Moves and Countermoves : Hannah
Chapter 13: Third Quarter Quell, Day Three
Tuesday 8th July
The Arena
This was becoming a habit.
When Hannah awoke again it was early daylight.
The District 11 Female Tribute was dead. Pig Boy was placing leaves around her body. The District 7 Boy was also lying dead on the ground.
Hannah started to walk towards Pig Boy only to trip over something. A severed arm? Clean cut just above the shoulder. And what looked like part of a human calf and heel.
She picked them up and inspected it. From the hand it seemed like it belonged to the District 11 Fe - . From Bea. Hannah wasn't sure which instrument could have given it such a clean cut as it went clean through the bone too... Out of the corner of her eye, she acknowledges something moving in her peripheral.
Looking up, it's Pig Boy's arms waving at her frantically. Indicating her to move back.
It's then that she sees the shimmer of the force shield in front of her. It hums loudly like District 12's electric fence when it's switched on.
She drops the limbs - that is what must have done it - and starts to walk backwards only to pull up sharply when her back hits something. She turns slowly, but it's just the trunk of the large tree.
As she takes in her surroundings more, she notices - except the hum from the force field - the absence of noise, and realises it's because it's just her and this tree surrounded by this very close fitting force shield. She looks up to see how high it goes. As far as she can see, it goes all the way to the arena ceiling - which, they were still fixing.
She looks back to find Pig Boy. His eyes are still on her, wide and frightened.
How is she going to get out of this in one piece - or even alive?
~xXx~
No matter how loud Hannah shouts, Pig Boy can't hear what she is trying to tell him. She can't hear anything he is trying to tell her either. But from what she could understand from Pig Boy's signing, the other three in their group had gone to look for supplies. She didn't like the fact that they had left Pig Boy to fend for himself - even though she had seen the knife they had left him with poking out of his boot - he needed protecting from ... from everything.
When Pig Boy hadn't been looking she had tested the permeability of the force shield by nudging the District 11 Female Tribute's arm into it. It clean took off one of her finger tips.
Hannah couldn't understand why this particular force shield around this specific tree had stronger properties than the force shields that divided the arena dodecagons, and allowed Tributes to pass freely but barred the other 'entertainment' - well, when they were on and the arena wasn't crumbling.
Was it because their group no longer had the trackers inside them that the force shields didn't know they were Tributes..? It was possible ... But the force shield should have killed the District 11 Female Tribute from the force it threw her back, not from slicing her nearly in half...
Perhaps it had to do with whatever happened. What had happened? When she asked Pig Boy, he shrugged that he didn't know... One moment there had been darkness in the sky after all the dead Tributes had been projected into the night, and then there was an intense light so strong it had knocked her out. But what was the source? Was it purposeful or an accident?
She had inspected herself for wounds but other than having a headache and her body feeling achey, she felt fine. Her suit seemed to be a lot more torn, but she couldn't say she properly checked the dexterity of it after the first blast to be sure. She had inspected Pig Boy too, and he also looked to be intact, if not looking a bit frazzled in appearance. His hair was all over the place, he looked particularly dirty and brown - as if he had been rolling in coal - and there were tears in his suit, which she again couldn't confirm for certain whether they had been apparent before.
She thinks she finds the answer to whether the unknown event that sectioned her from the others was purposeful or accidental, when she hears the clear, unmistakeable sound of bells. The melody fills the silence of the stoic tree and Hannah's breathing. She's been trained to recognise that tune. A Sponsor gift?
She rushes to the other side of the tree and looks up because it sounds like that was where the noise is coming from.
It is a Sponsor gift!
Hannah watches it decent in marvel, amazed to find it join two more Sponsor gifts at the base of the tree.
A metal bottle of water, a metal canister of the same soup she drank yesterday, and metal canister with a couple of those food bars Haymitch had given her that time they overslept.
'Hang in there Shorty. Not long now. Don't do anything stupid. Stay put and stay alive'.
It was Haymitch's handwriting. He had found her!
She grins, and looks up to show Pig Boy - but, is delighted to see that it looks like he also has the same trio of gifts. He appears to be trying to read his note.
When he looks up, Hannah reaches for her soup canister and signals him to do the same, so they can eat together.
But he shakes his head, no. Signing ... that he is going to wait ... wait for the other three. ... To share his gifts with them.
Hannah looks down at the canister in her hand. Her stomach rumbles. It's not exactly like she can share it with anyone else when it is just her...
She looks back at Pig Boy to find him squinting again at his note.
