23, 24
Annie watches the Games, and for the first time since her own, she doesn't flashback to her own experience in the arena. She is alert. Finnick survives the bloodbath, and she breathes a sigh of relief before falling asleep in front of the television.
The next day, they show Mags' death, they show Finnick being revived. Annie feels tears trickle down her cheeks, and she's whispering thank you to the heavens, thanking Mags for protecting Finnick to the very end.
She watches as Finnick, Katniss, and Peeta team up with Johanna, Beetee, and Wiress. She watches as Finnick survives another attack. And then the queerest thing happens. She hears her own screaming. She lifts a hand to her mouth, feels that her lips are closed, and turns to Marina, who is looking just as bewildered. Finnick is running through the jungle screaming her name, and she realizes that he can hear her screams too. And then Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith are both pointing at a bird in a tree, and she realizes that mockingjays are being used against Finnick, that the Mockingjays are mimicking her voice and screaming for her.
The realization that she is being used against Finnick, that he thinks she is being tortured somewhere and that the fear he feels for her has crippled him so extremely, causes her to start shaking. She's crying and trying to tell him that she's fine, she's still at home, trying to communicate with him through the screen. Marina approaches with a needle, but Annie grabs a decorative pot from the table and throws it, knocking the needle from Marina's hands.
"I have to be awake. I have to be awake for him!" she screams, and Marina nods and resumes sitting in the spot she has claimed on Annie's couch for her own. Annie sits back on the couch herself, trembling until the birds have stopped screaming her name and Finnick is free again. She watches carefully as the hours drag on, as Beetee plots to electrocute the other tributes, and Annie is praying that Finnick knows to run as soon as the Careers have been taken care of, because the alliance he has formed will be forced to break then.
As the time ticks down, pandemonium breaks lose in the arena. Finnick runs off to find Johanna and Katniss, Johanna attacks Katniss pre-emptively, as Enobaria and Brutus give chase to Johanna, Brutus then stabs Beetee and kills Chaff, only to be killed by Peeta. And then the arena itself seems to be exploding, as a barely-alive Katniss reaches Beetee. Finnick is still alive, but Annie doesn't know for how long-and then there's a knock on her door. Before she or Marina can answer it, peacekeepers swarm in. They overwhelm both Annie and Marina, and drag them to a hovercraft, where the other two victors from District 4 are waiting. They are sedated (after a brief fight), and when Annie wakes up, she is in a brightly lit room, surrounded by other people.
Opening her eyes and sitting up, she sees Marina is still knocked out next to her, and she begins to count. Only to be distracted by the face of Peeta-what is he doing here? Looking around, she begins to realize that the room is filled with victors. After counting, she finds there are 34 of them locked in here. 18 died in these latest games, and she can't find Finnick, Beetee or Katniss (they aren't dead, she knows they aren't dead). That leaves 4 of the 59 victors still alive at the beginning of this year still left unaccounted for…Annie thinks of Haymitch, the drunk who had patted her on the back after her interview before her Games…there's Lyme, the disgruntled older woman Mags had been such good friends with…the man from 11 who particularly resented Finnick for killing one of the tributes he mentored isn't here either…and finally, she places the last missing face, Hanni Bale, the vicious girl from 1 who killed half of the tribute pool in her year by beating them over the head with a rock she named the phantom. Other than those four, and the three from the arena, everyone is here. More and more of them seem to realize that the room is filled with victors, and only victors, and alliances begin to form, just like in the arena.
Everyone from Districts 1 and 2 takes over one half of the room, while the rest of them gather on the right. A few victors, so wasted away by drink or morphling, lie on the floor where they woke up, and refuse to move. Everyone leaves them mostly alone. Annie makes sure Marina is watching the older victors from 4, and then goes after Johanna Mason, hoping that she can shed some light on what happened in the arena. Johanna is angry, and tries to brush her off, but Annie grabs her arm (the one she throws axes with) and twists it hard.
"Tell. Me." She hisses in Johanna's ear.
"Finnick was alive the last time I saw him. He's not here, and neither is Katniss, so they're either being tortured specially or they got away. Let go!" Johanna yanks her arm away from Annie and walks away, leaving Annie to think about the words. "Got away?" Annie is puzzled by that one, until she realizes Johanna must have known about a greater escape plan. She thinks of the way Finnick ran his hands over the bread delivered in the arena, and the way she wondered what he was doing, having never seen such behavior again. Of course. There was an escape plan. There was a plan all along…for the girl on fire, the type of girl who could be the face of a rebellion…Finnick had known all along, had protected her from the knowledge as best he could, but she had known he was up to something. He's been looking for a way out for years, and now he's found it.
With this knowledge safe and secure in her head, she goes back to Marina and sits next to her, sits quietly on the ground and stares off into space. The Capitol already thinks she's mad, all she has to do is keep playing up the broken parts of her. They wait in the room for hours, hours and hours. There's no food, no water, and Annie has a sick feeling that a few people are going to die in this room if they aren't attended to soon.
The first, an old man, dies during what has to be the morning. He's been moaning for water, and finally a woman from District 1 or 2 had grabbed him and slammed his head into a wall. There are a few cries of surprise, but everyone in this room won the Games, everyone knows how it works, and how short the leash is for the Careers. Another three are dead by evening, and the strongest remaining victors are all eyeing each other warily.
When the only door to the room is opened, a few people rush to it, desperate to escape. However, a wall of peacekeepers marches in, and the man at the front orders them all to line up against the back wall. Everyone complies, except for two morphlings who can't seem to get up from the floor. These two are shot immediately, and their bodies are dragged back out the door. Now, the man comes up and examines each of them. He reviews the first two people and moves on, but he drags the third to the middle of the room, where the man is instructed to sit. When he examines Annie, she forces her eyes to go out of focus, to look at the space just beyond his left ear. Another man steps up behind him and whispers "not this one" so he gives a grunt and moves past her. By the time he's done, 14 people are sitting in the middle of the room, including one of the older victors from District 4. Annie watches as all 14 are executed, wincing with each shot. And then half of the peacekeepers leave, dragging the bodies with them, while the other half remain stationed on the wall opposite the 14 remaining victors.
Just like in the arena, Annie is counting, keeping track of who is still alive and who isn't. Johanna, Peeta, and Enobaria, the three who came from the arena, are all still here. She and Marina, and Marlon are the only ones left from District 4. There are 2 people left from District 1, another man from 2, and the other five each come from a different District (3,5,6,8,10). The sit there in silence for several hours, and then more peacekeepers arrive. A man from District 1, the man from 2, and Marlon are all executed. The remaining 11 of them are escorted out, and each led to an individual cell.
