Ariel's POV
Oh no. Oh god, no. Mako is right there! Right there in the open. Why does he have the District 5 boy with him, isn't he, like, 9?
"Hey guys, looks like we found our deserter," says Aid, drawing two knives from her belt and grinning devilishly behind her mask, eyes flashing with bloodlust. "Let's teach him a lesson. Time to have some fun!"
And to get revenge.
No, please no. Anyone but him. I know for a fact Aid will want to finish Mako off herself just to get back at me for letting her brother die. I am frozen for a moment. I don't know what to do. But my fellow careers know what to do, and they aren't frozen. Aid has the flippers so she is far ahead of everyone, but Garnet has powerful legs, and Sapphire is just hydrodynamic with the wetsuit pushing in her curves. She also inherited her father's lower body strength, or at least learned from him.
"Ariel," she calls to me, stopping for a moment. Aid yells back to leave me, and Sapphire catches on quickly. I snap out of it and follow closely behind them. But what am I going to do? I can't let them kill Mako. I just can't. But what will happen once they see me defending him?
I clutch my harpoon gun frozen once again with fear. I'm such a coward. Aid doesn't attack Mako though; she takes a swipe at the little boy with him with her right hand, but the kid is fast. He shoots upward and away from Aid, who simply follows him. His propellers are fast, but she's faster. It has become an underwater dance; figure-eights, loopty-loops. District 5 and Aid look like they are in some sort of choreographed routine, but I have to rip my eyes from them.
Meanwhile, Garnet attacks Mako while Sapphire swims up to assist Aid, not like she needs any help. I still have no idea what to do. My arms are like stone, clutching my harpoon gun to my chest.
Suddenly, I hear a metallic pop, followed by another one, and I see that Aid has finally caught up with District 5 and done her signature move: She punctured a hole in each oxygen tank. The boy starts to panic and shoots upwards again, towards the surface of the water.
No, that's too easy. He's going for air, but the Gamemakers couldn't have made it that-
Zap!
The boy hits the surface, hoping for air, but instead a huge pulse sends Aid and Sapphire swirling downward as if they are caught in the crashing of a wave. The boy had hit the force field. A cannon goes off and it's too late for him. Garnet and Mako look up from their fight to see District 5's dark, fried corpse float lifelessly through the water. Mako then takes advantage of this short moment of rest and kicks Garnet in the chest, a cheap shot, but then again, there aren't really any rules in the Games. Just like the little boy did, Mako speeds away quickly than any of us careers could, even me.
"Get…him!" Garnet gasps, the wind obviously knocked out of him. Aid goes down to assist Garnet while Sapphire takes off after Mako.
And like I said before: She's fast.
"No!" I scream. My muscles are finally moving. I swim after Sapphire and grab her arm with my free hand, trying to pull her back.
"Let go, you traitor!" she demands, punching me in the gut. Even though water slows everyone's movements, it still hurts. I grab her again and throw her behind me. Her trident is useless in close combat. But she is still strong, stronger than me, that is for sure. We wrestle around in the water. I grab her hair and she pulls at my mask, leaving me maskless for a moment. Her grip moves up the shaft of her trident to stab me, but I manage to kick it out of her hand. Then she gets a hold of my shoulders and pins me against the stone walls, near the mouth of a cave. At the same time, she catches the sinking trident in her ankes and brings it back up to her grasp.
"I knew you would never make it as a career," she says, sneering through her mask. She holds my neck against the wall, cutting off my air supply and positions her trident at my chest. Out of sheer desperation, I pull the trigger on my harpoon gun, and before Sapphire can react, the harpoon lodges deep into her stomach. She screams and thrashes back, dropping her trident.
"You- bitch," she screams through coughs, gasping and hacking up blood. It collects quickly and fills up her mask. I let go of the harpoon gun and turn my head, which still doesn't take away the sickening gargle filled noise as Sapphire drowns in her own blood.
"Sapphire!" Garnet cries. He and Aid are both headed my way when someone firmly grabs my wrist and pulls me along.
"We have to get out of here," says Mako, towing me along. The last thing I see before I am pulled into the tunnel is Garnet cradling his daughter in his arms.
"Sapphire, no! My baby! No! My baby girl!"
And then I hear her cannon.
After a few minutes of weaving through the tunnels, we find safe to say neither Garnet nor Aid are stalking us- yet. Mako and I all but drag ourselves onto the floor of a moist cave, ripping our masks off to breathe the free air, well, relatively free. Mako sits up before I do and rubs my back while I lie face down, watching the gems glow beneath me.
"You ok, Ariel?" he whispers between breaths. As soon as I sit up, Mako pulls me over and wraps his arms around me.
"So many times I thought you were dead," he says, burying his face in my damp hair. "Every day I heard a cannon I would be afraid until I didn't see your face at night. And even then I was scared."
I hold him tighter and whisper, "So was I."
It feels like forever that we are in each other's arms. We only pull apart when we jump at the deafening sound of the Capitol Anthem. We watch as the faces of all four tributes appear on the projected gem light. First is Sapphire, so beautiful with her dry golden hair and blood free face, but her image is replaced by the boy from District 5.
"Scurry," Mako mutters flatly. "He saved my life."
Horrified, I look back at the green-eyed boy with freckles just about everywhere on his face. His hair is messy and sticks out everywhere, which makes him seem even more innocent. I wonder how many times it took his mother to flatten the half a dozen cow licks back at his home. But I don't have time to ponder this any longer because his face is gone forever and the other two dead tributes come and go.
The girl from 6 and the girl from 7. They don't really leave a lasting impression on me.
"So who's left?" I ask.
"Garnet, Aid, girl from 8, boy from 10, and both from 12."
"Both?"
"Yea, that's eight. They'll be interviewing our families back home."
"Wonder what they will say. Heaven knows if my mom and Aunt Sandy will even say. They both hate cameras."
Mako laughs once and pulls me closer to him again.
"I know," he says. I can hear the smile in his voice, but there is also an edge of sadness. Maybe it is because I mentioned my mother. His mother died shortly after I met him of a skin illness that we often get back home from two much sun exposure, but apparently hers was genetic. She was a lovely woman, really. I wish I could have known her longer. I fall asleep in Mako's arms, wondering if I will ever get to see my own mother again.
A/N: Hey, I finished a chapter with one character's POV! Woot woot! I have a new poll out that you should check out. Who do you think will win? Mako? Ariel? Both? Or neither?
Reviews are encouraged and appreciated, but not enfored; just enjoy the story!