Chapter Fifty-Nine: That Was Then, This Is Now

Still Night Four

Sienna Starboard, District Four Female

While saying I'm afraid of them isn't quite true, I've never been very fond of thunderstorms.

They're a constant threat back in District Four, and when they get bad, they get bad. Six years ago, right after Sirena and I started training at the academy, a hurricane ripped through the area and destroyed pretty much everything in its path. Even today, we don't know the exact death toll, but the estimates averaged out near an even one thousand, with twice as many injuries. It took months after that to get the area into a livable state.

Fortunately, guarding the Cornucopia doesn't require looking up, so I can't see the clouds overhead, even though the stiff, damp breeze and approaching thunder tell me they're right above me. Even when lightning starts flickering overhead, I manage to keep from gazing at the nonexistent stars.

Then, the first few notes of the anthem reach my ears, causing me to look up just as the Capitol's insignia provides some faint illumination against the pitch-black sky above.

Normally, I'd let Godric sleep through the anthem, as he does the same for me, but once I see the first face in the sky, I understand I should probably tell him now before I forget, because whatever plans he's made have changed. Fortunately, he's not far and barely asleep, so waking him up isn't a big issue. While I wish I could have done it without him jumping up and almost attacking me before recognizing who I am, that's not something I need to make a deal out of.

Godric doesn't look pleased. "What the hell was that for?"

"Just… look."

I consider myself lucky that he obliges me. He comes out just in time to see Galadia's face staring back at us, irrefutable evidence that one of the Games' biggest threats, and Godric's District partner to boot, is dead. All we have to worry about now is Clara, and even if she is a brilliant fighter, I'm sure the two of us can handle her. Now the future has become just a bit less uncertain.

That hope instantly becomes despair when her face is replaced by Vick's. I didn't know him very well, but he was from home, and that was what matters. Now, I have to win it if the District is to get a victor.

The face changes once more to display the boy from Five, our victim from earlier today. His face hovers in the sky for a few seconds, then everything shuts off and we're left in the dark once more.

All the stiffness fades from Godric's expression. "Wow. I guess that happened."

"It did indeed," I reply.

"Thanks for showing me that right away, but I think I'm going back to sleep now," Godric says. "When your shift ends, just wake me up." Then, he marches back inside the Cornucopia as another flash of lightning briefly illuminates the world, attempting to curl up in his sleeping bag so he can nod off.

After he's gone, it leaves me with a little time to process yesterday's deaths. I've been keeping track of who's left the best I can, just because I need to know who our biggest worries are. If I recall correctly, besides us, the remaining tributes whom I know could pose a threat on their own are Clara, the girl from Eight, and both tributes from Eleven. Everyone who remains we could probably handle without a struggle, at least on their own.

Two flashes of lightning come in quick succession, and the first few raindrops land on my shoulders and in my hair. It's going to be nasty out, at least for a little while.

I'm sure I'll survive, though. I have a decent shelter, I'm not close to trees, and I'm used to being outside when weather like this hits. I'm sure there are tributes for which none of that is true, I'll suck it up.

Rhaemyr North, District Three Male

The rain is starting, and I'm reminded just how much I fucking hate thunderstorms.

While being cold and wet isn't the most pleasant feeling, that's far from the biggest reason I hate, hate, hate this kind of weather. Worst of all, it reminds me of… never mind, no time to think about it now. Happy thoughts. Happy fucking thoughts.

One blinding flash and a deafening crack of thunder answer me, and that's precisely when the rain starts falling in sheets. Okay, not yet. Find a place where I'll stay dry, then I'll have time for all the fucking happy thoughts I need.

Under just about any other circumstances, my bag being light enough that I could run while carrying it without much of a struggle would be at least somewhat problematic. Here, I don't care in the slightest about that: it means I'll spend less time wet and searching. It doesn't take long to reach the woods, but that doesn't do much to hold back the rain and makes the world even darker than before. Nope, nope, nope, have to keep going.

I pause for a second to catch my breath again near a big tree, panting as hard as I can and preparing to run again as soon as my second wind kicks in. Before that can happen, though, I feel what I can only describe as a tickly sensation running across my face, spreading to my hair in a split second.

Realization dawns and I fucking run.

