HAYMITCH
My nerves were on edge, not even the half bottle of whiskey I had drunk had managed to calm me down. I was in the victors' room, in a minute the 75th Hunger Games were going to start. The cameras showed a clock-shaped panorama of the arena. The cornucopia was in the center surrounded by water. That was a plus, Finnick could get there first and I was counting on Katniss and Peeta knowing how to swim. I looked for Leila on the screen, and saw her standing opposite Katniss and Peeta. That was lucky! the cannon sounded announcing the start of the hunger games.
Katniss and Finnick arrive at almost the same time, exchange a few words, and head off. I see Peeta hasn't moved, he's still on the metal podium. I am sure that either he does not know how to swim or because of his leg he cannot. Damn it! Although I have to admire the skills of Katniss and Finnick, they haven't wasted a second, they've managed to dodge the tributes of 1 and 2, and now they're heading to help Peeta. I realize that, until a moment ago Leila jumped into the water, she spent a long time analyzing the arena. Despite that waste of time, she has made up for it by swimming fast to the cornucopia. When she arrives, she manages to dodge the female tribute from District 10 who lunges at her, sword in hand. She runs fast and catches her weapons, behind her I see that the tribute from District 6 and Woof are coming towards her ready to attack. Not far away is Seeder who is also coming for her. I realize that they are following Plutarch's plan, to serve as obstacles. Leila turns around and I see that she is looking for a way to escape from that ambush. She has taken the same weapons that she used in the training room, a long knife, another equally large and curved, and a spear. There was no escape for the girl, the confrontation was inevitable, however I could see the hesitation on her face. Although this did not last and she launched herself on them and in two accurate movements, Woof and the Boy from district 6 were dead. Then, She decided to take the opposite direction from Seeder, but she didn't count on Johanna coming from the other side, they both launched attacks at her at the same time, Seeder a short knife and Johanna her ax. But they didn't even touch her, Leila was very fast. I saw that she launched herself with all her strength to knock Johanna down, and when I thought she was going to kill her, she just ran up and ran in the direction of the beach, disappearing once she reached the forest.
Johanna rose angrily, and went to retrieve her ax. At that precise moment things started to get out of control, Gloss appeared out of nowhere and launched an attack at Johanna but missed, killing Seeder who got in the way. Johanna ran off in the direction of her district partner, Blight, who was helping Beetee along with Wiress to retrieve the wire that Plutarch had left especially for him. At that moment the 4 began to flee in the direction of the beach, Gloss threw a knife again and this time hit Beetee in the back, even in the run Johanna and Blight carried Beetee until finally the four reached the safety of the forest. The bloodbath was over, eight tributes have died.
The scene was continually replayed in my head. Peeta was dead, or at least for a moment he was, if it hadn't been for Finnick saving him. I would never have forgiven myself if something bad happened to that boy. He was the best of the three of us. The cameras have focused on each of the tributes and their location. I noticed that Leila is far enough to reach them today, but they can't let their guard down, because if I remember anything from her previous games, it's that the girl didn't rest for a minute. I decide to wait until nightfall to send them the spigot that will provide them with water, I need them to keep moving as far as they can today. Johanna's group is still far enough away for them to meet, and in the state Beetee is in they can't get very far. Chaff is still alive, he is on the other side of the arena, though quite close to Leila, maybe two hours away. The 1 and 2 tributes are still regrouped in the cornucopia working out their strategy. The other 2 remaining tributes are distributed in different areas of the arena.
With the official broadcast finished, I start to head towards my apartments when an avox nods for me to follow. It must have been sent by Plutarch. He leads me into his private command room. When I enter there is no one, so I wait. 15 minutes later Plutarch shows up. He motions with his finger to his mouth for me not to speak and switches on something in the room that makes a slight ringing sound in my ears. I suppose it is some device to interfere with the spy microphones of the capitol.
-I have managed to finalize the details with the 13th, we will do the extraction on the third day at midnight. he says to me suddenly
-Beetee is still unconscious, and the two groups are far from meeting, not counting that they have to go to the meeting place. Time is too short. How will we make the plan work?
-Haymitch, the extraction has to be done in that time, waiting longer means risking the mockingjay, two days is a long time for all the eventualities that can happen. Just look at what happened with Peeta today, he almost died.-He was right but I couldn't help but be nervous about everything that was about to happen-
-And what is the plan with 13?
-They will send a hovercraft to the place where the arena is located, I have already given them the coordinates, it will have a group of soldiers in case a confrontation happens and a medical team for the possible wounded. We will go to the capitol camp that is close to the arena a few hours before the meeting, don't worry, I'll take care that no one notices you and once there, as soon as I receive the signal, we will go out to meet with the hovercraft.
-That plan sounds quite simple,- I replied sardonically.
-It's simple because I designed it- Plutarch answered me triumphantly- But of course we have to see what happens in the next 55 hours, before the celebrations begin.
-Well let me know so I can bring the bottles then- I get ready to leave the room
-ahem- Plutarch cleared his throat - not only did I call you to tell you the plan but also why you should stay here Haymitch.-I just opened my mouth in surprise- You need to be within my reach in case something unforeseen happens, it is too risky at this point to send you messages or avox to communicate, do you understand? - I agreed. I hated these high officials and their condescending talk.- Well, having clarified this point, in this office you will find everything you need, and don't worry, I'll be keeping you company most of the time, after all, I have to watch what happens in the games, I'm the head gamemaker- he let out a laugh. Yep, these politicians were annoying.
