The loud noise causes Clove to drop down to her knees and clasp her palms over her ears. After what felt like an eternity —it couldn't have been more than five minutes— the explosions halt. Cautiously, Clove removes her hands from her ears. A ringing noise goes through them, but no internal damage has been done. She curses under her breath and removes her knife from the corpse beside her, clearing out so a Capitol hovercraft can collect the body. The cannon was probably fired during the explosions, otherwise she would have heard something by now.
She sneaks back carefully to where she left Katniss. She sees the girl clutching her left ear, which appears to be bleeding. Katniss spots Clove and motions for her to join her. Clove crouches next to her ally and watches as an infuriated Cato storms back into the large clearing. He begins to kick random peices of rubble around and yells. Clove swears he mentions Katniss and her's name.
"So he knows it was us." Katniss says, reading her mind.
Clove nods. "We should probably start to head back."
"Yeah." Katniss agrees. "We need to lay low for the next few days, and not do anything rash. They'll be hunting us soon."
The two begin to crawl out of sight. When it is safe, they stand up and jog back. "Do you think we should stay in the trees?" Clove asks.
Katniss nods. "Yeah. Worst case scenario they will try to climb the trunks. They might be too heavy, though."
The sun begins to set, and is almost gone when they make it back to their base. The girls climb two neighboring trees and tie themselves to it. Clove listens as Katniss tests her left ear, because according to her, she was blasted deaf during the explosion. "My hearings really gone." Katniss sighs in frustration.
"Well if you win they'll fix you up." Clove reassures her.
She doesn't get a response. Instead, she hears snoring. Clove tries to fall asleep in her uncomfortable upright position. Thankfully, she does after a few minutes.
Clove is awaken with roars of laughter, coming from below her. She flutters her eyes open and peers down, to see the horrific sight of Cato and Marvel starting back up at her. "Shit." She murmurs.
"Thought you could hide, eh?" Marvel taunts. Cato smirks.
Next to her, Katniss stirs. Clove decides to have a little fun before her death. "Yeah, I really did." She says in a disappointed voice.
Clove nods and returns her attention back to the two boys underneath them. "Are you guys going to come down?" Cato shouts.
"I thought you were going to come up for us." Clove smiles sweetly. She watches as Cato's expression transforms into a quick daze, but he snaps out of it quickly.
"Alright then." He grabs the first branch and hoists himself up. Clove quickly unties herself from the tree trunk and watches in amusement as Cato gets closer to her, with his sword in hand. She takes out of one of her knives from her vest, but it isn't needed, Cato accidentally chooses a bad branch and goes plummeting twenty feet to the ground.
"You alright down there?" Katniss calls sarcastically.
"Screw you little shits." Cato spits in anger. But soon he is back on his feet, physically unharmed. Clove suppresses a laugh. The two boys have a quick debate, and decide to set up camp underneath them, trapping them in the trees.
"Should we leave when they're asleep?" Katniss asks quietly.
"They're most likely going to take shifts, so we can't." Clove grumbles. Katniss sighs and unties herself from the tree trunk. She leans over and grabs her pack, and takes out a granola bar for her breakfast. "I wonder how they found us." Clove says.
"Let's ask." Katniss suggests. "Hey shitheads." She calls down, gaining both boys attention. "How did you even find us this far off?"
Marvel shrugs. "We just chose a random direction and stuck with it. Glad we did."
Clove sighs and leans back. "Being stuck up here is going to slowly drive me insane. Shoot them with your arrows while they're not looking tonight."
Katniss quickly numbers her arrows. "Alright, but I'm only wasting two arrows on the both of them."
"Okay." Clove hides her nervousness for Cato's death. A part of her still wouldn't let him go.
After a while, it does start to get late. Marvel starts a fire while Cato goes to scour the area for an animal they could eat. He comes back successfully, holding two dead squirrels. "Don't ask me how I got them, man." Clove hears him tell Marvel. After watching the two cook their meal and slowly finish it off, they finally get ready to sleep. Cato ends up taking first watch, while Marvel dozes off.
"Katniss." Clove calls, barely above a whisper.
"I know, I know." She hears so shuffling noises and in the dim light sees Katniss' silhouette loading her bow and pulling back on the string.
"Aim for Marvel first." Clove instructs. Katniss lowers her bow and looks at Clove.
"Cato will see that Marvel's dead and will leave before I can shoot him." Katniss says.
"Marvel's an easier target." Clove argues.
"Fine." Katniss snaps. In the frail light, Clove can hardly see what Katniss is doing. She pulls the string back and lets the arrow fly.
But instead of hitting Marvel, the arrow finds itself lodged in Cato's chest.
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