Moves and Countermoves: Hannah
Chapter 11: Third Quarter Quell, Day One
Sunday 6th July
The Capitol
'Hannah'.
Haymitch's voice infiltrates her sleep and she sits up instantly recognising the tone for what it was, Haymitch means business.
And he is dressed for Capitol business.
She looks around for Euphemia Coin and Pig Boy, but she is the only one in the bed and the sheets underneath her fingertips are cool.
Haymitch sits on the bed next to her, his hand rests on the top of her head and she pulls her gaze away from the empty bed sheets to look at him.
"I need you to be ready in ten minutes".
Hannah nods, moving, before - "-but what do I wear?" She asks, not seeing any clothes laid out for her.
"You don't have to worry about that. Cinna will help you into your uniform later. Just put your night clothes back on".
She nods, walking towards the bathroom but stops before she goes in.
Haymitch hasn't moved from where he is sat and his eyes are on her.
"Where is everyone else?" She asks, so used to there being at least Euphemia Coin also helping her get ready. It was strange, just the two of them again.
"They've all gotten ready and left. I left you to sleep as long as possible, but it means we're on a time limit".
She nods again, entering the bathroom and closing the door behind her.
Surely, Euphemia Coin wouldn't have gone without saying goodbye. What if she died in the arena?
~xXx~
It's when she's in the middle of her shower that Hannah remembers Madam Coin's secret note.
"Where are you going?" Haymitch asks when she runs past him in just her towel.
"I forgot something in Euphemia Coin's room", she explains hurriedly.
"She's already taken your animals".
"It's not that!" She shouts from the hallway.
She finds her envelope still on the bedside table she left it on and quickly shoves it down the front of her towel before rushing back into her room to finish getting ready.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" Haymitch asks when she runs back in.
"No", she lies, because he'll want to know what it is and she doesn't even know what it is herself.
"Well hurry, I have something I need to discuss with you before I need to take you down".
"OK", she says, opening then closing the bathroom door. Immediately, she carefully reopens the envelope, pulling out the card and taking what's out of the bottom.
It's a folded tissue which she again carefully opens to reveal... Madam Coin's mockingjay pin.
Hannah smiles triumphantly, just as she had hoped.
More of Madam Coin's writing is scribbled on it and Hannah carefully empties the rest of the contents - purple, she squishes one slightly... berries - on the bathroom sink so she can read it.
'My little Mockingjay,
From the moment I first held you, I always knew you would be destined for great things'.
Hannah's heart swells.
The handle on the bathroom door tries to open, making her jump.
"I'm just putting my clothes on", quickly wrapping the mockingjay pin back up, before carefully putting each of the berries back into the tissue paper. She inspects one of them, night-lock berries.
The handle on the bathroom door tries again. "Why have you locked it?" Haymitch asks. "Open up, I need to talk to you".
"OK", quickly dressing back into her pyjamas, putting the tissue paper with it's contents up her sleeve.
Haymitch eyes her suspiciously when she opens the door.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" She asks innocently.
~xXx~
Hannah fingers her necklace as the male stylist fixes her uniform in place. It is not the usual Games uniform of loose pants, top and a jacket, it was an all in one, made out out of a funny, thick, material that clung to her skin. She remembers Finnick Odair wore something similar for his Games, which meant one thing, there would be water. Which was fine, she was strong in water too.
The male stylist comes into her eyesight, moving very close to her. He puts his fingers to his lips and produces a mockingjay pin out of nowhere. As she watches him pin it on her sleeve, she recognises it as Katniss' own pin. The one she thought she had lost. But how did he get it? He pulls up the outer sleeve to hide it, before tucking her necklace into the high collar. Hannah's fingers twitch, she had also hidden Madam Coin's Mockingjay pin and berries up her sleeve.
"What does the time on your watch say?" He asks.
"09:57".
"Good, it's correct", he says, looking at his own watch.
Hannah wonders if he also knows the arena is a clock.
"We're all betting on you".
She nods, understanding that he means it figuratively. It is his way of saying goodbye and good luck.
Euphemia Coin had left her a note and a necklace.
'You carry my heart with you, Hannah. I only wish I could go in the arena instead of you'.
Haymitch had held her hand tightly up until the very last minute he handed her to the male stylist.
