A white, eyeless mutt leaps out at Jackson just as she whips around to give the tunnel behind her one last glance. She disappears beneath a horde of the monsters. I can see their teeth, filed not unlike the Morphlings', as they begin to tear through the opening and into the new tunnel after us. They look almost human, though their pale white skin appears as if it has been stretched over the bones. It's a horrifying sight.
Katniss's first instinct is to load up an explosive bow and shoot the opening. The tunnel lights up with fire and she goes flying back into the water as the arrow does its job.
No one has time to realize that Jackson's dead.
"Go! Go! Go! It's mutts!"
"Come on, come on, come on!"
A couple of people haul the Mockingjay to her feet.
I stare at the mutts in horror as they begin to emerge from the fire. I think I preferred the monkeys.
Finnick gives me a shove in the opposite direction and I don't need to be told twice to know that I should run. The group collectively rushes down the tunnel, away from the creatures. I can hear them screeching as they give chase.
"Pollux, lead us out of here!" Castor shouts.
"Come on!" Someone calls back to the rest of us encouragingly.
The water splashes as we dash through the tunnels. My heart pounds in my chest and my breath comes in near gasps. No. I'm not going to let myself be set off again.
Finnick uses his trident to tear my cuffs off as we run. He hands me a knife and I can't help but stare at him briefly.
"Do you really think this is a good idea?"
"We'll find out!" He says.
Oh boy.
The mutts lead out from a side tunnel and trample over someone, snarling.
"Castor!" A shout of horror comes, somehow hearable over the sounds of the mutts and the screaming man.
We're forced to halt in the intersection. Some of the others fire their guns at the mutts and I realize that even the propo team's armed. Cressida's aim is actually pretty good.
But the mutts split our group in half.
As we barrel down one of the offshooting tunnels, Katniss pauses to fire another arrow at the mutts.
"Fall back!" Someone shouts.
As the intersection explodes in a burst of light, I glimpse Gale holding back a grief-stricken Pollux. Peeta drags Katniss along as she stares in horror at the creatures that pursue the other half of the group down another tunnel. We turn and hare down the tunnel as some of the mutts break off to chase after us.
I get a glance back at the mutts as we run. They're trying to adapt to the tunnels and run on two legs instead of all four. They look almost human, silhouetted against the flames behind them, and that's scary to even think about; to compare those things to a human.
Mutts approach us from ahead and we make a sharp turn down another tunnel just in time. The two groups of mutts converge behind us, shrieking as they tear after us through the sewers.
Pollux leads us to a ladder in a bigger area. There's only a few of us left, those that weren't picked off missing with Cressida and the rest of the propo crew. Katniss fires an arrow back at the end of the tunnel, where the mutts are. The entrance shakes as it glows orange. Pollux throws Peeta back, away from the ladder as a mutt leaps at them.
Despite the fire burning in the tunnel entrance, they flood out into the clearing.
I'm finally forced to fight.
I thrust my knife into the face of an approaching mutt and kick the creature back as I tear my only weapon free. It lets out another one of its horrific shrieks, but collapses when someone shoots it from behind.
Mutts pour into the clearing from tunnels on either side. It's pure chaos.
I catch Katniss doing an amazing job as her arrows nail into the faces and chests of the hideous creatures. I've never been more thankful to have her as an ally.
I cry out in pain as a mutt's clawed fingers slash across the side of my face. I pull back just enough to get enough room to pierce my knife through its bony white chest. It collapses at my feet and I move to assist a struggling Peeta.
I knock a mutt off the top of the boy and stab it through the back of its neck. "Peeta! Go! Get up the ladder!"
He scrambles for it without a word of protest. The terror on his face tells me that he's not built for war any more than I am.
As the fight rages on, my exhaustion begins to get the better of me. I'm a little slower than I was a couple of minutes before. I don't even notice it until my swings become clumsy and a mutt bites into my upper arm. Screaming, I stab it in the head until it releases its hold and crumbles into the water. My arm aches and I can feel the blood flowing down it.
I catch a glimpse of Finnick pulling a mutt away from Katniss and throwing it down to the ground. I lose sight of her for a few moments, and she's flying through the air the next time I see her. She hits her face on a raised platform and falls into the water. I scramble to aid her before something else gets to her before she can surface.
She pops up just as I'm getting to her, gasping and looking a little dazed.
"Come on!" I say.
Her eyes narrow on something behind me and she races past. I turn just in time to see her bowling a mutt off of Peeta, who hadn't made it to the ladder in time.
I grab him and shove him towards the ladder, making sure he actually starts climbing it before I turn back to the fight.
I let out a strangled cry of alarm as a mutt tears my feet out from beneath me and drags me into the water. "Katniss!"
The mutt pulls me beneath the surface and I struggle to wriggle out from beneath it. I see its teeth as it tries to bite at my face, to maul me like Castor and Jackson were. I violently stab at the creature's shoulders with my knife, trying not to let the water distract me too much. It nips at my hand as my knife plunges into its shoulder, Its claws dig into my flesh as it tries to hold me still beneath it. I can't breathe.
