Something Worth Living For [THG] // Finnick Odair

XLII

Maisha opens her dark brown eyes and only see darkness, it's around 2:00 a.m. so that is not uncommon, but of course Maisha doesn't know that, she is still confused and disoriented.

She sits up and everything spins, she has to close her eyes and put her hands on her head to relieve the feeling a bit. Maisha looks around completely terrified, she hears the noise of animals, especially owls, but she is too scared to think straight.

Hours and hours pass and finally there is a bit of light so Maisha can see her surroundings. She wastes no time to get up and walk around the place. She has been unconscious for three days and miraculously she is still alive. No one else has found her and no animal killed her either. Mother Nature, well, whatever closer to it, didn't kill her either, like the rain from last night, or the cold or hot temperatures, but she is very weak.

Maisha is weaponless and has not eaten or drunk anything since she was hit with the darts, making her extremely dizzy and pretty weak and lethargic, all that plus her disorientation and confusion make her an easy target for anyone.

So, Maisha wastes no time to walk around the arena looking for something to eat and drink. She knows she has to do it to regain her strengths, but after an hour she has not had good luck so far.

Since she was woken up, she has had many flashbacks of what happened before and after she was hit, most of them, if not all the flashbacks, are blurry and confusing.

She remembers running and running, everything spinning. She remembers some voices talking, she also remember eating but not exactly what. She remembers falling to the ground and not being able to stand up again.

She also has some blurry memories of events way before that incident. She remembers being ambushed by someone, she was with Zane before that, but then she is all alone. Her head hurts as she tries to remember why Zane is not with her after that, her bet is that he died but doesn't remember if that really happened or not or how if it did happen.

As time passes by, Maisha has more and more flashbacks, it goes as far as the first day. She remembers standing on the metal platform, watching the Cornucopia, trying to think what to grab, what weapons she could use. She is between the girl from District 1, Tabitha, and the boy from District 8, Blith, both of them are small and short compared to her.

The next thing she remembers is running away, Zane is running right next to her. Zane is even taller than her and he is so muscular and strong. But no matter what they look like, they are not killers, they are only agricultural workers. They were extremely poor so both of them were made to work in fields even before they were ten.

Zane's mother was only seventeen when he was born, the father was a married man and already had a family, her parents kicked her out and she had no choice but to make Zane work at such a young age. Zane's mother remarried and things improved a bit but he still worked, he could save some of the money for himself, though, which made him pretty happy. He also had a four-year-old half-sister.

Maisha's family was also poor, her parents worked so hard and so many hours to keep enough money to only buy food. Maisha had two older brothers, they were lucky enough to never be reaped, Maisha almost was as lucky as them but on her last reaping her luck changed. Every tribute wants to survive but Maisha has wanted much more than that since the beginning.

She wants to win for all the money she will receive when all of it is over, that way she will help her family, her parents, her brothers, her little niece, everyone. She should have said that during her interview, she would probably have gotten some sponsor but she couldn't bring herself to talk about it.