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-Finnick:
I hold my breath as the screen shows Skitt and Rachel jump and start to rapidly close the eighty foot gap between their takeoff point and the sea below.
"She can't swim!" Haymitch's worried yell bellows through the victor's room. All noise stops as everyone watches the screen. It shows them still falling, and then they disappear under the waves. Skitt expertly condenses his body together so that he will shoot to the sea floor and be able to push off to reach the surface. Rachel on the other hand doesn't know this, she ends up slamming hard against the water with her arms. Skitt resurfaces almost immediately and treads water as he waits for Rachel.
"She doesn't swim you tart." I moan at the screen, if only he could hear me. But then Rachel resurfaces as well, that's odd, she can't swim. That's when the broadcasters explain that the sea is extremely high in salt content, so much so that the victors will float. It's impossible to drown because you don't know how to swim here.
"That was fun, but we should get to shore." Rachel tells Skitt, he nods.
"Which shore?" he's right, there's a narrow strip of land that goes around the base of the plateau, it's only about ten feet wide and circles the whole land mass. Or they could make their way to the mainland with the forest.
"I'd prefer the woods, feels more like home."
Skitt nods and explains the basics of moving through water, before long they've reached shore and are hiking through the forest, heading uphill.
I decide they're safe for a while, so I get up and go to get something to drink. I grab a shot of some liquor, I'm about to take a sip before it's knocked out of my hand.
"We're both staying sober for her." Haymitch growls at me, I can see this is killing him, it's killing me too, but I understand. I nod and get water instead. Then go back to my couch and watch more, Haymitch sits next to me. "There's a meeting tonight, we're deciding the day." He means the day to get them out.
"Good, the sooner the better."
-Rachel:
Two hours since I jumped from the cliff Skitt and I decide it's safe to check our packs and weapons. As we stop the full guilt of what I've done hits me, I've killed another person, taken another life. Sure, I've done it plenty before, but, I knew Gloss. Yea, I didn't like her, but I knew her, I've known her almost all my life. I know that her favorite food was pasta, her favorite color purple, that she didn't like ice in her water.
"I hope you're happy" I growl, looking to the sky. "I hope you're happy that we're killing each other! I hope you're enjoying the fact that this is completely different! I knew her! We all have won already! Isn't that the deal win and you don't come back here!" I'm yelling to the sky now, Skitt is just standing there dumbfounded, not sure what to do. "You know what though! I'm glad to be here, we all are! Cause this is who we are now! Who you've made us be! We're killers! We're murderers!" I feel something be stuffed into my mouth, cutting off my rant against the Capital. Skitt figured out how to stop me.
"Please shut up" Skitt mumbles to me shyly.
I rip the, I look down at the object in my hand, towel? Okay then, this might come in handy; I throw it at Skitt's face for now. "You better stay on my good side; we're supposed to kill each other." I growl, this earns me a trident tip to my throat, okay Skitt found a trident too, wonderful.
"But we're allies, aren't we"
I glance at the trident that's at my throat. I nod my head slightly. "Yeah, we are." Skitt lowers his trident. Clearly our alliance won't last long if it's just the two of us.
We go through our packs together; there's little food, a few extra knives, two sleeping bags (which I'm sure Finnick is happy about), a spool of wire, and empty water containers.
"We should find fresh water first, there should be some nearby." I mention Skitt just nods to me. We repack and start off again, two hours later we're at the edge of one of the meadows. It's quiet and peaceful, usually that would be good, but these are the Hunger Games, quiet and peaceful isn't the norm here. "I'll go out to the pond, you watch my back" Skitt agrees to this and we go out.
When I reach the pool I quickly dunk my head in and then proceed to fill the three containers we have. Nothing's happened, which just adds to my fear that something will happen soon. I'm working on filling the last and just starting to think maybe something else is going on elsewhere so we will be left alone, when I feel a firm grip on my wrist.
"Holy hell! Skitt!" I scream out to the man who's standing a few yards off. I see a green hand holding on to my wrist with an iron grip, I don't know where the hand leads too, and I'd prefer not to find out. I struggle and the grip tightens, I try relaxing, and I start to be dragged into the water. "God Skitt!" I scream again, he sees me and runs over, he starts to repeatedly stab the hand with his trident, over and over again. After about twenty stabs the thing lets me go and I fall backwards into the grass.
"You okay?" Skitt kneels down to me.
"Yeah, let's get away from here; they may come out of the water. Whatever it is." I get up and brush myself off.
"Good thinking."
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By nightfall Skitt and I have set up a mini camp, Skitt has sown together mats for the both of us to put our sleeping bags on, and we both lie on them now, looking up at the sky and waiting for the anthem to play. I take the time to open up my token; I go through each one, looking at the picture, examining it.
