Chapter 21

I lay for a moment, not wanting to open my eyes. Where am I? I ask myself. In the arena? Someone flings themselves at me. "Peeta?" asks Katniss softly. I'm in the arena. She pushes my hair back, and I force my eyes open. My eyes are immediately greeted with Katniss's silver, damp eyes.

"Careful," I say. "There's a force field up ahead." Katniss laughs but tears start streaming down her face. "Must be a lot stronger than the one on the Training Center roof," I say. "I'm alright, though. Just a little shaken."

Her eyes widen. "You were dead! You're heart stopped!" she shouts, then covers her mouth wile she makes choking sounds, trying to hold in her sobbing.

"Well, it seems to be working now," I say, but she doesn't calm down. "It's all right, Katniss." She nods but still wont stop, and now, I'm wondering if she's actually choking. "Katniss?"

"It's okay. It's just her hormones," says Finnick. I look at him. "From the baby."

That's right, she has to pretend she's pregnant.

"No. It's not-" says Katniss before she's cut off by more sobbing. And honestly, I'm sure she just convinced even some people in District Twelve that she's pregnant.

"How are you?" Finnick asks me. "Do you think you can move on?"

I nod.

"No, he has to rest," says Katniss, then she blows her nose in some moss. Katniss grabs my locket. "Is this your token?" she asks.

"Yes. Do you mind that I used you mockingjay? I wanted us to match," I say.

"No, of course I don't mind." she says.

"So you want to make camp here, then?" Finnick asks.

I shake my head. "I don't think that's an option. Staying here. With no water. No protection. I feel alright, really. If we could just go slowly." I say.

Finnick nods. "Slowly would be better than not at all." he says, and helps me up.

"I'll take the lead," says Katniss.

"You can't-" I start to object but Finnick cuts me off.

"No let her do it." he says. I frown, why would Finnick risk Katniss running into the force field? "You knew that force field was there, didn't you? Right at the last second? You started to give a warning." Katniss nods. "How did you know." he asks.

Katniss hesitates. "I don't know. It's almost as if I can hear it. Listen." she says.

I try to listen, but don't hear it. "I don't hear anything," I say.

"Yes," Katniss insists. "It's like when the fence around District Twelve is on, only much, much quieter." she says.

We listen again but still don't hear anything. "I don't hear it either." says Finnick. "But if you do, by all means, take the lead."

"That's wired," says Katniss turning her head from side to side. "I can only hear it out of my left ear."

Her left ear? Last year in the Games, she injured that ear, she couldn't hear out of that ear for the rest of the Games.

"The one the doctors reconstructed?" I ask.

"Yeah," Katniss says shrugging. "Maybe they did a better job than they thought. You know, sometimes I do hear funny things on that side. Things you wouldn't ordinarily think have a sound. Like insect wings. Or snow hitting the ground." she says. I smile.

Mags nudges Katniss forward, encouraging her to take the lead. Mags is walking with the heap of the branch Finnick made into a cane. And he convinces me that I need a staff. I take it, because, I really do need all the help I can get, walking right now.

Katniss throws some nuts at the force field. And Mags eats one. Katniss yells at her, because they could be poisonous, but Mags ignores her and eats it anyway. Then, Finnick laughs, insisting that we'll find out if they are or not later. After a while, Katniss insists we take a break, and she climbs a tree to see the arena again.

Katniss tells us the force field is shaped like a dome. And that there isn't any water. We keep moving, but soon we have to stop. Finnick picks a campsite. Katniss insists, after a while, that she'll hunt for water by herself. She promises me she won't go far. Katniss goes off and the cannons start blasting through the arena. The bloodbath is finally over. Eight cannons go off. Each cannon represents a dead tribute. Finnick and Mags create huts, and bowls, I fill them with nuts that I roast using the force field.

By the time Katniss gets back, we're all hoping she found some water. She was gone a long time. Katniss tells us that she didn't find water, but the animal she killed did. And so there's water out there somewhere. We decide the animal is okay to eat. We can't start a fire because the arena is so small, and we wouldn't be able to hide the smoke. So I toss some of the meat at the force field and it comes out, cooked perfectly.

The sun sets while we eat the animal, which we decided to call a tree rat. Then the seal of the Capitol appears and the anthem plays.

Then a silver parachute falls from the sky. Inside, is a small object, and none of us know what it is, but we all take our guesses. I blow through one end of it, to see if it makes a sound. Finnick puts his pinky in it to see if it's a weapon. Katniss asks Mags if she can fish with it, but she can't. Katniss stairs at it, clearly becoming frustrated with it. She gives up shoving one end into the dirt.

She lays down, and I rub her shoulders, trying to get her to relax. "A spile!" Katniss says.

"What?" asks Finnick.

Katniss jumps up and takes the thing out of the dirt. You put a spile into a tree and sap comes out. We explain to Finnick. And we put it into a tree. Water eventually comes out. We all take turns holding our mouths over it. And we lay down. Finnick takes the first watch. So I let myself fall asleep.