Fall Away

The next sound to waken me was a violent scream.

Finnick and I shot up immediately, though his hand on mine tensed so quickly that I couldn’t tell if it was him pulling me to my feet or if it was my own muscles. I looked over to see Katniss writhing on the ground in agony, inches from a creeping blanket of fog inching its way towards her — towards all of us.

“Run!” she screeched, scrambling back onto her feet. “Run! The fog is poison!”

The four of us fled through the forest, running back down the hill so quickly I could barely feel my feet touch the ground. Finnick’s hand was tight on mine as we ran through the trees, darting away from new pockets of fog as they appeared around us, using his free hand to slash through the leaves and vines with a machete to clear our path. As the fog surrounded us, I couldn’t help but feel like we were being herded, but I didn’t want to think about where this fog wanted us to end up. Was there something even worse at the end of this?

I heard a thud behind me and turned to see Katniss, fallen to her knees ten feet behind us. Without thinking, Peeta spun on his heel and grabbed her, so quickly I knew he didn’t even have to think about how it put him directly in the path of the fog to do so. Katniss sprang to her feet with his help and started to run again, only to realize that Peeta wasn’t by her side anymore.

She turned back and let out a cry as she saw him drag himself along the ground, his skin covered in thick white blisters as the fog began to swallow him up. “Peeta!” she screamed, grabbing his arm with both hands and pulling him out of the fog with all her might. The two tumbled down the slope a few feet, enough to get them out of the fog, but the way Peeta’s limbs twitched and danced from the toxins of the fog, it was clear; he could not run fast enough to avoid the mist that was still creeping its way ever closer.

“Katniss, go,” he croaked, trying to push her towards safety with a weak arm.

She ignored him. “Please! He can’t run on his own,” she called, her eyes desperately locked on me and Finnick.

I ran towards her, ignoring the way Finnick’s hand tightened on my own to hold me back as I broke free of his grasp. I linked my arm with one of Peeta’s and Katniss did the same, and the two of us lifted him to his feet. A scream tore its way out of my throat as the fog swallowed my ankles, burning like scalding hot broken glass pushing its way down to the bone, but I kept running; Katniss and I dragged Peeta alongside us as we ran towards Finnick in the clearing, who was staring helplessly at me.

“Let me take him,” he begged.

I shook my head. “There’s no time to stop. Keep clearing the path,” I choked.

Finnick stared at me a second longer, and I could see the decision in his eyes; save me, or save us all. With a clenched jaw, he sprung into action and turned forward, slicing down the foliage ahead of us even more frantically than before, though he kept casting glances over his shoulder back at me every few seconds.

Katniss and I pulled Peeta as hard as we could, relying on the momentum of sprinting downhill to keep us going, but it still wasn’t enough; the fog swallowed up my heels, then my ankles. I felt it swirl around my knees, my hips, felt it pulling at my elbows and shoulders and the hot sting of it breathe across the back of my neck. I wasn’t even aware of my screaming anymore, nor the weight of Peeta on my arm; all I could feel was the biting pain of hot, angry, pounding blisters as they bubbled up across my body, swelling against the restraint of my clothing, like some vile monster trying to fight its way through my skin outside of my body. It felt like it was tearing me apart from the inside.

“We’re not going to make it,” I choked between screams. I didn’t know I was crying, but I felt the sting of salty tears as they burned the blisters on my cheeks — or maybe that was just more rivulets of sweat.

Finnick turned to me, his mouth set in a hard line and his eyes wild with fury. Katniss and I kept running, but Finnick began moving towards us, and just as we reached him I felt Finnick’s hand close on Peeta’s arm, lifting it off of me. I wanted to protest, my legs still hurling me forwards, but before I could say anything I felt the sudden panic of realizing I was falling. The ground had vanished beneath me, and suddenly all 4 of us were thrashed about, slamming violently against the fern-covered ground as we were hurled downhill.

We fell for a few dozen feet before tumbling to a stop. I didn’t know if the others were still conscious, or even alive; the fall had knocked the wind out of my chest so hard, so many times, so repetitively that I could barely keep my eyes open. My lips trembled, trying to form the shape of Finnick’s name but no sound came out of my throat, as I watched the fog creep down through the trees towards us.

My fingers twitched helplessly, wanting nothing more than the warmth of his hand in mine as I died - Finnick’s, Adri’s, I didn’t know anymore - but I couldn’t move. I waited for the sharp teeth of the fog to swallow me up, but it never did. It crept towards us, growing faster and faster, before suddenly crashing up in a straight line like a wave breaking against the seawall. It soared higher and higher into the sky before slowly collapsing back into itself and creeping back into the trees, and I could have sworn it was like a living beast watching us, resentful that we had escaped its jaws.

It took a few more seconds before my lungs were finally able to suck in a breath again and I was able to move my limbs, though it was shaky and unsteady; the toxins from the fog were potent, and my whole body twitched and spasmed uncontrollably.

There was a strained yell; I could tell it was close by, but it still sounded foggy and dream-like in my ears. “The water!” Katniss croaked. “The water helps!”

Biting back another scream I thrashed myself over onto my stomach and saw her a few feet away, soaking her hands in a muddy puddle of water. Peeta crawled desperately over to her side, letting out a cry of pained relief as he splashed the water against his face, and I watched as the white blistered pustules washed off his skin like they had only just been painted on.

“Finnick,” I called weakly, pulling myself towards the water’s edge with what little strength I could muster. “Finnick, follow my voice.” I didn’t know where he was — or if he was alive, I realized — but I needed him to follow me to the water, to clean the blisters away. I needed him to be okay.

The water burned for only a split second as it sucked the poison out of my skin; then it enveloped me in sweet, cool relief. I pulled myself all the way in, wriggling against the bottom of the pool on my stomach and straining to flip myself over to let the water get every inch of me. “Finnick,” I called again, though the water swallowed up my ears and made it impossible to hear his reply.

After a few moments, the water had soaked enough of the poison out that my limbs stopped twitching and my brain was no longer blanketed by the pain. I sat up, clear-headed (or close enough to it), and looked around frantically. “Finnick!”

There was a soft rustle and agonized groan from the ferns; without thinking about what else it could have been I darted towards it, falling to my knees and pulling the foliage away. It was him; he hadn’t been as lucky as the rest of us and hadn’t cleared whatever line kept the fog from advancing. He’d had to pull himself the rest of the way down through the fog; I was so overcome with relief to see him that I wanted to kiss every inch of his face, but he was so covered in pustules that there wasn’t anywhere for my lips to meet his skin.

“Help me!” I demanded, hefting Finnick’s arm over my shoulders and pulling as hard as I could. On my own, it was barely enough to move him an inch through the ferns.

I saw Katniss freeze in the water, looking at me with a clearly torn expression, but Peeta didn’t even hesitate. He flew across the ground, moving so fast he nearly tripped on the gnarled roots of the trees, and linked his muscular arm with Finnick’s to help me drag him to the water.

I stayed in the puddle with Finnick for a few moments, gently cupping handfuls of water across every last bit of him and washing the blisters off his neck, out from between his fingers, and through his thick bronze hair to scrub them off of his scalp. He winced and whimpered gently, but kept one arm wrapped around my legs, tightening his grasp every time I paused to get more water, silently telling me ‘don’t stop, don’t leave’.

After all of the blisters were gone, just as his limbs were barely twitching anymore, he fluttered his eyes open and peered up at me through heavy eyelids and wet lashes. “You’re okay,” he whispered, incredulous.

“You’re okay,” I whispered back, just as relieved.