Chapter Twelve: Attacks

Lucy's nightmares were filled with terrible things that night; the District 9 tributes trying to kill her, Marvel laughing at her death, her returning to District 1 and everybody turning on her because they wanted Marvel to win instead, Marvel dying, her dying...the more time she spent in the arena the worse it got. She hated Glimmer so much, Glimmer had told her that she'd even volunteer for her but she never did...

Lucy grinded her teeth just as a searing pain hit her hand, making her eyes snap open. Her ears were filled with an angry buzzing and it took her half a second ot realise that there was a swarm of tracker jackers trying to attack all the Careers. 

Lucy jumped up at lightning speed, grabbing her bag, her sheath of arrows and bow then running as fast as she could. Marvel was just ahead of her, she had no idea if Cato and Clove were following but she didn't care. She had to get to the lake before she was killed by the tracker jackers. 

As soon as she made it to the lake she dropped everything she had and jumped into the lake after Marvel. Cato and Clove joined them and they sighed as they knew they were finally safe from the swarm of tracker jackers. 

"Who did that?" Cato demanded as they stood on a piece of flat ground, the water came up to Lucy and Clove's shoulders but Cato and Marvel were safe because of their height. 

"I-I think it was Katniss..." Lucy said and climbed out of the water and stood up but then her vision became blurry and she glanced down at her arm. 

"Lucy?" Marvel asked as Lucy suddenly fell to the ground. "Oh no! You didn't get stung did you?" 

"Y-Yes!" She squealed as the trees seemed to be trying to attack her. Then she looked down at her hands and saw blood, her own blood running down her arms. "Help me!" She screamed and Marvel tore out of the water and approached her. 

But then he too began seeing things, the water seemed to be swalloing Cato and Clove up, his hands were disfigured and...what was his mother doing in the arena? 

"Mum?" Marvel asked and began walking back towards where the tracker jackers were, his mother was calling his name. 

"MARVEL, NO!" Lucy screamed and got up although she could just about see where she was going and she pulled him back, the two hit the ground and for some reason Lucy thought that Marvel was stabbing her with his spear. 

"You idiots! You didn't get away quick enough!" Cato yelled at the two as Lucy stood up and lagged. Cato turned into a mutation and tried to attack her, she stared at him as he approached her and grabbed hold of her neck. "YOU IDIOTS!" 

His words looked like colour being drawn from his mouth...Lucy suddenly understood the term 'colourful words' because right now Cato was using a few. 

Then Peeta came into view, Cato let go of Lucy and approached Peeta. Through Lucy's messed up vision she saw Cato yelling at Peeta, what he said Lucy couldn't hear because her hearing had turned funny too but what she did see was Cato attacking Peeta with his sword. 

Peeta ran off and Cato tried to chase after him but then remembered the way he had gone was where the tracker jacker nest had fallen. So he stayed put. 

Clove walked towards Lucy, helped her out of her jacket then helped her lay down, as she was still very unstable. 

"Don't worry, the hallucinations will be over soon," Lucy just about heard Clove say before the hallucinations got too much and she passed out. 

*      *      * 

When Lucy woke up she found herself in Marvel's arms. She was back in the cornucopia and it took her a few moments to realise what had happened. She had been stung by a tracker jacker...but how long had she been out?

"She's alive, Cato," Marvel laughed. "I told you!" 

"What?" Lucy asked. 

"Cato thought you'd died because of the tracker jacker sting, I knew he was wrong." 

"We knew he was wrong," Clove spat. "We heard the cannon and Cato was convinced it was you, but Marvel and I refused to leave you. We knew you weren't dead."

"Then who died?" Lucy asked. 

"The boy from District 10...probably of natural causes," Cato mumbled, probably annoyed that he'd missed out on a kill.

"I thought you had hallucinations too?" Lucy asked Marvel. 

"Of course I did, I just recovered quicker." He said. "And off course I couldn't leave you there out cold so that's why I carried you back before you ask." 

"I bandaged you up though," Clove smiled. 

And sure enough, Clove had. Lucy looked at the bandage on her left hand and admired it. Underneath though was a plum sized lump that had been caused from where the tracker jacker had stung her. 

