promises • cato the hunger games

Fourteen

"Give me your arm," says a Capitol woman, dressed in white, holding a menacing looking syringe.

"W-what's that?" I ask timidly, but she doesn't answer, just grabs my arm and jabs something sharp into my flesh. My eyes water a bit at the sudden stinging pain.

"Your tracker," she says in monotone.

"Baby," murmurs Glimmer, who's sitting next to me. I blink back the tears quickly. I feel bad saying it, but I hope Cato kills her, and I hope it's painful, and slow. Cato's sitting on the other side of the hovercraft, so I can't see him. I wish I could.

Sitting opposite me is the girl from Twelve, Katniss if I remember correctly. She looks so cool about it all, or maybe she's just incredibly good at hiding her emotions. Cato told me to watch out for her, he reckons she's hiding something. Why else would she get eleven?

He also said I'll basically be competing against her; she volunteered for her little sister, so she'll have the sympathy vote too. Also, in the interviews, her district partner (I can't remember his name), said he has a crush on her. Cato thinks it's fake, to get sponsors. Either way, it means we're competing against them.

Rose is sitting on the other side of me. She looks petrified. She keeps asking me if I'm okay, but we both know none of us are. She clings to my hand as the hovercraft takes off. I know I should stop her, it'll just make everything harder, but I kind of need the support myself.

The journey isn't too long, but it's spent in awkward silence. Most of us stare at the floor, avoiding the glares of the careers.

When the hovercraft lands, a peacekeeper takes each of us in a different direction. "W-wait, can I not talk to Cato for a second?" I ask, but he ignores me and keeps pushing me down a long corridor. We come to a door, which he pushes open. "In there," he says, and basically throws me in.

Saffra's standing there, smiling her fakest smile. I don't bother trying to smile back.

"Are you ready?"

"No," I say.

"Tough," she says. "Put this on," she says, handing me a jacket. I put it on. It feels quite warm, so maybe the area'll be some kind of forest?

"You don't have a token, at least I didn't find one," she says.

I shake my head. "No," I say, feeling a bit sad. Tributes are allowed one token, like a necklace or a photo, to remind them of home. I've got nothing. I didn't expect to get reaped, and there was no one to give me anything.

"Twenty seconds," says a voice.

"You'd better get in the tube, Penelope," Saffra tells me.

I nod. I guess that's it, no advice, no good luck, nothing. I walk into a glass tube, which closes instantly as I enter it. I start shaking. I'm going to be dead in the next two minutes.

I start to feel claustrophobic, the room starts to close in on me, and the ceiling seems to be right on top of my head.

It's too late to get out now though. The tube starts moving up.

"Good luck, Penelope," calls Saffra.

The tunnel I'm going up is quite dark, and then I'm hit by blinding light. I close my eyes. When I dare open them again, I'm in the arena.

I look around wildly. It seems to be some sort of forest, like I imagined. All of us tributes are standing on round the silver cornucopia. There's stuff all around it, with the more valuable things, like weapons, actually in the cornucopia, and the more useless things getting further away and away from it. For example, there's an empty bottle and a sheet of plastic near me, and a sword that Cato would want in the cornucopia.

Cato. Where is he?

I scan the podiums for him. He's basically opposite me, next to the boy from Three. I catch his eye. He smiles at me. I don't know how he can smile at a time like this.

I look over at a backpack about ten meters away, and then back at Cato, but he shakes his head. He looks over to the trees. I nod.

I don't even realize the hologram timer things been counting down. There's literally ten seconds left. I get ready to turn and run, whilst everyone else eyes up the supplies and weapons.

I know Cato said not to, but I feel like I should get something, just incase something happens, like Cato either dies or doesn't actually come and find me.

There's a buzzing noise, and everyone runs. Literally for their lives. Most people have ran towards the cornucopia, so I run to a backpack near me. I'm about to grab it, when I'm suddenly pushed over. I fall into my hands and knees.

A boy about a year younger than me has grabbed the backpack. What's he doing? That's mine.

I stand up, and kick him where it'll hurt most. He drops the backpack, and I grab it. I run as fast as I can, ignoring the screams of the people behind me.

I run into the trees, and slow down to a walk. I can't believe it was that easy. Maybe it's just because everyone else either went straight for the weapons, or ran away. I hope Cato's okay, he should be. I wonder how many people he's killed already.

I walk for about ten minutes, getting my breath back, and sit down on a fallen over tree. I open the backpack, to find to getting it was almost a wasted effort.

All I can find is an empty water bottle, and a torch. What use is an empty water bottle? And a torch? Why? I can't use it, it'll signal to everyone where I am. Why could they have not put some food in, or at least some water. I wish I'd listened to Cato when he told me to eat this morning.

I stop sorting through the bag when I hear leaves rustling, like someone walking. I freeze. I'm completely unprotected, this could be fatal.

A boy appears from behind a tree, panting like a dog. It's the boy from Twelve. I wonder if I should start running, but then I see he's unarmed too.

I stand up. We stare at each other for a few seconds, before he realizes I'm not going to kill him, and he nods and runs back past the tree he appeared from. Technically, he owes me now.

I'm judging wether it's worth trying to climb a tree, when the monstrous looking boy from Eleven appears out of nowhere, and answers my question. He's holding some sort of dagger.

I fling my bag on my back and start climbing the nearest tree. There's no point in running, he'd catch me in a heartbeat.

I climb up and up, nearly falling a few times but managing to cling on, making it almost to the top. I don't dare look down.

He throws his dagger up, and for one soul crushing moment I think it's going to hit me, but it bounces off my backpack and miraculously, saves me. I'm sure glad I bothered to get this now.

The boy picks his his weapon back up and leaves, not bothering to climb up after me. The tree probably wouldn't support his weight anyway.

I sit down on the branch, trying not to look down. I want to stay here, but I know I can't sleep here without tying myself down, or else I'll roll off. I've got no rope, so I'm stuck. I think I'll climb down later.