'I want you to forget about everything that has happened this past week. Forget about everything that isn't making sure you come home to me. Do you understand? You do not have any other obligation to anyone, than that".
She nodded.
'Forget about the boy, forget about Effie, forget about me and Effie, forget about the Capitol. Be the Hannah you were the day before the Reaping, because that is all that matters. Because after this is all over, that is all it's going to be, just you and me in District 12, in our home. Stay alive'.
'OK, Papa', she'd said, hugging him. But he hadn't hugged her back. When she had let him go, he just turned round and left without saying goodbye.
The male stylist helps her through the glass doors and on to the podium.
"Bye, Cinna", she says, before he closes the glass doors, leaving her all alone.
He looks shocked and then smiles at her. "This is not goodbye, Hannah. See you soon. OK?"
She nods, and then looks up to the light because she can feel tears start to form in her eyes.
She wants her mother. She wants her father.
The alarm on her smart watch goes off and like Haymitch told her, a loud countdown starts from one minute.
She breathes in all her worries and expels them out of her.
'Be the Hannah you were before the Reaping'.
This was it.
And she could do this.
She was the Third Quell Victor.
And not because she was the daughter of the Second Quell Victor, and not because she was the famous Capitolite Euphemia Coin's daughter, but because she was from District 12 and she had been training half her life for this moment.
~xXx~
The Arena
'Let the 75th Hunger Games begin. May the odds be ever in your favour'
The countdown had begun.
Hannah had expected water, but she hadn't expected the podiums to be surrounded by water. The Cornucopia was too, but there was land surrounding it in a circle. The Cornucopia must be the centre of the clock, she realises, noticing how large boulders sectioned the water into twelve, but where was ten o'clock? She would have to figure that out later, but the sun rises from the East and judging where the sun was now, it seemed that she between twelve and one. Which would make sense being from District 12.
With ten seconds left, Hannah focusses her attention back on the Cornucopia, trying to make out the weapons and supplies.
She thinks she spies a bow and arrow. There were javelins too, but that would be too problematic for her to carry. A few knives which she can store in her boots would be better.
Everything is thrumming within her to move, but she keeps her feet planted on the floor, remembering what Haymitch said about the podium blowing up if you disembark it before the bang.
Bang!
She dives in, the rush of cold water adding to the thrill. Everytime she breaks the surface to breathe she checks to see if she can see the other tributes near here, namely the boy from District 1 who would be sharing her dodecagon, but she can't see anyone, she's pretty sure she is in front of everyone else.
Haymitch had said to avoid the Cornucopia because it would be a bloodbath, he had said anything she needed he would make sure would be gifted to her, but he couldn't have predicted the advantage of all the tributes being so spread out, and if Hannah could get there first, she would at least be able to arm herself. Maybe she could even gain control of the Cornucopia entirely.
It's not until she reaches the bouldered land that she can confirm that she's in front and she runs down her strip so that she can reach the Cornucopia first and claim it as her own.
She picks up the bow and sheath full of arrows first, securing them across her back. Then she hurriedly collects some knives and puts them down the inside of her shoes. Her eyes catch on the pile of hand grenades when she hears Theodore's name being shouted.
Pig Boy!
Rushing towards the direction of the noise, she sees that he's still on the podium.
"Jump! Theodore! Jump!", she joins in with the calls of the District 11 female tribute, who from the water, is urging him to jump in.
He has to jump.
If he doesn't jump soon, the podium will blow up.
How long had it been already?
More than a minute.
Meaning it could blow up any second!
Theodore looks up at her at the sound of her voice. "I can't swim!"
Of course he can't.
Out of the corners of her eye, she's well aware of the other tributes getting closer to the Cornucopia, and she picks up one of the javelins and throws it in the direction of the District 1 male tribute, who dives into the water to avoid the spear.
"If you don't jump, they'll blow up the podium! So jump!"
He waits another second before jumping in and she's about to jump in to help him when she watches confused as the District 11 female tribute helps him on to his back and starts swimming with him in the opposite direction to the Cornucopia, towards the land.
Others seem to also have chosen land instead of the Cornucopia too as she looks in her horizon to see scattered dots of tributes arriving at the beach's shore.
"Look out!" Someone yells to the side of her.
She turns to see the District 3 male tribute pointing behind her and she turns just in time to see the District 2 female tribute and her knife.
She acts quickly, ducking before grabbing one of the knives and slitting the girl's throat.
