Her stylist was the last person to see her before she would go into the Games. Her outfit was light, it was thin.
"By the looks of it it's going to be hot in there, they haven't layered you at all," the stylist commented, Kallan just barely nodded. Her stylist was nice enough, she was trying her best. Saffreen, that was her name. She did and said what she could to help, but now it was beyond too late. There was a tracker in Kallan's arm, she was in Game attire, she'd be going in any second. "I'm sorry," Saffreen told her, which made the girl look at her. She nodded curtly as a kind of thanks.
"Thank you," Kallan muttered.
"Oh, I'm not sorry for you," Saffreen said, and Kallan looked at her, clearly shocked. "I'm sorry for any one of those kids that tries to stand between you and your brother." Kallan couldn't believe it, but it made her smile. "You got this."
"You believe that?"
"With all my heart," Saffreen promised, and Kallan couldn't help it, she hugged her. The stylist let out a surprised squeak, but pulled the girl in all the same.
"Thank you," Kallan said again, meaning it a bit more this time. Until a modulated, almost automated voice told the tributes to get in position. She finally realized her hands were shaking. No, everything was shaking. Her breath picked up, as she approached the glass tube that led to the arena. Saffreen stopped her, pulling her back for just a second, to give her one last hug. Kallan breathed out, but it was over too quick. She stood in the tube, and the door was closed. Saffreen gave her a small look of confidence, one she struggled to return. She felt herself struggling to breathe again, hyperventilating as the platform began to raise. She begged her body to stop, knowing that wouldn't help her at all right now. She needed to focus, she needed to win.
Her stylist was right, it was hot, and there was little protection from the shade. She began to register the terrain as she heard the countdown.
40, 39, 38, the area was swamp-like, the cornucopia appeared to be in the middle of a river. 34, there were a few trees, mostly coming out of the water instead of the ground, 33, and where there was ground, it didn't look steady. 32, the area seemed to get more coverage further away from the center, more trees, more shade. 30, but was the water salt or fresh? 29. Would she need to find water, could a sponsor send some? Many men seemed pleased with her performance thus far surely they wouldn't want to see her dehydrated. 25. She spotted a knife in the cornucopia, a spear, but she couldn't take them and she knew that. 24, she spotted Lochlan. He maintained his look of "I'm not getting out of this alive." 23, and what was worse, his eyes were trained on the cornucopia. 20, what kind of wildlife was in the rivers? If she had to, and she would, Kallan could catch a fish with her hands. 19, she couldn't decide which direction to go. With a few feet she could be in the river and she could be swimming. 18. If she got far enough away under the water they wouldn't be able to find her, and Birdy and Ornam probably could. 15. Finnick was probably watching her already, probably glad there was water around, and she was too. That's how his Annie won, by being a strong swimmer. It would certainly come in handy. And there were bound to be fish, and a sponsor could send a knife, or a spear, and—10–no it couldn't be ten. She could only imagine what Finnick was thinking, he understood the Games a lot better than she did when she watched. 9, she had only been nine, she was too young to feel that kind of fear, the kind of crippling fear she understood very clearly now. 8, no, don't try to swim. It'll cause a commotion, running is quieter. 7. She'd swim when she had to, and she'd outswim anyone in the arena. Including Lochlan, including Ornam, including Birdy. 6. You could only trust someone so far, and if it came down to it she knew they'd do the same to her. 5. And it didn't matter because she had to win. 4. She was going to win. 3, 2, 1.
The cannon sounded, and her feet had never been faster. All she saw was Lochlan go for the cornucopia, deliberately ignoring the advice a victor had given him. His funeral. One less life she had to worry about. The screams and sounds of various weapons entering various bodies became fainted, and all she heard was the cannons. It must've been 4 or 5 already but she didn't count. She'd find out when night fell.
She followed the advice, shelter, a hiding place. She started to fashion rope out of branches, and she set a few traps.
"Hey four," a whisper came from too close and Kallan pointed the sharpened stick she'd made at the perpetrator. Her heart started again when she saw Ornam, the boy from 10 who told her he'd practically act as a bodyguard. Unfortunately, Ornam had no prospects, no family, just cows, he said.
"You can't do that," Kallan's breath returned to her lungs, and the color returned to her face. He seemed to be smiling, not just because he scared her, but because he found her.
"Relax, just me," he said. "Show me what you got so far. Though, I'm not sure your stick is gonna scare anyone off."
"It would've worked."
It turned out to have been 8 losses in the first day. Lochlan among them.
