Any dialogue you recognise probably isn't mine. Not much else to say really, other than that I hope you're still continuing to enjoy reading the story.


Wiress screams. It's a long, piercing yell that goes on and on without stopping. Until I dive over and slap my hand over her mouth, anyway. Nuts keeps yelling, but at least she's muffled. Less easy for anyone to find us.

Though I doubt that anyone caught in this is going to want to kill harmless little us, not as long as they're still in this awful bloody rain. Still, better safe than sorry.

The one good thing about the screaming is that it's woken the guys up. I can barely see them, though, and somehow I get the feeling that this'll only get worse.

Blight panics immediately and starts blundering around, trying to get out. Not that I can blame him; no clue how I'm holding it together myself, really. Probably 'cause I'm the only one in any fit shape to take charge here.

"Stay still!" I snap at him, keeping my head angled towards the ground so that as little of the blood gets into my mouth as possible. Even so, enough gets in to make me almost gag. I spit it out it disgust.

Somehow he listens to me, and helps me get Beetee – "I'm awake, though I wish I wasn't" - up and in a position to lean onto my shoulders. The second we're ready to leave, though, Blight runs off ahead expecting us to follow. We do, but only because we want to get out of here about as much as he does.

Even so, I still have to yell at him to stay close, because I can barely see him through the red and black of the rainy night. Wiress has stopped screaming, finally, and follows right behind me mumbling to herself. Blight slows down but still seems impatient at the speed we're moving at, even if it's still faster than would be a good idea usually – we keep stumbling over tree roots, and Beetee gasps in pain beside me.

We don't talk anymore than absolutely necessary, if only because we can't without getting a mouthful of the hot blood. It splatters against our skin and I try not to think about what it is, because if the knowledge hits me properly I'll probably panic just as much as Blight. That would be, very bad. So I must not panic. I count my steps and focus on the feel of Volts leaning on me and try not to think of anything else. I close my eyes to help shut reality out. It's not like keeping them open will help.

After what seems like an eternity of this scene out of some twisted horror movie there's a flash of light that pierces through my closed eyes, and an accompanying cannon blast. That was way too close for comfort, we'd better turn around, because whatever that was could be coming for us next. I can feel Beetee from where I'm half carrying him and can hear Wiress' continuous mumbling of some stupid children's song like it's the one thing that will help her to survive.

There's another flash, but no cannon. We'd better get out of here now.

"Blight?" I call out. "Come on, we're turning around."

Silence.

"Blight?"

Nothing.

"Blight?" I yell the last one, unable to help myself.

Still nothing. I let go of Beetee to run forward, to try and help him somehow, to find whatever it was who killed him. But Volts refuses to let go of me. I try to shake loose but he keeps holding on, with a surprisingly strong grip considering.

"Don't, Johanna…" he says so softly I can barely hear him. "Force field."

He bends down with another gasp of pain and then straightens up, pressing something into my hand.

"Throw…"

I do, and there's another flash of light. Force field, then. Bad idea to move anywhere if we don't want to get fried.

So we don't. The three of us huddle together for what seems like eternity but can't be more than an hour. Keeping our heads down, keeping in one spot for fear of blundering into a force field, trying not to breathe or swallow or think about the blood rain. Listening to Nut's endless chants of "tick, tock. Tick, tock" until I think that if this doesn't end soon she won't be the only one going insane.

But eventually, finally, finally, it's over. We don't move for a while after the rain stops, almost unable to believe it. But after a few minutes I pull myself to my feet and help Beetee up. Wiress, who still won't stop chanting, follows suit and the three of us stand there, assessing the situation.

We look like there's been an explosion at the painting factory back in Seven. There isn't a bit of Wiress, who I can see properly, that isn't caked with blood, and I bet Beetee and I look exactly the same. I certainly feel like it.

