Again, sorry this took so long. It skips a lot just a warning. Happy reading!
36
The Birds and the Rescue
We just have to keep them alive long enough to get out of here. That's all.
"Katniss, got that spile?" I ask while admiring the hole I made in the tree. She starts at the sound of my voice and then struggles to remove the spile from her belt and holds it out for me. I'm about to take it when a blood-curdling scream cuts across the air and Katniss's face goes white. She drops the spile and takes off toward the source of the screaming.
Who IS that?
"Katniss, wait! Stop!" I shout after her. What is going on? Is that another tribute screaming? She sounds young…but Katniss seems to care about her enough to go charging through the dangerous jungle on her own.
Finnick, they are going to find her.
Now I'm scared. I chase after her, listening to her voice as it screams some name a vaguely recognize. I'm lost in a maze of trees and brambles that whip the irritations all over my skin. My leg still hurts from the attack at the Cornucopia and it's making my trip more than I'm used to. And suddenly she goes silent. No more crashing through the trees, no more screaming. There's a whistling sound and then a thud as something tumbles to the ground.
No. No no no no no no no.
I run for where I last heard her until I crash through the opening.
"Katniss?" I exclaim, seeing her sitting on the ground. She looks up at me with a sick look on her face and just says, "I'm okay, I'm okay."
I stop to observe her when I hear it. The one sound that could freeze my blood instantly.
Annie.
She's screaming. She's here. They've taken her.
"ANNIE!"
They're hurting her. She's screaming because she's being tortured. And it's your fault. They've kidnapped her and now she's suffering.
The sound of it is unbearable. It's the same scream she emitted when she was called again for the reaping this year. It pierces my mind, I can barely see. This is what Annie must've felt like when she saw Troy lose his head. When it was waved in her face. I'm going mad.
I conquer the distance between me and Annie's voice in seconds. Finally I pin it, it's above me. In the tree.
Get her, save Annie. Save her.
Scream scream scream, it's all a bad dream.
I try to climb the trunk but there's no branches and I cant maneuver my body to shimmy up the rubbery trunk. The moisture makes me slide right off again.
"Annie!" I shout, feeling panic rising inside of me. "Annie! Annie! Annie!"
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
"FINNICK I'M RIGHT HERE!" I scream at the television, standing on my feet. That's my voice in the forest, but I'm here. I'm in our living room, aren't I?
He's in a state of panic. And while I'm touched that he cares so much, I'm also furious. Furious at the Capitol for their trick. Furious at Finnick for putting himself in such a dangerous position. I'm not screaming, I'm here. I'm almost sure of it.
Katniss comes into the scene and scales the tree, shooting down the bird. When Finnick takes it in his hands I see his heart break all over his face.
"What, what's wrong?"
He can't hear you, stupid.
"It's alright Finnick. It's just a jabberjay." Katniss is rubbing his shoulder comfortingly, though she herself didn't look in much of a state to be comforting anyone. "They're playing a trick on us. It's not real. It's not your…Annie."
"No, it's not Annie," Finnick response with a haunted voice, "But the voice was hers. Jabberjays mimic what they hear. Where did they get those screams, Katniss?"
Her face goes white as a sheet. "Oh Finnick you don't think they…"
"Yes. I do. That's exactly what I think."
Finnick thinks they're torturing me. He thinks that they have me. No doubt he's blaming himself.
"I'm right here," I almost beg, resting my hand on his pixelated face, "I'm okay. I'm right here." I can't imagine how he must feel. If I thought that they had Finnick and was torturing him to get to me. I'd break. I would be on the floor screaming with him.
"Finnick, please, I'm right here."
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
After running into the wall, the pain in my nose only hastens my disintegration. Johanna clenches her jaw and swings her axe at the wall, but it stays put. They can't get through. We can't get out. The birds continue to grow in numbers and I hear new screams. My friends, Martin, Mags, Tristan, Echo, Pearl, Stephen, even Kai. Even my mother. And louder than anyone, Annie.
Get a hold of yourself or you're going to lose it.
I fall to the ground and slam my hands over my ears, willing my palms to crush my skull in so I can just die. I try not to think. I try not to imagine all the awful things they did to them to make those screams happen. I try not to think about it and think of nothing else until it finally stops and I feel Johanna's hands on my back.
"Finnick, it's okay. They're gone."
