"You pushed him off you. You couldn't have known that would trigger the net at that exact spot," I tell Peeta after his death request.
"Who cares? He's dead, isn't he? I don't know. I've never seen myself like that before. Katniss is right. I'm the monster. I'm the mutt. I'm the one Snow has turned into a weapon!" Peeta cries.
"It's not your fault," I tell him.
"You can't take me with you. It's only a matter of time before I kill someone else. Maybe you think it's kinder to just dump me somewhere. Let me take my chances. But that's the same thing as handing me over to the Capitol. Do you think you'd be doing me a favor by handing me back to Snow?" Peeta asks.
"I'll kill you before that happens, promise," Gale says.
"It's no good. What if you're not there to do it? I want one of those poison pills like the rest of you guys have," Peeta says. The poison pills. I have one resting in a pocket of my suit that I hope never to use.
"It's not about you. We're on a mission. And you're necessary to it. Think we might find some food here?" Katniss asks. We split up into two groups – one who stays with Peeta and the other who raids the apartment. I stay with Peeta. It seems like the best I could do to keep him calm. Both Katniss and Gale go look for food. They come back soon with cans of lamb stew and we all eat, until the television turns back on, loudly.
I get to see myself die.
In the same way that the tributes are broadcast onto the sky of the arena, we are presented. My name comes up in the little rectangle with the number four beside it. The original picture I took when I was fifteen in the arena is above the words. Snow happily delivers another speech about how the war is turning in their favor and will soon be over with the rebels' leader dead. I can't help but stare at Katniss, full and alive, sitting on the ground in front of me. Then, it's to Coin back in 13. Even she believes that Katniss is dead, delivering a speech that is easily scripted.
"I had no idea how much I meant to her," Katniss says. It's true.
"Tomorrow morning, when we pull Katniss Everdeen's body from the ashes, we will see exactly who the Mockingjay is. A dead girl who could save no one, not even herself," President Snow closes. The seal comes up and the screen goes dead.
"Except that you won't find her," I say.
"We can get a head start on them at least," Katniss says, picking herself up off the ground. "Any ideas?" She's a true leader now. This is what I fought for, Katniss standing her, truly recognizing her possibilities.
"Why don't we start by ruling out possibilities. The street is not one of them," I start.
"The rooftops are just as bad."
"We might be able to withdraw, but that would mean a failed mission."
"It was never intended for all of you to go forward. You just had the misfortune to be with me," Katniss shrugs.
"We're with you now. We can't stay put. That leaves one option."
"Underground," Gale fills in.
"Okay then. Let's make it look like we've never been here," Katniss leads us. We put our cans in the trash chute, flip sofa curtains, wipe up the floors, and lock the door. Once we've finished, Peeta still is stuck on the couch.
"I'm not going. I'll either disclose your position or hurt someone else," Peeta protests.
"Snow's people will find you," I remind him.
"Then leave me a pill. I'll take it if I have to," Peeta says.
"That's not an option. Come along," Jackson says.
"Or what? You'll shoot me?"
"We'll knock you out and drag you with us which will both slow us down and endanger us," Homes says.
"Stop being noble! I don't care if I die! Katniss, please. Don't you see, I want to be out of this?" Peeta turns to Katniss.
"We're wasting time! Are you coming voluntarily or should we knock you out?" Katniss asks. Peeta joins us after a moment of thinking. His cuffs still remain on, but the key is passed to Katniss. We begin to head down the maintenance shaft, one by one, until we have all gathered in the second apartment. This apartment has an entrance to the tube. It is easy to unlatch the tube after some comments from Messalla about the inner workings of Capitol apartment buying.
One by one again, we climb down the ladder. We wait there for everyone to gather, slowly adjusting to the dim lights. We head down through the tunnels, dark and dismal. We walk for six hours until its three in the morning, although sunlight isn't a factor down here.
"Should we rest?" Katniss asks from the front of the pack.
"Yes," we all agree in unison. Pollux finds a mechanical room. We all huddle in the small space together. We divide up watch shifts. I get the last hour. We can only be here for four.
I put myself in the corner at the back of the room, probably not the safest escape, but the only place I know I'll be able asleep. My body is so exhausted that it comes easily.
I dream of home, before all this. Home before I was reaped. Playing in the water on the weekends, without really caring about the world at all. Daniel and Noah dared me to jump into the water from a cliff at the very edge of the beach. They had already done it – those crazy kids – and were cheering me on from the water below. I didn't really have much choice because if I didn't do it by my free will, they would probably just push me.
The strange thing was that I wanted to jump, so badly. So I did.
Falling from the cliff wasn't that terrible, making sure I didn't hit a rock was harder. I landed in the water with a loud splash; Noah and Daniel jumping on my back, pushing each other underneath. My mom is calling me in, I think, except it's not her name she's calling.
"Katniss! Katniss!" She shouts.
That isn't a dream though. I wake up suddenly to find Peeta yelling for Katniss to run, debating if we should break up. It's not hard to figure out what is going on with everyone speaking about the mutts outside the door. Katniss divides our weapons. I give one of my guns to Castor. I'm still left with another and my special trident.
Once we are outside, they are quite a way behind us, but we still need to keep moving. Then, the screams come, nasty and horrible. Peeta explains that they are Avox screams. We run faster, pulling on our gas masks. I know that smell. Roses. The mark of Snow. They've found us. They know we aren't dead. We're screwed.
We run out of the Transfer and Katniss shoots at the pods. Beneath us is a meat grinder. I see a pod in front of us, before we reach the meat grinder.
"Katniss!" I shut, pulling her back from the pod. She whips around with her arrow, but it's too late to do anything. Messalla's triggered it and dying a very painful death.
We keep running. Shots are fired by Peacekeepers in front of us. I'm at the front of the pack now, which means I get the misfortune of seeing the mutts first.
We've been shooting at the Peacekeepers for a while, watching them as they fall. That isn't a big deal, but the reptiles that come from behind them are. They are probably the worst looking creature I've seen in all my years of the arena. Beginning on two legs, they rip off the heads of the remaining Peacekeepers, then head toward us on all four legs.
One more chapter! I'm going to be a wreck during the writing of the next one. I was a wreck writing this one! We've reached almost 75 chapters, which is INSANE that I wrote that many words, and even crazier that you guys read it! Anyway, I have actual business to attend to in this Author's Note:
1. I have two questions that I need your help to answer! Both of these are very important, so please leave them in a review or PM me. And they are:
a. What do you want Finnick's son to be named? I know a lot of people have named him Finn, but I want to know if you have any other opinions.
b. For the last chapter after Finnick's...um...death (I choose to deny it in my head), would you like an AU where he is alive or his view after (he's still dead, but looking down on the same events after his death, hopefully that makes sense)?
2. The last chapter of his life will be up this Sunday and the other chapter (which you need to vote on!) will be up some time the next week. Between the two will be the acknowledgments. I have a lot, but this story has been through a lot as well!
3. For this acknowledgments, I really want to do something special for this story since it's been so long in the progress. For this, I want to know how many of you have a tumblr! You can just tell me in your review, or PM me. I haven't completely worked everything out for this, but please let me know if you have one (and if you want) what your's is. *mine is .com*
4. Wrapping up this extensive list, Foxface will not be updated for a while since I'm putting everything I have into this story (and my original novel). I also have another Fanfiction on my tumblr which is about the Hunger Games cast going to Disney World. I'm not sure if I'll be putting another story up on my FF account, but if you want more, just add me to your author alerts (which a lot of you have already done and I literally say thank you every time you do)!
That's it. Hopefully.
Make sure to review and talk to me about topics 1 and 3! Thank you all for reading.