HAYMITCH

The sun was beginning to rise and almost everyone was up. Except for Peeta who was still on his sleep shift. Johanna took her ax and nodded to Finnick. He also took his trident ready to attack.

"Katniss, grab your bow and arrows and be ready in case you have to cover us" Finnick said in a whisper. She nodded and looked at Peeta with concern.

"Better now than ever. I doubt he's capable of doing it, so I'll take care of the dirty work."Johanna intervened sarcastically

"She's less than 10 meters away, I can shoot an arrow into her with no problem" Katniss replied angrily.

"But you won't, because you wouldn't do anything behind Peeta's back," Johanna replied smugly. "Finnick, are you ready?" he nodded. Johanna took the lead, approaching the girl silently. She was still in the same position, hugging herself.

" Will you dismember me or have mercy and decapitate me with an ax blow, Johanna? " Leila spoke, taking Johanna by surprise "if I can choose I prefer the second option. I'm ready." Leila said in a sigh and changed position, getting to her knees. Johanna looked confused between Finnick and Leila's back. He also shrugged annoyed.

Killing someone fighting was horrible and traumatic but necessary. But killing someone who wasn't going to fight and was just waiting for his execution was even worse, even mean.

I understood why they were doubting their actions. But they had to do something with the girl, Plutarch was right about one thing, she could change her mind at any moment and lash out at them. Finnick signaled to Johanna to wait and returned to camp. Katniss was still ready with her bow but was confused as to what Finnick was doing. He pulled out a rope and approached Johanna again. She immediately understood his plan.

"Well I guess we'll take a third option- Johanna said, rushing to grab Leila's two knives and throwing them out of her reach. She looked confused, until Finnick grabbed both of her arms and quickly tied them into an intricate knot. -You'll be our prisoner for the moment, maybe you'll serve as bait for us later" Leila, surprised, tried to get away from him but Johanna imprisoned her with her arms while Finnick tied her feet.

"You can't do this" Leila said indignantly.

"Why, is it against the rules? " Johanna asked her between mocking laughs.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Never in the history of the games had any tribute taken another prisoner. What the hell were these kids thinking? Plutarch next to me watched the scene between amused and incredulous. I was sure that this reversal of events would have more than one of the Capitols citizens on the verge of emotion at the thought of what was going to happen next.

"Well Katniss it looks like we're going to follow Peeta's example and be honorable within our limits" Johanna said as she pulled Leila from the rope that had her hands and feet imprisoned. Yep, Finnick had done a good job, her hands were almost immobilized and the tie on her feet allowed her to barely walk but not run, and the fact that both ties were connected would make it impossible for Leila to run away. Leila kept her head down, I wasn't sure if she was out of humiliation or fear.

"And then what are we going to do with her?" Katniss asked.

"Johanna had the idea to use her as a lure" Finnick said with a shrug. Katniss looked back at Peeta with concern. The boy was not going to like that idea at all.

"Well, is this or I cut her throat right now, what do you think he is going to choose?"

"This option, obviously" Katniss replied frustrated.

Indeed, as soon as Peeta woke up, and realized the brilliant idea of his allies, he didn't like it, he protested, he got angry but did nothing to persuade them and he accepted that it was the only solution. After all, if he released her, there was the possibility that she would ram Katniss again and that was unthinkable for him. With the dilemma with Leila resolved, they got to work planning and starting to execute Beetee's idea. It was a luck that the rescue was done tonight, Katniss to her extreme mistrust, and to my frustration, she was already planning to betray her allies and of course Peeta would follow her. The first thing they decided to do was take a look at the tree where the lightning struck. So once they broke camp they set out to go up the hill. Leila was let go ahead escorted by Katniss and Peeta, followed by Finnick, Beetee, and Johanna bringing up the rear. Halfway while resting for a moment, the guys received a new parachute, I looked at Plutarch questioning him, this was not part of the plan. He just shrugged, also confused. Peeta took it and saw that it had the number 8 inscribed on the metal box.

"It must be for you, Leila" Peeta told her, walking over to hand her the box.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Johanna asked, "maybe they're sending her a weapon and you're so naive passing it on to her" Peeta sighed wearily, opened the box, looked at what was inside, and closed it again.

"It's not a weapon, can I give it to her now or not?" Johanna gave him a dirty look and nodded.

As for Leila, she looked confused about receiving something. I remembered that in her previous games, she didn't manage to receive any gifts before the game ended, and in these games Cecelia hadn't sent her anything until now either. We were all curious about the contents of the box. Leila took it, opened it, and quickly closed it with a horrified face. They all tensed. Plutarch and I were on the edge of our seats intrigued, I had been a mentor for many years and I knew that the gifts were controlled and approved by the gamemakers, so they always included useful things for the survival of the tributes, weapons or food. I wonder what was in the box to cause her that reaction.