I don't answer. I can hear Peeta talking to Katniss, hugging her. I am suddenly a little jealous, if only because at least the boy she loves—or is should love at least—is here. Here and not there. I rather Annie be dead than tortured, like what Pearl said long before. Kill her before they destroy her. I should have listened. Now she's probably in such indescribable agony in her body and mind there's no going back. There's not going to be healing this time.
"Katniss, Prim isn't dead. How could they kill Prim? We're almost down to the final eight of us. And what happens then?" I hear Peeta say. I decide to listen, maybe he can help. His voice is the only thing keeping me anchored down, anyway.
"Seven more of us die," she responds miserably. I let out a quick laugh just to show I agree not because anything is funny.
"No back home. What happens when they reach the final eight tributes in the Games?"
What is he saying?
He tries again, lifting her chin so that she has to look at him. "What happens? At the final eight?"
She answers this time. "At the final eight? They interview your family and friends back home."
A rush whooshes through me. Maybe it's possible then. Maybe it was all a trick.
"That's right. They interview your family and friends. And can they do that if they've killed them all?"
"No?" Katniss says, but I mouth the word with her. No, they can't I guess….
"No. That's how we know Prim's alive. She'll be the first one they interview, wont she?"
Peeta continues trying to relax her and I'm feeling myself begin to relax. More like cling to this shred of hope that is Peeta's words. Maybe she isn't gone.
Finally Katniss looks at me for confirmation. "Do you believe it, Finnick?"
"It could be true," I answer, my voice sounding weird in my own ears, "I don't know. Could they do that Beetee? Take someone's regular voice and make it…"
"Oh, yes. It's not even that difficult Finnick. Our children learn a similar technique in school." Beetee is beside me with Johanna, a hand on my other shoulder.
It makes sense Fin. They used Mags in there, and she was with you. They didn't torture her.
"Of course Peeta's right," Johanna says, "The whole country adores Katniss's little sister. IF they really killed her like this, they'd probably have an uprising on their hands."
"Johanna…"
"Don't want that, do they?" she begins to shout, "Whole country in rebellion? Wouldn't want anything like that!"
"Johanna!" I hiss, giving her a look. "Get a grip!"
She deflates but I can tell she doesn't regret it. She's got guts, my Johanna. But I can't help but think of what will happen to her David back home.
"I'm getting water," she says finally, starting for the jungle. Katniss reaches out and grabs her hand.
"Don't go in there. The birds…"
"They can't hurt me. I'm not like the rest of you. There's no one left I love."
She shakes herself loose and disappears to sap the tree. Suddenly I'm scared and confused. No one left she loves? But…David…
I take to the water to clear my head. I need to be alone, I need to sort out my thoughts. The water is home and I know I can find some peace there. Maybe the salt water can heal my ears and stop all those screams from resounding in my skull.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Johanna, what did you mean back there?" I ask when we finally are alone. She hasn't spoken since the birds and the sun is beginning to set.
"About what?"
"No one being left."
She stops and takes a deep breath and then looks at me full on. Of course she can't say. We're on camera, there's nothing private. Nothing secret. She just exchanges a long look with me that says everything, that says she screwed up again, that says her mouth got away with her. In the physical, she just says, "David is dead now too. He died as I was entering the arena."
I want to ask all sorts of questions. Does she mean as she was in the tube going up and she witnessed it? Or before she left her district? And why? But it's not the time, and it's not my story to know unless she wants me to. All I do is press my forehead against hers and kiss her cheek before going off to weave another basket to store tonight's catch in.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
District Three bread. The third day now. Twenty-four rolls. The twenty-forth hour. Beetee and Johanna do a stand up job of not letting on, though I think maybe I seem a little possessive.
It's almost over. Twenty-four hours.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Finnick," Annie whispers, shaking my shoulder. I wake up on the beach in the arena, but I look up and see Annie. But she's beaten. There's bruises over her eyes and face and she wears nothing but a thin white gown. There's a violent looking IV in her arm that makes me cringe.
"Annie," I gasp, sitting up. I place my hand on her cheek but she winces and I put it down. "What happened?" I ask, looking over all her wounds.
"You already know," she answers with her big green eyes transfixed on me.
"No…" I say in disbelief, "Peeta and Beetee said it was a trick."