Suddenly, the mutt's being thrown off of me. I surface, coughing, to see Finnick fending the creature off with his trident. I frown at my bloodied fingers; my knife's gone.
It's only him, Katniss, and I left down here. Everyone else has gone up the ladder. Except for the mutts that haven't yet been killed.
"Let's go!" I choke out, splashing towards the platform that the bottom of the ladder rested on.
Finnick stabs a mutt as it tries to get to a dazed Katniss and helps her to her feet. "Go, go, go!"
He practically throws her towards the ladder and she obediently makes the rest of the way towards it. I tear a discarded arrow from the body of a dead mutt to use as a temporary weapon.
"Katniss!" Finnick throws his trident at the back of a mutt as it tries to rip the Mockingjay off of the bottom rungs of the ladder.
The mutt falls into the water and another one throws itself at Four. They disappear beneath the surface of the water and I hesitate, uncertain of what to do.
He surfaces a moment later and draws a knife with a cry as he faces off against the mutt. It leaps at him and he manages to pin it down, stabbing it a few times.
I think he has it under control. I race towards the ladder and begin to climb after Katniss, leaving the arrow in my hand behind. I freeze, however, when I hear the sounds of more mutts dropping into the water, primed to attack the last person in the underground. Oh no.
I hear fighting break out again, Finnick straining as he fights off the screeching creatures. I watch him grasp onto the ladder beneath me.
Then a mutt's grabbing his back and he's disappearing beneath a wave of them in the water, screaming at the top of his lungs. The footage of District One's Cato getting mauled in Katniss's first Games appears in my head and I'm horrified.
Katniss screams Finnick's name down the ladder.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
There's nothing we can do to save him.
Finnick's lost.
I slowly force myself to climb the ladder the rest of the way, slipping by Katniss to join the others. I feel numb, despite the blood flowing from several wounds. Two words keep repeating themselves in my head. Finnick's gone. Finnick's gone. Finnick's gone.
I don't want to believe it.
This can't be happening.
Cheerful, compassionate, newlywed Finnick is gone.
Getting mauled to death by mutts.
"Katniss!" He screams.
I sit back and bury my face in my hands, closing my eyes. Because I'm losing a young man, a young man who was almost a little brother to me. I'm losing another member of my odd little messed up family.
The Capitol's taken him too.
"Nightlock." I hear the Holo beeping, as if it's a bomb. "Nightlock. Nightlock."
There's an explosion beneath us, back in the tunnel we've climbed out of.
The Holo's blown up.
Any doubt I've had about Katniss being bad is gone. She just provided Finnick with mercy, like she did Cato, instead of allowing him to be mauled alive. She's no monster, she doesn't wish to harm anyone. She's a girl locked up in a war, just like the rest of us.
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, Gale reminds us that we need to keep moving, that we don't yet have time to mourn.
We're on the train level again, the full group back together, at one of the stations. As we emerge through a doorway, into a pillared room, there are Peacekeepers waiting for us at the exit. They begin firing and we take cover behind the pillars.
One of the staircases blows up when Katniss spots two Peacekeepers and shoots it with an explosive arrow.
The explosions don't bother me anymore. Nothing does; nothing but Finnick's gruesome demise.
We take off, using the pillars to cover us. One of the members of the propo team, someone I hadn't really gotten to know the name of, explodes as a beam of light comes down from the ceiling on him. Cressida looks on in horror.
"Go! Go!" Someone says.
"Keep going! Keep going!" Katniss grabs her arm and drags her along.
We race through the railway station, dodging gunfire and beams of light. Gale provides a little cover fire as we go.
There's only six of us left. Peeta, Pollux, Gale, Katniss, Cressida, and I. Homes must've been among those lost in the mutt attack. That one really dwindled our numbers.
The ground starts tearing up behind us as spikes poke up through it. It's fast. I've never raced a floor before, but I never want to do it again either.
I jump as the last section of spikes comes up practically beneath my feet, throwing myself towards the others. Pain ripples through me as I crash onto solid ground, reminded of the injuries that I received during the mutt attack. I lay still for a moment, teeth clenched, as I rub at a spot where a mutt had stabbed me with its claws. Katniss hauls me to my feet and I groan as I stumble along after her.
"I know where we are!" Cressida tells us as we continue running through the station. She glances at us over her shoulder. "I know a place. Up those stairs."
We race up the specified stairs, back up to the surface of the Capitol, and I get a glimpse of a wanted poster glowing in the darkness of the night; it shows Finnick on it. I'm almost annoyed, though more saddened, knowing that he'd have laughed at the sight of it- the young man always did have a cruel sense of humor.
"Keep going!" The film director urges us.
She guides us through a courtyard, into a plaza. I glimpse another wanted poster, this one flashing with each of our faces on it, as well as those of the dead.
Cressida stops at one of the shops and knocks on the door.