Here we go you guys, the beginning of the end. We've reached the games. Omg, could you imagine if Kalani just DIED the first day, lol that would be terrible. Nah, but real talk that girl has a loooooong way to go. As promised, another chapter. Read, review, enjoy!
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The panel above my head opened. The noises that came from outside immediately calmed every nerve in my body. Waves. Those are waves.
The sound grows closer, and I grow more confident. The panel beneath me continues to rise until I'm blinded by the sun. I know what surrounds me without needing to open my eyes. Water, and a ton of it.
My eyes eventually adjust to the brightness. I immediately look around to get a good look at where all of the other tributes stand. We're all set upon panels atop rocks, about 50 yards out from the Cornucopia, which was in the middle of a small island. The only thing between us and it was open ocean. There was beach about another 20 yards behind, circling all of us, and further off was straight jungle. That would be the real arena. But how did they expect us to move supplies from the Cornucopia to the beaches? They didn't. I guess that didn't seem like the worst thing in the world. Those who were daring enough, the Careers, would head toward the Cornucopia, and those who knew they didn't stand a chance would head to the beaches. I wasn't a Career, but I knew where I was headed. Kai and I were faster than any of the other tributes in the water, we could be in and out of there before any of them even reach the island.
Something, however, wasn't adding up. There was no way they would skip out on the bloodbath this year. It was a gruesome and yet cherished part of the games. The Capitol loved it. It marked the first few deaths, where the weak ones were weeded out. They needed it to be bloody, and if the tributes weren't necessarily going to be the ones to be committing the mass murder then that could only mean one thing.
"Kai!" My voice carries over the water battering against the land and rocks. I spot him on the platform next to me, about 20 feet away. "He mea hoʻopunipuni." It's a trick. "E nānā i ka wa." Check the water.
I look for Cato next, wanting to tell him to stay out of the water. My eyes scan over the tributes I can see from this side of the Cornucopia. He's pretty far away from me, about 3 platforms away. An internal debate begins to take place within me, I don't know whether or not I should call out to him or not, fearing the other tributes would become suspicious of the two of us working together. Then again, our little show during the interviews had probably already aroused enough suspicion, so who the hell really cared?
"Cato!" I shout louder than I had for Kai, being that he was much further. He's so focused on something to the left of him that he doesn't hear me calling for him. His name almost slips from my lips again before they are lost when my eyes come across what he had been staring at. A fin, a very large fin, in the water. It swam a couple of yards in front of me, continuing on in a path around the Cornucopia. "Cato!" I shout for him again, as soon as the shark is out of sight. "Don't go into the water!"
"Oh, really? Are you sure?" His sarcastic tone booms loudly across the way. "I was totally gonna dive head first into the shark infested waters! Thank you so much for your sound advice Kalani!"
After reminding myself that I shouldn't let him get eaten by a shark because he was somewhat of my friend, I spoke again, but not to him. "Kai, we gotta think of something before that clock reaches zero seconds and that shark starts looking for food in all the wrong places. We gotta get to the Cornucopia!"
"Got any ideas?" He shouts.
There's not exactly enough time to think up a good plan. "What's your best time back in Four?" I ask.
"One minute, twenty seconds."
"Shit." I curse under my breath.
"Time?" Cato questions loudly from farther away.
"How fast you can swim 100 meters." The water is no longer too noisy, and we can hear each other pretty well as long as we speak loud enough. Kai looks back at me. "Why? What's your time?"
"Fifty eight seconds. If I freestyle it."
"Damn girl." As if we're not about to be eaten by a shark inspired mutt created by the Capitol, Kai winks at me. It is a good time. But for once, I'm not happy to be the faster swimmer. "Why do you ask? Plan on racing a shark?"
I sigh. "Bitch, I might be."
His face drops. His mouth opens but Cato's voice comes out instead. "Are you fucking crazy, Lani?"
I don't know whether my stomach is doing flips because of the nickname Cato had called me by or the fact that I was most likely going to be shark bait in a couple of seconds.
"Bitch," I repeat, "I might be."
"The second you dive into that water, that thing is coming at you."
"Yeah, no shit Kai!" There's a slight shake to my voice. "We have no other choice. Pass it on, no one gets into the water unless they wanna start a feeding frenzy."
Kai practically screams at me, "That's a terrible fucking idea!"
I shoot him a look.
"We need a way to distract it." Kai elaborates, "Something that'll draw it's attention away from you and toward us. What if we all take turns jumping in and out of the water and making noise so that it swims toward us and away from you?"
"Why would I sacrifice my life to save hers?" Another voice makes an appearance. It's Clove, Cato's district partner.
"Because these games don't happen unless Kalani can get to the Cornucopia and find something to kill that thing with." Kai explains it in a civil manner, but I can tell he's annoyed at her question.
"How do I know she's not just gonna go all Finnick Odair on everyone and kill all of us?" Clove, as much as I hate to say it, makes a good point. "She'll be the only one in the Cornucopia and the only one with a weapon. She becomes the most dangerous person in the games not even two minutes into them."
