Blaze

Peeta: Forcefield

"Do we have any more unknown allies?" I ask Catora as we run across the small strip of land, hand in hand. She glances at me with wide brown eyes before glancing back behind her.

"I think just them." She says, pointing up at Finnick and Mags. I tighten my grip on her hand as we hit the sandy beach. We keep running. Finnick has Mags on his back, which is for the best. The old women can barely stand. I hear Finnick laugh.

"Why Bread Boy? Were you expecting someone else?" Finnick shouts behind him. I catch a glance of his pearl white teeth. Catora lets go of my hand but only because it's easier to run like that. She hands me a knife. I graciously accept it.

I hope she never finds out. I don't want her to find out. But I killed that man from District 9. I hope she assumes Finnick did it.

"We expected to be by ourselves!" Catora shouts back at him. I look at her. The braid down her back is flying around and even though she's small, she's quick and is able to keep up with Finnick's jerky movements.

After ten minutes of running though, she's worn out. "Stop!" She excliams. I knew she had been trying to hold out for as long as she could but we were drenched in sweat already, the cool saltwater we took a dip in had vaporized and the thick jungle made everything feel humid.

Catora bends down, hands on her knees, taking deep breaths. "Oh yeah." Finnick says, letting Mags down. "I forgot what condition you're in." He murmurs. I can't see Catora's face becuase she's still doubled over but she touches her stomach and blushes. I love watching her blush.

"Did you need to sit down?" I ask her gently. Catora shakes her head but Mags is motioning for her to sit. Catora sits down, reluctantly, on the ground. I knell down in front of her. She has her arms wrapped around her knees slightly. She's staring at the ground and I know she's disappointed in herself for stopping so soon. I tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Immediately she looks up at me and grins.

"Ready to go?" Finnick asks, eyeing the path behind us before looking ahead. "I don't think they'll follow us. We should keep moving though." He murmurs glancing at us. Mags is nodding and smiling. Standing, I hold out my hand to Catora. She takes it gratefully and I help her stand. She brushes the dirt off herself and we begin moving forward.

Catora has the front and she's taken Finnick's knife, leaving me mine, so she can hack at the underbrush. I follow behind Finnick, who is carrying Mags. I don't like the idea of Finnick being between Catora and I but I can kill him easily if he swipes at anything but the vines hanging form the trees or the underbrush. I keep glancing behind me anyways, like someones going to jump us or trap us.

"Why is the forest so thick?" I hear Catora murmur. Finnick smirks. I reply before he gets a chance to.

"Jungle, Catora." She smiles back at me.

"That's the word. I kept calling it a forest in my head but I knew there was a different word I meant to use." I smile back at her. Finnick rolls his eyes at us. "I guess it's because the forest is all I know." Is her last remark on it.

After about ten more feet, Catora stops and eyes a tree off to her left. Finnick follows her gaze, letting Mags off of his back. "Thinking of escaping into the trees?" Finnick asks lightly. Catora shakes her head and looks from him to me.

"I want to get a good look at the arena." Is all she says before she begins to climb. I rush towards the base of the tree but she's already out of reach.

"Catora! Don't hurt yourself!" I call up to her. She laughs, a sound I'm so thankful to hear. She glances down at me, shaking her head.

"I'm fine!" She calls down. Then, as an afterthought, "We're fine." She's talking about our hypothetical baby. I nod my head and she keeps climbing. Finnick leans up against the tree and wipes the sweat from his forehead. I push my hair back across mine.

"She sure is something." I hear him murmur.

"Yeah." I say trying not to sound angry.

"Hard to believe she's a victor you know? Or that she's killed people. She's too small and fragile."

"Then you don't know her very well." I snap at him. I glance back up the tree. I wish I could go up after her.

Catora climbs back down three minutes later. I'm there to help her. She dusts off her hands and Finnick swoops in with his sarcastic remarks. "So what's happening? Are all the tributes holding hands and singing songs?" Catora shakes her head slowly, almost sadly. I don't know what we expected after that stunt during the interviews but it didn't change anything.

"No, they're killing each other. Let's keep moving." She murmurs, grabbing up her bow, sheaf of arrows and the knife she's been using to cut away at the foliage.

"Any water?" Finnick asks as he grabs up a net I didn't know he had and his trident before moving towards Mags. Catora shakes her head again.

"As far as I could tell, the only source of water is the saltwater in the center of the arena." Finnick frowns. This is not a good sign. We keep moving.

We continue to move uphill. The wet mushy ground sucking at our shoes. It's almost like quicksand but we don't sink into it. I lick my lips. My mouth is dry already. We need to find water soon. I'm worried about Catora and Mags. Catora is too small and Mags is too old.

The ground gets steeper and I'm focused more on my footing than I am on the path ahead. I still manage to catch it though. The faint shimmer of a hidden force field. Catora is about to walk right into it. Before I can shout her name, the knife in her hand collides withe the force field. She's blown backwards.

"Catora!" I find my voice and rush over to her, dropping everything. I drop down next to her calling her name and shaking her shoulder lightly. "Catora! Wake up." I tell her. I put my hand against her lips. I can't feel her breathing. I put my head down on her chest. Her hearts stopped.

"Move!" Finnick commands loudly, startling me. He pushes me back and then he leans down. He's kissing her. I would've stabbed him. I would have slit his throat for touching her but that's before I realized he was giving her CPR. They must be trained on it back in District 4, in case someone almost drowns.

He's trying to get her heart beating again, I think I've gone numb. I can't feel my hands and they're useless anyways. I can't do CPR. I can't help her. I don't know how to. She could die because of me. Because I never showed her the forcefield. I was going to, back during training, but it never came up again. I should have showed her right after I found out from Beetee and Wiress. I should have...

Catora gasps loudly, sitting up. "Catora." I choke out. Finnick moves out of the way. Then I'm pulling her against me tightly. She seems confused but hugs me back. I feel her kiss my shoulder.

"What happened?" I hear her whisper.

"You were nearly fried." Finnick says lightly. I pull back and look at him. He's breathing heavily and is leaning back on his palms.

"Forcefield." Catora murmurs. "Don't walk that way." She says, shaking her head. Mags grins and Finnick laughs. I just hug her again.

"The baby." I murmur to her glancing down at her stomach. She touches it.

"Should be fine. Mommy's alive so baby's alive." Finnick says, standing up. I help Catora up. She's blushing from him calling her a mommy. "Ready to keep going?" Finnick asks. Catora nods and eyes the forcefield warily.

"No. She should rest." I insist. Catora frowns but not at me, at the ground.

"I'll be fine." She says lightly.

"Catora, your heart stopped."

"Yeah but I'm not dead." She points out. She's being stubborn. I sigh.

"Please, rest." I know she can't resist my please.

"Not for too long." She gives in, glancing at Finnick and I know he's not going to argue. I'll kill him if he does. We sit around for maybe ten minutes while Finnick finds walking sticks for Mags and Catora. It's effective and easy. I can tell Catora's tired. She looks sleepy.

"Ready to go now?" Finnick asks with a sigh. I wait for Catora to say she's ready. She nods and grabs up a handful of rocks from the ground.

"We should throw these to our right so we know where it is." She says holding open her hand. I smile at her. Always thinking. Despite her good suggestion, I position her on the other side of me, so she's not next to the forcefield. I'm not risking her life again.