A word of warning for some violence in this chapter, be prepared - and don't hate me too much =)

21.

"No, but seriously, does this guy even has a name?" Johanna laughed from the back seat. She and Finnick were very busy gossiping about the only remaining rebel soldier who never talked to anybody but Coin. From what Haymitch had gathered, they had concluded he was a robot – not that he could hear much over the deafening sound of Beyonce. Katniss and Johanna had disastrous tastes in music. More worrying was the fact that Finnick had been singing along to a couple of songs and hearing their golden boy sing "put a ring on it" was disturbing.

Haymitch was tempted to remind them for the fiftieth time that it wasn't exactly a fun family road trip.

They needed gas or they would remain stranded in Nebraska and that wasn't something Haymitch was looking forward to. It would get colder, it would probably snow eventually and more zombies would come from the north…

"There's a highway." Katniss said suddenly, finally turning the volume down. She gestured to a board signaling an upcoming junction.

"Yeah, remember the last highway we went on?" Johanna sneered. "You barely escaped with your guts in your stomach. A thank you wouldn't have killed you by the way."

"I don't hear you thanking me each time I shoot a zombie." Katniss rolled her eyes. "Besides, who says highway says cars and cars mean…"

"Gas." Finnick finished for her. "I like the plan."

"The plan was to hit the next town." Haymitch reminded them.

"Which may or may not be swarming with zombies and mutts." Finnick pointed out. "A highway is open ground… From a strategic point, it seems safer."

"I can climb on the roof and shoot everything that comes too close." Katniss argued. "Jo can kill the rest while you two siphon…"

Despite his best judgment, Haymitch slowed down. They were still two hours away from the town and a highway did seem a good place to find gas. It still wasn't a good idea, though. Tempting, yes, but not clever at all, not safe in the least.

Katniss and Finnick were all for a quick trip, he knew, they were anxious to go back to their loved ones. He was too, as strange as it still felt to think about people like that, but he was also impatient to go back to them alive. It really wasn't safe.

Yet, he couldn't help but remember that the last time he left for so long, Effie had run away straight into danger and he was afraid that she would do it again. She could be extremely stupid when someone she loved was in danger.

"Jo?" he prompted.

Johanna was chewing on her lower lip, fingers drumming on the handle of her axe. Then she rolled her eyes, obviously throwing caution to the wind. "I'm game."

"Alright." He followed the signs to the junction.

He couldn't go far. The road was cluttered with cars well before they even reached the actual interstate. He parked a few feet behind the last jeep, not keen on risking his truck closer than strictly necessary.

"Stay close to each other." Finnick advised as they all climbed off. "Don't wander off."

"If you find something useful in one of the car, get it." Haymitch added, grabbing everything they would need to siphon gas from the trunk. He also grabbed a gun and two more knives – just in case.

Finnick shouldered the harpoon but bypassed the guns. "I have my bodyguards." he winked, nodding to the girls. "Let's go."

They were cautious, they didn't pounce on cars at once… They established a small perimeter first, made sure that nothing undead would jump on them… There were a lot of dead people in and around the cars but none of them moved. Still, the stench was bad enough to make Haymitch want to gag. You would think one would get used to the smell of death but no.

After ten minutes, they were fairly confident that there were no zombies lurking around. Johanna was the first to lower her axe. She stared at the endless clutter of cars that stretched as far as the eye could see and shook her head. "How fucking stupid must you be to try an highway when zombies are knocking down your back door?"

"People in group don't think. They panic." Haymitch retorted, finally placing his gun back into its holster. He pulled out a knife from his belt and placed it on a nearby truck, in easy reach, before bending to get a better look at the gas tank. He pretended very hard there were no corpses inside. "Why do you think I wanted to stay alone?"

Katniss climbed on top of the car's roof, bow at the ready and focused on keeping watch. That, at least, made one of them.

Finnick bumped into Johanna playfully as he started working on the closest car. "We should ask you why you didn't stay alone…" the younger man taunted.

"We know why he didn't stay alone." Johanna rolled her eyes. She forced a trunk open with her axe and started rummaging inside. "Trinket's ass, that's why."

"Leave Effie's ass out of this." he mumbled, struggling to fit the plastic hose in the tank with his shaking hands.

"She does have a fine ass." Finnick agreed.

