Lethal Lovers - Cato Hadley

chapter ten

I decide to walk up to her and talk to her.
"How's Peeta?" I ask her, trying to start a conversation. She hesitates a little before she answers.
"He's okay, I think. Just dehydrated like the rest of us" 
We look at Peeta for a while who's sleeping on the ground peacefully. 
We both jump a little when the athem starts playing. Looking at the dead tributes. Cashmere and Gloss are still alive, and so is Johanna, Betee and a few others. It makes me relax a little to see that Johanna is okay. Stupid because no one could ever bring Johanna down. That's what I like about her. She doesn't let anyone tell her anything and she does what she wants. Sometimes it's a little annoying but that's just who she is.

We hear a familiar beeping and search for the parachute. To our surprise, there actually is one. Katniss quickly opens it and takes something out.
"It's from Haymitch" she says.
"And what is it?" I ask.
"I think it's a spile" she says taking a closer look at it.
"Lets use it then" I say, and we walk to a tree. She then takes a rock and starts hammering the spile inside of the train. 
"Come on" she mutters over and over, as we're waiting for the water to finally come out of it. 
Suddenly, it starts coming and we both smile. She holds her mouth under it and drinks the water, after it's my turn and I do the same. We then wake everybody to drink too. I've never seen so many happy faces. Finnick gets a leaf and fills it with water before he bring it to Maggs. I can't help but smile at them. It makes me happy to see how good Finnick cares for her. After all, she volunteered for his girlfriend, Annie. She isn't very stable and coming in here again would've definitely get her killed, Finnick at her side or not. That's why Maggs volunteered for her. A truly selfless act, after everything she's been through the past few years and considering her age.

Everybody then goes back to sleep again and Katniss and I sit back down where we were just sitting ten minutes ago. I start thinking about the baby again. Maybe it's a good thing if Cato and I die here with the baby. I would love to be a mother but not in this world. Never. I don't want to fear for my kids every year at the reaping. They deserve better. I put a hand on my belly. Whatever time brings us, it will be the best for us. 
"You have a nice necklace" Katniss says. I look down to see that my fingers are playing with the ring that's on it.
"Thank you. It's from my father" I say, and she nods.
"He died. Got killed during work" I say.
"Mine too," she says. "He worked in the colemine"
"Mine was a peacekeeper" I say, and she looks at me confused.
"But you're from district two?" she asks.
"And?"
"Don't they come from the Capitol?"
"No, from district two actually. We get trained from four years old till we're eighteen. Partcularly for the games but mostly to be a peacekeeper sometime" I say.
"So, Cato would've been a peacekeeper if he didn't volunteer?" she asks, and I nod.
"I didn't know they were from district two"
"Why let the rich people do something when you can brainwash a whole district into thinking it's an honour to be a peacekeeper?" I ask her, and we both laugh a little.
Silence overcomes us before she asks me another thing.
"Why did you safe Peeta? I know you don't like me"
"I don't know. When I saw him lying there with you on top of him sobbing I couldn't just let him die without knowing if I could've done more. I know that if that was Cato I would've wanted someone to do the same" I say, and she smiles at me.
"Thank you" she says, and I smile back at her.

We sit there looking around for any possible threats when a fog starts approaching us. I look at her questioningly and she gets up. She stretches her hand up to touch the fog when a loud scream is heard. 
"It's poisonous" Katniss screams over and over again. My eyes widen at the sight of her hand. It has bubbles all over it and looks almost burnt. Quickly everybody is up and we start running. The fog seems to chase us and almost closing in on us. Cato is the one at the front and me behind him. Last are Katniss and Peeta. I hope Peeta can run this fast, same for Finnick and Maggs. Cato then looks back and stays still.
"Cato, what are you doing?" I ask him firghtened.
"I have to help them" he says, and looks at me. "Go" 
He shoves me forward and runs a little back to help Peeta. The fog has almost caught up to him by now. Same for Finnick. I hear someone scream, and see that Cato's now on the floor. He pushed Katniss out of the way, so she the fog couldn't get her. 
He's screaming loudly, his right body half burnt. Katniss and I pull him a little bit away but the fog keeps following us.
"We can't carry him. He's too heavy" I say, and look at Finnick. 
Maggs then has this sad expression on her face, covered with a smile. I look at her questioning, same as Finnick. 
"What are you doing?" he asks. He must've by now cought up with her plan. She gives him a gentle kiss as he starts calling out her name. Is voice gets louder and louder every time, the pain showing more and more. 
"Finnick we don't have time for that" Katniss says. I look down to see that Cato is barely conciouss by now. 
He helps us pick him up as we keep running. The fog comes closer and closer and even burns her and Finnick, trying to keep carrying Cato. We arrive at a hill, when I let go of them. Finnick looks at me weirdly as I push them all down the hill. Let's be honest, falling down there is better than running. I feel a stabbing pain all over my back as I fall down too, due to my legs giving out. We all lay on the ground now, covered in these nasty bubbles not able to get up again. I look over at Katniss who's looking at the fog now. I look over too and see it approaching us. I try to accept my faith, that I would be dead in not even a minute and I didn't even say goodbye to Cato. I look to my other side to see him lying there unconciouss. That was the most stupid but selfless thing I've ever seen him do in my whole life. He was prepared to take the pain for her. Maybe not even for her. After all, she's our way out of here. We need to keep her alive until Beete has his plan.