Neither of the others is in any condition to discuss plans so I decide to head down to the beach where we can at least wash the blood off. It's not exactly a fast trip. Nuts seems to be in some kind of shock and can't walk straight, while Volts's condition has worsened quite a bit from the stumble in the blood rain. He doesn't complain much, but our pauses to rest become more and more frequent. I start to wonder what we're going to end up doing once we get down to the beach. I mean, the odds of finding more allies are incredibly tiny.

Slowly Beetee has to lean on me more and more, and I realise why I decided to head to the beach – at least this walk is downhill. When we finally hit the beach he completely collapses into me, perhaps sensing we've arrived at a destination. How am I supposed to cope with this any longer?

Wiress careers into me and I shove her over in frustration, completely fed up with the situation. Seriously, who decided I get to babysit these two?

"Johanna!"

I turn around at the yell and grin when I see Finnick, covered in some kind of lumpy green sludge but still recognisably him, run over. Behind him are two similarly green figures who I think are the firekids. Well, about time.

"Finnick!" I yell back, because it is good to see someone else who isn't out of it in one way or another.

"What's with the red?" Finnick asks once he gets over.

I pull a face. "You don't want to know."

Over the next few minutes I give Finnick the shortened version of what's happened to me ever since the Games started. By the time I'm done telling him his two companions have come over. From this close there's no mistaking it; he's picked up the Firekids. That makes my life easier.

"I'm sorry, Johanna," he says once I've told him how Blight died.

I shrug. "Yeah, well, he wasn't much, but he was from home. And he left me alone with these two."

For Peeta and Firegirl's benefit I repeat what happened to Beetee.

"And her," I say, looking at Wiress, who obligingly mumbles her new catchphrase. "Yeah, we know. Tick, tock. Nuts is in shock." The woman in question chooses this moment to walk into me again. I shove her to the ground again – not like the sand can hurt her, and it might snap some sense back into her. "Just stay down, will you?"

"Lay off her," Everdeen snaps, choosing this moment to speak up. Because she's the moral heroine who can do no wrong.

I slap her. It's the most satisfying thing I've done in ages.

"Lay off her? Who do you think got them out of that bleeding jungle for you? You Snow-endorsed piece of filth! You-"

Finnick picks me up at that point and carries me over to the water while I keep screaming all the obscenities I've been thinking since she won Vince's Games at her. Even when he dunks me in the salt I keep yelling until he gives up and just holds me under till I struggle for breath.

"Promise you'll stop yelling?" he asks me when he finally lets me up.

I nod, gasping for breath.

"You sure?"

"Yes," I manage to get out.

He seems satisfied. "Probably best for the two of us to stay here for a while though, give you time to cool off." He grins, raises his voice half an octave to mimic the Capitol accent. "And to get that blood off you. You look simply atrocious. I hate to think what it's doing to your pores."

I can't help laughing. "Like you look any better, Odair."

"Why, of course I do. Never looked any prettier in my life."

He pulls some atrociously overdone pose made even more ridiculous by the condition of his skin and we both crack up. I know he's deliberately trying to get me to forget about the anger so that this alliance can stay in one piece until the rescue but that doesn't matter. The banter is real enough, as is the not-quite-friendship behind it.

Finnick and I hang around the edge of the sea, talking and laughing while I scrub every last bit of the blood off me and the Firekids tend to District Three further down the beach at their camp. I don't ask Finnick about what happened to the three of them and he doesn't volunteer the story; I resolve to ask Peeta if no one tells me soon.

After I've cooled off a bit and gotten rid of the blood the two of us head towards the others, where I help myself to a large quantity of their water with the assurance that this is from the Arena rather than sponsorship water; I've mentored often enough to know that they never sell water in woven baskets. Once I've drowned my thirst I start on the pile of shelfish they've gathered as Finnick finally tells the three of us their story of the Arena.

