Opinions and Truth - The Last Hunger Games

After our stories are told, we both go to sleep in the comfort of our sleeping bag. The heavy rise and fall of Maddi’s body lets me know that she is asleep, but sleep doesn’t come for me until much later.

I lie awake staring at the stars in the sky. In the confine of the woods there was no chance to take a close look at the sky. The only thing I could see through the trees was the Capitol seal and the faces of the dead. I prefer not to watch that show.

I try to comfort myself by pretending that everyone I love will be looking at the same stars as me right now- my parents, my loving next door neighbour Gloria, the cute twins down the road- all of them. For all I know, a war could be raging again in the Capitol. I remember Peeta Mellark explaining how when you’re in the Arena, everything else is so distant. Who would have thought it was so true? The only thing I can think about in here is death. The only thing that happens in here is death. Even the Victor will die- not on the outside, yet on the inside.

The Victor.

Is there any chance of me winning? I’ve already killed. Two people have died because of me – Tiffany Avila and Davion Maisen. Before now, I have just thought of them as predators. If I hadn’t acted first, they would have killed me. But now I realise. They must have families, friends, feelings, talents, dreams. They are no different than me. It isn’t their fault that they have been forced to kill.

Maddi told me about how she’d seen the Careers rampaging through the forest. She said that they acted like a pack almost, with a leader, the mediocre ones, and the straggler. Apparently the girl- Tiffany- was only a part of their gang because they’d spotted promise in her from something she’d done in the Bloodbath. That makes me feel even guiltier about ending her life.

Maddi’s story was not as adventurous as mine, though that is to be expected. My name is India Snow- I’m the top target in this game. I’m the dartboard and the new Gamemakers are the darts.

She ran from the Bloodbath without collecting a single thing, straight into the woods. From there, she found a river (possibly the source of the pool I found) and waded upstream in the shallows. Apparently, if anyone came her way, her plan was to leap into the river and swim downstream before they could say “Damn.”

I have to admit that it does sound like a good plan. The only problem is that I
have now foiled it. I can’t swim that fast.

She spied on the Careers and escaped from a herd of strangely savage goats. That’s the only interesting news that Maddi could tell. I hate to think that the majority of the Rebel’s anger has been directed at me.

Figures.


I don’t know how long I lie there without sleep, counting the stars above my head, but at some point sleep must have snuck up on me like a wolf hunting its prey. That’s when the nightmares arrive.


“India,” a soft voice calls. “It’s time to go.”

“Mhm?” I open my drowsy eyes, blinking at the bright light.

“It’s time to go.”

I know that voice. I know that voice like I know the back of my hand. It’s the voice of my mother. My eyes snap open.

Sure enough, there she is as clear as day in front of me, her arms wide open as though inviting me into a hug.

Her skin glows happily, accompanying her smile and rosy red cheeks.

“Mum!” I wrap my arms around her warm body – so real, so warm, and so comforting.

“Hello, darling,” she whispers into my ear and I smile softly, sobbing with happiness into her shoulder.

It’s all over. I’m home and I’m safe.

I sniff at her shoulder, breathing in the sweet scent of lemons, freshly baked bread… then roses. Her body stiffens.

/“Mum?” my voice cracks as her shoulder tenses and her breathing slows down.
I don’t want to look. I don’t want to see why she has gone so still./


I close my eyes tightly.

Then slowly- as slowly as I can- I remove my arms from around her and move back, holding her at arm’s length.

That’s when I hear the voice. Yet somehow I know it isn’t coming from in front of me. The deafening echo bounds around my skull, drowning out any feeling I have.

“India! India, duck!”

Yet I don’t duck. This time I don’t obey.

I open my eyes.


/Instead of the dead body I expect, there’s the person I least expected to see.
He grins widely at me, a row of shining white teeth glimmering in the darkness. There’s no light now and the sound of roaring waves meet my ears. The smell of sea spray invades my nostrils and I can see violent black waves at the bottom of the rocky cliff I’m on./

Then he’s laughing. The same laugh I saw on the TV. The same laugh he laughed when I was little. And this time comes the blood, spewing out of his mouth in chunks and splattering onto the wet grass.

/I try to take a step away from him but my body is locked into place. The blood gets thicker and thicker as he approaches me until the warm substance runs down my face, across the grass and like a waterfall into the water below.
Faces are in the sky. Colin, Tiffany, Damien, Cloe, so many- all whispering deathly whispers. Their voices accusing as I drown in blood- their blood./

“Why didn’t you watch us in the sky?”

“You blocked us out!”

“I was only young.”

“Our blood is on your hands.”

