23, 24
They all land on a street that's of little consequence but will look nice for propos. Finnick is still thinking about Annie, about the way she seemed to think that they would never see each other again. I'm not going to die unless I have to he thinks to himself. When Peeta is delivered to their unit, free of guards and armed with a gun, he doesn't say anything, but privately agrees with Katniss and Boggs that President Coin has sent Peeta here to "accidentally" cause Katniss' death. At the same time, he's seen how madness can affect people, and how hard it is to be trapped in your own head, so when he hears Peeta becoming agitated, he tells Peeta to just ask them when he's confused, just like Annie does.
Soon enough, they're playing "Real or Not Real," and Finnick is starting to gain some hope that Peeta will come back to himself soon enough, that maybe spending time with Katniss is just what he needs to recover. Then the holo is wrong when it comes to one of the pods, and Leeg 1 is killed with a dart directly to the brain. The next time the holo is wrong, Boggs activates a bomb that blows his legs off. Finnick is thrown back into the arena, enters the mode that kept him alive for 23 days in the world's deadliest game. Peeta goes into his hijacked mode, kicks Mitchell into the street where he dies at the release of another pod. They all make it into a house, and Finnick begins to think that maybe Annie was right to worry for him.
The television is turned on, and they learn that they've all been declared dead. Finnick's breathing is erratic as he imagines what this will do to Annie, how his beloved wife will react to this news that he has died only three days into his mission. Peeta is freaking out, saying they need to kill him now, so Finnick doesn't share his own panicked thoughts, not even when the squad moves on from Peeta's crisis starts suggesting that this is actually a strategic advantage for them (even though now he wants to scream fuck strategy, I need to get a message to my wife).
They head into the underground tunnels that Pollux knows from his days of imprisonment in the Capitol, and Finnick has a sense of doom as they enter this dirty underground world that is so different from the stark walls he's grown comfortable with in District 13. They keep going underground, for miles and miles, until finally they're too tired to go further, and then they collapse in a small room and fall into a restless sleep.
"Katniss. Katniss. Katniss." Finnick is woken up by a strange hissing, and he doesn't know what to make of it, when Peeta is suddenly shoving them out of the room, forcing them to run through the tunnels. Strange choking noises start up behind him, and Peeta gets a haunted look on his face when he tells them those are the screams of Avoxes. Messala, who has outpaced them all with his light load, runs through a strange gold light that lifts him into the air. Finnick watches as his flesh begins to melt off, and then turns around and begins to urge everyone forward. He's seen so many people die, in so many gruesome ways, that he doesn't react with horror anymore. Not until he's safe and has time to process at least.
The noises are getting louder and louder, when they see a section labeled "Meat Grinder" ahead. Finnick races over it, with Katniss and Gale and Peeta and Homes and Castor and Pollux and Cressida. It's only when Pollux is swinging his hand at a ladder, forcing it to fall down, that Finnick looks back and realizes that Jackson and Leeg 1 have stayed on the other side, to try and slow the oncoming…whatever those things are. Katniss activates the meat grinder, and Gale shoots a fire arrow over towards the creatures chasing them and creates a small explosion. Pollux scrambles up the ladder, followed by Gale and Katniss, Peeta and Cressida. Finnick is about to grasp a rung on the ladder, to pull himself up, when he hears Castor gasp behind him. Finnick turns, shocked to see the strange white muttations that have followed them all morning hissing Katniss' name are already surrounding them.
He begins to fight them, with Homes and Castor. Castor goes down quickly, is lost under the crushing feet of these lizard-human hybrid creatures that Snow has sent after them. Homes is fighting his hardest, and Finnick is swinging his trident about with all his strength and skill. It's when Homes goes down and there are still waves and waves of them on their way that Finnick realizes he might not get out of this.
He keeps killing them, but they're all focused on him now. I am going to die he thinks, as three of them manage to attack him at once in the narrow space. The one behind him grabs his neck, exposes it for the bite that will end his life, and suddenly he's flashing through a series of images, transported to a different place entirely.
His mother's face when she smiled. The mast of a boat. Annie kissing him for the first time. A silver parachute. Annie telling him she loves him. Mags laughing. Annie's face in the moonlight on the beach. A pink sky. Annie running towards him in District 13. Beetee's trident. A pinch of pain-that must be the lizards. Annie in her wedding dress. An Abalone shell in the sand. Waves breaking over rocks. A bright white light accompanied by a distant boom.
A/N: In the final paragraph, the parts in bold are the things Suzanne Collins wrote when she was showing Finnick's last thoughts. I added a few things, just to fit in with my story more, and to give Finnick a longer finale.