FAILURE TO COMPLY ┃ f. odair

2.9 right back where we started

What in the world does someone do when their life is on the line? It was said that everyone had a natural fight-or-flight response and that some people even froze. It was so easy to put danger into those neat little boxes and pretend like they weren't all leading to a gruesome death. Fight: enter the bloodbath and probably die violently. Flight: run away from it and die later. Freeze: well... there was no hope at all for the ones who stayed frozen on their podium.

Lucky for Calypso, her young tribute was not one of these people. Storm, being driven by her fear, opted for running as fast as she could from the cornucopia. While she was little more than a small dot on the screens across Panem, it was clear as day that she was at least trying to survive longer than her lack of hope allowed.

She ran over the rocky black ground of the arena, the only glimpse they'd gotten so far. At first, Calypso had felt a horrible pain in her heart like she was dying when she was the fine dust and heatwaves radiating from the ground. It was too similar to her own arena, too dry and warm and suffocating, and even in the relative safety of the Capitol, she felt like she couldn't breathe.

But dry and dusty was not enough to think that this arena was even remotely similar to the last. That would've been boring. As Storm ran towards the edge of the large, elevated circle of land, her feet skidded to a halt. Down one side was a terrifyingly steep drop that seemed to have no end, all dark brown rock leading to a steamy abyss below. She followed the perimeter, other tributes beginning to pay attention to her now that a few had already died.

On the other side, a steeper drop was staggered with rocky outcrops that would've made the fall her that much more. If that wasn't deadly enough, the boiling and bubbling pool of lava below surely was. They were standing at the very edge of a volcano's summit. Storm watched in horror as a boy she'd nearly befriended from Twelve let out a horrific cry... and launched himself into the hot pool of bittersweet death.

"No matter how many times we do this, Snow and his asshole gamemakers always seem to come up with something more monstrous," Johanna said as she came up beside Calypso. The District Five victor was ripped from the immersion of the games, feeling sick that she'd been so invested and telling herself it was simply because she cared about her tribute's life. The lobby of the tribute centre was abuzz with mentors sitting around, watching their own tributes on large screens while already perusing the sponsorship charts.

"Wanna bet it'll be something incredibly tame next year like a moorland or a forest?" Calypso commented absentmindedly, her eyes turning back to the screen after one a moment. The perspective kept changing between tributes, spending a few seconds on each as they either killed, died or ran. She'd lost track of her young tribute.

"I'm not betting you anything, because of course that's going to happen," the other woman replied, muttering something about irony and unfairness under her breath. "There go our girls. I guess they're allies, after all."

In the arena, Storm was all but cornered against the edge of the volcano, but Aspen had arrived at her side. Three careers pushed them closer and closer to the edge, the older girl's arm moving protectively in front of the other. In some ways, it reminded Calypso of her and Maisie the year before.

Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith's voices were nothing but a buzz in her ears as she watched intently. Survive, she urged the two girls. Survive. One of the careers approached. Aspen pulled a knife from inside her boot, as if she'd already hidden it away, and swiped towards the boy. He hopped back, but the girl from Seven pulled him back towards her. The boy's body collided with the small and frightened Storm, falling too close to the edge. She kicked with all her might and panic.

And the boy went tumbling down into the hot abyss of the volcano's mouth.

"Well, there goes my tribute," Finnick sighed as he came up beside the two women. Calypso's focus on the games broke once more to find both him and Johanna looking at her, the latter with a single raised eyebrow and crossed arms like she was impressed with the little girl's move. "I did suggest an alliance with him, but Four is part of the Career pack. It's not often we align ourselves with the apparent underdogs."