In Our Favor

Ch.9

📍The Arena
⏰Day 1

Already exhausted, we trudge through the thick woods. Peeta's at the forefront, slashing vines with his machete. The heat in here is unreal, as if they're trying to bake us alive.
We pick our feet up high each time we take a step. This is only the first hour.

Peeta and Finnick are in front of Katniss and I. Katniss slows in front of me for no apparent reason, coming to a stop. The boys keep on walking without us, Katniss blocking my way.

"Katniss what-" I begin, then I see the fluorescent shield.

"Peeta no!" She screams, but it's too late.

Peeta cuts into a force field that immediately sends all 4 of us flying back. It feels like a shock wave just ran through us. We hit the ground hard, a ring echoing throughout my ears. My vision is blurry, but I see Katniss jump up and crawl over to Peeta. I pull myself up as well and kneel beside her.

"Peeta? He's not breathing! He's not breathing!" She frantically looks back at Finnick and I.

Finnick pushes her out of the way and starts giving Peeta cpr. Katniss sits there, presumably surprised that Finnick's helping. I tap her on the back and she snaps out of it. She holds her bow at the ready and I do the same with my spear. No matter what, we can't forget lookout.

"Come on. Come on." Finnick pushes on Peeta's chest.

"Please wake up." Katniss whispers to herself.

For 5 good seconds, Peeta stopped breathing. I can already imagine Plutarch readying the canon. But just as that thought crosses my mind, Peeta takes a huge gasp. Katniss drops her bow and sprints to Peeta, rubbing his hair and face in relief.

"Oh my god."

"Be careful. There's a force field up there." He groggily jokes.

Katniss giggles through her tears before giving him a kiss.

"You were dead. You were dead, your heart stopped."

"It's okay. It's working now."

Regrettably, seeing the immense love Katniss has for him makes me envious. I'm happy for them, but I wish she knew all that I'd do for her. But there's no time for that now

Katniss stands Peeta up and starts to walk from Finnick and I.

"A thanks would suffice." Finnick points out to Katniss.

Peeta and Katniss both look back at us, Katniss just glaring at Finnick.

"Thank you." Peeta says for her.

Finn nods his head, but he's still staring it out with Katniss. She looks to me, but I give her the same glare. She's being ungrateful. I touch Finn's back and we keep walking.

——————

After figuring out that we're at the edge of the dome, we set up there. The sun has fallen, and Katniss and I have decided to take first watch. Peeta sleeps in her lap while Finnick sleeps by my side. We both sit on logs in silence shortly after the total death count plays.

I'm mindlessly stabbing my trident into the dirt when I hear rustling in the leaves ahead of me. I immediately point my weapon toward the sound and I hear Katniss do the same behind me. We hold them up until the rustling stops. But when we see what comes out of the leaves, we both lower our guard.

It's...a kid?

A little girl, fair skinned, stringy brown hair, and chubby cheeks. She's wearing a worn out pink shirt and blue shorts. She has dirt and blood dried on her face and clothes. This can't be. A child in the arena?

Instinctively, I hold my arms out at the adorable toddler. She stumbles into my arms and I wrap them around her.

"What the hell are you doing?" I hear Katniss whisper yell.

"It's a kid."

"We don't know who that is. It could be a trap"

"She's obviously not a tribute. We can't just leave her." I whisper back, stroking the girls hair.

I hear her sigh behind me, just as confused as I am. There's no way the kid is any older than 7, but that can't be right. You have to be at least 12 to participate in the reaping. None of this makes sense, and we're in no position to find out more information.

"What's your name?" I softly say to the girl, getting a better look at her face.

She looks at me with her brown dough eyes, but doesn't say a word. Only looks down at her hands before holding up 8 fingers at me.

"Eight?" I pause. "Eight. You're from district eight?"

She nods her head. I turn back to Katniss and let her know what I found out. She just glares.
I don't think she knows what to make of this. Honestly, I don't either. What are the boys gonna think?

I stay seated on the log, but criss crossed now. I let the kid, Eight, lay in my lap and she dozes off in no time. Before I was adopted, the community center that I was staying in was full of small kids, this is second nature.

After a few minutes of this, we hear a high pitched beeping coming from above us. We both look up to see a small box attached to a mini parachute. Katniss walks over to it as Peeta and Finnick start to wake up. The first thing they see when they look at me is the girl in my arms.

They both swiftly draw their weapons at first, not knowing who she is.

"It's okay." I hold my hands up in defense of her.

"Who the hell is that?" Peeta asks.

"It's a child. She came out of the woods."

"A kid from the woods? Florence what the-"

"Finn, I don't know." I cut Finnick off. "She's harmless, okay? And she's with us now."

"And you're sure it's not a trap?" Peeta asks.

"A mistake, maybe. But a trap? No." I say.

They slowly lower their weapons before turning their attention back to Katniss. She explains how Haymitch sent down a spile. They all gather at a tree as they wait for water to come out. My stomach churns with hope, it's so damn hot.

By the grace of god, water starts falling out of the spile. They all take turns drinking from it. I pick Eight up and walk over to the water. I drink some myself before softly shaking her awake and giving her some too.

After we silently celebrate our luck, Peeta and Finnick go back to sleep. They put up some resistance, but Katniss and I insisted that we finish out our watch. Eight lays by my side as Katniss and I look out to the trees.

As we are, we see lightning come down and strike the huge tree a multitude of times. We can feel the ground shake from here.

"I counted 12." Katniss says.

"Midnight?" I suggest.

"Or the number of districts."

Our faces light up as the tree is stricken again. If it weren't so thick, it would be totally fried by now.

"You gonna sleep or can I?" I ask.

"Go on. I'm good." She nods.

I roll over and lay close to the kid, closing my eyes and immediately drifting off.