Chapter 5: Quell of Chamipons
We see Cassiope and Haymitch off on the hovercraft early the next morning. Haymitch gives Peeta a man's hug and tousles his hair. Then, he dares to peck my cheek.
"Thank you, Haymitch... for everything," Peeta expresses.
I hug Cassiope close. "Give me great-grandchildren," she tells me.
"Ones you'll get to see!" I insist, to bolster her spirits. I don't count Cassiope out. I treat her chances as equally as Haymitch's, previous Quell or not.
After they leave, Effie leads us into the Mentors' Bar. We meet Pliny Arausio from District 7, who won just before Wade Rankine. His mentor, Johanna Mason, is the only living female Victor from 7.
At 10 AM, to much cheering, the arena goes live on the TV screens. It is a vast jungle, with the Cornucopia on an island in the middle of a miniature sea. Rocky spokes jut out from the island, creating watery wedges that hold two tribute pedestals each. Cassiope is in one with her friend, Woof, of 8. They reach for each other across the expanse in friendship. They won't kill each other. In the next wedge over, I can see Brutus Gunn looking to Cashmere.
Haymitch isn't so lucky. He's ended up in a wedge with Daniel Bernhardt, the only male Victor from District 9. He's a professional wrestler - I remember watching his Games. It was the 44th, just before Chaff's, because Daniel is in his 40s but older than Haymitch. I know Daniel wouldn't hesitate to kill Haymitch, if given the opportunity.
The gong sounds. Brutus is one of the few tributes who dives in immediately. I wonder if many of the Victors can swim, and feel thankful I thought to teach my mentors and Peeta. Brutus swims right for the nearest rocky spoke, which is the only thing separating him from Cassiope and climbs aboard. Thinking he might try to leap into their wedge, Cassiope leaps into the water, and accidentally knocks Woof in after her.
Haymitch, meanwhile, dives in and tries to sprint swim towards shore, but Daniel pursues him. The two aging Victors quickly get into a tussle, clumsily treading water. It would be funny if Daniel was not so strong, but Haymitch is actually a pretty even match for him, despite the booze.
Cassiope now begins her determined doggy paddle to the island, past Woof and where Brutus is the first to reach the horn. In fact, all the Careers have largely taken the island for themselves and simply have to lie in wait. But there is someone else, bullying them away to get supplies: Finnick Odair, the handsome young man from District 4 who won a decade ago at the tender age of 14, the youngest ever. He has a trident and seeing Cassiope reach the shore, runs to her after impaling the man from 5.
For a moment, I think he is going to kill her, but instead he shows her some kind of gold bangle, and hauls her out of the water like she is no more than a puppy. They then run around, dodging the Careers and do the same for Finnick's 80-year-old mentor, Mags.
"Where's the drunk?" Finnick bellows. Seeing the tussle with Daniel Bernhardt, he dives right in and swims for them. With the assist, both men manage to drown Daniel and swim for shore. Then, the foursome - District 4 and District 12 - disappear into the jungle.
They run for most of the day, pausing to rest only when it is late afternoon. Just then, I see the forcefield of the arena, and realize our band is heading straight for it. Peeta is engaging a sponsor, so I whirl to the District 4 mentors. Ron Stafford, specifically. "Do something!"
"They'll find it," Ron says. He seems unconcerned.
But he should be. Especially after Haymitch walks right into it and is knocked unconscious. Maybe more than that... Finnick performs some strange maneuvers, like he is kissing Haymitch or something. After a few agonizing moments, Haymitch actually awakens.
Eight cannons later sound as District 4 and District 12 are making camp. Then the faces appear:
The man from 5 is first. The man from 6. Woof. Cecelia. Daniel Bernhardt. The woman from 9. The woman from 10. The woman from 11, named Seeder.
Cassiope looks crestfallen over Woof's death, and must wonder if it was partially her fault, since she knocked him into the water. But at least she has Mags, her other good friend, here with her. The tributes go to sleep while Finnick takes watch.
He rouses them up, many hours later, screaming, "The fog is poison! RUN!" He carries Mag for a piece, while Haymitch carries Cassiope, with difficulty. Something about the fog makes everyone's limbs go funny, like their nerves are being shot. At last, Finnick collapses.
