A/N: Thanks to MJElliot, Renchikara and krikanalo for reviewing the last chapter!
Here's yet another bloodbath chapter, and I'm finding these exceedingly hard to write. If they're getting boring, let me know, and I'll try a different tactic.
I hope you enjoy the chapter :)
"The voice of reason
Is rhyming with treason today
The laughing Devil
Is chasing the angels away."
- Ian Broudie, 1992.
The 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Third Quarter Quell) - Day 1, 10.00 am
Indiana James (50), District 10 Female (victor of the 42nd Annual Hunger Games)
The Lightning Seeds - A Small Slice of Heaven (1992)
The gong sounds, and I watch all the tributes around me fly into the water. I'm having second doubts about it myself. I can swim, but only just. I'd rather not take my chances with the waves, especially with so many other victors nearby, waiting to pounce. And who knows what dangers the Gamemakers may have laced the water with. One thing that I've noticed with a lot of the victors is that even those who weren't from Career districts have become as arrogant as the Careers. They think that because they've won it once before, they can do it again.
Well, it's either that or they've got a death wish. They're not stopping to think things through. I won my games by outsmarting the other tributes. I was an opportunist. Let the big guys wear each other out, then stroll in for an easy kill. It worked before, and I see no reason to change my strategy this time around. As most of the other tributes race off towards the cornucopia, I realise that this could be easier than I thought. So many of the tributes are capable of dealing so much damage to one another that barely anyone will survive the bloodbath unscathed.
In the Capitol, there have been debates for years about who the greatest victors of all time have been. Although Amadeus Cato seems to be everyone's number one, there's a lot of debate about who is second best. Who would win in a fight, Finnick or Brutus? Cashmere or Gloss? Johanna or Mags, had they both been in their prime together? Which Quarter Quell victor is the strongest, Arturo or Haymitch?
Now that the Capitol might get some of the answers, I can't imagine that they will be overly pleased about some of the outcomes. It's alright to debate, but actually watching their favourites fight to the death a second time? These Games aren't likely to be popular with the general audience, so I feel like the Capitol are likely get things over with quickly. Looking at the cornucopia, at which Finnick Odair has just managed the first kill of the bloodbath, I can see only weapons. No doubt the Gamemakers feel the same way about these Games as the rest of us. For the first time, the Capitol suffer along with the districts. They have become just as attached to the victors as their homelands have.
Focusing once more on the cornucopia, I realise that my plan of letting everyone else take each other out is working perfectly. Several have gone down already in the first few minutes. Luke Ford was killed coldly by Finnick, and Brutus finished off Seeder and Blake in quick succession. Many of us haven't moved from the starting pedestals, although I guess it to be for a different reason to my own. A couple move out as Enobaria swims out towards us, the action at the cornucopia dying down. I watch as Yvonne, the girl from District 5, decides to take the risk of swimming away towards the foliage around the water without any supplies, but she's able to get away. Enobaria, who I notice is joined by Gloss while Cashmere and Brutus contain the situation on land, isn't fast enough to pursue her.
That's when I notice that she's picked a new target; me.
I'm confident by now that the water doesn't have any hidden traps - at least, none that are currently playing a part in the Games - as almost all the tributes have left their pedestals by now. Even old Woof, who is Gloss' latest target, has abandoned his pedestal, although it's clear that he won't get very far, and is quickly within Gloss' reach.
Suddenly my attention is averted to the Career tribute ten metres away. I've spent far too long staring at everyone else's misfortune. I notice that Enobaria, the thirty-year-old woman from District 2, has a knife in her hand, poised to throw. I imagine that her throwing arm must be impeded by the water around her, as the first knife sails slowly past me to my right from short range, and I fall backwards from the pedestal deliberately, taking to the water to make my escape. I sit surprisingly high in the water, making it easy for me to swim, but Enobaria seems to be gaining. Eventually, I feel the weight of her body as it lands heavily on my back in the water, and I'm forced beneath the waves for a couple of moments before swinging a punch at the Career tribute, knocking her backwards.
Enobaria seems stunned momentarily before shaking her head, as though she is shaking off the pain itself. She quickly comes to her senses again and lunges at me once more, as I've barely had time to move away before the onslaught continues. She kicks out at me, but in the water her actions seem sluggish, giving me time to react to her attacks. She manages to get closer to me once more and she blocks a pair of my futile punches before launching herself at me again, trapping me in a headlock as she reaches for another knife.
Somehow I wriggle free under the waves, but she has a knife, and I have nowhere to go. She drives it at my stomach, and for a moment I think that the end has come, until I realise that the dark liquid spewing into the waves is coming from the belt strapped around my waist.
For a moment, Enobaria looks at me in confusion as I try to back away before she throws the knife straight at me. It slices through my forehead above my left eye, forcing me to scream in pain instinctively and blinding me with my own blood. I notice a slight, strange, sinking feeling that I attribute to my wound as Enobaria pounces again, plunging another knife deep into my chest before leaving me be.
The pain is unimaginable and unendurable. I can't help but cry as my life force seeps away into the waves along with my blood. I stare upwards into the pink sky as I float on the water, wondering what will become of the other tributes in the arena. What will become of the Capitol who turned friends on friends. What will become of the Capitol that sacrificed its own beloved victors. What will become of a nation so sadistic and corrupt.
I wonder what will become of my cousin Fernando, my mentor in these Games and the only person left in the world that I truly love. He is the only one who can possibly understand what I'm going through now. Hopefully he'll be able to recover in a world where he'll have to get by on his own.
I just have time to conjure up an image of his smiling face as my belt slips from my waist and I fall under the waves, never to rise again.
A/N: If you enjoyed this chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)
Also, thanks to everyone who has voted on the poll to choose the follow-up story for to '75 Games, 75 Victors, 75 Oneshots'. The votes is still hanging in the balance, and there is still time to cast your vote, so make sure to make it count!
P.S. We've reached another milestone: 30,000 views, which is just incredible. Thanks once more to everyone for the support with the first eighty chapters of what I hope you all think is a great story :)
