"Dahlia Blossom. Don't let the name fool you. She's better known as the Black Dahlia. And she didn't earn that nickname by smiling and looking pretty."
"She sure knows how to perform for the camera."
"Because she knows how to play the game. She alwa...
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Dahlia knows this will be her toughest challenge yet. Ryker was always the most formidable of the Careers, the one who'd be most difficult to take down in a fight. He was the biggest, the strongest, the most bloodthirsty. Dahlia had never felt smaller than when she was trapped by his murderous gaze. He was not going down easily and she would come out with much more than a cut on her cheek.
As the two begin to circle each other like snarling animals, the water below their feet begins to speed up. The gentle trickle had suddenly turned into rapids. Like someone had opened the flood gates, a wave of water shot down the tunnel towards Ryker and Dahlia. The huge surge swept the girl off her feet and carried her along with it.
"Dahlia!" The girl briefly heard Cove cry out before she was submerged under the water. She was gripping onto her sword for dear life as the wave sent her tumbling into Ryker. The boy had been unprepared for the sheer force of the water and let his weapon get dragged along by the current. As Dahlia knocks into Ryker, she is able to aim her sword so that it plunges into the final Career. She continues to be swept along by the water, faintly hearing the boom of the cannon as Ryker's life is taken.
Dahlia doesn't try to fight the tide, choosing to conserve the energy she has left. The water carries her through the tunnels before spitting her out back where she started the Games. The Cornucopia was now completely submerged underwater and every other tunnel in the arena appeared to have been flushed out. Another cannon goes off, making the girl struggle her way to the surface. Dahlia gulps for air as she manages to break through, glancing around in alarm. The girl from Eight, Jean, and the boy from Eleven, Bracken, are the only two surviving tributes still fighting to escape the water.
Bracken flounders around uselessly in a blind panic. His flustered state causes him to sink below the water level multiple times, inhaling more water than air into his lungs. Eventually, a large wave of water engulfs him entirely. He doesn't re-emerge and another cannon indicates his unfortunate fate.
That leaves Jean and Dahlia to try and keep themselves afloat. Huge waves crash around them, knocking the tributes from side to side. This becomes even more treacherous as they are thrown close to the stalactites hanging down from the ceiling. Dahlia just manages to avoid being impaled by one as she is flung around by the tide. How the hell is she supposed to get out of this?
Then Dahlia remembers back to the time she and Cove eavesdropped on the Careers' conversation. They were only able to do that because there was a hatch situated directly above the Cornucopia. Fighting to keep her head above the water, Dahlia's disorientated eyes search desperately for her escape. Upon spotting the crack in the rocky ceiling, she pushes through her agonising fatigue and scrambles desperately to get to it. The water churns and pulls her further away but Dahlia is more determined. She's made it this far, nothing else can stand in her way.
A stalactite protruding from the roof provides her a moment of respite as she manages to grab hold of it, keeping herself in place and ensuring the waves can't sweep her away. As she starts shoving at the hatch, the rock begins to give way and reveal a small sliver of daylight. A tiny sliver of hope. But then Jean appears, grasping onto Dahlia's shoulders and dragging her down. The hatch shuts as the two girls are plunged back into the water.
