Fire is Catching

Chapter 10: The 75th Hunger Games

CHAPTER 10: THE 75TH HUNGER GAMES

"Ladies and gentlemen," the resounding voice of Claudius Templesmith sounds. "let the Seventy-fifth Hunger Games begin!"

60 seconds on the clock.

I look around. The arena is a lot of different climates. We are in the center. The golden Cornucopia is on a small island, with twelve thin land strips leading to it. The rest is all water.

30 seconds.

C'mon, Alex, focus. Find your alliance.

Each of the tributes are on little pedestals in between the twelve land strips. Mags is beside me, chilling as if there was all the time in the world. I catch her eyes and smile reassuringly. Peeta is a few spokes over from her. Finnick is across the way from me, near Everdeen.

The gong sounds and I dive into the water, heading for Peeta. He's stranded on his metal plate. "Hey!" I call cheerfully. "Let's go find your girlfriend!"

"Wife." He says quietly.

I offer him a hand. He looks hesitant. "You can trust me. We're allies, 'member?" Peeta doesn't seem convinced. Didn't Haymitch tell him about his alliance with Finnick, Johanna, Beetee, Wiress, and me? I roll my eyes. "I'm weaponless, and if I wanted to drown you, I'm not strong enough to keep you under." He considers this for only a moment before determining that I'm right.

He grasps my hand and jumps into the water. Peeta begins flailing around. He can't swim. He's not doing well, but is somehow staying afloat.

"Let's go get Mags!" I tell him.

Mags is a few spokes over, casually sitting on her metal plate. She's waiting for us to collect her. Peeta and I swim over to her. Mags can swim, but she knows none of the other Victors will kill her. They don't think of her as a threat, but Mags has always been the other Victors' grandmother.

I want to get my pick of the knives, but Finnick and Everdeen are already swimming back to us, weapons in hand. Everdeen hands Peeta a bow and arrows, and a sword. Mags gets an awl. Finnick has my weapons, and I sure hope they're good. He hands me a bunch of knives.

The knives are all different. Some are dull-tipped and short, dull-tipped and long, sharp-tipped, medium-tipped. Finnick has hit the ball out of the park.

"Great job." I say, adding them to my belt. In my last Games, I had a jacket to put my knives in.

Everdeen glances at the Cornucopia, where a battle is beginning. "We should move on." She says.

Finnick lifts Mags on top of the net on his back, and we run away, into the jungle. There are fat trees, with almost no branches. Many vines are hanging down. Peeta takes the lead, cutting the branches with his sword, and I am second, taking whatever he misses. Finnick, Mags, and Everdeen come behind us.

We stop to take a rest after a moving for a while, and I say, "This whole, 'allies thing' makes things easier."

Mags nods in agreement. In her Games, the Career pack asked her to join them, but she left them during the Cornucopia Bloodbath. She survived the Games alone. Peeta had an alliance, and so did Everdeen for some of the time. Finnick was with the Careers until he killed them all. As for me, I roughed it out alone until the final five, where the District 7 boy Jason and I teamed up to kill the two remaining Careers. When we found them, they'd already killed the other tribute. I killed Winston's fellow Career Alina from District 4, and left during Jason and Winston's fight.

"Let's keep moving." Peeta says, interrupting my thoughts.

Everdeen glances at a tall tree beside us. "Wait, let me check the Cornucopia." She shimmies up the tree and looks around up there.