She rolls her eyes and signals upwards for a pair of glasses for Pig Boy, before quickly changing the request to two pairs of glasses. Maybe they could use the second pair to try open up the force shield so she can join Pig Boy. Or better yet, he could join her. She wonders how long the two of them could survive on Sponsor gifts alone ...?
~xXx~
Hannah doesn't know how long has passed but they're still waiting for the glasses. Pig Boy returned to finish decorating the District 12 Female Tribute's body, he had started on the District 7 Male Tribute when a hovercraft parted through the jungle to collect their bodies; so that they could return to their district in a box.
'I can't have you return to District 12 in a box, Hannah'.
'Never mind the fact that we're going to send the Boy's nephew back in a box'.
When the hovercraft had cleared, Hannah watched Pig Boy sift through what had been their camp, organising what was still useful to them and what was firewood whilst she took very small sips of her soup.
She almost spills the soup completely when she sees Pig Boy stand up sharply, looking in the direction of a clutter of jungle bushes.
She stands, moving closer, dreading whatever has gotten his attention...
The jungle bushes rustle.
Hide Theodore, hide! She screams at him internally and then externally. But it's no use, he can't hear her.
A face comes through the bushes, but, with relief, she realises it is the District 3 Male Tribute; the District 3 Female and the District 11 Male Tributes following closely behind, and it looks like they have fish and firewood.
Hannah almost collapses in relief. They hadn't abandoned him.
The other three briefly make eye contact with her and she waves, her eyes narrowing on her bow and arrow slung on the District 11 Male Tribute's shoulder. All Hannah has a far a weapon is her small knife in her boot - that and the nightlock berries. The District 3 Male Tribute still has his trident.
She only holds the three's attention for a moment because Pig Boy is showing them his Sponsor gifts.
All three of the other Tributes frown at was he's gotten and look up to the sky.
They then look at Hannah again; they all looked so clean in comparison to Pig Boy.
Pig Boy shakes his head, no, then looks to be explaining something to them.
Hannah goes as close to the force shield as she can, but it doesn't help her being able to hear better.
Whatever Pig Boy was saying it seems to have created a commotion ... or a disagreement even between Pig Boy and the other three Tributes. Pig Boy keeps shaking his head, no, and pointing at Hannah, while the other three keep pointing in the opposite direction.
It all seems to end though when Pig Boy sits himself on the floor refusing to look at any of them.
The others try to talk to him but Pig Boy does not lift his head.
Eventually, the two Tributes from District 3 start building a fire, whilst the District 11 Male Tribute starts going through the piles Pig Boy created. After a couple of minutes, Pig Boy stands to help.
Hannah signals to the sky that she wants matches for them.
~xXx~
Hannah watches the four eat their fire roasted fish while she nibbles on a food bar. The four of them had already shared Pig Boy's Sponsor gifts beforehand and used a spile - she didn't realise they were in possession of - to tap into a nearby tree and refill the water canister. As soon as the District 11 Male Tribute had produced it from his suit, Hannah had heard the bells of a new Sponsor gift which contained a spile for herself. They had also sent Pig Boy matches for their fire, but they were still waiting on the glasses.
Their belongings, the District 11 Male Tribute has tied up on a high limb of a nearby tree. He also made a noose over the tree's high trunk and carved deep footings into the bark ... Hannah guesses that is where they plan to make shelter... It was definitely high up and away from intruders. Although everyone will have to wait until the evening to find out how many Tributes are left.
And the wave! Hannah suddenly remembers, Pig Boy and the District 3 Male Tribute talking about a wave that followed the chemical fog. That was probably why the District 3 Male Tribute made all those preparations up in the tree. She hoped they were correct when they said that the force shield protected her from it. Perhaps she would also climb up her tree when the others ascended up their tree - not that she had any rope ...
The likelihood that whatever it was that happened after the deaths were projected last night, would happen again, did worry Hannah. That, and she couldn't shake the feeling - again - that she was being sectioned off by herself for a reason. That this shield around her was purposeful and not coincidence. She wondered if that was why Pig Boy and the other three Tributes kept glancing at her nervously too, like they were thinking the same thing. Hannah just didn't know if it was in her favour or not.
Suddenly, all four of their heads turn to the same direction.
Following their stare, Hannah sees the rustling of some bushes.
They all stand at the same time - Hannah too.
It's a Tribute. Two of them. The District 5 and 8 Female Tributes if Hannah is not mistaken. They're clinging to each other. They look exhausted and very dirty. The District 5 Female Tribute hobbles whilst the District 8 Female supports.
The District 3 Male Tribute welcomes them to sit by their fire.
He then gives them some food and water.
They must ask them about her because after a while, Pig Boy turns where he's sitting and points at her.
