Calm Before The Storm {Finnick Odair}

Sound Of The Gong

Hebe didn't move from her spot in the bushes for what felt like years. She drifted between sleeping and waking, finding comfort in neither.

In her dreams, Gaia followed her. Each time she saw her own reflection in a river or lake, Gaia was there too, her body mutilated, burnt and disintegrated. Hebe watched as she ate that peach over and over again, and she soon entered her main rotation of nightmares. They would all meld into each other, sometimes it was Luca volunteering, Annie getting beheaded, Finnick rotting, Gaia screaming and crying.

She would drag herself from slumber only to find herself alone in the clearing, tears streaming down her face, sweat dripping from her forehead. She wasn't even conscious enough anymore to properly defend herself if someone tried to eliminate her. In fact, if someone did find her she'd probably beg them to take her out. She now welcomed death, having almost no desire to return to home anymore. She didn't know if it was because she couldn't bear to face them after what she'd done, or if she just didn't have the energy and willpower to want to leave.

Her axe lay almost a foot away, still stained with dried blood. The eyeball still lay in the middle of the clearing near the hatch, sliced perfectly in half.

The numb feeling that spread through Hebe's body at every minute of the day was even worse than it was after Luca. It was like the death of Gaia had opened up all the floodgates on her emotions, and now they were flowing freely through her veins. Every horror she had experienced so far was infinitely compounded, and now it was all that was on her mind.

Hebe was fairly certain she had been here for two days, only taking small sips of water and tiny bites of crackers for sustenance. She knew this because she had been awakened by the anthem twice, sobbed all the way through it, and then fallen back to sleep. She felt like death, her body withering away from the lack of usage. She was turning into some thoughtless vegetable that did nothing but sob and sleep.

That was until she heard the cannons.

Loud booms that echoed through the clearing, the most real thing she'd experienced since she watched the hovercraft carry Gaia's body away. And then there was another immediately after it.

They continued to ring through Hebe's ears for however long it was until she fell back asleep.

She didn't stir again until the anthem began to blast through the swamp as it always did, jolting her awake like she'd been struck by lightning. Dazedly, she raised her head, curious to see who was gone now. If she was right in her hazy calculations, two are dead, meaning there was only 4 of them left.

She prayed it was Anise and Ash.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn't. Instead it was the boy from 5 and the boy from 9. She thought that was going to be it. But just as she went to turn her head away, the girl from 12 was projected into the sky. She must have slept through the other cannon.

She was in the final three.

Unfortunately, at this stage it didn't bear much weight to Hebe at all. She didn't feel like caring. Her heart was too busy desperately trying to repair itself to even consider strategising. Luckily she was going to be forced into action.

"Tributes, there are only three of you left in the arena! Well done! Because of the long stalemate these games have seemed to have reached, we in the Capitol have decided to ramp things up! You have the next 4 hours to hunt down the remaining tributes. If no winner has been declared in these 4 hours, we will release a number of vicious muttations and natural events to bring you all together! Happy hunger games, and may the odds be ever in your favour!"

Claudius Templesmith's voice echoed from the speakers as he read out the first announcement of the games, and most likely the last.

It was common for the gamemakers to use natural disasters or mutts to bring tributes together near the end of the games, but it was exceedingly uncommon for this to be outright stated, or for a time-frame to be given.