Just a Game

Chapter Six

I didn’t have any dreams that night. I was sleeping on the hard ground on just a thin sleeping bag. Glimmer is propped up against a tree. She probably fell asleep while on guard last night. Her arm is on my leg, and I roll over away from her; her arm thumps onto the ground. The sun hasn’t fully risen yet, and no one else is awake. I close my eyes again and fall back to sleep.

“Oh my god!” I hear someone scream.

There’s a loud buzzing and I scramble up swatting at my face. Tracker jackers are swarming around us, a broken hive where our fire was last night. I try to pull Glimmer, who is a deep sleeper, up and away from the wasps, but there are too many. I end up losing her grip, and I sprint as fast as I could away from the sight, not bothering to grab anything. 

I can hear hopeless screams back at our camp. I don’t bother turning around, fearing from the tracker jackers. But apparently I’m not fast enough, because I feel a couple stings on my arms. One wasp manages to sting me just below my left eye. I could feel my eye starting to close, and soon enough, I can only see through my right. 

“To the lake!” Marvel screams, swatting his spear around desperately. 

The moment we reach the lake, I dive in, completely submerging myself. There are two more splashes near me. I wonder who made it. My face breaks the surface of the water. The tracker jackers don’t appear to be very fond of water. 

Clove’s head breaks the surface and I heave a sigh of relief. “Cato,” she calls. “Are you okay?”

 I wade over to her and Marvel. “Yeah, but I got a few stings.” I examine the bites, which have turned into huge lumps. I can almost see them throbbing. I realize that they hurt a lot more than I thought. I feel like falling over.

“I got a few as well.” Marvel is also checking up on the bites. He looks a bit woozy. “What do we do about them?”

I shrug. I’ve never seen anyone who’s been stung by a tracker jackers before.

“I guess we’ll just wait for them to go away,” says Clove, shaking the water out of her ponytail.

We agree and, when the wasps are all gone, head back to our camp site to see if there’s anything to take. We take the same long route that we took, not wanting to get lost. Near the edge of the trees, we see a hovercraft pick up the mutilated body of Ariel getting picked up by a hovercraft.

Clove smiles grimly. “At least we won’t have to kill her later on.”

I hear a rustling a few metres ahead of us, probably aroused by the sound of our footsteps. Peeta runs ahead with a spear pointed over his shoulder. As soon as he reaches the clearing, I hear him shouting at someone.

“Run!” I hear him scream. “Run!”

I use my knife to slash my way through the overgrown bushes. Glimmer is on the ground, probably dead, and next to her, is Katniss, holding a silver bow. It seems like she was stung a few times by the tracker jackers as well. Marvel snarls and walks a bit closer to the grotesque body of his once beautiful district partner.

Katniss is stumbling around, screaming like mad. She falls to the ground, hard, most likely dying. I’m quite far away from her, but Peeta is standing in the same position. He has a determined scowl on his face as he unsheathes a knife from his belt.

“Are you going to fight me, Lover Boy?” I taunt, circling around him.

His scowl deepens. “Isn’t it obvious?” Peeta acts like he isn’t afraid. But I can see a bit of fear in his light eyes.

“Come on then.” I say, beckoning him towards me with my hands. “Fight me.”

Peeta charges at me, with both his knife and spear. I block his first strike, knocking the spear out of his hand. Clove and Marvel are at the corner of my vision, smirking. We continue to fight, him dodging most of my blows. I push him into a tree, and he collapses onto the ground. At first, I contemplate stabbing him through the chest, or slit his throat.