"Haley…." Finnick whispered, while still keeping sharp eyes on the boy. "Get down."
It's not like I was going to question that. I immediately ducked down behind the front panel of the machine and heard the other boy approaching rapidly.
Finnick sprung up quickly to get the trident, which he'd leaned against the side of the time machine. But the boy with the sword was very quick. Finnick had no time to throw the trident, and the two began to practically sword fight. There was an advantage with the trident, though, because it had three spikes instead of just one.
They continued to slice at each other and tried to stab the other in the stomach. That was when I heard a low, malicious crackling. I looked around, trying desperately to see what the noise was. To my horror, a huge tree began falling, and the two tributes were directly in its path.
"Finnick!" I screamed. "Look out!"
He saw the tree and immediately ran backwards, as did the other boy. The tree slammed the ground between them and almost caused me to fall over from my already-sitting position. That was when a new phenomenon began- the ground started to split underneath the tree.
"Haley!" Finnick shouted over the noise of the rumbling earth. "Run!"
I couldn't leave the machine- it was directly in the path of the newly forming fault line. Then a startling thought hit me. This is all because of me.
It made perfect sense. The Gamemakers couldn't even show this exciting finale because they had me and/or the time machine in every shot. They wanted to eliminate me completely, and might even accidentally kill Finnick in the process.
What would I do? This whole project was one huge, selfish mistake that could cost the life of Finnick, and ultimately destroy the country. My ungratefulness was unbearable and I'd never even realized it. I had let my emotions get out of hands and now someone had to die because of it- and that someone wasn't going to be Finnick.
I cautiously walked over to the fault line. At the very bottom of the pit was water that probably had unfathomable depth. I needed to jump in as quickly as possible so there would at least be some hope for the two remaining fighters. And then I saw it.
It was tattered, speckled in blood, and soaked with water. But most importantly, it had just fallen out of the other boy's jacket.
The book.
I couldn't jump over the crack… Or could I? Just by looking I could tell that I'd never gone that far in a single jump before. But there was no other choice. It was either die fighting, or die willingly.
I quickly went back all the way to the time machine. Then, against all of the words streaming through my brain, I ran as fast as I could and jumped in the air.
The world seemed to move in slow motion. The other side of the fault seemed to be getting nearer, and yet it seemed so far. I heard a yell. "Haley! No!"
I began to descend and knew that it was all over. My dreams, my ideas- my life.
I closed my eyes and put my hands out far in front of me instinctively. I suddenly felt intense pain in my wrist. I looked and saw that it had been stabbed by a rock on the ground.
On the ground!
My hands were hanging on to the edge.
I dangled from the side that continued to move away from the other. I felt as if one of my legs had gone numb and couldn't move. It was then that I remembered the way it had slammed against the wall of the crack when I grabbed the edge. There was no way I was getting up from this.
Suddenly, the sound of stabbing filled the air. Who had just been crowned victor?
It was in moments that the fault began to move back together… Quickly. I screamed. If the other boy had won the battle, I would rather die quickly by a sword than be squeezed to death or drown in a bottomless pit of water.
But within seconds, Finnick was in front of me, taking my arms and pulling me up. My foot barely escaped being caught as the thing shut, but I was out just in time. I saw the blood on his neck, which was only minor compared to the wound beneath it. Of course he would live, but the cut would've taken a long time to heal if he would not be at the hands of Capitol doctors, who could correct practically any physical mistake. I couldn't stand, and he saw this, so I put my arm around his shoulder and we walked toward the book. The last cannon of the 65th Hunger Games fired.
"Why did you jump?" He asked, almost in a scolding tone. "I told you to run."
"I didn't know how long the fight would last, and running wouldn't magically make the time machine disappear. I was about to just jump in the hole when I saw the book on the ground," I answered in a strenuous tone. "But now, we need to hurry. Who knows how quickly they'll come to get their victor…. And me, their new captive."
We picked up our pace and went as fast as possible with his wounded neck and my broken leg. I picked up the book, and surprisingly, I didn't want to toss it down. Normally, a book covered in blood and water would have disgusted me. But now I almost wanted to hug it because of its importance.
We went back over to the time machine and I set the book on the seat. I turned to Finnick and almost cried. "So, this is where we say goodbye?"
"I think so," he said. "You need to go back to where it's safe."
It was strange thinking that I'd never see him again. To think he only had about eleven years of his life left, and that he would die so young. When there was a person as rare as he was, they shouldn't have to die that early.
Without even thinking, I threw my arms around his sides and hugged him tightly. He hugged me back.
"I'll miss you," I said.
There was silence for a moment. Then Finnick said, "I'm going to die, aren't I?'
How did he know? I stood up straight. "What's important is living while you can."
I heard a strange bird whistle that could've been a mockingjay- and apparently, it was. There was a hovercraft above us in seconds, and I quickly sat on the seat of the time machine. Instead of Finnick grabbing hold of the ladder, a man from the flying object came down and immediately injected something into his shoulder which caused him to faint.
I almost called out Finnick's name, but the man whipped out a gun of some sort and, before I even had time to think, shot something from it. I felt a needlelike stab in my neck and pulled out the dart.
My vision began to go dark. I frantically flipped the machine on and set the time to 200 years before. Right as my arm started to numb, I pulled the orange lever. As the world whirred around me, I fell into a deep and unavoidable sleep.