I pulled myself off of the ground after a few minutes, coughing hard. I stumbled forward, vomiting up the meager bit of food that I had been forced to eat. My knees buckled, but I stopped myself before I fell front-first into the lake.
I shakily made my way back over to Cato.
"Are you alright?" I asked, able to crouch beside him where he was lying on his back. My pack was floating downstream, as it had fallen into the water once we had escaped the fire.
Great. There goes all my food. I was thankful that I had the vest and all my knives on, rather than keep them in my pack.
"Come on, let's go check on Ian and the supplies. I said, and we began slowly making our way downstream.
After a little while, I hear loud splashing coming from just over the rocks. Once I had reached the top of the rocks, I saw her. Fire Girl, looking as beat up as we were from the flames, desperately trying to get out of the river.
"Come on!" Shouted Glimmer. Then she, Marvel, Peeta, Lysin, Cato and I, began running down to the water, as quickly as our shaky legs could carry us.
"Better run Fire Girl!" Marvel taunted as we got closer, we began splashing through the water ourselves, making it to the bank once she hit the tree line.
She leaps up into a tree. By the time we reach it, she's twenty feet up. I know I said that I'm a good climber, I am, it's just, I don't want to kill her, and I really don't trust those branches.
"How's everything with you?" She says with a smile. I'm taken aback. Is SHE taunting US?
"Well enough." I hear Cato say beside me, as he begins to step forward towards the tree. "Yourself?"
"It's a bit warm for my taste, the air's better up here. Why don't you come on up?" She asks. I want to turn away again, but I can't I have to stop acting weak, or I won't get any sponsors.
"Think I will." Says Cato.
What are you doing? You can't climb up there! You'll fall! I go to hold his arm and hold him back, but I pull my hand away. She has to die in order for one of us to win.
"Here, take this, Cato," Says Glimmer, about to hand her bow over to him. He pushes her hand away.
"No, I'll do better with my sword." He begins to climb up, and I move again to stop it, again hanging back after a moment. If he wanted to do this, then I couldn't stop him.
As soon as he starts scaling the tree, Fire Girl shoots up another 30 feet. My breath catches as the branch beneath Cato snaps and he falls to the ground with a THUD.
I run over to his side, breathing a sigh of relief as he began to get up, and I helped him regain his balance on his feet.
He's swearing now, and I reach up, touching his cheek lightly, and he calms down.
"Glimmer, shoot her." Says Marvel, and Glimmer places the bow on her back, beginning to climb up the trees. I hear the branches snapping beneath her and eventually she stops. She pulled the bow off of her back and knocked the arrow, aiming it at Fire Girl.
She shot a total of six arrows. Only one getting within a few feet of her. The others missed by a long shot.
I can see the shadows on the ground shifting lower and lower, and finally Peeta speaks up. I had forgotten that he was there.
"Oh, let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning."
We all agree, and we camp around the tree for the night. The anthem plays, but there are again no deaths. I take the first watch, but Cato soon takes over for me, and I rest my head against his arm, and I fall asleep.
-------------------------------------
I wake up to complete chaos. Buzzing all around me, are no doubt Tracker Jackers.
I leaped up, instantly feeling a terrible pain in my neck, leg, arm, I was being stung terribly. I heard a scream, realizing it was mine. I leaped off of the ground, trying to swat the wasps away, as I was stung, over and over again. "Run! Go Clove! Come on!" I hear Cato yell over the terribly loud noise of the furious buzzing from the tracker jackers. Marvel was out soon, but Lysa appeared much later, covered in rising welts. Glimmer didn't come out. I could see her writing on the ground through the sea of wasps.
She screamed for help, and surprisingly, I actually tried.
"Clove! What are you doing?! Come on! Leave her!" I feel another Two stings connect just under my chin. I give out an involuntary whine, turning and disappearing into the trees. I can see Lysa stumbling forward behind me, and see as she lurches forward, ad collapses on the ground, twitching.
I continue to run, but then the hallucinations began. I had taken the extra class during training. Where we were given a small dose of tracker jacker venom to build up an immunity to it I had been able to survive the most amount of the venom in the entire training course, but the hallucinations never got better.
The ground turned to rotting skeletons beneath my feet, the blood sloshing up over my boots with each step.
Where's Cato?! Where did he go?! I was alone. I couldn't see anything but death around me. I fell against trees made from piles of old, grey bones, and I finally fell to the ground, trembling as each terrible vision crossed my mind. I didn't know what was real. I kept seeing Cato being killed in so many different ways.
I heard myself screaming faintly, and I saw streams of blood dripping down my face where my tears were meant to be.
After a few hours, I stood, hoping that the visions were over, I still don't know. I saw huge beasts on my every side, pressing me forward, their fangs flashing, but they didn't attack.
I pushed myself off of the trunks of the trees, trying to keep myself moving forward. I had to find Cato. I just had to.
I finally found him, lying on his back on the ground, unmoving.
I stumbled over, falling to my knees at my side. I rested my head on his chest. I sighed when I heard his heart beating as strongly as ever.
I looked up into the sky. How long had I been lying on the ground. It must have only been a few hours. Maybe 10 12, but I saw the anthem flash in the sky, revealing Lysin, and Glimmers pictures. They must have been killed from the stings. I pulled the stingers out of my stings, Finding that I had a total of SEVENTEEN. I was a lot more tolerant to venom than I thought apparently.
I then moved to Cato, finding only six, and gently pulling out the stingers. I heard him groan unconsciously, either from me pulling out the stingers or the terrible nightmares he was seeing. He had never done the venom resisting training. At least I had known what to expect.
Were his nightmares like mine? Was he seeing my death as I had seen his? I laced my fingers through his, hoping to comfort him. From the light of the moon I could see a diamond encrusted ring held by a string around his neck. It must be his token.
I rested my head against his chest again, closing my eyes, and falling asleep again. At least the nightmares weren't as bad anymore.
