Dead in the Water | An Odesta Fanfic

Chapter Twenty-Five

Finnick might have spent five minutes on that hovercraft, or it might have been a hundred years. It all felt the same to him. It was too long. Every minute that passed was another chance for Annie to give up and slip underwater and drown, as all the other tributes had done.

But she was from District 4. It was the only reason she had made it this far. No other tributes had access to water like the ones from 4 did. The other tributes had probably never even learned how to swim, but Annie had been treading water since she learned to walk. It was the very reason the gamemakers rarely had large bodies of water in the arena – the odds leaned too heavily in District 4's favor.

In between the long silences and the constant worries, Finnick scrambled to come up with some sort of plan to rescue her. He couldn't help but notice that Snow had shipped him off on one of the smallest hovercrafts. Besides the two pilots and their controls at the front and a peacekeeper to keep an eye on him in the back, there was nothing else in the plane besides a few seats. There was no medical equipment, nothing that would help him keep her alive on the flight home. It was as if they weren't even expecting Finnick and Annie to make it out of the arena.

He wasn't sure he expected it himself.

But there was no time to reconsider. The hovercraft had arrived in the arena at last, soaring over the flooded valley. Finnick tried to peer out of the windows, but they were small and the warped glass made the whole world outside look stretched and distorted. He could only see the movement of waves beneath him, stretching across the arena like a small ocean.

One of the pilots came to the back of the hovercraft and began unlatching the door. It flew open with a clang, sending a heavy breeze whirling through the cabin as it opened. The pilot nodded at Finnick. "You ready to go?" he said gruffly.

They were still at least thirty feet above the water. Finnick stared down at the arena, into the wood and debris surging through the gray waves. "You can't be serious."

"This is as far as we've been ordered to take you." said the pilot. "The girl should be just below us."

Finnick took another step closer to the door. The wind whipped through his hair and made his eyes water as he peered down, his stomach doing flips at the height of the drop. He had once gone diving back in 4, years ago. This couldn't be much different, right?

"Are you going to get out or not?"

The peacekeeper stood up from his chair, cornering Finnick by the door. Finnick took a deep breath and stood on the edge of the hovercraft. "You'll meet me on the shore?" he asked. "There's still some rocks up where the dam was – you should be able to land there."

There was no reply. The pilot and the peacekeeper only stared at him with some annoyance, as if this rescue mission was the dullest part of their day. But it wasn't a rescue mission to them, was it? They were just dispatching another one of Snow's troublesome victors. They were the hitmen and he was the target, walking the plank to his own death.

Would they even stick around to see if he survived? Finnick could only hope that Snow had meant it when he made his deal – if he could get Annie out, she would be their victor. They would both be brought back to the Capitol. President Snow was many things – a tyrant, a trafficker, a murderer – but he wasn't a liar. He told the truth and kept his word, as sick and twisted as those words might be.

But until he had their victor, Finnick was alone. Snow wouldn't waste any resources on him. He glanced back at the others. They had their orders. They wouldn't help him, not even if he was dying.

But Finnick was used to being alone.

He chose a landing place in the water, one as far from the rocks and rubble as he could manage. Then he closed his eyes, pretending he was back in district 4, going diving with Corrin and Caspian on a Sunday afternoon, and stepped out of the hovercraft.