Dew of the Sea [Finnick Odair]

[18. Losing Yourself]

Day 11

Rosemary

They stayed in their camp for another day, only leaving to retrieve more water and food, and by the afternoon, Rosemary was a nervous wreck. Her survival skills were screaming at her that staying in one place for too long was going to be their doom.

Haymitch's voice also echoed in her head: "Keep moving!"

She brought it up the night before, just as they were settling down to sleep. Xavier was on watch first that night, after a few hours he would wake up Kyler, then it was Rye's turn and lastly, Rosemary finished up as the sun rose into the sky. Rye was exhausted and wanted to stay the night, and so did Kyler. Xavier didn't have a strong opinion–in fact, he stayed quiet, only letting out a grunt or two in acknowledgement–so it was one against two. They did not move in the morning other than to hunt down their snares and bottle up some more water.

In the meantime, Rosemary and Rye took some time exploring, heading in the direction they hadn't yet gone through. It was mostly the same terrain as their campsite, but further out, maybe a mile or so, the ground sloped downward. Rosemary assumed that it was the mountains descending, but when she and Rye got to it, two hours later, they found that it was a cliff.

Deep down below the cliff, they could see nothing. It was pitch black, like it was a tunnel straight into the earth that had no end in sight. More interesting, Rosemary saw, was the forcefield shimmering, waving like liquid glass in the sunlight.

"I think we're at the edge of the arena," she told Rye. "It's a forcefield, just like the one on the roof of the Training Center."

Rye raised an eyebrow, surprised. "Really?"

He squatted down and picked up a small rock nearby, tossing it toward the forcefield. It bounced off of the invisible wall and headed straight back toward Rye, who simply stepped out of the way with a thoughtful look on his face.

"I guess we need to turn around then," he shrugged and waved a hand at his sister, gesturing at her to lead them back to camp.

Rosemary did so, but the whole time she was thinking about the forcefield and the way that the rock bounced back. If Rye hadn't stepped out of the way, the rock would have pelted him. That meant that other objects could do that as well. It was an interesting way that one could defend themselves, she supposed. The risk of it was huge, though. If one's competition threw their weapon at the forcefield, there was no guarantee that it wouldn't take them as well. A spear, sword, or staff could take out two people easily compared to knives or arrows.

"We're lucky the Gamemakers didn't turn us around," Rye told her. "You remember a couple of years ago?"

Rosemary nodded.

In the 67th Hunger Games, a Tribute had walked and walked throughout their whole Games until they reached the edge of the arena. Rosemary didn't know their motivation, but maybe they wanted to see if they could just walk out of the arena. When they did reach the forcefield–which Rosemary, nor the Tribute had known was there–muttations chased them all the way back to the Cornucopia. The Tribute died from that horrific excursion and it was all down to the Gamemakers.