Alexa Cadence- District Nine female

All I had left of my home was the cord bracelet stretched tight around my wrist. I rested my hand on the train window ledge, feeling the stiff string press into my skin. My mother put it on me, and knowing she touched it made me feel like I was touching her. She was the strongest woman I knew, and I hoped it had rubbed off on me.

In the Capitol, the bow called to me. I'd never seen one before, and I had no idea how to work it. I knew the idea, I mean, but I didn't know the technique or the art. The assistants tried to help me, and I did pretty good for someone who only had four days to learn. By the time the sessions rolled around, I was hitting the target almost every time, and sometimes I made some pretty good shots.

Elementary skills aside, I didn't do anything stupid at the Bloodbath. I saw the bronze bow glittering in the bright sunlight, casting a rippling reflection on the smooth water, but I let it go. When the gong sounded, I ran the other way and started swimming. I wouldn't even have reached it, and if I had, what good would a bow do at that distance when my opponents were killers? One of the Careers might have taken it, or otherwise they threw it into the ocean so someone like me couldn't.

I picked the wrong island. I spent the first four days hiding in the hollow under a tree, drinking water droplets off a patch of moss while the Careers tramped back and forth at all hours looking for people. It took that four days for them to leave so I could finally move. I was ardently thankful to them when they did. I'd been laying in filth and waste. If it had been much longer, my skin would have started to rot. Even just as long as it took, I'd never forget the smell and the shame.

When I was free, I started making my weapon. I didn't know about bow-making either, but I knew the idea, and primitive people had been making bows for centuries before we came up with fancy recurve metal. I picked out a branch with enough spring to bend and started pounding notches out with a rock. Capitolites aren't very imaginative. They didn't even think that a paracord bracelet might be used as a bowstring.

I pulled back the string, testing its give. I wasn't sure how effective it would be, and I wouldn't know until I made an arrow. I was trying to find some sticks, the bow slung over my shoulder, when the greenery behind me rustled. I turned around as Mako smashed into me, driving his shoulder into my back and knocking me to the ground. He raised his spear to impale me and I donkey-kicked his leg.

Mako stumbled back and fell on his butt. As he gathered his legs under him to stand up, I shoved the tip of my bow into his stomach, hoping to stun him so I could run. He grabbed the bow, pulling me off-balance as he hauled himself up with it. Then the wood snapped, sending us both toppling backwards.

Mako flipped over onto his stomach to pick up the spear he'd dropped, and I made a desperate move. I leaped forward onto his back, the two pieces of the bow still in my hand. I wrapped my legs around his waist and dropped my hands over his head. Then I yanked back, yanking the string onto his neck and bringing my hands together so the paracord coiled all around his throat. As Mako started to try to shake me off, I sat up and reared back, putting all my weight on the cord. Mako started hacking and sputtering, and he threw himself onto his back to try to get me to let go. I just held on as he rolled around, stabbing blindly at me with his spear. And then, not fifteen seconds later, he slumped all over and stopped moving.

He's faking, I thought. I didn't know how long it took to strangle someone. I lay with my hands still pulled tight, wondering how long I should hold it so I could get away before he woke up. Or whether I should let him up at all. He was trying to kill me, and I'd been making a bow for just this result.

BOOM

It startled me, and I jumped. It hadn't even been two minutes. I thought it must be someone else's, and I craned my neck to look at Mako. His mouth gaped open, black tongue protruding, and there was no breath. I couldn't believe it was really that fast.

It was the same way when I killed the final Tribute. Eleanor never even saw me lying nearly flat on the grass, craning my arms so I could hold the bow. She wasn't far from me, and she was standing still when I shot. It only took ten seconds that time.

Before the hovercraft came, I untied the bowstring and wound it around my wrist. I was strong, as strong as my mother. As strong as paracord.