Impavid

Slapping my hand on my neck, I killed another bug. There were bugs biting us, causing red bumps to pop up on my skin. At home, we had bugs that were similar. Sand mites and sea lice constantly bit us. We often created thick bars of soap with orange and lime concentrated into it, rubbing it hard against our skin to keep them from biting our skin. Here we had nothing but the torn swim suits which I had ripped the sleeves off of.

Finnick walked next to me, carrying the coil for Beetee. Every few minutes Beetee would turn around and look at Finnick, making sure that the copper coil was safe in Finnick's arms. As we trekked through the jungle at a slow, upward incline, I twirled my trident in my hand, trying to keep busy.

In a few hours, we would either be dead or we would be escaping the arena. I was hoping that it was the later. Dying seemed like an easy way out and a pretty poor way to go after all the hell that I had gone through. Suddenly in one moment, I knew that all of my nightmares, the games and the absolute misery that I went through were going to either end or they were going to be worth it. It was… well it was almost a win, win situation.

Pushing away a palm frond in my face, I sighed. Finnick glanced at me with a questioning face but I shook my head. Gently I touched our fingers, not intertwining them but just brushing them against one another. One of his thumb pads was bleeding, a slice through it from trying to cut open and oyster.

“I miss Cain,” I said quietly. He looked at me and I gave him a smile, shrugging as we walked. “I bet he’s sitting in my house. In fact, I bet you he’s refused to leave.”

Finnick laughed. “You’re right, he’s probably eating all of your salted chocolates too.” I gave him a look and Finnick grinned, leaning over as though he was telling me a secret. “I left you a box of salted chocolates that you could have but then… well you came here with me.”

“Wherever you go, I go.”

“And you, I.”

We finally reached the tree as a group. It was huge, a large circumference of twining limbs. It also towered over us, the highest tree I had ever seen constructed in any of the games. I touched it lightly, not sure what it felt like. It looked like bark, the rough texture cold under my fingers. It didn’t feel like bark though, more like something of metal material.

“Fascinating isn’t it?” I looked to my left where Beetee was standing next to me, looking up at it. I nodded and gave him a half smile. He took the coil from Finnick. “Beautiful construction. It’s like growing, living metal.”

Carrying the coil, Beetee began walking around the tree. Peeta helped him, pulling out the wire carefully as Beetee walked around the tree. They coiled so much of it around it’s base and through the branches that it looked like the tree itself was bleeding copper. It was strangely beautiful.

Every minute that went by I felt more and more impatient. My heart was beating irregularly. I could feel it in my chest, too fast for a normal pace. My hands were covered in a thin layer of sweat, making it hard to keep a firm grip on my trident. Johanna was tossing her axe from hand to hand, looking at me. I nodded at her, the slightest shift of my head. She returned the gesture before looking away.

When Beetee was completed circling the tree, he walked over to us. “Alright,” he said. Katniss and Peeta looked up from their quiet conversation, confused as Beetee looked at them. “Johanna and Katniss need to take the coil down to the beach and place it in the water. Once you do that, run back to the next section as quickly as you can.”

Peeta stepped towards Katniss, who took the heavy coil from Beetee. Her hair was free flowing now. I stared at her for a moment, struck by how beautiful Katniss was. Her hair was inky black and her skin was tan like my own, but there was something about the fierceness in her eyes that made her stand out. “I’m gonna go with you as a guard.”

Beetee looked at Peeta. “No, no, you have to stay. You have to protect me and the tree.”
The change in Peeta’s posture was instantaneous. He shifted from open and aware to closed and defensive, turning his chest towards Beetee and glancing at Finnick and I. I tried not to look for Finnick’s reaction. “No, I need to go with her.”

“You want to,” I corrected, earning a scathing glance from Katniss. I sighed, trying to look earnest. My heart was pounding hard in my chest and I felt as though I was going to drop my trident. “You need to stay here.”

“She’s right,” Beetee agreed, shaking his head. “There are two careers our there, one of them being Brutus. Lana cannot take her on herself if he comes for her, which he will. Finnick can take on Enobaria, but it’s too even of a match. I need three of you to out number them, not to equally match them.”

“Finnick and Lana can protect you fine on their own.”

“Yeah,” Katniss agreed angrily. “why can’t Finnick, Lana and Johanna stay with you? Peeta and I will take the coil.”

“Because,” I countered, “Peeta has brute strength that the three of us do not have. My weapon is hard to use in the narrow bath we came up, so I can’t take the coil myself. You can protect Johanna with your bow, and Peeta can help me if Brutus comes after me- which he will.”

There was a pause. Beetee looked at Katniss, sighing heavily and trying to please with her one last time. “You all agreed to keep me alive until midnight, correct?”

Katniss glanced at Johanna who spun her axe and I looked at Finnick. The three of us looked dangerous to Katniss, I realized. We were three people who could easily take down her and Peeta, and she was cornered. “It’s his plan,” Johanna reminded her, walking towards the forest and looking directly at Katniss. “We all agreed to it.”

I licked my lips, looking at Finnick. His eyes were stormy waves at night, trying to read my face. I squeezed my hand tighter on the trident. “Is there a problem here?” Finnick asked, looking away from me. He knew it. I could see it in his face that he knew what I would do if she attacked us. No matter what I promised, nothing would come before Finnick when it came down to it. “Katniss?”

“Good question,” Beetee said, his voice final.”

“There’s no problem,” Katniss muttered.

Trying not to show the breath of relief exhaling through my lungs, I turned to Finnick and gave him a small smile. It was a half effort, but he leaned over, kissing me on the forehead as Beetee picked up excess wire, getting to work. Peeta kissed Katniss and came back to us, giving us unsure looks. I smiled at him, giving him a nod as he, Finnick and I grouped around Beetee who began working.

