Rue's Games

Chapter 25: Hovercraft

Johanna and I keep hugging each other until the rest of our alliance appears behind us.

“We couldn’t get through to you two,” Finnick explains. “There was a sort of wall that kept us in a different section of the arena. Wiress said that there were jabberjays through here.”

            Johanna nods.

“They imitated the screams of our loved ones. It’s a good thing you weren’t in there, Finnick. You’d have heard Annie.”

            He looks sad.

“She’s had enough screaming for one lifetime. I can’t wait to get back to her.”

            Haymitch tugs on Finnick’s sleeve like a impatient young child.

            “If you want to see Annie again, then let’s go.”

            Before we continue walking, Finnick let’s Johanna and I have some water. We are given a ration of three small sips each. Johanna tries to make me have four and she will settle with two, but I refuse to take her ration.

            We keep walking until we reach what looks like a cliff. It is not as steep on the other side as it looks; we could roll down it safely.

            “Don’t go near the edge,” Haymitch warns. “You’ll be fried.”

            “There…” Wiress points.

            “Is that the chink in the armour of the force field?” I breathe.

Beetee and Wiress nod. Around it, the force field shimmers. The hole is too small for even me to fit through; it’d be too dangerous. They all have already prepared for that, fortunately.

Beetee, it turns out, stole a lot of wire from the Cornucopia. He has kept it in his pocket just for this. Wiress has some too. While the two of them tie the wires together to make a longer wire, Finnick gives everyone some more water. He gives Mags a little more since she is older and she seems to be more worn out from the walking.

            Seeder ties one end of the wire to one of the daggers, and stabs as high as she can into a tree at a sharp downward angle. All of us pull on it, and the wire is strong enough that it des not snap. The dagger does not come out of where it is stuck.

            Finnick has tied the trident to the other end of the wire. He aims at the side of the gap, and throws the spear.

            Before my eyes, the force field around the hole shakes like a ripple in water. The gap gets bigger, big enough for any of us to get through. It opens up right to the ground, which will make it easier to move through.

            “Just to be safe,” Finnick warns, “Hold onto the wire. It is mostly in the middle of the chink, so if you hold onto it you probably have a better chance of not touching the force field. Does anyone want to go first?”

            No one volunteers. Although we all want to go home, it doesn’t feel real. We don’t quite believe that this will work.

            Haymitch sighs. “I’ll go first. This is my doing.”

            He holds onto the wire as a safe guideline. He ducks down a little, probably because of slight paranoia as he is not very tall. He makes it through easily.

            “Wait a minute,” I say. Everyone turns to look at me. “For a start, what we are doing is forbidden and illegal. So the gamemakers are going to be after us. Also, there haven’t been any canons recently, so no deaths. The Capitol is going to be bloodthirsty. That means something will be sent our way, and I don’t want to find out what. I think we should do this as quickly as possible.”

            Everybody agrees. They make me go next. I’m a bit scared that I’ll be electrocuted, but I’m not. Mags is next, followed by Seeder, Chaff, Wiress, and Beetee. Finnick insists on going after Johanna.

            And all of a sudden we are all out of the arena. We are all safe and alive, all nine of us. I’m terrified it won’t last. I’m worried that the hovercraft will not come for us, and the other tributes will kill us here.

I needn’t have worried, because we have not waited five minutes before we see a massive hovercraft appear in the sky above us. It is ten times bigger than any of the Capitol’s ones, and has a big red “District 13” painted on its underside.

A rope ladder is dropped down. We climb up the rope ladder in the same order we came through the force field. Just as Finnick is holding onto the bottom rung, Brutus appears. It only takes him a few seconds to figure out what we did. It is a lot harder than it looks to climb a rope ladder, but I move as quickly as I can. Someone from District 13 pulls the ladder up so Brutus cannot chase us.

A young girl is one of the people helping to pull the tributes onto the hovercraft. She pulls me in and I recognise her.

“Prim!” I cry.

            We hug each other tightly.

“You made it!” she exclaims.

            “Move out of the way,” says an older boy who I recognise as Gale. “There are still a lot more people to come up.”

Prim grabs my hand and we weave among the people from District 13. She runs up two, then three flights of stairs. The hovercraft is even bigger on the inside. It reminds me of a flying hotel.

            “We weren’t sure who was going to make it,” she says, breathlessly. Now we are away from where all the action is, it is a lot less busy. I can take in my surroundings more. We are walking along a long corridor, which has a window scaling it, giving me a view of the arena. The arena is shaped like a clock.

The corridor has nice wallpaper with flowers on it. It takes me a second to realise that they are katniss flowers. The carpet is soft and thick and red. Prim waits for me to take off my shoes so I can walk barefoot.

“We couldn’t watch the Games on television, so we had to guess who was going to come. I don’t think Mags has a room, but we’ll sort something out. There are quite a lot of spare rooms.”

She flings a door open and pulls me inside. The room has a large bed pushed up against the wall on the left, and another identical one on the right. There is a table pressed against the wall by the door, surrounded by four chairs. It reminds me of the rooms on the train to the Capitol; small, but luxurious in its own way.

“I insisted that we share a room. I know you’d hate to be in a room on your own after coming out of the arena. And look,” she continues chattering, “There’s a connecting door to your friend’s room.”

I am about to ask who she means when the connecting door opens.

            “Plough!” I gasp in delight.