Decided (Foxface/Marvel Sequel) THGFic

Chapter 12

Man up, I keep telling myself, you've done this before.

But so have the rest of them. 8 down, it doesn't surprise me that the number is less than those killed in the Bloodbath last year.

As I walk, I begin to realise I'm standing in the middle of a desert. No hills, no rocks, and only the food and water in my pack to keep me going. I'm such an east target, anyone with a ranged weapon could try and take me out, and I doubt that they'd miss given that there are no obstacles. I sigh as I continue following the line of the Sun, I doubt it's the real Sun, but it seems to be going in the straight line. I reach up to pet the bush baby and he crawls down my arm, into the palm of my hand. I scratch his tummy, smiling.

"I should name you," I say, and his ears perk up, "I'll call you... Marvel" I add after giving it some thought. I swear I see a smile, but can bush babies show emotion? I'm probably dehydrating from the Sun. I pull the canister of water from my bag and take small sips.

After about another half an hour of walking, a tall rock face emerges and I sigh. At least it's a vantage point.

"Climb," I speak softly to the bush baby and as I start to scale the jagged cliff, he follows behind me. I refuse to let myself look down, knowing that if I slip I will fall to my death. It seems pretty easy to climb, there are places to hook my hands and feet into and by the time I know it, I'm at the top. I grab mini Marvel and we sit looking out across the desert. I grab some of the meat and begin to chew on it before I feel a cold blade rap around my throat. My eyes widen as the pressure grows.

"Stand up slowly, turn around and take off the belt," I do as the voice says and as I turn, I see the voice belongs to Gloss, the male District 1 tribute.

"Don't try anything funny," his sister Cashmere adds, adjusting the aim of her bow on me. I unclasp the weapon belt and lay it down on the floor. Gloss picks it up and Cashmere is about to shoot me before he turns around to her.

"Don't waste your arrow. She's an easy kill, someone else will get her before the day is up. I promise."

"But I want the kill!" Cashmere whines.

"The next one, a more worthy one," Gloss states, sending me a stone hard glare. They begin to walk away when I see movement on Gloss' ankle followed by a yelp of pain as he flails to the ground. Did my bush baby just do what I think he did? And why hadn't he bitten me?

I thought all muttations were supposed to be hostile, minus the jabberjays. Cashmere bends down beneath him and Marvel starts to scale her back, biting her neck, then her ear. I stare as blood pours from their wounds and they lay on the ground screaming and trying to stench the flow. It only takes about a minute for their cannons to fire one after the other and I grab my weapon belt back from Gloss' grasp. I secure it around my waist again before clearing them of their supplies. Gloss carried a machete and 2 daggers. Cashmere carried her bow, a quiver of 13 arrows and a small over the shoulder bag containing matches, wire, rope and some more food. I pull out some fruit to feed Marvel with and place it on the ground in front of him. He doesn't seem like he wants to bite me, but I don't pick him up just in case.

I finally register what lies beyond the cliff we are standing on. A meadow lined with rows of beautifully coloured flowering bushes and blossoming trees.

I scoff. I'd watched all the previous games and they thought this could trick us? I think back to the 50th Games. 48 tributes, a stunningly beautiful arena and everything apart from the Cornucopia food and rain water was poisonous. As I walk through the meadow, I keep close to the edges by the trees so nobody can spot me and as it starts to get dark, I approach a forest much like the one from last year.

Are they just taking arenas and sticking them all together? Have the Capitol finally run out of money? I laugh at the thought and begin to scale a tree, Marvel rushing ahead of me up to the highest branches. I stop a little further down the tree than him, where I feel safe and the branches are sturdy.

"Good boy," I say to him, "Stay up there."

I tie myself to the trunk of the tree with Cashmere's rope and eat a bit more before having a drink. By the time it's pitch black, I'm almost falling asleep but the blast of Panem's National Anthem startles me awake again. I watch through the leaves as the faces of The Fallen show.

There should be 10- 8 from the Bloodbath and Cashmere and Gloss.

I'm correct as one by one, the faces of Gloss, Cashmere, Mags, Bristle, the Morphlings from 6, Woof, Chaff, Haymitch and a woman from District 12 filling in as a 'mock Victor' due to the fact that their only female Victor had won one of the first ever Games and had since died. So that leaves Enobaria, Brutus, Beetee, Wiress, Finnick Odair, myself, Johanna Mason, Blight, Cecelia, the 9s, the 10s and Seeder.

This shouldn't be too hard. My only worries are Enobaria, Brutus, Finnick and Johanna. The rest are all pretty old so hopefully the Careers will take care of them and each other if I just stay hidden and try to adopt last years plan. Yes. That'll do, I'll go back to being sneaky.