FAILURE TO COMPLY ┃ f. odair

1.15 by any means necessary

It came to a point where Calypso had to move on. She was caked in the blood of several fallen tributes, her strength was still leaving her, and it wouldn't have been long before Payton's body began to stink. As the morning came after Grove's death announcement, she took Maisie's spear and set off once more.

This time, somehow, she knew it would be her final day in the arena. Whether that was because death would take her, or she would take the lives of her two fellow tributes remaining, she could not predict. But she had a plan in mind, one was utterly insane and likely to result in her own death before anyone else's.

What with the monotony of the cityscape, it took her a while to find familiar features that she could use to navigate. She was searching for one of the first buildings she'd encountered, where her and Maisie's joint adventure had first begun. It was the flashing of falling sparks that told her she was in the right place. On the ground outside, a blood stain remained from where the District Two tribute had fallen to her death. Inside and upstairs, the discarded sword of the male from Two showed exactly where he'd met his electrifying end.

But she wasn't here to reminisce on her victims. Thankfully, the wires she had boredly coiled up still remained in their neat little pile, and the random, previously useless, debris was still scattered around the rubble of the collapsed ceiling. It was the batteries she needed. Batteries and wire. When she had retrieved those two things, she left without a second thought.

Her next destination was the cornucopia. If her two competitors had been there, she probably would have been dead on the spot. And yet, they were nowhere to be seen, no doubt off hunting her elsewhere in the arena. It wouldn't be long until the gamemakers were sending them in the right direction. That was exactly what she wanted.

Using the long edge of the spear blade, she began to shift the thick layer of concrete dust and small debris that surrounded each of the platforms they'd first arrived on. Having watched so many years of the games, she knew exactly where to find what she was looking for. The mines were inactive from the moment the countdown had ended, but all it took was a spark to reactivate them.

"If anyone is still listening..." she called out quietly to the emptiness around her. "I need something small and thin to work with. Here's hoping this is a grand finale worthy of the Capitol and its cruelty."

Her outspoken words went unanswered for a while as she continued to reveal the mines. One, two, three, then four. It was probably as many as she could manage with the amount of wire she had. Still waiting, she sat down and spliced the wires together until they were four long trails that could connect into one at the end. When the time came, she would attach them to the batteries and hope the trap would blow its targets into smithereens.

A gentle chime, and a parachute fell from the sky. Calypso let out a quiet breath of relief, having almost expected nothing to come at all. It would've meant she would go to her death knowing no one cared anymore, that no one was rooting for her. Somehow, that was a more peaceful thought than the inner turmoil she was feeling about what she was intending to do.

She almost laughed when she opened the package. Inside it, appropriately, was a small fish hook. 'For Maisie' the accompanying note read. It might've been Porter who'd sent it for all she knew, but it wasn't hard for Calypso to discern that those simple words were Finnick's. Clearly, someone was rooting for her. Payton was dead. Vengeance was had. Now, maybe only in her deranged mind, he was just doing this to see her win.

"For Maisie," she echoed out loud, quiet but cold.

With great care to not yet complete the circuit, she wrapped the thinnest wire around the three batteries, leaving a loose end to be connected to the mine wires when the time came. Using the fish hook, she then dug very carefully into each mine, connecting one wire to each trigger. Even with so many things that could go wrong, she did her work. If she pushed too hard on the triggers, she was dead. If the wires were too old or rusted, she was dead. If the batteries were dead, she was dead too. After her work was done, she covered each of the mines and their accompanying wires with the dust, until they were completely hidden.