Chapter 54

When I woke, Peeta was hissing Katniss' name with a ferocity that had my entire squad on edge.

"Katniss..." he whispered into the darkness. Horrified, I realized that it wasn't just his voice. I could hear it reverberating toward us from deeper in the tunnel system.

"Peeta, are you okay?" I asked, edging toward him. Katniss raised her bow and aimed an arrow straight at his head, but when Peeta screamed her name, it wasn't out of fear for himself, but for her.

"Katniss! Get out of here!" he called frantically, yanking at his handcuffs. He tried to stumble to his feet, but tripped and collapsed back onto the cement floor.

"Why?" Katniss asked calmly, keeping her arrow trained on him. "What's making that sound?"

"I don't know. Only that it has to kill you," Peeta said, the panic rising in his voice as the approaching hissing got louder. "Run! Get out! Go!" he insisted.

Katniss lowered her bow, but I could see a plan forming from the calculating look in her eyes as she glanced around as the rest of the squad.

"Whatever it is, it's after me. It might be a good time to split up."

No, Katniss. Not this. You can't make up a mission, and then expect me to let you run off by yourself across the Capitol to fulfill it. If you want to go on some crazy quest to kill Snow, that's fine. I'll support that until the day I die. But you can't go alone.

Even if the rest of the squad members didn't realize that Katniss' suggestion was less than selfless, they echoed similar concerns.

"But we're your guard," Jackson insisted.

"And your crew," Cressida reminded her, although I knew that this meant nothing to Katniss.

"I'm not leaving you," I added firmly. Katniss looked at me, and in that moment, I knew that she would stay. We were a team, and some creepy hissing voice was not going to break that bond.

We took off together down the tunnel system, first at a rapid walk, and then at a run when we heard the hissing almost directly behind us. Peeta's eyes were wild, but he managed to keep himself together, sprinting along with us toward what appeared to be a ledge in the distance.

When I looked back, I saw them. Mutts, with crazed eyes, barred teeth, and slipping feet, charging toward us at full speed. I ripped the bow from my back and fired arrows blindly into the pack, praying that I might somehow make contact.

We can't out-run them. And if they get any closer, Peeta is going to lose it.

And then, at the end of the tunnel, I spotted a ladder. There was shouting and clamoring all around me, but I plunged through the squad toward Katniss and pushed her toward the ladder. I yelled at her to climb, but she was nearly frozen with fear, and I doubted that she could even hear me over the din of mutts and frantic soldiers. Pollux thrusted himself easily up the ladder and reached down to help me push Katniss up. Then, I helped Cressida and Peeta up toward what I could only hope was safety. It wasn't until Finnick ran up behind me and ordered me to climb that I did, urging my body up the ladder as fast as I was able.

Behind me, I heard a horrible scream. A human scream.

"Keep going," Finnick urged, reaching up to push on my boot.

"Who is that?" I gasped.

"Messalla, maybe. Or Jackson, or Leeg 1. There's nothing we can do. We'll mourn later- if we want to get out alive, we don't have a second to spare."

I blocked out all of the emotions rushing into my head, and just focused on climbing. When I felt as though I might black out, I felt hands on my shoulders and my back, pulling me up through a hole into another passageway. I collapsed onto the floor, suddenly conscious of a blinding pain in my neck. I reached up to touch it, and my fingers came away bloody.

"Gale," Finnick's voice reached me through what felt like a thick fog. "Stay with us."

Soft fingers... Katniss' fingers?... wrapped a crude bandage around my neck.

"Come on, Gale." Finnick's voice again. Hands on my hands, hands on my back, hands on my shoulders, helping me up. I stood unsteadily, barely able to see through the darkness and the pain. Finnick wrapped an arm around my back to support me, and as I regained my sense of balance, I was able to make out the shapes of my remaining squad-mates around me. "You're going to make it," Finnick assured me, although I wasn't sure whether I could believe him.

"Messalla is dead," I said uncertainly. "And Leeg 1. And Jackson."

"Yes," Finnick affirmed quietly. "They're dead. But you're alive. Leeg 1 and Jackson gave themselves up so that we could run. Messalla... gone. They died to keep us safe. So hang in there."

Peeta huddled against the wall, shivering and gazing up at the rest of us with terrified, dark eyes. Katniss knelt down in front of him and took his hands in hers. She whispered to him, trying to pull him out of his impending mental collapse. I wanted to help her, but when I tried to take a step forward, I nearly lost my balance and Finnick had to help me steady myself again.

"I'm losing it. I'll go mad. Like them," Peeta frantically confessed to Katniss.

"She can handle him," Finnick told me, locking me in his grip when I tried to move toward Katniss again. "I won't let him hurt her."

But Finnick didn't need to fight me any longer. Katniss bent down and kissed Peeta, pulling him against her with a passion unlike anything I had ever experienced from her. Finnick inhaled sharply and tried to guide me away, but I had gone stiff. I watched as Katniss pulled away from Peeta without breaking the intensity of her eye contact with him.

"Don't let him take you from me," she said, and I felt as though I might be sick. "Stay with me."

"Always," he murmured.

I groaned aloud.


Thanks so much for reading! I really do have the greatest readers, and I want each and every one of you to know how much I appreciate your reading.

Confession: this is the chapter that I was least looking forward to writing in all of Gale's Amaranth. It's critical to the action of Mockingjay, and yet it's so gross that I can hardly stomach it.

Solution: deviate as necessary. I couldn't kill Finnick. I just couldn't.

I'm curious to know, either way, whether this chapter worked for you!