"I don't want it" Leila said, handing the box back to Peeta. He looked at her confused

"Are you sure? Seems like a pretty generous and special gift to waste"

"Then keep it, I'll give it to you, I DON'T want it," she replied firmly, turning her face away from Peeta's.

"Okay" he shrugged as he walked over to the others and opened the box "anyone want chocolate cupcakes?-

"That's all there is?" Katniss asked with her mouth open. We were all equally surprised. I was expecting something else, not a dessert.

"Yep, that's all".

" Why would Cecelia send something so banal? And why did Leila react that way?" asked Plutarch to the air

"I think as an attempt to encourage Leila not to attack, perhaps?" I answered. As for her reaction, well, I had seen something similar on her victory tour when she got dessert. Peeta gave each of them a cupcake and left Leila's in the box.

"I don't think we tried these when we were in your district Leila, right Katniss?" neither of them responded. Everyone looked suspiciously at the dessert. Then Peeta was the first to dare to bite it " wow! They're really good, an airy and fresh dough and inside it's as if the filling were cold" Peeta commented again. This encouraged the rest to eat, with the heat anything cold was welcome.

"Do you think they're poisoned?" Johanna asked Finnick, as she eyed the dessert suspiciously.

"No, that's against the rules. If she doesn't want it, I do" Finnick said finishing his dessert and taking Leila's.

"You should eat something" Peeta said to Leila.

"What's the point if I'm still going to die?" she replied softly.

"Well she's right Peeta, don't waste any more food on her" Johanna said. Peeta looked at her seriously, he was not at all happy with this situation, treating someone worse than an animal was not something the boy ever did.

After the break they decided to continue on their way. A couple of hours passed while Beetee analyzed the tree. I imagine he was analyzing the best way to do as much damage as possible in the force field. In the afternoon the group returned to the beach, stocked up on food, and resumed their path to the tree. It was time to get things going, if they wanted to destroy the force field at midnight.

Plutarch came to get me late in the afternoon. He opened a closet in his office and asked me to put on the Peacekeeper's uniform, which was there. I didn't like the idea but there was no other. Plutarch was right. I went unnoticed, no one questioned me. Once we reached the camp, Plutarch locked us in one of the offices provided for the guards, reactivated the device to jam the spy microphones, and activated the television. From our departure from the Capitol to the arena camp, it was only 30 minutes away. That made me nervous, it wasn't a huge lead distance in case something went wrong. Plutarch had informed me that the hovercraft was hidden an hour's walk away, in the mountains. As soon as we got the signal, we'd go find each other.

The guys had reached the tree again. Beetee was instructing Finnick and "slave" Leila to loop the wire into the tree. The others stood guard around them. Unexpectedly Leila stopped what she was doing, still holding Beetee's wire in her hands.

"Come on Leila, don't waste time and pass me the cable" Finnick told her. Leila was still distracted looking at the cable, suddenly she looked at Beetee, the tree and where the fault in the force field was supposed to be. She tensed and began to shake her head in horror and slowly began to back away.

"No, I have nothing to do with this" Leila said to the air or the cameras. Fuck! She had realized Beetee's true intentions. Finnick quickly approached Leila, she jerked the wire distracting him and stumbled back. Beetee moved toward her quickly, but Leila went one faster and knocked him out with her elbow, having time to grab the knife he was carrying and breaking the restraints on her feet and moving on.

"she's running away," Finnick yelled at everyone. they all came to his call. Finnick took his trident and began the hunt.

Johanna, Katniss, and Finnick launched attacks at the girl but missed her, she dodged the arrows, axes, and tridents with relative ease. They were chasing her for 15 minutes but the girl was too fast even with her hands tied.

"Enough, we worry about her after. Beetee and Peeta are alone, we have to go back." Finnick said, agitated by the race.

" but what the hell Finnick, how did you let the brat get away?"

"I know Johanna, she took me by surprise, I was too concentrated on following Beetee's plan."

"Now she knows our plan and she's going to be careful not to go near the beach" Katniss said furiously.

"It's useless to complain now, let's go back"

"We're leaving Haymitch" Plutarch sentenced

"I thought we were waiting for the signal."

"It's better to act now, I don't know what Leila intends to do and if she decides to open her mouth and warn the cameras, we're screwed." Damn it! Just when we thought the problem with Leila was resolved, this happens. The worst thing is that she had us all in her hands, maybe if she spoke to Snow, he would forgive her for her slip with Katniss.

Without being seen we left the camp and headed towards the mountain. As Plutarch had predicted the hovercraft was an hour away. We met with the team that had sent thirteen, everyone was ready to intervene at any time.

