The next two hours are a whirl wind and somehow every fear and anxiety that has crossed my mind since the Quell announcement have abandoned me. My mind is only strategizing and all I can think about is finding Katniss in the Arena so that we can take off together, without a doubt we will have to run for the Cornucopia. We'll need to arm ourselves. I did it last year, I can do it again. This time I'll have to worry about Katniss but I have to remind myself that she can handle herself. I enter the hovercraft that will take us to the Arena. I take my seat and one of the attendants inserts the tracking device, this time I don't even feel it. I'm too busy staring into space and observing my competition. Suddenly in comes Johanna. She looks quiet. She looks like she's miles away she looks at all of us but it's as if she doesn't recognize us. She ends up sitting across from me. Our eyes meet and she mouths something to me. I look at her because I really wasn't paying attention and she mouths to me again – "Trust me." I just stare at her. I really think long and hard about what she's saying. I look into her eyes. They are void of deviousness, manipulation, flirtatiousness, or playfulness. She looks calm and sincere. I take a deep breath because for some reason my gut feeling has been to trust her. I can't explain it. I just nod once and I look away.
When we arrive I'm off to a room and when I walk in, I find Portia again. She hands me clothes. She's composed this time, she even looks angry. I grab the items of clothing. I feel the fabric and look at Portia.
"This is really thin – breathable. What could it be?" I ask her.
She looks worried. "Water, maybe. We can't be sure." She says. My stomach sinks when she says this and my face must show it. Suddenly there's panic in her eyes. "Can you swim?" she asks.
"no." I say and she looks terrified. "I can float." I add.
"That's something, probably a lot more than most of them." She says.
"Katniss can swim." I say with a smile on my face.
"How?" she asks looking startled. I shrug to let her know I don't know.
"Finnick can swim… I guess we know who the favorite is." I say.
Suddenly the alarm goes off, I have to move to the portal. I hug her and I thank her for everything. I tell her to take care of herself and to be sure she delivers the letters I gave her to send back home. When I say this she starts sobbing and I have to physically hold her up. She apologizes for not being stronger. She throws her arms around me again and she whispers in my ear. "Look for the Mockinjay bangle." She then pulls and pushes me into the portal. I stare at her in amazement. Her, Johanna, and Effie – there's no doubt that they are dropping hints. I hate it because I feel like I'm in the dark about something that I should know about. I feel angry because I'm reminded of when Katniss and Haymitch would leave me out of important information. I'm suddenly nervous, do they know something again. I feel so much anger all of sudden. I don't even notice when the portal has pushed me up to uncover the Arena. The beeping of the countdown snaps me out of it.
Water, I'm surrounded by water. "Fuck!" I curse aloud. I have to swim to get to the Cornucopia. I look around to see if I can spot Katniss but I don't see her anywhere. As I look at the opponents around me I do notice that they are all panicked by the water. I spot Finnick, he is triumphantly waiving his arms over his head in triumph. "Fucking asshole" I mumble to myself. For a second I feel that I won't feel bad taking him out if I have to. Then the alarm goes off – the Game has officially started. I see Finnick dive into the water and in a matter of seconds he's close to the Cornucopia. When people see this they decide to jump off their spots to head towards the surrounding beach instead of heading to the death match in the center. I begin to hear canyons instantly. I feel panicked because I still have not seen Katniss and I'm still standing on this damn thing. Useless, I'm useless. Suddenly I see someone drop off from the Cornucopia and I swear I saw on arrow fly. This brings a smile to my face. But then I remember that Finnick is out there. I suddenly see him swimming towards me. I'm scared, I can't deny it. If he pulls me in the water, my abilities will be useless. I then notice that he's unarmed. I look towards the Cornucopia and I finally see Katniss. Her bow and arrow is ready to fly and I see that she has Finnick's trident? I look back at him and he's already reached me. He reaches his hand out to me, not just to help me but also to shake it, to solidify our truce. And I see it, the bangle. It makes sense now. Katniss and I refused to make allies so Haymitch made the deals for us. So I shake it, for Haymitch. He was right.
"Your belt will help you float" He says to me. "Jump in."
I jump in and do the strokes Katniss taught me in my little backyard pond. When I get to the Cornucopia, Katniss runs to my arms. "We have allies." I say to her and she laughs.
"Heymitch wasn't going to let us have the last word." She says. She turns to see Finnick who is back in the water, I look after him and we see that he's swimming towards Mags. He pulls her up in no time.
"If you take me, you have to take her too." He says to us seriously.
Katniss and I both look at each other and smile. "Mags was first on my list for allies." Katniss admits to him.