For the first ten minutes, we were all silent. Peeta stood unsteadily next to me, glancing at me every once in a while. I opened my mouth once to tell him to relax and then closed it again, thinking better of it. The more I tried to convince him I wasn’t there to hurt him, the more I would drive him away. I knew from personal experience.

Flipping my trident, I began to twirl it behind my back and over my head methodically. Peeta glanced at me before looking away. I smiled a bit, asking him, “Do you want me to teach you?”

“I don’t know if it’s the appropriate time,” he gestured to Beetee with his thumb. “Why is he twining the wire around a spear anyways?”

“So if one- get down!” I screamed wildly, grabbing Peeta and throwing him to the ground as a knife flew over his head. Finnick was jumping over us in seconds, tearing after Enobaria as she turned, her hair a black whip. “Finnick, get Katniss!”

Peeta scrambled to his feet as I reached after him, trying to grab his leg. “Peeta!”

It was no use. Peeta was running full speed into the forest. Beetee looked panicked as I ran over to him, ripping out one of my knives and giving it to him. He looked at it as I forced his hand around the handle of it. “Lana, I-"

“Stay alive, do you understand me?”

“Lana-"

“Stay alive, Beetee!”

I ran as fast as I could, crashing into the trees after Finnick. I knew that I should have gone after Peeta, but Finnick was faster, quicker and would find Katniss faster than Peeta ever would. She was, after all, the main target that I had to protect. Peeta was in the clause, but Katniss was the agreement.

Jumping over branches I heard Finnick yelling for Katniss. I followed the sound of his voice, skidding down a hill as I came into sight of him. I ran towards him as he turned around, eyes flying wide. He didn’t get the words out of his mouth, but I knew by his facial expression to duck.

As I ducked, I twisted myself so that I felt backwards, bringing my trident in an arch, deflecting the spear that was thrust at my chest. Enobaria hissed at me, her sharpened teeth threatening as I swept my foot hard across the dirt, catching her own feet and knocking her to the ground.

On her back, Enobaria grabbed a knife, stabbing at me with it. I let go of my trident and rolled. Her swing missed, embedding the knife in the ground. I jumped to my feet, stomping my foot down hard on her wrist. She screamed in pain as her bones cracked underneath my shoe. With the other hand, she grabbed yet another knife, driving it sideways into my half.

I screamed. I had been stabbed before, but something about the knife staking through one of the strongest muscles in my body made it ten times worse. My leg was in horrible pain but I kicked her in the face with my opposite foot, half breathing and half yelled as I took the knife out.

Enobaria rolled, opening her mouth and proceeding to bite my ankle in a final attempt to distract me long enough to kill me. The pain in my ankle wasn’t as bad as the knife, but it hurt, her teeth breaking skin underneath the suit. It didn’t matter, though. Lana reached down, grabbing Enobaria by her hair and pulling her up; she came away with a piece of Lana’s suit in her teeth.

“Hope you liked the taste of fish,” I spat. I brought the knife down into the artery directly between her shoulder and her neck. She screamed as blood soaking my fist. I twisted the knife in deeper as she sputtered eyes wide and horrified. “Because it took your life to do it.”

With a sneer, I threw her head back, spraying the ground with plasma. I looked at my hands soaked in her blood. Looking up I saw Finnick running from a different place than he was earlier, his trident painted in blood. He tossed me a knife, yelling, “Cut it out!”

“I can’t run!” I said, realizing tears were streaming down my face. The pain my leg was in was incredible. “She stabbed me in the leg, I need you to carry me!”

Finnick swore under his breath. “I can’t carry you, my arm,” he held it out to me. Sucking in air, I dug the knife into my arm, hollering in pain as I did so. I was loosing blood rapid from three different places. I could already feel the dizziness coming on. “I can help you, put your arm around me.”

I ignored him, digging the knife in deeper until I could cut out the tracker. With tears blurring my eyes I pulled it out, coughing on a sob I was suppressing from the sheer pain. Even in my own games I hadn’t felt this. Hunger, exhaustion and everything else could hardly be compared to destroying my muscle tissue with several different knifes.

Throwing my good arm around his neck and tossing the knife to the ground, we began to attempt to move. I was making all kinds of noises of pure agony as we moved, holding my bleeding arm to my chest to stop the blood flow and also trying to stay off my hurt leg.

“Katniss!” Finnick yelled, trying to find her. “Johanna!”

“Finnick!” It was Johanna’s voice, distressed and in pain. “Lana!”

“We have to get to Johanna,” I panted.

“No!” Finnick was fierce. “We need to find Katniss- the baby, Lana.”

I paused, looking at him. His face was desperate, pleading with me. I nodded my head as we struggled. “The baby.”

Together we continued to run up the hill. We reached the corner, screaming for Katniss. I was leaning on Finnick, my vision becoming blurry. Everything sounded dull to me, like there was something in my ears blocking most of the sound. I tried to listen harder, but it was becoming difficult. Finnick shifted more of my weight onto him as my leg and my arm continued to bleed freely.

Finnick was yelling something. I picked up my head which had been falling towards my chest. I looked up and I saw Katniss there. I stared at her, her bow pulled and aiming at us. Her hair was flowing freely. We were standing several yards away. The sky above us was churning with electricity and storm clouds. Something like thunder rumbled above us.

“Katniss,” Finnick said. “Remember who the real enemy is.”

I looked at her. His words had the desired effect, a look contorting her face. My head was swimming and my ears began to ring. “Please,” I called, but whether it was from me asking death to take me, or for Katniss to spare us, I wasn’t sure. I was met with complete and total darkness.