End of Chapter 22
We run. Faster and harder than we've ever run before. Finnick tosses one of our explosives behind us, and after ten seconds it goes off. I hear a few of the beasts yelp and feel their thud against the floor of the serviceway, and that slows them down just enough to give us a bigger lead. We turn a corner and head down a narrow and dimly lit corridor. It's crumbling, suggesting the wear and disuse of many years, but there's no time to admire the integrity of this dingy little shortcut. Cressida is the last inside the passage, and as we all start to reach the end, she trips over herself and hits the ground hard. We've all already emerged on the other end when we notice she's not among us, and a mutt grabs hold of her legs and pulls her back. All I can hear are her screams. I collect myself enough to unsheathe an arrow and I aim it down the passage, hitting the mutt straight through the eye. The silence within confirms what I had naturally assumed, that Cressida is dead.
Out on the other end, we've stepped into a wide and high-ceilinged tunnel, dank and dark with only a few flood lights to light the way. The tunnel is long enough where I can't see where it ends or where it begins. All I see are a few ladders leading to a steel walkway above.
"Ladders!" Gale shouts out, and we all head to the nearest one.
The rest of the mutts are not far behind us as we climb the rickety ladder. It's a difficult climb, with years of grime and awfulness making every rung slippery and sticky at the same time. I look above me to see Peeta climbing, having a harder time than all of us with his hands shackled together. We're a good twenty feet above the service way when we land on the steel platform, Finnick still the only one who hasn't yet stepped up onto the ladder. Suddenly I hear the snarling beasts within the narrow pass we just left and I am filled with dread. I look over the railing and meet Finnick's eyes, while he holds the last and strongest of our explosives. The mutts have now entered the narrow corridor, their snarls and hisses of, "Katniss," now echoing from within it. Giving me the most playful and, dare I think it, suggestive of winks Finnick pulls the pin and stands at the mouth of the tunnel. He counts a few seconds before tossing it in.
A full three seconds tick by when I shout out, "NO!" at the top of my lungs. This, however, does absolutely nothing to drown out the sound of the explosion, the heavy vibration of the narrow passage collapsing, the sound of rubble pouring every which way, or the blood-curdling scream that Peeta lets out.
I turn and go to Peeta, who is sitting on the filthy floor of the steel walkway, his head hidden behind his knees and his manacled hands over his ears. As I crouch next to him, I can't help how helpless I feel, how tired I am of running. I place a tentative hand on his knee and I feel him shaking uncontrollably. I'm not sure what to do, so I gently lift his chin so I can see his face, feeling the sweat drip from the crown of his head. The normally vibrant blue of his eyes have been replaced by impenetrable darkness as his pupils have dilated completely. The muscles in his jaw have tensed, and he has furrowed his brow as though mentally remaining somewhere between hatred and confusion.
"You have to leave me," he says shakily between gritted teeth.
"You're coming with us if I have to knock you unconscious," I reply, not an ounce of humor in my voice.
"You have to go, Katniss," he says, now looking like he's about to have a seizure, "I—I can't—"
He lets out a muffled scream through his clenched jaw as the others form a kind of perimeter around us. Pollux is pointing his weapon at the collapsed passage, and I can see Gale is watching both Peeta and me with a kind of eager frustration. If Peeta could explode at this very moment I think he would, so I do the only thing I can think of to keep him in one piece. I take his head again in my hands and plant the deepest kiss that I'm capable of.
Seconds pass into minutes that pass into a millennium. I lose myself for a moment, passing my own determination to what I can only imagine is his unbridled chaos. I keep my lips on his for as long as I can live without oxygen, which as it turns out is an immeasurably long time while his kiss is on mine. It feels more sustaining to me than air could ever hope to be. I feel him stop trembling, the muscles in his arms relax, and I feel one of his hands on the nape of my neck. When we part, I look at him with anxiety and hope when I see those deep pools of blue staring into me.
"You promised to stay with me," I whisper.
"Always."
Down below, a sound comes from the rubble of the ruined passage that brings me back from that brief moment. I go back to the ledge, and with Gale we both take aim with our bows, expecting at any moment for the mutts to come bursting from the rubble of the passage. As the debris settles, we hear coughing and a few staggered footfalls and Finnick comes into view. I am flushed with relief as he waves away the dust and debris from his face. He's a little banged up, as he looks up at Gale and me from below, and gives us a thumbs up, catching his breath and admiring his destructive handiwork.
There is a distant and muffled thud that shakes us all for a moment. Finnick runs to the ladder and climbs it hastily, joining us above. I look to Gale, who is avoiding making eye contact back at me, "We need to get moving." He's already looking very pale and I wonder just how long he can possibly last with that wound. As he walks away from me, he wraps his neck in a dirty bandage and takes point. Peeta and I follow behind him and Pollux and Finnick take the rear. I'm stunned by how much has occurred in such a short amount of time, between Cressida's death, Finnick's resurrection, and Peeta's breakdown, it baffles me how much can change in the flash of an instant…how much has changed since this war began.
Eventually, Gale happens upon a small flight of five or six steel stairs that lead to a rusted metal door. It takes a forceful push from Finnick to get it open, and we all pour into a common sewer. All five of us are now standing in a dark tunnel with smelly water running about our ankles. We decide to stay in the water to throw off our scent as well as to leave as few tracks as possible, but the smell of the water is unbearable. Pollux now takes the lead; with his underground expertise he takes us on a route that would throw off any would-be pursuers. I hear Gale's breathing becoming a bit labored now, and I silently will Pollux to find us a place to stop soon so we can get Gale patched up.
Peeta, however, looks the exact opposite of Gale. He's alert, constantly turning his head this way and that at the sound of strange noises, and even throws me a smile or two when no one else is looking. It's like we're back in the arena for the first time, and despite my own tiredness, his looks are enough to keep me going. Now that I think about it, they always were. I am doing what I am doing now for Prim, but I can say without any hesitation that I wouldn't have gotten nearly this far without Peeta.
After what seems like hours of walking, Gale can no longer stand on his own power. As Pollux leads us on, Finnick and Peeta have taken each of Gale's shoulders as he walks like he's half asleep. A few minutes and a dozen different sewer tunnels later, Pollux stops at a ladder that rises through a tunnel. Silently, he points at me to go up, since I am the only one with a weapon who knows how to use it and who is not hauling a weary-looking Gale. Obediently, I climb the ladder, which really doesn't rise very far, when I come to a metal cover at the top. With all my strength, I turn the latch and swing open the creaky metal door.
As I break through the barrier, there's a loud clang as the trap door hits the floor of someone's utility room. The noise is plenty loud enough to rouse the woman who lives here, as she bursts open the door and I take aim at her with my loaded bow. But I'm astounded beyond all belief to see her standing there. The shockingly gold lipstick, the cotton candy-like hair, and posture perfect enough to make a statue jealous.
I am aiming my weapon at the heart of Effie Trinket.