Impavid

Getting to the spoke took less than a minute. Cutting through the water wasn’t a problem. Pulling myself onto the strip of rock, I took off at a full-fledged sprint, glancing next to me to see that both Brutus and Cashmere were still attempting to get to a spoke.

Slipping was out of the question, my feet trained to run on slick rock. I had done it for years on the bluffs back home. The traction on the bottom of the shoes helped, and within a minute I arrived at the cornucopia, running to the mouth were weapons- only weapons- are so tightly packed that my mind computed I needed to be fast.

Finnick came bolting around the corner then. I was already in motion, tossing tridents to him as I grabbed a handful of them. Most of them were lightweight and thin, perfect for carrying multiple at once. Spotting a folding pack of knives, I grabbed it, removing one and turning around.

“We need to find others,” I said, getting up and bolting around the side, Finnick following me. Half the tributes were still on their plates, trying to figure out how to get off. It occurred to me that almost no one in the arena probably knew how to swim. Turning at a sound, I caught the man from nine coming full speed at me. It only took me a second to launch a knife, sticking it in his chest. A canon sounded. “Well, I just made the first kill. There goes my reputation. Again.”

Turning and running to find the only girl we needed to protect, I stopped dead in my tracks, trident raised as she drew her bow. It seemed she knew how to swim exceedingly well, her arrow pointed towards Finnick and I. Not knowing what to do, I looked at Finnick, who held up his wrist, flashing his bangle. I imitated the movement. “Good thing we’re allies, right?” Katniss hesitated before nodding. Doc came around the corner, heading for Katniss when Finnick shouted, “Duck!”

Katniss hit the ground and Finnick threw his spear, sinking it in his chest. “And you made the second,” I said ruefully. “My partner in crime.”

“Always. We need to find Peeta,” Finnick instructed, ignoring me and gesturing for Katniss to follow. “Lana take that side, we’ll take this side. If you see one of the others, help them.”

Without a response, I turned around and ran around the left side of the cornucopia, barely missing death as the woman from nine stabbed at me with a spear. Deflecting it with my trident, I spun my weapon hard, countering her attack. With the bottom of my trident, I struck upwards in a short, powerful jab, catching her under the chin. She let out a sound as I twirled my weapon and brought it down in a single movement, stabbing her through the chest. Another canon.

Sweeping my eyes across the water, I saw no sign of Peeta. Not wanting to go around the mouth of the cornucopia where I was almost positive the careers were, I dashed around the back of it where I made a landing, finding Finnick and Katniss running down one of the spokes.

Peeta’s blonde head bobbed in and out of the water, fighting with a man for buoyancy. Assuming I had all the weapons I could muster, I took off in their direction, tearing down the strip of land. Johanna, Blight and the two tributes from three were no where in sight, but I hoped that they were living so far.

Another cannon went off, but the chaos was behind me, not in front of me.

Without telling me, Finnick tossed his trident to me. I caught it easily. He dove in the water, vanishing beneath the surface as Katniss drew her bow, trying to aim at the man from eight that Peeta was struggling with. Turning my back to her, I watched the fighting on the cornucopia, ready to attack.

“Dammit, I can’t get a clear shot!”

I glanced behind me to see Finnick, Peeta and the man from eight all go under. My heart beat wildly in my chest but I ignored it, looking back to the cornucopia. “Just hit the man from eight if you’re going to hit someone.”

At the sound of a canon, I turned around, forgetting about the bloodbath going on. Gripping my trident tight, I suddenly had the thought that if Finnick didn't come out of the water, I wouldn’t know what to do. Luckily for me, Finnick and Peeta both surfaced, the two of them swimming over to us. Leaning down, I helped Finnick get on land.

The four of us were together and breathing finally. Looking down the spokes, the career pack had formed. Enobaria made a movement with her face that from far away, I could only assume was her flashing her teeth. Both parties were too far away to engage, so we turned around and ran towards the beach, not looking behind.

Hard, wet sand met our feet, but we didn’t stop there. We plunged through the first line of trees, trying not to trip on vines and tropical plants. I immediately decided that though I had been in a jungle before, this one was absolutely nothing like my own. There it was much hotter, much brighter and more… tropical. I don’t know where the word came from, but it was accurate.

After several minutes of running, we stopped, panting hard. The heat was unreal. The cool of the ocean instantly drained from my body. Looking up, all I could see were plush birds that I didn’t recognize and bugs that made me shiver. Of all the things in the world, bugs set me off.

Canon shot after canon shot rang out. “I’m going to get a birds eye view,” Katniss informed, pulling her bow onto her back and facing the tree. “I’ll see if I can spot water.”

Water. The minute she said the word I realized my mouth was dry and I needed water. Water was the only thing that we needed. Finnick crouched next to me, looking up as we waited for Katniss. Peeta seemed immediately at ease next to us something, that was a trait of his, but also a fatal flaw.

For the first time since entering the games, I looked at Finnick dead in the eyes. He smiled at me softly, as if trying to be happy that he was next to me despite the situation. I smiled back and he leaned forward, tapping our heads together lightly, earning a chuckle from me.

Dropping back down to the ground, Katniss muttered, “There’s no sign of water any were.”

“And what about out all of them? I guess we’re not holding hands anymore.”

I raised my brows. “Chopping off hands, among other things.”

Katniss glared at both of us, her light colored eyes darkening. “You think that’s funny?”

Finnick smirked. “Every time that canon goes off, it’s like music to my ears,” he said, looking in the direction of the cornucopia before looking back at Katniss. “I don’t care about any of them.”

Katniss reached behind her back, removing a long machete and handing it to Peeta. Her bow was still loaded and her position was taught. My fingers twitched. Though I was crouching, I was in a position where I could throw from sitting. She was only a foot away. It would take me a much shorter amount of time to stab her through the throat than it would for her to shoot me. “Good to know.”