"I'm sorry," Ornam muttered when Lochlan's all too young face appeared in the sky as they played what was recognizable as the anthem, but was just essentially a funeral song.
"Why?"
"He was from your district."
Kallan shrugged. "We didn't exactly make an effort to get to know each other. And he seemed pretty confident that he was going to die," Kallan muttered, laying back on the moss beneath her. "Kinda wonder if he was trying to."
"You think?"
"Yeah, Finnick wasn't being much of a help to him, but I guess it makes sense." Mentioning her big brother made her throat tighten. She was going to get back to him, she had to.
"Makes perfect sense to me," Ornam replied. "Get some rest, I'll take first watch, we can look for Birdy in the morning."
She didn't want to, but she listened. She laid her head down on the ground and fell asleep to the sound of the frogs.
They did find Birdy in the morning, she was running from a district 5 boy, who Ornam fought surprisingly easily, and Kallan realized he was keeping his word. With the boy laying on the ground with a snapped neck, Ornam breathed heavily. He wished it was harder, but he was just protecting his allies. But he saw the way it affected Kallan, her eyes looked different now. "He was after one of us," he reminded her, and she knew it was true, but it was the first kill she'd seen that close. And she knew she'd have to do the same. Birdy grabbed the spear off the boy, and though it's a weapon Kallan would've liked to have, she wasn't going near the body. "You should teach us how to fish," he said. He was smart, because it helped.
Kallan didn't waste any time, jumping right into the water. Birdy didn't offer her spear, but neither of the others wanted to ask for it. "Want your pointy stick?" Ornam asked, and she shook her head.
"I can use my hands, get ready to catch," she warned, to which Ornam gave her a funny look, before a fish was flying at his face, and he smacked it down to the ground, making both the girls laugh a little. It felt wrong to laugh in the Games, but it helped things slightly. Just slightly. Soon they had a few fish, and a small fire that Birdy lit for them. They cooked the fish, but Kallan's lower half never left the river.
"What are you still doing in there?" Birdy asked her, fish still in her mouth. Kallan hummed, shrugging.
"Feels safer," she said, just because she'd always been around and in water, it felt familiar.
They stayed like that for days. Not in the water of course, but in the safety of the trees they'd found, hunting, making the water drinkable. Kallan's sponsors were getting bored, clearly, because 3 days in she was sent a gift. The beeping woke Birdy while Kallan was on watch. It landed in a tree, so Kallan jumped to her feet to get to it. It wasn't hard to reach, she pulled it down, and off its parachute. She scrambled to open it, finding a box inside. Upon opening that, she found a set of knives, and she let out a breath. That's exactly what she was hoping for. There was a note on the weapons that read your brother said you could use these. Let's see if he's right. But it wasn't signed. Whoever it was wanted to see Kallan... kill people.
"Must be nice," Birdy muttered, and Kallan lifted her gaze to look at her, picking up the thin knives in her hand, setting the box aside. She didn't respond to the comment. Yeah, nice to exploit herself for weapons, in a game, where 23 kids died. Really nice.
"How long have they been out there alone?" Seneca asked one of his game makers, the one closest to him, the one with eyes on 4, 10, and 12.
"Four days," he said, looking over his shoulder and up on the balcony on which Seneca stood.
"No kills?" he checked.
"One," the game maker concurred. "4 used one of her new knives."
"Hm," Seneca hummed, thinking of what they could do to fix that. They still had too many tributes around. "Can we get them closer together?"
"Of course, how would you like it done, sir?" the game maker asked him. Seneca thought about it, looking at the three on the screen. Kallan was the one awake. She was twirling one of her knives in her hand, keeping watch in the early hours of the morning. The sun was hardly up yet.
"Let's see how well Odair really swims," he said, and the game maker gave him a succinct nod, before doing what he was told.
Despite the sleep threatening to take over Kallan's body, she recognized the familiar sound. The sound of rushing water. No, it couldn't have happened soon, she'd been keeping track. She looked at her feet, at the river next to them. It was still in the same place, so where was the noise coming from? She looked in all directions, then finally spotted it. There was a wave, but not quite. More like a wall of water, maybe 7 feet high, coming at them. Kallan jumped to her feet, going for Ornam first. It wasn't an explicit choice, he was just closer. She shook him quickly and aggressively.
"Ornam," she said, loud enough for him to hear. He grumbled in his sleep, and she shook him harder. "Get up, now!" she snapped, going over to Birdy after. "Birdy! Get up," she said, shaking her ally. Birdy was quicker to wake than Ornam.
