Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
District Twelve Female, Sally Himmer, 16
Sally didn't like diving, but at least while she was under the water it was quieter. The hall was filling with the screams and shouts of panicked tributes as the water level continued to rise.
She dragged two backpacks to the nearest hole in the glass and shoved them through, rising up to gasp for air. "I don't like this game."
Greg waded over to join her. "You have to keep going. Meredith says we need to keep collecting keys. The plastic bubbles, that's where they are."
"How strange."
"The Gamemakers will have set it up so we fight. Just… get the bubbles."
"It's a strange game," said Sally again. And by now, every time she had to plunge back under the glass, she had to dive deeper and deeper.
Sally didn't like it. She wasn't meant to be underwater.
"I know, but we need those keys!"
"But I'm tired of swimming!"
"We're all tired of swimming!"
One of the girls from One surfaced nearby, a plastic bubble dangling from her hand. Cali waded over to take it. The water was getting high even for her now.
"How many are still down there?" she asked.
"Not many," replied the girl from One, spitting out water. "How many keys do we have?"
Sally didn't understand why these keys were so important. Her mommy and daddy always had keys, and they said she didn't have to worry about them.
"I'm tired," she said, climbing from the water.
"Do you think you could dive down and fetch some of the bubbles trapped under the glass?" asked Cali.
"I'm tired!" Sally shouted. She was tired and she didn't like it here. She wanted to go home.
District One Female, Tatiana Silver, 14
Every dive and subsequent return to the surface was taking longer. Her lungs and limbs burned from the effort. She was a dancer, not a swimmer. Even the smaller of the District Four boys looked to be tiring, spending less time in the water every time he went down.
It was keys they needed now, not supplies, and so Tatiana focused on swimming under the glass and pulling plastic bubbles to the surface to be ripped open. Daisy seemed to have caught on and had joined her plan, dragging baubles through the holes in the glass.
"I need one more," Cali said, holding her hand up to display the three keys around her wrist. "Meredith needs two."
"I thought Meredith had more?" asked Daisy with a frown.
"She gave some to Nadine."
"There's not many baubles left down there," said Tatiana.
"I only need two more."
Daisy looked at Tatiana. "Three more each? Surely we'll get two more keys that way?"
Tatiana grinned. "I'll race you!"
"It's not a competition–" protested Cali, but Tatiana was already driving under and cutting off the noise from above.
She stayed close to the glass this time, grabbing plastic baubles and pushing them towards one of the holes. Two were grabbed by other tributes as she surfaced, but she managed to hold onto the third and ripped it open. Inside, there was nothing except a single key.
Another tribute, a boy, lunged at her and made a grab for it. Tatiana shrieked.
"Give it to me!" he yelled, snatching for the key. It slipped from her hand, sinking through the water. The boy shouted in disappointment. Tatiana sucked in a breath and let herself sink into the water, grabbing for the key.
A dark shape appeared from beneath her, making their own swipe at the key. The boy from Two. For a moment, panic split her world as she struggled to get a grasp on the key. The first time, her fingers glanced from the band. The second, she only knocked it further from her. The third, she managed to grasp it, squirming away from the boy from Two and darting for the nearest gap in the glass.
His hand brushed her ankle, but she wrenched her foot away and then she was free, racing over to the next gap in the glass to surface with a gasp. The water was high enough now that she had to tread it to stop herself sinking straight beneath the surface again. She slipped the key onto her wrist and took a quick look around the hall before ducking under again.
Meredith and Cali might have the right idea. The more keys they had, the better.
District Eleven Male, Bakula Kalanit, 12
The water was almost too deep for him to stay on his feet now. It twisted and swirled around him, threatening to drag him under.
Saigon was having a better time, holding onto his arm and keeping him above the water, but it was no easy time even for him. Bakula clung to the wall with one hand and Saigon with the other.
"Maybe I should use Bakula for this," suggested Saigon.
Nadine shook her head. "I'm taller than him; I've got a better chance at reaching."
"You're also heavier than him."
"Are you calling me fat?"
"Just bigger than him."
"Lift me up there!"
Saigon looked down at Bakula.
"Do it," he said, clinging to the wall. "You can lift me up once the water's higher and the door's open."
"Alright." He hooked his fingers together and leaned down, though he couldn't crouch, since the water would come over his head. "Come on. I'll give you a leg up."
Nadine set her foot onto his hands and rested her hands against the wall, pulling herself up. Saigon groaned, lifting her as he stood. She reached up and must have found something to pull herself up on, because she raised suddenly. Bakula reached up to position his own hands under her other foot and give her a more stable base. "Can you reach?"
"Yeah, I've got it!" she called, wobbling as she fumbled with the door and the keys above them. There was a click as the first key slotted into place, followed by the second, and then the third.