"Where's my stuff?" She asked. 

"All here," Clove replied, pointing to her bag and her bow and arrows, as well as her rain mac. "We weren't going to let fire girl have your weapons, don't worry."

"I think she really wants my bow and arrows," Lucy bit her lip. "She was looking at them in the cornucopia and Peeta was looking at them when he was — wait, where is Peeta?" 

"Kicked him out of the alliance," Cato growled, admiring the blood on his sword. "He was worthless..." 

"I'm sorry, it was my idea..." 

"Don't worry about it," Clove said. "He'll be dead soon anyway, Cato cut him pretty bad." 

"So that part I wasn't hallucinating." 

"I thought I saw that too," Marvel said. "But I was pretty confused so I couldn't seperate right from wrong." 

"How long have I been out?" Lucy wondered. 

"Two days straight, but I guess the sleep did you the world of good," Marvel whispered sitting her up. 

"It didn't do us a lot of good though," Cato snapped. "You kept us here when we could have been hunting! If you'd have got away from there quicker we could have killed all the other tributes in this arena by now!" 

"Cato!" Clove snapped. "Stop being selfish!"

"No, he's right. I should of got away from there quicker. It was my own fault...I shouldn't have got up that night and killed the two District 9 tributes, it would have given me more energy if I stayed and kept watch." 

"You killed them?" Cato asked as Lucy stood up and faced him. 

"I did, both of them — " Lucy grabbed her backpack and opened it up, she pulled out the knife that the District 9 girl had had and showed it to Cato. "The evidence." 

"Huh..." 

"Now we're even on kills, am I worthy of the alliance now?" 

"I suppose." 

"Good. Because I might not have a good training score but I proved you wrong, you vain Mr. I-think-I-know-everything," Lucy spat and Cato growled. 

After that they all sat down and ate some lunch, the District 3 boy was happy to get them all supplies from the pile and they enjoyed a good lunch. Lucy made sure to fill her backpack with some food, she was running low and if they ever camped out again they would need some food to keep them going. 

"Hey! Hey! Look!" Marvel jumped up suddenly and pointed over to the trees. "A fire!" And sure enough, just like with the District 8 girl, there was a fire. "I bet there's a tribute there!" 

"Well what are we waiting for?" Lucy asked, grabbing her backpack and bow and arrows. "Lets go kill the tribute!"

"I bet you it's Rookie!" Cato laughed. "Or the girl from District 11!"

"Rookie's not that stupid..." Marvel muttered.

"Landmine boy! Keep watch!" Cato barked and the District 3 boy nodded, sitting back down on his trusty crate and held Peeta's old spear.

Cato and Clove took the lead towards the fire and Marvel chased after them but Lucy hesitated. She turned around and looked at the trees opposite her and there sitting and waiting patiently was an eager Rookie. 

"Funny to see you here..." Lucy whispered and Rookie looked up at her through the trees, there eyes locked and Lucy gave her a thumbs up before running off and catching up with the Careers. 

They ran through the forest as quickly as they could, desperate to get to the fire that was bound to have a tribute with it. 

Lucy scampered quickly over the tree roots and caught up with Marvel, he led her in front so she was just behind Clove and when she made it to the front of the Career pack, they found themselves in a part of the forest they had not ventured to before. 

"There's the fire...where's the tribute?" Lucy asked just as Cato shoved her out the way and looked at the fire. 

"We've been tricked!" He hissed. 

"I bet that girl from District 11 and fire girl teamed up," Clove said. "Just the thing they would do!" 

"I bet her ally set up the fire," Marvel said. "I bet my spears she did." 

"Then why on earth would they want to lure us away from the cornucopia?" Lucy asked. "They can't get our supplies...not unless they've figured out the pattern." 

"Which I doubt's happened!" Clove sneered. "In fact I doubt that they've even allied up! Who'd want to ally up with fire girl? Come on, I bet there's a tribute around here! I'd say it's Rookie!" 

Lucy was about to protest that Rookie wasn't here but she thought that would get her in trouble with Cato for not killing her so she kept her mouth shut as she followed Clove eagerly. 