Hearing this makes him smile at her endearingly. "You're smart too." He says to her.
"Let's stock up." I say to them. We start to grab backpacks and stock them with weapons, because that's all there is. No food or water is available. Of course. I see Finnick walk towards a table that holds every kind of axe imaginable. He runs his fingers over them, then he grabs two and tosses them in his bag. They're lovers, I'm certain of it.
"Where's Johanna?" I ask him. Because I'm surprised she didn't stick with him, that he didn't seek her out, and I'm still thinking about her gesture in the hover craft.
He turns to look at me, he looks nervous. "We can't save everyone." He says to me.
"Why are you asking about Johanna?" Katniss asks. "I can't trust her." She says to me.
"I do. I trust her." I say without moving my eyes from Finnick. He looks surprised to hear me say this.
She laughs. "You men, pretty girl strokes your ego and just like that she has your trust." She says criticizing me without stopping her task of looking around for something useful.
"Don't worry about it, she's not here. I was just saying." I say to her and I grab a set of knives and some other things."
We head back towards the beach and when we get there Finnick looks back to us "Hey guys – this year you're in the team to beat." He laughs. "This year you're officially Careers." He keeps his gaze on Katniss and his smile leaves him. He eyes her curiously and turns around. "We should find water and some shelter." He starts to walk towards the jungle.
I look at Katniss and realize that she's calculating the situation. The way she's holding the bow and arrow makes me uncomfortable. I realize that she's thinking about taking out Finnick. Then she looks at me and she starts to pay attention to the jungle, surveying the area. I offer to take the lead so that I can clear vegetation as we track the jungle. We head up hill for hours and we don't find water. The air only gets more humid and I'm covered in sweat and in the moisture that hangs in the air. I hate the feeling. The only water appears to be back in that salt body of water. I'm so thirsty. I look behind me for a second and I see that Finnick is carrying Mags on his back. How is he doing that! I think to myself. Then I hear a conversation begin between Katniss and Finnick. They decide that we are going to rest. Mags and I begin to gather some of the nuts that are everywhere. She begins to start eating them instantly without even bothering to study them. Katniss shouts at her to be more careful since they could be poisonous. She eats away anyway and nothing happens. So they are safe.
I keep focusing on the conversation between Katniss and Finnick. I can hear the tension in their words, clearly Katniss is not happy about this alliance. I hear Katniss say that no one decent ever wins these games. Finnick agrees, except perhaps me. I'm the only decent person that has ever walked out of these games. I get that bad premonition again. I don't catch what she answers him but I decide to walk towards them when I see the two of them tensing up and slowly holding up their weapons. I walk towards them and stand between them.
"We should keep moving." I say breaking their tension.
"Lead the way Peeta." He says to me.
We begin our hike again. I keep cutting down vegetation. Suddenly I hear Katniss scream my name but before I can turn around, I feel a shock run through me – then darkness.
I start to see traces of light again. My ears are buzzing but I can hear a piercing cry. I open my eyes and images start to register. I think back to what I remember, I hit something, like a force field. Katniss is crying hysterically over me. She rests her head on my chest and through sobs she tells me that my heart stopped. There you go, I was electrocuted. I feel shaky.
"Can you sit up?" Finnick asks me.
I try but I feel very weak. Finnick ends up helping me up and even though Katniss tries to help she ends up sobbing uncontrollably all over again. Mags has to go to her and comfort her. I begin to feel completely impotent. First the fact that I couldn't swim and now this. If my heart stopped, I'm seriously injured. How long until my body recovers. What's the use of all my strength now. How the hell am I supposed to protect her. I'm failing miserably.
"How did I not die?" I manage to ask. When I say this Katniss starts her sobbing again.
"I gave you CPR." Finnick says to me. I know what that is but I don't know how to do it myself.
"Thank you." I say surprised. "Why would you do that?" I ask. Seriously, the guy that he can't physically beat would have been out and all because of an accident. Tributes are not that lucky.
He smiles. "Who is going to keep Katniss from killing me?" He says coolly. He stands up without looking at me anymore. I can tell that he's trying to avoid me.
I decide I need to stand up to get a better feel of my body. I stand up successfully. When I do Katniss runs to my arms. She begins to cry again.
"Katniss please stop. It's okay. I'm alive." I say to her as I hold her. She begins to sob again. I pull back a little and I kiss her softly so that she calms down. She kisses me back and finally her breathing slows down and she focuses on kissing me. It's nice. When she pulls away I see that new found intimacy that we now share and I smile at her. I see that Finnick eyes us curiously. I know why, he's confused by us. I'm sure he knows our star crossed lover role was nothing more than an act. I'm sure he doesn't know what to make of this closeness.