"I'm sure Annie will be happy to know that." Katniss retorted from the car's roof with perceptible annoyance. "What is it with you boys and Effie's ass? Peeta and Gale are always ogling her."

"Yeah, Heavensbee and What's-his-name too." Johanna shrugged, flinging useless camping gear out of the trunk she was inspecting. She soon slammed it shut and wandered to another car. "I've seen Coin's watching once or twice."

"Eeew." Katniss made a face. "Gross. Imagine that."

"I'd rather not." Finnick snorted.

"Can we stop talking about my girl's imaginary lesbian life?" Haymitch snapped, glaring at all of them in turn. "At least, pick someone else, she's too hot for Coin." Not to mention that what Coin liked or didn't like, he didn't want to know. She was shacking up with Plutarch for all he knew.

"She's too hot for you." Finnick joked.

The tank he was working on was empty, he moved to the next one, hoping the topic would move at the same time but he wasn't that lucky.

"Did I dream or did he call her his girl?" Johanna sneered, from the back of a red Ford. She passed her head through the window. "What's next, Haymitch, you're gonna write her poetry?"

"Poetry is Finnick's thing." Katniss laughed. "Haymitch would do something nice and pretend it never happened."

"Like buying her a coat for instance?" Finnick asked innocently.

Everyone was staring at him and Haymitch could feel an unwelcomed blush starting to burn his cheeks. Nothing but the heat, he told himself even though the sun was a pale withered thing in the sky.

"You bought her a fucking coat?" Johanna sounded disbelieving.

"Don't be stupid." he grunted. "I stole a coat." She was laughing so hard she barely managed to get out of the car. "It's only a coat."

"Sure, it is." she snickered. "When you get her a ring, don't forget she's like a magpie. She likes her stuff shiny."

"Shut up." he retorted but it only made her cackle harder. The fact that Katniss started to hum that Beyonce song about putting a ring on it wasn't a coincidence, he was sure of it. It almost made him miss the good old times of Taylor Swift. "You're all so stupid…"

"That's the best you can do, seriously?" Johanna taunted before suddenly grinning at what she found in a trunk. "Sweet. We've got two more cans of gas. Lids still on." She carried them back to their truck.

Haymitch moved to another car with his half empty can, Katniss stopped humming but Finnick started whistling a familiar tune. Haymitch couldn't help but snort. "Highway to hell?"

"It's kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity, here." Finnick shrugged, crouching next to a new car. "The perfect song at the perfect place."

Haymitch rolled his eyes, crouching too. Two more cars and, if they were lucky, that can would be full. He was trying to estimate how many trips to the highway it would take to stock enough gas for their four cars to get the hell out of Nebraska when Johanna called out to Katniss.

"Help me with this." Johanna demanded. He glanced over the hood, she was trying to force open a car that looked well-stocked but resisted to her strength. No immediate danger. "So, Katniss, you're going to spill the beans on Peeta or what? You're shagging yet?"

"Jo!" Katniss hissed.

Haymitch almost hit his head on the wing mirror. "What?" He wasn't particularly sure why he cared so much and why he was already planning the speech he would give Peeta as soon as they were back.

"Jo, we seriously need to find you a guy." Finnick chuckled. "You are so…"

The end of the sentence never came.

There was the clicking of something metallic hitting the ground and by the time Haymitch and the girls realized something was wrong, they were surrounded. Haymitch got up and drew out his gun but Finnick was already down. A mutt was munching on his arm, another grabbed his hair with rotting grey fingers and the third one simply tore his throat open with its yellow teeth. He didn't even have time to shout. Katniss' arrow took out his killer but too late to make a difference. Blood still gushed out and pooled around him, leaving him gasping for an oxygen that couldn't get in.

Katniss was screaming.

More mutts appeared, crawling from under cars.

Time seemed to slow down.

Haymitch caught Johanna's eyes and for a second he saw the same shock on her face that he was feeling. Then, her expression hardened. She didn't nod, she didn't say anything but Haymitch knew they were thinking the same thing. There were different ways of protecting someone. She grabbed Katniss before she could try to run for Finnick and swung her axe with her free hand, trying to keep some distance between them and the mutts. Katniss in relative safety, he turned his gaze back to the mutts and Finnick. He tried to think of a brilliant plan but apart for a time machine, he knew there was none. There was only one thing to do, the human thing.

Haymitch took a deep breath to steady his aim and then he pulled the trigger.

Finnick stopped moving.