Many Waters Cannot Quench Annie
(Disclaimer: I have no business connection with HUNGER GAMES. My only purpose in writing this story is to have fun and maybe share it)
"This can't be happening," thought Annie Cresta.
She had a vivid memory of how the boy from District 7 got an axe from the Cornucopia and swung it at Ian's neck. The head came cleanly off and bounced on the ground a few times.
No, that couldn't have happened. It must have been a nightmare. If so, she was still in it. If she could only wake up, she'd find herself safe at home.
She was in a dark cave. Maybe, she thought in a muddled way, if she went back out into the sun, the bright light might startled her awake.
She climbed the gentle slope and went out through the mouth. She was in the hilly 70th Arena, with low slopes surrounded on all sides by a mountain range. She had no idea where in Panem this valley was.
"Ah, so what do we have here?" said a female voice.
Annie spun around to find herself facing a heavyset girl with a sword. "Annie Cresta, District 4."
"I'll just call you Red. Now be docile, and I'll make this quick." She raised her sword.
BOOMBOOMBOOM.
It was a deafening racket, but the two girls reacted differently. The swordgirl whirled and waved her sword as if she thought a mutt was attacking her and had to be killed. Annie just ran without trying to figure out what had happened.
She got back into the cave and picked up the heaviest rock she could lift. If the other girl followed her in, the latter's eyes might not adjust to the darkness immediately and Annie would have a chance to bash her on the head. Though the thought of violence sickened her.
The girl didn't come in. Instead, Annie felt an unexpected sensation at her feet. Looking down at her feet, she saw liters and liters of water pouring into the cave.
Annie had lived near water all of her life. This was like high tide – no, too thick. Like a strong river current. Except that there were supposed be no rivers near the cave.
BANG! went the death cannon.
Annie went out again. The landscape was covered with water – only a few centimeters deep at the moment, but it wasn't supposed to be there at all. A Gamemaster's trick?
She found the swordgirl about a dozen meters away. She was lying in the water, her face beneath the surface, the local water tinged bloody red. So: she had apparently tried to climb the hill without letting go the sword, lost her grip, and fell to bang her head. Either the head injury killed her or she drowned.
Climbing did seem a good idea, though, with the water continuing to rise. Her portion of District 4 was flatland, but Finnick had urged her to learn climbing as a useful skill. Finnick had been behaving oddly the past few years, but that particular advice had seemed wise. Reluctantly she left the sword behind so that she could use both hands for grasping.
About 15 meters up, there was a flat area where she could lie down and catch her breath. From this height she could also see what was happening. There was a dam set in the mountains, and it was shattered, allowing the bottled-up water to cascade into the valley.
She doubted that this was a Gamesmaster trick. More likely they had screwed up: damming a river to create a valley that could be used for the arena, but somewhere along the line somebody had done shoddy work. Heads would probably roll in the Capitol.
How high could the water get? That would depend on exactly what body of water had been dammed up, of which she knew nothing. But the dam was at a higher level than she was at the moment; conceivably the water could reach her current position.
She continued climbing until she received the summit of the hill, about 20 more meters up. Having had little food the last couple of days, she lay down to take a rest. She doubted that she would have to worry about being attacked by other tributes even in this exposed position. If there were any still around they would probably be preoccupied with the flooding, just as she was.
She was awakened by the touch of water soaking her socks and her trousers bottom, and set up hastily. Her hill was disappearing under the water.
Think, Annie, think.
Don't visualize it as a crazy flood created by Gamemaster stupidity. Think of it as a shipwreck on the ocean. As a District 4 girl, she had been trained how to handle that.
The human body was buoyant. As long as she spread out to cover a good surface area, she could float. Or she could swim somewhere if there was a good destination.
She saw another, taller hill in the distance, with some greenery. Maybe something edible. She couldn't estimate how far away it was. Maybe she could swim there. There was only catch. Her tribute uniform was not designed for this situation. It was soaked with water, and that would weigh her down
She would have to strip naked.
There was nobody around to see, of course. But what if the mysterious arena cameras were still functioning? Given the dramatic situation, all of Panem would probably be watching now. They would see her breasts, her ass, her –
Screw that. It was better to be embarrassed than dead.
There was one advantage over a shipwreck. Ocean water was undrinkable. She even remembered an obscure line of poetry: "Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink". But this water was likely fresh. She cupped her hands and brought it to her lips. Fresh, and drinkable. It might be contaminated by junk it picked up in the valley, or the original source might be polluted, but she would have to risk that. She brought several handfuls to her lips to slake her thirst, then wriggled out of the rest of her clothes and let them float away. There was no way to take them with her. But this time the water was up to her waist. She simply bent her nude body until she was horizontal, then started swimming.
