Olive's patience ran out after five minutes with no hovercraft appearance. She made her best attempt to go unnoticed, but, of course, she was on Finnick's constant radar. Before her fingers could latch onto her bow, he was already staring at her, by her side, not saying anything, nor that it was needed.
"I won't take long," she promised, but Finnick didn't budge. "Finnick, please, I need to walk, even if it's just a few metres uphill."
"Alright," he nodded, "but I'm going with you. Just in case."
"And leave Peeta and Katniss here unprotected?" Olive asked, with a hint of tease in her tone.
"Katniss still has arrows, and Peeta has his machete. You, however, are going to a place we barely just survived with a bow but no arrows." Finnick placed his free hand on his hip, flashing her a satisfied smile as she gave up trying to argue. "C'mon, let's be quick and get back before the monkeys come for our throats."
The couple walked along the entrance of the jungle, not venturing too deep, only as far as they could locate arrows. There were no traces of monkeys the entire time, nor were there any attacks from other mutts or tributes. The jungle was unusually quiet, as if all its dangers had volatilised from one second to another. That didn't distract them from their task for a second, though. Just as promised, the moment the last scattered arrow ended up back into Olive's quiver, the both of them left the jungle to go back to Katniss and Peeta. They were just in time for the hovercraft to disappear with the woman from District Six's body.
Finnick, who carried Katniss's arrows, still drenched in monkey blood, dropped them beside her on the sand. "Thought you might want these."
"Thanks," she said, but, as she was about to get up to wash the blood off of them, Katniss turned to look at Olive, extending her hand out to her. "Give me your arrows. I'll clean them for you."
"Oh, no, that's fine. I'll clean them myself," replied Olive, trying her best to join Katniss, but got inevitably stuck in place two steps into the water.
"Just go sit down on the sand for a while." Katniss took the arrows from her hand with a swift motion, making sure not to harm either of their hands as she did so. "I'll be back soon."
Defeated, Olive nodded and thanked Katniss before backing away from the water and taking a seat with her back pressed against a tree. The scabs formed on the fog's wounds itched the more she calmed down, making a problematic urge to scratch her face and arms all the more uncomfortable. Contrary to her, Peeta and Finnick couldn't fight the need and scratched their damaged faces to the point even Katniss had to intervene.
"Don't scratch," she said. "You'll only bring infection. Think it's safe to try for the water again?"
Olive walked along with the three of them, but her bow was far from ready to shoot. She stayed between Katniss and Finnick while Peeta found, tapped, and drank from the previous tree they had tried. Soon after Peeta, it was her turn, and so it went until Finnick spotted a few shells big enough to hold enough water to last a while.
It was as soon as they set foot back at the beach that Katniss offered to take first watch, which Finnick denied, claiming that he would rather keep watch regardless. Neither Katniss nor Peeta made an attempt at a complaint and lay down side by side on the sand. Olive, however, sat next to Finnick near the artificial sea, flinching every time the seawater reached her ankles, but not daring to comment about it, nor move.
"Just go to sleep, Olive," he said. "I'll be fine."
"If you were fine, you wouldn't be taking the first watch while sitting down in the water." She glanced over at him, finding his eyes practically glowing in the darkness of the night. "What's wrong, Finnick?"
He stayed silent for a minute, staring at the waves come and go as they pleased. "I saw what happened back at the fog wall. It stopped just in time. If it hadn't… you would be dead right now."
Olive nodded, fiddling with her hands before deciding to ignore everything—the Capitol, the cameras, Snow—nothing mattered except Finnick. So she grabbed a hold of his hand while caressing his scabbed and reddish cheek with her free hand, and when he turned to look at her with widened eyes, she simply smiled.
"But I'm still here. Alive. And, hey, I still have my memories somewhat intact." She let Finnick's cheek go, knowing the itching could have only worsened due to the touch, but as quickly as she had let go, Finnick took her hand and pressed it against his cheek. "I'm impressed, really. I haven't forgotten all that much since I got here. Bet you were expecting me to not know who you are by now."
