Haymitch watches Katniss make it to the Cornucopia first, then Finnick. He watches Finnick show Katniss his bracelet. The Viewing Room is lively when Katniss accepts the alliance, but the cheers die quickly when Finnick deals a killing blow to Anode, who has just reached the Cornucopia.
He switches his view on his smaller, personal screen, to Chaff, who has found refuge in the trees. He wonders, vaguely, where he learned to swim, then sees Finnick and Katniss have just joined Peeta.
Seeder has also swam to the Cornucopia island. She's reaching for a weapon when Enobaria comes up behind her, pins her arms behind her back so hard Seeder cries out. Then Enobaria opens her mouth wide, latches her sharpened teeth on Seeder's soft throat, and rips away skin and muscle, and a huge font of bright, red blood spouts out, and Seeder falls to the ground, dead.
He switches the camera to the alliance between 4 and 12. Images of Seeder over the last 25 years barrage him. He ignores them. Seeder would laugh at him, call him "you boy" for grieving her in the Viewing Room. He won't do it. He'll do it his way: alone.
He does allow himself to feel relief, and reminds himself it could be very short lived, that Finnick is all right. He starts wishing he had given the bracelet to Seeder, but it wasn't Katniss that had killed her.
Enobaria has always struck him as half monster. Not because of her sharpened teeth, or Career status she had enjoyed in her own Games, but because she took such pleasure in the Games as a mentor, even cheering kids on who were killing her kids, if she thought of a kid as weak.
Sometimes, Haymitch has found, you end up drinking buddies with people purely because they're the last ones standing with you. He guesses that can be a powerful motivator to hang out, when you're dedicated to drinking till you pass out.
He remembers one night with her. They had had to take Chaff to the Training Center so he wouldn't hit a Capitol citizen. Seeder had taken him into the apartment, and they could hear her yelling at him.
He had looked at Enobaria when the door was shut and asked, "You ready to go back out?"
She had said, "Yeah," and they had gone.
The rest of the night had become fuzzy in his brain, and he never got those memories back, which is how it was sometimes.
He remembered going to a bar. He remembered sitting on the benches by the river. It had been cold. He remembers every time they talked or laughed, steam fell out of their mouths, and was carried away by the wind.
He has this one perfectly clear, perfectly still, image of her, like a photograph.
She's holding a drink. It's steaming, and she's smiling with her mouth open. Steam is coming from her mouth and nose, drifting up and behind her. She's looking almost towards him. The stars were bright, the lights on the river had made the concrete around them glow.
The next thing he remembers with any clarity is Enobaria throwing her drink at a Peacekeeper.
"Yeah!" she cried.
Haymitch stood up, turned around so he could see the Peacekeeper.
Enobaria was still sitting on her bench, her arm thrown over the back so she could see the Peacekeeper and he could see her.
"How you like that, piggie?"
Haymitch's mouth had actually fallen open.
The Peacekeeper had slung his gun over his shoulder and pointed it at her.
He jumped between them, leaping over the back of the bench to get there, hands up as soon as his feet were on the ground.
"Hey," he said. "Look at me."
The Peacekeeper had. His eyes were wide, and there was sweat on his upper lip.
Enobaria was laughing.
"Piggie, piggie, piggie. Don't you know how to talk, little piggie?"
The Peacekeeper was watching Enobaria now, and Haymitch turned to look over his shoulder at Enboria, standing, perfectly balanced on the back of the bench, before stepping to the ground, almost looking like she were floating down an invisible slide, the move was so liquid.
Like a snake made of smoke, she walked forward, and they were hypnotized by her gaze.
She had walked past Haymitch without looking at him, and he had kept his eyes trained on her, saw she was still smiling, until he remembered he was supposed to have her back, and locked eyes on the Peacekeeper. It seemed he was just as under her spell, because he did not move a muscle, except the ones in his eyes, to watch her, as she walked forward, right past his gun.
When she was two inches away, she had thrust her head forward and shouted,
"OINK OINK!"
