Clato : Till forever falls apart

Chapter 23 - katniss and peeta

When I wake Catos arm is draped protectively over me and the thunderstorm from the night before has come to a complete halt, confining what I already knew, that storm was made for just Cato and Thresh. I look over to Cato but his sleeping silently. I sit up and for the first time realise there's pain in my body but it's bareable. I get out of the sleeping bag careful not to wake Cato. His head had already scabbed over so I won't have to do anything. Good I'm bad at healing anyway.

A bandage still sits on my head. I yank it off onto the floor. My heads no longer pooling blood, but I feel the faintest touch could set of off again. I don't bother looking at the bandage on my arm it's probably still bad. I just hope it's not infected. I don't want to look bc even if it was infected what would I do about it. I push my self up feeling slightly dizzy at the movement, but I head over to the bags Cato collected last night and kneel beside them. They're still drenched on the outside. But the material feels waterproof. First I open a massive duffel bag, so big that I could probably curl inside of it. Thresh must've grabbed it from the cornucopia on the first day. We had loads of these on the pile. inside of it is even better then I could've imagined. Food lots of food. The sort of food you'd expect to find in that field he was staying in, there's food like grains, fruits and he even has some precooked meat in there. Much better prepared then what I can do. He also has another sleeping bag. The find disappoints me Now Cato and I have no excuse to be sharing a sleeping bag, he has some spare wepons and medicine in there too. I move onto the next bag, the big black backpack marked 11. Inside was a more thermal sleeping bag along with gloves and a Bennie hat. Obviously the big guy was getting cold with no shelter in his filed. Next I open the identical bag labelled 2. Inside is two suits of armour. Flesh coloured chainlink that runs smoothly from the ankle to the kneck. They're to protect us, against arrows. They must be.

After seeing all of these new supplies I immediately get out our own bowels adding in fruit and grain to each one. I leave one bowl by Catos head so he can eat it when he wakes. I quickly eat mine savouring all the tastes. Something about being on deaths door makes the fruit 100 times sweeter. After I finish I walk over to the amour and pick it up. Leaning over to reach it causes immense pain making me drop onto my knees. Nevertheless I persist. I take off all my clothes except the under layers. Not caring what the capitol sees of me anymore, the whole process was so painful. And I still need to put the the armour on me. I eventually do get it on and I'm completely breathless. It's lighter than expected. And as a bonus I feel like it's supporting my body as well, helping me move easier and less painfully. It's much easier putting my clothes back on over the top then it was to take them off now that I have this new found support. I lay Catos armour by his bowel of food. His still not awake yet. I don't know if I should wake him or let him sleep. I lean down tword him. It sends shooting pains through my body. But the amour holds me up right. I can hear his small breaths. Hearing it comforts me.

I decide to let him sleep at least till I've packed everything. The less bags the better. I decide to use the two black bags. There bigger than our old packs but small enough to carry and will camouflage easier because of the black colour. But not everything will fit. I need to decide what to leave carefully. I need to prioritise.

I pack all the medical supplies, food and cutlery in the 11 bag. In the 2 bag I'll put our sleeping bags (when Cato gets out of it) Threshes thermal gear and our night vision glasses. I have to leave our spare clothes and a few spare weapons.

By the time I finish my body's in complete agony so I sit on the floor and put my head between my knees. Begging nobody in particular to make pain leave soon. I hear a groan behind me and know Cato must be stirring I turn to look at him. He looks across to see the bowel of fruit and instantly smiles.

"Berries" he smiles

We had been careful to avoid fruits that grew in the arena so far, having paid no attention to the edible fruits section in training. So the taste of fruits we know won't kill us is blissful. He sits up and eats them immediately. When his finishes I place the bows in the bag. Cato looks across and puts on the amour, I turn. I don't think I could bear to see his wrecked body. Instead I focus on packing the sleeping bag as well making sure everything's packed correct for easy access . I can hear him groaning the same way I did. Then he joins me sitting at the mouth of the corincoupia. Easy targets. But nobody's coming for us. We stare out into the plain for a few minutes. Feeling the heat hit us.