If Crane Never Made The Call

The Feast

I wake up before sunrise and slowly pack up camp, still super groggy. The throbbing in my head pounds so loud I can't hear my own thoughts. I stand up and my vision blurs. The world clears after a moment, leaving little black spots dancing across my eyes for a few seconds.

I grab my pack, axe, and knife as I leave the cold grey rocks behind. I make my way to the cornucopia as the stars begin to fade into the darkness of the force field. I reach the cornucopia earlier then I thought I would, and earlier then I wanted to. No one is in sight, probably all hiding in the trees.

I wait for someone to go but no one does. Suddenly Katniss jumps out from behind a bush and freezes. I see Foxface sprint out wildly from inside the cornucopia, grab a bag labeled 'Finch', Im sticking with Foxface though, and run away.

My stomach churns due to the sickness and fear. Katniss takes her opportunity and breaks towards the horn in an instant. She doesn't see Clove coming till her knife is 2 metres from her face. I watch as Clove tackles her and the two wrestle for control over the other. In the end Clove ends up pinning Katniss on the grass and tormenting her with a knife in front of her face.

"That little girl," Clove is saying. "what was her name, Rue?" Katniss struggles beneath the weight of a district 2 citizen. "Ya well we killed her, and now we're going to kill you." She raises the knife to end Miss. Everdeen but Thresh, Rue's district partner, sneeks up behind her and grabs her arm. Clove is lifted off Katniss by the impossible strength of muscle man and is held in the air with her feet dangling high.

"You kill her?" Thresh asks.

"No!!" Clove replys scared.

"You did didn't you?"

"Cato! Cato! Ca-" Her cries are cut short by Thresh hitting her against the metal side of the horn. Her skull makes a deathly crack and then shes gone and her cannon sounds. Thresh spins back to Katniss, a look of hatred on his face, but not for her.

"Just this time twelve, for Rue." He says putting his usual expression back on. He grabs his bag and runs off into the yellow of the field. Katniss gets over shock quickly and grabs her bag, running in the opposite direction.

"Clove! Clove!" I hear Cato call from the forest. He appears in the clearing moments later to see what went down while he was in the trees. He stumbles over to Cloves limp body and sits down. Tears stream down his face as he brushes stray hairs out of her eyes. "I'm sorry. Its together or not at all, I'll be with you soon, please wait." I have no idea what hes talking about, but it sounds like they made some promise to win together, like thats possible.

I watch him lean down and kiss her. Once on the forehead, once on the lips. I can't help feeling sad, I know this is the Hunger Games and people are going to die, but no one deserves to loose someone they care about. It doesn't matter which district you come from, love is love, death is death, loss is loss. He takes both his and her bags, and leaves her to be taken up in the hovercraft.

I shake the sadness from my head and run out to grab my bag, trying not to vomit. No ones around so I open it right there. It contains a small tube of pills and a few apples. I walk away from Cloves death place and leave to get more food.

As I walk I swallow a pill and wait for it to take action. It works fast and my stomach settles. Theres a little instruction manual printed on the side of the plastic tube. All it says is One per day. I follow those instructions and only take one.

I come to a berry bush not far from the giant hunk of metal and collect some sweet berries. Once I've filled my stomach and first aid box with fruit I set out to find something to do that wont kill me. I was never much of a tree climber so I try to teach myself. I start on thick branched trees and work my way to higher, harder ones, falling a lot along the way.

By the end of the day I can reach the top of a tree 50% slower than Katniss, but not bad for being me. I put my skills to the test and set up a sleeping area in a crook in the tree. I feel satisfied by the time the anthem starts to play. Tonight I watch the sky and listen. I listen very closely and hear the faint sounds of crying and someone saying 'together or not at all'.

It's Cato and thats obvious. He sniffles when Cloves face appears in the sky and even though he could potentially kill me, I still like the fact that Mr. Career isn't afraid to show his emotions to all of Panem because he really cared for her. They were the star crossed lovers from district two, and no one knew it until now.