AN: Sorry that this update is later than usual. I had a really busy weekend and didn't have time to write the next chapter. But here it is! I hope you like it. Please leave a little review, I'll love you for ever! Also, a quick reminder that I'm happy to take any prompts/requests that you may have and turn them into oneshots. Just PM me if you're interested. Thank you!
Chapter Fourteen – Finnick
The minutes following the fog attack are quiet between us. No one quite knows what to say. None of us have ever experienced that before, nor witnessed it during any other Games. There's no way we could have prepared ourselves for this.
Once satisfied that all the poison has been washed out of his system, Peeta climbs out of the pond and rests against a tree. Katniss re-enters the pond and wades over to where Annie and I stand in the water to hand me my trident. I take it and smile to say thanks, but instead of leaving, she decides to stay and give her skin another round of rinsing to make sure that she's completely poison-free.
"Thank you," she eventually breaks the silence. "For coming back for us."
Annie and I look at each other.
"Don't thank us," says Annie solemnly. "We should have turned around sooner. The second we heard you trip up."
"Yeah," I add. "We're really sorry."
Katniss shakes her head and smiles. The three of us continue washing in a semi-comfortable silence. As comfortable as you can get when you've got a dozen or so people hunting you down while fearing for the life of the one you love and simultaneously keeping a confidential government secret under wraps.
I look up and notice a dark, shadowy figure lurking in the trees behind Peeta. It crawls forward into the moonlight and at first I think it's a monkey. But this is too big, too brutal to be any ordinary monkey. And there's not just one of them.
The large, strong monkeys start to appear all around us. High up in the trees, around the side of trunks. Annie and Katniss catch on to what I've spotted.
"Mutts..." I whisper so as not to startle the fierce-looking creatures.
We stand in an outwards triangle in the middle of the pond. Katniss loads her bow. Annie draws a knife from her belt. I hold my trident up, preparing to strike. I reach for Annie's hand and our fingers interlock. Her hand is trembling and grips me tightly, but I only grip back harder.
"Stay close to me, baby," I breathe.
"Peeta?" says Katniss in a low voice.
"Yeah?"
He opens his eyes and turns his attention to us. He looks confused at our stance because we were so calm before, and also panicked because it must mean there's a new threat.
"Walk over here slowly," Katniss instructs.
Before Peeta can even stand up, one of the mutts lets out an almighty roar and bears his razor-sharp, unnaturally long teeth in Peeta's face. Annie gasps and I rub her hand with my thumb. I need to keep her calm if we're going to have any chance of escaping these creatures. If she slips into an unresponsive state now while traumatising images of God knows what spin through her mind, she's as good as dead. Peeta races into the pond and pulls out his knife with the long, curved blade.
The monkey's roar seems to have triggered the rest of the mutts to start attacking. They circle us, all making deafening bellowing sounds. We're clearly outnumbered. There are only four of us and there must be at least twenty of these hideous monkeys.
"Get to the beach," says Katniss, trying her best to sound calm and collected.
But that's easier said than done. As soon as the words escape from Katniss' lips, the mutts pounce. There's a gigantic splash as several of the beasts plunge into the water. I spear the ones nearest me with my trident, and warped cries fill the air as they slump forwards, dead. Annie throws her knives into the hearts of the mutts that surround her, then pulls them out so she can kill more of them. Katniss releases arrows from her bow in every direction, hitting a mutt almost every time. Peeta slashes his blade over the throat of a particularly ferocious one, but it's not enough. The monkey pushes Peeta backwards into the water and opens his mouth to start tearing strips out of him, but he manages to get back on his feet and stab it in the back.
We've done well - we're down to about seven living mutts. There's now a clear route for us to hurry to the beach. We make a run for it, but we don't get very far before a very angry and very powerful monkey jumps on Katniss from behind and pushes her right under the water. Annie lunges forward to help but I restrain her. She struggles but she's not strong enough to break free from my hold.
Peeta immediately raises his knife and stabs the mutt in the back, just like he did to the one who attacked him. The monkey's lifeless body floats on the surface of the water. He drags Katniss back up. She splutters and chokes but doesn't stop to rest. We all run as fast as our legs can possibly carry us to the sandy beach that's just a matter of metres away downhill. But the remaining mutts follow.
We leap over bulky rocks that litter the ground and duck under fallen logs that form bridges. I can hear the mutts gnashing their jaws behind us. They'll stop at nothing. These animals – if they can even be called that – have been designed to kill. Manufactured by the Capitol, specifically to slaughter any tributes that cross their path.
The steep decline in the land makes someone – I can't see who since I'm in front – lose their footing, and as a result, the four of us tumble to the ground.
"Annie..." I grunt, before I've even registered what's happened. I can't let these mutts take her from me, and I'll die before they do.
I reach out for my trident that fell beside me and shoot back up onto my feet. Annie is on her hands and knees behind me. She has a large gash at the side of her eye and crimson blood pours down one side of her face.
"Annie!" I exclaim, hurling towards her.
With my help she stands up easily, but now is not the time to ask her how she hurt herself. All I can think about is getting her away from these mutts, somewhere safe.
The mutts have caught up with us. Peeta recovers from the shock of the fall and sits up against a wall of vines to see that a monkey is barely inches from his face. You can tell from his expression that he thinks this is the end. The mutt opens his mouth as far as it will go, but before it can lunge for Peeta's throat, a short, small human figure covered in mud from head to toe sprints out from between the vines and throws herself at the mutt, who gladly sinks its teeth into her neck. She collapses, but there's no canon.
Annie screams. My eyes go wide. Katniss' breathing becomes ragged.
"Who is that?!" she shouts.
"The morphling, help me get her!" cries Peeta.
Katniss and Peeta scoop up the female morphling's skinny frame, and they, along with Annie and I, restart our desperate dash to the beach. Again, we're followed. The mutts clearly want to finish the job they started.
The jungle gets brighter as the trees grow further and further apart and the early morning sunlight becomes visible. Then the stretch of golden sand comes into view. As soon as we reach the edge of the jungle, the mutts stop roaring. And then they begin to retreat, back into the foliage as though nothing had ever happened. My brow furrows in puzzlement, not understanding why the mutts have all of a sudden stopped attacking. But in actuality, I don't care. They're gone. And I'll never take Annie back into the jungle again.
Katniss and Peeta quickly take the morphling into the large pool of salt water where the Games started. I'm not entirely sure why. I guess they think the water will lighten the pain from the wound the mutt left on her throat. Make her death as peaceful as possible.
I sigh and turn to Annie, who's watching the three of them in the water and crying.
"Let me see your face, my love."
She positions her face so that I can see her wound, but she doesn't take her watery eyes off Peeta, Katniss and the morphling. I place my hand under her chin.
"What happened to it?"
"I... I scraped it against a sharp edge of a rock when I fell," she says quietly. Her bottom lip is quivering and her body is shaking.
I pull out a large, green leaf from a nearby plant and use it to wipe the blood off her skin. I expect a fresh flow of blood to replace it but luckily only a few drops escape from the cut beside her eye. And least I know she won't bleed to death.
A canon blast rocks the arena, making Annie gasp and shudder. The morphling is dead.
"Oh, Finnick..." she bursts into a new load of tears.
I embrace her and hold her trembling, fragile body in my arms as she cries on my shoulder.
"Everything's going to be alright, sweetheart, I promise you," I tell her, looking up as the hovercraft arrives over the water and the vast metal claw dips down to retrieve the morphling's body. Annie only responds with cries. "You're doing so well, and I'm so proud of you. I'm going to get you out of here, Annie, if it's the last thing I do."