Highway to hell

13. Tracker-Jackers

Cato's POV:

"Get up sleepy-heads!" I hear Mara's accented voice. "We gotta find water."

"Shouldn't we be hunting instead." Asks Glimmer. Geez this girl is thirsty for blood.

"Well if you want to be hunting while you're at the verge of death because of dehydration it's your choice. I'm going to find water, thanks." She says, packing her stuff.

Her words clearly convinced Glimmer and we head in a random direction, in search for water. The good thing about this, is that if we casually come by another tribute, we get the opportunity to accomplish another kill.

After hours in our search for water and without crossing any tributes Mara stops on her tracks making the rest of us grunt as we bump into her. A series of complaints follow her action.

"Shut it." Says Mara, putting her hand up, signaling us to stop. "You hear that?"

"I do, I hear water." I say. Since I haven't talked in a while, I feel, for the first time, dryness in my throat.

She starts running in the direction of the water, we all follow her. As the sound of water gets closer we run faster, I see Mara kneeling down, next to a river. The water is cristal clear, Glimmer approaches and takes a scoop in her hands.

She starts drinking from her hands, since nothing happened, Cormac kneels near the water and takes the water bottle out of his backpack. He fills it up and starts drinking, since still nothing has happened, Mara takes her own bottle and fills it up.

"Now we ready to hunt?" Asks Marvel.

"I say we take over the Cornucopia." I suggest.

"It's getting late, we might just camp here." Says Mara.

We agree with her and I volunteer to take first watch. They all go to sleep and I decide to get closer to Mara, she is completely asleep so she doesn't notice. A few hours later, I feel the temperature rise dramatically, I see a gigantic flame, at the end of the forest.

"Get up! Come on, y'all!" I yell, Mara, seeing the flames, immediately gets on her feet and grabs her backpack.

She grabs Marvel, who's still asleep, by the collar, seeing he doesn't wake up, she knees him in the stomach. Marvel lets out a grunt and finally wakes up.

"What was that for?" He asks. As a response, we all point at the fire, except for Cormac, who's still packing his stuff.

"Move it Twelve!" Yells Mara. He shoves his stuff in his bag, and we all start running away from the fire.

Out of apparently nowhere a giant fire-ball comes in our direction, sweeping away everything that stands in its way. And that is soon to be us. More fire-balls destroy every inch of the forest, leaving it covered in flames and dust.

I hear a scream, and a curse word. Well several curse words, all in an indistinguishable British accent. Mara appears next to me, running with all the energy she's got left, I catch a glimpse of her left arm.

It's all bloodied, burned and bruised, it seems painful, but I'm sure she's got a whole lot of sponsors that will send her something soon enough. After what seem hours of running, the fire stops. Surprisingly enough, the forest isn't too damaged by it and it's still in pretty good condition.

"There he is!" Yells Mara, pointing at the boy from Eleven. He's clearly been in the fire because a big spot on his pants is missing. There's blood all over his leg, and he's washing it off with the water from the river.

We start running in his direction, claiming his death while crossing the river. We're chasing him 'cause he's a threat, he scored 10 points in the private sessions and he turned out to be very good with a sword, axe and a few more weapons. We did try to recruit him in our alliance but he didn't even bother to speak to us.