When we were finally able to watch the game stream again, not much had changed. Apparently Leila hadn't said anything yet. The girl was in the section next to the one with the tree. She had freed her hands and still had the knife, I had no idea what her plan was going to be. But it made me anxious to know that she wasn't too far from Katniss's group. Chaff reappeared on the screens, he was not far from the girl, with luck he could take care of her, catch up with the group and save himself with the others.

At eleven things started to get out of hand. The giant insects started their attack and Chaff was in that section. These goat-sized insects had pointed pincers as big as their bodies. They resembled a scorpion but not quite. Plutarch had explained to me that the purpose of the tongs was to stab their victims, slowing their victim's death. Chaff began to flee from these animals, killing some but there were too many, I estimated twenty. For her part, Leila was in the same situation as him, dodging and running. At one point she decided to climb a tree, I doubted Chaff could climb one with one hand. Apparently these mutts could not climb like the other one. Chaff came running, and dodging the attacks, in the direction the girl was, she could easily throw her knife at him and kill him but she didn't.

"Chaff, give me your hand" Leila yelled. More out of survival instinct than confidence, he obeyed and the girl helped him climb the branch. Although it wasn't going to hold the weight of the two of them. She jumped onto another branch. Poor Chaff was so agitated and so exhausted from running that he still didn't realize who was within a meter of him. Why did she help him? At last he turned to her, weapon in hand ready for her."Do what you want, I give up, I can't fight anymore" she said tiredly.

"What's the catch, Leila?" he told her suspiciously.

"Shit!" Leila blurted out, looking down. The insects were forming a kind of insect pyramid to reach them.

"This is definitely a shit!" Chaff looked around looking for a way out, but jumping to another tree was not an option, he was too heavy and not that agile, and the branch he was on was going to give up at any moment.

"I go first, I run fast. That will draw them to me and you will have time to escape."

"They will kill you"

"I doubt I'll get out of this alive anyway so it doesn't matter anymore" Leila said calmly. "Are you ready?" He nodded and the girl jumped out of the tree running at full speed. She was right most of the insects followed her. Chaff wasted no time jumping up as well and running in the opposite direction. Right at that moment several things happened almost at the same time. Enobaria and Brutus had found the cable that Katniss and Johanna were carrying. Johanna punched Katniss, removed her tracking chip, and ran off trying to get the Careers' attention. The Careers split up, Enobaria ran into Finnick's group, attacked Beetee knocking him unconscious, Brutus was chasing Peeta who had gone looking for Katniss.

Brutus was about to kill Peeta when Chaff appeared and saved him at the cost of his own life. I couldn't help but feel a tightness in my chest when I saw the scene, 25 years of friendship and mutual support ended by the hands of Brutus. Peeta reacted in a way I never thought I'd see, with violence and unleashed fury, he brutally killed Brutus. The hovercraft began to climb into the air. It was time to step in and get Katniss and the rest of the arena out. Now the screens followed Leila who was still zigzagging away from the insects. She was almost out of their section and entering the tree section when suddenly one of those animals ejected one of her pincers like a projectile and pierced her knee, causing her to fall to the ground. However Leila got up as best she could and continued running, she could see that her leg was bleeding profusely, if she didn't do something she was going to bleed to death.

The moments that followed were even more confusing. Katniss had understood Beetee's plan and destroyed the force field. We were barely on time at the meeting point, the first to leave the arena was Katniss, followed by Beetee and to my surprise Finnick with Leila in his arms. When we wanted to move to look for Johanna and Peeta, the Capitol's hovercraft appeared attacking us, there was no time to lose, we had to leave now and abandon the rest or die with them.

They all had been treated for their injuries. Katniss was coming in and out of unconsciousness, Beetee had serious injuries that needed to be attended soon by a specialized team and they had managed to stop Leila's bleeding even though she was going to need surgery. What an irony, one of the biggest dangers in the arena was safe and cared here, while Peeta, I had had to abandon him in the clutches of President Snow.

"No, I don't know why I brought her, as soon as the force field exploded she appeared out of nowhere and collapsed at my feet" Finnick said angrily. "Haymitch, I'm really sorry. I tried to find the others but I couldn't." He apologized contrite. I knew it wasn't his fault but I couldn't answer anything. I hated myself right now, I had condemned an innocent boy I swore to protect him at all costs and I couldn't. I didn't know if any of this had been worth it, because it didn't feel like it. Katniss would kill me and I didn't blame her. Why the hell did she leave him alone though, why did she do that if she wanted to protect him? Why the hell did she allow it?! I felt anger, pain against the world and something more crushing, guilt. Because I had to be in Peeta's place and not him. I had lived a life, his, was just beginning and now it was ending because of my actions, if only I had trusted them, perhaps none of this would have happened.