What the hell?! I think as I turn and run toward my only chance of salvation. I bet the Capital is having the time of their lives right now. I mean, how often do you get to see nine mutant oversized wolves chasing tree teenagers? Wow. Now there's something you don't see every day, I think sourly as I run as fast as I ever have.
I look ahead at Katniss making sure she's okay – or better said: making sure she's alive. She's already reached the cornucopia, but instead of immediately climbing up, she wastes precious time to look back at me.
"Go, Katniss! Go!" I scream at the top of my lungs, signaling with my hand for her to climb.
She begins climbing, but I can see she's having some difficulty. I abuse my much hampered leg even further, gasping at the sharp pain in my muscles when I raise my speed. I risk a look back at the monsters.
"Crap!" I mutter. They're too close! I'm only a few feet away from the cornucopia now, so I take advantage of my speed leverage and throw myself against its hard walls, hoping to jump high enough as to get away from the mutts. But they're faster than me. I feel a razor sharp pain as one of the mutt's claws slashes through the skin and muscle of my calf. I cry out in pain despite my best efforts not to.
"Climb!" Katniss yells, her eyes bulging.
She shoots an arrow in my direction and, even though I know it's not meant for me, I duck my head instinctively. I hear the arrow whoosh through the air and then a strangled yelp from the mutt below me. With all my effort I make it to Katniss's feet. She reaches out for me, grabbing my arm and pulls me along.
I can see Cato now. He's doubled over a few feet behind Katniss, gasping for air.
"Can they climb it?" he manages to gasp between coughs.
"What?" Katniss shouts at him, as she wasn't paying attention to him.
"He said, 'Can they climb it?'" I tell her.
Katniss looks down at the mutts. But then a strange look comes to her face – not scared, but shocked…horrified. I follow her gaze, but all I see is the mutts trying to reach us. I look back at Katniss who seems to have frozen in place.
"Katniss?"
A shriek escapes her lips, and I can see the arrow shaking in her trembling hands. She fires the arrow and I hear another strangled yelp.
"Katniss?" I say again, louder, as I get a grip of her arm.
Her lips tremble and her face turns pale.
"It's her!" she manages to choke out.
"Who?" I ask, mystified.
Her head snaps from side to side, her eyes urgently searching for something I can't imagine.
With a grunt of both exertion and pain I pull myself up. "What is it, Katniss?" I ask her shaking her shoulder.
"It's them," she whispers horrified. "It's all of them. The others. Rue and Foxface and…." She swallows loudly, "all the other tributes."
I look down at them again, and feel stupid for not having realized this sooner. "What did they do to them?" I gasp. "You don't think…those could be their real eyes?" I say, disgusted at the thought of the Tributes eyeless bodies.
The mutts begin throwing themselves at the horn, and before I can pull myself out of their reach one grabs a hold of my injured leg with sharp teeth and pulls down. I cry out.
Katniss grabs a tighter hold of me, refusing to let go.
"Kill it, Peeta! Kill it!" she shouts.
I grab my knife tighter and slash the mutt's muzzle. It works. The mutt lets go of me, and Katniss pulls me up again. We drag ourselves toward the top of the horn.
For a second too long I forget who waits at the top of the horn, and that's why I don't see Cato coming toward me. With a rough unexpected jerk, he pulls me away from Katniss, and toward him. Before I can pull away or defend myself, he wraps his arm around my neck, imprisoning me in an unbreakable headlock.
Katniss turns around, the bow ready in her hand. She looks back and forth between us, an unconfident look in her face.
My air supply is cut short with a flex of his muscles, and I claw uselessly at his arm, trying to break free. I can feel warm blood flowing freely from the gash in my leg. I try to stop it with one hand while trying to pull Cato's arm away from me with the other. My lungs begin to panic with the absence of air, and so do I.
"Shoot me and he goes down with me," Cato says. His voice sounds far away.
I look at Katniss who seems torn with an internal dilemma. She knows he's right. If she shoots him, he'll pull me along. I want to tell her to do it – if sacrificing myself means she can survive, then so be it – but all that comes out of my mouth is a breathless gasp.
Black spots begin to cloud my vision, but before I can become unconscious, an idea occurs to me.
It takes all my remaining strength, but I manage to raise my finger and draw an X on the back of Cato's hand.
She realizes what I mean and so does Cato, but he's too late. The arrow hits Cato's hand and he lets go of me. I slam by body against him, pushing him toward the edge. Of course, by doing so, I lose balance, too. But before I can fall over, Katniss grabs hold of my arm, pulling me toward her and away from the mutts. Cato's not so fortunate though. I watch as he plummets down to the ground, clawing uselessly at the air, searching for something to grab hold of. A sharp gasp escapes his lips as he hits the ground. I watch horrified as the mutts charge toward him.
We grab hold of each other, waiting for the cannon to go off, signaling his death. But nothing happens. All I can hear is the vicious snarls of the mutts.
No! How stupid of me to think it would be over so easy. Of course it's not over. This is the grand finale. They expect something more exciting than the mutts doing us a favor.
They want to see blood, yes, but they want us to draw it.
Of course, it's not over.