Maybe a millisecond before a bolt of lightning strikes the big tree and shocks it and everything within the radius of its roots into oblivion, I clear the blast range. The resulting thunder tries its damndest to make my fucking ears burst, and everything starts going fuzzy as I see nothing, feel nothing, the world disappearing as I charge blindly through the night, not sure where I'm going but wanting it to be far away from here.

No time to think. I swerve away from every lightning strike I find, almost duck and cover every time I hear a thunderclap, wanting nothing more than to find somewhere fucking safe and dry where I know nothing can happen to me, as ridiculous as that sounds in the fucking Hunger Games.

Have to find somewhere, don't give a shit where. I haven't found somewhere like it since the Games started but that doesn't mean a place like it can't exist, right? Running at a dead sprint through the woods, supplies cutting into my back, head pounding, heart racing, eyes barely comprehending anything in front of me as my head works on a swivel, looking around again and again for a mythical shelter to appear…

There!

Ahead of me looms a massive cliff, which possibly looks climbable but not in a rainstorm. That's not the important part, though. It has a gaping hole in its face almost directly in the center, which looks big enough to take me if I bend over just a bit. That doesn't matter, standing up is somewhere near the bottom of my list of priorities right now.

I'm not out of the woods quite yet, both literally or figuratively. A lightning strike directly behind me signals that I need to fucking keep moving, and I do, almost throwing myself into the cave without even a pretense of stealth. That's not good enough for me, though. I keep crawling back, and back, and back, until the cave reaches a slight bend and obscures the entrance from view. By the time I stop, I can barely see or hear the storm at all. With nothing else left to do, I just collapse in relief, one unsettling motion away from shattering.

I don't give a fuck that this cave is almost certainly occupied, or that whatever does inhabit it will have to be dealt with in the morning or before this fucking storm is even over.

The lightning can't reach me here.

The world can't hurt me here.

There's nothing that reminds me of the streets here.

Odysea Davos, District Eleven Female

With a storm like this, I'm once again reminded of home.

In District Eleven, summer thunderstorms are quite a common occurrence, and they can get really horrific. Bad enough to destroy houses. Bad enough to kill people. Bad enough to actually force the Peacekeepers to give us the afternoon off during harvest season.

This one isn't great, but it's not too powerful compared to the worst ones I experienced there. Unfortunately, unlike many of those, I'm outside getting drenched right now, since Thomiah's shift finished and he woke me up for my turn. He was soaked as well, so it's not like I can complain. Then again, it wouldn't quite surprise me if he'd jumped into the lake or something, given what little of his nature I learned from him recounting his experiences back home.

On occasion, the lightning strikes the lake, but I'm standing far enough away from it that it doesn't bother me. Plus, the lake's big enough that if we needed to fish or collect plants from it, I doubt one or even a handful of lightning strikes is enough to kill everything in it. Other than that, all I notice is rain, wind, flashes, and thunder.

The biggest upside of this is that I doubt anyone's chosen tonight to get any attacks in. Too easy for something to go wrong, especially since I've needed to start being careful where I place my feet, because the rain has made the ground quite slippery. Anyone trying to sneak up on me in this weather is more than likely going to wipe out, and that'll give me enough time to run, or make a move on them if I needed to.

Then the storm begins to increase in intensity; maybe the Gamemakers cranked up a knob or something. The thunder, lightning, and rain are roughly the same as before, but the wind starts picking up, moving from a breeze to a cutting force, then becoming strong enough that staying upright becomes a challenge. There's nothing I'm running away from or attempting to reach, so the move just confuses me for a handful of seconds. Other than mildly inconveniencing me and maybe dumping me in the lake if I don't get up in time, what purpose does this serve?

Then the first arrow comes into view as it flies/bounces toward me, and everything makes sense. "Shit, the supplies!"

Running against this wind is difficult, but I manage the best I can. The first thing I do is check our bags. With horror, I note that the gale has become strong enough that both of them are rolling slowly but surely toward the lake.

Stooping low, I manage to grab one bag, then the other, swinging one over each shoulder. Fortunately for us, both bags remained closed, so I don't think we lost anything from inside them. Now, the only problem is making sure I don't lose all the arrows I found here, since there wasn't really a place to store them and they were all just lying around.

