Chapter Ten: Peeta Hunting

Lucy, Cato, Marvel and Clove travelled through the forest, wielding their weapons and looking for an unfortunate tribute that happened to be alone. But Lucy had a feeling they were mainly searching for Katniss.  

Every one of them hated Katniss, they hated her because the citizens of Panem were paying her the most attention because she was 'the girl on fire.' Lucy thought that she must have sponsors already and parachutes raining down on her by the minute. 

Lucy kicked a rock in anger as she walked alongside Marvel who glanced at her before staring straight ahead again. He had to be alert to see if anything was out there watching them...apart from the people of Panem of course. 

Lucy held her bow in front of her, just like she had done in the cornucopia, she couldn't let her guard down. Not now, when at any point she could be killed. 

"Stop worrying," Marvel whispered and but a hand on her bow, forcing it down. "If anything comes I'll kill it." 

"You need back up," she said bringing her bow up again. 

"I think I've got enough back up," Marvel whispered in her ear then nodded towards Cato and Clove who walked ahead of them. 

"I guess so..."

But as the four of them walked something made them stop. 

The cannon. 

Lucy mouthed numbers as she counted the amount of times the cannon went off and counted on her fingers at the same time, Marvel, Clove and Cato watched her until the cannon stopped and then she turned to all of them. 

"Eight." She said. "Eight dead. Sixteen left to play and there's five of us in the Career pack, we've got eleven to kill." 

"Two of them being Katniss and Peeta, we know that for a fact," Clove said. "I tried to stab her but she got away, so did the Peeta boy." 

"The District 11 tributes got away too," Cato spat. 

"I killed the District 8 boy," Marvel said. "I also killed the District 7 girl."

"I killed the District 4 girl," Lucy spoke up sheepishly. 

"I killed the District 10 female and the District 7 male." Clove smiled proudly. 

"I killed the District 4 male and the District 6 male." Cato said simply as though he killed tributes everyday. 

"Together we killed 7 of them, I think the District 5 male was killed by the District 6 male before Cato killed him." Lucy said. 

"So there's five of us, Rookie, the girl from District 5 with the red hair, the District 6 female, the District 8 female, both District 9 tributes, the District 10 male, both District 11 tributes and both District 12 tributes." Marvel said, counting on his fingers. 

"Sounds about right..." Clove muttered as she checked herself. 

"Our main priority right now is Katniss, though. But if we find any other tributes on the way they're dead!" Cato cracked his knuckles.

"But wait!" Lucy stopped Cato, tugging on his coat before he ran off. 

"What?" He snapped, shoving her against a tree. 

"I-I-I had a suggestion!" Lucy stuttered and Cato let go of her, she fell to the ground. 

"Go on then..." Cato said and picked her up by the top and placed her on her two feet. 

"If we're after Katniss, surely we need a weapon to get to her," Lucy said and Cato held up his sword, Marvel held up his spears and Clove held up her throwing knives. "Not that sort of weapon." 

"I don't know any other weapon then..." Clove bit her lip. 

"Isn't it obvious?" Lucy raised an eyebrow and the Careers shook their heads. "Surely the only thing that would get to Katniss would be Peeta, her District partner. The one who confessed his love to her only yesterday, right?" 

"So you're saying we get him to join the alliance?" Marvel asked. 

"Yes! We have him join the alliance and then we'll get to Katniss!" 

"Told you she was worthy of the alliance," Clove laughed at Cato. "If it wasn't for her our supplies would be taken by the surviving tributes and now she has the perfect way to get to fire girl!" 

"Fine..." Cato muttered. "You lead the way, brains." 

Lucy looked at him, shocked. "Me?" 

"It's OK, we won't ditch you!" Cato grinned one of his cruel grins and shoved her in front. 

She grabbed an arrow from the sheath on her back and held it against her bow which she held out in front of her threateningly as the other Careers followed behind her, waiting patiently for her to find Peeta. 

They walked for ages until Lucy finally sat down on a log, the Careers looked at her confused and she put her face in her hands. 

"It's no use," she shook her head. "No use at all..." 

"What's no use?" Marvel asked as he sat down next to her. 

"We could search for days, we'd never find him...besides we might have even walked passed him now. He's so good at camouflage, I saw him paint his arm to match the tree...he could probably turn himself into a tree!" 