I turn my attention back towards Katniss. I see tears are still spilling over so I give her a soft peck. "You need to calm down, please." I tell her. This only makes her cry harder. "Katniss, this is not like you. Get it together, come on." I tell her.
"It's probably just the pregnancy hormones." Finnick tells us. I stare at Katniss and she glares at him.
"Why don't we set up somewhere to rest. Maybe you can find us food? I'll go with you." I say to her in hopes that hunting will get her to focus.
"No – I'll find food. I don't want Finnick to think the alliance is broken by the two of us taking off. I'll be okay, it'll help me." She assures me. "You need to rest." She gathers her things and takes off to hunt. I would insist Mags of Finnick accompany her but I can't say I fully trust them. Also, I'm starting to think that if I'm with her I may slow her down or create a burden for her.
We find a spot to rest for the night. Finnick breaks off some foliage and in no time creates mats for us to sit on. At least no one will freeze out here. This damn humidity is not going to go away. I suddenly feel dizzy and I know I'm in desperate need of water. Katniss shows up with a dead animal. She tells us that she had no luck finding water but the animal she killed definitely knew where it was since it's muzzle was wet. There is no chance that we will be able to build a fire here. Everyone laughs when it occurs to me to throw the meat at the force field to cook it. Even Katniss laughs at irony. I give her a hug and a kiss, and she holds me extra tighter. I'm not feeling well and I keep hoping the food will help, my body, the core of my body feels shaky. I know it's from being electrocuted. When I sit down, I stretch my hands out in front of me and they are shaking involuntarily. I look around to make sure no one is looking. Just then a parachute drops on us. Finnick opens it and he pulls out a metal object. It's from Haymitch. He looks at us and we just look back pondering.
"I have no idea what that could be." I say as we begin to pass it back and forth.
Katniss holds on to it and looks at it, she's thinking hard. She finally gets so frustrated she hits it against the ground and buries part of it into the dirt. She stares as it as a dirt squeezes out of the opening. "It's a spile!" she says to us. She pulls it out of the ground and tells us that we have to dig it into the trees, that there's where the animal she killed pulled water from. Finnick runs to a tree and starts to create a hole in it. He grabs the spile from Katniss and drives it in. We all stand and wait stare at it. Finally clear water starts to run and Katniss dives in. We take turns taking in the fresh water. I'm hoping that it's all I need to help me recuperate. Finnick gathers water on leaves for Mags. We fill our empty decanters with water and stock them into our bags. Katniss insists we rest and that she will keep watch for the first part of the night. I agree because really, I know I'm in no condition and perhaps if I rest I will feel stronger when I wake up. I close my eyes and darkness consumes me.
"Run!" I hear Katniss's shrill warning. I jump out of my sleep and I feel just as dead as I felt when Finnick revived me. Katniss has already taken off by the time Finnick and I open our eyes. We realize she's running down hill as she tells us to get away from the fog. I feel it before I see it. A stinging sensation burning my body. I take off. I'm trying so hard to move my body as fast as I know I can be but I can't. Worthless, I'm worthless. The fog is keeping pace with us, and I realize that this is making things more difficult because my leg and arms start to tremble. I keep tripping and falling, which only slows me down more and more. Then I realize that the same thing is happening to Katniss and Finnick and that we have all slowed down considerably. The fog is moving in on us and we can breathe it in, which burns our lungs. I also know it's affecting my heart because I can't recover like Katniss and Finnick are, as they get up again and again. I can' t even hear properly. I know Katniss and Finnick exchange words. Before I can say anything I feel Finnick lift me and he throws me over his shoulder and Katniss lifts Mags on her back. They begin to run again but only for a few more minutes because they collapse again. I can't talk now, and I can't really hear now. I can't protest. I'm ready for them to leave me behind, perhaps Katniss can still carry the alliance without me. I can't hold them back. This breaks my heart and all I feel is an overwhelming sense of impotence since I can't even just walk away from them and head into the fog. As I think this, Mags stands up, runs to Finnick and gives him a kiss. I know it's a good bye kiss when I see the heart break on Finnicks face. She turns around and before they can even react, she runs into the fog. Almost instantly I hear a canyon. I'm furious, she shouldn't have done that, and I feel furious when I realize I can't do anything to stop it. Finnick throws me over his shoulder and they keep running until we all end up falling down a ditch. We roll downhill until we end up at the bottom of the precipice near a reservoir of salt water.