"She won't do that." Cato speaks up, surprising Clove, who asks how he can be so sure. "Because I trust her...And she wouldn't leave Kai defenseless, we're closer to him than she is. If she tries anything, anything at all, you and I can get to him faster."
"Using me as leverage now loverboy?" I see Kai rolling his eyes. "How romantic."
"I'm just being practical." Cato is right. I won't leave Kai defenseless, it didn't matter how easy it would become for me to win the games. I couldn't have Kai's death on my conscience. A part of me wanted to believe that Cato was only saying all of those things to Clove in order to sway her toward helping us, but I wasn't so sure.
All of a sudden the timer that is counting down to the beginning of the games runs out. There's a loud buzzing and then complete chaos. I hear splashes of water, meaning that some of the tributes have jumped into the water against better judgment. Kai and I begin to yell, scream at all of the tributes to stay out of the water. I can see the fin in the water again, moving quickly passed my platform, to the right of me. The girl from District 9 is in the water, swimming as fast as she probably can toward the beaches. She's not even headed toward the Cornucopia. Everything happens slowly, and then all at once. The fin that once breached the water disappears. There's a few seconds of silence, minus the slapping of skin against water. And then there's an ear piercing shrill scream that rips through the air. The girl from Nine disappears under the sea, never to surface. The water where she had once been turns red. More screams rake through the air, and then, all of a sudden, there's silence, and I don't hear another scream for a couple of seconds. My heart begins to slam harder and harder against my chest.
Sharks weren't harmful creatures. Sure, they were predatory, but they didn't intentionally seek out humans to eat. They attacked when they felt threatened or when they mistakened humans for food, but they typically let go right after the initial bite. But this shark wasn't an actual shark. It was a mutation created by the Capitol, made for one purpose, which seemed to be to kill everything that entered that water. The screams stopped. We all waited in silence, to see if anyone else was stupid enough to jump in. No one is, not yet at least. Five cannons go off. Five tributes dead.
"Cato," my voice isn't loud, but he can hear me, "I need you and Kai to make sure that that thing doesn't get close to me."
"And how do we do that?" He asks.
Kai speaks up. "Sharks interpret splashing around as signs of prey that might be in distress. They'll go for whatever food is the easiest to get ahold of, they won't spend as much time on something that might make them exert more energy if there's something else around that's not as hard for them to catch. That and they're attracted to the scent of blood obviously, but I don't think that's the smartest idea right now."
My district partner continues to talk, telling Cato everything he may need to know about what they should be doing to stay as safe as possible while also ensuring I don't die. He also takes the initiative to start a game of telephone around the circle of tributes, explaining to them that they really had no other choice and that if they wanted to get out of from the water without being eaten by a giant shark, then they needed to make sure I got to the Cornucopia in one piece. As he does this, I keep my eye on the fin that has surfaced once again.
The shark is about halfway between me and the Cornucopia. Lucky for me, the circle of tributes if large enough so that it takes the shark a while to swim all of the way around. I time it to a whole minute to be exact. But that doesn't matter because I'll have to get into the water while the shark is on the opposite side of the Cornucopia, meaning that I actually only have about half a minute to get out of the water. Honestly, I had an okay chance. The distance from my safe little rock in the middle of the water and the Cornucopia was about the size of the swimming pool in the place where my parents worked, and it only took me a little less than a minute to swim across that. There was no telling, however, what the shark would do. And realistically, I didn't know whether the mutation was exactly like a regular shark in all of its aspects. It was obviously more aggressive, but then again the tributes that had been attacked where making a ton of noise in the water, and now that the shark had fed - I shivered thinking about that - it might not be as inclined to bother me. If I stayed calm enough, the shark mutation might do so as well.
"Here we go, boys." I warn Cato and Kai. I wait for the shark to pass me again, and then I begin to count in my head. All of the way to thirty. And then I slip into the water, hopefully as quietly as possible. I slip under the water, not wanting to splash at the surface, because I know that'll be louder than if I stay under. As much as I would like to swim as fast as possible, I'm more afraid of freaking out the shark. My eyes stay open underneath the water. I'm used to the sting of the salt water, and although I usually try to avoid doing so, I know that I have to keep a lookout for the shark. The worst thing I could do at this point was not be aware of where it was. After about twenty seconds, I emerge at the surface to check on my surroundings. I make as little noise as possible.
"It's coming back around Kalani, hurry up!" Cato's voice reaches my ears. I look toward him, and move my eyes towards the area his are staring at. I freeze up, but not unintentionally. The shark almost looks….calmed down. Like it doesn't care about me being there.
"Don't jump in. Don't try to catch it's attention at all."
It may have been dumb not to hurry myself to the edge of the Cornucopia, but in that moment, it would have been dumber to move at all. From where I was floating, I could see the type of shark that the Capitol had chosen to model their mutation after. The infamous Great White, a reputable predator, and a majestic creature. I slip under the water again, lowering myself the the sand below. The water wasn't too deep, only about ten or so feet, maybe less. I never took my eyes off of the shark. It's pectoral fins, the ones of the lower part of its body, weren't pointing downward at all, and it was swimming gracefully through the water, not at all exaggerating its movements. The shark was no longer being aggressive; in fact, it barely even paid me any attention. Reminds me a little of Cato; scary and intimidating, able to take down whatever in its path, but unbothered by anything that it didn't deem an immediate threat. The thought made me laugh.
