17: Strike Three

Gale POV

On the screens, I can see Katniss and her allies recovering from the jabberjays. I slowly realise that my name was coming up there as well, not quite as often as Prim's, but often. I wonder how the Capitol chose which voices they would use. Do they have a way of finding out how much people love each other?

I know that they have a lot of technology, more than any of us not in a career District could dream of. Except District Three I suppose, as they make the technology. I switch screens to a close-up of Haymitch. There were almost no jabberjay calls to him, nor to Johanna either.

Do they have no one left that they love or even care for? I guess I knew that Haymitch didn't, he lives alone, has no family and is often too drunk to think about anyone else. Johanna though? Maybe that's why she seems to hate Katniss so much. Why she seems to hate everyone who still has some sort of life left apart from revenge and the rebellion.

"Gale?" Annie asks, prodding my arm. "They're OK, aren't they? Johanna didn't hurt Finnick too badly, did she? This is all my fault," she says, clutching her head in her arms.

"How is this your fault?" I ask her. "You just sat here. There was nothing you could have done for him. The Capitol sent the jabberjays, not you. Don't blame yourself just because your voice was in there. Mine was as well."

"No, it's my fault because I'm his weakness. His only weakness- mine was the only voice he heard. I'm useless as a mentor, useless as a victor and I'm just a burden to him. I should have died in the Games."

"No, you shouldn't have," I insist. "Trust me, what you are to Finnick is not a weakness. Having others you care for and who care for you is not weak. You're the only one Finnick has left, if it weren't for you he would have probably turned to drink and drugs long ago. Like Haymitch did, if he had someone to ground him he probably wouldn't have done that."

"Johanna didn't turn to drugs," Annie counters. "And that doesn't stop me from being a weakness as well, and useless as a mentor. I can't even watch any of the fight scenes without reliving my own Games. I can't give him help when he needs it. I wish I'd just let someone else be his mentor now. I was so selfish."

"Johanna chose revenge to keep her going. It isn't necessarily better. And wanting to be here to help Finnick was not selfish of you." Illogical, yes, I think. But not selfish. "It's only human that you want to protect him. You love him after all, anyone could see it. Even the Capitolites who have no concept of love could see it."

"You don't get it," Annie sighs. "You aren't a weakness to Katniss. She isn't a weakness to you. You both make each other stronger, you wouldn't work on your own. You don't know what it's like to know that your love is strong in every way and you are the only weakness they have."

I open my mouth to respond, but she cuts me off.

"Finnick is the only one who matters in our relationship. He's the one who can fight, he's the one who everyone loves. He's the one who knows all the secrets. And what am I? Just a mad girl from his District who he was unlucky enough to fall in love with. I couldn't even win my Games on my own."

"You didn't have allies.." "Outside the arena I did. Do you know what that flood cost? No? Finnick had to sleep with the Head Gamemaker's daughter for that, and use all of the blackmail information he has from other sources."

Her words stop me short. Sure, I knew that Finnick was a sex symbol, that practically everyone in the Capitol was in love with him because he was pretty and could kill with a trident, but I didn't know that he slept with Capitolites for money. If they even give him money. I doubt he's allowed to refuse.

"Do you see now?" she asks me. "Finnick has sacrificed so much for me. I can't give him anything back. I'm too weak. I don't deserve him. He should be with someone strong and brave, like Katniss is. Not with me."

"But you make Finnick happier than anyone like that could. Do you really think that Finnick would want to be with one of the careers who kill for fun? Sure, they could get through their Games on their own. They might be liked by the Capitol too. And they would be the type of person that any man with a brain would avoid like the plague."

"Katniss isn't like that," she points out. "Katniss is strong and smart and compassionate. That's why she's doing this, isn't it? To help people, to protect her family."

"Katniss is different," I snap. Katniss is different. Katniss is like no one I've met before. She isn't one of those ordinary girls, like Madge or Delly. She has a spark of fire within her. But at the same time, she isn't one of those people who relish this sort of thing, like Johanna Mason or Enobaria. She's doesn't take pleasure in her kills.

"And Finnick is like that and you're like that," Annie says. "There are other people like that. Finnick would have been better off with one of them."

I shrug. "I doubt I'll be able to convince you. If Finnick's actions for you haven't proved that there's something about you that different to all of the other girls, I doubt I'll be able to prove that to you."

"Thank you for trying," she whispers, before whirling around back to her screen.

I turn back to mine. Katniss needs me a lot more than Annie's feelings of self-worth do.

xXx-X-xXx

Finnick POV

I push Johanna the rest of the way off me and sit up. The screaming has stopped. They've stopped torturing Annie, if that's what they were doing in the first place. Bastards love playing mind games, I know that from experience. I can barely imagine what it would be like to be like Haymitch or Johanna.

