A/N: Hey, I'm so sorry for not updating sooner. I was away for Christmas break, and didn't have access to a computer. Anyways, it's better late than never, I guess!
I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. This is okay. Finnick is okay. This should be easy for him. He probably could swim before he could walk. I think of all the times my father swam with me in the lake a few miles after the electric fence outside District 12. There was no pool in the training center. Either you knew how to swim coming into the arena, or you better be a fast learner. Most of the tributes here are well, for lack of a better word – they're fucked. I look at the countdown clock projected on the cornucopia, viewable from all areas. My first thought is to swim as far away as I can, or just stay on my plate. But I'm a career now, and I better start acting like it. Five. Four. I bend my knees, and raise my arms, above my head poised to dive. Three. Two. One. The gong goes off, sounding that the Games have begun.
I dive into the water gracefully, and swim as fast as I can. The distance from the plates to the Cornucopia is only about 50 meters, but that'll take a while for the tributes who don't know how to swim. I make it to the Cornucopia first – and I'm stunned by the pile of weapons. They're all just enticingly stacked there. Wow, if I find weapons enticing, I really am a killer, I think. I smile a little. We're all killers here. The weapons appear even more deadlier, if such a thing is possible. I'm snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of someone creeping up behind me. I set an arrow from one the three holders I didn't even realize that I have on my back, and turn around. Finnick's cheekily grinning at me. "Do you greet every boy you meet like that?" He jokes.
I laugh a little and scowl at his comment, not angry at all. I give him a quick but not at all chase kiss, and focus. "Nice to see you too. Where is everyone?" I ask him. Nobody else has shown up at the Cornucopia. I see someone show up behind Finnick, and my eyes widen. "Duck!" I tell him firmly and put an arrow in male from 5's eye. I don't even realize that I've killed someone, again until Finn turns around at the bloody body and back at me, an eyebrow raised.
Before he can say anything though, Johanna appears from the water. She gives me a quick nod, "Not bad, not bad at all. I was worried that since all of held hands last night, you expected all the tributes to join together in a pledge of non-violence and sing Kumbaya together. You saw how quick you were to kill, we're all the same as you. None of us are victors by accident. Except maybe Annie." She adds. "What's your count now? Finn's is twelve. Highest, ever."
Twelve people. He killed half the tributes. I do a mental head count: Glimmer and the girl from 4 with the tracker jacker nest, Marvel, and Cato in my first games. That's four. I take blame for Peeta's death, but since I didn't physically kill him, I don't count it. "Four my first Games, One now." I look around, most of the other tributes have managed to make their way to land. I see Blight and the two tributes from 3, that Johanna call Nuts and Volts run into the forest. Not forest, it's nothing like the woods back home. We're in a jungle. "Get ready." I mutter under my breath. Johanna grabs a few axes and Finnick takes a trident.
"Don't trust 8." Johanna warns me, as most of the other victor-tributes approach. I have no feelings about Woof: neither negative nor positive, but I wouldn't want to kill Cecelia. She has children. I would break their hearts. I shake my head. This is a fight to the death, I need to kill. The woman from 10 receives an axe in her chest from Johanna, and I take out the male morphling from 6. Six deaths on my hands now. I watch as Finnick skillfully stabs and twists the trident into the stomach of the woman from 9 without any hesitation. Damn. When Cecelia comes out of the water with Seeder, I let Johanna take out both of them. I have no ties to either of then, but I don't have the conscience to kill them.
"We should get out of here." I hear Cashmere suggest. I didn't even know she was at the Cornucopia. Her, Gloss and Finnick have grabbed an arsenal of weapons. There are no supplies or packs at all. Great. We clear out. After a few feet of walking, Cashmere stops short and turns around. "Finnick, where's Mags?"
He exhales loudly. I squeeze his hand comfortingly. Finnick looks up, and mutters quietly. "I don't know." He takes a breath and speaks up. "We couldn't wait for her to show up at the Cornucopia. It doesn't really matter, we'll find her later." Something doesn't add up. Mags is probably the best swimmer here. There's something going on that he's keeping from us. I look at Johanna, but she keeps her eyes cast downward, avoiding my gaze. I'm getting that feeling that I've been kept out of the loop, again.
