I wake up on a sofa in the Launch Room.

It isn’t the exact same as last year’s room but it’s still recognisable. I look around for Cinna; my stylist was with me here last year. Cinna isn’t here. Panic fills me. I am alone.

I must have been asleep all night. I know that if they hadn’t drugged us, we wouldn’t have got any sleep last night. Everything seems so long ago. I have a moment of realisation: Snow did not cancel the Games. I am going back. In a few minutes time, I will be in the Arena again.

I find the clothes I am supposed to wear folded on a table. There is a tight thing, like a cat suit. It is blue, with a thick, purple, plastic belt. There is also a pair of rubber soled shoes. Sitting next to the clothes is my token from last year, my little woven necklace. I guess they wouldn’t have let me use a mockingjay pin. It would have just been a reminder of our “bad behaviour”. The thought of the Capitol having to make petty excuses to cover up our episode makes me feel proud of this year’s tribute pool.

I take a shower, as I won’t be able to easily bathe in the Arena. I change into the clothes on the table and fasten my necklace around my neck. I don’t know what to do next. I would like some company. Cinna is probably off being questioned or tortured. Maybe he is already dead. I don’t like to think about it.

I consider smashing everything and breaking everything in the room, generally making a mess of it. Just to be annoying. There’s no point though: The Launch Room won’t be used next year.

So I just sit and wait.

A voice comes through the speakers, telling me to get ready. I mount the plate like I did last year. I feel myself go up. My eyes sting as I see the bright sun. There is water all around me. This is a problem: I can’t swim.

I glance at Finnick, he can swim. Mags probably can too. The majority of us can’t. They have a massive advantage.

The countdown starts. Finnick nods in the direction of land. I move my arms and shake my head to tell him I can’t swim. He points at the purple belt. Will it help me swim?

He goes through the same motions with the other people we are allied with. There are quite a few now. I count them in my head.

One, Finnick. Two, Haymitch. Three, Johanna. Four, Seeder. Five Chaff. Six, Mags. Seven, Beetee. Eight, Wiress. Nine, me. That’s over a quarter of the tributes. With an alliance this big, other people hopefully won’t try to attack us. Some of us, namely me and Mags, aren’t exactly scary, though.

I am thinking this when the gong rings, signalling the beginning of the Games. I hesitate for a second but then force myself into the water, hoping that Finnick knows what he is talking about.

The belts float. My belt keeps me just high enough in the water that I can breathe. I try kicking away from the Cornucopia, towards the land that Finnick wanted me to go to. I see he is already well on his way; a few others are going as slowly as me.

I want to see if the water is drinkable, so I swallow a mouthful. I immediately regret it. It barely tastes like water at all, and it leaves my throat burning. I feel sick, but keep kicking.

Johanna and I reach the land at about the same time. She gets out and retches several times.

“Did you drink some?” I choke.

She nods. Finnick and Mags, who were already on the shore, laugh.

“It’s salt water. You can’t drink it,” he snorts.

While we wait for the others, Finnick shows us what he got from the Cornucopia.

“You swam to the Cornucopia, took part in the Bloodbath, and swam back here in the time it took me to swim here?” mutters Johanna. “How embarrassing.”

Finnick has not got much. He only has a couple daggers and a trident, plus he shoved two bottles of water in his pockets. It’s not enough for nine of us.

Seeder flops out of the water onto the sand. Her appearance reminds Finnick of how many of us there are, and he says, mournfully, “I couldn’t carry any more.”

Johanna takes one of the knives as Beetee and Wiress appear.

“We have to tell you something,” Beetee says.

“We have a…” Wiress doesn’t finish her sentence as usual.

“A plan,” Beetee finishes. “Well, it’s our part of the plan. Haymitch organised part of it. We’d better wait for him.”

“I’ll get him. Chaff too,” Finnick runs into the water and swims to get them. It will be quicker with him helping.

After a few minutes he is back, dragging Chaff. Haymitch is holding onto Chaff’s ankle and taking advantage of Finnick’s speed. The three of them chatter out a story about how Chaff thought Finnick meant for him to take the belt off so he sunk, and Haymitch tried to help him while Brutus tried to stab them and it was a good thing Finnick got there when he did.

“Let’s walk. We can explain while we’re walking,” says Beetee, quickly moving on.

We all begin to walk away from the water. The water makes a sort of circle, the beach is a further band around the circle, and we assume that the trees are the same. Walking through the woods is a little nerve wracking; we don’t know what to expect.

Beetee excitedly explains the “plan”.

“Haymitch has organised a District 13 hovercraft to wait for us outside the force field. Every force field has a sort of chink in the armour, and I believe we can get through that.”

Wiress nods in agreement.

“We will have to be quick. We are on our way there now. It will be a long walk.”

“It took me a day or so travelling time,” interjects Haymitch. He must mean that when he was in the Games he went to the edge of the Arena. “I was younger then, as well.”

“We’re going to need more water,” says Seeder.

Johanna suggests that we could get water from sponsors.

Haymitch and I shrug.

“We don’t have a mentor,” I point out. “I don’t think Effie will be very good at getting us sponsors.”

“Let’s conserve it while we can,” says Wiress.

We walk in silence for a while. The thought of all of us getting out alive makes us all feel less hungry and thirsty.

We all jump when we hear a twig snap a few metres behind us.

“It’s Cashmrere and Gloss!” yells Finnick. “Run!”

We don’t need to be told twice. We all run in slightly different directions, while still running towards where we hope the outline of the force field is.

I outrun most of them. I reach a small clearing, and everything is suddenly silent.

“Johanna?” I call. “Finnick?”

I whistle the four note tune that I once used to find Katniss.

“Johanna! Finnick!” I hear someone say, as if imitating me, then the same whistle.

“Who was that?” I ask. I turn around but there is no one there.

“Who was that!” I hear, so I turn around again.

I wonder if I am surrounded. If people are trying to scare me. They’ve achieved that then; I’m terrified. But I cannot see any people around me.

Then I hear the screams.

At first I don’t recognise who they are. Then I hear my mother’s scream. Then my father’s, and my brothers’ and sisters’. Then I hear Plough screaming, and his family. I hear Katniss and Thresh screaming, and no matter how irrational that is, it is horrific. It sounds like they are being tortured. I hear all my allies screaming as well. Every person I’ve ever loved or cared about, their shrill voices fill the air.

I fall to the ground. I feel like I’ve been broken in half.

“Rue!” I hear Johanna say. It’s softer than the other voices. It’s not a shriek. Somehow I can hear it above the other screams. I look up and Johanna is there.

I throw my arms around her and she hugs me back.

We sit on the ground and she holds onto me, protecting me, until it stops.

“Why were you okay?” my voice shakes. “Couldn’t you hear it?”

She keeps holding onto me and strokes her fingers through my hair. To soothe me, I suppose.

“You hear people that you love. They’ve already killed everyone I care about. I only heard one voice. I knew that person was safe though..”

“Whose was it?” I ask.

“Yours.”