Hello everyone! So i hae, slightly, bad news. I didn't pass a class last semester so i have to raise it to honor role (A's and B's on my report card) the end of the year or i can't go tov work or consule at amp over the summer, so i might not be on fequently, if i hae tons of homework, but i don't think that will effect us to much :D anyways, please Review Guys!
I throw the arrows away from my body, and stab the monkey until it falls. I kick it away from myself, and move the morphling's body behind me so she doesn't get injured anymore. I'm panting out with rage and I hold out my knife ready to slash someone, may it have been a mutt or not.
"Come on, then! Come on!" I shout angrily. But the Gamemaker's have decided that it's not needed to kill us. They blend back into the jungle, backing away to the unknown safety that I will never know. I growl a little angered by all the crap they've put us through.
"Get her, we'll cover you," Katniss tells me gesturing to the morphling. I slip my knife into my belt and bend over and carefully pick her up. She stares up at me, her eyes glossy and wide. I walk her out, keeping eye contact with her the whole time, so she's never alone. I lay her gently onto the beach, and Katniss cuts the fabric from her chest.
Four deep punctures are in her chest. I wonder what was hit, because her ragged breathing and how her eyes look hollow, I know something vital was damaged. She reminds me of Katniss that day in the rain so long ago. Sickly, eyes glossy, counting every rib on her small form, and how she just looks ready for death to take her. Katniss has one of her hands, and I have the other. She seems to have all her strength in clutching my hand. The strength tears at me, because I would go to the camouflage station every day, sit with her and her partner, never speaking, just painting. I stroke the hair out of her face, and lean closer so she can hear me as I whisper into her ear.
"With my paint box back home, I can make every color imaginable. Pink. As pale as a baby's skin. Or as deep as rhubarb. Green like spring grass. Blue that shimmers like ice on water." She watches me, remembering every word. "One time, I spent three days mixing paint until I found the right shade for sunlight on white fur. You see, I kept thinking it was yellow, but it was much more that that. Layers of all sorts of color. One by one."
The morphling pulls her hand out of mine and presses her fingers into the blood pooling on her chest. Then makes the simple swirling motion that she loves to make.
"I haven't figured out a rainbow yet. They come so quickly and leave so soon. I never have enough time to capture them. Just a bit of blue here or purple there. And then they fade away again. Back into the air," I murmur. She lifts her trembling hand and paints something on to my cheek and looks to me for approval. "Thank you, that looks beautiful."
Her face lights up into a beautiful grin, and gives off a little squeal. But the squeal is cut off with a little gurgle, and her hand falls back to her chest. She gives off a huff and then a cannon fires. I pick her up again and wade into the water. I lay her body into it surf and then whisper one last thing before I head back in.
"I'll remember you, and you will star in my paintings." If when you die, it's like what I saw yesterday, I should be able to paint her all day. Thresh and Rue were there, maybe I'll get to see her again. I turn my back on her, and go sit next to Katniss on the beach. I say nothing. Just sit there, watching as the hovercraft comes and takes her away.
Finnick comes back, handing Katniss her arrows that she lost. Katniss gets up to go wash them, but I just stay there, not knowing what to do. I look back at the forest, and watch as the vines move. I brace for the monkeys to come back, but nothing. The monkey's bodies were gone. Me and Finnick exchange looks, but say nothing.
"Where did they go?" Katniss asks when she walks back up. I don't say anything, thinking that my voice would crack.
"We don't know exactly. The vines shifted and they were gone," Finnick says.
We all just sit there, not doing anything but panting loudly. Without really realizing it, I start scratching the scabs on my arms. They don't really hurt anymore, which is a given but they itch like crazy. I'm luckily not the only one, Finnick is scratching too.
"Don't scratch, you'll only bring infection. I think it's safe to try for the water again?" Katniss murmurs, fists clenched. We all get back up, walking over to the tree. I luckily hit a great spot because water gushes from it. We sit under it, letting it erase some of our itchiness. We take shells, fill them with water, and walk back to the beach. Finnick and Katniss fight for a while about who will stay up, but Finnick wins with his look of breaking down. Katniss comes over and lays next to me and I wrap my arm around her waist. I doze off instantly.
It's cool in my dream. More or less, it's cold as winter. Darkness is around me, but my arm is still rapped around some ones waist. I open my eyes and look around, and see Madge's thin body huddled next to mine. She has on only a thin white night dress and my t-shirt. I had the thickest pajama pants I had ever had on, but I still shiver a little.
I remember this night. It was when I was 15; me and Madge had been dating for a few months. It was her birthday and I had gone over for her party. I brought the cake, bought from my meager earning from work. A snowstorm had come right as I was going to leave, and they offered me a room. It was a guest room, but Madge had complained about being cold so I snuck into her room an hour later.
No, we didn't do anything, we just held onto each other tightly. I think the reaping was a week or so away, and we were both frightened. But I do remember how when I woke at a point I thought I heard Madge say Gale's name. I blew it off then, but it was one of my reasons from the break up a few months later.
I think of it now, and remember how Madge and Katniss were friends. Madge and I never really hung out during school, being she was in all different classes, but if I saw her in the hall I would say hello, kiss her cheek, something. But she would normally be in the bakery after school, so I never saw Katniss and Madge together. I wonder if that would have affected anything. If I would have said hello to Katniss sooner. Most likely not, being that she was Seam and I was Merchant. There was a thick line in between us.