"We don't give up," Cato snapped pulling her up again and shoving her forward. "We keep moving until we find him, your idea, you have to continue." 

Marvel followed behind Lucy but was shoved out the way by Clove who walked alongside Lucy and placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered in her ear. "You can find him, I know it." 

Lucy nodded as Clove suddenly gasped and held her arms for them all to stop. She grabbed a knife out of her knife vest and threw it forward. 

"Clove?" Lucy asked. 

"Shh!" She snapped and then walked forward, Cato followed after her and Lucy and Marvel stood there motionless. 

"It's nothing, lets go," Cato said and began to walk forward. Lucy nodded and began to walk forward with Marvel until they made it to a clearing and Lucy saw a boy with blond hair and blue eyes standing there, obviously trying to figure out which way to go next. 

"THERE HE IS!" Cato yelled, Peeta's head snapped up and he saw the Careers. He gasped and began to run away when Clove threw one of her knives and it lodged itself on Peeta's coat, sticking him to a tree. 

"Not so fast, lover boy!" Clove laughed and the Careers approached him. 

"Yeah, where do you think you're going?" Marvel taunted and pushed him against the tree. 

"I, uh..." Peeta began. 

"Save it," Cato smiled as Peeta struggled against Marvel who had him pinned firmly to the tree. "We've got more important things to talk about." 

"Like what?" Peeta asked and Clove smacked him in the face. "Hey!" 

"We want you..." Cato began and pointed his sword at Peeta's neck. "To join our alliance." 

"W-What?" Peeta asked. 

"You heard what I said." 

Peeta looked at all the Careers eyes and was about to say something when he jerked away from Marvel and began to run away, he shoved past them then ran away, slamming into Lucy in the process causing her to fall over. 

"HEY!" Marvel yelled and chased him, and as Marvel was 6 ft 3 he was able to take bigger strides and grab hold of him again. He shoved him towards Cato who slammed a boot on his chest so he was lying on the floor as Marvel bent down and helped Lucy up. "You OK?" 

"I'm OK," she said

 "I've got the right mind to kill you!" Marvel spat and hauled Peeta up by the coat and held out his spear threateningly. 

"Marvel, it's OK. He only knocked into me, no big deal," Lucy said.

"That's not the point," Marvel breathed in Peeta's face, causing him to flinch. 

"Remember what Lucy said," Clove snapped at Marvel and he remembered Lucy's theory about using Peeta as a weapon. 

"So what do you say about joining the alliance?" Cato asked and rounded on Peeta. 

"What happens if I don't?" Peeta asked, trying to be braver than he actually was. 

"We kill you," Clove said simply, flipping her pony tail behind her shoulder. 

"Come on, Peeta, you can't be any worse than me." Lucy spoke up. Peeta glanced at her bow and arrows and Lucy could of sworn he thought of Katniss. 

"Shut up," Cato glared at Lucy. "You know you want to, 12, you'll have unlimited supplies and all the weapons you need." 

"I..." Peeta began and stared at the Careers. "Alright, I'll do it." 

"Good choice," Cato said as Marvel handed him a spear. 

"Where should we go next?" Lucy asked. "Should we head back to the cornucopia?" 

"It's getting dark, we should." Marvel said and Cato took the lead this time, Peeta followed just behind him, Clove went behind Peeta and Lucy went behind Clove, Marvel taking up the rear. 

The treck back to the cornucopia was a bit gloomy but Lucy felt she could do with some sleep so it was all worth it. She felt that she had missed some sleep this morning when Marcel work her up, she needed to keep her energy up. 

Clove pushed a branch back for her as they walked and she held onto it as Marvel walked past and so she took up the rear. It made her a little nervous but she wasn't far behind so Marvel would kill whatever attacked her. 

When they arrived in the cornucopia, Lucy ran straight over to the cornucopia, opened her backpack and rolled out her sleeping bag. The sky was already dark so it was acceptable for her to sleep. 

"You! Get us some food!" Cato yelled at the District 3 boy who had been sitting there watching the Careers come back, he quickly nodded before hopping over the landmines and grabbing food for all the Careers and Peeta. 

"Oh! Look!" Lucy said suddenly pointing to the sky as she sat on top of her sleeping bag. There was the Capitol seal. 

"Lets check if we're right about who's dead," Marvel said and sat down next to her. "I think we're right but we've got to make sure." 

