A Call For Heroes (Pjo x Hunger Games

23

Katniss

Watching the demigods getting extracted from the arena made her feel unprotected. After seeing Percy, Thalia, and Nico fight the monsters and tributes in the arena, she had no doubts that she would make it out of the arena alive.

But now, they had to leave, right into the hands of the Capitol, who would definitely want to kill them straight away. The Capitol would probably make some sort of cover story to show the districts the cost of defying the Capitol.

Katniss recalled what Percy's last words were. Automatically, she made a virtual list of what she had to do. It went something like this:

Step 1. Kill the last career – Cato

Step 2. Pretend to eat the berries with Peeta, so that the gamemakers were forced to let both of them out as victors.

Step 3. Somehow, get the message that she was out of the arena to Percy, so that he could make his public announcement across all of Panem.

Just these three steps. And they had to be completed in this order. Percy, Thalia, and Nico's life depended on it.

The demigods had protected her this far, and she could even see herself coming out of this games alive. Now it was her turn to save them. The least she could do was to follow Percy's instructions, and hopefully, get them out of the clutches of the Capitol.

Peeta was looking at her, waiting for her to make the first move.

"Cato will come to us. He knows the demigods can't help us now." Katniss said confidently. "All we have to do, is to be prepared when he attacks."

Peeta shrugged. His eyes scanned the area around the Cornucopia.

Sure enough, just as Katniss predicted, Cato came running at them from the forest. In his hand, was a heavy looking metal sword.

Katniss notched her arrow, took aim, and fired at Cato's chest.

Her aim was true. It hit the running figure squarely in the chest, but it merely bounced off, leaving Cato unharmed.

She could see Cato's smirk from many meters away. Squinting, Katniss realized that Cato was wearing a body armor. No arrow could penetrate that armor.

Cato had reached the base of the Cornucopia, and was panting hard.

He did a wild throw with his sword, which flew upwards at them. Katniss dove to one side, her bow sliding out of her grip.

Unfortunately, Peeta wasn't so lucky. Cato's sword gave him a deep gash on his right shin, and blood poured out of his leg immediately.

Peeta gasped in pain, clutching at his wounded leg. The blood loss was making his face pale. Katniss knew that if he didn't get any good medical treatment soon, he would collapse from the lack of oxygen to his head.

Meanwhile, as Katniss's attention was momentarily focused on Peeta's bloodied leg, Cato made his climb on the Cornucopia. Only when Cato had reached the top of the Cornucopia, did Katniss realize that she was unprotected, weaponless, and vulnerable.

By then, it was too late. Cato didn't bother to pick up his sword, which was lying a few paces away. Instead, he grabbed Katniss from behind, and put his arm around her neck, pressing her windpipe. Air was cut off from her lungs, and she tried to thrash around in attempt to loosen Cato's grip.

Her head felt light. The lack of oxygen made her vision blurry, and yellow spots danced around in her eyes.

Helplessly, Katniss stop struggling. A blur shadow in which Katniss assumed was Peeta, got up from the ground. He aimed a punch at the side of Cato's face, and she heard a sickening crunch, as his skull cracked.