The Peacekeeper had run.
He and Enobaria had laughed until they cried and run all the way back to the Training Center.
She told that story for years.
And now she has killed Seeder.
While he was reminiscing, thinking about Careers, who the real enemy is, and other higher ideals, Peeta has died.
He puts his hands on either side of the screen, oblivious to the other mentors, and willing his eyes to see something else, Peeta alive, Peeta standing up, making a joke. But he just lies on the jungle floor, lifeless.
Then Finnick starts doing the swimmer's kiss, a move to restart breathing and normal heart rhythm. Haymitch had thought it could only be worked on the drowning, but feels a small flicker of hope. When Peeta sits up, gasping, Haymitch releases his death grip on his screen.
The Viewing Room is much emptier than usual.
Most districts only have two or three living victors, and there aren't enough mentors for all the districts. In the past, stylists, Gamemakers, and escorts came through, too, giving messages, stats, stopping by for a chat. No one has done that yet, and the first day is half over.
Haymitch doesn't mind, he's hardly in the frame of mind to speak to Capitol citizens, even somewhat glad Effie isn't here, just because he's not sure he can be a comfort to anybody. It's still a stark reminder of how different things are this year. As if he needed reminding.
He checks on Johanna. She's with Beetee and Wiress, making it sound like it's their fault they don't have water. Blight is laughing, egging her on, and making her even more mad. Haymitch's lips twitch and he turns the screen to Chaff.
He's stumbling through the trees and foliage, stabbing his spear at plants in the jungle. It looks purposeful, but Haymitch doesn't figure out what's going on for about thirty seconds. Then he remembers his own bouts with withdrawal, and realizes his friend is stabbing at hallucinations.
Haymitch is wondering if he's going to cry right here in the Viewing Room, when Chaff stabs a tree and finds water. He keeps screens on all three groups, plus the Careers.
The Careers are making camp for the night, setting up watches, laughing. He turns the sound off on their screen, and is put off whenever they're on the live feed.
He watches Finnick, Mags, Katniss, and Peeta settle down for the night. It's relatively early, but it looks like the victors have had enough for one day.
Peeta's not holding up well after his run-in with the forcefield, which apparently, the Gamemakers have weaponized this year. He wonders if it's meant as a message to him, or just one more way to pick the tributes off as quickly as possible.
His tributes need water. Plutarch gave him the breakdown of the arena – water in the trees, clockwork killing machine, et cetera, but Haymitch can't get this information to any of the tributes. It would look suspicious for them to know too much, too fast. He can't just send them water. These Games look like they'll be fast, but it will be days, and it looks hot and humid, so they'll lose water quickly. It would get too expensive.
He thinks of different ways to get them to stab a tree, find out the way Chaff did.
It comes to him. Peeta might know what it is, his family seems the most likely to need syrup, but he thinks Katniss might guess first. She's told him some about her trips into the woods with her father.
He leaves the Viewing Room and runs into a Peacekeeper.
"No leaving the Viewing Room without an escort," the Peacekeeper says, voice strangely emotionless, unless it's because of the mask's speakers.
"Well, I need to get my escort, sweetheart. Or do you do that for me?"
The Peacekeeper irritably waves the gun in a "go on" motion, so he does. He finds Effie, looking tense and miserable, in the nicer Viewing Room for stylists, and escorts, and privileged guests. They don't have individual screens they can manipulate, but in every other way, the room is a lot more high tech and festive.
She sees him and says, "We have to get them water."
"I know, come on."
They leave the Training Center and are trailed by two Peacekeepers to the nearest bar. Effie does most of the persuading and then they have the money they need. He orders a spile from the Gamemakers, and asks it be sent after the anthem, afraid they'll walk around looking for water and miss it otherwise.
Effie stays with him until they figure it out. She cheers when they start drinking. They share a meaningful look and then she says, "I'm not supposed to be here."
He nods. "I'll see you in the apartment once they're asleep."
She grins and leaves. Haymitch watches her go.