The national anthem of Panem began to play as the dead tributes faces appeared up in the sky. Sure enough, they were right about everyone who was dead. Lucy sighed and hugged her knees to her chest. 

"Who's keeping watch?" Cato asked as he rolled out his own sleeping bag. 

"I'll do it," the District 3 boy said as he walked back over to them holding a crate full of food. 

"You sure?" Lucy asked and the boy nodded. 

"Are we going hunting tomorrow?" Peeta asked as the District 3 boy opened the crate and began handing the Careers food. 

"I guess so," Marvel yawned and opened up his backpack and began rummaging around...he didn't have a sleeping bag. "Is there any other sleeping bags on the pile?" 

"No," the District 3 boy said. 

"You can have mine, Marvel," Lucy said and hopped off her sleeping bag as she ate a slice of bread that Clove had cut off for her from a loaf of bread. 

"No, I'd rather you sleep in comfort rather than me." He said. 

"Are you sure?" 

"You claimed it, it's yours," he smiled as Lucy brushed her hands together, ridding them of the bread crumbs, then she got into her sleeping bag and Marvel laid next to her. 

"If you get cold, just wake me up and we can switch," Lucy said. 

"I'm OK, don't you worry about me." 

Once everyone had settled down and the crate was empty, the District 3 boy sat down on the crate and kept watch, but Lucy didn't close her eyes, she just stared at the grass beside her and thought about all the dead tributes that had now been cleared out of the cornucopia by the hovercraft. 

She had killed one of those innocent tributes. They were all innocent children who had to fight to the death to get the victors title. She wouldn't be surprised if everyone around her died soon and she'd be the only one left in the arena...if she wasn't killed. 

Sooner rather than later sleep overcame her and she was thrust into one of her nightmares...she was in the arena, running, Clove was next to her obviously trying to help her. They made it to a clearing where Cato was fighting Marvel and was winning...

"Marvel!" Lucy screamed and tried to shove Cato away but with one swing on his arm, Lucy was on the ground. She groaned and the next thing she saw was Cato slashing his knife at Marvel's face, inflicting as much damage as he could on him. 

When Cato was done he faced Clove. "Come on, we have no time for these two." 

Clove tried to protest that they were good people but Cato wouldn't have it, he dragged her out of the clearing as Lucy saw Marvel's mangled body. She gasped then crawled towards him. 

"I told you I'd get you as close to winning as I could..." he whispered just as the cannon went off and he was no more.

Lucy woke with a start.

She panted heavily and turned to her right and saw Marvel lying next to her, asleep with no wounds whatsoever. He looked perfectly well. Lucy stared at Cato who held onto his sword even in sleep, probably still on guard. 

Lucy wriggled out of her sleeping bag, got up and smoothed down her wild hair. She approached the District 3 boy who looked up at her curiously before she spoke. 

"I'm going for a walk," she grumbled. 

"Be careful of the landmines!" He warned. 

"Don't worry, I will..." 

She picked up her bow and sheath of arrows before beginning to walk the perimeter of the cornucopia, studying it and almost guarding it at the same time. 

She sat down by a tree after a while and really wished that there was water on the pile of the careers supplies, there was everything but...

"Hey," someone said, Lucy's head snapped up alarmed but it was only Peeta. 

"Oh, hey," she smiled and stood up. "I'm sorry, did I wake you?" 

"No, you didn't. It was just me. I woke myself up." Peeta smiled. 

"Do you need anything from our supply pile?" 

"No thanks, I woke up and saw you were missing. I wondered if I missed the cannon." 

"Trust me, it won't be long." 

"Oh...yeah, I saw your interview." He suddenly bit his lip. "I'm sorry about shoving you over earlier." 

"Don't worry about it," Lucy smiled. 

"That Marvel's really protective of you, I didn't realise how protective he is of you until recently." 

Lucy nodded then glanced around Peeta's shoulder and saw the Careers fast asleep. Then she turned back to Peeta. 

"I think they'll want to go hunting tomorrow, we should go to sleep." 

"We should," Peeta agreed and the two walked back over to where the Careers were. 

Lucy laid down and got into her sleeping bag. She glanced at Marvel who was sound asleep. 

"You'll last longer than me," she whispered to him and he twitched. 

She closed her eyes just as Marvel muttered in his sleep: 

"No I won't."