Just Tell Me You Love Me Already

Chapter 7: Prepare To Launch

Cato's POV

When I wake up, the first thing I realize is that I'm the actually the first one out of the two of us to wake, Clove is lying on her side, facing me and she's wearing the T-shirt that I had on earlier. Her face looks calm, content and happy. I smile at her; Clove is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

I don't know how long I've been looking at her when she says, "Don't stare, it's creepy."

"No, it's loving." I tell her matter-of-factly.

"Creepy," she says, opening her eyes smiling.

"Loving," I grin back at her.

"Creepy."

"Loving."

"Creepy."

"Loving."

"Creepy."

"Loving."

"Loving."

"Creepy," Clove raises her eyebrows at me and begins to laugh, and then I realize what I just said. "Oh, whatever."

Clove is still laughing.

Then there's a knock on the door, "Clove, honey, we need you to come out, you're already late."

Clove's happy face disappears, "Today the games begin."

"But we're going to stick together; nothing can stand in our way if we're together." I say, she smiles at me.

"Nothing," she says.

I'm about to say something when Lorena knocks on the door more insistently, "Clove, you can't be late for the games, you need to go and get a shower. That goes for you too, Cato!" Lorena calls through the door, "Alair wants you showered and changed in five minutes."

"Alright," Clove calls back, "I'll be out in 10." She then turns to me, her expression sad and something else that I just can't identify, it's there but I can't remember the exact word for it. "I'll see you in the games, Cat." she says, kissing me before leaving to go into the bathroom. We both know that this might be the last time either of us see each other (not likely but possible) and we also both know that only one person can win the games. Only one of us can go home, only one, not both.

-0_0-

After I shower, Alair gives me a simple T shirt and some pants. I pull my necklace over my head, I have to make sure that I don't forget it here; otherwise the only thing I have left of my family are my memories. Alair takes me to the balcony that I didn't even know we had. As soon as we are outside, a hovercraft appears from thin air. A ladder snakes down from it. I grab the ladder, I feel an electric current go through me, gluing me to the ladder; I can't even move. I am lifted safely inside the hovercraft. As soon as I get in, I expect I'll be unfrozen, but I'm not.

A man with a white lab coat on walks over to me, he's holding a syringe. "Cato, I'm going to put a tracker in you okay?" I can't move my mouth to answer him, and I'm fairly sure that he knows that, since he smirks. "The stiller you stay the more efficiently I can put your tracker in." he smirks again, he knows I can't move! Then he sticks the syringe in my arm, he's not very careful about it either, I can feel the tracker entering my body, even though it's small, it feels different.

As soon as the tracker is in me, the ladder unglues me. It takes all my will power not to kill this man right here, right now. Alair is now being picked up from the roof, so the only person I'll have before the games to comfort me is Alair, joy. An Avox boy comes in as soon as Alair is in the hovercraft, the Avox boy comes in and leads us to a room where breakfast is laid out.

I make sure to stuff myself. I don't know if the Cornucopia will have food or not, so I don't know when I'll eat next. The hovercraft ride lasts a little under a half an hour. The windows black out, indicating that we are arriving at the Arena. Alair and I climb down the ladder, this time we end up underground in what I know is called the catacombs, which are under the Arena. A strange looking man gives us instructions, straight forward four doors to the left.

The room we end up in is called the Launch Room in the Capitol, though in the Districts we prefer Stock yard. Everything in here is brand-new; I am the first and last tribute to use this room. The Arena's turn into historic sites after the games, they are popular for Capitol citizens to come and visit for vacations or something. You can re-watch that year's Hunger Games, explore the catacombs, visit the sites where the famous deaths took place, you can even take parts in the reenactments. (Perfectly safe of course, wouldn't want to injure one precious Capitol citizen, no that would be a crime.) It disgusts me. There is a small bathroom in here, but I already showered so I just clean my teeth, (if I'm going to fight to the death might as well start out with nice breath and clean teeth.)

Alair receives my clothes, he has no say in what I wear though, no, that's chosen by the Game Makers. What I'm given are simple tawny pants, a green shirt, a sturdy brown belt, and a thin hooded jacket that reaches of the base of my shirt. 

"That jacket," Alair points to my coat, "is designed to reflect body heat, you should expect some pretty cold nights."

The boots I'm given to wear are worn over tight socks. They are good leather boots, made of soft leather and have narrow flexible soles with treads, good for running. I let the gold pendant hang on my chest.

"They were hesitant about letting people have tokens this year." Alair informs me.

"Why?" I ask curiously.

"Because the girl from 1 had a ring that if you twisted them gem stone a poisoned spike popped out."

I grin that is a pretty clever idea. I sit down in a chair, until a female's voice announces that it's time to prepare for the launch. I walk confidently over to the metal plate. A glass cylinder lowers around me then it begins to rise.

I can feel the open air around me, and the warm sunlight against my face, I love it. Looking around me, I see I have come up next to a random person and the girl from 5, the one that Clove doesn't like. All twenty four of us are in a ring surrounding the Cornucopia. The assortment of goods gets better and better the closer you get to the Cornucopia. A baton lies a few feet away from my panel. I can see that everyone else's heads are jerking around and looking around at the area. My eyes find Clove; she has her eyes set on a pair of knives that are approximately twenty feet away from her plate.

I hear Claudius Templesmith's voice boom all around me. "Ladies and gentleman let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!"

Sorry if I say this too often but I wrote this last year so this story has a lot of grammar issues along with plot holes and things moving a little too fast, I apologize. -Bookfanic