Lovers In The Arena \\ Gale Hawthorne

Chapter 14: The Victor(s)

Y/n's POV

I wake up and it's the next day. I have a gut feeling that -if we live or die- today might be our last day in the arena. I feel the scorching sun coming through the opening of the cave, on my face. I close my eyes to block it but it's too bright, I sit up and see Gale slicing one of the knives on a rock.

"Hey, morning," I said quietly because I haven't gotten my full voice yet.

"Oh, morning. Sleep well?" Gale said and came over to me kissing my cheek,

"Yeah, pretty well." I kissed his lips. "What are you doing with the knives?"

"Sharpening them. Who knows what kind of weapons Cato still has"

"Yeah. Are we going after him today?"

"Maybe, or maybe we should just wait for a little until we absolutely have to leave the cave." I nodded in agreement. I took off my jacket because it's really hot out. I see that we only have a little bit of water left. I take a drink, but not a big one, we have to ration it. We stay in the cave for a little bit. Today is very hot for some reason but the cave isn't helping, it's even hotter in here. We decide to go to the river and fill up our bottles again. 

"So if we get to go home, then...will Haymitch be our neighbor?" Gale asks as we walk to the river.

"I think so, he lives in the victors village. And if we win so will we" I say

"That'll be great. Can you imagine? How different things would be"

"Yeah. It would be weird though, not having to do anything ever. Just sitting around with more money than we even know what to do with. It would be an adjustment for sure"

"Yeah, and not having to...never mind" Gale says. I was curious at first, but then I realized he was accidentally about to say something that he doesn't want the capital to know, so I kept my mouth shut. We made it to the river, and we see that it's completely dried up. There isn't a single puddle left.

"What? How is this possible?" I ask

"Anything is possible in the arena. If the game makers say so anyway. They must be trying to lead us to the lake." Gale says. This is awful, it's like 90 degrees out and our main water source is all dried up.

"Well, to the lake then" We start walking thought the woods, it's a little bit cooler in the forest will all the trees, but not much. We walk for a little bit and it starts cooling off and getting a little bit dark.

"Hey, Y/n? What time do you think it is?" Gale asked

"A little after noon I think" I say

"Then why is it getting so dark?"

"They must been in hurry to end it. And they want to end it bloody, so be prepared" He nods. We each have a knife in hand and are ready to attack anyone who tried to mess with us. Which could only be Cato or Thresh at this point. We keep walking when we hear a sound, kinda like a howl.

"Did you hear that?" Gale asks

"Yeah, keep your knives ready" We hear the howl again but this time it's much louder and sound way more close than before, like dangerously close. I think of what it could be, Wolves? Wild dogs? Mutts? I don't know but whatever the hell they are I don't want to be anywhere near them. We stop for a second when we hear one approaching us. I grip onto my knife even tighter, I see it's eyes staring straight at me, I launches toward Gale, and pounces on him.

"Gale!" I yell, I stab the mutt in it's neck and it runs away. Gale only has a scratch on his face, we begin to run as fast and far as we can. We hear a scream, it sounded like thresh, then we see his face in the sky. Another one gone, That only leaves Cato left for us to kill, which will be easy, emotionally, because all I care about now is keeping Gale alive and getting home and seeing my family. As we run my heart begins to race faster than we're running. Gale starts to trip, I grab his hand, intertwine our fingers, I grip it tightly and we continue running. We jump over logs, and rocks, never stopping. We just need to make it to the cornucopia and we can get away from them.