Are The Odds In Our Favor? ~Cato~

14. Day Four

"Jeneah?" I hear a soft voice beside me. "Wake up."

"Just a few more minutes," I mumble.
I hear someone laugh.

"C'mon Jeneah," says Cato. My eyes shoot open.

Cato chuckles. "Sleep well?"

"Kinda," I say. Clove is sitting next to me, still in her sleeping bag. I get out of mine.

"So, what's the plan for today?" I ask.

"Well, we decided to go back for your bag, if it's still there, and then we'll just walk around, see if we find something, or someone," Cato replies.

"Oh, okay," I say.

We all have breakfast of apples and the leftover meat and drink a lot of water. We sit on the edge of the lake, just relaxing and finishing our food.

"C'mon, we should probably go now," says Cato. I stand up and we go back to the camp.

"What weapon do you want?" Clove asks me.

"Do you have a bow?" I ask.

"As a matter of fact we do. Wait a sec, I'll go for it."

She walks over to the big pile of supplies and starts taking large and careful steps. She goes behind the pile for a bit and then emerges holding a big black bow and a quiver of arrows in her hands.

"Here you go," she passes them to me.

"Thanks," I say as I examine the bow. I put the quiver over my shoulder and the bow in my hand.

"Ready?" Cato asks and everyone nods.

"Wait," he stops Rade with his hand. "Could you stay here and guard?" Rade fights the urge to roll his eyes.

"Fine," he sighs.

"Okay, let's go then," Clove says and we start our way to the forest. I turn my head to see Rade sitting on a crate, face in his hands. I sigh and face forward. He always looks so miserable here, but at least he's safe.

"Do you know the way back to the tree?" Cato asks me.

"Yeah, kinda. It's a very distinct tree that stands out. I also noticed some red bushes along the way. Oh! There's one right there!"

We head in the direction of the red bush and continue past it. Birds flutter around, jumping from one branch to another. I put my hair behind my ear as the light wind plays around with it.

I wonder if my bag will still be there. It was quite well hidden in the tree, but you never know.

We walk in silence for about twenty minutes until I hear clove yell,
"Is that the tree?"

I look in the direction she is pointing to and nod. "Yeah, that's it!"

We run towards it and I start to climb it but Cato stops me.

"Your wrist, remember?" he says. I step away and he starts to climb up. He reaches the branch where I was sleeping and throws something down.
I smile when I pick my backpack up.

"Thanks," I call up to him. I open up the backpack to see what's inside. Everything is still where I left it. I take out the meat that is starting to go bad and throw it into a bush.

I show them the pond and we refill our water bottles. I'm starting to sweat like crazy as the heat starts to rise. We walk around, picking some berries (that we checked a million times, don't worry) off of bushes.

"Wow, there's a whole field of them here!" Clove exclaims.

"I'll go ahead to see if there's some more," I say. They all nod and I push the sliding quiver further up my shoulder.