She frowns and backs away, "Does this look like a trick? I'm here. I'm right here."
Now the sick feeling I rising in my chest again. She leans forward and kisses me, placing both of her broken hands on either side of my face. I kiss her back, afraid to hurt her if I touch her. "I'm right here," she repeats. I nod and kiss her lightly on the tip of her lightly freckled nose. Then she looks down and feels the alliance bracelet Haymitch gave me.
"Where's your bracelet?" she asks in a broken voice, "Where's your shells?"
Tears are in her eyes as she stares at the spot where our bracelet used to be. I try to placate her before it can escalate. "Annie, I had to. I can't explain it right now but l had to leave it behind."
"You don't love me anymore," she whimpers, running her fingers up and down my wrist. I grab her hand and force her to look me in the eyes.
"Stay here Annie, stay with me. I love you. You know that. Now stay here on the ground. Don't get upset."
She shakes her head, splashing tears on my arms. "I don't understand," she moans, "I was tortured for you. I tried so hard…"
"Annie! Don't go there just stay here."
She looks at me as if for the first time, and I draw back from the fear and anger in her eyes. Then slowly, silently, she seems to unhinge her jaw and open her mouth into a massive black hole and lets out the coldest scream yet, like an orchestra of all her screams from the jabberjays. I slam my hands over my ears until suddenly I'm jolted awake by the clap of thunder.
No more sleeping, it doesn't help.
I stumble up and rub my eyes, "I can't sleep anymore. One of you should rest." When I open my eyes I feel the blood rush to my cheeks, seeing Katniss on top of Peeta in a rather intimate knot.
"Or both of you. I can watch alone."
While Peeta is doing a good job of hiding his disappointment, a switch goes off in Katniss's eyes and I know she's embarrassed.
Nothing I haven't seen before, sweetheart.
"It's too dangerous," Peeta reasons, gently sliding out from underneath her, "I'm not tired. You lie down, Katniss."
I take my seat on the beach and allow the two of them to have their private moment for the cameras. Or for themselves. What do I know nowadays, anyway?
Once they're done Peeta joins me on the beach and sits down, letting out a deep breath. "Hey," I whisper so nobody wakes up, "the water there is pretty cold if you need to take a dip."
Peeta throws back his head and laughs, punching me in the arm. I laugh too but keep going, "I'm serious! It works like a charm." He shakes his head and presses his lips together to stop from laughing.
"I'm good for now, but I'll keep that in mind, thanks."
Once we've settled down I decide it's time for some sponsor chit chat. "Sooo, you're gonna be a dad, huh?"
Peeta purses his lips and nods, looking really broken up but from deep inside, not immediately on the outside. The good stuff. The soft gooey center all those watching are looking for.
Damn he's good.
"Are you ready for that sort of responsibility?"
He sighs and looks at me. "Finnick, it doesn't matter. Only one of us, if either of us, is going to be able to make it out of the arena alive. We can keep playing around and bonding but sooner or later we're going to have to realize this isn't going to have a happy ending."
Oh yeah, you don't know we're trying to get everyone out.
"I guess," is all I can manage to say.
"What do you mean, 'you guess'?"
"It means," I try again, giving the cameras my best ponderful look, "that it hasn't quite hit me. I don't think it ever will until something literally hits me. I'm just numb to it I guess. I'll face the end when it comes, I'm not going to let it control me in the meantime."
Peeta nods and pretends to chew on my speech, or maybe he is really affected by it. I have to keep reminding myself he's completely in the dark.
We talk a little bit more, mostly about Katniss and how he fell in love, yadda yadda. It works to our advantage because when Johanna, Katniss, and Beetee wake up, we're sent another package of bread that confirms the time and date. Today. On the twenty-forth hour. I watch Beetee run a nervous hand over his head before slapping his poker face back on.
Please let Annie be in the ship. Please have her be on the other side of this mess.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Later that day, after Beetee and the group make their plan for the lightning tree and the wire. Beetee needs to work with the wire so he gives the rest of them an 'afternoon off'.
Peeta and Katniss are spending a lot of time diving for oysters. I take my trident and spear a couple of fish easily, relishing how bright their scales are. These are not natural fish, these are the kinds of fish I see in the tank in the Capitol building back in Four. I just hope they taste as good as they look.
