Glimmer's Story

Chapter 21

 "There she is!" shouted Marvel. As he pointed his finger, Cato started charging towards her.

    "She's mine!" yelled Clove.

    "No, she's MINE!" screamed Cato. We all started laughing and running after her. I was surprised by how fast Katniss was, but Cato was already a good five feet in front of us all. He was determined. Peeta was in the back, not really running very hard. I felt a little bad, but this girl was competition to us. She had to go sooner or later! But I kind of knew how he felt. It would be like if Marvel was getting chased by everyone in the- wait no. No, I haven't forgiven him. He almost killed Lavena. Then why am I still thinking about him?

   It was harder to run because the smoke messed up my throat, and it killed to breathe. Eventually, we caught up to her, but she was already twenty feet up a tree. We all looked at each other wondering who was going to climb after her. All of us probably weighed more than her because we were well fed, which was a huge disadvantage in this case. Lavena and Peeta would weigh the least, but there was no way Peeta would kill her and no way Lavena could kill her.

   "How's everything with you?" she called down cheerfully. Of course, she was trying to play it up for the Capitol. It's not like they didn't already love her!

   "Well enough," grunted Cato. "Yourself?"

   "It's been a bit warm for my taste," she said. I almost laughed, but I kept it in. No, we were supposed to kill her, not laugh at her jokes. "The air's better up here. Why don't you come on up?"

   "Think I will," said Cato.

   "Here, take this, Cato," I offered, handing out my bow. It would be a lot easier to carry a bow, than a heavy sword.

   "No, I'll do better with my sword," he said, and pushed the bow back to me. Cato hoisted himself up the tree and started climbing. He wasn't as swift and graceful as Katniss, but at least he could climb. Although, it didn't take long for a branch to snap and send Cato flailing back down. He landed with a thud on the ground and started swearing.

   It didn't surprise me that Cato fell. I mean, he weighed more than all of us. Actually, I could have a chance at this! I wasn't not too bad at climbing. I pulled myself up the tree and felt proud as I climbed higher and higher. Soon, I could hear the branch under me snapping, and I immediately stopped climbing.

   I balanced myself and pulled out an arrow from the sheath on my back. I sent the arrow flying towards her, but it completely missed her. Really!? I shot another arrow, but Katniss grabbed it out of the bark and started waving it above me. Even District 12 could make fun of me...

   I gave up and climbed back down. Everyone was fighting on who would kill her and how they would.

   "Let me try," said Clove.

   "No, she's my kill," growled Cato.

   "I could probably hit her," said Marvel.

   "Oh, let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning," Peeta snapped. Technically, he was right, but this would just slow us down. But it was a good idea...

   "Fine," growled Cato. "But if she somehow escapes, I'm blaming you, lover boy."

   "I'll go find some wood to build a fire," I announced as an excuse to get away from the fighting. If we couldn't even take down District 12, how could we get anyone else? I mean she did get a good training score and all, but I was becoming less and less confident about winning. Or Lavena winning. What was I saying? I couldn't get Lavena out of this arena! I couldn't even get myself out of this arena!