74th - part 7
johanna's pov
This moment never gets easier.
We’re standing in the living room. Me, Blight, the tributes, our escort, and the stylists. Half of us are tearing up, but I promised myself my first year as a mentor that I would never let a tribute see me cry. They’ve got enough to be sad about without watching me make it about myself.
“You remember the plan?” I grunt.
Holly nods. “Grab what we can without getting too close to the Cornucopia, find Santhe and Cole, and get out.”
“Yes, exactly,” says Blight, sounding dangerously close to crying.
“What if you can’t find Santhe and Cole?”
“Go off on our own,” Lance tells me, “and hope we can find them later.”
“Yep. And when do you need to leave?”
Holly answers again. “As soon as the Careers are dead.”
“And we don’t tell them when we’re leaving, we just go,” adds Lance.
“Perfect.” I feel a little sorry for drilling them like this, but the last thing I want is for them to forget the plan or decide not to follow it. So I’ve asked them to repeat it back to me about 50 times in the past 24 hours. I’d rather get on their nerves than let them get killed.
Our escort clears his throat and declares, “It’s time.”
“Good luck!” Blight cries.
I nod firmly at each of the kids. “Stay alive.”
Once the door closes behind them, Blight and I take a minute to collect ourselves before we head off to the viewing room. Although we have the freedom to watch the Games wherever we like, the Capitol provides a specific room for mentors that everyone uses when they’re not interested in being interrupted or distracted. So Haymitch suggested that the four of us meet there today to watch the beginning together.
The viewing room is cozy, with warm lighting and comfy chairs, and it sort of feels relaxing, despite the fact that it’s impossible for me to relax right now. The mentors from 1 and 2 are sitting together, of course, but I’m disappointed to see Finnick next to them. This can only mean that 4’s tributes will be part of the Career pack this year, which definitely makes our alliance’s job harder.
Haymitch and Katniss are sitting next to each other with a chair reserved on either side of them. I smirk at the blonde man as he notices my arrival. “Haymitch.”
“Johanna.”
“Welcome to the alliance,” I drawl.
He smirks. “Thank you, sweetheart.”
Blight sits in the seat next to Haymitch, leaving me next to Katniss. I flop down into the cushion and sigh. At least the chair is comfortable, which is important considering that I could be here a while if my tributes don’t go down in the first few minutes.
Nobody speaks. We watch Caesar and Claudius have a last minute discussion about the tributes and make a few predictions, then the camera unveils the arena as the tributes rise to their podiums. The Cornucopia and the tributes are in the center of a grassy meadow, which is surrounded by a mountain range that has limited tree coverage. Only the mountain range looks terrifyingly difficult to navigate and the jagged rocks are pitch black, which means they’ll get extremely hot in the sun.
But if the tributes don’t head for the mountains, they basically have to sit in the wide open meadow and wait to be attacked. It’s an arena built for the Careers, that’s for sure.
“Can yours climb?” Haymitch mutters.
“No idea.”
“Great,” he huffs irritably. “That’s fucking great.”
“If they make it through the bloodbath, we can work on buying them something to make the mountains more doable,” I tell him, but he doesn’t seem to hear it. I guess I can’t blame him; this whole situation just became pretty hopeless.
The countdown starts and the room falls deathly silent.
When the horn sounds, Lance and Santhe find each other almost immediately, then run together around the meadow as the Careers snatch up some weapons. I’m starting to panic, because they’re running out of time and soon the Careers will start to hunt down anyone who hasn’t made it to the mountains, but they finally find Cole and Holly, who—no fucking way. She actually managed to grab something useful: an ax and two backpacks.
“Where the hell did she get that? ” I shout, but of course no one knows because the dumbass camera workers didn’t bother to show it.
“Who cares, she got it,” Katniss laughs.
Holly passes a backpack to Cole and the ax to Lance as they sprint toward the mountains. Santhe manages to snatch up another backpack, which makes the four of us scream at the screen for her to run, but the Careers aren’t focused on her, thankfully. By some miracle, the four tributes make it to the edge of the mountain range and duck into the trees, out of view from the Cornucopia.
Now we can relax a bit. Blight high fives the three of us, and I can’t hold back a grin. They actually did it, and they have supplies . I couldn’t have dreamed of a better start. Although I don’t want to get my hopes up, it’s hard not to at this point.
“Alright, so now that we actually stand a chance of being here for a few days,” says Haymitch, “I think we should establish a watch rotation, because we need someone paying attention at all times and there’s no way in hell I’m pulling a bunch of all nighters in a row again if I don’t have to.”
Katniss shifts in her seat next to me.
“So I’m thinking two of us at a time on 12 hour shifts, and I’m sure everyone agrees that we should have one mentor representing each district,” Haymitch continues, glancing around at each of us.
“Definitely,” Blight replies.
There’s absolutely no way I’m getting stuck with Haymitch or a night shift. Before anyone can get the chance to plead their case, I blurt, “I call days with Katniss.”
Haymitch scoffs. “You can’t call—”
“I call days with Johanna,” interrupts Katniss. She looks at me and we both smirk, knowing we’ve just played the men.
“Ugh, fine. Blight, let’s go,” Haymitch mutters, standing up and motioning for Blight to join him. “How about we come back around…8pm? 8 to 8 sound good to everyone?”
“Deal,” I nod. I look straight at Haymitch and say, “And if anything important happens, we have to let everyone know. But no bullshit. It has to be serious.”
“Of course.” He glances at the TV screen one last time, then turns to Blight and walks out with him.
I lean back in my seat and sigh. Time to get comfortable enough to sit here for the next 12 hours.