The self-named Final Four reclined under some basic tent structures they had constructed with sticks and grass-woven mats. Birds and insects buzzed and chirped relentlessly around them, and the oppressive heat weighed down on their draining strength.

"Wow," Katniss said rather loudly, "It'd be great to have some water right now."

In response, a silver parachute drifted down and landed befor her. It did not contain, however, what she had asked for; inside was a sort of sharp, metal tube. Attached by a string was a note that read 'bet you'll never figure this out lol',signed 'Haymie'.

While Katniss shouted curses at the sky, Peeta fiddled with the gift.

"Any idea what this could be?" he asked their teammates.

Taking it back from him with a shrug, Katniss turned it between her fingers. "I guess I'll just eat it."

Before she could pop it into her mouth, Finnick grabbed her wrist firmly. "It's for getting water-you stick it into trees."

"So, if you stuck it into a person, could you just drink their blood?" pondered Katniss.

"Guys, what's up with this all this fog? Should we-aaargh!" Peeta's arm began to twist and convulse as he scrambled away from the dense, white fog that had begun to roll towards them.

Finnick slung Peeta, who was recovering from his encounter with the force field, over his shoulder and Katniss took Mags on her back. They stumbled as fast as they could downhill, tripping over a seemingly endless series of roots and vines. When the antagonistic fog began to catch up with them, wherever it made contact burned intensely and ceased to respond to their brain's instructions.

A spasm in Katniss's leg brought her to the forest floor, and Mags tumbled off. As she struggled to even get back on her feet, Katniss knew that she couldn't carry Finnick's mentor any farther.

"Finnick!" she called ahead, "Can you carry them both?"

He lowered his head. When it rose again, she could see tears in his eyes. "No. Maybe... maybe if we were underwater."

"Alright, well, Hags is pretty much done then," she said, staggering forward, "I can't totally remember why we picked her up in the first place though, so, I don't think it's that big of a deal."

They broke through the forest onto the beach, before promptly collapsing. Laying out on her back, Katniss explained some of the consequences of losing Mags to the poisonous fog attack.

"Final Four is no longer a valid team name. It's time to start thinking trio names, like The Three Musketeers, The Three Amigos, etcetera."

"Not all teams," panted Peeta, barely conscious, "Have to be based on the number of members in the team."

"Oh, yeah."

"Yeah," said Peeta.

"Lots of sports teams do location names," said Katniss, sitting up, "So I guess we'll be the 'Lakers' now, since there's a pretty big lake here."

"That's great, Katniss."

Hot tears streamed out of Finnick's eyes onto the sand.

The true effect of the fog became apparent the longer they remained on the beach. The initial burning returned, accompanied by blistering and angry rashes. They soon realized that recovering would take more effort than waiting for pain to subside.

"Haymitch," she said, turning her face to the sky, "I would like some medicine."

A silver parachute immediately dropped out of the sky.

"Since when is getting stuff so easy?" she asked no one, opening up the box. Inside was a jar of strongly scented cream, as well as a note reading, 'I sold all of Peeta's siblings into slavery to get enough money to send you this. Possibly some of Gale's too, I get them mixed up.'

Katniss spoke nothing of this as they applied the ointment to their wounds, which was the majority of their skin. When they all felt as though they could proceed at a somewhat reasonable pace, they started across the beach, no longer holding the opinion that the concealment offered by the forest was worth anything. Upon coming to the top of a gradual raise in elevation, they looked down and saw another team that appeared to be recovering from the forest's obstacles. Cautiously making their way towards them, it appeared as though they were in no condition to fight.

Katniss instinctively raised her bow, but Finnick stretched his hand out in front of her.

"They're with us," he said.

Beetee and Wiress were stretched out on the sand, soaked in blood and sweat. A third, female victor's face lit up when she saw Finnick, but fell at noticing Katniss's arrow pointed directly at her head.

"Who even is this?" Katniss asked tensely.

"It's Johanna. She's supposed to be in the beginning, but got skipped over."

Acknowledging the newcomer with a slight upward nudge of her bow, she continued the evaluation. "So what's her deal?"

"She's a snarky whore," answered Finnick.

"We already have two of those on our team."

"These two would be dead if it weren't for me," Johanna said in her defense, "I got them for you."

"Is it too late to not want them anymore...?"

The general consensus was that it was in fact too late for this, and that Katniss would have to live with her previous decisions. And so this new, joint team made a makeshift camp on the beach, nobody being of the opinion that they wanted to be gassed or rained on by hot blood, as it turned out the case had been with Johanna and her absent-minded companions. The two District 3 victors appeared to be adapting poorly to their new environment; Wiress was chanting 'tick, tock, tick tock,' to herself, while Beetee, who appeared to be more mentally aware, seemed more concerned with the condition of his spool of wire than he did his own leg-which was bleeding.

"Oh, Wiress, I get it," said Katniss, turning about in search of her, "The arena is a clock, and all the events are on a schedule. Right?"

Wiress, unable to respond, continued to bleed out as Gloss emerged from the water. Katniss's bow delivered an arrow almost immediately into her face.

"What kind of a plan was that? I can just kite you guys all day," Katniss demonstrated her point by taking several steps back before ending Cashmere in the same manner.

Brutus and Enobaria retreated into the waves upon seeing that they were outnumbered and had lost the element and surprise.

"Finnick, finish them! They're no match for you in the sea!" urged Katniss.

Before he could pursue them, however, the ground began to shift underneath them. The beach began to spin rapidly, and the forest around them turned into a green blur. When it decelerated, and finally stopped, each blue slice of water was indistinguishable.

"Last year's careers were better," Katniss commented, "They had a plan. Thresh was cool too. What happened to that guy? Did he die?"

Making a silent agreement to not acknowledge Katniss's post-traumatic delusions, the team moved back into the forest to avoid further ambush, hoping that they could keep ahead of the clock. This immediately failed, as Katniss began to scream, tearing off on her own into the forest.

"Primrue?!" she cried, leaves whipping across her face. Her teammates were baffled, unable to hear the voice that drew her forward. Finnick rushed after her.

"Katniss, this isn't real," he said, seizing her arm, "It's just a trick."

"They had to have gotten the recordings from somewhere then!"

He shook his head sadly. "No, Katniss. Computers exist."

Covering her ears ineffectually against the phantom, pleading voice of her sister, Katniss started to make her way back with Finnick. The others were in sight, when their progress was brought to an abrupt end by an invisible barrier. Peeta and Finnick slashed and stabbed at it to no avail.

"I'm just going to say it," Katniss said, observing their efforts, "If they had used whatever material this is instead of the force-field for the arena, we wouldn't have been able to escape."

Finnick's trident froze half-way to its destination, and he slowly turned back to look at her.