Twenty...nineteen...eighteen...
What is going through my mind at this point? I'd like to say I'm remembering my family. Mother, Father and my siblings, Mark, Sarah and little Anne. But no- I am blinkered to the cornucopia. It's where the victors always go and it's where the first person to perish goes. So what am I? No victor that's for sure. So why every muscle in my body is twitching to drive me forwards, I know that would be my doom.
seventeen...sixteen...fifteen...
"Turn around Finn," I mutter to myself, furious at my last-minuet indecision. The whole week before this I have planned to run away and survive by fishing (if possible) and using my wit (what many of my district would argue impossible). But I am oblivious to this plan at the time when it's about to start and I'm going to get myself killed. Well, maybe someone will do it for me.
fourteen...thirteen...twelve...
Across three podiums I see my district's female tribute, Sara. I have a sudden urge to run to her as soon as the countdown's finished, but she warned me to keep away. She's not sure what she'll do. The Hunger Games can do that to a person.
Eleven...ten...nine...
A flashback to by district. Before the water pollution and the famines and the hunger. To a time when I was ten and known by all the village and the village through the woods where we sold out catch. It wasn't an easy life, but it was relatively pleasant, considering what I've discovered over the past few days about the other districts. Everyone was so friendly and open. It was a perfect, hardworking community in which I excelled. I was the joker, the darer and the kid you could laugh at. It was nothing like bulling though, and I loved the attention. Almost every day I'd get into my 'partner in crime', Michael.
eight...seven...six...
Then the famine started. The Capitol had dumped so much waste into the water that most of the fish had migrated or died. It was awful for us as the problem had been masked from te Capitol residents who still demanded more seafood than ever. We sell our fish to the richer residents of Four for other food and eat some of our catch, but that is not un-allowed unless you have given the capitol their fifty fish per family daily.
five...four...three...
It was a big ask. Many fishers couldn't support their families and in two years the whole place looked skeletal. It was illegal to eat any of your catch by that time and we were given our ration of food weekly. The family shared it out but my older siblings and I had to give some of our food to Anne and although they told me not to, I did. I didn't want her to end up like some of the other babies I'd seen. Heartbreaking.
two...one...
...
My thoughts seemed to have been going on four hours! I'm jolted from my thinking by the arrow flying past my ear. A girl has already reached the cornucopia. She's obviously not skilled with the bow, but I'm still aware of my death reaching to grab me. Everything's happening so fast; so many lives ending. I back away to the woods but am hooked by the gruesome spectacle before me. So much killing. So much death.
The area around the cornucopia grows silent as a girl from district ten stops a shrill, awful gargling scream. She lies dead.
A hand grabs from behind. It fixes itself round my throat. I'd been so horrified I'd forgotten that I need to be aware. My bad memory has just killed me. A strong arm drags me to the ground so that I am looking up into a face. Dark skin, dark eyes. Tears are rolling down it's cheeks. That face belongs to Sara.
"Just keep away from me Finn," Sara says just after the tribute parade, "Who knows what I'll do. Your like a little brother to me I- I don't want to kill you..."