“All this is your fault.”

“If it wasn’t for you, we would be happy.”

“Why didn’t you come back?”

“You should have saved me before he could kill.

“There was no warning.”

“The Snow’s are the death of us.”

“It’s all your fault.”

“I loved you, India.”

Then just as quickly as they came, they are gone. The blood is gone. The sea, once stained a bright blood red, is calm and a baby blue. The sky is bright, the grass is green.


/My head hurts and the world is spinning. There are tears, but I can’t see them. I feel myself falling- my skin shred away by the sharp rocks. I can feel my body breaking apart. My heart shred to pieces, my brain a pile on the ocean floor. My stomach torn apart by sharks. A booming laugh bounds through my head. I want it all to end. I want it all to go – the guilt, the blame.
Then it all goes. Replaced by one person, drifting towards me in the water, his face scarred and bloody. He approaches, his hands outstretched./

It’s only when they close around my windpipe that I realise what Colin is doing.

“I loved you, India…”



“No! No, no, no, please! I’m sorry! I love you, I love you too. Please forgive me. No! Please don’t, I didn’t want it to happen! I-I-I love you!” I wake up with Maddi hovering over me, shaking my shoulders roughly.

“India, stop it! What are you doing? What’s wrong?” her face is clearly worried, still shaking me to wake me up.

I half-heartedly push her hands away.

The sun is half way in the sky, casting a dim light on everything. I realise my body is shaking, covered in a cold sweat and there are tears streaming down my face.

I sob loudly, gasping for breath as I think of Colin, “He said he loved me, he loved me, but I didn’t- I should have saved- s-s-saved him.”

“It’s okay, India, it’s okay, it was only a dream. It’s the Capitol messing with your mind.” I welcome her arms around me, crying loudly into her jacket.

After a few minutes I manage to calm myself enough to pull away from the hug. I wipe my nose on my sleeve, rubbing my wet eyes to clear the tears.

I have to be strong. I can’t break down now.

“I’m okay,” I sniff, crawling out of the sleeping bag and quickly thinking of an excuse. “I’m going to go and get some leaves and vines to make a bandage for my finger.

Maddi doesn’t look so certain that I’m fine but doesn’t argue as I walk towards
the vines I climbed through yesterday.

I find them easily enough once I realise I’m wandering in the wrong direction. My sense of direction has never been very good.

The bush looks just the same as yesterday, a small gap still visible where I’d squeezed through. I use my knife to saw a few vines off and find a nearby tree with big round green leaves suitable to make up the other part of the bandage.
Holding them safely in my hand and my knife in the other, I walk back to the sleeping bags where Maddi is rummaging through a backpack.

I glance at her before dumping the greenery on my sleeping bag and plopping down beside it. I make a start at wrapping the leaves around my finger, wincing at the small shocks of pain the pressure causes.

All the while Maddi searches through her backpack with a determined expression on her face feeling her way through.

“What are you looking for?” I ask, watching her as she sighs impatiently. I’m relieved when my voice sounds steady.

Her face lits up as though she’s found something and she pulls out a glass bottle, in which is a bubbling black liquid. I flinch at the sight of it, dropping the vines I’m holding. An image of Cloe flashes through my mind, black ashes crumbling from her body.

Maddi notices my visible movement. “Do you know what it is?”

“Yes,” I force the answer out, gritting my teeth and resisting the urge to run away. A familiar black skull and white cloud are painted onto the glass. It’s strange to think that such a small bottle could cause so much damage. “How did you get it?”

“I forgot to tell you last night, I found it abandoned in the woods while I was searching for food a couple days ago.” she explains honestly.

“If you come into contact with it, you burn up.” I tell her bluntly. I’ve found since being in The Arena that I don’t like to show emotions. “Zevran used it on Cloe. She burnt up in black dust.”

Maddi nods grimly, placing the glass bottle carefully between the sleeping bags.

“Why did you get it out?” I ask.

“I thought that we should do something, form a plan. Take action.” She fiddles with her thumbs nervously, staring at the bottle as though expecting an answer
to appear in there.

“Oh,” I say, surprised by her motives. “You mean, against the Careers?”

“Precisely,” she confirms. “Nothing has been happening lately and if we don’t do anything, the Gamemakers will take it into their own hands.”

“Maybe we should. But what would we do?”

Now that she has suggested it, it does seem like a good plan. There is no point sitting around and letting the Careers do all the work. We need to prove to the audience that we are in this thing to win.

I pick up my dropped vines from the floor, and return my gaze to Maddi. T

There’s a smirk on her face.

I know that smirk. It’s the smirk of a plan.