Disclaimer: the Hunger Games trilogy belongs to Suzanne Collins
Chap 28
We meet the others down stair and quickly run out of the house. We will be spot in just a minute and underground is no longer a choice.
"Turn on the Holo." Jackson tells me when we all sneak in a small alley.
"I don't know how." I admit. Why did Boggs pass it to me, not her? Jackson must wonder the same thing. She scowls then snatches the Holo from me and taps in a command. An intersection comes up.
"Follow me." She grunts.
We run in a line after her. The alley ends behind a yard of a compartment with high wood fence. Johanna quickly takes down a bar, enough for us pass through. We run around the compartment and a long a road, finally meet the intersection. Jackson stops and checks the Holo. Her face shows the struggling inside her.
"What's wrong?" Finnick asks from the end of the line.
"There're cameras around here. And also a pod over there, mislabeled or not." She says.
"What's its label?" I ask her.
"Poison gas." She looks at me and we both gulp. Can we believe the Holo this time? Did they have enough time at home to change all the labels? I hear the growls becoming nearer and nearer behind us. They released mutts into this area. Don't want to go by themselves and meet their own pods.
"There's no other way." I say. Jackson nods, agrees with me.
"Put on your mask. I will activate the pod. If it's poison gas, ready to follow me."
She puts on her own mask, raises her own gun and shoots. Across the intersection, there's a loud snap as the pod triggers. It spits out a column of thick gray smoke. I never thought I would feel such a relief in my life when I see this deadly smoke. The smoke quickly spreads over the street, engulfs us, covers us from the cameras, I hope also from the mutts. Jackson is a blur shadow before me. We walk carefully until the smoke becomes thinner then start running again. The colorful walls of buildings, unnatural colors of decorating flowers and trees of this street Capitol become eerie with sounds of our running steps, panting breaths and growling of the mutts chasing after us. We only stop for Jackson shooting at the pods ahead our way. Just one of them is mislabeled, that's more than enough. A flock of wolf mutts jumps out around us.
"Jackson!" I push her and we roll under the large shadow of a mutt. It rolls to a statue on the lawn of a house and immediately killed by Finnick's trident.
I just have enough time to turn upward and pull out one arrow when the second mutt jumps on top of me. The arrow thrusts into its stomach the same time the mutt's claws thrust into my shoulder.
"ARGHHH!" I scream.
Jackson draws her knife into the mutt's neck. It draws it last breath, falls on top of me, stink saliva falls down to my mask, my neck. I kick it madly but it's too heavy. No, I don't want to suffocate under a dead mutt. Jackson can't help me when another mutt is dragging her foot, pulling her out of me.
"Gale!" I choke out his name. No, no, he's fighting with another mutt, too far to hear me. They're all struggling. And soon the mutts after us will arrive. No, no.
Suddenly, the block of meat over me moves a little.
"I count to three… One, two… THREE!" Rhosy slams her slender body to one side of the mutt while I kick it desperately. It rolls out of me. I get up to my feet, still too tremble to shoot. I draw my own knife and plunge to the mutt attacking Jackson, kill it off. Finnick yells something. I look up and terrified of seeing at the end of the street, a herd of monkey-like but so much bigger mutts have come up with us.
"Your explosive arrow!" Jackson grumbles, holding her bleeding arm.
"It's too far." I say but still pull the arrow out. Jackson inches her body closer to see from the same position with me. She will be my scope.
"A little to the left. Higher. No, not that high. Shoot!"
My shoulder hurts so my arrow doesn't arrive to the exact position like we want. It just rips up the road, explodes some mutts. But immediately the rest of them decide to dig in the pile of blood and meat right before them. It's just gross.
"Come on!" I shake my head then help Jackson to her feet. Her right foot and arm are bleeding badly. Rhosy catches one of her side.
"I will take her. Help the others." She says and pushes me away. I don't have time to wonder, just nod at her then run off to help Gale.
When Johanna kills off the last wolf mutts, the monkey mutts also finish their meal and turn their attention back to us.
"Run, run! Turn left over there we will reach the bridge." Jackson pants heavily, dragging her injured foot with Rhosy's help.
I shoot another explosive arrow to the mutts, hoping it will slow down them with a new meal. It seems like they're full. The river and the bridge appear before us right when we take the turn. Jackson looks around, checks the Holo then points out a lone tower on the river bank.
"That tower controls the bridge. Lift it up for ships passing." She says.
We stop, digest the information. Damn, whoever runs to the tower won't have chance to cross the bridge. Johanna bursts out laughing.
"No, Johanna!" Finnick and I say at the same time. He grabs her arm.
"What?! Who can do it better than me?" No one waits for her back home, she means. She snatches away. "Come back to Annie. And you, brainless, shoot straight."
She pushes me. But she's my ally, she became one of my family. I can't leave her.
"Come on! Don't waste her live." Finnick says through his grinding teeth and pulls my arm. Damn! Damn! I mutter and use all my strength to make my feet move. Boggs, Johanna, all of my fallen squad members. I will come back, I have to come back to make her pay for them. Alma Coin, you will have to pay.
