Chapter 8 – Monkey Mutts

The fog is almost upon me when Finnick lifts me up and starts running again. We catch up with Haymitch and Mags and leg it in the direction of the beach.

"Oi Fish brains, can you carry Mags my arms are having spasms!" Haymitch shouts, he sounds desperate. I look over and see him almost drop Mags.

"I can't carry both of them I'm having the same problems as you!" Finnick shouts back sadly. It's true we're all losing control of our limbs.

"I can run, you don't have to carry me Finn." I tell him although I probably can't.

"No you can't you'll fall. Again." Finnick shoots back. Damn.

Mags, who's now standing, walks over to Finnick and places a kiss on his lips. She then turns and walks straight into the fog.

"No!" Finnick cries as Mags' body contorts in a sickening dance. She falls to the floor and the canon booms signalling her death.

The fog is nearing us again so we run towards the beach and the centre lake. Finnick lifts me up onto his back again as I keep tripping. Just as we near the beach something strange happens, the fog stops and rises upwards as if there's an invisible wall. I guess the Gamemakers decided that one death is enough for now.

As soon as we reach the saltwater lake in the centre of the circular arena, Finnick drops me unceremoniously onto the sand. He then proceeds to collapse in a heap next to me.

I crawl over to where Haymitch is and sit next to him. I feel like I'm burning all over from where the fog touched me. The water from the saltwater lake is lapping against the sand and I can't help but plunge my hand into it.

"Oww!" I gasp in pain as the salty water laps over my hand.

I go to pull my hand out of the water, when a wispy white substance comes out of the blisters. I walk into the water so I'm neck deep and wait for it to relive the pain of the blisters from the fog.

"Haymitch! Come here!" I call. He groans but complies.

"Ahh! Oh fff… oww." Haymitch makes a number of noises as he walks into the water.

When he reaches me he gives me a dirty look. I shrug in return.

"Why didn't you tell me how much walking through the water would hurt?" He glares at me.

"You wouldn't have come if I'd told you." I shrug again.

"You got that right." He grunts.

I look over to the beach, it's still dark but I can just make out Finnick still sprawled out on the sand. I'm about to wade over to him when I realise I haven't 'washed' my face. Oh fudge this is going to be painful.

3

2

1

Dunk!

"Ah~!" I scream underwater.

I pull my head out of the water and gasp for air. That was agonizingly painful. I look to Haymitch and see that he's followed my example.

"Sweetheart, you really do enjoy watching me suffer don't you?" He complains.

"I didn't force you did I?" I counter.

He doesn't respond and starts to make his way towards the beach and Finnick. I follow behind him splashing water everywhere in my rush to get to the beach.

When Haymitch and I reach Finnick we drag him into the shallow water and slosh it over his blisters. He definitely got the worst of it. We cleanse most of his body except his face.

"Finnick, you gotta do your face." I tell him softly.

He moans but complies.

Once Finnick is 'washed' he seems more aware of what's going on, and we decide to get some more water for our throats. Haymitch goes to tap a tree leaving Finnick and I to watch his back. I look up to the trees to see them lined with monkeys. One of them bares it's fangs and me and that's when I realise what they are. Mutts.

"Haymitch, back away from that tree slowly." I instruct with an even voice.

Haymitch seems to realise what's going on and leaves the spile in the tree. He looks up and makes eye contact with one of the monkey muttations and all hell breaks loose.

Finnick, who's wielding his trident, swings it around taking out mutt after mutt. I'm shooting them with my arrows and Haymitch is throwing some knives I didn't even know he had. I reach to my quiver to pull out another arrow but there's none left.

"Haymitch could you lend me one of your knives please." I say quietly.

My speaking must've set the monkey mutts of again as one of them starts to head straight for me. I'm unarmed!

Just as I think I'm about to die for the second time tonight, the female morphling jumps in front of me taking the full force of the monkey mutt's attack. She somehow ends up in the centre lake and I rush over to see if she'll survive.

Haymitch and Finnick nod to me letting me know they'll be ok. When I reach the woman she looks at me and smiles weakly. I comfort her and let her draw patterns on my arms. She dies next to me in the water and as her canon booms I realise that this woman died for me and I didn't even know her name.

I push her body further into the water and sprint back to Haymitch and Finnick. The monkeys are gone for now so we decide to try to sleep for the rest of the night, well morning really.

"I'll keep look out." Finnick offers.

"Or I could, you seem to need the rest Finn." I put forward.

"It's fine Katniss."

I open my mouth to speak again and that's when I realise why he doesn't want to sleep. Nightmares. He was already plagued with them before and now what with Mags… they're going to be even worse.

He must see the realisation in my eyes as he nods sadly. He sits down on the beach and I walk over to him and lay next to him.


