My Hunger Games

Chapter Twelve

"So now what?" Luke asks Ashton as he returns.

"What do you mean?" Ashton asks, sitting down on a rock in the snow. 

"What's the new plan? You've basically declared war on the careers, so when so we take the others out?" Rhett continues. Ashton shrugs.

"Whenever we want?" he suggests. "I took out Savannah because she deserved to be taken out. That's it. Everyone else could freeze to death for all I care, but something tells me that won't happen. She wasn't cold when I found her. She was actually kind of warm," Ashton confesses.

"Do you think they have heat in their tent?" Kendahl asks.

"It's possible," Ashton doesn't shy away from answering. Karalyn comes back from the tent, planting herself between Luke and Rhett, as far away from Ashton as possible. "What's the matter, Angel Eyes? Have I done something wrong?" Karalyn remains silent, ignoring Ashton, and refusing to make eye contact. "If we want to go after the careers, let's go after the careers. Any objections? No? Good. Let's get ready to go." Karalyn storms off back into the tent as Ashton, Rhett, and Kendahl prepare the weapons for battle outside, and take care of the fire. Luke follows after Karalyn.

"What's wrong now?" Luke asks.

"I want Ashton out," she says, straight faced. "I don't want to be aligned with him any more. He's too much to deal with." What she neglected to tell Luke was that he was indeed too much, but too much of a distraction. "He's playing a game with us, and I will not stand for it another second."

"Seriously? Luke asks her. She looks up at him, completely serious. "Okay... well, we kind of need him if we want to go against the careers."

"Luke..."

"Okay, well how about we keep him until Carlos and Jake are out of the way, or at least one of them, and then we ditch?" Karalyn pouts, crossing her arms over her chest. "What's wrong with him? He's been on our side this entire time, you know. Maybe he's not that bad." 

"Fine, then you stick around him. I don't want anything to do with him," she huffs, standing to leave.

"Hey, wait a second," Luke tells her, grabbing her by the wrist, and standing. "I get the feeling this is more than not trusting Ashton..." Luke subtly questions. Even without asking, he is.

"Don't Luke..." she warns, pulling her hand away. She leaves the tent, grabbing her knife. "If he turns his back on any of us, don't say I didn't warn you," she whispers, pointing the knife at Luke before pulling it away. 

"Are you ready to go, Princess?" Ashton asks, as straight faced as she is. 

"I told you to stop calling me that," she warns him.

"Well, excuse me, but I'm going to keep calling you it, because I can," he smirks. She starts for him, but Rhett pulls her back.

"Whoa!" he exclaims. "You two need to chill, like, now!" 

"Let me go," she hisses at her brother.

"Not a chance," Rhett argues. Luke comes over to see what the problem is. 

"What the hell is going on here?" Luke asks.

"Your girlfriend is way out of line," Ashton says, pointing at Karalyn.

"We're not boyfriend and girlfriend," Luke clarified.

"Yeah? Well that kiss you two shared this morning says otherwise. You spend the nights huddled close together, whispering, sneaking around. While I was out hunting down the careers you two were probably coupling it up all night," Ashton says, anger in his eyes. "While we're fighting for our lives, you two have all the time in the world to think about fantasies where the games don't exist, and where everyone can live, and be happy. Well not everyone can, okay? That's not what the Hunger Games are! We have to kill those careers, and then we have to kill each other. How fun is that? You two treat this like a joke," he spits. "And I don't want a part of it." Ashton shoves Luke back, stepping out of line.