"What's that?" Skitt asks as he watches me.
"My token, want to see?" I ask as I pat the spot next to me, Skitt gets up and sits next to me, I move so he can see the pictures too. I open a new one; it holds a picture of Chaff.
"You have a picture of Chaff?"
"Yea, he's like family, I have a picture of everyone in these."
"Really? Do you have one of me?" he questions, I nod and find one that has a four on the outside. I open it, but instead of Skitt it's a picture of Finnick, with me on his back. I laugh at it.
"Wrong one" I go and open another one with four on it, this one is of Skitt. He has his arm around Seier, his other is pointing up to the sky.
"I'm drunk in that one" he exclaims.
"It was hilarious." I point out
I go through all the pictures for Skitt, some pictures are funny, some serious, Skitt says his personal favorite is the one which Johanna is about to punch the camera. I open the one orange locket, sunset orange. It shows the picture of Peeta and I, Skitt puts his finger on it before I can close it.
"That's, ugh"
"Peeta" I finish for him.
"Yeah, that's Peeta. Do you still miss him?" he asks, I don't know why he's asking, but talking about it always makes me feel better, so I go along.
"Yeah, every day I think of him. But I have Finnick now, and I love him, and Peeta said he wants me to be happy. Finn makes me the happiest I can be right now. Peeta wrote me a letter you know, his family gave it to me a few months ago." I smile
"Really? What did he say?"
"That I should be happy, that I deserve to be happy. That he bets I'll end up with Finnick, which I did. And that he'll be the first one to meet me when I die, that he'll love me there and never leave my side."
"Does Finnick know that?" Skitt asks
"Yeah, we changed the vows from forever to just until we die. The funny part is, I'm not afraid to die anymore. When I die I won't be alone, my parents will be there, and the other victors, and Peeta. Everyone who I miss so much will be there, I won't be sad when I die. It'll be a new beginning."
Skitt opens his mouth to answer when the anthem blares all around us. It only shows Gloss's face tonight, making me feel worse about it. But it's surprising, the bloodbath only claimed one, so technically, there was no bloodbath. I offer to take first watch and Skitt readily agrees to this, I grip my knife in my hand and lean back against a tree. Then, I watch the night as Skitt snores lightly beside me.
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-No one's POV, in rebel meeting room:
The men and women in the room turn their attention to the man who is ordering they give him their attention. Plutarch Heavensbee stands and looks around the room. He nods gruffly to Haymitch Abernathy and Finnick Odair; both have their head in their hands, clearly being upset by the Games.
"Let's get right to the point, as you may all be wondering, for now there is no way to return to the Cornucopia once the victor jumps off the plateau, that will soon change though, I assure you that." He speaks in a way that only a head gamemaker can. "and so far, we only have one death, and we all know who we need to keep alive for now." People nod gruffly all around the meeting table, but Plutarch tells everyone the names anyways. "We need Lyn alive, so she can set off the wall, we need Skitt too, and Rachel, of course. Brandon and Johanna are also key, we need them alive."
There's silence for a while, Finnick Odair finally raises his head, his eyes grave, and while he asks the question everyone is thinking.
"What if we can't get them out?"
"Then these are once again regular Games." Plutarch answers him evenly.
Finnick goes over the plan again in his mind. So Lyn detonates the explosion, making it so the rebel hovercrafts can come in. We get the victors and get the hell outta there. But we won't have much time before Capital hovercraft come and counterattack. His mind goes blank for a few moments before another revelation comes to him. It will be impossible to get all the victors out; the Capital will capture some of them. They will punish or execute who they capture. It's Chaff who brings this to attention.
"What if we can't get Rachel out, she's the most important part of this."
"Then the Capital has her, and we hope she hangs on until we can get her out." Plutarch explains. Haymitch lets his head fall to the table with a loud thud as Ceier starts to comfort him and rub his back. Finnick lunges across the table at Plutarch, swearing at him and screaming at him.
"Hope she hangs on! What the fuck does that mean! Just let her get tortured if they get her before we can!"
It takes Chaff and Woof to grab and hold Finnick back until he calms down. Plutarch ignore the incident and starts to lay out the plan.
"We have been in contact with Thirteen and we have decided that we will put the plan into action four days from now, on the fifth day of the Games. That should give Skitt enough time to meet up with and get at least Johanna and Lyn to join the alliance. We just hope until then."
"And what if they don't make it till then." Finnick seethes through his teeth.
"Then we go ahead anyways, whoever dies in this will just be a martyr for the cause." At this Haymitch looks up from the table.
"It's great really; either they will be with us in the rebellion or dead, which will be gone from this fucked up government all together." He rubs his eyes with his hand.
"Exactly" Plutarch smiles, then the whole room is silent, nothing can be heard, except for Finnick's heavy breathing.