The Capitol Games

11

OCTAVIA

"That was awesome!" Adriana cheered. "You were waving your sword like this and that!" Adriana stabbed the air with her knife, dancing back and forth on her feet. "That was so amazing! I could barely see you move! It was like crazy-super-senses! Where did you learn to do all that? Not high school dodgeball, that's for sure."

I relaxed slightly against her words. "Let's just get moving," I grunt. We go back and grab the things we dropped before continuing out of the cursed District 12.

"Wait!" I stop at Adriana's voice. She runs over to a little indent of the ground a few yards away, looks back at me, winks, and jumps in.

My heart hits the back of my throat. I run to the hole, my mind racing. I imagine the rock she threw into the dark hole, how we never heard it hit the bottom. No one could survive a fall like that and even if Adriana did, the eel-spider mutations at the bottom would finish her off. Would Adriana truly kill herself? Knowing that the Gamemakers have a target on her back and that she could be putting me in danger?

I hear a splash and my racing heart settles. I peek over the side of the ground to see a small pool, only a couple of feet down. Adriana grinned up at me, water shining on her face and her hair spilled around her in the crystal water.

"Look what I found," she says.

I now noticed my jaw was slack and I quickly pull it back up into place. "Don't run away like that again."

"What? You worried about me?" Adriana says cheekily before diving back down into the water.

I walk around to the other edge of the pool where it descends nicely into the water. I sit down and inspect the water. It was crystal clear, allowing me to see Adriana at the bottom of the water slowly rise up, revealing the water was much deeper than it seems.

"Watch out, this might be another Gamemaker's trap."

"So what? You can just whack whatever it is with a sword."

"Not if its a tsunami."

Adriana gestures to the pool, which wasn't more than a dozen feet across on either side. "I'm so scared I'm shaking."

I roll my eyes and began to build a small fire. I go up to a mineshaft and rip some wood from it and make a circle of stones by the water. The forever gray skies should mask the smoke. I crack some flint until I get a small flame going. I put some water in the metal canteen and begin to boil it, cleaning out any bacteria before putting it into the larger containers I got from the girls in District 7. I repeat the process until the large container is full and it should last us a few days—probably longer than the Games.

Adriana swam deep into the water, coming up and presenting me with some green seaweed things. She had a couple shoved into her mouth.

"What are you doing?" I demand, remembering the girl with poisonous mushrooms in District 11.

"You worry too much. They're Katniss—get it?" Adriana giggled, leaving some of the plants with me before floating on her back in the water. "They're edible."

"Who knew the Gamemakers had a sense of humor?" I mutter and tentatively take a bite. They aren't particularly tasty, but as I don't succumb into seizures, I say it's safe to eat.

"I didn't see you around much in the Capitol," Adriana muses. I was beginning to get the idea that the girl didn't like silence, filling up with her own babble. "Well, like, I've seen you around before and I knew your name and stuff—I recognized in the crowd at the Reaping—but we've never really talked before, I don't think."