"Oh, Finnick, you don't think they..." I said about the Capitol taking Sage and Annie. "Yes. I do. That's exactly what I think." He said as I had an image of Sage in a white room, strapped to a table, while masked, robed figures forced the sounds from her. Somewhere they're torturing her, or did torture her, to get the sounds. My knees went jelly and I sank to the floor as Finnick was trying to tell me something, but I didn't hear him. What I heard was another bird starting up and this time, the voice is Ben's. Finnick caught my arm before I could run.
"No. It's not him." He said to me as he flung me over his shoulder and started to run in the direction of the beach. "We're getting out of here." Finnick said but Ben's voice was so full of pain I could help but struggle to reach it. "It's not him, Ruth! It's just a mutt." Finnick shouted at her trying to calm me down. Finnick carried her, running as fast as he could. I knew he was right; I couldn't help Ben by chasing it down. But it didn't change the fact that it was Ben's voice, and somewhere, sometime, someone had made him sound like this.
I stopped fighting Finnick and just like the night in the fog, we fled what they couldn't fight. What could only do her harm. Only this time it was her heart and not her body that was collapsing. This must be another weapon of the clock. Four o'clock, I guessed. When the hands tick-tock on to 4 , the monkeys go home and the Jabberjays come out to play. Finnick was right – getting out of there was the only thing they could do. I caught sight of Roy, Beetee, Peeta, Katniss and Johanna standing at the tree line and I was filled with a mixture of relief and anger. Why didn't they come to help them?
Why didn't they come after them? Even now they stood back, palms towards them, lips moving but no words reaching them. Why? The wall was so transparent; Finnick and I ran smack bang into it and bounced back onto the ground. That was why Jackson and Johanna and even Beetee, who Piper saw sadly shake his head behind them, haven't come to their aid. An invisible barrier blocked the arena in front of us. It's not a force field. You can touch the hard, smooth surface all you like. But Peeta's and Roy's knives, Katniss' bow and arrows and Johanna's axe couldn't make a dent. I knew without checking that it enclosed the entire four to five o'clock wedge. That they would be trapped like rats until the hour had passed. Finnick wrapped his arms around I who was shaking uncontrollably. I stared at Finnick's chest calming myself down then the birds arrived. One by one.
Perching in the surrounding branches. And a carefully orchestrated chorus of horror began to spill out of his mouth. Finnick gave up straight away tightening his grip around me. I tried to block out the excruciating sounds of Ben, Annie, mom, Rosemary, Hibis, Raymie, Hallie, Mox, Joan, Quinn, Juniper, Jenny, Emilia, and Sage ... I knew it stopped when Finnick lifted me up and carried me out of the jungle, but I kept my eyes squeezed closed, hands over my ears, muscles too rigid to release. Finnick kept me on his lap, speaking soothing words, rocking me gently – even though he was just as bad as I was. It took a long time before I could relax the iron grip on my body and when I did the trembling began. "It's all right. Rutty." Finnick said softly trying to calm me down and himself. "I can still hear them." I said as Roy, Peeta, Johanna, Katniss and Beetee who was sitting next to us joined in.
Peeta and Katniss looked down knowing what it was like. "I heard Sage. Right in the beginning but it wasn't her. It was a jabberjay." I said scared for them. "It was her. Somewhere. The jabberjay just recorded it." Roy said about the recording from somewhere. "No, that's what they want you to think. The same way you two thought it was the dead tributes eyes in the wolves. But they weren't and that wasn't Sage's voice. Or if it was, they took it from an interview or something and distorted the sound. Made it say what she was saying." Katniss said trying to comfort me. "No they were torturing her. She's probably dead." I answered about Sage. "Ruth, Sage isn't dead. How could they kill Sage? We're almost down to the final eight of us and what happens then?" Roy said about being close to the final eight and Sage.
