Welcome to the end of the Games, but it's not the end of the story yet! Stay tuned for more updates on Mondays and Thursdays, as always.
Chapter 54- Terra Coppersmith
The sound of the two back to back cannons lets me know that I have only one opponent left. The arena is light now, with softly falling snow. I'm almost at the Cornucopia, half frozen and almost dead to the world myself. I almost think my cannon will be firing before I reach the golden horn.
I've been walking for ages now, but I'm almost there, I'm almost at my destination. I have to keep looking okay, for Iry. She's my biggest priority right now. Her and my thoroughly frostbitten limbs.
I'm almost there. I have to just keep telling myself that, and everything will be alright. My bow is frozen into my hands, and I don't think I'd be able to let it go even if I wanted to. Just keep going, Terra. Just keep going. I'm in the final two, which is unbelievable to begin with, but now I have to defeat one last person, who is the strongest in the arena. It's probably going to be Kouza. Please don't let it be Kouza.
The sunrise is gorgeous, but I can hardly focus on it. I'm more concerned about my painful and swollen joints, my frozen feet, and the fact that I'm probably going to die within the next few minutes. Just keep going.
I stumble over the last hill of snow, and arrive upon a horrifying sight. The snow around the Cornucopia is absolutely soaked with blood. There're the remains of some sort of bear like mutt outside, lying in two pieces and still gushing blood. A metallic smell is in the air, making me gag. What the hell happened here? I'm glad I missed it.
Limping around the corner, I look into the horn itself. Everything is quiet here; can everyone be dead besides me? No, I only heard two cannons. Somebody is still alive. But who?
There're two bodies lying on the floor in pools of blood. In fact, the whole entrance to the Cornucopia is a pool of blood. One of those bodies, I'm pleased to see, is Kouza's, and the other is a girl. I don't know who she is, though; there's not enough light to see.
Someone moans from inside the Cornucopia, making me jump. Sounds like they're hurt. There's no way I'm going to be able to shoot a bow in my condition. So, with difficulty, I drop my bow and pick up a knife that's lying by the mutt at the entrance. My frozen fingers close around the hilt painfully, but they manage. This is it; this is the last day.
I don't want to die.
A girl comes stumbling out from behind some crates; her appearance makes me recoil in horror. Her face has been hacked to pieces; one of her eyes is gone or at least severely damaged, and she's bleeding heavily. I can't even make out any features to help me figure out who she is. Again, what the hell happened here?
It's her hair that gives her away; the long red-blonde hair that is knotted and matted with blood now, but still somewhat recognizable. And I know that this must be the girl from District 4. I feel pity for her; she was so beautiful in the Capitol. And now she's unrecognizable but by her hair.
"You're alive," she says, somewhat garbled. I nod.
"Yeah."
"Thought you were dead," she says, taking a shaky step towards me.
"Not yet," I say. I nod towards the bodies. "You kill them?"
"Only the girl," she says. I nod again. The girl from 4 is unarmed, so what am I waiting for? I need to kill her, but everything about me is moving slow. I can't even feel my feet anymore.
Suddenly, she grabs a knife from a nearby crate and lunges forward. Before I can react, she's sliced my forehead open, sending blood streaming into my eyes. I scream and slash out blindly with my own knife; it meets flesh and she screams too before falling silent.
I press one of my gloved hands to my forehead, but it does no good; hot and thick blood keeps crashing into my eyes, making them sting. I can't see, only sob with pain. Where is the girl? I can't see her! Where is she?
Suddenly, the cannon goes. What's going on? She's dead? The girl from 4 is dead? I clear my eyes just enough to see that the flesh I met with my knife was her throat. She lies at my feet, blood gushing from the gaping wound I slashed in her throat. Her remaining eye stares blankly at the wall.
I leave the girl and stagger my way outside, blinded by my own blood. As I step onto the bloodstained snow, trumpets blare. Over some speaker, Caius Glorystream's voice shouts over the fanfare.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victor of the Thirty-sixth Hunger Games: Terra Coppersmith of District 8!"
I've won.
The hovercraft appears over me out of nowhere, dropping a ladder down to where I stand. With the hand that's not currently pressed to my bleeding forehead, I grasp a rung. Instantly, I'm frozen, and the ladder pulls me up, taking me away from the arena at last. It pulls me up inside the hovercraft, where the current releases me and I collapse on the floor.
The lights in here are too bright, and I'm terrified. I don't trust whoever is on this hovercraft to not put me back in the arena and leave me there. People in bright clothing are bustling past me now; someone takes my hands away from my head and wraps a bandage around my wound.
"She'll need to get into surgery immediately," someone says nearby, and I press myself backward against the grey walls. It's difficult with my feet and hands.
"No, no surgery!" I say, but I'm weak and really quite helpless. Someone in a lab coat comes at me with a needle, and despite my protests, injects me in the arm.
I scream, then everything goes dark.