I remember the fog and notice that it must've gotten us by now but when I look up, there's nothing there anymore. Just the normal forest. I hear grunting next to me and see Katniss pulling herself towards the water. I watch her slowly get inside and wash her bubbles off, as she screams.
"The water, the water! It helps" she says and gestures for us to come over. Finnick and I start pulling ourselves in and quickly wash off the consequences of the fog, before we pull Cato inside too. 
"God, why do you have to train so much" I say grunting. He really is heavy. 
We pull him inside as he wakes up again. His jaw clenches and sharp, short breaths escape his mouth as I help him wash everything off.
"Are you okay?" he asks me, and I nod.
"Are you?" I ask, and he nods too. He hugs me tightly before letting me go again. He rests his forehead against mine and we both smile.
"I'm glad you're okay" I say, and he chuckles.
"Me too" he says. I then slap him onto the shoulder hard.
"What was that for?" he asks me confused.
"You could've died. You just pushed her away almost getting you killed" I say.
"I couldn't let her die Athena, you know" he says.
"I know" I say, and we help eachother up.

 Peeta, Katniss and Finnick are all up again too. Peeta's searching for a good tree to put the spile into, while Katniss looks around. I see that Finnick is sitting next to the little pond, curled up into a ball. His face is full of guilt and regret. I walk over and sit down next to him. I let my head fall onto his shoulder, as he lets his head rest on mine too.
"I'm sorry for what happend" I say quitely.
"Me too" Finnick says. I can feel that he doesn't blame any of us. His body is floppy and his breaths are deep and steady. 

"Peeta get over here. Slowly" Katniss suddenly says, making both of us sit up straight. We look around and see a few apes coming at us.
"Is this a joke?" Cato asks and steps closer to one of them, who then hisses at him making him almost fall back.
Peeta then slowly steps over to us as they come closer. I take out an arrow and put it into the bow just to be sure. 
We take a few steps back and they follow us.
"Mutts" Finnick says, and one of them jumps at Katniss. She quickly shoots it as the other ones start coming at us too. I stand directly next to Cato, as we send Katniss and Peeta behind us. Katniss unfortunately then gets attacked by one of the mutts who sends her under water. I shoot it and run over to her and help her up. One of them then scratches my arm heavily, making my arm start bleeding like hell. 
"Run!" Finnick shouts and we all start running. I'm practically looking after Katniss now and Finnick and Cato are looking after Peeta. 
We keep running and shooting our arrows at the mutts until we can practically see the beach infront of us. 
"Run Katniss!" I shout and gesture for her to run. She hesitates.
"Athena come on" she shouts. 
"Go on! I'm coming" I shout and keep shooting these bastards. There are more and more of them coming and she definitely needs someone to keep them from coming at her because they make it pretty obvious that they want her and Peeta, not me, Finnick or Cato. She looks at me shortly before she takes off running. The mutts are even closer now and I have only a few arrows left. I turn around and start running as fast as my legs can. I'm practically at the beach when one of the mutts catches my leg. I lock eyes with Cato who looks frightened as he sees me. He runs inside again to help me, as they pull me back inside. I'm thinking that he won't reach me in time but suddenly the mutt lets go. I look back to see an arrow in it's head. I don't hesistate before taking off running again. Cato meets me halfway and we run out, stumling onto the beach. I'm breathing heavily, lying on the ground trying to catch my breath.
"Shit, you're bleeding" Cato says shocked. I look down at my arm and see how badly injured I am. A big part of my arm is bitten out and is bleeding like crazy.
"Oh fuck" I hear Finnick muttter behind me.
"We need something to clean that up" Katniss says and starts walking away. 
"Where are you going?" Finnick asks, and grabs her by her wrist.
"She needs something for her wound" she says._
"You can't go by your own" he says.
"I'll go with her" Cato says.
I feel my eyes getting heavy and let my head fall back onto the sand again. I can hear Peeta talking to someone and look to my left. He's standing waist deep in the water with someone in his arms. Looks like the person is dying. The voices around me start do dimmer more and more as my eyes start to get heavier and heavier. I feel someone putting their hands onto my face and Finnick leans over. He starts asking me some questions but my vision goes dark.