We hike for what seems like years, even when it's probably only an hour or two. The air is so humid that my clothes and hair cling to my sweaty, sticky body. There's no water anywhere, and the water we swam in earlier is salty. Finally, Gloss suggests we stop and make camp. We split up – I climb a tree to look around for game, Finnick and Cashmere decide to set up camp, and Gloss and Johanna search for water. I climb up over the tree line and get about a hundred and fifty feet up in the tree. I can see the whole arena. It's miniscule and seems to be in a perfect circle. The jungle's edge is a beach, which each extends twelve spokes to the Cornucopia in the middle. I climb down slowly, but my foot catches on a branch and I fall from about ten feet up in the air. I land on a pile of mats woven out of some type of moss. Cashmere giggles at me.
I look around – the campsite has been transformed. Cashmere and Finnick have set up a covering of some sorts on top of two high branches, and mats on the floor. Luckily, I didn't fall through it. I stand up, feeling uncomfortably. I landed hard. I feel a stabbing pain in my stomach, and bend over in pain. Finnick rushes over and puts his hand on my shoulder. I shake him off and stand up straight. "Stomach cramps." I tell Finnick. I'm sure what that was, but it's probably cramps. I kiss him, and wipe his damp hair off his forehead. "I love you." I smile, kissing him again. He fists a handful of my hair bringing out lips closer together, if possible. We're cut off my someone laughing.
I turn around and reluctantly pull away to see Gloss guffawing, and Johanna rolling her eyes. "Seriously, you two? I'm just going to point out that you're making out in the middle of a fight to the death. And I'm also reminding you that this is on national television. The world is watching." She quotes the famous line.
"Did you find any water?" Cashmere asks, worried. She ties up her long blonde hair and leans against a tree.
Gloss shakes his head no. "We didn't, but there has to be somewhere. If there's no water in the whole arena, these games will only be a few days long." Maybe that's the point, really. The Capitol population doesn't seemed to thrilled about the Quell this year, anyways. They've fallen in love with us, and now they have to watch a piece of their family die. As much as I detest this (for obvious reasons), at least they're getting a taste of their own medicine.
I sigh. I'm feeling impatient. I plant my hands on my hips and look up at the sky. "Haymitch, if you're not passed out drunk yet, could you do us the favor of getting us some water? I worked very hard for the money in the sponsorship account, don't be so stingy with it." I've never seen anybody communicate with a mentor like that in any of the other seventy-four Games. But there's no rule saying it can't be done, so I don't think there's a problem with it. Moments later, a silver parachute arrives. Finnick hands it to me.
The parachute doesn't have any water, but instead there's a small blue object. It looks like a funnel and is small enough to put my pinky finger in it. The smaller end of it is very sharp, and looks like it goes into something. I pass it around to everyone else, but nobody seems to know what it is. It looks familiar. "Start a fire." I tell Finnick, "I'm gonna go hunting." Nobody objects, and I make my way into the jungle, taking the blue object Haymitch gave us.
I walk around for a while, and manage to get three rodent type things and bring them back. Their muzzles were wet when I found them, but I don't know where they got the water. I sit next to the fire Finnick made a few hundred meters away from our camp, and begin to skin and roast some of the meat. Gloss sits down next to me, and takes over for me. I thank him and walk back. A sheath of my arrows fall off my shoulder and when I lean over to pick them up, I trip over an exposed root. I try to steady myself by grabbing onto a tree, but it doesn't work and I fall. The last thing I remember is hitting something hard and then there's a blinding flash of blue light. *
The first thing I register is that Finnick is sitting on top of me. "Katniss!" He kisses my forehead, and rolls of me. "Holy shit, you're okay." I look at him with confusion. Finnick, Gloss and Johanna are all sitting around me. I look around confused. Before I can ask what happens, Cashmere runs over.
"What the fuck happened? All I saw was a flash of light and I heard Finnick yell something. Katniss, are you alright? Is the ba- " Cashmere cuts herself off and Johanna elbows her in the ribs. Cashmere yelps in pain.
"Is the what okay?" I ask her, suspicious. There's somehting I don't know.
"You ran into the forcefield. Your heart stopped." Johanna tells me slowly, her tone aloof and almost bored. She could have been reciting historical facts about the climate in District 6, and it would've sounded exactly the same. I take a deep breath, letting the magnitude of her words hit me.