It was the first time I had ever seen a Great White. I remember my dad telling me stories of them when I was younger. He was one of the few people in District Four to ever encounter one. Everything he had said about them was true.
The shark continued to move away from me. I tested out whether I would draw its attention by moving, but the small strokes I was using didn't seem to bother it. I only surfaced again when I reached the edge of the Cornucopia.
I actually made it.
The first thing I did was look for a weapon. Easily enough, a harpoon gun laid against the edge of a trunk where other weapons must have been stored. With a heavy heart, I picked it up, knowing what I had to do next. I grew up around various sea creatures; my parents were the heads of a rehabilitation center; I prided myself on the respect I showed every animal I came across in the ocean.
It's a Capitol mutt. It's not even a real shark. You have to kill it. I told myself. That made it no easier.
For a couple of minutes I just watched it swim. Every single tribute probably thought that I was looking for the best way to kill it, but inside I was struggling with the concept of doing so.
How are you supposed to win these games if you can't even kill an animal? I asked myself. How are you going to be able to kill another human being?
My eyes close, I breathe in and out, and begin to recite a poem under my breath, one that my father used to quote religiously when he was alive. It was my mother's favorite.
"And when towards the sea you leap,
He looks as if he were asleep."
I open my eyes. My hands shake, so does my voice. I cut the tip of my finger, enough so that it bleeds but doesn't do any permanent damage, and I let my blood wash out into the water. Like any shark would, the one in the water swims right toward the smell of my blood. I ready my harpoon.
"But when you once get in his range,
His whole demeanor seems to change."
Just as the shark approaches close enough, I release the trigger on the harpoon, and it goes flying, right below the shark's left eyes. It thrashes in the water, and begins to turn its body. I reload the harpoon.
"He throws his body right about,
And his true character comes out."
I release the harpoon again, into the side of the animal, right in its gills.
"It's no use crying or appealing,
He seems to lose all decent feeling."
Despite what the poem says, a few tears run down my cheeks. It won't look like I'm crying on screen, I'm soaked from the swim over here after all. But nonetheless, I'm crying. It doesn't stop me from loading the harpoon gun again and aiming another shot into the shark's left eye. It thrashes again, but I can tell it's wasting energy now. The harpoon had imbedded far into its head, probably deep enough to reach its brain.
"After this warning you will wish
To keep clear of this treacherous fish."
I don't want to prolong its pain, even if it was a mutt. So with the shark close enough, I shoot another harpoon into its eye again.
"His back is black, his stomach is white,
He has a very dangerous bite."
Sharks need to constantly swim in order to survive; and if they don't swim, they sink.
It was no different for mutts I guess.
The sounds of various splashing could be heard from around me. I didn't bother moving. The Careers would be at the Cornucopia soon, and the games had begun. Everyone else would probably make for the beaches.
"Kalani!" Kai's voice breaks my concentration. He's walking through the water.
"The water level changed." I point out the obvious. He picks me up off the ground and we watch together as the shark's body protrudes out of the water, which is only about a foot deep now.
"You killed it." Cato seems astonished when I look at him. "Holy shit. You killed that thing."
I shrugged, playing it off as if it were nothing. Inside, I was still upset over the whole situation. The rest of the Careers watched as I the harpoon gun over my body, setting the strap across my chest, and then grabbing a single knife to holster against my thigh, and a spear to hold onto. The Career group and Kai slowly gathered their choice of weapons as well, and then continued to just stare at me.
"Relax," I mumbled. "It was just a shark."
But it wasn't just a shark, to me or to them, for two very different reasons. One, I grew up believing that every life, even those of animals, were important, and killing that shark had felt wrong in every way possible - but it was just a mutt. Two, I had, in the span of less than five minutes, swam with, hunted, and killed, a Great White Shark mutation, probably the most dangerous thing inside this arena - besides the other tributes - and I hadn't even broken a sweat. Without so much as trying, I had just become the strongest tribute in these games. And that could either severely help or hinder me; because either everyone was gonna want to form an alliance with me, or kill me off immediately.
"That was intense." Marvel, the District One male tribute, comments. "The games didn't really start with a bloodbath this year though, not like all the others. What do you think that means?"
"I think," Kai sighs, "that means these games might introduce a shit ton of things that are a lot more dangerous than other kids."
Glimmer, someone I'd barely heard speak the entire time I'd known her or been around her, spoke for the first time. "Like what? Like that thing?"
Kai doesn't answer back at first, but when he does, his voice seems to have gone down a couple octaves. "Yeah," he looks off at the beach and jungle that surrounds us on the other side of the water, "the thing about it all is...mutts are a lot harder to kill, and a lot more fun to watch. Maybe they like the idea of serving up more challenges for the Careers this year. You wanna get to the other tributes...you're gonna have to go through a whole hell of a lot of bad."
A hand grasps my shoulder. It's too big and not tan enough to be Kai's. Cato cocks an eyebrow, smirking darkly at the rest of the group in front of us. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the 74th annual Hunger Games."