CLOVE'S POV:
Something jars me awake. Something painful. And this time it's not Marvel.
"AAAHHH!" I scream, leaping to my feet. The only thing I'm aware of through my sleepy eyes and the early morning haze is a cloud of something. Something painful whizzing and buzzing around me.
One of the tiny black things lands on my arms. "Aaaaauuuugh!" I yell. The pain is unspeakable; it feels like I'm being injected with poisonous fire.
I'm stumbling around frantically with no sense of where I am or where anyone else is. My legs seem to collapse under me, and I sprawl around kicking frantically. I blink, but the things fly into my eyes. I'm screaming out in pain, but my mouth is full of the critters. I spit out a mouthful, but my tongue is already swelling up. I cough and choke, but I will not fall. I will not die. I will get out of here.
Tracker jackers. That must be what these are. No other type of insect stings like this. My jacket is full of more of the stinging wasps, so I fling it off my shoulders and run frantically for the trees.
I step on something. I barely have time to register what it is, but I know soon enough as my leg is attacked. I scream and cry out as a thousand needles jab into my leg from all directions. It's like wearing a sock made out of a cactus.
I can't move anything. Yelling in agony, I tumble forward onto my face, and feel as my skin is attacked.
I'm dead. I really am. There's no way out of this one.
Then, without warning, something changes. I feel arms lift me by the shoulders. The tracker jackers are still stinging, but I can barely feel it. I don't have to move. I hear moans and cries from my rescuer; the bees must be getting him too.
Oh, this is awful. Everything is swirling around me. I feel like I'm falling down a long dark tunnel, but the arms that lifted me are still holding me. A ray from the sun penetrates the trees and explodes into what looks like a splash of water.
CATO'S POV:
Carrying Clove might be easier if I could see straight. But everything's rotating like a carousel. Three Marvels run ahead of me. Clove's body appears to shake rapidly, but as I can barely feel anything, I can't say whether it is real or a hallucination.
The trees drip with what looks like orange juice. I duck to avoid a splatter that is aimed straight at me, but it hits me anyway. The weird thing is that when it does, I only feel more pain.
A hole opens up spontaneously in front of me. I stumble and crash into it, but then it's gone and I'm flat on the ground. I stagger to my feet, still carrying Clove. Is she even still alive? I can't stop to find out.
"The lake!" yells Marvel in a strangled tone. "To the lake!"
I don't know how I get there, but a few more stricken seconds, and I'm stumbling across the field to the lake. Depositing Clove by the side, I plunge into the water.
Relief comes quick--if you can call it relief. An agonizing zap running through me, jarring my body, and causing me to cry out in pain. But there's a good feeling to it all the same as I open my eyes and see green poison filtering out of my skin.
Could be another hallucination, though.
I drag myself out of the water and over to Clove's side. She's sprawled on the grass. I turn her over. "Clove? Clove? Can you hear me?"
She blinks; her eyelids are swelled up. Her face is covered with hives from the stingers. But she's still beautiful to me.
"Cato?" she mouths. I nod, brushing the dark hair from her forehead. "What happened?" she croaks.
YOU ARE READING
TWISTED // Clato | ✓
FanfictionSeventy-four years has been long enough. The way of the infamous Hunger Games has been altered. No longer is every Gamemaker out to devise the worst means of torture and death for every tribute. No longer are the people of Panem outwardly toleran...