Finnick didn’t look impressed by the threat in her voice. “Wanna face the career pack alone? What would Haymitch say?”

“Haymitch isn’t here.”

“No,” I agreed. “He isn’t. But you are, and you’re not exactly going to survive them alone. We need each other.”

Silence passed before Peeta gesture to me. “She’s right. We’re all a team.”

“That’s the spirit.” I stood up, stretching my legs. My trident was still tight in my hand. I could almost throw it from any position, and though I was good, Finnick was better. Together we were unstoppable. Katniss seemed to weigh that, straightening and nodding. She didn’t stand a chance against both of us and she knew it. “How about we go on a cheery walk to find water? As much as I love the chit chat, I’m willing to drink my own urine at this point.”

The image was bad enough for everyone that they all stood, making faces and agreeing that looking for water was our new goal. The careers were put to the back of our mind as Peeta took the front, hacking the vines blocking our path with a machete. I went behind him, Finnick following me and Katniss bringing up the rear.

Heat began to seep in like never before. Sweat beaded on my forehead and dripped into my eyes, burning them. The small strands of hair that had fallen out of my tight braid stuck to my skin. Everything around me looked well watered, but there seemed to be none.

“Lana you were in a jungle for your games,” Finnick said, walking up the slow incline behind me. “Where the hell do we find water?”

“It rained every other day there,” I answered. “So I weaved baskets to hold water. The only other source was the random hole in the ground filled with water by the cornucopia, but that was muddy and filled with bacteria.”

Before Finnick could make a comment in response, a noise escaped Katniss, like she was preparing to say something. But before I could wonder what it was she was about to say, Peeta’s knife connected with something solid, a distinct electric sound cutting through the air an cutting off the air for a moment.

Peeta was propelled backwards and all I could do was throw aside my weapon, opening my arms and catching him. The problem was, Peeta weighed far more than I was aware, and his body knocked me off of my feet. I crumpled with Peeta in my lap.

“Peeta!” Katniss was there in seconds, ripping him off my lap. The stench of singed hair hit my nose, making me realize that he had walked right into the force field, electrocuting himself. “He isn’t breathing!”

Finnick grabbed Peeta away from Katniss, shoving her off of him. She let out a savage scream but I pounced on her, locking her arms behind her back. She kicked and screamed, her cries surely alerting the entire arena. “He’s trying to save him!” She threw her head back, hitting me in the mouth and splitting my lip. I still held on to her, tasting the metallic pungency of blood as it filled my mouth. “Finnick is saving him, Katniss!”

Either my words or the sight of Finnick leaning down to press his mouth against Peeta’s made Katniss stop moving. She was completely still against me as I held her, watching as Finnick plugged Peeta’s nose, blowing air into his lungs and pumping Peeta’s chest with his hands, a steady rhythm. It was perfect form from CPR, something that citizens of district four learn at age five by a rule.

In my own life, I used CPR seven different times. Once for a test, and all other six times on kids who got caught in the rip current while swimming during the summer or victors who drunkenly stumbled into the water at the victors village and couldn’t find their way out. One of those victors had been my neighbor.

After a minute, I began to prepare for the worst. Peeta should have responded, and if he didn’t come back to life, Katniss was going to freak out. It would take seconds for her to try and kill us- Peeta gasping for air broke my thoughts, relief flooding me as I let go of Katniss.

Throwing herself on him, she was sobbing his name, choking on her own sobs and snot as she hugged him to her chest, crying harder than I ever thought the girl on fire could cry. For a moment, I was just like ever other viewer looking at the screens, staring at the scene that was taking place. Katniss looked absolutely torn, and her sobbing could only illicit relief.

“Watch out,” Peeta croaked, smiling. “There’s a force field up ahead.”

“You died!” she screamed at him. “Your heart stopped.”

Once again she hugged him tightly. It was suddenly there, in that moment. When they embraced one another, I realized that Katniss wasn’t crying for the camera. She wasn’t screaming Peeta’s name for a show. Katniss Everdeen was truly and wholly in love with Peeta Mellark and she had absolutely no idea.

Looking away from them, my eyes found Finnick. He was looking at them with the same realization before looking at me. He nodded, the tiniest fraction of movement. Licking my bottom lip that was swollen and bleeding, I turned and grabbed a leaf, wiping my mouth on it. The blood continued pooling in my mouth, causing me to turn my head and spit out a red wad.

“You knew that force field was there,” Finnick pointed out. He was looking at Katniss, a puzzled look on his face. “Didn’t you?”

I nodded, adding, “You made a sound right before Peeta hit it, like you were going to warn him. How’d you see it?”

“I didn’t,” she informed, helping Peeta get to his feet. I offered a hand but she ignored it, paying attention only to Peeta who swayed slightly. “I can hear it, kind of like the fences we have in twelve but a lot softer. Listen to it.” Silence fell on us. Straining, I tried to locate any source of sound, but I found none. “Right there!”

“I don’t hear anything.” Finnick frowned, looking at me. I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. “I guess you’ve got super hearing.”

Katniss seemed to think about it. “I can only hear it out of my left ear.”

“That’s weird?” I offered, thinking of something then. “Didn’t your left ear go deaf after your games? From that explosion?”

Peeta was already nodding. “She got it fixed. It’s medically engineered now. That’s probably why you can hear it so well.”

I gestured to Katniss. “Lead the way then, girl on fire. I don’t fancy myself being cooked from the inside out. Unlike Peeta, I’m not made for baking.”

Though Peeta laughed, Katniss simply nodded, looking at Peeta. He assured her he was fine to walk by himself. Katniss took the lead then, Finnick behind her, Peeta behind him and me at the rear.

Water was our new destination.