"What is it?" she asked, and Kallan just pointed. The water was gaining on them. 100 feet away, 50. Birdy gasped when she saw it, then Ornam was at their side.
"Why are we just standing here?" he asked, his hand coming to grip Kallan's arm. She barely registered it.
"We can't outrun water," she told him, as if he was stupid. She didn't mean for it to come out like that, but she'd known that forever. When you're at the beach and a wave is coming, your best hope is to ride it out, you're probably not faster than it.
"So what do we do?" Birdy asked, her voice shaking. Kallan prayed her allies could swim.
"Our best bet is jumping in," she said, all confidence. "Okay?" she looked at Ornam, who let her go and nodded. "Birdy?" she checked, but Birdy wasn't at her side, she was running. "Birdy," Kallan groaned. As the wave got closer, it looked backed by an entire body of water. It would be quick, they'd get tossed a bit, but they could probably make it out.
"Jump in, right? Over, under?"
"Over? Ornam, it's taller than both of us!" Kallan reminded him.
"Under," he concurred, watching as the wave got closer and closer.
"Okay, get a running start," she said, planting her feet like she was about to start a race. "Go!" she called, and the two of them ran, unlike Birdy, toward the wave. Kallan dove straight into the water, trying to get to the surface. It was pushing them along while keeping them in the water, like it wanted them there. Kallan managed to kick her way up to the surface, riding along with the water, looking for Ornam. In the dim light of the morning, combined with the water that was whipping them through the arena, she came up empty. So with a deep breath she went back under, trying to search for him in the flood. She managed a dark outline, and swam to where he was being tossed over himself, far less steady than she was. She grabbed his arm, which he almost yanked away, but she hoped he registered her there. She pulled with all her might, but he was bigger than her, and he was stronger. She managed to get him a few feet away from the wave fronting the flood, where the current was still powerful, but a bit calmer.
She tugged on Ornam with all her strength, getting him above the surface for a breath, as they kept getting rushed across the arena. "Can you swim?" she asked him as he caught his breath.
"What does it look like?" he answered, and she supposed that was fair, so she kept him close to her, trying to hold him up.
"Kick your feet, you're heavy," Kallan tried to catch her breath.
"Thanks," Ornam said sarcastically, which made her roll her eyes, but he listened, and it helped a little. Only until the current decided that it didn't want them on the surface, and it pulled them both under. Kallan got flipped over herself in the water, trying to orient as best she could. She was usually better at this, but that was on her own turf. She stopped flailing, she let the water push her, only when the water level started going down was it possible to find the surface. She felt her feet hit the ground, quite painfully, but then the water in the arena receded back into the ground, and it spit them out onto the mossy terrain. It threw Kallan onto Ornam, making her mutter an apology, rolling off of him. Kallan had to catch her breath, but she had avoided inhaling water, which could not be said for Ornam. He had gotten onto his hands and knees, coughing up what could've been gallons of water he was so loud. Kallan brought herself slowly to her feet. She gave him a pat on the back, as he finally started to breathe again.
"You good?"
"What the hell was that?" He asked, looking up at her from his hands and knees.
"I don't know," she muttered, trying to think of why the game makers might do that. "Maybe they got bored," she said, looking down at herself, her hand grazing her belt, making sure her knives were still there. She still had four of them too. Good. "We need to find Birdy," she looked around the area. It was getting lighter now, and everything was calm. The water had settled back into the rivers, like it had never even happened.
"Where do you think she could've gone?" Ornam asked, finally bringing himself onto his feet.
"Dunno, depends on when it got to her. I told her running was stupid," Kallan muttered, fidgeting with each of her knives just to be sure they'd stay. As she did it, she learned exactly why the game makers had done this. Because she saw a tribute running at the two of them from over Ornam's shoulder. "Ornam, duck!" She said, and he did not need to be told twice. Kallan took one of the knives from her belt and threw it as hard as she could, as accurately as she could. It landed directly in the tribute's stomach, and he stopped running. It was clear he wasn't expecting it, his weapon, looked like a sword, fell to the ground. Kallan breathed out. She wished it was a headshot, it would've killed him faster. Now this kid had to bleed out in front of them. But she was rushing, he was coming for Ornam, who slowly stood from his crouched position.
"I thought I was supposed to protect you," he said, somewhere between joking and serious.