"Peeta. Peeta, wake up," Katniss's soft voice sings into my ears. I open my eyes slowly, and then just about jump to my feet.
Katniss and Finnick had their faces pressed together, cheek to cheek, and they were covered in some green stuff. Covering the scabs, it looked like they had begun to decompose.
They fall back, laughing like a crazy person, and I try not to start laughing as well. I try to glare at them, my heart racing like the horses in 10. It takes them a while to calm themselves, but when they do, a parachute with a loaf of bread falls next to Finnick.
It's District 4's traditional Seaweed Bread. It's filled with salt and would be very good with the shellfish they've collected. Finnick paws it slightly over-possessive, and I could understand it. If you had lived as a Victor since you were 14, you probably had, had so many delicacies, that the traditional bread was forgotten. He must now just realize it could be the last time he eats it. Finnick mentions how it will be good with the fish, just like I guessed.
Katniss helps me coat my skin with the thick pine scented ointment. Finnick cleans out the fish as we do so, and then we have a feast. Well, maybe to Finnick it's just like normal, but since in 12 the closest fish you can get is expensive and illegal, it's amazing.
A wave erupts a little ways away, and starts filling up the beach. Finnick and Katniss start grabbing everything, and I do too, abandoning our ripped jumpsuits. We hide in the woods, on a hill so we don't lose everything to the water.
A cannon fires, and a hovercraft goes and removes the body a from near where the wave came from. We sit there and wait for the water to go down, and slowly follow it down. We start settling things on the wet sand, when Katniss whispers something. I follow her gaze carefully and see 3 stumbling figures. We fade back into the jungle, just as the monkeys did the night before.
I feel horrible for the things; I can't completely tell if they're human, because they look to be in horrible shape. One is being dragged; the other is wandering in circles. There covered in a rusty red color, as if they've been painted by someone with no skill with colors.
"Who is that? Or what? Mutations?" I ask quietly. Just as I ask, the one being dragged can't even bare that, and falls to the ground. The dragger goes into a tantrum, something I've seen Pepper do a few times, but instead of kicking and stomping, Pepper, would scream and punch. The dragger knocks the circling one to the ground with her little fit.
"Johanna!" Finnick calls delighted.
"Finnick!" Johanna yells back. Finnick has darted from our hiding spot, and I look over to Katniss.
"What now?" Katniss grumbles.
"We can't really leave Finnick," I shrug.
"Guess not. Come on, then," Katniss groans a little. We move from our spot, over to where Finnick and Johanna stand, and I look over to the other two on the ground. I can't make out who they are but then I her Katniss murmur, "She's got Wiress and Beetee,"
"Nuts and Volts? I gotta hear how this happened!" I say confused. As we walk a little closer I can hear Johanna's fast voice.
"We thought it was rain, you know, from the lightning, and we were all so thirsty. But when it started coming down, it turned out to be blood. Thick, hot blood. You couldn't see, you couldn't speak without getting a mouthful. We just staggered around, trying to get out of it. That's when Blight hit the force field." Johanna mumbled the last bit. Blight was her partner, but her never came to training.
"I'm sorry Johanna," Finnick says with real sympathy.
"Yeah, well, he wasn't much, but he was from home, and then he left me all alone with these two!" Johanna kicks Beetee, who gives a quiet moan, but otherwise unconscious. "He got a knife to the back at the Cornucopia. And her…"
We look over to Wiress, who has gotten up to continue her circling, murmuring, "Tick, tock. Tick, tock," Over and over.
"Yeah we know. Tick, tock. Nut's in shock," Johanna growls. Wiress just then runs into her, and is shoved to the ground. "Just stay down, will you!"
"Lay off her," Katniss snarls.
"Lay off her? Who do you think got them out of that bleeding jungle for you? You…" And Finnick decides to give Johanna a bath, by throwing her in and dunking her over and over.
"What did she mean? She got them for me?" Katniss asks watching Johanna scream curses at her.
"I don't know. You did want them originally," I remind her.
"Yeah, I did. Originally, but I won't have them long unless we do something," She mutters. I bend over and pick up Beetee's limp form, and go to the water. I hold Beetee up as Katniss rinses him off carefully. We have to strip all of his clothing off to get off the blood off, but once that's over we lay him on his stomach on the sand checking the gash on his back.
It goes from his shoulder blade down to his lower rib cage. It's not like the cut in my leg last year, not cutting into his bone. But like me, he has lost a ton of blood, even though he's covered in the stuff. Katniss gets up after a moment, and runs into the forest. She comes back with an armload of moss, which she places on Beetee's back and secures it with vines. We tilt his head back a little and get a little water down his throat, but we eventually just move him into the shade.
"I think that's all we can do," Katniss mumbles, sounding a little annoyed by this.
"It's good. You're good with this healing stuff, itisin your blood," I say with a smile.
"No, I got my father's blood," She says with a shake of the head. "I'm going to see about Wiress," She murmurs. I just sit next to Beetee, not sure what else to do really. Johanna comes over and then Finnick as well. Johanna eats as much as she can and Finnick explains everything, trying not to think about what he's saying. Katniss comes over after a moment, Wiress in hand.
We all offer to stay awake and guard, but I'm so tired, Finnick looks half dead, Katniss is always ready and Johanna can't sleep. So I fall asleep quickly, just listening to Katniss's breathing.