The best thing about being in Plutarch's office is that the broadcast was live and unedited, so I wasn't going to miss any movement from my guys, and the worst thing is that even if I wanted to, I couldn't turn off the monitor for even a second to rest my mind from the horrors of the arena. When I talk about horrors, I mean seeing the sweet and good Mags, sacrificing herself to die, so that the others could advance, escaping the fog. How much pain I felt for Finnick, he had just lost a mother. And it didn't end there, only an hour later, and still trying to shake off the pain that the poison fog caused them, an attack of mutant monkeys almost killed Peeta, but instead they took the life of the poor girl from District 6, her life had been miserable and so is her death now. The cameras shifted from Finnick, Katniss, and Peeta, to focus on Chaff. I quickly understood why. Someone was going to die. He was about to come across Leila, who was hidden in the branches of a tree, with the spear in her hand. Chaff passed under her, he was an easy shot away from death, I felt my heart pounding in my ears. Leila was immobile and ready to attack but in the end she didn't. Chaff continued on his way and Leila stayed in the same position for a long time. Why didn't she kill him? Suddenly the door flew open and Plutarch walked in, scaring me to death. I was too old for these sudden adrenaline rushes.
-In just a few minutes maybe we can get rid of the girl,- Plutarch says triumphantly.
-What are you talking about?
-She is in the area of the arena where a rather special mutt that the Capitol has prepared is waiting for her.- I shuddered at the idea, I didn't want the girl to have a horrible death either. The cameras panned to the beast just minutes before it was due to strike.
Plutarch wasn't wrong when he said it was pretty special. It was a monstrous four-legged thing over two meters tall, with claws and teeth of at least 30 cm, stocky and hairless. He didn't remind me of any animal I had ever seen. At 6 o'clock, the mutt began its hunt. He was fast and agile. The girl saw him coming from about 100 meters away and started to run, in juxtaposition of the monster she looked tiny. What's more, she wasn't very tall, almost as tall as Katniss. I saw her climb a tree pretty fast, but the beast followed her, that thing could climb too. Leila began to jump from branch to branch trying to get away from it, every time the monster got close to her it would throw its claws at her trying to catch her, it was lucky that she had such skill. A moment later she decided to jump out of the tree and run again. The undergrowth of the forest beat at her but she didn't stop and the monster was on her heels. Surprisingly, another mutt appeared in front of her, this one was also coming for her. Leila took the spear from her back, and kept running to meet the thing but preparing the spear to attack. My jaw dropped, seeing what happened next. When the mutt in front of her jumped to charge at her, the girl deftly managed to plunge the weapon into her head, killing him almost instantly. The monster's body fell, rolling the other mutt over and giving Leila a few more yards of distance. Suddenly, she collided with the male tribute from District 10 who was also running away from a mutt just like her. Leila quickly got up and without looking back she kept running. However, the two mutts stopped chasing her and concentrated on slaughtering the poor man. Time had run out, and Leila was saved from a horrible death. Plutarch huffed in frustration. The worst thing about this is that, with the chase, she had advanced getting closer and closer to the area where Katniss, Peeta and Finnick were. I calculated that she was about 8 hours away if she continued through the forest and half if she risked going by the beach.
During the day, Plutarch went out and in from his office. He could not neglect the duties of head gamemaker. At one point in the morning Johanna's group finally found Katniss's group. Both groups had suffered losses, Mags and Blight were dead. Beetee still hadn't recovered from yesterday's attack and today's obstacles, and Wiress was in shock. Intelligently, they did not take long to decipher the arena and as was to be expected, the gamemakers decided to take action on the matter, generating chaos to confuse the participants. Although I was sure that they would decipher the obstacles of each fraction of the arena in no time. Plutarch was also taking it upon himself to send the secret code to Beetee to tell him when the rescue would take place.
-Haymitch! -Plutarch rushed in - Leila has arrived, it will only take her 10 minutes at most to reach the group- I felt my whole body tense instantly. Plutarch moved something on the monitors and there we had the two camera shots, one of Leila and another of our tributes. Finnick, Johanna Beete, and Peeta were in a semicircle tracing figures in the sand to carry out their plan to electrocute the remaining tributes, and Katniss had her back to the woods, sticking the spigot in for water. TURN AROUND YOU IMBECILE!, I wanted to yell at the screen. Worst of all, even if Katniss did notice her, she didn't have any weapons within her reach to defend herself and the rest were so focused on their plans that they had dropped their guard. Leila for her part was sneaking up, how was it possible for someone to be so fucking silent? Was this brat flying over the earth? We exchanged defeated glances with Plutarch. It was over, this was it, the capitol won once again.
-Any last words you want to say, little bird?- Leila whispered into Katniss's ear. I couldn't believe it, I couldn't protect her, and she was about to die without me being able to do anything to stop it. I failed again, Katniss would be my number 47. I felt my stomach turn and the room spin. I didn't want to see it. There was Leila behind Katniss imprisoning her by the neck with her two knives, about to be decapitated.