"Shut up," Kallan muttered. Her breath was soft, as she waited for the other tribute's to stop. He was on the ground, hand over the wound. He stupidly pulled the knife out, but maybe he just wanted it to go faster. After a long silence, he stopped breathing, but his eyes stayed open, staring at the morning sky. The cannon sounded. Kallan let out her shaking breath. She knew she needed that knife back, but she didn't want to go get it. Ornam watched as her feet took her over to the body. She wanted to apologize to the boy but what kind of message would that send to the game makers, to the audience? She reached down, taking her knife from his limp hand, and looking away as soon as she could.
She went back over to Ornam, who saw the fear, the remorse on her face. It wasn't hidden well. Kallan just knelt down, rinsing off her hands and the knife. She scrubbed her own hands a bit too hard. The knife was fine, she put it back in her belt, but she kept rubbing her hands together, frantically, furiously. It wasn't even her first kill, but she'd left her other knife in the last one. It was different, being up close to it. Suddenly a hand had taken hers, stopping her from scrubbing anymore. "It's gone," Ornam promised her, his voice close to her ear, and soft so it wouldn't startle her. "You got it, I promise," he said, taking both of her hands in his. He pulled her away from the river, but put himself between her and the body.
"His weapon-"
"We'll bury it."
"You don't want it?"
"No, we'll bury it." His voice was so steady she didn't want to argue. "Let's go find Birdy."
Gasps filled the audience that were spectating, as Kallan's ally, Ornam, struggled to breathe. The Games were going on two weeks. Finnick didn't think he'd slept a wink the whole time. He'd been staring at the screen, holed up in the capitol. Mags hadn't left his side, but thankfully she'd gotten some sleep. Dewda too, and every time she left to sleep, Finnick's distaste for her grew. Good to know she didn't lose sleep over the 15 year old fighting for her life. He'd watched her use the knives she'd been gifted. Two or three times now their small pack had been threatened, and from several, impressive feet away, Kallie managed to keep them at bay with her weapons. After the first one it looked easier for her.
Finnick hadn't kept up with Caesar's commentary, he'd just watched his little sister, who–even Caesar had commented–was becoming a natural. And while Finnick wasn't watching the commentary, a large audience was. And they, and most of Panem, watched as Ornam coughed up blood. The beloved trio had just been about to head off to find somewhere to rest for the night, when one of them made it a duo. Ornam fell to his knees as Birdy pulled her spear out of his back. It was dark, it was hard to see, but they'd all just watched as the sky showed more fallen tributes and revealed that three more had been killed. Then something in Birdy snapped, because there were 6 left in the arena. And two of them were right in front of her.
"Birdy, what are you doing?" Kallan asked, her voice as steady as she could possibly make it. In the small amounts of light Finnick caught something obscuring her face. Blood. Ornam's. Kallan pulled a knife from her belt, not knowing what Birdy could do next. The knife was clean, she never liked to keep the blood on it. "He was your ally."
"He had no chance winning with his mindset, he practically wanted to die, I'm just helping things along," Birdy said, kicking Ornam lightly, he jostled and groaned, struggling to breathe. Kallan blinked back her tears looking at him. He had been a friend to her, an objectively good ally. But now wasn't the time for weakness. Finnick watched her fight it.
"So you're just gonna, what, off me, too?"
"Well I know you're not going down without a fight," Birdy jeered.
"Nice that you recognize that." Kallan's head tilted. Finnick's eyes were locked on the screen, his breathing picking up. It was the only breathing in the room.
"You've got your big brother," Birdy mocked, and Kallan's eyes narrowed. "I've got family too, Odair."
"You've also got a serious attitude problem."
Finnick tried not to laugh. But she was so his sister. He saw her grip tighten on her knife.
"Up to you, I can kill you now or give you a head start, but you're making the first option really tempting." Birdy's lips were so taught in a frown it looked like it hurt.
"You can't kill me, you need me."
What was she talking about? Birdy seemed to want to know too.
"I don't need you."
"Yes, you do. Because you haven't noticed yet."
Oh, she was good. Finnick had seen it too. Lochlan probably would've too if he'd lived long enough.
"Noticed what?"
Kallan started walking toward her, and Birdy started backing up.
"You're gonna need my help," Kallan swore, still walking her back. Birdy trained her spear on the girl but still stepped back. Trying not to trip over mangrove roots. Finnick finally realized what she was doing. He recognized the terrain. It's where Kallie had started the Games.
