The Name of the Game I Finnick Odair

The Spile

Katniss kept walking, tossing her nuts, sometimes catching a glimpse of the force field, trying to press to the left to find a spot where the group could break through, get away from the Cornucopia, and hopefully find water. But after another hour or so of that Katniss realized it was futile.

They were not making any progress to the left. In fact, the force field seemed to be herding them along a curved path. She stopped and looked back at the sheen of sweat on Peeta's face.

"Let's take a break," Katniss suggested. "I need to get another look from above."

The tree Katniss chose to climb on seemed to jut higher into the air than the others. She made her way up to the twisting boughs, staying as close to the trunk as possible. There was no telling how easily these rubbery branches would snap. Still she climbed beyond good sense, because there was something she had to see. As she clung to a stretch of trunk, no wider than a sapling, swaying back and forth in the humid breeze, her suspicions were confirmed. There was a reason the quartet couldn't turn to the left and they wouldn't ever. From that precarious vantage point, Katniss could see the shape of the whole arena for the first time. A perfect circle. With a perfect wheel in the middle. The sky above the circumference of the jungle was tinged a uniform pink. And Katniss thought she could make out one or two of those wavy squares, chinks in the armour, Wiress and Beetee had called them, because they revealed what was meant to be hidden and were therefore a weakness. Just to make absolutely sure, Katniss shot an arrow into the empty space above the tree line. There was a spurt of light, a flash of real blue sky, and the arrow was thrown back into the jungle. She climbed down to give the others the bad news.

"The force field has us trapped in a circle. A dome, really. I don't know how high it goes. There's the Cornucopia, the sea, and then the jungle all around. Very exact, very symmetrical and not very large."

"Did you see any water?" asked Finnick.

"Only the salt water where we started the Games." Katniss replied, making Peeta frown.

"There must be some other source," he said. "Or we'll all be dead in a matter of days."

"Well, the foliage is thick, maybe there are ponds or springs somewhere." Katniss said doubtfully.

Instinctively, she felt like the Capitol might've wanted these unpopular Games over as soon as possible. Plutarch Heavensbee might've had already given orders to knock them off.

"At any rate, there's no point trying to find out what's over the edge of the hill, because the answer is nothing." she added out loud.

"There must be drinkable water between the force field and the wheel." Peeta insisted, while Kenzie nodded in agreement.

All of them knew what that meant; heading back down. Heading back to the Careers and the bloodshed. With Peeta too weak to fight.

They decided to move down the slope a few hundred metres and continue circling. See if maybe there was some water at that level. Katniss stayed in the lead, occasionally chucking a nut to her left. The sun beat down on them, turning air to steam, playing tricks on their eyes. By mid-afternoon it was clear that Peeta couldn't go on.

Finnick chose a campsite about ten metres below the force field, saying the quartet could use it as a weapon by deflecting their enemies into it if attacked. Then he and Kenzie pulled blades of the sharp grass that grew in two-metre-high tufts and began to weave them together into mats.

Since Kenzie seemed to have no ill effects from the nuts, ("Didn't I tell you?"), Peeta collected bunches of them and fried them by bouncing them off the force field. He methodically peeled off the shells, piling the meats on a leaf. Katniss stood guard, fidgety and hot and raw, the emotions that came from today's events taking their toll on her.