Peeta cracks open a shell and makes a happy sound. "Hey, look at this!" He holds up a small round pearl and earnestly tells me, "You know, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls."
"No it doesn't," I say dismissively. I thought he was being naive at first but then Katniss cracks up and I realize it must be some kind of joke. Johanna catches my eye and shrugs, popping an oyster in her mouth.
"For you," Peeta says, holding out the pearl for Katniss. She takes it and suddenly the wind leaves their sails and all signs of laughter disappear. "My locket didn't work, did it?"
She keeps his gaze. "It worked."
"But not the way I was hoping."
After that awkward encounter, Peeta just focuses on seafood and Johanna and I are left completely in the dark. Doesn't matter anyway, by midnight tonight we'll all be dead or rescued. The thought of that makes my heart thud heavily against my chest.
Thud thud thud.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Help Beetee set up the wire. Watch Peeta. Listen for Johanna and Katniss to make sure they're safe. Keep them alive. Keep them alive until they are rescued. Then I'm free. I'm free to die or to be rescued. The air is charged with the adrenaline as our plan starts to lay out tracks.
"I don't like this, I want to go with them," Peeta complains after Johanna and Katniss leave with the wire. I watch them go and catch Johanna's eye once, giving her a deep nod just incase this doesn't work. Just incase she begins to forget I'm on her side.
I really don't understand the deeper plot in this other than Haymitch and Heavensbee worked it out with Beetee and it's going to help get us rescued. Peeta and I do what we can, trying to stay calm as the girls roam out into the jungle where all the true danger lies.
"Twist it," Beetee instructs like a mildly impatient teacher, "Like this. Yes, good."
Peeta steals so many glances at the forest I begin to worry about the effects it will have on his neck. It's simple really. Unravel the wire to the ocean. Drop it in. Get away. What can go wrong, really? Especially with such a fearsome pair of young women with so much desire to succeed…
"Now get out of here, before the lightning strikes," Beetee orders us, not even looking up from his wire. I'm hesitant just to leave him unprotected with suddenly the wire goes slack and all signs of movement on the other end disappear. Panic rises in my throat but my instincts calm me down.
"Maybe they're done?" I suggest, giving the wire a yank to confirm it. But when I do, the other end bunches up and snakes towards us in a springy spiral until we see the tip of it shining in the moonlight. The wires been cut.
"Katniss!" Peeta cries out in horror. He's about to take off shouting when I grab his arm and hold him still.
"Peeta, you'll get yourself killed—"
He turns on me and knocks me to the ground with a solid punch to the jaw. "You planned this!" he accuses, betrayal playing shadows on his face, "You and Johanna planned to kill her all along!"
"No—" I'm unable to say anything more because he kicks me in the jaw and takes off crashing through the trees. I rub the spot to see if there's a break and then focus on Beetee who's hands are flying and who's lips are mumbling a steady stream of profanity and scientific mumbo jumbo I know nothing about. "Beetee, what's going on? This isn't part of the plan, right?"
He takes a second to look at me with dark eyes. "No. Katniss and Johanna are in trouble. Go help them. Quickly. Or this is all for not."
So we're just saying it out loud now?
The truth of the danger sets in and I think about finding Johanna and Katniss's cold lifeless bodies in the jungle and suddenly find myself brandishing my trident and starting for the trees. But then there's a sharp zapping sound and a flash of light that stands my hair on end. I turn around to find Beetee on the ground with a wire-wrapped knife by his hand. I run to his side and check for a pulse and breathing. He has both, but barely. He must have tried to run the knife into the force-field while still holding it. I don't have time to help him either.
"I'm sorry Beetee," I whisper before plunging the end of his knife into his forearm and digging out the tracking device. I take a deep breath to steady myself and then do the same thing to me. I remember Haymitch and Heavenbee's words; When the time arrives, cut out the tracking devices. Knock them out if you have to. We can't have the capitol following our tails.
It's excruciating but the adrenaline helps me ignore it. When the sight of the little device in a bloody pool confirms I'm free, I pick up my trident and run off into the jungle.
Just find her. Save Katniss, above everybody else. She's the key.
My heart is thudding in my ears as I whip past the forest as quickly and silently as I can, following the path of the wire. If they were attacked they couldn't have gotten far from that. Finally I stumble into a section where the plants have been ripped and flattened. When I examine it closer, I see that red blood stains the leaves and grass around the entire area. Not just a little blood either. My own trickles down my arm to join the rest of it. The sight of it sends me into a panic. None of this is going as planned. It's wrong, all wrong.
