Finnick's Story - By Aaliyah McLean

Fighting for You

Finnick's POV.

The first thing I see is the snow-capped mountain in the far-left side of the arena. On the other side is what looks to be a forest almost frozen over. I can only see small amounts of green around the place, and where there is green it is very high up in the tops of the trees. At least it will be easy to find water! I think. I look around at all the other tributes, we are all lined up evenly around the shiny, golden cornucopia in the middle. I try to search for the first thing I will grab when I run over there, but I only find a few knives and a bow with arrows on the side. Then I see it. The first thing I will grab when I run to the cornucopia. It's a trident. It looks just like my one back at home except it is black and has what looks like sharper blades.

Soon enough I can hear Seneca Crane's voice over the loudspeakers. "Good luck tributes, and may the odds be ever in your favor. Beginning countdown. 60... 59... 58... 57... 56... 55... 54-" then he just stops speaking. I hear a loud blast from the other side of the cornucopia and I know that one of the tributes walked off of the pedestal early. One of the girls from the other side of the cornucopia screams then canon sounds, ringing in all of our ears reminding us that you don't get any second chances in the arena. All of us wait until Seneca Crane speaks again, picking up where he left off. "53...52...51...50..." he keeps talking as I scope out my fellow tributes. I can see the District three male tribute about three pedestals down from me. I remember his name being Chester Glory. Ivy is about four pedestals down from me on my right whereas Chester was on my left. Ivy looks petrified, poor girl. I don't care, I can't think about her right now. I need to focus on the job in front of me. "45... 44... 43... 42... 41... 40... 39..." This is taking too long, I need to get started. I also need to think about allies. I look again at who might be good enough to ally with, I can see the male tribute from district 7, I remember his face from the tribute parade. Trill. He looks to be the tallest out of all the people I can see, and he looks to have the most muscle out of all of us. "27... 26... 25... 24... 23..." he keeps counting down. I continue looking around at the people half of them I can remember from the parade and when we were watching the replays of all the reapings in the districts. Then we hear the sound of the Capitol anthem and look up at the sky, one face appears. Elton Breakstone. He must have been the stupid kid who stepped off the pedestal early. "14... 13... 12... 11... 10..." I begin to focus as the last few numbers are counted down. 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." there is a loud beeping sound and we all jump off out pedestals and run for the center.

I sprint as hard as I can and seem to be the fastest out of the people on my side. I pant and puff out cold air from the snow and ice all around me. I can hear the footsteps of what sounds like hundreds of people trying to catch up with my speed, trying to get there first. But they don't. I win the race. They lose. When I get to the cornucopia, I grab a bag and the trident and turn around to face a competitor. The boy from District 10 comes at me with a knife the size of my head. He takes a swing, but I jump out of the way quick enough to see the girl from District 2 coming towards me also. I impale the trident blade through the boy's chest, the blood dripping down his coat as he falls to the ground in a heap. I kick his body out of the way to retrieve my trident from his skin and swing it around to face the girl from District 2 getting closer and closer to me with a spear. I remember her. She's the one who said she could kill anyone who came at her. I think her name was Adala. Well Adala, let's see if you can kill me? I thrust the blade at her, but she avoids the blow walking around me with the eyes of a tiger. Suddenly the girl from District 12 approaches her from the back and cuts her arm. Adala screams and turns around in time to sever District 12's head. It falls to the ground, blood flowing everywhere, even on my coat. I look down at the head just in time to see the rest of what's left of the bloodied body fall to the ground. I gag. Then I leave Adala to herself now, running from her as soon as she is finished with the District 12 girl. I think I'm done here. I grab a knife off the ground just in case and run for my life in the direction of the almost frozen over trees. The knife that I picked up has one side that is serrated and one side that is sharp and smooth. Good pick! I think and run for my dear life.

I run through the freezing trees and cut away any branches that get in my way. I survived the bloodbath! I think to myself. The bloodbath is usually the hardest few minutes to survive. I keep running until I find a nice spacious area to sit for a moment before continuing. I unzip the bag that I retrieved at the cornucopia and inside is; A long piece of rope, a water bottle, a set of throwing knives, a water purifier, matches and sleeping bag. This will do me good. I can use the sleeping bag when I am sleeping as it will be freezing at night with all this ice surrounding me, I can use the rope either to make something or as a weapon. I can hear canon booming every few minutes. Then I hear a piercing scream close by. The scream goes on for a solid five seconds and I am running. For some reason, I am running towards the scream. I can't seem to stop myself though. I dash to the location of the scream to find the girl from District Eight lying on the ground, half of her face is burned to ashes and the other half is covered in red, burn welts, dripping with puss and bleeding all over her clothes and the floor. She doesn't look dead but to stop her suffering and keep the game going, I plunge the serrated knife through her chest. I hear her groaning and I smile. I don't know why but I smile, and I chuckle. I can feel the floor on the other side of her body, so I pull the knife out of her delicate body and watch the blood spread around the frozen grass. The cannon sounds, and I shiver. I hear a twig snap behind me, I pull out my trident and aim it near the direction of the noise. I look around for a while when I see a rabbit on the rock nearby. I pull our one of the throwing knives from my bag and aim it at the rabbit. I'm going to need food, so I figure this will be a good start. The rabbit dies and I pick it up by its leg. Blood dripping from it's eyes. I clean the rabbit and start a small fire. Big enough to cook the rabbit but not big enough to attract any other tributes. I lay the rabbit over the fire and cook it. Once it is brown and cooked, I rip it into six pieces and chew on the smallest part. Once I've finished eating, I put the other half of the rabbit into my bag and put it away.

Soon it is night time and I climb up to the top of the tree. I grab branch after branch and hoist myself over the trunks. Soon I am at the highest spot I can go without falling down and I grab my sleeping bag and shimmy myself down into it. I tie the long rope around my waist, so I don't toss and turn during my sleep and fall off. It is so quiet up here, so I can hear all the screams and cry's of the tributes around me.

I hear the anthem before I see the crest. I look up at the sky to see the fallen tributes list light up the night.

District 1: None.

District 2: None. That means that the whole career pack is still alive.

District 3: Chester Glory.

District 4: None. That means that Ivy is still alive and out there somewhere. For some reason and I don't know why, but I am actually surprised that she is still alive after the bloodbath.

District 5: Summer Dark.

District 6: Shadow Smalls and Shimmer Little. Poor District 6, no hope anymore with both of their tribute dead.

District 7: None.

District 8: May bunting. That's the girl that I killed, the one with the burned face.

District 9: Elton Breakstone. Must have been the guy who walked off the pedestal early.

District 10: Silmo Jackson. I'm pretty sure that's the guy I impaled.

District 11: None.

District 12: Lila Crane.

The sky goes dark again, and I can't hear anything. I just hope I can keep living for a while. For Annie...