~Time can bend your knees, have you begging, begging please~
A soft alarm's beeping fills the room. I jolt up, shaking. I couldn't sleep last night. I may never again. But adrenaline courses through me and for some reason, I feel more awake than ever. Fear does that to you.
I don't know why, but I feel my feet walking towards the shower. I peel my nightgown off and stare at the strange machine. In a few minutes, the shower is running with me inside, covered in rose scented lotion. I still have no idea how to work the shower, so bursts of ice cold water come out every now and then. But I don't care. It wakes me up. Steam rises. I feel my wet hair sticking to my back. The rose scent is almost overpowering. Water rushes. And as it rushes, I hear one word being repeated in the water over and over again.
Maybe
Maybe
Maybe. I quickly shut the water off and throw some clothes on. It doesn't matter that they're the same ones as yesterday because Antony is just going to give me some clothes everyone in the arena has to wear. I stare at my hair, hanging wet and limp down my back. Surely no one will care what I do with it? I run a brush through it, figuring Antony will do what he has to do. As long as it's out of my way. I'll need to see everything possible.
As soon as I step out of my room, Aurelia rushes me out. She bursts out a flurry of words I can barely understand.
"Come on, Finch. You're already late. They'll give you some breakfast on the hovercraft ride over."
She drags me through the hallway and into an elevator. "Atom and Andrea are already down there." She whispers to me once we're inside. She turns to look me over and sighs. "Antony will fix you up once you arrive." The rest of the ride is silent. Until the doors open. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I quickly snap my head around. It's just Aurelia. "You're a clever girl, Finch. After your interview, the rest of the country knows as well as I do now. I trust that you'll follow your strategy. And maybe I'll see you some time soon." She gives a soft smile. And unlike all those others, it doesn't seem forced at all.
As my footsteps echo along the metallic hall towards the hovercraft, the word echoes too.
Maybe.
I'm greeted by a burst of cold air and a roaring sound. The hovercraft on the roof towers above anything else. I spot cameramen lined up all along the edges. The tiny form of Andrea is leading Atom into the craft. I rush to join them. But the whole time, I'm conscious of those cameras. The little eyes everywhere. I don't make eye contact with any of them. The propeller's roaring sound is so loud I have to cover my ears as I walk up the ramp into it. But I stop and turn to Andrea anyway. Her eyes flick backwards towards a camera and then she gives me a small nod. That's all. But it's enough.
My eyes have to adjust to the sudden darkness. Then I realize that all the tributes are sitting down in seats staring at me blinking. "Are you the last one?" A woman wearing all white asks. I nod stiffly. She gestures to the last seat, right next to Thresh. No sooner am I in the chair when the craft lifts off. It's the strangest feeling. I grip onto the sides of my seat. As I look around wildly, I notice a few of the others are closing their eyes. The woman in the white, though, is standing right next to me as if nothing unique is going on. In fact, she looks bored. My stomach knots itself in sickness. Doesn't she know she's escorting children to their death?
As soon as the craft stops shaking, I hear a sigh of relief coming from the girl across from me. She's the girl with the wild, curly hair. From 8, I think. As she loosens her grip on the seat, I see her face turning red. She stares at her feet the rest of the time. The woman in white is walking towards me. "Arm." She says, in a clipped, formal voice.
I thrust it out and she pulls out a needle. This wasn't at all what I expected, and my first instinct is to yank my arm away. No one ever said anything about needles. But I know it's just the tracker. I always knew the tributes must have some sort of tracking devices, but I thought they would be in the form of hidden collars or bracelets. I never imagined the chips would actually be inside them. I draw my breath in sharply as the needle meets my skin, and suddenly I see a small silver square pulsing with light inside my arm. Well, it won't be coming out.
After everyone's arm has a small square of silver inside it, the seatbelts crossing over our bodies click open and steaming bowls of some kind of porridge are brought out. Everyone eats hungrily. I just stare at my bowl. My stomach is so knotted. But when will I see food again? And how will I get it? So I force myself to take a few bites before the woman collects the bowls and the seatbelts snap shut again. The hovercraft begins its descent down. My stomach goes with it.
Thresh is next to me, staring straight ahead. But suddenly, I feel his finger lightly touching mine. I look back at him. Still staring straight ahead. But I touch his back. No one else sees. It's just the two of us. And I don't know why we're doing this. Maybe he needs someone to hold onto too.
The craft shudders to a stop. One by one, the tributes get up and head out on the ramp. No one speaks, but as Thresh goes out, he turns to look at me. He mouths something, but I can't see what it is. It looks like Find me but I can't tell. Confused, I go down the ramp. We're in a huge room, with dozens of hallways leading out in different directions. A nervous looking man dressed in all white, just like the others, pulls me towards the hallway marked "5". Atom is turning into a door marked "5M," so I head into the one marked "5F." Antony is waiting for me.
Next to him is a pile of clothes. He holds them out to me. "Go ahead and put these on and I'll what I can do about your hair. We can try to see what kind of arena we'll have this year. You can usually tell by the clothes." I accept the clothes and duck behind a curtain. As I pull on the clothes, I hear my heart beating. The room is so silent, and it is so loud and so fast. And then it really hits me. I'm afraid. Really, truly, afraid. I can't deny it anymore. I step out from behind the curtain.
Antony motions for me to sit in the chair in front of him. He immediately takes my hair and puts it up into two buns. "I know it's a little different then what you expected, but every tribute's hairstyle should be different, so you can tell who they are." He pauses. "Though I think with hair as pretty as yours it would be easy to tell." He means the red-gold color of it. At home, there are a large amount of people running around with copper-colored hair, but I know here it will just make me easier to spot. As he does my hair, Antony looks over my outfit.
