I'm back with another chapter! Yay! And as promised, a NASTY cliffy. And I have more to say but I think you'll want to read it first..

Oh, yes, and this chapter is dedicated to joymellark98, who went back and answered ALL my random questions. :)

I run through the forest, trying to get away from Snow. But suddenly, he catches up to me and shakes me. "Katniss," he says, "Katniss" I turn but he is still there. Snow dumps some water on my head and keeps shaking me. "Stoppit," I tell him, but he is gone. Someone pinches me. Hard.

I flick open my eyes. "What was that for?" I snarl into the Carribean eyes of Finnick Odair.

He doesn't answer but says instead, "Three Careers at three-o-clock, get your stuff and protect Mags!"

"You should have said that first!" I yell at his back. Now I'm wide-awake. I snatch up my bow and sheath of arrows, whipping out of the grass and hunching in front of Mags.

Finnick is to the left, battling a dark-haired tribute with a bloody knife and Johanna is chasing the other with her ax. How she can carry that thing I have no idea.

"DUCK!" she screams to me, and I duck, yanking Mags along with me. I watch a spear fly over my head.

Towards an unsuspecting Wiress. Time seems to slow down. Sounds are coming from a long tunnel.

Out of nowhere, Beetee comes hurling in and jumps in front of Wiress. Protecting her. Shielding her. Sacrificing himself.

A cannon booms.

I suck in my breath, but I remember we are still fighting and shoot a furious arrow at the Career who threw the spear. It would have hit his heart, killing him but he turns and it lodges itself in his forearm. He yanks it out and I take advantage of his distraction, but before I can let the arrow fly Johanna runs in with a war whoop and buries her ax in his head.

His cannon booms and he falls, dead.

The one woman tribute realizes she is outnumbered and streaks back the way they came from.

Finnick comes panting back to us. "Got…him….dead….Career," he chokes out, and I hand him a bowl of water.

"Oh my gosh," he says, he says, looking at my sad face, "what happened, Katniss?"

Through my sobs, I tell him what happened. "I'm sorry, I know you liked him," he sympathizes.

I look around and take inventory. There's me, Finnick, Johanna, Mags and Wiress now.

"Oh, my gosh," says Finnick furiously, kicking a rock, "I hate this! It's…"

"Really dumb?" Johanna suggests.

"Yes!" cries Finnick, fists clenched. "You know what? I'm not a stinking piece in their Games! Come on guys, we're leaving."

"Okay," Mags, and Wiress gets up to follow her.

"Sure," says Johanna.

"But…Finnick!" I say, "We're in the Hunger Games. We can't really leave, unless we die." Finnick seems to have snapped. He must be halluncinating!

"Oh yes we can, girl on fire," he says, staring at me.

He stomps into the Cornucopia, and I follow him, utterly bemused. He stomps his foot and trident onto the golden surface of the horn, and he hits it so hard that sparks fly.

Johanna, Wiress, Mags and I watch him from the horn.

Finnick keeps slamming his trident into the golden surface.

"Finnick, what the heck are you doing?" I ask. Finnick's officially cracked. He's gone insane.

"Leaving," says Finnick, staring into my eyes with his blue ones. He hits the trident down one more time, finally, and I gasp in surprise as a hidden panel flips open inside the Cornucopia.

"Oh!" A woman's voice shrieks. "Haymitch!" A bottle of water is dumped on me.

"WHAT?!" I yell. "Oh, sorry, Myla," I say apologetically to the woman with dark red hair and flaming blue eyes.

"We just thought you should wake up, Haymitch," says Christopher, the other District 4 mentor, peering in the doorway behind Myla.

"Why?" I ask, confused.

Marie swallows nervously. "W-w-well," she splutters, "President Snow released something into the arena, we don't know what it is but it's going after Katniss."

"And Finnick triggered the emergency escape in the Cornucopia," adds Jamie.

"And Beetee died," adds Lilac sadly.

"Holy…." I mutter, I grab my bottle and fly out into the common viewing area.

"Oh my gosh,"I say. Sinking down into a worn plush chair. The other mentors join me and we watch from a hidden camera inside the Cornucopia. Not even the Capitol knows about this one. Plutarch took a great risk hiding it.

We watch suspiciously as Finnick slams his trident into the Cornucopia. The hidden panel slides open.

Marie yanks a phone out of her pocket. She totally ignores us, just typing rapidly on the phone, speaking nonsense and shaking it.

"Um, Christopher?" I say, "what exactly is Marie doing? This is kind of important," I gesture to the T.V.

"She's authorizing the hovercraft buttons and coding the escape. In English, that means she's triggering the hovercraft."

"Oh."

Finnick is now sticking various parts of his anatomy into the panel's hidden box. A big toe, an arm, an eyeball, a nose, a lock of hair, a leg, a thumb, etc.

The Cornucopia begins to shake. "What is going on?" I yell.

"Come on!" Finnick yells to me. I look at him just in time to see a gaping hole open and Finnick jump in, pulling Mags with him.

Johanna pulls Wiress with her and jumps.

Now it's just me. I snatch my bow and arrows and jump.

The last sensation I feel is falling, falling, falling….

Hee,hee,hee. I know the ending and you don't, I know the ending and you don't...Yes, this was a shorter chapter, but if I had continued to go it would have been too long. Next chapter: Haymitch makes a plan, Katniss & Co. go to District 12, Peeta goes exploring, and it's tenatively titled, "District 13". Creative, right?

This chapter's random review topic is TARANTULAS. Make of it what you will.

Until next chapter-

~~FuzzySocksAndWriting