The 200th Annual Hunger Games - The Ultimate Games

The Ultimate Games - Day 3 (Afternoon)

"Hope," Nick said again, his voice feverish, "I-I can't find Mike."

My blood went cold, "What?"

"There was a huge wave, it was fucking giant," Nick said, "We got separated."

"Shit," I muttered, "Shit shit shit, this is bad."

"Look out!" Nick yelled. I turned around just in time to get smacked in the face with another colossal wave. My mouth opened in a silent scream, water beginning to gush down my throat and into my lungs. I breached the surface again, spitting out a mouthful of water and my throat burning.

"MIKE!" I screamed.

Waves crashed noisily around me, the water splashing over Nick and I persistently and without rest. Another wave crashed, and I felt a burning sensation as water filled up my nostrils. I coughed and spluttered, looking around wildly, but Mike was still nowhere in sight.

"MIKE!" I screamed again. My arms tore desperately through the water as the waves continued to splash over me, but I barely took notice. The only thing I could comprehend was that Mike was gone, and I had to find him.

BOOM!

"SHIT!" I shouted. "Shit, MIKE!"

"What's that?" Nick spluttered past a mouthful of lake water, picking a strand of an underwater plant from across his forehead. I looked towards his pointed finger, and what I saw made a chill run up my spine.

A body. Floating on the water.

I paddled forward, an invisible boa constrictor wrapping itself around my chest and squeezing. I held my breath as I got closer, but with every inch I took, my heart sunk lower. 7 metres away, I could see the hair. Just like Mike's. 5 metres, I took in the stature. It matched. My lower lip trembled as I got closer and closer, until I was right next to the corpse. His eyes stared up towards the sky, glassy and dead. His neck was snapped to the side, and his mouth hung open slightly.

It was Mike.

Talia Carter POV

I felt the current suck me underwater.

I was swimming through the lake, my eyes trained on the shore ahead of me despite the waves. I'd grown up in District 4 – swimming was practically second nature.

What I didn't account for was currents in the lake. In a matter of seconds I was suddenly yanked underwater. I screamed and snapped my eyes shut, feeling water rush into my open mouth and nose. My throat burned horrendously, and suddenly I felt a pulling sensation and a horrific pain where my prosthetic leg joined to my thigh.

Suddenly, I was pulled into a strange space. I skidded along the rocks beneath me, my lungs heaving as air returned to them. I opened my eyes, and saw exactly what had happened.

The current had sucked me into an underwater cave of some kind. Rocks had fallen over where I had entered the cave, and wedged between two boulders was my prosthetic leg, now detached from my body. I looked down at the stump of my leg, now bleeding horribly. Already, I was starting to feel faint.

I was in a shallow pool of water in the cave, the lake water slowly seeping in through a crack in the rocks next to the prosthetic leg. I felt panic rise within my chest as more water began to seep in, and the realization hit me.

Unless I got out of here, I would drown.

I looked up at the rocks, wincing as water splashed around me. There was no opening in the rocks, no exit, no means of escape. I was trapped down here and I knew it. There was no way out.

I shuffled back and leaned against one of the walls, shutting my eyes. I wouldn't be able to escape from this. I was done running from fate. Fate had caught up to me.