Turns out that there were four of them leaving the Cornucopia; the Firekids, Finnick and Mags. They evidently moved way faster than we did because Peeta hit the force field when it was still light. Finnick managed to revive him – and if Blight was anyone else I'd be reflecting on how once again Katniss gets the easier half of a life far too similar to mine for comfort – and so they moved on.

It doesn't sound like Finnick who's telling the story. His voice is cold and detached, his face expressionless. And I notice he stays as far away from details as he possibly can.

They heard the same sound just before the lightning that we did, and a few hours later – "once the rain stopped," Katniss interjects – they encountered fog which caused them to blister and their muscles to stop working. Somehow they helped each other outrun the fog and found the beach again, where they stayed for some hours. Then at one point Peeta went in to the forest to get water using a spile they got sent and he ended up getting attacked by monkey mutations, but ended up getting out of there in one piece when one of the Victors from Six ended up distracting the monkeys.

"And then we found you," Finnick concludes. He gives an exaggerated yawn. "I don't know about you, but I'm really tired."

"I'll take watch," I offer. There are some holes in his story which show me he's avoiding mentioning at least one key thing, but I don't push him. I'll get the information off Peeta instead.

Katniss looks at me suspiciously and volunteers to keep watch with me. "In case one of us drifts off or something."

I don't believe her for a second; she's just joining me because she doesn't trust me not to stab her in her sleep. Which is fair enough, I suppose, because if it weren't for this stupid plot I've gotten myself involved in I probably would. Nevertheless I don't say anything – what's it to me what she does? And it lets me make sure the Firekids don't run away ahead of time.

We sit in slightly tense silence until the deep steady breathing of the others reassures me that they're all asleep.

"How'd you lose Mags?" I ask, mostly because the silence is driving me crazier than Wiress and because I might not get a chance to ask without Finnick hearing for a while.

Katniss pauses before answering. "In the fog. Finnick had Peeta. I had Mags for a while. Then I couldn't lift her. Finnick said he couldn't take them both. She kissed him and walked right into the poison."

Two deaths already, then, three if you count Blight, just to protect two kids with no idea of the consequences of their actions. Three deaths, two of whom I knew personally, and, in Mags' case, happened to like. And the Girl Who Was On Snow-Endorsed Fire is just sitting here, still completely freaking clueless.

I resist the urge to punch something and instead try to cram as much accusation into my voice as I say, "She was Finnick's mentor, you know."

"No, I didn't."

And that's the problem, isn't it? You didn't know, and so you got a bunch of people killed to protect your own moronic backside. Still, the genuine sorrow in Everdeen's voice takes a bit of the venom out of my thoughts. She didn't know, and she's too dense to realise, but she still didn't know. It's not like she got them all killed on purpose.

"She was half his family," I tell her.

Everdeen has nothing to say to that. Which is probably good, because anything she says would probably spark me off again. We sit in not quite comfortable silence for a bit longer.

"So what were you doing with Nuts and Volts?" she asks me, breaking the silence.

I think fast. "I told you – I got them for you. Haymitch said if we were to be allies I had to bring them to you. That's what you told him, right?"

True enough – I did get them for her, just not for the same reason she thinks. And it's a relatively plausible excuse, especially with how different these Games are. For yet another of countless times I thank my genetics for making me such a good liar.

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

Somehow I doubt she does, ignorant kid that she is. She has no clue of the true value of the two of them, and any soft spots she has towards them must be completely overruled by the fact that this is the Hunger Games and any extra allies make it more difficult for her to get out alive. So I glare at her, because there's so much she doesn't know and it'd be so much easier to hate her if she did.

"I hope so."

This time the silence is interrupted by more of Nut's insistent "tick, tock"ing.

"Oh goody, she's back," I say, getting up and moving to fling myself onto the sand on the far side of Finnick. "Okay, I'm going to sleep. You and Nuts can guard together."

The next thing I'm conscious of is being shaken awake by the Firegirl.

"Get up. Get up – we have to move."