Whose blood is this? Annie couldn't clear the question from her mind, couldn't keep herself from imagining Snow tying children up by their ankles, slitting their throats and letting their blood drain onto the crystal white Capitol floors. By now, it had dried into a sticky, black mucus on her skin, and she hugged her knees in an effort to hide the way her body continued to tremble long after her allies had settled down.
They'd only taken refuge in another clearing when they were sure the raincloud wasn't following them. Still exhausted from the electric shock, Finnick had dropped off to sleep as far away from Annie as possible, his back turned to the group. Katniss and Peeta whispered to each other just out of earshot, and Annie sat alone, resisting the urge to vomit up the lingering taste of blood in her mouth.
Eventually, the Tributes from 12 made their way towards her. They crouched by her side, their voices low as they murmured quiet "hey"s.
"I can keep watch if you two want to sleep," Annie offered. There was no way she'd be able to even close her eyes, not with visions of slaughtered children still dancing in her mind.
The usual gentle look in Peeta's eye had turned serious, "Actually, we wanted to talk to you about something."
Annie glanced at each of them warily, "Okay…"
Katniss leaned in, her voice a whisper, "I think we should leave Finnick."
"What?" Annie blinked at them in surprise.
"We don't trust him," Katniss informed her.
"But-" She didn't know what to tell them. Finnick knew more about the escape plan than she did, and he was certainly the only one capable of protecting Katniss and Peeta. She'd worried before about how they would survive if something happened to him, but she'd never considered that Katniss and Peeta might not want to ally with him.
Peeta saw the look of alarm in her eye. "We don't have to kill him," he assured her. "We can sneak away while he's sleeping. Nobody gets hurt."
She fumbled for an excuse. "Don't you think it would be safer if we stick together? What happens if we run into the Careers?"
Peeta shrugged, "What happens when the Careers are gone? Finnick could turn on us."
"I don't think he would," she murmured half-heartedly, unable to give them a reason why.
Katniss' brow drew together, "He's been nothing but a jerk to you. Why do you keep defending him?"
Annie hesitated. She couldn't tell them that Finnick was trying to save their lives, that there was a chance they could all escape the Games, that she and Finnick actually loved each other more than anything else in the world. "…I think he's our best chance at surviving."
That gentle glimmer returned to Peeta's eye, and he reached out to rest a hand on her shoulder, "Annie, we can protect you."
Annie felt tears knotting in her throat. She knew Finnick was doing everything he could to keep her safe, but when he barked at her like he would a beaten animal, or when he'd look at her like she was nothing more than a stupid, mad girl from his District, she didn't feel safe. And without any reason or gain, these strangers were being so kind to her. A selfish, vulnerable part of her almost wanted to take their offer, to abandon this Capitol-molded Finnick and hope that Katniss and Peeta could make good on their word. But she knew that if she did, there was no way they'd all make it out of the arena alive. "It's not about that," she choked.
Katniss glanced away, irritation taught in her lips. "Then maybe just the two of us should go," she muttered.
Annie's heart leapt into her throat. "We really shouldn't split up."
"Why?" Katniss' patience had worn thin, and she perched on her toes, ready for an argument. Annie looked to Peeta for help, but something beyond her had caught his eye,
"What is that?"
Annie glanced over her shoulder. White tendrils of fog curled through the leaves of the jungle, wafting towards them. Katniss stood, squinting into the cloud, and as it neared, she reached out her hand. The first wisp brushed against her finger, and suddenly she flew backwards with a cry of pain. Blisters erupted across her skin, and Peeta rushed forward to help her while Annie scrambled to her feet.
"Run!" Katniss hissed through her teeth, and the three of them staggered away from the oncoming cloud.
"Finnick! Finnick, wake up!" Annie shouted as she ran, and he started upright, his trident at the ready.
"What? What is it?" He began to look over his shoulder, but Annie yanked at his arm as she dashed past him.
"The fog's poison!" she cried, and Finnick quickly fell in step behind her.
The four of them scrambled to get away, but fog was already upon them. Annie screamed as the skin on her back began to boil. She could hear Katniss and Peeta shrieking out around her, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Finnick stumble to the ground.
Annie gasped his name as she doubled back for him.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" he swatted her away, but she jerked at his arm nonetheless. A wisp of fog brushed their shoulders, brought them both to their knees. Annie's groan seeped through her teeth, and she watched boils break out on Finnick's cheeks.
"Come on," she hissed. Finnick managed to stand, and together they floundered forward. Katniss and Peeta weren't far ahead, and they too struggled to outpace the fog. It encroached them from every side, until the space of unpolluted air before them grew narrower and narrower. If they didn't outrun the cloud, it would engulf them.
Annie was in no shape to run. Her throat cracked with dehydration, her ribs ached with every beat of her heart. Every breath she drew pierced her lungs with needlepoints. Her legs were weak with exhaustion, and her steps grew less and less certain over the uneven jungle terrain. But she couldn't give up, not when she could tell Finnick was even worse off. She could hear it in the raggedness of his breath, see it in the glassiness of his eyes. The shock had sapped him of his strength, and though she could support him, she knew that if he fell, she wouldn't be able to carry him.
