❛ 𝑺𝑰𝑳𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬- 𝘵𝘩𝘨

Chapter 22

The next morning when I woke up, I got dressed, feeling a knot in my stomach, so I didn't even bother to go to breakfast. Wiress and Dad were waiting for me in the hallway, so they must have had a feeling that I wasn't hungry. We walked to the hanger where the air craft would be waiting. I made sure that they had ate something before getting on. As we waited for the other tributes and mentors, we started to say goodbye.

"Dad..." Was all I could say, before I flung myself at him to pull him into a tight hug. "Please come home." I told him when we broke apart. He nodded and swiped away a tear that was trickling down my cheek. I swallowed and turned to Wiress. She hugged me, and I told her, "Wiress, thank you. You've been a wonderful friend to me..." As I searched for more things to say she cut off my thinking. "Hey, don't worry, I'll protect your dad."

I nodded, my eyes filling up with tears. "Johanna will probably go for an alliance with the two of you plus maybe Blight, because she wants to be allies with Katniss, so just, um, don't get on the wrong side of her." I signed to them.

Beetee started chuckling sadly. I wanted to say something else, but I was worried if I opened my mouth, that loud sobs would escape. Soon, other tributes started to arrive, so I dried my tears and got onto the hovercraft. They inserted trackers into the tributes arms, and we started flying. I saw a few of my friends, but they all seemed to be preoccupied. Johanna was giving at death glare at the wall opposite her. She had her game face on, so I didn't want to ay something. Finnick was gently talking to Mags, and I could tell they were comforting one another. Haymitch was talking to Katniss and Peeta, probably trying to give them last minute advise.

As I looked around the air craft in sadness, I realized that the entire of the aircraft was people that I knew, and began to like. It was sad, because I knew that plenty of people wouldn't be coming out of the arena.

The hovercraft stopped, so I got off and walked side by side with Wiress to the tube area. She stepped into the tube with only a second of hesitation. The countdown started, but just as the tube started to go up, she signed, "I have the image that you gave me in my pocket. Thank you."

I walked to the mentor room, and I saw the tributes standing on their platforms that were in the water. Suddenly, the gong went off, and a few tributes wasted no time diving into the water. Beetee and Wiress were hesitant in going into the water, and I realized that they never knew how to swim. As I observed my other friends, I saw Finnick and Katniss were already at the cornucopia, Johanna was gritting her teeth before jumping in hesitantly, and only a few other tributes were going into the water. Eventually, Dad looked at Wiress , and they both jumped into the water and started to splash over to the cornucopia.

Finnick and Katniss grabbed weapons, and ran to get Mags and Peeta before running into the forest. Johanna grabbed a few knifes before going back to Blight, screamed something at him, before spotting Beetee and Wiress and swimming back to the cornucopia. Dad and Wiress had made it to the cornucopia, and Beetee spotted wire, so he ran to it. I think it was Enobaria, the district two female, who threw an axe at Beetee, but it hit his shoulder. My eyes widened, expecting for their to be a cannon and him to drop to the ground, but somehow he was fine.

Johanna pulled Blight over, and grabbed Beetee and Wiress before jumping back into the water and swimming to land before going into the forest. The cameras refocused on the bloodbath, so for right now, Beetee and Wireless were safe, and that made me more comfortable.

Welcome to the start of the 75th hunger games!