𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 ☘︎ 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞

𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 ☘︎ 15

That night, with the water in our bellies and the first day under our belts, we all slept quite soundly. I had agreed to let Finnick take first watch, so I slept peacefully.

Until an alarm noise in the distance woke me up.

It was just a siren sound, but no matter what, I counted how many times it went off. "I make that twelve," I inform the others (Finnick, really as Austin and Mags are sleeping).

"Midnight?" Finnick suggests.

"Or the number of districts," is the only other sensible option I can fathom.

Suddenly, we turn as we hear another sound. This one is sort of like a machine, but it eventually ends in lightning striking the tallest tree in the arena.

"Well," Finnick pulls me away from the lightning. "If you're not gonna sleep, I will."

"Okay," I nod, as he walks away.

But I can't help it, soon I start to fall asleep.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

I wake up when the sky is half way between light and dark. I writhe for a bit, forgetting where I am, but I don't wake any of the others.

Suddenly, I'm aware of something behind me, and when I look, I see smoke, or fog, crawling towards me.

Instantly, I'm confused. Is this a new game the Gamemakers are playing? What is this? Is it going to trap us so we have no idea where we are?

I have no idea, but for some reason I don't even know myself, I reach forward and touch it. Bad decision.

"Arrrgghh!" I cry out, jumping back. Just a small touch of the fog has my hand blistering. "Run! RUN! The fog is poison! RUN!"

This wakes up my allies, and soon, Mags is on Finnick's back and Austin is fully alert. "Run!" I shout again and we take off, the fog in hot persuit.

We run across the line of fog and then from it, but we can't get away. Then it surrounds us, blocking off all sides of a square except one, which we run towards.

I catch my foot on a root and tumble to the ground. Finnick shouts something incoherent to me and Austin runs back to get me, but as he helps me out, the fog catches up.

I feel immeasurable pain on my back and cry out, so does Austin. In fact, he gets most of the hit since he's protecting me. We try to get up and run and do, but it's almost impossible.

And when Austin flails and falls over, it's clear he can't run anymore. "Get up! Get up! I'll carry you!"

He doesn't argue. He jumps on my back and we start to move, but the hits just keep on coming when the fog catches up with Finnick and Mags. This makes Finnick drop Mags right at my feet and for him to cry out.

"I can't carry him," I say desperately to Finnick. "Come on, Austin, please..."

But whilst I'm trying to get Austin to stand up, Mags gives Finnick a kiss, and is walking off. Finnick's call of "MAGS!" brings me back to life. And I see Mags walking into the fog.

"Mags!" Finnick cries as tears streaming ans the fog engulfs her. She doesn't scream.

The cannon fires.

"Finnick!" I shout, because he looks like he wants to run right in there with her. "Finnick! She's gone!"

I don't mean to be that hard. Or blunt. But we have to keep moving. "We have to go!"

We each sling an arm of Austin's round our neck and put an arm under each leg, trying to carry him. "Come on!"

We reach a hill and tumble down it, too hurt, tired and stressed to run. When I reach the bottom, I scramble to my feet, but then see something rather odd. The fog advancing upon us has just completely stopped. There's just a line. A line that it doesn't cross.

I lie on the ground, covered in millions of blisters. We all shake, convulsing on the ground. I don't know if running was worth it. We might die right here.

I see a little pond a couple of metres away, and force myself to it. Sticking my hand slowly into the water. "Aaarrrggghh!" I cry, my hand is stinging like anything, this is the point of unimaginable pain.

But slowly, it drains away. And then I see a white, milky substance drain out my blisters into the fog. "The water-" I struggle. "The water helps."

Austin joins me as I sink in, and we both yell. It stings all over my body, but I know it will cure me. "ARRRRRGHHH!"

Eventually, we get Finnick in, once we're cured enough to help him. The fog has done him or Austin the worst, I reckon.

Austin tries to tap as tree as Finnick and I wash off. I look at him feebly. "I'm sorry about Mags."

Finnick looks down, washing a fly off his body. "She was never gonna make it."

"A guy like that has to know she's not gonna make it, I bet when it comes down to it he won't protect her."

But now I realise how much I underestimated Finnick Odair, because even in Mags' last moment, he still tried to stop her dying.

Suddenly, he looks up, and his face is surprised. He nods to something behind me.

I take an axe out as I turn, instantly seeing them. They were monkeys. There were hundreds of them, all surrounding us. "Mutts," Finnick breathes.

He gets his trident and I get my axes and we slowly back away, but as I said, we're surrounded. "Austin?" I ask, and he turns. "Walk over here slowly."

One step, and he has a monkey in his face, growling. Slowly, he backs away and to us, but not without attracting a lot of mutts. They growl and growl at us. I know they're going to pounce soon.

I aim my axe at a target, but it keeps changing so much I can't get a clear aim. "Willow! To the water! The water!" Finnick yells, and I see him and Austin already in.

I run, splashing in as a monkey follows me, I hit it with an axe, blood and water spattering everywhere.

Together, Finnick, Austin and I use our respective weapons to fight off the monkeys, but the Capitol just send two more in for every one we kill.

At one point, the monkey takes me under the water with him, a paw on my chest. I struggle, not being able to breathe, until Austin slices the monkey in half with his sword. I float up, breathing in and out as more monkeys jump in.

"We need to get to the beach!" Austin shouts to me as he and Finnick take off running.

But Austin trips and a monkey's standing over him, this is it, I can't save him, he's going to die-

I thought this until the woman from Six jumps out and holds her hands up, taking the hit for Austin instead of letting him die. I do a double take but it's true. The morphling from Six has saved Austin's life.

But now we must save her, because surely, she has, again, assured us that we will never stop owing her.

Between my axe and Austin's sword, we get the monkey off the morphling. We call Finnick, who is holding off the monkeys for us, and run to the beach.

When my feet touch sand, I know we're safe from the mutts. And though Finnick tries to hold them off, they can't get through. It's just like with the smoke. They can't get through, but we can.

Austin and I hold the morphling as she mutters incoherently. "Hey, it's okay, it's okay, shh, shh, shh, it's fine," Austin tries to calm her down. "Look at that? Look up, look, you see that?" They look at the sunset. "Don't worry about anything else... we're right here with you, it's okay... it's okay..."

The hovercraft arrives in the sky as the cannon goes off. I sigh as we let go of her, and let her float out to sea.

"She- she sacrificed herself for me and I don't even know her name," Austin says, clenching my hand underneath the water.

I turn to him, wonder in my eyes. "You think she sacrificed herself?"

He shrugs. "Looked like it."

"But that doesn't make any sense," I shake my head as the hovercraft lifts the morphling up with a claw, then disappears once again.

Finnick with his CPR... the morphling, sacrificing herself... why are the other tributes trying to protect Austin?

Even if it means them dying in the process.