"Johanna!" I shout, praying that she's still alive, "Katniss!"
Let the Careers come, I'll take anyone. When no one answers I take the broken up path leading from the bloody site. I run until I hear a moan that brings me up short.
"Johanna?" I whisper, looking around. I see the edge of something that looks like a shoulder through the leaves and run to it. Johanna is laying there in a heap, blood gushing from a wound on her head and ribs. "Johanna! Who did this? What's going on?"
She looks at me with set eyes and actually finds the strength to shove me over. "You need to go. Someone cut the wire. I cut out Everdeen's tracking device. Enobaria and Brutus just split up. They were fighting me but they heard Peeta so Brutus took off. You need to go help him or she's going to be useless."
"But Jo—"
"Go!"
I take an anxious look at the jungle then hear shouting. "I'll come back for you," I say quickly, "I promise." She waves me away as I run towards the noise. I just make it through the clearing again when I hear the canon. Who is it? Who's dead?
"KATNISS!" I scream, "PEETA!"
No answer. Could I be Johanna? Did she die in those few seconds between me seeing her and me leaving? Could it be Chaff? Our secret and unspoken ally in the shadows? Beetee?
Enobaria emerges from the cover of the plants and lunges for me, looking almost rabid.
"Get off!" I bark, shoving her down. She makes a sound like some sort of angry wildcat and buries her dagger into the back of my leg, causing me to cry out. The second the blade left I felt the blood begin to warm my heel. And then she's gone, as if she was never there.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
I bite my lip as I and the rest of Panem watch the most bizarre, confusing, and chaotic games finale takes place before us. Peeta comes on screen, shouting for Katniss.
"Show me Finnick!" I demand. Almost instantly, because there was so much action to be seen, a little box covering him and one covering Katniss appear in the corners of Peeta's full screen. He trips and in an instant, Brutus is crashing through the trees with an axe raised above his head. Peeta dodges it, but just barely. Finnick is now talking to a barely conscious Johanna. Brutus is about to come down with another lethal hit when Chaff springs from the shadows and blocks it with a thick branch.
"You," Brutus growls, recognizing the phantom of a man who gave them such hell in these games.
"Run, Peeta," Chaff says quickly over his shoulder. It's as he is turning his head back around that he loses it. Brutus's axe cuts cleanly through his neck and then finds a home in his back. The canon fires to confirm his death.
Peeta looks horrified and in an instant he's on his feet. Brutus uses his fists to rain on Peeta until the baker boy suddenly finds someway to get him in a headlock. Brutus's face turns a dark shade of purple until he breaks free, gasping for air. That's when Peeta's knife lands in his heart. The second canon fires and Peeta is off in the jungle again.
I shake my head, trying to comprehend all the chaos at once. The whole time I just keep thinking, Bring him home. Please just bring him home.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
Next thing I hear is the sound of Katniss's voice form the top of the section, shouting, "I'm here! I'm right here!" Trap or not, I run for it because I know the others will too. I have no idea who just died, but at least I know now it's not her.
I hear two more things as I'm running for her. I hear Peeta's answering cries, at first ahead of me now behind me, and the sound of someone else running. If it's not Peeta, not Johanna, it's got to be a Career unless Chaff has survived.
This is so messed up.
When I reach the clearing with the lightning tree, I see a battered and bloody Katniss with her bow. I see Enobaria emerge beside me. Then I see Katniss release an arrow, the lightning strike, and then…
Blazing white, searing, agonizing explosion.
I find myself pressed against the dirt, unable to move or speak.
What just happened?
I can't hear anything but a high-pitches buzzing that hurts my ears. I can barely see anything through the dust, dirt, and falling debris.
I realize Katniss must have broken the force field with Beetee's knife. But is she alive? Where's Johanna? Where's Peeta? I need to get them, I need to save them.
But I can't, because I can't move.
I'm dizzy. I'm confused. And something smells like it's burning.
I think that's me…
Then a hovercraft appears above us and scoops Katniss up in its claw. Then Beetee. And then me. My head falls back limp overhanging the edge of it.
But…Johanna….Peeta…
And then all I know is black.