Wyatt Sparks, District Three
When I saw the Arena I laughed. What a time to be alive. I stood in a tableau carefully laid out by the Capitol, each piece hand-selected and hand-placed. I stood in a garbage dump. A smelly gross garbage dump. I looked from Career to Career and if I had to die I was glad I got to see the revolted horror on their faces.
Joke's on you, I thought. This is what Three smells like all the time. At least the parts with poor people like me.
Joke was on the Capitol, too. I was basically in an entire village of free stuff. I'd never had a bicycle before but I found one within two days. I couldn't ride it, since there was no open ground between all the garbage, but I had a bike and I felt pretty rich. And working for my food was a thing of the past. I could pick up a spotty banana right off the ground and eat it. Arena? More like paradise.
We lost Pepper five days in. I never even heard Vera coming. I only knew she was there when Pepper fell forward and I saw the arrow in her back. Hermes and I could only run. I didn't do much laughing that day.
Hermes had been taking the Games much harder than I had even before Pepper's death. He was as melancholic by nature as I was hopeful. It was hard seeing him retreat more and more into himself as the Games progressed. I tried to keep his spirits up but there's only so much other people can do for you.
"It's for the best Pepper died." It came out of nowhere. Hermes and I were sitting on some garbage just kind of doing nothing when he looked off in the distance and said it.
"What?" I didn't even know what to say.
"We're all going to die eventually. It's a release. There's nothing here worth living for," Hermes said matter-of-factly.
"Don't think like that." I was so confused and upset all I could say was a platitude. "We have to keep hoping. Don't let them win."
"I don't care anymore," Hermes said. Alarm bells blared in my head. That was dead-on what people said when they were about to kill themselves.
"Hey," I said softly. "It's hard. I'm not denying that. But don't give up." I wracked my brain for something to distract him. "Let's get back to camp. We can play with those cards we found."
I didn't consciously register the shape of Hermes' shadow behind me but something in my brain did. I ducked to the side as he brought the rock down. I backed away as Hermes stumbled forward with momentum.
What? Why? I'd known Hermes was downcast. I hadn't known it would turn into murder. I shoved him down and ran. I heard him screaming something I couldn't make out as he sat in the garbage watching me run.
I never saw Hermes again. It was Serena I ended up killing in the finale. It was something I didn't like talking about. When the Games were over I put it behind me and barely ever spoke of them again. I preferred happier subjects. I wasn't the same afterwards, of course. Try as I might I wasn't quite as lighthearted. But I wasn't like Hermes, either. Some people can't stand up to what the Capitol throws at a person and that was no slight to them. No one should have to endure that. It was no credit of mine that I was made resilient. More likely than not it just meant I didn't understand the world like other people. I couldn't think of any other way I could look at the world I lived in and still laugh.