The District 5 Female Tribute frowns at first, before giving Hannah a nods and then a smile.
Hannah doesn't return it, still unsure about the two of them. Maybe if she could hear their voice, hear what they were saying...
She doesn't hold the District 5 Female Tribute's attention for too long as she turns back her attention to listen to whatever else Pig Boy is telling them. Something about the sky, as he points to it briefly.
Hannah sits for the first time since the intruders arrived, but her attention on them doesn't waver.
Suddenly, the District 3 Male stands again.
The District 2 and 4 Male Tributes stand armed with knives, ready to attack.
Next, the District 5 and 8 Female Tributes stand, drawing out knives too.
"Get your trident!" Hannah screams, standing up. "Arm yourselves!"
She looks desperately at Pig Boy, but he is angled in a way that she can't see anything but the back of him.
"Your knife, Theodore! Your knife!"
But none of her four reach for the weapons. The District 3 Male Tribute has his hands up in the air in peace. Pig Boy, the District 3 Female and the District 11 Male Tributes follow his actions.
'Did you really mean it, when you said you refused to fight?' Hannah asked.
'Yes', the District 3 Male Tribute replies.
'But what happens when it's just the seven of us left?'
'I guess I will just have to wait to see what the other six of us do. But I refuse to kill, to become a Capitol puppet'.
'I have night-lock berries', thinking of the berries she has tucked up her arm. 'Ten of them'.
'Are you suggesting that those of us who are left take them together?'
No she wasn't. She wanted to live. She wanted Pig Boy to live. She wanted them both to go back to District 12 together. Poisoned berries would be easier than killing him. 'I'm just saying I have them'.
The four intruders look anything but peaceful. They have the means to kill in their eyes.
"Fight! Fight!" Hannah cries desperately. Watching horrified and helpless as the four intruders swarm on her four allies. Whom keep their hands in the air maintaining peace.
The District 2 and 4 Male Tributes move, slitting her friends' throats like pigs.
Hannah stares in shock and disbelief at Pig Boy fallen on the floor, his neck covered in blood.
The shock only last so long before she feels herself burning up. It starts in her heart and before she knows it, it's consumed her. She screams herself horse before barging towards the male Tributes. Completely forgetting about the force shield until she's past the barrier and realised she hadn't been sliced or vaporised.
It's enough to make Hannah stop short and look back.
The force shield is no longer around the tree...?
Not only that, a multitude of loud, juxtaposing noises encompasses her and realises there is no force shield to the right or to the left of her.
In the distance, she spies the retreating the chemical fog as it moves closer to the beach.
It's spreading beyond it's dodecagon...?
Out of the corner of her eye, she notices a shiny sliver of light and thinks it must be the force shields turning back on.
But it isn't.
It's the District 2 Male Tribute and his knife, lunging at her.
She drops, crouching to the floor for her knife, but is again distracted by her environment, as the loud and unmistakeable cracks of a trees falling goes off in the near distance.
Luckily, it distracts the District 2 Male Tribute as well. "What is that?!"
Hannah makes her move whilst he is distracted, slicing his neck open like he did her friends.
A cannon goes off.
The District 4 Male she throws her knife at, hitting him in his heart, breaking his neck to be sure.
Another cannon goes off.
Grabbing his knife, and the knife from his chest, she throws each one at the remaining female Tributes who have ran off in the opposite direction, stabbing them both in the back.
They both fall to the ground.
One more cannon goes off.
Hannah turns behind her to see why it sounded like all the trees behind her were falling.
She was wrong, they weren't all falling, but a lot of them where, because - the big wave. As tall as tree tops.
The big wave that Pig Boy and the District 3 Male Tribute said occurred in this dodecagon at midday. Only because the force shields were no longer working, it was everywhere. Rapidly tearing through everything in its path. She couldn't stand around marvelling in it, it wouldn't be too long until it reached her! And begins running in the opposite direction.
I should climb! She suddenly thinks all of a sudden, because she would never out run it... That was what the District 11 Male Tribute was doing building their shelter high up in the trees.
She slows her run and starts to turn back.
How long would it last though?
Was it high en - She spots something trying to run ahead in the near distance.
The District 5 Female Tribute!
She recognises her colour hair and the plait.
She'd got back up!
It doesn't take Hannah long to catch up with her.
"What are you doing?!" She screams when Hannah pins her to the dirt. "You should be running from that thing, not trying to kill-" Hannah's hands squeeze tighter around the older girl's larynx.
The lower part of her body tries to move through, so Hannah rests her weight and kneels directly over her wound.
