Forbearance • A Cato Hadley Story

1.16

The next morning everything was peaceful. Glimmer and Marvel laid on the forest ground just across from where Cato and Livia laid while Peeta laid away from the four. Livia stirred in her sleep as a sudden gust of wind passed by the group, snuggling closer into Cato's arm. Moments later Glimmer shot up in a panic, looking around for something before realizing that nothing was around and laying back on her district partner's chest, drifting back to sleep.

Meanwhile, high up in the trees sat Katniss Everdeen, who looked down on the group as she mentally tried to plan an escape. She heard a hush come from a few trees away and snapped her head towards the noise, catching sight of Rue from District Eleven. The frizzy haired girl put her left index finger up to her mouth signaling for the teen to stay quiet and pointed up towards a tracker jacker nest a few feet away from her.

Katniss nodded at the little girl and climbed to the nest, grabbing her knife, and starting to saw the branch holding the nest. As she sawed she was stung by multiple of the devilish bugs, causing her to yell out in pain, although she tried to suppress her yelps in fear of waking the career pack. After a few moments the branch finally snapped and plummeted to the ground, bursting open and letting hundreds of tracker jackers loose.

All five teens that were on the ground let out shrieks of fear as the bugs flew towards them. Livia quickly picked up her backpack and grabbed Cato's hand, frantically pulling him as far away from the swarm as possible. As she ran she could hear the bugs buzzing while they flew past her ears and she yelled, waving her free hand around trying to shoo the bugs away. The pair ran for a few minutes before they could no longer hear the buzzing of the tracker jackers.

But they had separated from Marvel, Glimmer and Peeta. Thinking of the boy from Twelve now angered Livia. They had trusted him and because of him, they almost died. She now made it her goal to not only kill Katniss but Peeta as well. And she would make it slow and painful for the baker's boy specifically. Both teens were out of breath, panting as they stood still. "We should go find Marvel and Glimmer. The tracker jackers should be gone by now." the small girl said to the muscular boy before they started to head back towards the camp.

The blonde had a bad feeling about what she would find once they made it back to their campsite. She knew that she wasn't going to be pleased with what they would come across. And she was right. When the two arrived back by the campsite, their eyes immediately landed on a familiar blonde haired girl who lay lifeless on the ground, her weapon already taken by another tribute. Livia lifted her hand to cover her mouth as she let out an ear splitting scream.

She was terrified at the sight of someone who she considered a friend. Glimmer was dead. And it was too late for her. The girl's skin was grayish-purple and giant bumps covered her skin where the deadly bugs had stung her. The smaller girl's legs seemed to turn to jello as hot tears left her eyes and slipped down her cheeks and she fell to the ground, her eyes glued to the floor in front of her so she wouldn't be tempted to look at her lifeless best friend.

Livia's district partner dropped to the floor with her, wrapping one arm around her upper body and placing his left hand on the side of her head, pulling her closer to his chest. He held the blonde close to him as she cried, placing a kiss on the top of her head every now and then and whispering reassurances in her head as he did so. She knew this was going to happen to all of them at some point. Of course it was, that was the point of the game.

She just didn't expect it to be so soon. And she didn't expect it to be Glimmer to go first rather than herself. Marvel's voice rang through the girl's ears once a few minutes had passed. It was hard to understand him but she was able to pick up something along the lines of "Peeta went this way." With a few sniffles the blonde picked herself up off the ground, with Cato's help of course, and the three tributes ran off to find the boy.

They were in luck finding the boy as they were able to find him just a bit away from the campsite, seemingly running away as fast as he could from something. Once the trio caught sight of him they picked up their speed. Their friend was dead because of him and he would pay for it. "Get back here you fucking asshole!" the smaller girl yelled out with whatever air she had left in her lungs as a few more tears escaped her eyes and she picked up speed.

The boy in front of them looked back momentarily so he could get an idea of how close they were and slowly stopped running, ultimately giving up, knowing they would catch him at some point. He couldn't run from them all day and he was well aware of that. As the other three slowed down Livia took Cato's sword from him angrily and stepped towards the boy. His bottom lip trembled in fear as they inched closer.

"I promise I didn't know she would do that! I never meant for anyone to get hurt!" he pleaded with begging eyes. The girl's blood boiled listening to him speak. All of them could be heard panting while her hand tightly gripped Cato's sword and her other wrapped her bow firmly. "Hurt? More than hurt! Because of you, Glimmer's dead! And soon you will be too!" she yelled in his face, forcing him to step back a few feet.

He had pretty much killed her friend and he wouldn't let him get away with it. Glimmer was lucky in having a quick death. It was speedy and she didn't feel pain for long before it was over. But Livia wouldn't let him get away with it that easy. She would make his death slow and painful. With a quick slash of the sword in her right hand the boy was sent falling to the ground with a throaty yelp as he clutched his upper leg which now had a long and deep cut in it, blood spilling out of it quickly.

She was happy with it. It wasn't likely anyone would come looking for him. After what he did to the remaining careers and after he betrayed Katniss, no one would need him. He would bleed out on the forest ground and with pretty much no way of getting to a water or food source, he'd be dead within a matter of a few days tops. "Have fun, Twelve." she taunted with a sniffle before Livia, Marvel and Cato left the boy to die. She could hear his whimpers and cries as they left, leaving her to smirk while she walked.

In a comforting manner, the muscular boy who was now on her left placed an arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. None of the teens talked for the rest of the day besides when the only female career left informed the boys that she would start a small fire and go hunt for food so they could put something in their stomachs. It was odd without the perky blonde from District One. But she was only one of many.