Are The Odds In Our Favor? ~Cato~

15. Day Five

"Jeneah, wake up!" Someone yells at me.

"What?" I groan.

"Someone's close. We see smoke in the trees!"

"What?!" I shoot up. Everyone's already awake. I stand up and Clove passes me my backpack and bow.

"Thanks," I say.

"Rade, you stay here and guard. Let's go!" Cato yells. Rade slumps down on a crate. We run after Marvel, who's in the lead.

"Who noticed it?" I ask Clove.

"Marvel," she replies. "He was still guarding when he saw the smoke come up."

We run into the forest in the direction of the smoke. Suddenly, my foot hits a rock and I fall, face down in the dirt.

"Jeneah, c'mon!" I hear Cato yell at me.

"Okay!" I reply angrily. It's not like the person made a fire and then immediately left. I don't understand the rush. And they probably already hear us stomping towards them.

As we get closer, we slow down, trying to make less noise.

"Okay, you wait behind that tree, I'll go check it out," Cato whispers. We hide behind a big tree and Cato takes careful steps, his sword ready in his hand.

A few moments later we hear him call, "Guys? There's no one here."

We walk over to him. He's right. There's no one except a big fire producing tons of smoke.

"Maybe they ran away," I say.

"Well, if you didn't take so long we would've got here in time!" He replies angrily.

"Oh so it my fault! Well I'm sorry you didn't get the chance to kill someone!" I yell back at him.

"I thought we've been though this, that's the whole point of the ga-"

"Guys!" Clove shouts loudly. "Just shut up already!"

"Hey! There's some smoke coming from there!" Marvel calls out. We look it the direction he's pointing to and we see another cloud of smoke in the air.

"They're not getting away this time!" Cato mutters under his breath.

"No, wait! What is it's a trap?" I yell at Cato, but he ignores me and runs in the direction of the smoke.

We go right behind him, but he's already way ahead. We reach the fire, but again there's no one there.

Suddenly we hear a huge explosion.

"What was that?" I say shakily.

"Oh no," says Clove.

"What?"

"Fuck," says Cato, who's face is starting to turn red.

And then it hits me. The supplies.

We all go off in a sprint. We reach the camp in no time, where the supply pile is ablaze, everything blown to bits.

"What the fuck happened here?!" Cato yells angrily and Rade.

"Wh.. What? I don't know," he replies, shaking.

Cato, fuming, snaps Rade's neck. He hits the ground to the sound of my scream.

No.

No!

I stand completely unable to move. When Cato notices me, he realizes what he's just done. I turn around ready to run away.

"Wait! Jeneah!" Cato yells after me.

I shake my head and turn around to face him. "What is wrong with you?! This wasn't his fault!"

"Look, I'm so-"

"No! There's no excuse you could come up with to explain what you did! I never want to see you again!" I yell at him. Tears start to stream down my face.

How could he do this to him? To me?

I run away from him in the direction of the forest. I don't stop for a good twenty minutes. It's hard to run because I'm sobbing so much.

I see someone up ahead. They seem to be hunched over something. I walk towards them.

The girl whips around at the sound of my footsteps. I recognize her. It's the girl from 12. Tears are streaming from her eyes as well, as she holding the hand of a little girl. I recognize her too. It's the girl I gave some nuts to a few days ago.

The girl doesn't even see me as a threat, since she doesn't even bother to reach for her weapon.

"What happened?" I ask her. She gestures with her head to Marvel, who is on the ground with an arrow in his throat a few feet away.

"The careers killed someone I cared for too," I say.

"I thought you were with them," she replies quietly. Wait, how does she know that? Nevermind.

"Not anymore," I mumble.

I used to think that the careers are actually okay, that they weren't here just to kill everyone and go back home. I even believed what Cato told me yesterday. But I was wrong. They're just as bad as I thought they were before.

"I'm sorry," the girl says.

"You don't have to be. It's not your fault," I reply. She looks like she wants to say something, but doesn't speak in the end.

"Well, I'm gonna go now," I say.

"Bye," she murmurs.

Every step I take a tear falls to the ground. The shock and anger in me is like a balloon. I feel like it could explode anytime soon. I wish that I could be home, in my bed, that nothing like this ever happened.

I walk back to my tree. As I reach it I fall to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. The balloon in me finally explodes and I hit the ground with my fists, letting out the most ear-piercing scream. I don't care if anyone hears me. I don't care about anything anymore.

I don't realize how long I was sitting there, motionless, until the sun starts to set. I'm starving and thirsty, but it doesn't bother me at all. My whole body is numb and my head hurts from all the crying.

I climb up the tree with great difficulty, because of my wrist and settle into my sleeping bag. The anthem plays and the faces of the dead tributes appear in the sky.

Marvel, the little girl and... Rade.

I burst into tears again when I see his face. It's double the pain because Cato killed him. I still can't believe it was him. I knew that he didn't exactly like him, but to go that far?

But it's like he said. It's the games. People have to die if I want to win.

I want to thank you all for 200 reads! It makes me so happy that people actually like my writing. Happy reading!