"I strung up a net earlier, I hope that will trap fire girl on the girl from 11..." Clove laughed and Lucy smiled. 

They walked further and further into the forest, Lucy ready to shoot something or someone if they attacked her. But she didn't need to. 

Suddenly, just as they were about to enter a new part of the forest the ground shook and a massive explosion could be heard. All the Careers looked at each other before Lucy gasped. 

"OUR SUPPLIES!" 

"No! It can't be!" Cato yelled and began running as fast as he could back towards the cornucopia. Clove ran behind Cato and Lucy followed, Marvel just behind. 

"QUICKLY!" Clove screamed, in hopes that there still would be some supplies there. 

"They've still got to be there!" Marvel yelled from behind them all. "They've got to be!" 

As soon as they made it into the cornucopia they were shocked to find that there pile of supplies had gone...instead there was just bits of their supplies that had been blown up, the suitcases were broken, the crates shattered and the bits of food that were left were far to burnt to eat. The District 3 boy was looking at the pile shocked. 

"YOU!" Cato screamed and strided towards him, the District 3 boy tried to protest.

"I didn't do it! I didn't! I tried to protect the supplies! I did I really did!" 

Cato walked towards him then grabbed hold of his neck and with one motion snapped it while Marvel and Clove tried to find any of use supplies that could still help them but they were all gone.

Lucy clamped a hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming, Rookie’s District partner was dead on the floor and she didn’t even know about it. She was somewhere in the forest...perhaps she’d allied up with Thresh? Or was she still solo?

"Worthless..." Cato muttered and began helping Clove and Marvel look for supplies.

Lucy steadily regained consciousness and began helping the group look for supplies but there were none. She sniffed as she saw the dead District 3 boy and cried a silent plead of help for Rookie to know what had happened.

But somehow she knew that Rookie wouldn’t know.

The only thing she would be aware of was the cannon that had signaled a death.

"Cato!" Lucy stuttered and approached him and as she walked she took an arrow and fired it at Cato.  Cato growled then grabbed the arrow mid-air. "How dare you! It wasn't his fault!" 

"Yes it was! It was all his fault!" Cato yelled and Lucy hissed at him, she took out her knife and was about to stab Cato when he grabbed hold of her wrist, preventing her from doing so. "One move, District 1, and I swear I will kill you the same way as Landmine boy!" 

"Go on then!" Lucy screamed, yanked her wrist back then slapped Cato across the face. He punched her back in retaliation and she kicked him in the leg causing him to shove her back quickly. 

"There's not room for two leaders in this alliance, sweetheart." Cato whispered darkly then pulled her up by the hair. "But remember, I'm the more superior one here and if you argue otherwise, spearboy can watch you die...and then, I'll kill him off too!" 

"You wouldn't..." 

"I'll tear you both into tiny little pieces!" 

"Cato!" Clove snapped, shoving him out the way. "Stop it! They're our friends!" 

"No they're not, Clove! They're our enemies! They're going to try and kill us off before much longer! You must be stupid if you can't see that!" 

"Stop talking rubbish! You're just annoyed because of the supplies! It was the District 3 boy's fault, not their's! So calm down and we'll go find fire girl." 

"Fine..." Cato mumbled and sat down on the grass then looked around. "Where's spear boy?" 

"Yeah, where is spear boy?" Clove asked. 

Lucy looked around. "Marvel?" 

"Oh, lost are we without precious little Marvel?" Cato taunted. "You're nothing without him, you're even worse than a District 12 tribute without him!" 

Lucy didn't reply as she looked around frantically for her best friend. She looked at the trees and saw a quiet Rookie, who looked pretty shaken after the Careers supplies had blown up, point to a little path where the Career's had gone down plenty of times. 

Lucy was about to run towards towards the path when Clove stopped her. "We're not losing you too."

"But what about Marvel! Like Cato said, I'm nothing without him."

"Please...stay." 

Lucy sighed then sat down, hugging her knees to her chest. She couldn't live with herself if Marvel died now, she wasn't ready to let go...

But would she ever be ready to let go?