Alliances

                                    

                                          
I run over to join the others just as they have the boy from 12 cornered, ignoring to deep wound I had received and hoping I don't bleed out.
                          
"Well, look who was left behind." Marvel says with an eager sound in his voice.
                          
"Where's Fire Girl, Loverboy?" Glimmer adds, smiling sinisterly.
                          
"Who cares, we'll take care of her later. Him, on the other hand..." Clove chimed in, opening her jacket to reveal a wide array of knives.
                          
"No, let's keep him alive. He could be useful in finding Fire Girl." Cato says smugly. "What do you think Marin?"
                          
I shift my eyes from Zale's corpse to the boy who looked scared out of his mind. Can't blame him for being scared after what these four just did. "Yeah, Cato has a point. In order to find her, we'll need him."I turn to see Cato smirking at me while the boy from 12 gives me a look of relief.
                          
"Fine, what's your name Loverboy?" Clove asks, obviously depressed about keeping him alive.
                          
"P-P-Peeta." He answers.
                          
While Marvel and Clove make sure Peeta doesn't run away, I walk into the mouth of the Cornucopia and look for a potential weapon and something to help with the cut. Great, Clove and Glimmer took the only interesting weapons, guess I'll just stick with this sword, I think as I look down at the serrated sword I stole from the girl from 6 and just grab an extra shirt from an opened bag and create a makeshift tourniquet. Once I make sure it's tight enough and start walking around again, I trip over a larger bag and scoop it up and put it on as I back up into someone and immediately freeze. 
                          
"Relax, it's just me." Cato says with his signature smirk.
                          
"Sorry, I'm just on edge after seeing..." I trail off as I move a little farther away from him. 
                          
"Did you have feelings for him?" Cato asks.
                          
"Of course not." I say laughing. "He was my only reminder from home, so of course it hurts to know that he's gone." I conclude sadly.
                          
"He chose to fight a threatening tribute and paid the price for it." Cato says bitterly.
                          
"There you are Cato! Clove wanted to start hunting the other tributes and asked me to come get you guys." Glimmer says eagerly, wrapping her arm around Cato's. 
                          
"Okay,let's go." Cato remarks as he walks past her and joins Clove and Marvel.
                          
"That bag makes you look fat." Glimmer commented, leaving me alone.
                          
We'll see who's laughing when one of us gets hurt. I jog over to Clove who is impatiently tapping her foot.
                          
"11 dead, not bad." Cato says as we begin to walk through the bodies and scan for other nearby tributes. 
                          
"Marin is already in last place, even Zale made a kill before he died." Marvel says and he and Clove chuckle.
                          
"I tried to kill the girl from 11, but she was too far and I accidentally hit Zale." I lie as I take one last look at my former partner. "Besides, I weakened two others. One of which was killed by Glimmer, so I'd call that a shared kill."
                          
Just then we hear the cannons firing, each signaling a dead tribute. 11 shots are fired, and I look over at Peeta and give him a reassuring look, to which he ignores and looks in the opposite direction.
                          
"Why are you carrying that thing around, we're just going to come back later tonight anyway?" Clove asks, nudging my arm playfully.
                          
"There might be a lake or river that has fish or edible plants, so for storage. Or considering the fact that it was inside the Cornucopia, it has to have some very useful stuff inside like a first aid kit or some medicine." I smirk at her as she smirks back.
                          
"That's actually pretty smart, we can't risk someone stealing that while we're out hunting for tributes." Clove muses. "Aren't there more inside, though?"
                          
"I don't think so, I tripped over this one while I was looking for a weapon." I answer, causing all of them to laugh after hearing me say that it tripped me. "Very funny assholes." I say annoyed and walk past Marvel.
                          
"You have to admit that it was funny." Glimmer says, making no effort to hide a venomous smile. "You'd be laughing too if it was any of us instead."
                          
True, I'd be rolling on the floor dying from laughter, if it was you in particular. "I'm pretty sure that all of the remaining tributes are far away by now." I remark as we walk past a large grain field.
                          
"Do you think anyone is in there?" Clove asks, looking up at Cato.
                          
"Definitely, but it's too dangerous to attempt to look for someone inside at this point." Cato answers, examining his sword.
                          
"What...why?" Marvel asks, "There's 5 of us, well 6 if we count loverboy here; but now we could easily take down whoever's in there."
                          
"You're forgetting that the grain is very tall, and it would be hard for us to see each other let alone another tribute." I respond, rolling my eyes. "It would also be easy to take us down one by one in there."
                          
"Wow, I can't believe you actually spent time in the boring camouflage and edible plant stations. Looks like someone's a nerd." Glimmer announces rather loudly as she skips past us and away from the grain field."
                          
"For what it's worth, I'm glad we can count on you if the Gamemakers decide to mess with us." Clove says reassuringly, as she follows Glimmer.
                          
Peeta and I trail behind the others, admiring the forest.
                          
"It's so beautiful, I wish I could've visited a real forest." I smile, taking in the lush trees and the various shades of green.
                          
"Isn't there one in your District?" Peeta asks.
                          
"Yeah, but we're prohibited from entering it." I smile, knowing that the Capitol would've shifted attention to other tributes once we began talking about our Districts. "Besides, we border District 7 so technically we're close to a few forests."
                          
"Bummer, 12 has a blocked off one too." Peeta says as Cato shoots him an angry look and motions for him to pick up speed.
                          
Cato stops and waits for me to be next to him and looks at me with a puzzled expression. "Are you okay?"
                          
"I'm fine, why do you ask?" I answer him, raising an eyebrow.
                          
"It's just confusing, hearing you compliment the arena." He says, walking at the same pace as me.
                          
"Well, I'm just happy that our prison is at least pretty." I say in an exaggerated girly voice. "Because, it's like toooh-tally tubular being in this arena." I say as we both break out laughing.
                          
"What does that even mean?" He says, still laughing.
                          
"I don't really know, I just remember reading it in an extremely old book." I answer honestly. "Since then, it's sorta become a joke between Finnick and me."
                          
Our group continues to roam the forest until the sun begins to set and the Panem Anthem sounds while the faces of the dead tributes flash before us. Female, District 3... I rub my axe wound on my leg, now knowing what she felt when I hurt her. I immediately look down once her face vanishes and a familiar face appears, knowing that his family will be rooting for my death. Cato places his hand on my shoulder and gestures for me to look up once Zale's face vanishes. Male, District 5... I see Glimmer happily claiming the kill and look back up in disgust. Both from 6... I couldn't blame the boy for trying to avenger his teammate who I brutally beat, and Glimmer killed. Both from 7... Male, District 8...Both from 9...Female, District 10. I look over at my cheering teammates who are all talking about their victims and seeing who has the highest body count so far.
                          
We all start walking back to the Cornucopia when we see and smell smoke coming out of the tree line and change route, sprinting towards it. After the silhouette comes into view, Cato eagerly draws his sword, ready to meet the unfortunate tribute that started the fire.