One Fire: A One Direction Fan Fiction

19

19

   I knew how to swim, so the water shouldn’t have been a big deal for me. I wasn’t completely a spark; I was human too, so the water shouldn’t have been a big deal for me. But it brought back a terrible memory; the first thing I’d had to face last year after I got away from the bloodbath at the Cornucopia.

   When I’d met up with Zayn and Louis, we’d travelled on the lowest ground of the arena, complaining of near dehydration, when a tidal wave had flooded the lowlands and we’d been swept away. Louis had had to carry Zayn through it to high ground, as Zayn couldn’t swim. It had nearly killed us, and had taken the life of the girl from Ten.

   I look around me. A dirt dome surrounded the cornucopia and ring of tributes, so we were in a dimly lit cave, with about twelve different shaft tunnels leading out to light. I can see a few tributes in the ring of plates, none of them are one of the blazing boys. On my right is Dill – the boy from Eleven – and on my left is Gabbi. I look as far as I can before the Cornucopia cuts off my view of tributes. However, before my view is blocked, on one of the pedestals, I see a porcelain angel with wide, terrified blue eyes.

   When the gong to signal the minute we were required to stand on our plates is up, I don’t hesitate before I dive into the water, which is misted and salty. I hadn’t last encountered salt water since I’d been with Louis in District Four, where the Victor’s Village was located right next to the beach. It was tough navigating the waves, as the water I was used to was calmer and simpler to swim through, but, somehow, I made it to land.

   I was thinking like a Career Tribute now, since the vast amount of weapons and materials weren’t just spread around the Cornucopia and were, instead piled high at its mouth. All I needed was to grab some weapons and run to find anyone in my alliance.

   I’m not the only one who has made it to the middle. I see Teak, Goliath – the boy from Six – Finn – the boy from Ten – and Jussila – the girl from Ten – bolting for the Cornucopia as well, and a few other tributes still bobbing in the water. There still wasn’t any sign of the blazing boys, or Louis’s district counterpart, Jella, a natural swimmer, but my view was still blocked.

   My eyes quickly scan the horn, and I see two silver bows side-by-side with quivers filled with arrows – definitely meant for Leah and I. I don’t see her in sight, so I dive for both of them and also grab a black backpack filled with survival supplies, just as I hear sounds of fighting.

   As more tributes were beginning to pull themselves from the water, dripping wet, onto dry land, I watched as Goliath, sword in hand was working on an attempt to slay Finn, just a small twelve-year-old. But Jussila, whose age matched Goliath’s, came up from the mouth of the horn with a sword and defended her district’s male.

   I run from this fight so I can avoid being one of the first few killed in the soon-to-be bloodbath at the Cornucopia, which was never an honourable, proud death for any tribute. I reach the water again, still laced with the heads and shoulders of some tributes, but a few more have made it to the small circle of land.

   I scanned the water, and saw Leah there amongst the salt. She could swim easily, but I see the waves are forcing her to struggle. I dive back in and paddle to her, bows still in hand and backpack and quivers still slung over my shoulder. I’m soon near her, even though I’m slowed by the currents and weaponry I’ve armed myself with. “Go to land,” I call to her through panting breaths, “I’ve got us covered.”

   The best she can, she nods and turns herself in the water, and we manage to swim alongside each other to the land surrounding the Cornucopia, the minute our feet touch the dry ground, we’re running full speed into the shaft and immerging into the dense leaves and foreign plants, none of which I have ever seen before in my life. I was used to forest, not the actual jungle they’d created the remainder of this arena to be. All I knew of jungles was they existed in a place once called South America before the disasters which made the world collapse and left Panem in its place. At least, that’s what I had been told in school, though I’d never been the best in geography.