She then turns to face the District 3 male tribute but he's looking at her slightly horrified with a trident in his hand.
The bang sounds announcing the District 2 female tribute's death and he backs away slowly, jumping back into the water.
Hannah picks up a javelin but falters as he disappears under the water.
It's not that she doesn't have a good target, it's that he just saved her life...?
Another bang goes off signalling another death and she immediately thinks of Pig Boy, but he and the District 11 female tribute have almost reached the beach and there are about four other tributes there to help Pig Boy out of the water.
She takes a step closer.
She doesn't understand.
Is it some kind of trap they're creating for her?
A weapon moves past her ear, narrowingly missing her and she grabs another javelin throwing it in the direction of her assailant, the District 1 male tribute resurfaced.
He smiles nastily at her as he easily dodges, running towards her with his knife.
She bends to pick up her other stored knife from her boot and it hits him just above his heart.
He wasn't expecting that, she smiles triumphantly as it slows down his assent on her. She then reaches for her bow and plants three arrows into the right side of his chest, his larynx and his forehead.
He falls.
Hannah pulls out her knives and three arrows, ignoring the way the colour is leaving the boy's body and the way his eyes stare up at her. His mouth and the wound at his neck spluttering blood as he tries to speak.
It makes her feel uncomfortable.
It's the first time she's really watched a human die she realises; in real life, not from a screen.
And it was her who killed him.
It's different to animals. Or maybe it wasn't. Not at the beginning. Maybe she had just gotten used to killing animals.
Hannah slits his throat to make his suffering quicker.
The cold blue eyes of who she thought would be her greatest adversary in the Games stare up at her dead.
His cannon goes off.
Hannah looks around the Cornucopia and watches other tributes scavenge for weapons and fight.
Haymitch was right, it is a blood bath.
One that she would have been dead in the middle of if it wasn't for the District 3 male tribute.
There was no dignity dying this way and she understood why Haymitch said to avoid it.
But she also can't leave it as fuel for her enemies.
Putting away her weapons - also collecting the knife from where it lay near her first kill - she then returns to the pile of hand grenades and before she has time to think about it properly, she pulls out the pin from one of them, before placing it carefully back in the pile.
She then turns and runs for her life. Counting down from ten seconds before she jumps from the bouldered strip of land and into the water. Timing it perfectly with the explosion. She's blown up all the supplies just like Katniss Everdeen had done in her Games.
~xXx~
In the few seconds she had taken to consider her hand grenade plan she had not anticipated the magnitude of the explosion, as the earth seemed to literally move all around her. She could have sworn the ammunition from just six hand grenades would not trigger this scale of damage as she furiously tried to dodge the boulders which were crumbling away from their constructed strips. They ripped away at her skin as they closed in on her, one even dragging her down so she had to swim underneath it.
She headed for one of the podiums that still seemed to be stable and gripped on to it with all her strength.
The Cornucopia was no longer, neither were the tributes and supplies who had been on it. Just over half of the bouldered strips of land were visible but they were falling away rapidly. The land around them also seemed to be trembling, trees were falling and birds were flying erratically everywhere, the sky in the horizons were electric and fogged with thick smoke, and Hannah wondered whether she had actually let off an explosion big enough to blow up the entire arena.
And just when she thought she was safe on her podium, that started to buckle too.
What was underneath this?
Would the construction from where she emerged from hold?
Were her parents underneath this too?
Would this whole arena collapse on top of them?
With a loud groan that she somehow managed to hear over everything else, her sanctuary podium began to go fall sideways into the water, going under and leaving her to the danger of the boulders that still continued to fall.
She dodged them as best as she could, but one of them hit her head and then another pulled her under.
Still, she swam and swam and swam until she couldn't remember anything except swimming and trying to find what she thought was the surface and hoping she was going in the right direction so that she could breathe air. She didn't know how long she had been under, and she didn't know how long her breath would last her, especially with all her erratic swimming.
~xXx~
She remembers the feeling of being dragged, her body and her hair being scraped against something soft but coarse.
When she opened her eyes, she no longer saw water, she saw a pair of scared big brown eyes.
AN: Ahh nothing is more sweet to me than a chapter I write that is under 3000 words. The games have begun and it may very well be the quickest Games in Hunger Games history? Until next update! Happy Sunday :)