Tidal Wave; A Finnick Odair Fanfiction

Training

Y/n's POV

"So what's our plan for today?" I ask Finnick as the two of us arrived at the training facilities.

"Make allies," Finnick responded.

"That's not what I meant. I was asking if we should show off our skills or keep them hidden," I clarify. "During my games you told me to do what I was best at, and I did, which helped me get in with the Careers. Should I stick with that strategy here?"

"Everyone here knows how everyone else works. I mean, we've seen each others' games. We all have to be good at something if we won, right? So yeah, show off a little bit," Finnick requested. "It'll help us make allies."

"Okay. And look, I know you were toying with the idea of making allies with the Careers, but can we scope out the others first before we make a decision?" I plead.

"Sure," Finnick replied and gave my shoulder a soft squeeze. "Good luck out there."

"Luck? I don't need luck," I claim jokingly as I headed deeper into the facility. My eyes were immediately drawn to the knives, which sat in a case by the back wall, but I held off on them, and instead I made my way towards the survival stations where I just so happened to bump into Peeta. "Hey, Peeta. What are you looking at?"

"A book of poisonous plants. Last time I almost died from some berries, and I'm not too keen on doing that again," Peeta joked.

"Well, I don't know too much about land plants, but there was something my father always told me back in the day. 'If it has leaves of three, let it be'," I recite. "It actually helped me in my games. Without that saying I would have stumbled into an area full of poison oak."

"Good to know. Thanks," Peeta said. "Got any other survival tips?"

"This one's not really a tip. More like a fact. You can survive 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 30 days without food," I share. "Obviously those numbers can differ depending on the environment and other conditions, but those are the average stats."

"Haymitch mentioned you were good at survival skills," Peeta brought up.

I laughed. "Really? What did I do to give him that impression? The only thing I can think of is that I'm good at surviving near water and that I'm decent at climbing. Did he mention anything else?"

"That you were known for gutting someone like a fish," Peeta put forth.

"He was a Career. And he deserved it," I defend and work away at the knot tying station in front of me.

"I'm just a little confused on what that means," Peeta confessed.

"Since Haymitch told you those things, I'm gonna assume he told you a little about my games, right? Or you might have watched them yourself at one point? The Careers, they killed my partner after I begged for them to spare him and let him join our alliance. They broke my trust, so I took my knife, stabbed one of them right below the sternum, and then sliced the knife all the way down to their belly button. As soon as I pulled out my knife, their intestines fell out of their body. You do the same cut when gutting a fish," I explain.

"Wow," Peeta breathed out.

"Yeah. Wow. He was the first person I killed," I reveal. "Prior to that, I let the other Careers do all the killing. My original plan was to ally with them, and then in the end I'd kill them off one by one. But after that, I knew I couldn't trust anyone, so I took off towards the mountains to try and win by myself. I was lucky that there was a water source in my game, and I used it to my advantage. Out of the 23 other tributes in my games, I killed three. It probably would've been more if that tidal wave didn't take the last few tributes out. I gutted one, drowned the other, and the third....."