If Crane Never Made The Call

I'll Help You Find Her

  "So Effie will take you to the hovercraft and I'll take Katniss but first advice time." Haymitch says when I walk out of my room in my arena outfit. "First don't step off your pedestal early or they'll blow you to bits, next it'll be tempting to go for all the food and weapons in the beginning, but don't because thats the bloodbath, there is no mercy only a slim chance of survival. After you get away from the bloodbath, if you do, look for water and a good hiding place. You can make allies as long as you trust them. Just don't make a mistake you can't fix fast."

  "Haymitch, can you send everything to Katniss? Every parachute to her no matter whats inside?" I ask hoping a lot.

  "Now why would I do that?"

  "Why wouldn't you do that?

  "Because yesterday you said that question was going to help your games, but it helped Katniss's. Why are you doing everything for her?"

  "Because life back home isn't the greatest for me and she has her sister. She has a kind loving family to get home to, and I have two older brothers and a pair of non stop arguing parents. I need to get her home no matter what it does to me." I say sternly.

  "Ok. Good luck Peeta." He leaves me at the elevator to wait for Effie.

  "Peetaaa!" Effie sings from behind. "Are you ready?" I nod my head politly. "Well then move it." She says pushing me into the metal box. She swipes a key card and a new button is uncovered.

  "For arena day only." I read out loud. She presses the button and we're raised upwards. "I thought you said we had the penthouse."

  "You do have the penthouse, we are going to the roof." She says sadly. The doors open and bright sunlight makes me squint. I step out and stare straight ahead at the hovercraft. It's bigger than I imagined and not what I thought we were riding there. I turn to say goodbye to Effie but the doors have closed and she's gone.

  Theres nothing stopping me from jumping off the side of the roof but a foot high concrete wall. I geuss they trust the tributes to go straight to the hovercraft and be like 'I'm ready for my journey to death' and all that. Their faith in the tributes was pretty good because when I get inside everyone's there. I take a seat six chairs down on the other side of the craft from Katniss because it's the only one left.

  "Give me your arm." I hear a girl in what looks like a light blue plastic trench coat and matching hat say.

  "What is that?" Katniss asks. The girl sticks a long thick needle in her arm and her eyes twitch in pain.

  "Your tracker." She replys as a blinking dot appears on the screen with a 12 in the middle. She makes her way down the row and then comes over to us. Cato is sitting next to me so he gets his first. She slips the needle in and he laughs at the pain. She sticks her hand in her pocket and pulls out a new one.

  She doesn't bother asking me, instead she jabs it quickly in my forearm and I have to fight the urge to yelp. The flight is quick only 5 minutes at most, but it's long enough to make Noah, Seianna, and Azora puke in the barf bags. I get off the aircraft quickly because the stench is awful and I have to escape it before I throw up. They take us underground immediately into the catacombs and lock us in our own launch room.

  When I get in mine Portia is waiting for me and I give her a big.

  "Portia I'm not ready." I choke out.

  "No one ever is. Just follow the instructions your mentor gave you and you'll do fine. Remember I want to see you on that victory tour." She says wiping a tear from her eye.

  "You may have to settle with watching Katniss on that tour." I say hoping that if I don't make it Katniss will win.

  "Expect lots of cold nights." She says putting a bodyheat reflecting jacket on me. "Drink and eat lots before you go, and g-good luck Peeta." She rushes out before I can ask what she means by 'drink and eat lots before you go'. I turn around and see what she means, theres a ordering tablet on the table with any type of food you can think of. I order a bowl of lamb stew and a glass of water.

  The food comes in seconds with an avox.

  "Lavinia" I breathe. She sees my face and her eyes well up with tears and a hint of hatred for me. "Whats wrong?" She starts making hand signals that I can't understand. "Hey I can't understand what your saying." Lavinia stops abruptly. She points to herself, makes a heart and points to me. "You like me?" She nods. She points to me, makes a heart and makes a K with her fingers. "I like Katniss." I try to find a way to explain everything quickly. "I don't like Katniss. I only said I liked her to make sponsers want to help her win so she can get home to her family." I say very fast. "I like you. Your sweet, kind, beautiful and I can't stop thinking about you."

  She looks at the countdown clock and her eyes get wide. I look up to see that theres 5 minutes till launch. She starts to run out like she always does.

  "Hold up." Lavinia spins to face me and I run forwards. "Look my chances of making it out of that arena are slim, please let me say goodbye properly." She smiles as I lean in and kiss her on the lips. We pull away at the same time and smile. "Goodbye Lavinia." I say as she leaves. I sit down and eat my stew watching the clock. When it reaches 30 seconds I climb into the tube knowing that if I don't a peacekeeper will come in and force me or shoot me.

  I feel the tube slowly rise to the surface, and for some reason I'm excited to see what arena they came up with this year. One year they used a frozen tundra and everyone froze to death quickly so it wasn't interesting enough for the Capital, another year they made it look like an old abandoned city and the victor won by killing the last girl with a brick, that year was hard to watch. This year the game makers must have been lazy because it's a normal green forest, big lake, open field year.

  I look to see who's around me. Wallace from district seven is on my right and Tamora from district six is on my left. I see Katniss 5 tributes down looking from me to the cornucopia. I shake my head at her and she nods back.

  "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" The gong sounds and everyone including me lunges at the horn and the goodies surrounding it. I see Katniss run for a bow and quiver of but slows down when she sees me running into the bloodbath. I run straight for the axes knowing I can cut up fallen trees and throw the logs at people. When I reach the axes I grab the biggest one I can find I start to run behind the horn.

  I've almost made it to the horn when a knife stabs behind my knee and I fall to the ground. When I pull it out blood gushes from the wound so grab a near by blanket to stop it. I hoist myself onto my good knee and crawl behind the fight. Once Im out of sight I cut the blanket and tie it around my leg in one swift motion. I test my walking abilities and find out I can't walk, and hopping will take to long so I'll have to sit here and hope everyone leaves soon.

  Once things quiet down I crawl out from my hiding place and begin making back to the remains of the bloodbath. I reach the front and hear someone pull out a sword. I spin around  see Cato holding a sword in his hand.

  "Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you." He says giving the Capital a little show. The cannons start to go off and I wonder if another one will be joining it soon.

  "I'll help you find her." I say hoping he gets what I mean.

  "Why would I want to find her?"

  "She got the highest score and you want her dead." He eyes me suspiciously and nods.

  "Fine but if you step out of line once, it's bye bye Peeta, deal?"

  "Deal."