Trust Me

"Finnick, I miss you. I don't know what I've gotten myself into. Everyone from my original alliance is dead. Kip was killed because of me. Adri's left me. Everyone I was supposed to stay with is gone. What do I do? I'm not strong like you. I thought I could do this myself, but I can't. I feel so alone," I murmured. I hoped I was close enough to a camera to be picked up, though even if I was, there was no guarantee that Finnick would see it. And yet, I felt better knowing that there was a slight chance that Finnick was listening to me. "You know what's worse? It feels like it's all my fault. I'm the reason Parq killed Kip. I'm also the reason he killed Jill and Tam. And it's because of me that Terra died. If I hadn't ducked, Ingrid's arrow would have hit me instead of her. And now, I'm the reason Adri left. Why doesn't anything happen the way I mean it to?"

It must have been noon now. I sat at the edge of the rock pool, staring at our matching canteens as the beads of water on their caps glimmered in the sunlight. The sleeping bag lay half-rolled up, just as Adri had left it, and the contents of the pack were still neatly laid out as they had been last night. Everything was just as Adri had left it, but by this point he could be halfway across the arena.

I stuck my hand in the pool, swirling my fingers through the cool water. Had it really been just last night that I'd pushed him in here? I remembered the way he pulled me back in after him as revenge, the way he had teased me. I would have done anything to go back to that moment.

A cannon blast ripped through the air, and I was instantly on my feet, my fingers curled around the handle of my knife. I wanted to scream as I wondered if it as Adri, but screaming would do nothing except let other people know where I was. Another cannon blast was sounded just a few seconds later, and I froze. Either two people got into a fight that wound up being fatal for both of them, or the Game makers had released their plot twist.

I didn't wait to find out.

I clumsily threw everything in the pack and rolled the sleeping bag up as quickly as I could. It was messy and unorganized, but I was ready to run within a minute. I got to my feet and heard a low rumble sound through the trees. Was that a cannon blast? No, it couldn't be. It was too low and steady to be a cannon blast. The rumbling grew closer, shaking the ground, and I grabbed onto a tree to support myself. The trees trembled, their leaves swaying violently as the rumbling intensified. I suddenly realized what it was: an earthquake.

I remembered all the earthquake safety lessons I'd learned in school: find a secure place and stay put. But this wasn't District 4, this was the arena, and this earthquake wasn't just another earthquake. I tightened the straps of the pack over my shoulders -- Adri was the one who usually carried the pack, and his arms were huge -- and then took off, the ground flying away beneath my feet as I ran. The pack was heavy, and I could hear the contents shifting and jostling around as I ran. I was so tempted to throw the pack on the ground and leave it, knowing it was slowing me down significantly, but I remembered how cold it got at night and how thirsty I'd been on the second day, and that was enough to keep me from tossing it off my shoulders.

The rumbling grew louder. Whole trees were swaying back and forth now, their thick trunks looking like nothing more than rubber. A few branches had snapped off the trees, and they rained down on the ground. I dodged them as best as I could. The branches were huge, and they were falling from so high up that I knew one falling branch could easily break any bone in my body, if not kill me.

I heard violent panting behind me, and I cast a quick glance over my shoulder to see the boy from District 7 struggling to run after me. One of his legs was bloodied up, the flesh mutilated, but he seemed to ignore it as he ran as fast as he could despite the fact that his face twisted in pain with every agonizing step.

As soon as I saw him, my hand flew to my knife and hovered over the handle, waiting for him to draw a weapon or show any sign of attack, but nothing happened. He didn't even glance at me, he just kept running. I froze for a moment, blinking as I tried to figure out if he was genuinely not interested in attacking me, or if he was just trying to lull me into a false sense of security. I debated flinging my knife at him anyway and killing him just in case, but as soon as the idea popped into my head I knew it wouldn't work. I couldn't kill him. He hadn't done anything to me. I still felt bad about the boy from 11, even though I didn't kill him myself, and he had been just about to slice me to bits. I whirled around and kept running, making sure the pack was snug against my back in case he tried to hit me with a blade or an arrow from behind. At least the pack would slow down whatever was thrown at me, even if it couldn't stop it entirely.

The ground was shifting now. I could feel it sliding around under my feet. It was like standing on a rug while it was being pulled across the floor. The grass was staying still, but I could feel the rock shifting under my feet. A huge tree suddenly snapped next to me, aimed directly at me. I leapt forward to escape, but I suddenly lost my footing as the ground under me continued to move. I was trapped on my back, unable to stand with the massive pack on my back, and all I could do was look up and watch as the massive tree trunk headed directly for me.