with a kitchen knife. Imagine that pain. Imagine someone taking a knife, digging it into your body and cutting out a body part. It is worse than that. I only wish that someone was cutting out chunks of me. That would at least take away half of the pain. If there where a knife cutting into me, it would cut and be over with. The wolfs sink their teeth into my body and have to pull chunks of me out. Instead of me feeling a knife cut me open, I feel my skin and flesh seperate from itself and rip. I feel my skin and flesh, shred into pieces before that part of my body is gone. If one of these beast decides to rip out a part of my ribs or something, they don't only have to tear my skin, but have to break the bones to get to it. They have to rip my body apart, and break several bones and a time, more than once, to eat me. To kill me as slowly as they can. Its like they are programmed to know where all of the vital organs are, because none of them have event tried my hear, lungs, kidneys, nothing. The gamemakers want this to never end. They want to relish in my death for as long as possible.

Well, no matter what kind of pain I am in, all I have to think is that I win. President Snow lost this game, and I will get to be with Clove and Pearl forever.

I hold on to this feeling of accomplishment until I start feeling the pain again. It is like I am being dragged unwillingly into reality. And everything is horrible. Now that the kids have eaten, all of the older kids can go crazy. They can push and shove to get what kind of meat they want. This barbecue is not an all you can eat buffet, and there is only a limited amount of me, so they must act fast. I am being swarmed by giant creatures, large chunks of me being torn away. Glimmer, Marvel, Hunnu, Kamberlee, Thresh, Rue, and Clove. None of them show any sympathy to me. None. Glimmer loved me. Marvel looked at me as a leader. Hunnu was a friend until our supplies blew up. Kamberlee was like a sister. Thresh was respectful. Rue was so sweet and kind. And Clove was mine. None of them even bothered to think about what  pain I must be feeling right now. They all just tore away at me more than willingly.

Reality is dark.

*******************************************************************

 I have been down here for several hours. It is dark and cold. I lost feeling in most of my body as the blood drained and I am thankful.

Clove comes up for some more of me. She bights down on one of the parts of me that still has some feeling, my shoulder. I jerk away from her, she snarls at me and lays beside me and starts eating. I cant resist it. It is the exact same color. I need to know if it is really hers or not. I reach out and start stroking her fur. She growls a deep growl and snaps at me, but I keep petting her. What is she going to do? Bight my hand off? What difference does that make? Her fur feels just like her hair used to, I feel a tear fall down my cheek as I realize that this is all my fault. If I didn't leave her, Thesh wouldn't have killed her, and we could have easily overpowered Katniss and Peeta!

"I'm sorry." I whisper. She growls at me again and gets up to walk away. She sits by Thresh and lays her head on his paw. But he killed her! Shouldn't she be attacking him or something? The anger inside of me must have done something, because I start getting feeling back in my body. I feel all the holes, and pain. I scream loudly, making all of the wolfs jump. I am attacked by Glimmer and she bights down on my shoulder but doesn't release. I stop screaming and she twists her muzzle inside me, causing me to cry out in pain again. She barks and bights my stomach. I stop screaming and start sobbing loudly. She instantly releases and places her head on me and whines with me. This reminds me of the boy she killed with the arrows. She would stab him and he would cry. She would tell him not to cry and that everything would be alright. He would scream, and she would stab him again. I wonder if the gamemakers did this on purpose.

I shoo her away and she growls and walks back over to the rest of the pack. I start groaning from the pain and I hear Katniss start freaking out from above me. "Why don't they just kill him already?!" She cries.

"You know why." Peeta whispers. I can tell by his voice that he is weak from the loss of blood in his leg I'm guessing. "Can you shoot him?" He asks. Yes! Please! Please shoot me with one of your arrows Katniss! I beg in my mind.

"If he is by the opening, maybe," She starts, "But my last arrow is in your torquet." No! No! No! No! I yell in my thoughts.

I hear some rustling and a sigh from Peeta. "Make it count." he says. My eyes light up with hope. With happiness. I wont have to feel pain anymore. Katniss can just end my misery! I am right next to the opening and it will be easy to shoot me! I hear Katniss jump around the top and swing upside down so she can see me. She scales the area for me and spots me.

All I can feel is the pain. The ripped skin and broken bones. And hope. "Please." I whisper. I see an emotion cross her face. It is pain. She really does feel sorry for me. She positions her arrow in her bow and aims at my head I'm guessing. This is it. These are the last moments of my life and I cannot wait for them to end.

I see her fingers lift from the string.

I see the arrow shoot towards me.

I see the arrow penetrate my skin right before

I see darkness.

************************************************************

Okay, sorry this has only been ABC checked. I will send it to my editor, Sidneyskees right now, but I think you all have waited long enough for this, and I don't know if I will get this back on time if I dont post it before it is edited cause I will be gone from Monday to Friday this week. There is still the Epilogue left, so don't give up on me and be mad at the ending because that's not it! :D