As I watched it, I felt the hairs on my neck begin to rise. Something was wrong with the fog, it seemed too unnatural. It was too uniformed. And if it was not natural like a sickeningly sweet odour began to invade my nostrils and I reached for my allies, shouting for them to wake up. In the few seconds it took to awake them and it began to blister with tiny searing stabs. Whenever the droplets of mist touched my skin. "Run! Run!" I screamed at the others as Finnick snapped awake instantly, rising to kill the enemy but when he saw the wall of fog, he tossed a still sleeping Mags onto his back and took off. Roy had got onto his feet but wasn't as alert. I grabbed his arm and guided him after Finnick with Beetee behind us.
"What is it? What is it?" Roy said in perplexity about the fog. "I don't know, I think its some sort of fog. Poisonous gas, un-natural. Hurry, Roy." I urged him as I could tell that however much the previous day he had denied the aftereffects from hitting the force field, they had been significant. He was slower, much more than usual and the tangled vines and overgrown plants, which occasionally unbalanced me and tripped him up. I took a quick glance back at the fog extending in a line as far as the eye could see.
A terrible instinct to run and save myself shot through me. It would be so simple for me, to sprint full out, even climb a tall tree above the fog line, which seemed to be 12 metres tall. I trapped my fear and pushed it away and stayed with Roy. I didn't owe him anything, but I would never forgive myself to leave this boy who had helped my train and looked after my family. I thought of the thousands of eyes glued to the television screens in the Districts, seeing if I would run, as the Capitol wished, or hold my ground. I locked my fingers around his shoulders and shouted to him about feet "Watch my feet. Just try to step where I step." It helped.
They seemed to move quicker than before just not enough to ever stop and rest. The mist continued to lap at our heels as droplets spring free of the body of vapour and they burned but not like fire. Less a sense of heat and more of intense pain as the chemicals found their flesh, clinging to it and burrowing down through the layers of skin. Their jumpsuits offered no protection. We may as well be dressed in tissue paper. Finnick, who ran off initially, stopped when he realized they were having troubles. But it was nothing they could fight it was simply something to avoid. He shouted encouragement, trying to move them along, and the sound of his voice acted as a guide. Roy's leg caught a bunch of tangled vines and he sprawled forward before I knew what was going on.
As I helped him up, I became aware of something scarier than the blisters, more incapacitating than the burns. The left side of his face was sagged, as if every muscle had died. The lid drooped, almost concealing his eye. His mouth twisted in an odd angle towards the ground. "Ro - ..." I began but that was when I felt the spasms run up my arm. Whatever chemical spiked the fog does more than burn – it targeted the person's nerves. A whole new kind of fear shot through her and she yanked Roy forward which only resulted in him stumbling again. By the time I had got him to his feet both her arms were twitching uncontrollably. The fog had moved closer to them now only a metre away. Something was wrong with Roy's legs, he was trying to move but they were too puppet like.
I felt him lurch forward and I saw that Finnick had come back for us and was hurling Roy along. I wedged my shoulder which seemed to still be under my control, under his arm and tried to keep up with Finnick's rapid pace. We had put about 10 metres between them and the fog when Finnick stopped. "It's no good. I'll have to carry him. Can you take Mags?" Finnick said to me about Roy and Mags. "Yes." I said confidently although my heart sank. It was true that Mags couldn't weigh more than thirty – five kilos, but I wasn't that big myself. Still I was sure I'd carried heavier loads. But then I hadn't got chemicals running round my systems ruining my nerves. I squatted and Mags positioned herself over my shoulder, just like the way she rode on Finnick.
