Not The Plan

Chapter Seventeen: The End?

It started out like a normal night. Well normal enough for being in the middle of the Hunger Games. Clove had slowly begun to recover, their sponsor's gift healing her head and the baby. But both of them were fading, tired of this game. They both knew it was a waiting game between them and 12, whoever struck first. But the truth was, neither wanted to strike. Katniss and Peeta didn't want to kill Clove's child along with her and neither Clove nor Cato had an urge to kill after their encounter with Thresh. But the games had to end and the capitol was getting impatient. So when barking woke Clove and Cato up one night, their blood ran cold. Before Clove could even process what was happening Cato had already picked her up, running for the cornucopia. Clove sobbed as the barking grew nearer and nearer, Cato practically throwing her on top of the cornucopia. Katniss and Peeta weren't too far behind them, both running hand in hand. Neither said a word atop the cornucopia, neither making the first strike as the mutts waited impatiently below for one of their bodies to drop.

"I don't want to fight," Cato said, shocking Clove "I just want to go home."

"So do we," Katniss shot back "We want to go home just as much as you do."

"I need to live," Clove said, her voice breaking. "I need my baby to live, don't you understand that?"

"Well I need my sister to live." Katniss defended, the two dangerously close.

"What if we all live." Peeta suggested, all of them instantly turning to him.

"It's impossible." Cato said with a sigh. Katniss's eyes lit up along with Peeta's, both of them breaking out into smiles.

"What?" Clove asked wearily. Peeta silently pulled out a handful of berries from his backpack handing them each a few.

"We all eat blueberries?" Cato asked with an eyeroll "What a great idea lover boy."

"They're poisonous you idiot," Katniss said with an eye roll "If we all eat them they have no victor." Cato and Clove exchanged a glance, both silently agreeing to go along with it. Cato clutched his hand in hers, squeezing it one last time before they all held the berries up, signifying what they were about to do. Just before the berries touched Clove's mouth a speaker rang out.

"Wait! Wait!" The voice said frantically "Panem, I pronounce to you the victors of the 74th Hunger Games!" They all stared at each other in shock, tears of joy running down all of their faces.

"We did it!" Clove exclaimed "We did it Cato!" She said rushing into his arms, but little did they know that this was only the beginning of the fight they'd face, and it would be many years before it was the end.