PART TWO: The Sea Glass Games

The Room - Day Two

Nothing much happens for the first few hours after that. Mags and I take turns indulging in short, restless naps, one of us watching the screens at all times. As the time ticks by, Mags goes and gets us more coffee.

Quincy gets up around dawn and I tense, thinking he's seen something, but he's just going to wake Annie up for her shift. He collapses on the ground, dead tired, as Annie walks off her own grogginess.

Annie is absently picking dandelions when the hulking boy from District Eleven erupts from behind a rock and shoots an arrow at her, missing her by several inches. She throws herself on the ground and scrambles up, drawing her knife; but it's too late. The boy has Quincy's throat pressed to his own knife. Quincy is so tired, he doesn't even wake up.

"Don't move or your brother dies," Eleven says in his deep, rumbling voice. Annie freezes immediately. I'm biting back a string of curses, clenching my fists as I watch her drop the knife and kick it toward Eleven like he tells her to. The boy from Eleven is twice her size, big, bulky, pure muscle. There's no way she's going to win in a fight, and right now she's dropping all of her defenses on the off chance that he'll spare Quincy's life. He won't, no matter what she does. If I was him, I would have killed Quincy already.

Suddenly, Quincy knocks Eleven's knife away and tackles him to the ground, pumbling him with the ferocity of a wild animal. Eleven starts hitting him with the bow; Quincy takes it and breaks it in half, and they start grappling again. Meanwhile Annie is searching for the knife, leaping at it when she sees it on the ground. Eleven gains the upper hand in his battle with Quincy. He poises an arrow at Quincy's throat.

"You put up a good fight, District Four. But it is over."

Annie pounces on Eleven and wraps her arm around his neck, pressing the knife to his thick neck. "Put the knife down," she says. I gape at the screen. What is she doing? Just kill him, kill him now before it's too late!

"It seems as though we are in trouble, flower-girl," Eleven says. "I don't think you have the authority to be calling the shots just yet."

"Do you not feel the blade under your chin?"

"Do you not see the arrow over your brother's head?" Suddenly the boy from Eleven snaps his head back and hits Annie squarely in the nose. Quincy leaps up with a cry as Eleven speeds away, out of sight. Instead of chasing after the boy, he tends to Annie. She has a broken nose, and screams when he resets it.

I lean back in my chair and let out a breath as they recuperate. "They could have handled that so much better," I tell Mags.

"At least they're alive," she says.

The Crestas decide to continue marching around the lake to the other side, in the opposite direction as the boy from District Eleven, whose name is Kur. They don't go for as long as they did yesterday, on account of Annie's injury; her eyes are swollen shut, and she can only breathe through her mouth. I've noticed that the numbers on our money screen have been ascending slower than usual. As the day progresses, it comes to a complete standstill.

I wonder why Annie didn't just kill Kur when she had the chance. He wouldn't have had time to retaliate if she'd snuck up on him and finished it quick. I ask Mags, and she replies with, "Never killed before."

I remember my first kill, Ivory, and for some reason I'm glad that Annie hesitated.

They make it about halfway around the lake when they decide to stop and make camp. This area is less flat. They find a cave and burrow there. Quincy catches a fat brown rabbit to add to the lizard they managed to snare earlier. Annie finds wild onions and chives. For a while they discuss how they're going to create fire to cook the meat, until suddenly rumbling sounds throughout the arena, leeching through the speakers and grumbling in the Room. I share a look of bewilderment with Mags. What is this?

The ground in the arena begins to shake, and I realize: it's an earthquake. The cave they're staying starts to collapse; I leap out of my seat; Quincy grabs Annie and pulls her out just before it crumbles to the ground. They get down and curl up, jostled for two minutes by the earthquake.

Eventually the earthquake subsides, and they struggle to unearth themselves from the rubble. Sadly they scavenge. Two cannons go off. I see that it's Johanna's boy tribute, Phyll, and the boy from District Ten.

Annie and Quincy walk some more until they discover another cave. This time Annie takes the first watch despite her injuries, and Quincy goes to sleep. Neither of them eat anything, which they will regret in the morning.

I sit back and rub my eyes as Annie sits, alert and weary, on the screen. I doubt that she will be picking anymore flowers during her watch after the ordeal with Kur. Idly I wonder where the boy from District Eleven is. Not for the first time, I wish I could see the other tributes' locations on the screen.

Johanna ducks into my cubicle, then plops down on my lap. I let her sit there. It's not like she's going to move if I tell her to anyway, and I kind of feel bad for her. Losing tributes is always the worst part of mentoring, and Johanna is the newest of us.

"Shouldn't you be looking after Zona?" I say, even though I know it's kind of cruel.

"Blight's on duty. She's with the Careers; I don't think she's going to die any time soon." Johanna pauses. "You know the boy from Five? Arthor?"

"Yes."

"He stole a bunch of equipment from the Careers and left on his own. Make sure that your runts are careful." Johanna isn't really supposed to be telling me this unless our tributes are allied, but the information is welcome anyway.

"I will."

It's silent again. I'm watching the screen over her shoulder, watching Annie pace back and forth. Johanna follows my gaze. "Zona killed the boy from District Ten."

I don't say anything, but I know it's a warning.

"Phyll was crushed by a giant rock."

"I'm sorry," I say. And I mean it.

Johanna nods. "Earthquakes." She spits it out like a curse.

"Earthquakes," I sigh.

"Earthquakes," Mags agrees.

RIP: Phyll and the boy from District Ten.

Both from District One, both from District Two, Girl from Three, Quincy and Annie, Arthor, Zona, Boy from Eight, Girl from Nine, Girl from Ten, and Kur are still alive.

Sorry again for another short chapter! I promise that the next one will make up for it!