"Me? No. Katniss and Peeta? Maybe," said Finnick with his light tone back.
"Well, we better do something to distract ourselves, then. Wouldn't want to overthink my way into memory loss," Olive joked, letting go of Finnick's hand and cheek to grab his arm and pull him up. "C'mon, you choose. What do we do first?"
By the time mid-morning came, the night turned out to have been especially productive. Olive sat next to Finnick, securing yet another woven bowl for the fun of it. Meanwhile, Finnick took the third bowl filled with shellfish, cracking them open with a stone to eat up.
"They're better fresh," he said, but not to her.
Olive turned to look over her shoulder, seeing as Katniss sat up on the sand, her eyes protected from the sun due to the grass mat that Finnick had secured above the young couple not long ago. Her skin, however, was red—most of her scabs opened from scratching them in her sleep.
"Looks like someone didn't follow her own advice," commented Olive.
"You know, if you scratch you'll bring on infection," added Finnick.
Katniss's attention fell to her nails, tainted with blood and sweat, and then looked up at them, her lips forming into a smile. "That's what I've heard." Despite her ability to joke, Katniss seemed to lose her patience soon enough. She was by the water, washing off the blood from her nails, when her head suddenly stared at the sky and she snapped. "Hey, Haymitch, if you're not too drunk, we could use a little something for our skin."
"Katniss, I don't think—" Olive couldn't finish her sentence as a parachute appeared seemingly out of nowhere. "Never mind, then."
Without giving it another thought, Katniss sat down by Olive's side and screwed the lid off, revealing a dark ointment inside the parachute. The odour was bad in itself, but its colour, and, most importantly, how it looked on their scabbed skin, made them have mixed feelings regarding the medicine. At least the relief from the constant itching made up for their newly-acquired greenish skin.
"It's like you're decomposing," said Finnick, eyeing the ointment doubtfully.
"You just don't want to be pushed down to our level of beauty," Olive said lightly while pointing between Katniss and herself, which made Finnick chuckle.
Soon enough the itching won over Finnick's desire to maintain his Capitol behaviour, though his distress at seeing his scabbed skin mixed with the ointment was genuine. All the better to Katniss, who didn't hide her amusement at his suffering, and Olive, who helped him out to speed the process with the least amount of whining.
"Poor Finnick. Is this the first time in your life you haven't looked pretty?" Katniss said.
"It must be. The sensation's completely new. How have you managed it all these years?" he asked.
Katniss shrugged, as if she had to think about it for a second. "Just avoid mirrors. You'll forget about it."
"Not if I keep looking at either of you," he said, giving Olive an amused look as she gasped dramatically, and rather loudly. "Think you'll remember this monstrosity?"
Olive smiled, taking her turn on the ointment to finish covering her shoulder. "Oh, absolutely. It's good to know that The Finnick Odair can not look pretty sometimes. I never thought it could be possible."
As if refraining from agreeing out loud, Katniss nodded her head lightly and glanced over to Peeta, who was still asleep by their side. She was just about to get up without bothering her allies' playful bickering when Finnick proposed an idea—one neither Olive nor Katniss could help but agree with.
"Let's do it together. Put our faces right in front of his."
It was a silly thing to do, but surprisingly gratifying, since Peeta bolted right up at the sight of their faces. "Ah!"
Laughter began right off the bat, which took a while to settle. After all, every time any of the three tried to stop, a look at Peeta's attempt to maintain a disdainful expression set them off again. They had just managed to keep control over it when a parachute landed next to them, containing two fresh loaves of bread—one typical from District Four. Perhaps it was because it was clear who the gift was aimed for, or the abruptness of it, but Katniss and Peeta appeared to be surprised when, without doubting for a second, Finnick suggested eating it with the shellfish.
"Peeta, you might want to stop suffering from the itching first," said Olive, as she saw Peeta refraining from scratching his scabbed skin.