No one they care about. No one who matters to them. Why do they even bother living anymore? They aren't happy with their lives, a blind man could see that much. Is revenge really so important that they would put themselves through so many years of misery for a chance at it? Apparently it is.

It isn't uncommon for a victor to commit suicide. I've only know one who did personally, but according to Mags there have been at least ten victors who did. She probably knew quite a lot of them. It odd to think about how close I am to Mags, but I don't even know which Games she won?

I know that she's eighty three years old, so it's probably around the fifth to the tenth Games. Mags must have seen so much, I'm not sure how she coped with it all these years. Mags has been a good mentor to me though, the best mentor I could ask for. She genuinely cared about me in the Games, properly, not like the other mentors. The 'it was nice knowing you, too bad you have to die' mentors.

I know that a lot of tributes have those. Too many. Probably if all of the mentors were as attentive as Mags is, the victors would be different people to who they are. It's rare that a tribute wins without any aid from outside, whether in the traditional form of sponsor gifts or by people bribing or blackmailing the gamemakers.

I doubt that I'm the first one who's done that. Capitolites seem to think of game-makers like perfectly moral individuals who would never take a bribe. Ha. It's amazing how twisted their definition of moral is. Kill a bunch of kids in creatively torturous ways? No problem, good job. Take a bribe? He's lost his integrity, he shouldn't be in that job. Finnick had heard it from some of the female gamemakers that he'd been with before.

"So what now?" I hear someone ask. I turn around to see Katniss. The girl on fire has no idea what was happening. I argued against it, but no, Haymitch thought that she and Gale would mess it up. He was probably right. Katniss had tried to take Snow's deal of leaving her and her family alone in exchange for just playing along at the Victory Tours and making the Capitol love them. And there would be no chance to tell her now, not with the cameras on her at all times.

I'm sort of surprised that she hasn't realised it yet. The way we left the cornucopia because we couldn't afford to have Katniss or Beetee killed, how her stylist gave up his life to make her the mockingjay. Doesn't she realise how important she is?

"Now we move," Haymitch says. "The careers would have heard you screaming from miles off. They're probably coming over here now. So we have to be at least a mile away when they get here. And we only have a few minutes probably. Go. That way." He gestures in a random direction. I know that it isn't the way to the cornucopia or to the force field, but that's about it.

I bend over and let Mags climb onto my back. She won't be able to keep up with us on her own, and I'm not going to leave her behind to be killed by the careers after everything she's done for me. Mags is quite light. Her arms clutch around my shoulders and my arms wrap around her legs. I run after the others, catching up quickly.

Katniss has never been that fast a runner and Haymitch is pretty unfit too. Beetee and Wiress are behind them with Electra and Johanna is ahead. I pull in front of them so I am running level with Johanna. We must have covered around two kilometres in ten minutes.

The jungle here is darker, with a thicker layer of leaves covering the sky. I wonder if we're going to run into mutts again. That's all we need, with the careers trying to find us as well. I set Mags down.

"Do you think we've gone far enough?" I ask Haymitch. "Should we just camp here for the time being?"

"The careers won't find us, not here," Johanna says. "It's too dark and thick. We've lost loads of people in my District in woods like this. They probably got eaten by animals though."

"Comforting," Katniss says. She sets down her bow. "So we camp here then?"

"It's here or in the open where the careers can find us," Beetee says shrugging. "The smart choice would be here."

"I agree," Haymitch says. "This is the safest place for us to be right now."

Katniss takes out her spiel and plugs it into the tree. We all take turns drinking, letting the cool water run over our tongues. The water is so refreshing after everything we've been through today. If only there was more of it, a pool, a lake. Then I could swim. Swimming always calms my nerves, the water is the one place where no one can get to me, where I'm free of everyone's expectations and orders.

We haven't eaten for a while though, and I think that the only way we'll get food here is by silver parachute. "Annie?" I ask, knowing that she'll here me on her screen in the mentor room. "We haven't eaten since yesterday and we're getting hungry now. Do you think you could send us some food? Fish would be nice."

A few minutes later, a silver parachute drops down from the sky with a large package attached. Inside is a package of haddock. I count eight. One each for us. The others come over and I show them how to gut the haddock, take off the head and tail and fillet it. We roast them under a small fire, which we put out quickly.

The taste of the fish fills my mouth, reminding me of home. Coming home after a long day on the sea to fry up our catch, eating fish roasted on a fire with Annie while we talk about our days and make jokes. I wish I was with Annie right now. I can imagine myself wrapping my arms around her small frame, her head on my shoulder. Comforting her when she has flashbacks, just being able to see her dark ginger hair and sea green eyes. I'm so glad that the Capitol won't use her like they used me.

