Scarred | The Hunger Games

5.

I tried to breathe steadily as I swam near the cornucopia. Almost all the tributes were headed for the cornucopia, it being the only source of hope with the fact that we need air. 

I was one of the first tributes, along with Four, to arrive at the cornucopia, thanks to having to swim in nearby lakes as baths back at home. My hands gripped a tank, before I tried to kick my self back in the opposite direction, only to be grabbed by the boy from Seven. He began yanking at my tank, trying to steal it. 

Then, his hand wrapped around my neck, his strength easily coming into play here. He begins choking me, his hands clenching so tight it would leave a bruise. On instinct, I try raise my own hands to pry his off my neck, forgetting I had a tank within my desperate grip. 

The tank comes colliding into his head in my efforts to get free of him. Seven lands on the ground, his skull cracked open. Oh my god I killed a kid. I can feel my breathing picking up and my hands begin to tremble in the cold water. Then, I see Four, staring directly at me like prey.

I got a 7, why is she watching me?! I desperately kick my feet, swimming away, and try to breathe slowly. Otto. I have to find Otto.

I only search area's in which it is dark, considering that would be where Otto would hide. It takes me a while, before I finally stumble upon a familiar figure, tucked into the side of the shadowed dome of water. 

"Nova?" His voice trembles. "Nova, hold the button on the side of your mask, it allows you to communicate. Then say the tribute you want to speak to."

I reach to the side of my mask, holding down the button. "Eight, male." I wait a moment. "Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear. For how useless my stylist was, this was something he found out about the gear."

"That's definitely gonna be useful. I sort of thought this was going to be a silent game, one where the screams were muffled with water." I cringe. "Sorry that was a lot. Here I could only get one tank. We can try steal another one later or something, let's just hide it first so it can't be stolen."

We begin burying it under the dirt, putting seaweed on top to cover the abnormal shape of the sand floor, when we both flinch hard at the cannons firing, signifying the end of the bloodbath. 

One. Two. Three. Four... It seems like they'll never end. Twelve dead. Twelve left. 

Trying to distract myself and Otto from the deaths, I look up. "Alright, let's try swim up and see if the arena is completely submerged or if there's any pockets of air above." I say as I begin to push myself off the seafloor, moving towards the 'surface'. It's actually a pretty long swim towards the top of the arena, and it didn't seem to ever end. That was, until I felt my head knock into an invisible barrier, the force field. I had heard that the force field normally sends electric shocks, but considering the entire arena is water, I assume its not electrically charged this year. Nonetheless, there ends up being no air. It's literally all water. 

"There's no air." Otto's voice comes in shaky. 

I shake my head. "This means that the games have to end in three days, since we can't live  without drinking water for any longer than that."

We begin to swim back down, trying to figure out a plan. 

"Most of our survival skills have been reduced to nothing. We can't start a fire and we didn't plan for marine plants." Otto begins. 

"We can't eat anyways, so we just have to wait it out. We currently have around 40 hours of air each, and then one extra tank. If we can grab three more extra tanks, we could should be able to last until we have to die of dehydration. But it's a risk we can try take later."

"What about tools or weapons?" Otto looks at me with doe eyes.

"I- We've got nothing. It wasn't my priority. I just knew that without air, we had absolutely no hope." 

"It's alright. It's not like we can move quickly in water anyways. It slows down our movement. So the Careers will be slower."

"And the Careers, they won't go for us. Because we got scores of 7s. 7s are not significant to them. Not strong enough to be a threat, not weak enough to easily pick off. We'll be alright." I say, trying to reassure him, but mostly myself. Myself because I could see the glint in Four's eyes. She wants me dead.

I definitely didn't expect action for a while, so I was surprised to find out that hiding in our dark corner was the pair from Eleven. They don't realise we've arrived, or that a spare tank is there, but we have no choice but to go back. The tanks are vital to our survival. 

"What do we do?" Otto asks, his voice panicked. 

I manoeuvre myself to land behind them, grabbing Otto by the hand and moving him as well. "We have the advantage. We can surprise them, and use their weapons. They also clearly haven't figured out how to communicate."

The boy from Eleven is hopelessly trying to signal something to the girl with his hands, to which she keeps shrugging in frustration and confusion. Their knives are abandoned beside them. Frankly, I'm surprised they managed to get into the bloodbath, and out alive, especially with a weapon. 

Both Otto and I sink onto the ground behind the tributes of Eleven, each grabbing the knife discarded beside them. I quickly slice across the neck of the male, trying to make the death as quick as possible. Boom. I flinch.

Otto doesn't do the same. His empathy is too strong. And he's not fast enough, too hesitant, too scared. The girl is alarmed quickly by the sudden appearance of red, of blood in the water and lack of movement from her district partner, turning around and pushing Otto down. 

She quickly begins trying to punch him, which is of course slowed down by the water. I move to push her off my district partner, the knife flying out of my hands in the process. So without a weapon, I begin gripping at her face, pushing against her mask, anything. 

It must have been a complete fluke, but I manage to rip the mask off her face, her mouth gear flying off. In that moment of panic, her hands begin flying, trying to grab a hold of her mouth gear, trying to get oxygen. 

It must have been the most raw human emotion I had seen in a hunger game. Not the frantic stabbing of a tribute in their primal instinct. Not a tribute dying of thirst or hunger, giving up. It was a tribute so terrified of drowning when her saving grace was a few inches from her finger tips. 

I'm so so sorry. I yank away her mouth gear, watching the hope dissipate from her eyes. She looks at me, no anger or resentment in her eyes. Just pure fear that she was dying alone, hugged by a body of cold, unforgiving water. 

She looked like she was giving up, very quickly, but still clinging onto some form of solace.

I held her face in my hand, bringing up my other hand to hold the button. "Eleven, female. I'm so sorry."

There's a moment of shock in her eyes, before they swell in tears as she nods. Then the shock and tears fade into eyes fixed into nothingness. Boom.

I feel like I can't let go of her, as if I knew her, as if I cared about her. I grimace at myself, pushing through my guilt.

"Should we like do something with the bodies? Like bury them or...?" Otto asks, pure innocent bliss. 

I smile softly at him, "yeah. Yeah let's do that."

We find a clearing for them, before digging our fingers into the wet sand, getting just deep enough to cover them up. I keep pushing the sand onto the bodies, before Otto comes back with some kelp to cover the bad job of a burial. 

As we layer the kelp on the floor, the anthem begins playing. 

The first is the boy from Four. So One, Two, and Three survived. The boy from Five comes up, and then the pair from Six. When the face of the boy from Seven comes up, I feel the haunting of his eyes. And the haunting of the kids from Eleven. I'm so sorry.