Katrina Moonshadow- District Seven female
I took a huge breath and jumped into the water. What would make the life-changing difference was how deep it was. When I dropped in, bending my knees, the water closed over my head. I reoriented myself underwater so I was parallel to the Cornucopia and opened my eyes.
With the muddiness of the water almost nothing was visible. What was visible was the reflective glare of light coming through plastic bags. I swam in an arc hugging the platforms, tugging bags underwater one after another. When I felt about halfway through my air, I turned and swam toward the cattails. My lungs were burning before I got there, but I ignored it until I was safely hidden. Only then did I let my head peek just above water. I slunk further into the cattails, head barely visible like an alligator, until the Bloodbath was far behind me.
It was less than a minute later when I came out the other side. The cattail ring ran a circle around the platforms so some of us could get away during the Bloodbath, but it wasn't very thick. I looked out at the Arena stretching before me. The water widened into something between a lake and a river. It wound between clumps of plant matter and what looked like solid land. It was solid land, or at least near it, since I saw two Tributes walking away from me on it. A very few scattered trees stood in the distance among the wetness.
A cannon sounded behind me. I jumped and had to grab back a bag I'd dropped. I kept count of them as they went on, but it wasn't my primary thought. Cannons meant the Bloodbath was over. The Bloodbath being over meant the Careers would be moving.
I waded out farther into the open water. After a few steps it was noticeably deeper. If I went much farther it would be over my head. I knew I had to go forward, and there were only two options: exposed land or open water. I couldn't take a chance on land. I took a few more steps. When my reaching feet no longer touched bottom, I steadied my breath and forced my nerves down.
My stomach felt weightless as I swam with my head under the water. I didn't like not being able to touch bottom. I didn't like not being able to see it. Actually, I couldn't see anything under the water, because when I went under between breaths, I closed my eyes. I knew that the Gamemakers made this place. If I opened my eyes underwater, eventually I would see something looking back at me.
Andrea D'Amour- District Three female
As soon as I saw what the Arena was, my eyes scanned the Bloodbath for one thing and one thing only. I ran in unhesitatingly to get it. It didn't matter what I had to risk to get it, because if I didn't, I was dead. I grabbed one other thing on the way out and ran for the cattails.
I didn't see anyone when I came out on the other side. Even so, I waded a long time through a faux island of grass floating on a thin crust of dirt before I felt safe enough to stop. The water had gotten shallower enough that I could sit on my butt and have my waist above water. Then I got to work.
In modern Panem, what I was worried about was never a problem. But I'd flipped through my fathers' textbooks plenty of times looking for interesting and gross pictures. And some of the grossest ones that came to mind were the mostly black-and-white pictures of feet exhibiting the signs of trench foot. Constant immersion in water would make the skin of my feet and lower legs dessicate until it sloughed off like wet toilet paper. Left long enough, the flesh could rot away until bone. More likely it would get infected far before that. The water was warmer than it should have been- the Gamemakers wanted to make sure at least we didn't all get hypothermia- but that meant it was seething with microorganisms ready to invade any open wounds.
I opened my second bag and took out a pair of dry socks. I took off my shoes, which were something in the middle between rain boots and combat boots, reaching a third of the way up my calves. I turned them over and shook out all the water I could. I left them upside down while I raised my feet above the water, patted them as dry as I could with my wet socks, and carefully slipped the boots back on. I very carefully stood up. The water didn't reach over my boots, leaving my feet dry. I opened up my first bag and took out a roll of duct tape helpfully labeled 'waterproof'. My pants barely reached to the top of the boots. I wound strips of tape around my boots and my pants, connecting them into a set of waders. I was waterproof in anything up to waist-deep water.
Next up was water. I had plenty of water, of course, but not potable water. Luckily, that was a lot easier than people thought. I filled up my bags with the water around me and twisted a rope out of duct tape. I taped the bags to either end of the rope and slung it over my shoulder. Solar radiation didn't kill all germs, but it killed a lot of them. The rest I'd have to take my chances with. It took at least eight hours to work. I needed to keep walking anyway. I wouldn't feel safe for at least that long.
Camille Igawa- District Nine female
I waved my arms wildly as I followed behind the two figures with their backs toward me. They were the right relative sizes to be Ryx and Cerise, and I'd seen them both heading that way. The water was open behind me between me and the cattails. If the Careers were there it wouldn't make a difference I was trying to attract attention. And if it wasn't my allies there was no reason to expect violence. We were too close to the Cornucopia to risk a fight.
The shorter figure glanced behind and saw me. He waved and I saw the shout blossom and die in this throat. He lightly shoved the taller figure, who looked back and saw me. When I squinted at them I could recognize my allies. They waved and resumed moving, but slowly enough that I could catch up. We regrouped in a thicket of tall grass that just hid our crouched forms.
"Aurelia's dead," Ryx said. His wide eyes were reflected in the surface of the water.
"Di you see Jay?" Cerise asked.
Jay was dangling from Cyrene's arms blood flowing like a spilled glass
"He didn't make it," I said. Cerise put her fist to her mouth and nodded. Ryx looked between us like he might find Jay there
"Did you get anything?" I asked. I thought I'd seen Cerise grabbing something, but my memories of the Bloodbath, other than Jay, were muddled.
"I got a knife," Cerise said. She raised her underwater hand and its blade split the surface and glittered in the light. "Also this first aid kit. It was right there." It was a tiny kit the size of a clutch handbag and it had a lanyard for easier carrying.
"There was nothing near my platform," Ryx said.
"I grabbed this," I said. I reached into my waistband and took out the bag I hadn't even bothered to look inside.
"That's exactly what we need!" Cerise almost yelled before she remembered to hiss it. She was looking at the plastic bag itself "There's iodine in the first aid kit."
"What's in the bag?" Ryx asked.
I opened it and took out the square of thick material. I unfolded it and was surprised to see how many more times it was folded. I kept unfolding and unfolding until I finally realized what it was.
"It's a tarp," I said. A tarp made of brown material so impossibly thin that a piece almost twelve feet square could be folded into a sandwich bag. For a while I just stood there holding it and marveling. In this Arena, in this situation, it was the most staggering work of genius the Capitol had ever devised.
No deaths this time! I'm going to take it slow and let it marinate, appropriately.