I wonder for a second if I could get the Capitol to leave us alone by blurting out all of their secrets on screen. They won't be able to kill us with no one watching and they won't allow people to watch if I'm shouting out how President Snow actually got into power or how the head of the army only got the position because he was sleeping with President Snow's daughter.

Or they would just kill us onscreen before I can finish. Lightning is pretty fast, and they would only have to kill me. Besides, the Capitolites sometimes like random deaths, especially of someone important in the Games. Perhaps I should have told the other victors and people in the rebellion all of the secrets I know before I went into the Games. Now if I die, those secrets die with me- and a few with Annie I suppose.

As we sit down to rest, I offer to take the first watch. I want to be able to sleep for the rest of the night. Mags offers to watch with me, but I shake my head. Mags is an old woman now, she needs her sleep. Especially if we'll be running from muttations and careers tomorrow- which we probably will be.

I hold my trident. The others sleep with their weapons close to them. Johanna and Haymitch are clutching their axes. The bow is right next to Katniss's hand. Electra has her short swords sheathed at her waist. The only ones who don't have anything are Wiress and Mags. Even Beetee has his coil of wire to break the force field with.

Watching gets boring. I hear the lightning striking a tree once and sit up, expecting something like the blood rain from last time, but there is nothing. Maybe something is happening in a different part of the arena. I hope it's the part that the careers are in. They've probably gone back to the cornucopia though.

As I almost drift off, I hear the lightning again. This time, something is different. The jungle seems darker than it was before, darker and more sinister. There is a white fog covering some of the trees. It moves slowly towards us. I don't wait. It's here for a reason and I doubt that it's to stop our enemies from finding us.

"Katniss! Haymitch! Mags!" I shout at them. "Wake up, you need to get up now." I shake Katniss and Johanna awake. "Wake the others. We need to go."

Waking the others only takes a few minutes, but it feels like longer as the fog advances towards us.

"What is that?" Katniss asks. She walks up close to it. Her hand extends towards it. "No," I yell. Katniss gives a scream of pain and jumps backwards. Large blisters cover her hand. She clutches it to her side, tears running down her face.

"Get away from it," she orders. Mags jumps onto my back and I start to run. All of the hours spent increasing my physical fitness at the career academy before the Games are paying off. I glance back at my allies. I don't want to get too ahead and then lose them. Johanna and Electra are just behind me, and Haymitch, Wiress and Beetee behind them.

"Where's Katniss?" I ask, the wind tearing the sound back from my throat. "Is she behind you?" There is a faint call for help. Katniss. I twist around and run backwards. It feels so wrong to be running toward the fog rather than away from it, but Katniss is the mockingjay. She's the one that matters here. I can't let her be killed by the burning fog.

Katniss's ankle is twisted over a tree branch. She tries to untangle it, but the fog is right next to her. I pull her free and the branch and she gets up. I see her wince in pain and try to run away. She hobbles forward a few steps. Mags's head presses up close to mine.

"I've lived," she whispers. "You need to save her. For the rebellion."

"No!" I whisper back. "I can't just leave you here."

"She's the important one. The mockingjay," Mags says.

She slips out of my grip and towards the fog. I grab Katniss and throw her onto my back. The fog is only a few centimetres away now. I can hear Mags's screams as it engulfs her. I run away as fast as I can, faster than I've ever run before. Katniss clings to my back desperately.

If she didn't trip, Mags would still be alive now. Part of me just wants to dump her here and run myself. But she's what Mags died for and she doesn't deserve it. We need Katniss. I can't just kill her out of spite. A cannon sounds in the distance. That was Mags.

I catch up to Haymitch, running at the back. He glances at Katniss and matches my pace. We need to get out of this part of the jungle. My legs are beginning to ache, the end has to be close. There is light in the distance and I make a final leap towards it.

The fog stops, like there is an invisible wall between the dark jungle and the lighter side.

Now that the adrenaline has worn off, tears begin to fall freely from my eyes. Mags is dead. The person who guided my through my Games and my life after that is dead. She won't be coming back again. She died for a good cause if I can make the Capitol pay for what they've done. For who they've killed.

xXx-X-xXx

Thanks for reading. Sorry to my followers for the very late update. I hope you enjoyed this chapter from a different POV to usual. Which POV is your favourite? Katniss, Gale, Haymitch or Finnick? Anyway, if you liked the story so far or have some constructive criticism, please leave a review.

-MoonOfPluto