"With what?!" Birdy was starting to sound desperate. Kallan pushed her back one more step, and her foot got caught in the trap Kallan had set so long ago, and Birdy fell. Her spear toppled out of her hand and it was in Kallan's in seconds. Birdy looked up at her ally with fear in her eyes, but Kallie looked calm.
"Water level's rising," she told Birdy with an extremely steady tone. "But you won't be here to see it." She raised the spear slightly.
"Kallan," Birdy begged, her voice shaking. "Please don't do this."
Kallan looked like she was gonna consider it, while Finnick's thoughts begged her to just do it. Her expression only faltered for a second, before she clearly made up her mind.
"You were gonna do it to me."
She rinsed off the spearhead and herself in the water.
Kallan heard a gasp, heard her name. She turned around herself in a heartbeat. It was what made her realize there was no cannon yet. He wasn't dead yet. Kallan rushed in the dark over to the boy lying on the ground, his hands over the hole that now occupied his torso. Shaking, she fell to her knees beside him, putting the spear, now clean of him and birdy's blood next to him. It felt wrong to have it so close to him while he laid there.
"I thought you were dead," she managed, her hand hesitantly coming up to him, to his chest, his shoulders. His left hand grabbed onto her right, and she felt it. More of his blood, from his hand, onto hers. She couldn't keep back her sob.
"I probably will be in a minute.'' Was he... joking? On his deathbed, in the Games. He was joking. Kallan's sob turned to a soft laugh, because what good would crying do for Ornam right now?
"I'm sorry," she told him, squeezing his hand.
"No-"
"I shouldn't have trusted her," Kallan muttered.
"We both trusted her," he reminded her, and she looked at him, fighting all of her tears. She didn't want them to fall on him. She shook her head, wishing there was a way to help him, but she knew better.
"I'm sorry," she said again, but Ornam almost...laughed.
"Pretty good way to go. The view is nice," he commented, which caught halfway into Kallan's throat. She couldn't cry, but she couldn't breathe. She squeezed his hand tight, and he returned it, until he didn't. Until he couldn't. His hand gave out.
Kallan felt her chest heave, her sobs took over.
"Ornam," she begged. "Ornam, please." it was absolutely no use. He was gone.
What the hell was that sound? Kallan couldn't tell if it was real or if she'd made it up. She'd been alone for 3 days, and she hadn't been able to sleep, it was getting hard to tell what was real. She was mosquito bitten, dehydrated, and probably suffering heatstroke, so the sound could've been in her head. Then she spotted it. Her heart crept into her throat. It was a creature she'd never seen in person, but it was unmistakable. An alligator. An alligator that was chewing on the leg of a tribute. She must've missed the canon. She started to stand as quietly as possible.
Didn't matter, it saw her. Spear in hand she started to run. But god that thing was fast. She was prepared for a lot of things in the game, an alligator was not one of them. Finnick didn't tell her what to do when being chased by an alligator. She figured the cornucopia was her best bet. The beast likely couldn't climb up the slick sides. The trees rushed past her as she navigated her way back. Back through places she'd seen before. She must've explored the whole arena by now. That tree looked familiar, why? When she got knocked to the ground by an invisible force she realized why. Trip wire. She'd set it herself. In the time it took her to recognize it, her leg got trapped in the jaws of the alligator.
She couldn't stop the scream that escaped, even though it could've given up her location. She'd never felt something so painful. She gasped for air, grabbing at the ground. The teeth might've even been down to her bone, she couldn't be sure. She turned over her shoulder, trying to figure out what she could do to free herself. This is not how she was going down. The sight startled her. Yes, it was an alligator. But its eyes were so human. They resembled those of a 13 year old boy that Kallan knew a lifetime ago.
"Ooh a spear in the eye! And like that Odair is free. She is not coming back for that spear, she's off. Of course with a slight limp," Caesar explained to the audience as they watched the girl hobble-run towards the center of the arena. "And we have... looks like One is headed the same way. This could be it folks."
By the time Kallan reached the center of the arena, the water level was higher than she'd ever seen it. The cornucopia was over half flooded, only a few feet poking out of the top of the water. That made sense, but she hardly realized how much less land she'd had to pass over to get here. Didn't matter to her, she dove into the water as soon as she could. She knew the water wasn't helping the amount of blood her leg was losing. But with her skill, she was at the center in no time. She managed to pull herself up onto the structure, standing on what was left.