"You got them?" asked Saigon, shaking from the strain of holding her.
"Almost," she replied.
Bakula craned his head back to look up at her. "But you've got three in! I thought you were going to stop there!"
"Wait a moment–" She swayed, the fourth key scraping the lock before she drove it home.
Something above the bleeped, then clicked, and the parts of the door separated into four, revealing a dark hole behind it. A timer appeared above it, set at a great red 30.
The pipe to the left gave a great clunk and the water rushing out of it intensified, pouring into the hall below.
"What are you doing?" shouted Bakula.
Nadine kicked her legs, straining against the ledge above her.
"You said you were just going to test it!" Bakula yelled, dropping her foot and grabbing at her ankle. She brought her foot back and drove her heel into his forehead, sending him staggering backwards.
Saigon dropped her and caught him. "You alright?"
"I think so. But–"
Nadine was kicking and slipping against the wall, straining to pull herself up. Saigon caught her leg and made some attempt to pull her back, but she was already partly into the dark tunnel, and the water must have made her slippery, because he lost his grip.
He turned to Bakula. "Come on."
"What? What about the others?"
"We didn't open it, but the door's already open, we might as well get more out." Saigon reached down to form a step up for him. "I promise I'll be right behind you."
The counter reached ten.
Bakula nodded and climbed onto his hands, reaching to grab the ledge above him. Once he had it, it was an easy enough task to scramble up and through the door.
The timer set into the floor on the other side of the door hit five.
"Saigon!" he screamed.
Four.
"Come on!"
Three.
"I'll find you!"
Two.
"Saigon!"
One.
District Three Female, Rhea Trissu, 13
Rhea only reached the bottom of the tank once, on her first attempt at diving. Her parents had been sure to have her swim, but no pool in Three was really big enough for diving, and once she was proficient, they'd stopped her lessons. She'd never really enjoyed it anyway. She'd always preferred dolls.
She tried several times to reach the bottom again, but the efforts only drained her strength and left her gulping for air when she surfaced. Instead, she swam under the glass floor, grabbing supplies as they were cut free and allowed to float up from tributes who could make it down below.
Toshiro wasn't fairing as well. He couldn't swim, and was fighting to tread water, all arms and legs and deep, labored gasps. Rhea paddled over to him and stayed close, though she didn't want to grab him. She was afraid of him dragging her under if he slipped beneath the surface.
"Anyone that can't swim well, stay near the walls!" shouted the girl from Eight, who had pulled herself up on the screen. "You can support yourselves on the doorframes! Those that can swim, give them the opportunity–"
Something struck her in the back of the head. She whirled round. "Hey! Who threw that?"
The boy from Two laughed. "Who died and put you in charge, Eight?"
"You and your proto-pack are welcome to not join! I'm just trying to save people."
She was like the big sister Rhea had never had.
Rhea smiled. She would be the big sister, Toshiro would be the brother, and all the others would be her friends. It was like her family had grown so much bigger!
District Six Male, Atlas Anderson, 17
They needed two more keys. It was getting easier to get them, now that more of the bubbles were being cut free and allowed to float closer to the glass floor. Several tributes were swimming around with various amounts of keys around their wrists.
Atlas set his eyes on the smaller girl from Four. She seemed to have set herself apart from the others from her District, and was vaguely assisting the largest alliance of tributes, though never stopping to actually talk to them.
And there was a glint of metal sparkling around her wrist.
Easy target.
Atlas waited until she was rising back through one of the holes in the glass, gasping for air, and tackled her, dragging her back down into the water. Yells went up around him. He wrapped his arms around her, using his weight to his advantage, and found the knife at her belt. She scowled, bringing her legs up to kick at him. He caught a fistful of her hair and forced her head backwards, driving his knee into her chest. She dug her nails into his wrists, her key glinting in the water.
Something struck him in the back. He scrambled to get his fingers around the key hanging on her wrist. It took him a moment, but he managed to hook his fingers around the band and wrenched it off.
An arm wrapped around his waist, wrenching him from the Four girl and slamming him into the glass. He got a glimpse of an ugly scarred face and angry eyes before he rolled over, tossing the girl from him. He stumbled to his feet, gasping for air.
"What are you doing?" shouted the girl from One, lunging at him.
He dodged aside. "What needs to be done! I need keys!"
She struck out at him with the spear. He ducked, and the strike went wide, slamming into the arm of a girl behind him. She shrieked and whirled. Atlas grinned and used the opportunity to throw himself aside, searching the hall in search of the next tribute with a key.
This would be much easier now less of the keys were at the bottom of a tank of water.
District Seven Female, Sage Odin, 17
Sage was struggling to keep her head above the water. She'd never swam in water so deep before. The best she'd done was paddled in some of the shallower ponds back home in Seven. It was a challenge to keep herself from simply slipping below and drowning.