"I died?" I ask them, confused. "I didn't hear a canon or anything." I'm still not sure what's going on.
"We got your heart re-started." Finnick answers. My head feels fuzzy. "Anyways, we figured out how to get water. You pushed the blue thing into a tree, and it created a stream of water. There's water in the trees." I stare at him for a few moments, and he simply hands me a basket Cashmere weaved. It's full of water. It's as warm and sticky as the rest of the arena, but I don't care. I gulp down a lot, and wipe some on my forehead. Water doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is when you're dehydrated. Something irks me about what Cashmere was going to say when she cut herself off. Again, people not telling me things. I just want to take a nap.
"Why don't we stay here for the rest of the evening?" I suggest. It's been a really long day. And I died, so I really don't feel like endangering my life again. That may sound dumb since I'm in the Hunger Games of all places, but I'd prefer not to die for real. I wonder how long I was unconscious. The Gamemakers obviously showed that on the mandatory live viewing. So Prim and my mother saw me die. Poor things. I feel terrible. I hate to say it, but this was good practice for my family back home. In a few days, they'll have to watch me die for real. Nobody states their opinion on whether or not we should move or not, so we just hang out, waiting for nightfall. I hear seven cannons go off in a row, signaling the end of the bloodbath. A few more will probably die before the sun sets. We won't find out who the fallen are for another few hours.
I eat some of that rodent. We call it a tree rat, not having an actual name for the creature. None of us have ever seen it, and Panem doesn't have jungles. That must mean we're far away from home. I wonder if there are other civilizations on other landmasses out there. Maybe, but we'd never know. I bet they don't make teenagers fight to the death. Or they could easily be worse, who knows? I'm not sure if I'd like to find out. There might not even be anyone out there.
We all sit in our shelter, and kill some time by talking about stories from our games. Finnick and Gloss' stories aren't that interesting. Finn was amazing, and had an easy time. He never asked for anything from the sponsors, but they showered him with gifts regardless. Gloss stayed in the Career pack, and when there were six tributes left, he killed his allies in his sleep as well as his enemies, and won by sunrise. Johanna talks about how she fooled everyone with her strategy, and she's not sure how, since it wasn't even that good of a strategy. "I've gotten a lot better, I used to be a total bitch."
Finnick nods in agreement. "Hate to break it to you Jo, but you still are." She shoots him a dirty look, but they both start cracking up. I'm a little jealous of their friendship, but I know that they don't have any romantic feelings for each other any more. None of that'll matter in a few days anyways, we'll be dead. I tell them about how I don't even know what I was thinking when I volunteered for my sister, how I knew how to use a bow and arrow since I used to hunt outside the fence in District 12 for food, and how I didn't think I'd actually win, but I knew I'd try. The whole romance with the boy from my district was fake, and used as a strategy. But I did kind of fall in love with him. That didn't last long, since Peeta died.
"Guys, wanna hear something amazing?" Cashmere asks us. Not waiting for a reply, she continues, "Think about us before our games. We were nothing special. When we were reaped for the first time, if we had died, it really wouldn't have mattered. Sure, our families and friends would miss us, but it wouldn't really affect the majority of people. Now, Johanna Mason is a household name. Your games were arguably the most entertaining, ever. Gloss and I were the only two tributes who brought their district to win two years in a row. Finnick, you singlehandedly killed half of the people in your games. Katniss, you moved the whole country to tears when you volunteered for your sister. You got an eleven, which is unheard of from a outlying district. But when we die, and all of us but one will, these things won't be forgotten. They'll still replay the tapes from our games. They'll still talk about how Katniss Everdeen and Finnick Odair were the ultimate star-crossed lovers. They'll talk about Johanna Mason, and how nobody ever could use an axe like she could. They'll talk about all of us, and it's okay that we're gonna die, because we'll have made a difference in other people's lives. We'll be remembered forever."
We're stunned into silence. Her speech of sorts was nothing short of beautiful. I look in the sky, and the sun is almost completely down. The anthem begins to play. We all know what that means. We get to see who has died today. I heard eight cannons go off, but I was only there for six of the eight deaths. I wonder who the other two are. I killed two today. That makes my body count is a whopping six. Compared to some people (like Finnick or Johanna) that's nothing, but for me, that's six too many. I can kill, and I will when necessary. But why does there have to be a time where it's necessary to end lives?
