The MCYT Hunger Games

Chapter 14

Pov: Cub

I let Scar sleep until he wakes up by himself early the next morning. He yawns, sitting up. I stifle a yawn back, knowing I'm tired, my arm throbbing with a dull pain.

'...Cub?'

'Hey, Scar... how's your leg?'

'Improving. What about... your arm?'

I roll my shoulders to test, regretting it and wincing at the flash of pain. Scar notices.

'Here... I've got some of that healing potion from Etho and Joel.' He crawls over. I let him replace my bandages as I recover; there's no point pretending he won't do it anyway if I refused. 

'Does that feel better?'

'Yeah, thanks.' 

I smile at him and he smiles back. I stifle another yawn.

'You need sleep... it's comfortable where I was.'

'Nah, I wanna stay awake... we can't just take it in turns to sleep until Joel and Etho attack us again.' 

'You're exhausted, Cub... you should've woken me...'

'Scar. I'm fine. Seriously. I'm just a bit tired...'

'Sleep!'

'We should spy on Etho and Joel.' I change the topic quickly, standing. 'See if they're planning anything... and just do something for a change.'

'Cub, we can't just... spy on Etho and Joel! They're dangerous.'

'Scar, we're in the Hunger Games. We're the Convex... why are you so... scared?'

'Because Etho and Joel want to kill us, and we're... it's not safe to be the Convex.' 

I sit down next him to him and, not even hesitating to know it's right, hug him. A moment later, he hugs back. And then starts sobbing.

'It's ok...' I continue just comforting him as he lets out all his emotions. 'It'll all be ok, Scar.'

He can't reply, continuing to cry until he stops, just sitting there next to me. He pushes out of the hug, a determined expression across his face.

'Let's go.'

'Where?'

He stands.

'To spy on Etho and Joel.'

It only takes a couple minutes for us to grab weapons, heading off in the direction of their base.

Voices. For once in his life Joel isn't shouting. I fall even quieter, signalling for Scar to join me in climbing one of the trees we're by... I go first, ignoring the pain as I pull myself onto one of the lower branches. Then I pause. 

'...were going to kill me, but I'm faster than them both.'

There's someone else with them, speaking in a feminine voice. I glance over, seeing a flash of pink hair, before glancing down at Scar. I help him up the tree after me, making sure he's safely up before continuing to spy on Etho, Joel and whoever's now in their group.

'Yeah, we're not gonna let those nerds kill you.' Joel's familiar rudeness reaches us. 

'Thanks... I didn't expect you to even accept me into your group... I mean... you're scary and mysterious and... you're... very defensive.' 

'You think I'm scary?' I barely hear Etho reply. 'I... don't want to be scary...'

'Etho, it's ok. We know you're not scary.' Joel replies.

'I just... I just want to do well. While... while Cub and Scar are always stealing from us...'

'They're the really really chaotic ones, aren't they?' The new member asks

'They're so bloody annoying...' Joel mutters. 'They stole everything we have!'

'That's why... you have nothing? Because they... took it all.'

'I'm gonna kill them both... they're so annoying... I just... they're just so annoying!'

'Joel, it's ok. They know better than to attack again.' 

I glance at Scar. He doesn't look back, clearly feeling guilty.

'So... so you're going to kill them? Like the careers would?' 

'Lizzie, what else would we do? Let those jerks keep ruining our lives?!'

'I don't know!'

'We need to get rid of them.' Mumbles Etho. 'There's nothing else we can do.' 

'Agreed. The next time they show their stupid faces, I'm gonna kill them and take back all our stuff.'

'I will help you then.' Lizzie decides. 'It's... better than being alone... or hunted by False and Doc...'

'Why did they even kick you out? What did you do?' 

'I didn't want to kill Fwhip... they found Fwhip and... told me to kill him... and I couldn't. He got away and... they blamed me. So I had to run.'

'He's that little... goblin... man.' Joel tries to remember. 'With the red hair... he's annoying too. He took stuff I was going to take at the bloodbath... I still got Jimmy though.'

'You killed Jimmy?!'

'What else was I gonna do?! He was annoying and stupid! And small.'

'You're small.'

'I'M NOT SMALL!' 

'Joel doesn't like being called small.' Etho explains unnecessarily. 

'Anyway, we're gonna kill Cub and Scar, and then take back all our stuff, right?'

'...Ok.' Lizzie agrees. 'I can help you... get back your stuff. If you want to kill them too...'

'Lizzie, only 1 of us will survive this. We might as well just kill them now and stop them from being a problem later on.'

'How... will we kill them?' Etho asks. I shuffle closer, heart racing, trying to hear even better. 

'I don't know. We'll just ambush them and kill them however we can... you've still got your fishing rod, and we eventually managed to get that sword out the bloody tree...'

A hand taking mine. Scar. He shifts closer to me, as scared as I am.

'We just need to find them and kill them... or do it the next time they go for us. Because they're not getting away with this any longer. And of course they're gonna come back to us. Because they like driving us mad.'

'I don't know if... they like it...'

'Etho. They've spent their entire time causing chaos and setting everything on fire. Of course they like driving us insane!'

'I think they're just really really chaotic. I don't know if they're necessarily bad but...' Lizzie tries to find the right words. 'But they're still chaotic. And... I guess they need to die...'

'Then it's agreed. The next time they come... they're dead.'

The conversation moves on and I glance at Scar. He isn't looking at me, fear filling his expression. I squeeze his hand for attention and comfort. A signal to leave. He looks over, giving a small nod before slipping from the tree. Ensuring his pause isn't because he's hurt his leg any more, I follow, keeping him in sight at all times as we run silently away

Of all the things I expected today, motivation to get 2 chapters of this book done wasn't one of them