But she was doing better than some. There were several tributes who could barely stay afloat, and others that were clinging to the walls. The wails of desperate and terrified tributes hung in the air.
Sage only wished she knew what she'd done to deserve this.
One of the other girls on the hovercraft, Iris, who looked strangely and painfully familiar, had seemed to believe that her father had arranged for herself and Terro to be chosen. Sage wondered if her father had done the same thing. Finally decided to rid himself of his problematic, waste of space, daughter.
"Don't push each other under!" shouted the girl from Eight.
That was happening, with a few of the younger tributes and those that couldn't swim as well.
"If you can't stay afloat, stay close to the wall! If you can swim, give others a chance!"
Sage had managed to grab a smaller bag for herself, but she had no weapons, and more worryingly, no keys.
She was going to have to push her way out when one of the others opened a door.
Sage hated that, but she wasn't big enough to try what the boy from Ten had tried and steal keys. And so far the two girls directing everything seemed genuine.
Still, Sage was hoping some of the plastic bubbles with keys would reach the surface. She didn't like the thought of relying on others.
District Seven Female, Adrianna Orita, 17
"We've got enough keys." Terro held his hand up, displaying the four keys dangling from his wrist. "You don't need to keep going down."
"But others still need them," Adrianna protested. Many of the baubles were still in the tank beneath them, some at the bottom, others free, but trapped under the glass floor.
"Drowning yourself won't help anyone."
"I'm not going to drown!" She pulled away from him. "Look, I'll just fetch baubles from under the glass. Then once we can reach the doors, we'll go."
The water was rising faster than ever now, the input from one of the pipes having doubled after the door opened.
"I don't think–"
Adrianna stuck her tongue out and dove into the water, feeling for a hole in the glass with her hands. She found one soon enough, it felt like they were getting wider, and swam down through it.
The water was crowded with supplies and baubles cut free by the District Four tributes below. They were the only ones making it so deep now, Adrianna herself would never get all the way down there. Instead, she focused on grabbing baubles and shoving them through the holes in the glass for the tributes above to grab. It was the best she could do to help them now.
Alexios Macedon was grabbing baubles himself, hacking them open with a knife and letting the innards sink to the bottom of the tank. Adrianna frowned, rising for another gasp of air and plunging under again. This time, she hung back to get a better look at Alexios. His arm glinted with dangling keys. Far more than four.
He didn't need anywhere near that many! He and his sister could have taken four and given the rest to others! What was he doing?
Adrianna swam over to him, indicating his arm and pointing at the girl from Eight above. Maybe this was just a misunderstanding, she wasn't going to be like the boy from Ten and just try to grab him.
Macedon shook his head.
She held four fingers and gestured at the other tributes above them. Again he shook his head.
Something else was happening here.
Adrianna pointed towards the nearest route to the surface. They needed to sort this out.
Macedon shook his head.
Before she could continue the argument, something wrapped around her ankle and dragged her downwards.
District Ten Female, Laika Bergfalk, 18
Diego was a stronger swimmer than her, and she hated him a little bit for it. He'd let her do all the work when he could've helped out far sooner.
Callum had picked a fight with another tribute, while the girl from One was going after the boy from Six with a spear. At the bottom of the tank, two of the tributes from Four had started a fight over one of the plastic baubles, while the girl from Seven that had helped her before, the one who fought with Diego, seemed to be having some kind of argument with the boy from Two just beneath the glass, making wide indications with her hands and pointing at his arm.
As Laika swam out again to fetch another loose bauble, she could see what the girl was annoyed about. The boy had far more than four keys around his arm, twice that, all the way up to his elbow.
A spark of anger flared inside her.
No wonder some of the tributes had been having such trouble finding keys, if he'd been taking them all!
The girl from his District swam up behind the girl from Seven, a spear in hand, and Laika made a decision.
She let herself sink further into the water and swum beneath them, reaching up to grab the Seven girl's ankle, dragging her doen.
For a moment she flailed, but then the spear passed straight over her head and her eyes widened.
Laika released her ankle and gave her a nod. She returned a thumbs up, grabbed a bauble, and gestured at a hole in the glass. The girl from Two was still on the attack, swinging the spear back round.
Definitely time to go.
Laika grabbed a bauble of her own and hurried after her. They surfaced in the same place, the other girl spitting out water and grinning at the boy who came to pull her out.
"Thanks," she rasped in Laika's direction.
"No problem." Laika scrambled out and ripped her bauble open. No key. "Fuck."
"Here." The girl from Seven passed her the one from her own bauble.
"Are you sure?"
She shrugged. "We've got enough. I've just been helping others out."
Well, that was better than the boy from Two.