"We have to find Katniss!" Peeta yells frantically. "Now!"
"Wh-?" I respond, not fully believing what is going on.
Peeta pushes me in the direction of the larger tunnels. "Go!"
"Peeta, what is going on?" Finnick asks him while we're running.
"Mutts," Peeta answers breathlessly. "I can't… I… We just have to find Katniss. So we can run far away from her."
"What?!" I shriek. What kind of plan is that? Finding Katniss only to run away from her again.
"Because I'm programmed to kill her!" Peeta yells, suddenly extremely angry.
"We can't go back," Finnick shouts. "They're behind us. So we better hope Katniss and the rest of the team had a good head start because we'll have to follow them anyway."
I look at Peeta's face but he looks more determent to get out of this sewer alive than to find and kill Katniss.
We decide to go up as fast as possible. If we have to reach the mansion via the Capitol street, then so be it. We can disguise ourselves if we have to. Besides, I'd rather be surrounded by hundreds of peacekeepers on the street than hundreds of this unknown mutts who are following us right now.
Suddenly we stumble upon a golden beam with a heap of flesh lying at the bottom. The smell is even more terrible.
"Is that someone from…?" I can't even finish my sentence because I realize it is. It's someone we knew. On the other hand we finally know if we're headed in the right direction. The body proves that Katniss and the team went this way.
We turn left and then right again to avoid any more pods and at the same time find an exit, but a fight between mutts and peacekeepers is blocking our way.
"Turn around!" I yell. It's no use to try to keep silent anymore because I'm pretty sure the mutts are tracking us with our smell. And judging by the number of dead peacekeepers it's obviously not just our smell but human smell in general.
"There," Finnick points. "A ladder!"
"Go, go, go!" Peeta screams.
One look at Peeta makes me feel nauseous when I realize he doesn't have a gun, not a working one at least. I take one of Finnick's since he has two guns and hand it to Peeta.
"Shoot at the mutts, okay?" I tell him only half jokingly.
He fires it immediately just as Finnick and I throw our ax and trident at them. The ladder isn't that far away anymore but we're outnumbered by the mutts, at least fifteen to one. This is starting to look very bad.
"They're everywhere," I say breathlessly. And then the truth of my own words hits me. They really are everywhere. There's no chance everyone will get out of this alive.
I'm swinging my ax as fast as possible, trying to hit as many mutts as I can while Peeta is trying to kill them with bullets and Finnick with his trident. But it's no use. All I can do is give the others a chance to escape.
For some reason, the thought of having to die doesn't frighten me. At least not as much as I expected it to. And if it means saving my best friend who happens to be the only one who really cares for me and loves me for who I am, it'll be worth it. Right? Finnick needs to go back to Annie and Katniss needs Peeta in her life, even if she tells everyone otherwise.
"Come on. We have to get out of here," Finnick says while summoning back his trident with his wristband. The ladder is only a few feet away now.
I swallow the lump in my throat and say, "Ok. You two go first, I'm right behind you."
The fact that he trusts my words without even turning his head to check if I really am behind him makes it even harder to do it. It's hard, sacrificing yourself, but I'd still happily do it. So instead of following Finnick I turn around and run in the opposite direction to face the mutts. I try not to trip over my feet and fall into the dirty and lethal-looking water I failed to notice before. I'm literally running away from safety now and every voice in my head screams 'Go back!' and 'What are you doing?' but I ignore them all. My heart is beating faster and faster in the anticipation of having to fight those mutts.
A mere two seconds have passed before a hand suddenly grabs my arm and yanks me back.
"Where do you think you're going?" Finnick asks me with an angry look in his eyes.
I can't form words, I just stare at his face while he drags me with him, away from the mutts. He throws his trident further than I've ever seen him do and with it, he kills at least three mutts. My ax follows quickly and the explosion kills some more but we will never be able to kill all of them.
"But Finn..." I start but he cuts me off.
"No, I won't hear it. I won't leave you behind, you hear me?"
He's obviously very angry with me but it's still very touching.
We try to run faster because we can see the mutts coming dangerously close but it's no use. The floor is too slippery and right before we reach the stairs I fall down. Finnick loses his grip on my arm and before I can get up, a sharp pain jolts through my arm where the mutt buried his teeth.
In a flash Finnick's trident hits the mutt's head and somehow Finnick also manages to pull me up. I see Peeta throwing something in the sewer and a loud bang announces the explosion and the accompanying deaths of the mutts.
Blood is gushing over my arm and everything hurts. Peeta takes my wrist but I have no idea why. Maybe to pull me up. But there's too much blood, I'll never be able to get up without fainting. I don't know why I feel so cold since blood is usually warm and my whole left side is covered in blood now so I should be warm but I'm not. There are lots of sounds trying to get to my brain but I can't make out where the sounds are coming from or what the sounds are. Maybe it's people talking, maybe it's other mutts coming for my friends, coming for Finnick, ...
"Finnick..." I try screaming for my best friend but I can only manage a weak whisper. But he hears it nevertheless.
"I'm here," he says in a soft voice. It's almost soothing.
My body starts shaking uncontrollably and I still have no clue what is going on. There's more blood and it's not just red anymore, it's every color imaginable.
"What's happening?" I ask Finnick. I don't know if he can understand what I'm saying since my words came out like a string of breaths.
I keep shaking, blood keeps gushing, I continue to feel colder and colder and I still don't know what is happening. I can't see anymore, have no control over my muscles and body so I can't reach out to touch Finnick to see if he's still with me or not, I can't hear anything except a very high-pitched beep. And then, just as soon as it had begun, it stops.
A blue sky appears above me, I hear panicky voices, I feel a pair of legs under my back and a pair of hands holding me tightly.
"Is it over?" I ask Finnick. "Am I dead?"
"No you're not. You're still here," Finnick laughs. He actually laughs as if I just said the most funny thing he's ever heard.
"Why are you laughing?"
"Because you're alive," he says between fits of laughter. "You scared the crap out of me and you're still alive. Oh, Johanna!"
He holds me even closer and buries his face in the crook of my neck. His body that was shaking of laughter a second ago is now shaking while he cries his heart out.