The faces flash by one after another. The man from 5, the woman from 6, Cecelia. Her children are now motherless. The woman from 9, both tributes from 10. Seeder, and Chaff. Seeder was a grandmother. Chaff, he had no children, no wife. But he had Haymitch. I think of drunk, old Haymitch. His best friend. The only person Haymitch cared about. He's gone too. One third of the tributes, gone. A normal amount for the first day. But it feels different, since I know most of the tributes. I've seen all of them, but I know only three. Cecelia, Chaff, Seeder. There's no words to describe how sick I feel. "Brutus and Enobaria, Nuts and Volts, Mags, the women from 5 and 6, Blight, Woof, the man from 9, and Gale. As well as all of us. That makes 16." Johanna reminds us. I notice how she says Gale's name with hostility. I lay in Finnick's lap, and try to stifle a yawn. "I'll keep watch tonight." Johanna suggests.
"Wake me up in a few hours. I'll take over." Cashmere tells her. We all agree to this. Johanna takes an axe, and a basket filled with water, and places herself outside of the shelter. The four of us lie next to each other in the tent. I curl up on Finnick and use his chest as a pillow. He kisses my forehead. "Please you two, don't fuck while we're sleeping. I'm asking nicely." Cashmere pleads. Gloss chuckles, and I tell her that we'll try, but no promises. And if we do, we'll keep it quiet. I wouldn't though. My family is watching, the whole worldis watching. I drift into sleep.
"When have we ever been quiet?" Finn asks me jokingly. Never. I crane my neck up and kiss him passionately. The whole world seem to fade to the background. If I could wish for one thing, it would be to spend my whole life safely with Finnick. I love him, and it's taken me this long to realize it. Sure, I know very well that I'm in love with him, and I've told him that I love him, but I know for sure that I love him now. Looks like he's my first and last love.That sucks.
"I love you." I tell him quietly. I hear Finn mumble something, but I don't catch it, I'm already half-asleep. I'm so tired, I don't dream, which luckily means no nightmares. I wake up to a loud boom and a flash of light. I sit up, startled. Johanna is sleeping next to me where Cashmere was a few hours ago. It must be around midnight, by the darkness. I try to fall back asleep, but I can't. I wake up again, a few hours later.
It's pitch black out, but I still can see somethings from the moonlight. I tiptoe out of the shelter, and see Cashmere chatting with someone. It's Mags. "Hey, Mags." I greet her. She stands up and gives me a hug, and says something that sounds like a greeting. Her speech is garbled, I think she had a stroke a few years back. I do know that she's a sweetheart. She's like a kind grandmother. I never met any of my grandparents, they all died before I was born. Practically nobody lives past sixty in the poorer districts. I met Madge's grandmother once. She was the nicest person I think I've ever met. She was a teenager when the Hunger Games first started, and would tell us stories about before the Dark Days. Mags tries to tell me something, but I have no idea what she's saying. I raise an eyebrow at Cashmere, hoping she knows.
"Mags said that she saw Gale, and that he's doing okay." Cashmere explains. Gale. Ugh. I know Mags doesn't mean any harm, but really, I don't even want to hear his name right now.
"Thank you." I smile at her. "That's good to know, he's like a brother to me." I try to stress the word brother. No matter how Gale feels about me, I never have and never will have any type of romantic feelings towards him.
"Ugh. I don't care if he was your best friend for however many years, he's still an asshole, and that's all he'll ever be in my eyes. Sorry, it's true. He was a total jerk to you, and rude to Finnick. Some of the things that he said to you are just... unforgivable. And he's a liar."
"Well, yeah. But what did he do that made him a liar?" I ask her. "You guys are keeping something from me. It's not fair. Just because I'm younger doesn't make me dumb or untrustworthy. I'm an equal here, treat me like it. What is going on?"
Cashmere just mutters, "Don't worry about it." She looks like she's going to say something else, but she jumps up and drops her jaw. "Oh, shit." Her eyes are wide with fear. Mags has a similar expression. I turn around. There appears to be some type of translucent mist creeping towards us. Something about the way it moves, makes me sense that it's not just fog. This is the creation of the Gamemakers. In the few seconds it takes to wake everyone up and grab our valuables, I begin to blister.