The Girl Who Sparked the Capitol - Book 2 - Peeta

Part Three: Chapter 19

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fifth Hunger Games begin!" The voice of Claudius Templesmith, the Hunger Games announcer, hammers Alessia's ears. She has less than a minute to get her bearings. Then the gong will sound and the tributes will be free to move off their metal plates. But move where?

Alessia can't think straight. The image of Cinna, beaten and bloody, consumes her. Where is he now? What are they doing to him? Torturing him? Killing him? Turning him into an avox? Obviously his assault was staged to unhinge her, the same way Darius's presence in her quarters was. And it has unhinged her. All she wants to do is collapse on her metal plate. But she can hardly do that after what she just witnessed. She must be strong. She owes it to Cinna, who risked everything by undermining President Snow and turning her bridal silk into mockingjay plumage. And she owes it to the rebels who, emboldened by Cinna's example, might be fighting to bring down the Capitol at this moment. Her refusal to play the Games on the Capitol's terms is to be her last act of rebellion. So she grits her teeth and will herself to be a player. 

Where are you? Alessia can still make no sense of her surroundings. Where are you?! Alessia demands an answer from herself and slowly the world comes into focus. Blue water. Pink sky. White-hot sun beating down. All right, there's the Cornucopia, the shining gold metal horn, about forty yards away. At first, it appears to be sitting on a circular island. But on closer examination, Alessia sees the thin strips of land radiating from the circle like the spokes on a wheel. She thinks there are ten to twelve, and they seem equidistant from one another. Between the spokes, all is water. Water and a pair of tributes.

That's it, then. There are twelve spokes, each with two tributes balanced on metal plates between them. The other tribute in her watery wedge is old Woof from District 8. He's about as far as the land strip on her left. Beyond the water, wherever you look, a narrow beach and then dense greenery. Alessia scans the circle of tributes, looking for Peeta, but he must be blocked from her view by the Cornucopia.

Alessia catches a handful of water as it washes in and smells it. Then she touches the tip of her wet finger to her tongue. As she suspected, it's saltwater. Just like the waves Peeta and her encountered on their brief tour of the beach in District 4. But at least it seems clean.

There are no boats, no ropes, not even a bit of driftwood to cling to. No, there's only one way to get to the Cornucopia. When the gong sounds, Alessia doesn't even hesitate before she dives to her left. It's a longer distance than she's used to, and navigating the waves takes a little more skill than swimming across Alessia's quiet lake at home, but her body seems oddly light and she cuts through the water effortlessly. Maybe it's the salt. Alessia pulls herself, dripping, onto the land strip down the sandy stretch for the Cornucopia. She can see no one else converging from her side, although the gold horn blocks a good portion of her view. She doesn't let the thought of adversaries slow her down, though. She's thinking like a Career now, and the first thing she wants is to get her hands on a weapon.

Last year, the supplies were spread out quite a distance around the Cornucopia, with the most valuable closest to the horn. But this year, the booty seems to be piled at the twenty-foot-high mouth. Alessia's eyes instantly home in on a golden bow just in arm's reach and she yanks it free.

There's someone behind her. She's alerted by, she doesn't know, a soft shift of sand or maybe just a change in the air currents. Alessia pulls an arrow from the sheath that's still wedged in the pile and arms her bow as she turns.

Finnick, glistening and gorgeous, stands a few yards away, with a trident poised to attack. A net dangles from his other hand. He's smiling a little, but the muscles in his upper body are rigid in anticipation. "You can swim, too," he says. "Where did you learn that in District Twelve?"