Mere minutes later, the four sat by the sand together, eating away the shellfish together with District Four's bread as if it were a banquet. They couldn't deny it was a grand meal in the Arena. Some tributes, even those who eventually became the victor, could spend days without barely eating anything. Although, of course, they weren't 'some tributes', they were prior victors.
A scream in the distance ended all forms of chatter between them, snapping their attention to another wedge of the jungle as it began to vibrate—an all too familiar sight to Finnick and Olive. As if in mockery, an enormous wave crested high on the hill, topping the trees and eating up the jungle as it roared down the slope, eventually drowning the person's screams.
Many things happened after that—most of which Olive had no time to process. The wave hit the seawater with extreme force, making the surf bubble up to their knees despite their positions having been chosen specifically to get as far as they could get from it. Her body reacted on its own, forcing her to get up as quickly as her disorientated body could manage. The bow was afloat along with all of their possessions, but she didn't care, nor did she really notice.
"Annie…" Olive mumbled, her eyes widened in fear and her mind oblivious to the concept of reality. "Annie. Annie!"
Her panic shut off her mind completely, telling her to run all across the arena to save her sister. Although, before she could take the first step to run while shouting Annie's name, two arms wrapped themselves around her torso, keeping her still. Voices appeared near, but not a word awakened her mind from the numbness.
"It's not Annie. Olive, it wasn't Annie. Annie's safe," Finnick kept repeating, but Olive didn't listen.
She kept on squirming in his grip and screaming Annie's name, getting increasingly worse as the person's cannon fired, and the hovercraft made its appearance to retrieve the body. Nobody knew what to do, not even Finnick, and that worried Katniss and Peeta out of their minds. They couldn't have someone shouting in the middle of the Arena, but neither could they kill Olive. Or rather, they didn't want to.
Peeta placed the trident he was holding for Finnick in the same hand as the machete, and, with his free hand, covered Olive's mouth. It didn't stop her from keeping on shouting Annie's name, but at least her voice was muffled, toning it down considerably.
"Shh," he said in a soothing voice. "It's alright. That's not Annie. She's safe in District Four. She's fine."
"Annie…" Olive blinked a couple of times, as if focusing back on reality. "Annie… where is she?"
"District Four, remember? We're in the arena. It's the second day." Peeta lowered his hand from Olive's mouth, seeing as she seemed in more control over herself than before.
"The arena… yeah, I remember… the mutts…" Olive trailed off at each word, frowning by instinct as the memories came flooding back. "The wave…"
Without saying a word, Katniss directed her attention somewhere two spokes away from them, where three figures stumbled onto the beach. Olive noticed right away, shutting off her thoughts regarding her memories for as long as they were in potential danger. Mere seconds later, Peeta and Finnick followed their gazes, noticing the sudden company, which they hoped hadn't been attracted by the yells.
"Who is that?" asked Peeta. "Or what? Muttations?"
"Johanna?" Olive mumbled, unsure.
Finnick, however, was sure. His face lit up once he got a better look at one of the three figures and soon took off running towards them, dragging Olive along by the hand. "Johanna!"
"Finnick!" Johanna's voice carried the same joy as his did, which only incremented as she spotted who Finnick was dragging along. "Olive! What's up with the green skin?"
Finnick and Olive exchanged looks, but decided that being covered in blood, as Johanna and her two companions were, was far more important than their greenish skin. They redirected the question to her, which Johanna didn't mind, and proceeded to rant, even as Katniss and Peeta finally joined them.
"We thought it was raining, you know, because of the lightning, and we were all so thirsty. But when it started coming down, it turned out to be blood. Thick, hot blood. You couldn't see, you couldn't speak without getting a mouthful. We just staggered around, trying to get out of it. That's when Blight hit the force field," Johanna explained quickly, like she was running out of time.
"I'm sorry, Johanna," chorused Finnick and Olive.