She looked around, alligators weren't coming towards her anymore, they seemed to be staying away from the cornucopia. Why? The water level also seemed to be rising every second, just by a few centimeters. That was the last thing she registered before her foot, her bad one, was grabbed by what was most certainly a human hand. She yelled as she got yanked back into the water, just barely registering the male tribute from district one climbing up on it instead of her. With one leg bleeding out into the river, she struggled to stay afloat, but she came above the water to face him.
He definitely didn't look good. He was soaked like she was, clearly. And he looked exhausted. His face was beat up and bruised, blood was dripping down his left leg but the source was unknown. He had a sword in that hand as well.
"It's over, four," he finally spoke, and his voice sounded as bad as his body looked. She was certain his kill count was higher than hers. She tried to listen to him as the water flowed against her ears. There was wind, wind that came out of nowhere, jostling the water. "It's just us now, and I don't plan on losing," he said. But she had the advantage. She could get away with a few things in the water. She felt for the knives on her belt, they were still there. So she took a breath, ducked her head under the water, and started to swim. It wasn't as hard as she thought it would be, the pain even briefly escaped her. She could see the cornucopia under the water, and swam her way around it. She couldn't make out the career that well, but when she approached the surface, she saw that he was still looking for her on the other side of the cornucopia. That's all she wanted. As quietly as possible, she lifted her knife out of the water, and threw it, with impressive accuracy, at the tribute's left arm.
He yelled, and dropped his weapon, which slid off the cornucopia and into the water, hopefully to the bottom of the river. Other knife in hand, Kallan hauled herself onto the cornucopia, in time for the tribute to turn around, but not before she retrieved her knife from his arm. He was, unfortunately, significantly taller and bigger than her. He was probably 18, that made sense. Things started to get blurry, everything started to hurt. Did she lose a knife, did he have it? This was the last person she needed to kill. He was all that stood between her and her brother.
"Things are getting intense in these final moments of the game. The tributes are trapped here unless we want another alligator-related-injury," Caesar said, his tone more hushed than it was before. The crowd just watched the 15 year old and 18 year old in an outright battle. All of them probably with bets in the game. "It seems we're losing our footing and--there they go, into the water."
One good breath before they entered the water was all she needed. If she could just keep his hands off her throat, prevent him from killing her any other way. Both of them were weaponless, she was losing blood, now from various places. But he seemed to be under the impression that he could just... drown her. All he was doing was holding her under the water, waiting for her to pass out.
Finnick was leaning forward on the couch, hands on his knees. Mags was beside him, trying not to hold her breath. It all came down to this moment, and Finnick knew he shouldn't have been worried, she was in water, she was okay, but he was still fighting the urge to scream. His heart had never been quite so fast in his life. "Come on, Kallie, come on," he said through gritted teeth. All he could see was the water's surface, there was no telling what was happening underneath.
The boy from one was running out of breath, she could tell. This could be it, she could do it. He was about to give up, she saw him head for the surface but, with all her strength, she pulled him back down. He opened his mouth, for whatever reason, to gasp, to scream, to breathe, and it only made it worse. She just held him there, under the water with her. His hands clawed at her wrists, but she was relentless. If he could see her eyes better, he'd see that in them. He'd see that she wasn't letting him live. Air bubbles, what was probably the last of what was in his lungs, floated to the surface, and his hands slowly stopped trying to stop her. His eyes closed, his body got heavier, he was unconscious. Just a minute more, she could do this. She didn't even feel the need to breathe, it was long past. The water had to have entered his lungs by now. Kallan gave him a push, and he floated, his body hitting the surface, facedown. She looked at him, looking at what she did.
Then she kicked, with regained difficulty, to the surface of the water, and she took a breath in.
Finnick let out the breath he'd been holding.
"Is that it? Did she do it? Where's the cannon?" Caesar asked his silent audience.
Kallan pulled herself back onto the cornucopia, eyes trained on the tribute. He wasn't moving. She tried to steady her breathing, get used to the air again. How long would it take for him to fully die, and was he telling the truth before? Was it just them? She'd lost count around the time her ally tried to kill her. And some were probably killed by the mutant alligators. She had to stop thinking about it, she'd find out soon, and they'd get her out of here, wrap up her leg, and bring her back to Finnick. She wiped her nose, trying not to look at the blood on her hand, turning her gaze to the sky. It was turning orange. Was it dusk?
Boom.
A voice boomed from somewhere within the arena.
"Ladies and Gentlemen. May I present the winner of the 72nd annual hunger Games!"
Kallan dropped to her knees, and for the first time in over two weeks, she let herself breathe in hope again.