Glory And Gore--Clove's Story, Hunger Games

(10) She Shall Join The Fallen

I hiked alongside Vivian and Glimmer across the rocks that are by the river. Marvel was telling jokes, and we all laughed. It was perfect.

But no.

Fire Girl. The fire was for Fire Girl.

Specifically. Then Marvel started shouting. "There she is! There she is!"

I looked around, but saw no one. There, in the river, was Fire Girl. She was struggling to get out. Then she was running like a madman on fire. In a way, she was on fire. We started chasing her absentmindedly. She ran into the woods, hoping to catch us off guard. But nothing will. We all hate her. Then, we cornered her in the forest. She started climbing a tree. "Yeah, we got her!" Glimmer yelled.

Congrats, Glimmer. You finally figured it out.

I rolled my eyes.

"I'll get her." Cato said as he grabbed a dagger. He started climbing. "I'm coming for you!" He shouted. he grabbed a weak branch and fell about twenty feet to the ground. He grunted.

"I'll do it myself." Glimmer was super annoyed, since she hates Fire Girl too. She grabbed her bow and tried shooting Katniss's head, but missed by miles. Cato snatched the bow and shot too, missing even worse than Glimmer.

"Maybe you should throw the sword," Katniss yelled from above. Marvel rolled his eyes and I glared.

"Guys, let's just wait her out," Said a voice. Everyone whipped around.

It was Loverboy.

"What?" I demanded.

"She's gotta come down at one point, it's either that or starve to death. We'll just kill her then." He said.

Cato hesitated to agree, but he finally did. "Okay. Somebody make a fire." He said. "Clove and I will go." Marvel said quickly. I nodded and walked with him. Once we were out of earshot, Marvel started ranting. "You look pretty today, Clove." He said.

I looked over at him, for any sign that he was joking.

But I found none. "What?!" I said, sounding a little more scared than intended. "Sorry if that freaked you out. I'm practicing talking to her on you." He added emphasis to 'her'. I raised one eyebrow.

"Who's her?" I asked. He blushed.

"Glimmer."

I burst out laughing. "No seriously, who?" I asked.

"Fine. I'll tell you the truth. By the way, you're gullible if you thought I was serious about Glimmer. She's too..." He trailed off searching for a word. "Lemme help you. Stupid, not funny, and way to flirtarious?" I asked. He nodded.

"She annoys me." Marvel said.

That's when I heard it.

Footsteps.

I twirled around, my dark ponytail smacking me in the face. Glimmer was standing there. "Annoying, flirtarious and stupid?" She asked.

Normally, I would feel bad about someone hearing us trash her precious name, but not here. Not today.

Not anymore.

"Yep." I said plainly. She started crying. "I've saved your butt, Clove Shear! I've saved it way too many times for you to talk bad behind my back!" She yelled. I rolled my eyes. "Puh-lease. You've never saved me. You can't shoot anything even when you try your absolute hardest!" I shot back. She cried harder. Then she stormed away, hoping for one of us to make her wait. But no such thing happened.

Marvel and I started laughing loudly.

"Perfect." He said when he found the fire that 8 was by when we killed her. He took the slightly burned firewood (we found her too quick for it to be unusable ever again) and carried it. We turned around, and I collected pine needles. "Which way do we go?" He asked.

"This way, I think." I say in reply. We turned left, passing a bush with mysterious blue berries. "Hey, maybe we can have some for breakfast." I said. Marvel nodded, and I picked some berries. I carried them and Marvel carried the wood.

It was about three hours later, that we took a wrong turn. "Where are we?" I asked. Marvel shrugged. "We took a wrong turn. It's dark out now, we have to be miles from camp. Let's just set up here." Marvel said, leaning against a raspberry bush. I got a few, and popped them into my mouth. They were perfect. It was then, I heard a familiar voice. Not Marvel's, not mine.

But Glimmer's.

"Cato, what do you think of Clove? I think she's a bitch." Glimmer said.

"Shut up, Glimmer! You don't know her! So stop trying to make me not like her!" Cato yelled. I held my breath, hoping he wouldn't hear me. "W-w-wait, you like her?" Glimmer asked.

"Well, yeah. She kills with a knife, and is super hot." Cato said. I don't know why, but I smiled. I was grinning from ear to ear, when I fell through the bush. The only thing that separated Cato and me. I tumbled out onto Glimmer, who screamed. "Oh my God! What the hell are you doing?!" Glimmer shouted. I rubbed the back of my head.

I looked over at Cato, who's face was vermilion. "You didn't hear any of that, did you?" Cato whispered. I stayed silent, knowing he won't want to know the answer. He looked at the ground.

Marvel walked through the bush. "Hey guys, I think we should set up the beds and food. And Cato can make a fire. That's when Marfel realized how big the wood was. 8's fire was really bad. Now we know why.

"This needs to be split. But all our supplies that could substitute an axe are by the Cornucopia." Cato stated.

That's when we heard another beeping. Cato stayed still, since he didn't get any sponsors yet. Vivian got it since no one else would.

"Cato, I think it's for you. It has a huge package." Vivian said. Cato jumped up and walked over by Vivian and opened the box with the dagger he was holding.

"Yeah!" He said, holding up an axe.

"What does the note say?" I asked.

He handed it to me.

SPLIT THE FIREWOOD, CATO. WOULDN'T WANNA FREEZE.

-B

It was from Brutus, Cato's mentor. He took the axe, and everyone scooted back. "Relax, I'm not going to kill anyone. I'm just splitting firewood." He said. Everyone scooted forward again.

Once Cato was done, he got matches from a backpack he got from the bloodbath. He placed the wood in a perfect position, and circled it with rocks. He got the match to light, and set fire to the wood. "Clove, set up everyone's sleeping stuff and Loverboy here will cook the dinner. He can get your stuff ready. Glimmer, organize everyone's weapons. Marvel will pick some berries, and Vivian and I will improve the fire." Cato instructed. No one hesitated, no matter how boring their job was. Glimmer collected everyone's things.

"Hand over the knives." She commanded. I laughed at her. "No way. This is a vest. But the suitcase full of knives is all yours to organize." I said, pointing to the carry-on filled with knives. She rolled her eyes and walked to them.

I stood up and grabbed everyone a sleeping bag. I set them around the fire, like spokes on a wheel. Peeta was cooking a rabbit that Glimmer managed to kill. Marvel was picking more berries. Vivian was throwing pine needles onto the fire. Once the fire was bright, she sat down next to Cato. Everyone was at the bottom of their sleeping bags, sitting in the heat of the fire. I selected a small knife from my vest. I was polishing it with my fingers, when I noticed a lizard. I haven't thrown in a while. Maybe I should practice? Yes.

I hurled it at the lizard. I hit right on the back. Then another knife.

"We should get some sleep if we want to give Katniss the slow, painful death she deserves." He said. Everyone agreed. We all got curled up in our sleeping bags, closing our eyes to dream about killing Katniss.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Agh agh agh agh! Sorry I took weeks for this! I just want a long chapter, and I got writers block after Cato got a sponsor. Sorry!