74th H G- The Career Pack THE ARENA P. 1

~FIRST DAY IN THE ARENA~ *All characters and quotes belong to Suzanne Collins*
CATO:
I rise out of my cylinder into a fresh breeze and the smell of pine trees. I grin wickedly. Here is where I will shine. Here is where people will remember me. Clove is about 3 yards away and is gazing at a knife a few feet away. I catch her eye and she nods to a fine sword with a wicked curved blade not a foot away from her. In a series of nods and gestures we make a plan. The gong and Claudius's voice releases me from the disk and I grab three knifes already, stabbing blindly as I go. I meet up with Clove and we trade weapons as the rest of the Career pack joins me. Since the Careers stereotypical is camp around the cornucopia with the supplies, we have to fight the rest of the tributes who try in vain to stay. That's no problem. Clove and I run, side by side, into the thick with my pack following. Clove and I, we are the perfect team. A tribute comes running behind me and she whips around and thrusts a knife into his back. I knock a girl to down to her belly and Clove stabs her as I watch her back. We circle around each other like this, killing and protecting. She launches a blade at the district 9 boy, but in doing so allowing Katniss to bolt with a back-pack. Clove grumbles and sends a knife hurling towards Katniss's neck, but the she-demon lifts her back-pack up to her neck and blocks it. Clove curses under her breathe.
"Don't worry we'll get her. I won't rest until I do."
She grins at me in a way that makes me want to drop everything and kiss her, but the charging boy from district 5 averts my attention from her. Then it's over. The cannons mark off the dead and my pack goes around plucking the supplies they tried to steal from their corpses. I count my pack, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Looks like the district 4 boy is dead. Oh well, the first day is the time to pick out the weaklings and the last person I want on my pack is a weakling. Glimmer picks up a bow and quiver and puts it in her back-pack.
"You know how to use that?" I growl.
She shrugs and adds some short knifes to her belt. Marvel is collecting an array of arrowheads and spear shafts and Clove is lining the inside of her coat with a varitiy of knifes. The district 4 girl is loading up on spears and the occasional trident. Then we stuff extra food and medicine into packs, wasting no time to start the hunt. The sooner these tributes are killed, the better.
Night has fallen and since we found only two night-vision glasses, we stop to make a temporary camp and look at the death toll. 11 dead, 13 to go. It irrates me that we haven't found any tributes yet, I'm eager to show my sword skills to the sponsors. Finally we decide to sleep and Marvel takes first watch.
The next morning, Clove tells me to get up and points to a plume of smoke from a dieing fire. It's early morning, maybe 3 or 4, and whoever started it is bound to be asleep. As soon as we're all up with don our back-packs and follow the trail. Suddenly district 4 girl throws her arms in front of me and tells me to stop. I see it too as soon I look down, there's a mound of dirt and in it a perfect shoe-print. We split up, me taking the trail of the mysterious footprint, and make the campfire the meeting point.
"Don't kill her without me." Clove, Glimmer, and I take off. Not far from the footprint, we find a small pool with a clump of bushes next to it, and feet sticking out of the bushes. I grin. Too easy. Clove and I meet eyes, knowing the plan. I grab his feet and drag him out, and Clove has a knife over his neck. Good morning.
"Stop!" He sputters. "Please, I want to join your group!"
"Why do we want you on our team?" But I gesture for Clove to ease up on the knife.
"I know Hayden from district 4 has been killed already. You need someone to fill in the gap."
I snort at his lame idea and draw my sword.
"I'm good with a knife too!"
I smile and point the sword over his heart, but Clove pushes my hand aside.
"Really Peeta? Let's see how good you are."
Peeta scrambles up and gives us a show of throwing knifes and killing a practice dummy bush. It's a lame profromance, but if Clove has a reseason for lettign him on the pack, I don't judge it. Glimmer tells him to get up and starts tending to his wounds. Since we're wasting time, I usher them to hurry up and sprint back to the campfire, hopeing they didn't kill her without me. I find Marvel and district 4 girl standing in a rim of trees outside of the campfire, watching the girl.
"Still asleep?" I pull my sword out again.
Marvel nods and Clove and I stalk in, with the others (expect Peeta who looks confused), tightneing in the circle. Clove wakes her up by pointing a knife in her face and when she spins around to escape Clove, she meets my sword instead. I pull my blade out of her stomache.
"12 down, 12 to go!" My pack hoots, but I'm already thinking of the next kill. If this tiny girl made it this far, the other tributes will be deep in the woods. It's time to get moving again.
"Better clear out so they can get the body before it starts stinking." I say
We run not 10 feet off, next to a grove of willows, when Glimmer asks, "Shouldn't we have heard a cannon by now?"
"I'd say yes. Nothing to prevent them from getting in their immediately." District 4 girl says matter-of-factly.
"Unless she isn't dead." Marvel says.
"She's dead. I struck her myself." I growl.
"Then we'res the cannon?" Glimmer says.
"Someone should go back. Make sure the jobs done." Clove pips in.
"Yeah, we don't want to have to track her down twice." Marvel agrees.
"I said she's dead!" I bark.
They start to squawble, and I'm ready to chop all of their heads off just to shut them up when Peeta buts in.
"We're wasting time! I'll go finish her off and let's get a move on!"
"Go one then, Lover Boy." I say sarcastically. "See for yourself."
"Why don't we just kill him now and get it over with?" I whisper to Clove.
"Let him tag along. What's the harm? And he's handy with that knife." Glimmer answers instead.
'Besides, he's our best chance of finding her." Clove says, polishing a knife against her shirt.
So that's why she saved Peeta.
"Why? You think she bought into that sappy romance stuff?" Marvel whispers.
"She might have. Seemed pretty simpleminded to me. Everytime I think about her spinning around in that dress, I want to puke." I say, taking a swig of water.
"Wish we knew how she got that eleven." Glimmer sighs.
"Bet you Lover Boy knows." I snort. We hear footsteps and hush.
"Was she dead?" I ask.
"No, but she is now." Peeta says as a cannon fires. "Ready to move on?"