Just Tell Me You Love Me Already

Chapter 16: Goodbye Supplies

Cato's POV

A bit later, I'm sitting on a chair under the shade of the Cornucopia, next to Marvel. Something out of the corner of my eye moves. There's a column of smoke rising over the tree tops, "Look!" I call out, pointing to the woods.

Marvel looks, and bursts into a grin, and I see Clove also look over at the smoke, she is looking at it, puzzled. She gets up off the blanket and grabs her jacket and vest, pulling them on while she walks our way.

Marvel grabs two spears from where he put them on the ground. "Let's go," he says.

I check my waist; my sword is still there in its sheath. "Ready," I say.

"Ditto," says Clove.

3 comes over holding a spear, "I'm ready too," he says.

"Wait a minute, you aren't coming with us." Marvel says yanking the spear from his grasp.

"Yeah, I am." 3 says.

"No, you're not." Marvel tells him.

"Yes, I am."

"No you aren't someone needs to stay here and guard the supplies!"

"He's coming," I say, I'm hoping to get 3 killed off in this trip. "We need him in the woods, and his job's done here anyway. No one can touch those supplies."

"What about Lover Boy?" Marvel asks.

"I keep telling you," wait did I only tell them once? Oops whatever. "Forget about him. I know where I cut him. It's a miracle he hasn't bled to death yet. At any rate, he's in no shape to raid us. Come on," I take the spear from Marvel and toss it to 3. The four of us head off into the woods. As we get into the tree line I say, "When we find her," they know I mean Katniss, the girl who outscored me and dropped a nest of Tracker Jackers on me and my girlfriend. "I kill her in my own way, and no one interferes."

"You're being overly dramatic," Clove tells me.

"She dropped a nest of Tracker Jackers on us," I remind Clove.

"Yeah, and we treed her."

"Whose side are you on?" I ask Clove incredulously.

Clove shrugs, "My side."

15 minutes later

"This doesn't feel right," Clove says. We're looking for the fire, but navigating through the trees is difficult.

"What, walking in the woods?" Marvel asks her.

"No, everyone left has got to be smart enough to be alive right now, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." I say.

"So no one left would be idiotic enough to light a fire," Clove says, I nod, it's true. "Also, who would need a fire in the middle of a like 900 degrees day." Also true.

"To cook, maybe?" Marvel suggests.

"You could probably just out food out on a rock and be able to cook it." Clove points out.

"Maybe, but these people might not have thought about that." Marvel replies absentmindedly.

What Clove is saying makes sense, though.

"Maybe we should have left Sasha to guard..." Clove says.

I don't like that she's on first-name terms with him.

"No, I should be allowed to go out hunting with you guys occasionally." 3 says.

"Maybe we should go -" Clove starts.

"Um, Clove?" 3 interrupts. "Can I... talk to you?"

Clove gives him an odd look but says, "Sure, I guess." Then she turns to Marvel and I, "You two go ahead, we'll catch up in a minute." I narrow my eyes at 3, he better not try anything.

Marvel and I walk ahead, Marvel is seriously trying to track down this fire, but it is in the denser part of the woods, so it's harder to find. I look briefly back, and in that second I see Clove and 3 kissing.

I turn my head away; it hurts too much to see. I knew there was something going on between them! I feel jealousy boil up inside me, he was kissing my girlfriend, the girl I love, kissing her. I'm torn between the want to cry, rip off 3's head, or yell, though I do none of those things, I just keep on walking like nothing is wrong.

At this moment Clove appears at my side, she has a look on her face that I can't quite place. "Hey," she says like nothing is wrong.

I don't reply.

"Cato?" Clove waves her hand in front of my face as we walk, "You okay?"

"Yeah," I manage to sound normal, to my surprise. "Fine, I just want to find her, and kill her."

-0_0-

When we finally find where the fire is, no one is seen in the area. It's just a bunch of green wood smoking like crazy.

"This was a set up," Clove says looking at the fire.

"But why -" I begin.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The four of us exchange glances before running off, back the way we came.

I am the first one back to the camp, the supply pile is gone. Nothing left, but burned black debris. Clove, Marvel and 3 appear at my side.

I feel a large amount of rage bubbling in the pit of my stomach, not just because of all the blown up supplies, but at Clove and 3 too. I hardly notice that I'm pulling my hair out from frustration, and beating the ground with my fists. 3 throws rocks around the ruined strip of land and declares that it's safe and that all the mines are activated. Clove and Marvel tentatively begin to walk up to the wrecked area that used to be a large pile of good supplies. I come up behind them, kicking the smoking remains of the supplies. Clove and Marvel are poking around to see if there's anything left to salvage, there isn't. 3 did his job too well, much too well. I turn around.

"YOU IDIOT! YOU WORTHLESS STUPID GOOD FOR NOTHING..." I'm yelling insults at him; I'm not even sure what is coming from my mouth.

3 turns around to run, his time here, in the Alliance is spent. Before he can make it as much as two feet I grab him in a headlock from behind, and twist. The crack of 3's neck is loud; I hear Clove gasp as his body falls to the ground. It's a quick and almost painless death, more than he deserves.

Clove is at my side as soon as 3's body drops to the ground and the cannon goes off.

"The woods," I say, my rage is blinding my thoughts. "We have to hunt down whoever did this."

"Cat," Clove says quietly. "They're dead."

"How do you know?" I ask her angrily.

Clove points to the sky, "I don't, but we will by tonight, if anyone's face appears in the sky, besides Sasha's and 10's then we know that whoever set off the mines were dead. If we don't see another face, then we go out and hunt."

The sound of her voice relaxes me, despite everything.

The three of us retreat to the lake and let the hovercraft take away 3's body. We sit by the lake and wait for Panem's seal to appear in the sky. The anthem plays, and two faces appear, 3's and 10's, no one else's, the bomber is still alive. I can feel myself begin to lose my temper, before I can, something is tossed at me, and I catch it. Clove just tossed me one of the pairs of night vision glasses, she holds the other pair. Marvel lights a tree branch for a torch, turns out he has a small pack on too, not as bulgy and noticeable as Clove's, but it's still there. I grip my sword in my right hand, and the spear that 3 had in my left. Marvel holds his spears, and Clove grasps a knife in each hand, we're ready to hunt.