Arena, Forest, Day 6: Johanna Mason

After leaving Maizy to what was no doubt a long, painful death, Johanna had made her way back into the forest, climbed a tree, and cried. It had been the first time in a while she had cried for real – it had been a while since she had cried and meant it. It had probably been nothing to the audience, they had probably, at least in the Capitol, seen it as the peak of comedy, or at least not unusual for Johanna considering the cry baby image she'd previously presented to them. Johanna didn't think it mattered – she almost definitely didn't have sponsors anyway, not when comparing her to the other contestants.

After crying herself to exhaustion, she had eaten a handful of trail mix, curled up into a ball and fallen into a deep sleep, waking only when she heard the cannon that was probably, definitely Maizy's.

Johanna wasn't exactly sure how to feel about Maizy's death. She hadn't directly killed the girl from Nine, after all, but Maizy had died as a result of Johanna's actions. It was a hard thing to come to terms with – she could have helped Maizy, saved her life even, but instead she had left her to die. What would Eurydice think? She remembered that Da had told her 'no regrets' and that was an easy thing to put into theory. But in practice, killing people, whether directly or indirectly, was not something that could be easily forgotten. It took its toll. And Johanna couldn't help but feel guilty, even if she had made the right choice. She had taken a girl away from her family, and no amount of sugar-coating would change that fact.

I did what I had to do, thought Johanna, looking down at the small pill resting on her palm. At least she would be able to use it if she was badly injured – of all the things to steal, the pill was definitely a good choice. Even if it meant that someone had died.

She decided to take the risk and light a fire to cook the dough – she was deep in the woods anyway, and the trees would likely thin out the smoke before it could make its way into the sky. On top of that, the Careers were likely still reeling from the death of the boy from 2 – he had no doubt been one of their strongest allies, and she doubted that they would risk losing another by hunting down the fire-lighter. It could be a trap, for all they knew.

Only the three girls and the boy from 4 were still alive from their little alliance. Johanna was starting to get excited – she actually had a chance. Yes, her opponents were strong and smart, but so was she. She had made it this far, after all, without any injuries or any sponsors – all she had to do was last a little longer, and she would be able to get back home to Eurydice, to her family.

Elm had died the day before. She had desperately wanted to know who had died, so she had climbed a tree when the anthem started. She hadn't been as shocked to see her district partner's face as she had been when she saw Two's – Elm was never meant to win. He wasn't one to kill, even for survival. Once, back at home when they were in the same work group for the forest, he hadn't even been able to kill the spider that crawled onto his arm from a tree.

She had known from the start that he would have to die, and his death didn't sting because she cared about him – his death stung because she was alone, now. She was the only thing she had from home, the only one in the arena who knew how the forests sounded as the morning breeze rushed through them, the only one who had seen the true horrors of a forest fire, the only one who had ever walked barefoot in District 7's dirt. Johanna was the only one left, and that thought terrified her.

Twisting her green beaded bracelet around her wrist, Johanna gritted her teeth and focused on the fire, making a neat little pile of kindling and logs before setting the whole thing alight with a click from the lighter. She had made sure to dig a pit first and clear the area of pine needles, and made a circle of stones around the fire so it couldn't spread. She knew all too well how flammable pine needles were, how quickly flames could leap out of control.

Settling the cooking pot in the flames, Johanna leaned against the tree, closing her eyes and thinking of home. With her eyes closed, it was easy to imagine that she was home – the forest smelt the same. She could pretend that she was on a picnic with Eurydice, that they had snuck out of their houses or had skipped school, that they were sitting and talking and making out in a part of the forest where the trees were so old they were left alone, trees so large that no lumberjack wanted to take them down.

But the cannon brought her back to reality, echoing through the trees and startling Johanna out of her daydream. It had been from far away, so she wasn't scared. Checking the bread, Johanna sighed when it wasn't done – it was starting to smell good, and she was hungry.