It seemed to go forever. She had no way to measure time, any more than she did distance. At some times she had to stop and simply float until she regained some strength. At one time she felt a burst of strength and realized what it was: adrenaline. But with little food to act on, the adrenaline effect would give out soon and she would be exhausted with no more reserves of strength.
Then finally, a stroke of positive luck. About fifty meters away, she saw some wood floating on the surface of the water. Not a wrecked ship, of course, but a log from the valley floor that was light enough to float. She changed direction to swam to it, and finally climbed enough to straddle the log.
As long as she could stay in contact with the log, she could relax now for a while. She could drink more water. Later, by shifting position a little, she was able to relieve herself. She could even go to sleep if she was sure of her balance.
She wasn't sure whether it was dreaming or hallucinating, but she started seeing images. Finnick, mainly. He would hug and kiss her, and promised to marry her when they were both old enough. Nobody could tell a Victor what to do.
Then his face changed – a haunted look, and he kept pushing her away. She begged to know what she had done wrong, and he couldn't tell her.
Then she was reaped, and got Finnick and Mags for her mentors. Finnick was purely professional, and perhaps that was for the best. Training for the Hunger Games was not the proper time to rekindle a love affair.
Then she went into the arena, and saw Ian beheaded, and the swordgirl attack, and the flood, and ended up floating naked on a log, and then the dream started again—
0-0-0-0-0
Then she woke up in bed, lying face up, in a room of comfortable temperature and lighting. She shifted position and cried out as she felt pain all over her back and rear.
"Careful," said Finnick's voice. "You're sunburned on the entire back side of your body. They're treating it now."
She opened her eyes and saw her former lover looking at her with concern. Not love or hatred; concern. "What happened?"
Finnick sighed. "The damned Gamemasters kept treating the whole thing as if it was a normal Hunger Games, come hell or high water. And, boy, did they have high water. Simply waited until your tracker was the only one still detecting a heartbeat, and fished you out. You probably don't remember that; you were out of your head by that point. But you're the Victor of the 70th Hunger Games."
"I don't understand. Why didn't the others survive?"
"You haven't seen the other Districts, as I did on my Victory Tour. 4 is the only one where we work with the sea. Hardly anybody else in the Districts learns how to swim. Swimming pools are a Capitol luxury. But the important thing is that you made it, my love."
"You love me?"
"Yes! I can't explain what came between us right now. Later, when you're out of shock."
A Capitol nurse came in with the sunburn treatment, and to change her feeding tube that was getting her metabolism back in order. Finnick bowed out, apparently embarrassed over the notion of seeing her badly burned ass. The nurse then gave her something to help her sleep.
When Annie awoke again, it was Mags sitting at the side of the bed. "Where's Finnick?"
"He's coming," said Mags. "But he asked me to explain some things to you first. It would be too traumatic for him." She went to the radio and turned it on at high volume.
"Hey!"
Mags bent her face close to Annie's. "Your room is bugged. I need to drown out what I'm going to tell you. Understand?"
Annie nodded.
"I don't know any nice way to say this," said Mags. "They turned Finnick into a sex slave."
"What?!"
"Victors are sexy. All the decadents of the Capitol want to sleep with one, and Snow obliges them by forcing the Victors to go along."
Annie took a minute to absorb that. "And he thinks I'd stop loving him if I knew that? It's all right. I know he really loves me."
"That's only part of it. Women who have been raped often have trouble resuming a normal sex life afterward. Trying to have sex reawakens the bad memories. Finnick is going through the same thing. Making love with a woman has been dirtied for him."
Annie swore, then calmed herself. "At least I know what he's going through now. I love him and he loves me, and that's the key thing."
"Good. But there's another thing. You're a potentially sexy Victor now."
She swore again. "Did all of Panem see me naked after I had to discard my clothes?"
"Actually no. The Gamesmasters pixelled it out in the broadcasts. But some people may have bought bootleg tapes of the original footage."
Annie groaned.
"Don't despair," said Mags. "Finnick has an idea. They were times in the Arena where you seemed to phase out. They thought you were cracking under the stress."
"They were probably right."
"Play it up. When somebody gets too close, do a "mad girl" act, and you may frighten them off."
"This is a lot to absorb all at once."
"There will be time. Right now, concentrate on one thing." She walked to the door and gave a patterned knock. Finnick Odair must have been waiting, because he came in immediately.
"Finnick, I love you," said Annie.
"I love you, Annie."
THE END