The wind and the rain make it a disaster trying to run anywhere but I do my best anyway, grabbing whatever arrows I can find before looking for a safe place to put them, finding one in a space behind the targets where the wind will just blow them against a solid object. I grab whatever I can, then rinse and repeat.

A few arrows slip past me and wind up in the lake, but not many. I probably could go grab them, but I don't want to get into the water in the dark when I don't even know what's in it. For all I know, it's covering quicksand or filled with sharks or something equally terrifying. And I have enough arrows with me that it's just not worth the risk.

A spear of lightning striking the lake makes sure of that. I've made it my entire life without getting struck by lightning (which has happened to more District Eleven citizens than anyone cares to admit) and I don't want to start now.

Hopefully this dies down soon. I can't imagine this going on any longer being very helpful.

Sotia Vance, District Three Female

In the Games, thunderstorms are often more useful than problematic, at least for District Three tributes.

The lightning gets me thinking. A lot of the District Three greats, amongst them Beetee, Wiress, and Gear, built things that utilized electricity to deadly degrees. Beetee got the Careers to stumble into an electrical trap, Wiress snuck into the Cornucopia and rewired some of the weapons the Careers had been gifted so they'd backfire spectacularly on them, Gear used a storm just like this one to supercharge the Cornucopia and kill the sleeping Careers.

And what am I doing?

Standing out in the fucking open because I don't want to be struck, unable to do anything with this amazing, natural weapon I've been gifted. It's annoying, to say the least.

It did give me something to drink, which is a bonus. The rainwater not being toxic is a great sign the Gamemakers are feeling somewhat generous with supplies this time around. There have been years where they've been much stingier about things like that, and it ultimately got people killed every time that happened. And at least it meant when the wind picked up, the worst thing that happened was that I fell over, not off a cliff or out of a tree or something that could have gotten me killed or permanently injured.

I can be grateful for all that. I can't be grateful for my goddamn supplies being fucking useless in the rain.

"Think," I say to myself out loud, bookended by two loud thunderclaps. "How can I make the most of this?"

Unfortunately, my brain appears to have burned itself out from trying to stay alive for the past four days and change, so I don't have anything, at least with the supplies I've been given. Canned vegetables don't do much good to amplify lightning, or during a fight, period.

And since I don't have anything that could really make a machine at the moment, no amount of hoping will get me anything useful in that department. Individual parts tend to be pretty cheap to sponsor someone since they're useless on their own, but anything needed to build a working machine from scratch would collectively cost so much that I'd be running on fumes the rest of the Games, if I could even get everything I needed at all. Not worth it.

Which brings me back to the supplies I do have. I still have that sponsored vial of poison in my arsenal, so while that's not really in my wheelhouse, I guess I'll have to make the most of it. The color's pretty light, so it can't be that potent (good if the container somehow breaks, bad because I'll probably need to use a lot to get anything out of it). Unfortunately, to use said poison, I need to first find someone to use it on. And I'll need to make extra sure the vial stays closed since I don't want the rainwater diluting everything.

Once the rain stops, or at least it gets light enough that I can see what I'm doing, I'll have to go hunting. My relevance has to have been dwindling in a hurry since I made my escape from the Careers, and if the death toll from yesterday implies anything, these Games aren't going to take forever like they sometimes do. I only have so many chances to regain the spotlight.

Most of the tributes, even a good chunk of the Careers, aren't that smart. I'm sure I can figure out how to trick someone into ingesting the poison if I really need to. All that's required is for me to mix it into something inconspicuous and wait for the magic to happen.

Sotia Vance, straight-A student, older sister, and soon-to-be murderer. I wonder how my classmates back home are looking at me now.

Author's Notes:

-Another shorter chapter. Honestly, now that the alliances are starting to break up, meaning that there's a lot less interaction between tributes, shorter chapters at night might become the norm. During the day should remain the same.

-This isn't going to happen quite yet, I'm going to wait for a few more deaths, but soon I'm going to drop the chapters per day/night cycle from four to two to keep the plot moving along. We've got at least another day or two before that happens, I'll have to see how the Games pan out.

-That's all I've got. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next chapter!