"Yeah, well, he wasn't much, but he was from home," Johanna said. "And he left me alone with these two." She nudged Beetee, who lay on the sand, barely conscious. "He got a knife in the back at the Cornucopia. And her—"
Their attention travelled to Wiress, who circled around while murmuring, "Tick, tock. Tick, tock."
"Yeah, we know. Tick, tock. Nuts is in shock," said Johanna, causing Wiress to turn to her, grabbing onto Johanna's arms during her two-word recital. Johanna, however, had no patience left to put up with her and shoved her harshly. "Just stay down, will you?"
"Lay off her," Katniss snapped, angering Johanna further than she already was.
"Lay off her?" Johann hissed, walking up to Katniss to slap her. "Who do you think got them out of that bleeding jungle for you? I can't believe you! You—"
"Johanna," Olive muttered in a warning tone, giving her friend a harsh look moments before Finnick hauled her over his shoulder. He dropped her in the water, where he pushed her head underwater each time she tried to shout anything towards Katniss. "Way to make friends."
"I don't think she likes us very much," said Peeta in a light tone, since the situation desperately needed a distraction.
"She'll come around." Olive folded her arms, tilting her head in doubt when her eyes landed on her husband, dunking Johanna's head once more in the water. "Maybe."
At the entrance of the jungle, Olive sat idly in the centre of the weapons. Since everyone was either washing the blood off themselves or attending to somebody, the weapons had been left behind, and due to her reluctance to get close to the water, Olive ended up in charge of keeping an eye on them.
She had been twirling her bow between her fingers for a couple of minutes, but she soon got tired of it. Instead, watching Katniss and Peeta make an attempt at healers to aid Beetee was far more interesting. Although Katniss quickly made her way to Olive, asking about the moss she had given her the previous day to help her. Olive didn't have to do much to find it in the jungle. It was, in fact, pretty common.
"For Beetee's wound?" she asked.
"Yes, it's the best I can come up with," replied Katniss.
"Beetee would be so much better off if Annie or Mags were here," said Olive, the hint of a smile present on the corner of her lips. "They would take two steps around here and make a pharmacy out of anything they found."
"Well, we'll have to work with what we have." Katniss took the moss and left to put it to work right away.
It wasn't long before Beetee was all parched up, which didn't end Katniss's sudden change of job into a healer—Wiress was next to be pampered. Olive didn't watch this time. Her attention was on Johanna, whose clear skin practically shined under the sunlight as she walked back with Finnick. There were no comments or further insults, which both Olive and Finnick were thankful for. They would rather have Johanna eating the shellfish and obsessively gulping down water than antagonising Katniss.
"So?" Johanna stopped devouring the shellfish to look at the married couple. "What happened to you?"
Rejoined by the rest of the organically-formed alliance, Finnick told all about the fog and the monkeys in a detached, almost clinical voice, letting whoever add to his words whenever they pleased. Nobody did. Peeta and Olive listened attentively, as if neither had been present during the occurrences, while Katniss appeared more interested in the few moments Finnick glossed over.
The lack of proper sleep soon was made obvious soon after, yet everybody offered to guard while the others rested. However, due to their own insistence, Johanna and Katniss stayed up to keep watch. Olive didn't oppose it, though she hoped for the little time alone to help the two girls at least tolerate one another. Either way, as she lay by her husband's side, having to keep a fair distance between them for the cameras, and her eyes too tired to keep them open anymore, whatever fight Katniss and Johanna could have became meaningless.
Hours could have passed by the time someone woke them all up, though it only felt like minutes. Olive sat up, disregarding the sudden dizziness to make sure her bow and Finnick's trident were still by their sides. There was a pleasant surprise that came with them. Johanna lay next to Olive, a hand stretched out on the sand, just a few centimetres below her axes.
"The Arena's a clock," was what Katniss said to justify the sudden wake-up call.
Needless to say, everyone listened attentively to her after that, even Johanna.