I awaken to the sound of a tinkling bell. A parachute. I crawl over to it at the same time as Finn. Our hands touch as we both reach for the container in sync. We both stare at our hands neither one of us moving away. Finnick seems to snap out of it first.

"We should…" He trails off staring at me.

"Oh right yeah." I blink rapidly and my face flushes hot.

What is Gale going to think if he's seen this, which he undoubtedly has. Wherever Finnick goes, a camera seems to follow. Gale's going to think I'm having a thing with Finnick. Why do I even care what Gale thinks, it's not like I owe him anything just… What do I have with the Capitol's favourite whore? I'm sure Finnick doesn't enjoy it, Snow dropped a few hints when he came to visit me before my victory tour.


"Now Miss Everdeen, I do hope that on your tour you'll show the public how disappointed you are that you didn't get to kill more people and how much you love the Hunger Games. We don't want them to think you tried to defy our way of life by trying your hardest not to kill anyone do we?"

"No Mr President."

"Please call me Coriolanus."

"Yes sir… I mean Coriolanus."

"You are a very desirable victor Katniss, I'm sure you'll be more than happy to repay all of your sponsors."

"What?"

"I'm prepared to make a deal with you Miss Everdeen. I want you to act the part of the heartbroken girl. Show the people of Panem that you are heartbroken over Peeta's death and that you can't think of loving another man ever in your life. Your other option of course is to spend a lot of your time in our wonderful Capitol, with all of your sponsors."

"Yes sir."

"So what are you going to do Miss Everdeen?"

"I'm going to convince the citizens of Panem that Peeta was and is my only love."

"No Miss Everdeen, you're going to convince me. You know, Mr Odair didn't have anyone like Peeta. Are you clear on what you have to do?"

"Yes Sir."

"Oh and Katniss, if you can't achieve this, the alternative will be less than pleasurable. For you that is, the people you meet however…

One last thing, you don't want that cousin of yours or your sister to have an unfortunate accident, so I'd take notice of my advice."


We open up our gift and discover it's a cream for our wounds. We open up the tub and spread the green salve over our sores. We look like our flesh is rotting.

"The charming, attractive Finnick Odair ugly for once in his life." I mock.

"I knew you found me attractive and charming too, an added bonus." He laughs.

"Not my words, I'm just quoting what some of your lovers have said." I smile. His eyes darken at the mention of his lovers and that's when I know for sure that Snow is forcing him. I change the subject, "So how does it feel to be ugly?"

"The sensation is quite new to me; I don't know how you've managed all these years." He smiles again and this time it reaches his eyes. I really like that smile it shows off his attractive dimples.

"Eh. You learn to avoid mirrors." I laugh, I really laugh for the first time since we entered this awful place, not counting the time I think I went crazy.

I go to wake Haymitch up but Finnick stops me.

"Let's scare him awake." He says with a grin.

"How?" I cock my head to one side.

"We put our faces right in front of his and scream." He explains mischievously.

I nod and we creep over to him and bend down. We put our ghoulish faces in front of his and let out the loudest screams possible. We sound like we've come from one of those horror movies from before Panem; they still have some in the Capitol. Why someone would want to scare themselves shitless for fun beats me but, why would you want to watch 24 kids fight to the death for 'fun'?

"Crap! What the hell are you two playing at?" Haymitch wakes up and already he's his grumpy self.

Finnick and I are literally rolling on the sand laughing, I'm glad I get some entertainment before I die.

"You should've seen your face!" I manage to get out between my laughter.

"Haha very funny." He says and he clearly doesn't find it funny at all. "Why do you look so awful anyway."

"Well you don't exactly look your best either." Finnick shoots back pretending to be offended.

"Wow, your vanity amazes even me. I was talking about the green peeling flesh." Haymitch is in such a good mood today, seriously I'm not being sarcastic at all.

I chuck Haymitch the ointment and another parachute appears. Inside is bread from Finnick's district. We all sit down and divide it between us. Just as we finish the delicious bread, a massive wave comes crashing over from one of the sectors. We make a mad dash to the jungle and make it to safety just in time. A canon booms but not before we hear the distinct scream of a woman.

We make our way back to the beach camp and sit down again. I shed my jumpsuit and attach the belt around my wetsuit-clad waist. Three words, skimpiest wetsuit ever. My and Finnick's jumpsuits were ruined by the fog anyway, it seems that they weren't designed to be worn for very long.

I sit next to Finnick and I'm just about to start a conversation when three figures emerge from the jungle, I really hope they're not here to kill us.


Sorry if there are any errors in this, my laptop hates me and likes to skip out letters and change words. I really hated to have to kill off Mags but I'm trying to keep this part as canon as possible. When we get to Mockingjay, I will probably stray further away from it being canon.

I hope you liked this chapter, why not tell me your favourite part in a review (or your worst part.)

Reviews = sugar cubes from my favourite character :)