"All right." He sighs. I realize that he sounds sad, slow even. "You've got army pants, some kind of combat boots, a tight fitting black t-shirt and a navy blue jacket. Let's see. There'll be a difference in temperature between night and day, I'm betting on hot days and cold nights. The terrain isn't too rough, but it's definitely not what you'll be used to." He finishes. I reach up to touch my hair.
"60, 59, 58" The voice makes me jump. It has an oddly computer-like sound. The count-down. My heart skips a beat and my hands begin to shake. Suddenly, Antony pulls something out of his pocket.
"You're district token." He whispers. That's strange. I can't remember ever having one.
"We did some digging around and found it for you. I'm told that a girl named Trisa was adamant about you receiving it, so we made it work." It's a little bracket, made out of woven strand of string with a lavender bead on the front. My favorite color. Trisa made one for me when she couldn't have been more than 8 and she gave Cable one too. His bead is red. Hers is yellow. I slip it on. But I don't have time to thank Antony for what he did.
"Go to the tube!"Antony lightly gives me a push towards it. I step inside the metal cylinder and hear a click as the door slides shut. The ground beneath my feet suddenly lifts up. I'm suddenly aware of the bracelet I'm holding and quickly manage to strap it onto my arm. And then, I'm in the sunlight.
There is no more voice counting down. I look around wildly. How will I know when to run? But then I see the screen. It's built into some kind of structure, littered with an assortment of weapons. It flashes numbers.
15
14
13
I glance to my left. The boy from 1 is right next to me. Two platforms down, the girl from 12 who managed to get the highest score is standing. Lover Girl, I think everyone's calling her now. No, I can't run that way. But next to me on the other side is an assortment of tributes, all with low scores like mine. Where are the rest of The Careers? I spot what could be them off in the distance, on the other side of the field.
A single ring sounds throughout the arena.
My feet leap off the platform. But not in the same way as everyone else. I turned around. I only see the line of trees in front of me. Trees. Of which we have none of at home. My lungs burn as I sprint. I'm suddenly conscious of someone running beside me. A head of wild hair. The District 8 girl. But she swoops down to grab something. A box of matches. I don't look back. Worry about necessities later. Just run.
The ground beneath me becomes looser. I've made it to the trees. I'm no longer running in a field, but in a forest. I nearly lose my footing, but I catch myself just in time. And then I stop. The District 8 girl knows which direction I'm headed in. What if she manages to get a hold of a knife too? She could easily track me down. I slowly take a few steps back, and then quickly veer to the left. And then my head explodes in pain.
The impact throws me to the ground. Once I catch my breath, my first instinct is to snap up. I'm face to face with Lover Girl. Or Fire Girl. Or…Kat-something. She lowers her eyes instantly. A weapon of course. She's checking for a weapon. Then I see the knife in her hand. It's stained with blood. Fear courses inside me. I scramble back. But Fire Girl just sits there, paralyzed. Pulling myself up instantly, I sprint away. My feet pound over and over again. She killed someone. She just killed someone. But it wasn't me.
After running for so long, I begin to lose track of time. My lungs burn and there is a sharp pain in my left side. My head still aches dully. Slowing down to a jog, I pause to look around. It's so unbelievably silent. I thought I would hear people running, screaming, maybe even crying or something. But all I hear is the rush of water. There isn't even the slightest breeze. It slowly dawns on me that I'm trapped.
I want to move near the water. My tongue is dry and sweat pools along my back. But other tributes might have the same idea. The Career pack likely won't. There was a small lake right where we started. They won't waste their time trying to escape other tributes. They can just stay put. At least for now. They're probably still working off those tributes that are still at the Bloodbath. Or the ones that just barely got away and they know where to locate. Well, I can't go without water forever. So I take a deep breath and walk towards the water.
As it turns out, the sound is coming from a stream. There is no one in sight. Still, I sprint over, cup my hands into a bowl, and practically shove it into my mouth. A few more handfuls and I sprint back. I have to sit down on one of the rocks nearby and clutch my stomach. Why did I have to drink that water so fast? Why did I sprint right after drinking so much? But then a thought comes to me. It's kind of like how Trisa still runs, then takes a leap into bed each night. When I asked her why she did it, she just smiled sheepishly and said that she'd stopped believing in monsters long ago, but it was just a habit and it made her feel safe. I smile a little.
Getting up from the rock, I realize that I have to find shelter. I need somewhere to hide. And food. How will I get food? I stare around the rocks here. Maybe it won't be so hard. Getting on my hands and knees, I crawl between the rocks. And sure enough, I find what I'm looking for. Behind a large boulder, there is a den. It's made of three rocks, one forming the back and the other two forming walls at the die. If I curl up, I can fit inside. After checking for snakes first, of course. And the big boulder in front partially covers me as well. It looks like I'll be safe tonight.
Food is the next thing on my mind. I peel off my jacket. It is hot here. I move back towards the banks of the stream. There might be some reeds that are edible. But then it hits me. What if the water is poisoned? Did I just drink all that water without even thinking of that? But this stream goes on as far as I can see. And it can't just end anywhere. It will end at the lake. And that would mean all the visible water sources are poisoned. Be rational, Finch. What kind of show would that make? All of us would drop like flies in a matter of hours. The water is safe. I just know it.
As luck would have it, I spot some green shoots growing out of the water. I wade in, and pull some up. After inspecting it for a little, I decide it's Katniss. That's right. The computer said you can tell by the arrow shaped leaves. I take a bight of a tuber. It's not bad at all. In fact, after a life spent away from greens in general, it's actually delicious. I savor every bite. Then it hits me. That's her name! Katniss. Huh. It's pretty. Well, Katniss, you and I have made it this long. And for some strange reason, even though it would have been so easy, you didn't even try to kill me.