If Fire Caught

Chapter 14: Katniss

"No!" I scream. "Peeta! You can't leave me!" Finnick runs up beside me and kneels beside me.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

"He's not breathing!" I cry. Suddenly Finnick puts his mouth over Peeta's and starts pressing on his chest."What are you doing?"

"Saving his life!" he says. I suddenly remember what he's doing. I've seen my mother do it once in a blue moon. It's supposed to restart a persons heart if it stops beating. Usually people are too far gone for it to work by the time they get to my mother, but I've seen it work two or three times.

I'm beginning to give up hope of saving him when suddenly I hear Peeta gasp. I look to see his chest rising and falling on its own again. I start crying again. I feel Peeta begin to softly stroke my hair.

"Shh," he says. "Why are you crying?"

"You were dead!" I sob. "Your heart stopped."

"Well it seems to be working fine now," he says. I lift my head to look at him and he has his signature smirk on his face. I grip him by the shoulders and shake him.

"Don't you ever do that again!" I say. "It's not funny and I really don't need this right now!"

"Okay," he says. He gently kisses me and I can't help but smile. "Can you help me up?"

"You are asking a pregnant woman to try to help you up?" I ask him. I look over to see Finnick roll his eyes before grabbing my arm and helping me up before doing the same to Peeta.

"Come on love birds," he says lifting Mags onto his back and heading towards the direction Peeta just got shocked at.

"Finnick stop," I say.

"What?" he asks.

"Did you not just see what happened to Peeta? There's a forcefield up there," I say.

"How can you tell?" he asks. Crap! I have to think of something quick. Then I think of something and almost smirk about it.

"Can't you hear it?" I ask.

"I don't hear anything," Peeta says.

"It's kind of like a buzzing," I say. think I snap my fingers like I just figured it out. "I only hear it in my ear that was reconstructed after the games. They must have done it too well."

"Well then maybe you should lead the way," Finnick says. I shrug my shoulders and go forward. I take a handful of pebbles and whenever I'm not sure about where the forcefield is, I throw one and see where it bounces off.

We travel for hours and I feel like dropping and Peeta looks about the same. But Finnick's the one who suggests making camp. I agree and say I'm going into the forest to look for something to eat. I travel around through the trees, staying close to camp incase of trouble and eventually come across some sort of rat like creature.

I shoot it out of the tree and notice something. It's muzzle is wet as though it were just drinking. I look around quickly but find nothing, not even a mud puddle. I sigh and skin the jungle rat to find his meat looks similar to a squirrel's. I take the rat back to camp and see that someone has woven grass bed mats and a tarp big enough to make a lean-too to keep us sheltered for the night.

"You found something?" Peeta asks.

"It was drinking from somewhere because his muzzle was wet but I never found out where," I say as I lay the carcass on a mat. "So how we gonna cook it?"

"It's too dangerous to start a fire," Finnick says. Suddenly Mags walks forward and takes a knife, cutting part of the meat from the rat thing. She pierces it on a stick and throws it at the forcefield. It bounces of and lands on one of the mats and I see that it's cooked. I rip it in half to see its cooked all the way through.

"That'll work," I say. "Good thinking Mags." She smiles and pats my cheek before all of us start cooking the meat like that and eating it. As night falls, it comes to the point where one of us had to keep watch. Peeta stares at me and I shake my head.

"I'm fine right now," he says but I can see his eyes drooping.

"No you aren't," I say. "Go to sleep for a little while. I'll wake you up when I feel tired."

"Just for a little while," he says and I nod as he lays down next to where I'm sitting, his head resting on my leg. I look over to see that Mags is asleep too but not Finnick.

"How's Peeta?" he asks.

"I think he's fine, just dehydrated like the rest of us," I say as I gently play with his curls.

"How far along are you anyway?" he asks.

"A little over eight months," I say.

"About the same time as the announcement then," he says and I nod.

"Yep," I say.

"That's some bad luck for you two," he says.

"I don't need your pity," I say.

"I wasn't offering it," he says. "Although I think you should be trying to sleep too."

"And let you keep watch," I say.

"Katniss, if I was gonna kill you, you'd be dead," he says. "I've already had enough opportunities. I could have let Peeta die back there. Without me, you'd be a widow."

I just stare at him and he sighs, laying down next to Mags.

"If you aren't going to sleep, I guess I will," he says. I shrug and watch as he falls asleep. I place my hand on my stomach and feel my child kick softly. The woods are quiet. Too quiet.

Suddenly I see something moving through the trees. I notice it's a thick white fog moving towards our camp. It seems to be getting closer and I reach out to it and scream as it hits me. My hand feels like its being melted away. The fog is acid.