The boredom had never gone away, and Johanna decided that she was sick of waiting around and twiddling her thumbs. Getting to her feet, Johanna shouldered her hatchet and made her way over to the leftover pile of logs. Chopping a sizeable piece off one of them, she walked back to the fire and got out her dagger. She often made carvings back home, they fetched a good price at the Acorn. She wasn't the most talented at it, and her amateur skills would never compare to the more experienced people of her district, but Johanna didn't care. It was fun and she liked it, so she would do it.

As she waited for the bread to cook, Johanna set about carving a rough bear from the chunk of wood, modelling it on the mutts she had almost lost her life to. She hadn't been able to get them out of her head, so maybe if she made one from wood, they would leave her alone to her thoughts.

Over the next half hour, as she waited for the bread to cook, a bear slowly emerged from the wood. It was rough, and barely resembled a bear, but at least it was there. She could work on the finer details later.

The bread had risen surprisingly well, although not nearly as much as a proper dough would have. The smell brought her back home, where they often made flour from pine bark, and Johanna's stomach grumbled loudly. It had done that a lot over the past few days, and she was learning to tune it out.

"Good shit," she said, pulling a piece of bread from the loaf and popping it into her mouth. It wasn't the best bread she'd ever eaten, but she was hungry, and it would do. It was better than another meal of trail mix and protein bars, that was for sure. She could almost hear her mother saying, "You'll turn into a protein bar at the rate you're going!"

There was rustling from above, and Johanna gripped her hatchet tightly, looking anxiously up into the sky. She hadn't been expecting a parachute to be floating down – a demented bird or squirrel mutt, maybe, but not a parachute, emerging from the leaves as if it were an angel floating down from heaven. Maybe it was Elm's leftover sponsor money, or maybe the Capitol was starting to like her – she had survived to the final eight, after all, and that was sure to earn her a sponsor or two. Right?

The parachute contained a large-ish thermos of ginger, lemon and honey tea, steaming hot and fragrant, as well as a coin-sized container each of butter and jam. There was a note, too – They have forgotten about you. Good work. Stay where you are for now, you will know when it is time. Magnolia.

Johanna wasn't exactly sure what Magnolia meant – time for what? – but she trusted her mentor. Magnolia knew her stuff, and if she had managed to get Blight, of all people, out of the arena, then that was good enough for Johanna. She was glad that she wouldn't be a target of the others – she would have time to prepare for the shit show that was no doubt about to come.

She cut a thick slice off the loaf of bread and spread it with butter and jam, which was blackberry. Taking a huge bite, Johanna sighed – it was the first hot food she'd had in almost a week, and she was very much enjoying it. The tea was good, too, and in no time Johanna had drunk the whole thermos. Perhaps it would have been a better idea to save it, but she already had the fire going – she may as well make some pine needle tea. She knew where the stream was, now, too, so she wouldn't die of dehydration. At least she could cross that option off her 'list of likely demises' list.

It wasn't much, not at all, but despite the events of yesterday, Johanna was happy. She was relatively safe, she had a full stomach, and she was nearly home. There were only seven more steps before she could see her family again.

She knew what was to come. Eventually she would have to grit her teeth, get to her feet and start hunting people down. Eventually she would kill someone for real, with her hatchet or her dagger or maybe even her bare hands. Eventually she would be hunted, herself.

But for now, Johanna was content.

Hi! Sorry, this is kind of short. I tried writing more, but it just wasn't working out.

Who do you think should be considered Maizy's killer? Is it Cassian, who sent her on a death mission? Is it Vita, who chopped off her arm? Is it Johanna, who stole her medicine and left her, knowing that she would die? I'd be interested to see what you think, I've been thinking about it a lot lately.

Side note: I hit 70 reviews! Yay! Thank you so much once again to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, favourited this, your support means a lot and I love you all very much :)

Have a great day/night!

-Audrey :)