The District 5 Female Tributes squirms in pain, her eyes pleading at Hannah.
Hannah feels and hears her whole body panting.
She hears the chaos around her of animal mutations fleeing from the wave, of the cultivated environment around her being trampled down by a human controlled gigantic wave, and reminds herself that it is all fake. The only two real things alive in this arena is her, and this girl.
She's about to let go of the girl, when something hard knocks her head, hard enough to bleed.
She wavers and it about to let herself fall when she sees the rock in the District 5 Female Tribute's hand.
Hannah snarls at her bearing her teeth.
The District 5 Female Tribute, brings the rock to Hannah's face, but Hannah dodges under out of the way, feasting her mouth on the girl's neck and tearing at the skin until she tastes the spurts of blood in her mouth.
She spits it out, and removing the rock from the District 5 Female's hand, smashes it down into the girl's oesophagus.
She can't hear a cannon go off but the girl is definitely dead.
She runs back towards the wave, her aim is to use the shelter the District 11 Male Tribute made in the trees, but she will have to be quick!
She makes it there in time, the waves destruction metres away. She has enough time but ... but then she sees Pig Boy lying dead on the floor. She sees her other three allies also lying dead. They died because they believed in a Panem where everyone was equal, and free and where there was no Hunger Games. They refused to fight, to become a Capitol puppet.
Which is precisely what Hannah had become.
She had killed four.
She felt ... she felt ashamed.
Instead of running out of reach of the wave, she ran towards it.
~xXx~
"Ladies and gentlemen, your winner of the Third Quarter Quell Hunger Games, Hannah Euphemia Trinket Abernathy".
Hannah blinks, was she dead and dreaming?
She slowly opens her eyes, the destruction of the wave in front of her. In the background, the other half of the arena perfectly intact.
She hears a hovercraft above her.
She had won?
Joy starts to spread through her but it quickly disappears. She turns to look at Pig Boy's body.
They were so close.
She suddenly gets the urge to decorate him. Decorate him like he had done the District 11 Female Tribute. Surely that was the least she could do.
She quickly scrambles for leaves.
She hears voices.
Peacekeepers.
Haymitch said peacekeepers would come to collect her in a hovercraft when she won.
She ran with what she had and started to decorate him.
She tried not to look at his face. Not that it mattered, she wasn't able to see much with all the tears in her eyes.
She stops her movements and hugs him. Resting her head against his heart.
No heartbeat, but his body is still warm.
"Let's go", the peacekeeper says.
Hannah doesn't move. She wants to stay like this a while longer.
They try to pick her up, but Hannah just grips tighter onto Pig Boy's body.
The peacekeeper kicks her, lightly.
Then harder.
The peacekeeper tries to pick her up again and she turns her head and screams at them, pulling out the knife in Pig Boy's boot and pointing it at them.
The peacekeeper picks up his semi-automatic rifle and points it at her voice.
But Hannah doesn't care, she throws the knife on the ground and clings harder on to Pig Boy.
In the end the peacekeeper picks both she and Pig Boy up together.
~xXx~
The rest of what happens is a blur, but Hannah doesn't let go of Pig Boy no matter how many people try to take him off her. Soon, it's just her and him in a near empty room by themselves. He was still warm.
The door opens and Euphemia Coin and Haymitch walk in. She ignores what they're doing and what they're saying.
"Fix him", she says to Euphemia Coin, because surely there is some cream or some operation the Capitol have.
"Hannah -", her father, but she doesn't want to hear what he has to say.
"Fix him", she says again to Euphemia Coin, this time her voice stronger. "You promised me".
"Hannah, I can't".
"You promised!" She screams at her.
"I know I promised, I -", she goes to put her hands on Hannah's face, and Hannah snarls at her.
Haymitch yanks the woman back.
"- I couldn't. I can't, I want to but I can't", the woman pleads.
"Sweetheart, he's gone", Haymitch is still near her.
"You promised me!" She screams at Euphemia Coin
Euphemia Coin just stares back at her. After a few moments she tries to walk back to her.
Hannah flinches. "You really are the Angel of Death and I hate you! You're a bitch! You're not my mother and I hope you end up with your head on a spi-"
Haymitch's hand whacks her hard across the face stopping her speech.
Momentarily stopping her dumb.
To be honest, she is surprised he let her say that much about her.
She runs to the furthest corner of the room and takes out Madam Coin's berries.
"Haymitch!"
"Hannah, what do you have there?" Her father lunges for her but she pours the berries into her mouth. "Hannah!"
AN:/ The End - just kidding :) Happy New Year everyone! I loved Theodore, I always had him to die, but still ...