"Maybe it's on another floor," I suggest when Peeta, Finnick and I can't find a shaft leading to the tunnels in this or the adjacent apartment.
"We'll be walking on thin ice, Johanna. There could be people living there…" Peeta trails off.
I sigh. "There are people everywhere. It's our best shot."
"But…"
"Let's just go," Finnick interrupts.
I don't know why Peeta is so against the tunnels. It'll be much safer there, apart from possible mutts, but the Capitolians are going crazy so they're basically as dangerous as the mutts, if not more.
We check every apartment until we finally find one two floors down.
"You go first," I tell Finnick, pushing him towards the entrance of the shaft.
"You're not running off again with Peeta, are you?" Finnick asks me, half-joking but half-serious as well.
I just roll my eyes in response. "No, I'm not. Just go."
I get a nervous feeling in my stomach when I'm following Finnick down the ladder, partly because of my previous experiences in the tunnels and partly because I know that when we leave the tunnels, it'll be it.
I jump off the final few sports and feel water splashing up my legs. There's an inch of water in these tunnels which makes it much harder to stay unnoticed.
"That's not good," Peeta says, voicing my thoughts.
"On the bright side, other people or things won't be able to stay unseen as well," Finnick says optimistically.
"Mind the cameras," I say once we start walking.
Peeta and I follow Finnick because he knew our location above and managed to think of a way underground as well.
"How do you think the entrance to his mansion will be protected underground?" Peeta asks in a whispery voice.
"Peacekeepers no doubt," Finnick mutters. "Right, here to the left, into this smaller one."
"How will we deal with those peacekeepers?" I ask.
"Axes, tridents and guns are the answer, dear Jo," Finnick says.
I roll my eyes. "I can barely move my arm as it is, I doubt I'll be of much use."
Finnick stops abruptly and turns around. "Johanna Mason, don't leave us hanging here!"
"Fine!" I grunt. "But it does hurt like hell!"
"Ssht!" Peeta suddenly says.
He points towards a large shadow in the larger tunnel opposite ours.
"What is that?" Finnick asks.
"Peacekeepers," I answer. "But we're not at Snow's mansion yet, are we?"
Peeta shakes his head. "They're probably here to alarm others when there are people down here. I mean, we're pretty close to Snow's mansion now. I doubt there'll only be two peacekeepers at his door."
And sure enough, we take little detours to avoid peacekeepers until we eventually realize we'll have to get past them one way or another.
"The only option is to kill them," I say.
"But we'll alarm the others," Peeta protests.
"Then what's your plan, brainy?" I snap. This is seriously not the time to go into a full discussion.
"Alarming the others it is then," he admits with a sigh.
"Okay, what do you think of this," I begin in a hushed and excited yet whispery voice. "Peeta distracts these peacekeepers by killing them while Finnick and I run to the next round of peacekeepers. When you're done, Peeta, you follow us. Finnick kills the second round and then I go to the last couple of rounds. I don't think there'll be that many. I mean, we're too close to the mansion now. I'd guess three rounds?"
Finnick nods. "Something like that."
"And what about inside the mansion, if we get in?" Peeta asks but I wave his question away.
"We'll deal with that when we get there."
I place my finger against my lips to indicate that our mission is about to start. Peeta moves forward to walk first, followed by Finnick and then me.
"Go!" I whisper once we've reached a tunnel with two peacekeepers.
Peeta starts shooting and Finnick and I run through the tunnel, Finnick holding his arms above his head to protect himself from possible bullets. I run as if I just escaped from a prison. The sound of Peeta's gunfire echoes through the tunnels, making it sound like a dozen more gunmen are shooting.
Finnick and I turn into another tunnel and a bullet scrapes my shoulder. I can feel it's bleeding but I don't care. There's no time. I keep running while Finnick shoots the four peacekeepers guarding this tunnel. Peeta has caught up with us and kills the last peacekeeper.
"Left?" I yell back to Finnick.
"Yes!"
While turning left inside the last tunnel, I am greeted by two peacekeepers – apparently Snow didn't think anyone would get through the two outer circles – who are ready to shoot me. They're too late though, since I already swung my ax at one of them and pushed the button to charge it. I don't have to bother shooting the second peacekeepers since Finnick's trident hit him.
Watching the peacekeeper getting shocked gives me a strange rush, something I haven't felt in a long time. It feels good, as if I'm finally alive again.
Peeta has arrived at a small green door and shoots the lock to open it. I don't know why but I imagined a much larger entrance, even though it's in a tunnel.
"Move!" I yell, running past Peeta to get into the house first. The adrenaline is still pumping through my veins and I can't wait to find Snow and kill him.
Suddenly I am hit by flashbacks from my torture in the Capitol. Fear and pain are taking over my body but my mind is fighting back somehow, with anger, fury, rage.
We're running up some stairs now, into a big corridor, past one of Snow's servants who I kill with a single movement of my finger pulling the trigger.
"Johanna!" I hear Finnick say in shock but I couldn't care less. These people lived in Snow's mansion, they brought him his food without even trying to poison him, they walked past him without even trying to kill him with a steak knife, they were on his side. And they still are. So they have to die.
My vision becomes a dangerously dark shade of red and somewhere in my mind I know this isn't right but I keep going, killing everyone in my path.
I don't know how many people I've killed or how many times Finnick and Peeta tried to take my gun away from me when we finally find Snow in a room full of roses.
He's standing by the window, smiling at us as if he expected us to barge in any second.
"Look," is all he says while he points to something outside, still smiling. But before we can actually look or do anything else, the sound of explosion and chaos and fear is everywhere.
Suddenly coming to my senses again, I run to a window to see. Dead children, fire and parachutes. That's all it takes to make me vomit all over Snow's beautifully thick rug.
Someone big grabs me by putting his arms around me so I can't move anymore. The man, I don't recognize him but I assume he's a rebel, puts me in a room with Finnick but we don't know where Peeta is.
"Stay," the man commands us before he slams the door shut.
I let myself fall to the ground, suddenly completely exhausted. Everything went so ridiculously fast. Finnick is looking at me with a hard and accusing look in his eyes.
"What happened to me?" I ask, tears and disgust sounding through my voice.
The look in his eyes softens when he speaks. "I don't know. You weren't yourself. You just went on a rampage and we couldn't get through to you."
"Why?"
"Why you were like that? I assume it's the venom of the mutts. What else could it be? But your arm looks almost normal now."
I look down and see the bandage is loose, revealing the now normal colored flesh. Only the wound is still visible but it's not infected anymore.
"I don't understand. It doesn't hurt too. What happened outside?"
Finnick crashes on the bed and buries his face in a pillow before he lifts it again to speak. "I don't know who but someone bombed the children."
"Who were these children? Why were they here?"
He looks at me as if he can't believe I don't know the answer to that question. But I do know it, I just don't want to admit that Snow could actually use innocent children to protect his own life. But then again, the Hunger Games were basically the same.
"Where do you think they took Peeta?" I ask after some fifteen minutes of silence.
Finnick doesn't answer because he probably doesn't know. We're just stuck in a room in Snow's mansion, with no idea what is going on. It's quiet outside and it's dark. How long have we been in here?
The door barges open again, revealing the same big man who carried me here.
"Finnick Odair, you're free to go," the man says.
Finnick and I look at each other, at a loss for words because we still don't know what's happening.
"Go," the man repeats. "Johanna Mason, you're officially taken into prison for several war crimes."
"What?" Finnick and I shout at the same time, but the man isn't listening anymore. He grabs Finnick by his shirt and drags him along, leaving me alone in the room.
The key locking the door is the loudest thing I've ever heard in my entire life.