"I can't do it, Mags," he moans.
She kisses him. Right on the lips, and then marches into the fog. Cassiope yells for her friend to come back, until the cannon sounds. The remaining trio manage to outrun the fog, but barely.
I learn that one more cannon sounded during the night while Peeta and I were asleep. That makes thirteen tributes left.
But our tributes' troubles are far from over. They run into some monkeys, which they fight off bravely before retreating for the beach. Only an interference from the woman from 6 saves Haymitch. She takes a monkey bite for him.
The exhausted trio soon meets up with another: District 3, Beetee and Wiress, who look a little older than Haymitch. And Johanna Mason, the Victor from 7. Apparently, her district partner was the cannon from early that night.
The two trios merge and take over an abandoned Cornucopia island. Wiress is babbling like she is in shock. "Tick, tock..."
But then Cassiope realizes it's a clue. The entire arena is rigged like a clock, with a new danger coming off every hour. With this new information, Haymitch tries drawing a map in the sand of the known dangers.
That's when, while Wiress is cleaning a wire that Beetee took a knife in the back to get, the Careers attack.
Gloss knifes her, but he is all brawn and not brains, so he can't think quick enough to guard against Haymitch, who kills him in revenge. District 1 probably loved that. Cashmere gets axed by Johanna.
Brutus and Enobaira do not even slow down. Brutus goes right for Haymitch, but Finnick blocks the attack, getting himself wounding. District 2 then runs, and all at once, the Cornucopia spins, throwing their pursuers off-balance.
The now-quintet returns to the beach to re-group. Then, Cassiope hears a scream.
"Perri!" She takes off into the trees and Finnick follows her. But he hears voices too. He keeps calling for a woman named Annie, and it takes me a minute to realize, with horror, that this is a Gamemaker trap, and that the Annie in question is sitting right next to me. The pretty redhead whom Mags saved.
Finnick quickly figures out that the screams are not real, but is convinced that the Capitol got them somehow. Through torture. Or worse. But how could the Capitol have done this for Perri Green Abernathy. Perri Abernathy has been dead for years.
The jabber jays, birds who can copy human sounds, continue to torment the two Victors. They try to run out, but run into something similar to a forcefield, but not quite. It is a shield, trapping them in until the hour is up.
Haymitch picks Cassiope up as though she is a doll and rocks her.
"I heard your mom. Screaming for me," Cassiope admits.
Haymitch stares at her. "You heard my mom?"
By now, the second day is being set on, and eight more faces appear in the sky: Gloss. Cashmere. Wiress. Mags. The woman from 5. The woman from 6. The man from 7. The man from 10.
Less than forty-eight hours in, and we already are at the Final Eight: District 2, Beetee, Finnick, Johanna, Chaff and District 12.
Finnick never mentions Annie to anyone. But as he sits in the tide, watching the sun disappear beneath the clouds, Cassiope asks Johanna, and she explains. Annie Cresta won five years ago, but went insane in the process.
Beetee now calls his allies over and proposes a plan. They rig the lightning tree that signals high noon and midnight and run the wire to the water. Anyone in the vicinity will be electrocuted. And even if it doesn't work, the fish will be fried and lost as a food source.
The plan takes place that night. The tree is rigged with the wire, but after that, everything goes wrong. While Cassiope and Johanna are delivering the wire to the beach, the Careers attack. Johanna is killed, but Cassiope manages to frighten them away by knifing Enobaria. Brutus runs off, only to run into a hapless Chaff, whom the last Career kills.
In full view of Haymitch, who then kills Brutus in revenge for murdering his buddy.
Hearing four cannons, Finnick turns on Beetee. Cassiope and Haymitch run back to the tree to find that other than them, the pretty playboy from 4 is the only other one left.
My mentors put up a brave last stand. Cassiope slices Finnick, but not fatally, for she falls to his trident. Haymitch, mad with grief, puts up a fight.
One that Finnick barely manages to fend off.
Three more cannons sound - Beetee's belatedly - and Claudius Templesmith makes his announcement:
"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the winner of the 75th Hunger Games, or Third Quarter Quell: Finnick Odair of District 4!"