Chapter 9 First and Last Days

Cressida had learnt in past years of covering the Games that there was a certain rhythm to the ritual. After the violent melee at the Cornucopia, there was a protracted period during which each of the surviving tributes scattered, tried to learn how the arena worked, sought some safe refuge where they could relax at night without being murdered in their sleep, and examined their supplies. Even the Career Alliance, if it was smart, tried to take stock of the situation rather than hunt down their prey immediately.

Many of the Capitol viewers got bored at that point and tuned out, coming back when the violence started again. Cressida's broadcasters made the best of it by zigzagging between various tributes, and Claudius Templesmith talked himself blue in the face with speculations of how the Games would go.

Bunyan, who had been up all night trying to shmoose with sponsors, took the opportunity to take a nap, telling Cressida to "please wake me up if something happens." But Cressida was glued to the TV images, trying to find out what was happening to Andromeda.

She was rewarded about an hour and a half later, when they gave the girl a close-up. She had found a cave somewhere downslope from the Cornucopia and taken refuge there. (The cave was an ambivalent gift: it got her out of direct view of people on the slopes, but was an obvious place to search. Cressida wondered if the Gamesmasters had put it there on purpose.) She was going through the pack that Sam had thrown her, using sunlight from the entrance. The big prize was a coil of rope, and in fact she immediately started converting it to a lasso. Lumps of bread and meat. A crude knife. Matches but nothing handy to burn; there was no vegetation around. A bottle but no water in it. That would have been too easy. The Gamesmasters wanted her to have to look for water and expose herself to view.

She didn't look for water immediately, though. Instead she retreated further into the cave where sunlight didn't reach, exploring it by feel and by feeble light from a series of matches. The Gamesmasters had to throw the scene into life-enhancing mode to keep the girl visible. Cressida was confused at first, then realized that Andromeda was following a clever strategy. If some tribute later invaded her cave, Andromeda could withdraw into the dark section, where she would know her way around and the attacker would be effectively blind. Claudius, still trying to narrate, couldn't figure it out and wondered if she was looking for something. Cressida hadn't realized before what an idiot Claudius was. Eventually Andromeda lay down, apparently deciding to conserve her strength. The Gamesmakers lost interest and switched their focus somewhere else. At least Andromeda was safe.

She came back onscreen a few hours later. The camera was focusing on a mountain brook. A girl – Claudius identified her as District 5 – was kneeling at the brook, filling a bottle with water. Crouched behind a large rock, quite visible to the cameras but apparently unseen by the girl, was Andromeda. Claudius pointed out that Andromeda had a perfect opportunity to rush forward and stab the girl in the back with her knife, without even needing her famous lasso.

Except that she didn't. The girl finished filling her bottle with water and started walking upslope again. Andromeda stayed hidden until the other was out of view, then walked to the brook and started filling her own bottle.

Claudius was horribly disappointed, and so, presumably, were Capitol fans who had hoped for some blood. To Cressida it seemed clear that Andromeda had not wanted a fight.

That night was particularly dull. Claudius speculated ( or somebody more intelligent speculated to him) that few tributes wanted to negotiate mountain trails at night, less they stumble in the dark, falling downhill or even over a cliff. The exceptions, just as Bunyan and Cressida expected, were Districts 2 and 12, whose tributes were used to mountainous terrain. The tributes from 12 went down to the brook for some water – lapping it up because they had obtained nothing, not even a container, at the Cornucopia. On the way back to their hiding place they ran into the Careers from 2, who killed them.

Bunyan, who was watching with Cressida at the time, grunted. "So much for 12. Heymitch will be drunk for the rest of the Games – assuming he hasn't been drunk already."

For the next day the TV did not cover Andromeda at all. Apparently, having food and drink and a good hiding place, she had decided to lay low. Her only difficulty would be relieving herself without the benefit of a decent toilet. Presumably she found a corner of the cave where she could do her business. By tradition the TV gave her privacy for that.

On the third day, however, she left the cave again. Probably she had drunk all of her water, because she started toward the brook again. Apparently the Gamesmakers expected something to happen, because the TV was focused on her again.

Bunyan and Cressida could see why. A few meters ahead of her another tribute was hiding; it was the reverse of the situation at the brook. But Andromeda stopped a few meters away. "You might as well come out; I can hear you breathing."

He came out sulkily. Cressida was relieved to see that he had no weapons, while Andromeda had a knife – except she didn't, it was in her knapsack on her back. "You're the girl from District 10, aren't you. Must be , because you stink like a horse. Like horse-s***."

"That's a stupid insult," Andromeda said. "We all stink, after two days and no way to bathe. Look, that's no reason for us to fight. Just let me by."

Bunyan groaned. The tribute had a different reaction to the peaceful offer. "Coward," he snarled and he attacked her.

They grappled for a minute or two, with Claudius providing exciting commentary. Then Andromeda managed to punch her enemy in the solar plexus. He went down gasping for breath., and Andromeda got her knife from the pack.

"Finish him off!" Bunyan called.

She didn't. Instead she continued downhill at a brisk pace, apparently assuming that she could outrun him. But the tribute struggled to his feet, and started after her while still gasping for breath. Catching her with her from behind, he threw his arms around her.

His intent may have been to pin her arms so she couldn't use the knife, and indeed she dropped the weapon. But in the process his arms pressed against her breasts, and that seemed to galvanize Andromeda. Maybe he hurt the scarred area, or maybe she interpreted touching the forbidden area as a sexual attack. She struggled loose and they grappled again. Then , during a moment's separation, she picked a rock off of the path, and brought it down on his skull. Blood spurted out and he fell prone. The cannon BOOMed to confirm his death.

"She did it!" Bunyan cried. "She's finally learned that she has to kill or be killed. If she fights that well with others – "

But Andromeda's own reaction to the victory was quite different. She stared at the body for almost a minute, her back to the camera. When she turned around, there were tears on her face. She walked to the cliffside, staring downward. The camera helpfully switched its angle and showed the view over the cliff: a drop of several dozen meters, ending in sharp rocks.

"What is she DOING?" Bunyan demanded, but Cressida thought she knew. Andromeda was suffering agonies of guilt over killing somebody.

The girl stared over the cliff for a time, then finally she seemed to come to a resolution. Closing her eyes, she jumped over the precipice.

BOOM! went the cannon, marking another death.

Cressida screamed and fainted.

(TO BE CONINUED)