Losing my Head (Hunger Games Fanfic)

Gamemakers' Toys

It had been a whole day since the explosion. Our goal was still to make our way to the water dam. That was safe haven. I could see that Quain was still shaken up over what happened the day before. Of course he would be, Katie was from his neighborhood... but what really unsettled me was how ready Quain was to detonate the bomb. The only remorse I had seen from him was about Katie, and he was trying to hide it, and I won't lie, he was doing a good job at it.
From the night sky last night, we saw the fallen tributes. I somewhat felt relieved when I didn't see Manter's face in the sky. He was a good person, I supposed, and if I didn't win, I wanted him to.

It's not like I'm going to win anyways.

I knew what Finnick would probably reply to that.

Stop thinking like that! You can't win if you don't believe you can!

Finnick.
I was still thinking about that kiss, and whenever I did, my face would start to burn.

No! I have to focus!

During the time when we saw the fallen tributes, we saw which of Jake's team had been eliminated. There were four of them, including the guard that was closest to the bomb. Tyler had been killed, and my stomach gave an unsettling lurch. After that, five others had died during the bloodbath. That was a total of ten dead tributes.

We were now leaving an abandoned restaurant and making our way towards the dam. We had spent the night at the restaurant, and unfortunately, there was no food there. Luckily, after the bloodbath and the stealing-Jake's-pile event, we had enough food for at least three days. It was bright and early in the morning. Hopefully, if we stayed as a group, no one would try to ambush us. Including Jake and Katie.

Quain was on bomb duty, since he was so well at telling which bombs did what, he was to tell us if he spotted any traps along the road. There was one he spotted, along a crosswalk, that if stepped on, would release a flammable gas on any clothing, then release a spark.
He demonstrated by having us stand a safe distance away. He then tied a piece of cloth to a rock, then throwing the rock at the mine. The gas was released, and in one second, the rock became a powder of ash.

The Gamemakers were real pyromaniacs this year.

As Quain was coming back from throwing the rock, I heard Sparks whisper to me.
"Looks like he is pretty useful. We won't give him that funeral we were talking about until much later," he said with a small grin.
When Quain came into earshot, Sparks nodded at him proudly.
"Great job, Quain!"

We were almost near the water dam. Nothing bad had happened so far, and it only made me feel worse. I felt like disaster would strike any moment.
And oh, it did.

We were getting closer and closer to the dam. When all of a sudden, the Gamemakers decided we were having it way too easy. The ground began to shake. Metallia spun around to look at us.
"Earthquake!"

At first it was small tremors, the worst it would do is try to make you fall down, but then it got stronger. We all burst into speed towards the water dam. That was when the first street lamp fell down. Nathan was nearly smashed to a pulp if I hadn't pulled him out of the way. Then came the buildings.
Low buildings had just collapsed on themselves, and it was a good thing we weren't in any of them. Although, I saw a clothing store collapse and heard a scream from inside it. Over the roars of demolition, I could hear a cannon sound.
Tall buildings were the hardest to avoid. Most buildings were at least only two stories high, but there were a few skyscrapers too. Maybe at least five. Because this city was in an apocalypse setting, they fell easily. Two of them began falling. During the first collapse, we almost ran into, but Metallia yelled, "This way!"

We took a sharp left, and watched as the tall building missed us by an inch. Metal began screeching as it was pushed against the concrete ground. The deafening sound of one thousand windows crashing reached our ears.

We were almost to the dam! It was just five blocks away. Even though a deadly earthquake was happening, the dam seemed to stay as still as a boulder. Even the two small mountains holding it didn't budge. It was still a safe haven.

We were almost there, almost there, almost-

The ground opened up.
Sparks jumped back as a large pit opened up in front of him.
"What the hell kind of earthquake is this?!" he howled.
He was right, it wasn't a natural earthquake. This was the Gamemakers doing, of course.

Another hole opened, and Nathan slipped in. He screamed as the land tilted down. I grabbed his hand as fast as possible.
His body was soon hanging over a deep abyss as I clung to him. My stomach was against the ground, and Quain, Metallia, and Sparks held onto my legs.

Sparks screamed over the earthquake, "DROP HIM! WE HAVE TO GO!"

Nathan pleaded with his eyes and screamed back, "NO! Annie, please, please, pull me up!"

I gave all my strength, but he was too heavy. Sweat formed between our hands, and he started to slip.

"ANNIE! DITCH HIM!"
"ANNIE PLEASE HELP!"

I screamed as I tried to pull him up with all I had. We didn't have time, we didn't have-

A roof collapsed right next to us, and it caused such a loud tremor, enough to make Nathan slip from my hands.

Pure terror rose from his eyes, as his body fell. A scream loud enough to wake up a country was deafened by the earthquake.

"No!" I cried.
I shut my eyes tight. He would be alive when he hit the ground. He would be fine. Somehow, he would be okay.

Nathan's screaming stopped, and so did the earthquake. A canon sounded in the suddenly quiet air. I opened my eyes to see the outline of a dead Nathan at the bottom, not moving.

I stood up slowly, shivering.
The earthquake had stopped.
The Gamemakers had enough fun for one day.
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