Toby Cash- District Six, fifteen
We were all amazed when the platforms rose to reveal water. Nothing but water, a vast, glassy ocean. The Cornucopia floated freestanding between us, bobbing slightly on the calm surface. The boy from Four let out a whoop and pumped his fist in the air. I waited numbly as the countdown began.
When the gong sounded, I knelt down and clutched the edge of my platform. Half the Tributes dove in, and the pair from Four lead the charge to the Cornucopia. Immediately splashing and shouting filled the air, and I didn't see the wave until it dashed me under the water. I thrashed at the water around me and gulped in air when my head broke the surface. The platforms were gone. It didn't seem like twenty-four of us surfaced, and heads kept slipping under.
I never would have thought it was possible to live twenty-four hours in water. The cannons jerked me awake when I started to nod off. The sun beat mercilessly on my head, and the waves pushed me away from the Cornucopia, I guess far enough away that the Careers didn't come for me. I saw the pair from Four cutting through the waves toward the Tributes that were sending up plumes of water in their attempts to flee.
The things came when the sun was setting. Horrible things made all of teeth and fins. Two Tributes would be holding hands, then one would scream and blood would fill the water. The things were silent. They existed only to feed. I thought this was the pair from Four's game to lose, but they went as quickly as the others, gone in a flash.
Cannons. So many cannons. A fin in the water, and a cannon. A sudden flurry of motion as a Tribute tried to keep his head above the water, and then a cannon. My stomach growled and all I had to fill it was the fresh water around me. My skin shriveled and I forgot what solid ground felt like as the hours passed.
I lay on my back with still limbs. Let the things know I was ready. Let the water swallow me up. No more swimming. No more fighting. Just drifting in the waves. The Cornucopia was long out of sight. The only sound was the water in my ears. There was the blue of the water and the blue of the sky.
My eyes, weak and stinging from the light, gazed up at the sky. The water slapped against my burning, peeling skin. Only my head bobbed above the surface. Another cannon went off. The sky blurred. I floated in the water. Something closed around me, and I floated in the air.
Now we finally know how Toby, my running gag mistake Victor, actually won a Hunger Games. I would not say this is based off the USS Indianapolis, since I don't want to trivialize what happened and the men who died to protect us, but it's a similar situation. For appearance, Toby looks younger than he is, and he's scrawny. He looks like the antithesis of someone who would win the Hunger Games.