They'd hardly managed to any ground when Finnick's foot caught in the underbrush. He fell face forward and grew still.
"Finnick!" Annie pulled at his arms until her own feet slipped out from under her. He continued to lay there, his eyes blank, unresponsive, his consciousness fading. "Finnick, wake up! Wake up!" The fog rolled towards them, uninhibited by their plight, and Finnick didn't so much as stir. In a moment of desperation, Annie's fear erupted into anger, "You were the one screaming at me to get up! Do it yourself, you hypocrite!"
Nothing.
"Katniss, Peeta, help!" Annie cried over her shoulder. She could just make out their silhouettes in the darkness ahead. She watched them slow to a stop, hesitate, contemplate whether or not Finnick's life was worth the risk. Annie's heart plummeted into her stomach, and tears spilled down her cheeks as she howled, "You can't just let him die!"
They didn't move. Annie crumbled to her knees next to Finnick as the fog reeled towards them. She knew she should run, that she should do what she could to save Katniss and spark the Revolution, but with death only a breath away, she knew she couldn't leave him. Annie hunched over Finnick's body, pressing her lips to his ear as she whispered one last time,
"I love you."
Suddenly, Finnick lurched forward. Annie's head snapped up to see Katniss and Peeta dragging him to his feet, and with a cry of relief, she staggered behind them. Arms around each other, they all struggled forward, the fog burning at their backs, closing in from all sides. They weren't going to make it. Finnick's knees gave way once more, and they all fumbled to the ground. This time, Annie couldn't pull herself up. The pain was too great—boils coated her skin, caused her limbs to spasm. It was over. She shut her eyes and waited for death to come, wondering what it would feel like for those blisters to scorch her throat, to fill her lungs. But, she drew one breath after another, and nothing came.
"The fog," Katniss croaked. "It's gone."
Annie mustered enough strength to lift her head, and she glimpsed the last wisps of fog disappearing into the air. Peeta let out a gasp of relief, and for a moment they all lay in the dirt as their blisters swelled and festered.
Minutes seemed to pass before Annie heard Katniss begin to stir, but she didn't bother to look until she heard a splash, then a cry. Katniss had crawled into a marshy pool not far from where they lay, and her groan of pain gradually turned to a sigh.
"The water helps!" she called. Katniss crawled into the pool with another moan, and Peeta began to follow.
The palms of Annie's hands swelled with blisters. She used her elbows to pull herself forward even as the boils along her torso made her dizzy with pain. Finally she sunk into the water, and for a moment, every blister seemed to scream in protest. Then, they began to dissolve, the poison leaching out in a milky cloud. Annie let out a groan as she wiped the excess skin from her hands, her neck, her cheeks, and it wasn't until she wiped the damp hair from her eyes that she realized Finnick still lay on the embankment, shuddering and twitching.
Katniss and Peeta stilled as they caught sight of their prone, helpless ally. The Girl on Fire didn't hesitate for long before she murmured, "We could leave him…"
This time, Annie ignored her. Without a word, she stood and climbed towards him. Finnick was only half-conscious, his lips quivering with voiceless words, his eyelids fluttering without seeing. Annie hooked her hands beneath his armpits and pulled. Finnick let out a groan, but on the slick embankment, it was easier to drag him. She slipped once, twice, but Katniss and Peeta only watched, baffled.
With one last jerk, Annie hauled Finnick into the pond. He let out a strangled cry as he spasmed, but Annie managed to wade him through the water until he floated just above the murky marsh bottom. She sat in the mud, his head in her lap as she wiped the blisters from his face. She didn't think twice about slipping her arm beneath the neck of his wetsuit to slough the dead skin from his shoulders, his back, his chest. It wasn't until her hand was halfway down his abdomen that Finnick's eyes fluttered open, and a faint grin curled his lips.
"Careful," he warned. "You could get in a lot of trouble down there." It was a cheap, empty flirtation he must have used a thousand times in the Capitiol, and in his weakened state, it only took her hand against his chest to shove him beneath the water. He resurfaced a moment later, coughing and sputtering, but by then Annie had stood to join Peeta and Katniss on the bank.
"We have to get out of this jungle," she said wearily. "Before something else happens."
"Where else would we go?" Peeta asked. "If we go to the beach, we'll be sitting ducks."
Katniss shrugged, "We could stay just inside the tree line. If something happens, we'll be close enough to the beach to escape, but we'll stay hidden."
"Okay," Annie nodded in agreement. "Let's go." None of them asked Finnick for his opinion, they simply gathered what was left of their weapons and started walking. Annie didn't even bother to check if he was following them. She was exhausted, frustrated, angry, but more than anything, she was afraid, because in the face of death, she'd dropped their charade. She'd told Finnick she loved him, and there was no telling who'd heard her. She tried not to think about it, tried to tell herself that no one could have noticed amidst the chaos, but no matter how many times she reassured herself, she couldn't shake the feeling that a target had just been painted on her back.