Heart of Gold • Finnick Odair

-43-

FINNICK POV

I wake up on the ground with a mask on my face and a bandage around my wrist, Katniss and Beetee lay in front of me. I shoot up when I realise Rosalie isn't lay with us.

Images of the end of the Games flash in my mind.

From frantically searching for Johanna and Rosalie, to the cannon that went off, to seeing Katniss aiming an arrow at me until she aims it up to the sky as the lightning hits, to lying on the ground unable to move and therefore unable to find the others as the arena collapses around us and hovercrafts fly in and carry us away.

I stand up, a little shaky on my legs at first until I stabilise myself by gripping onto a table beside me. I know i'm on the right aircraft because if I were in the Capitol, doctors and nurses would be around somewhere and i'd be attached to a bed with restraints. But this doesn't stop me grabbing a scalpel from the side just incase.

I stand over my allies who are still unconscious on the floor. Walking towards the door ahead of me, I pray and hope that Rosalie is already awake and on the other side of the wall talking with Plutarch or whoever rescued us. I hope Johanna is with them too, I even hope Peeta is there. But they aren't. None of them are.

My legs are striding forward before I realise it and i'm stabbing the scalpel into the table that Haymitch and Plutarch are stood around, immediately putting a halt to their conversation.

"Where is she?" I try to keep my voice calm but it comes out shaky with both anger and tears.

"Finnick-" Haymitch starts.

"Where is she!" I demand again and I feel a salty tear run down my face but I don't care enough to wipe it away.

"We couldn't get her. She and Johanna-"

"Did they cut out their trackers?" I cut Plutarch off.

"Yes but-"

"Then why aren't they here?! Why am I here and they aren't?! They did everything you asked and you let Snow take them!"

"There wasn't time."

"What?" I seethe.

"We only had a small window, their hovercrafts had already arrived to take Enobaria when we got to you guys. Peeta still had his tracker and they were too far, they were too close to the Capitol's planes. It was too big a risk to take. We got who we could whilst making sure we got the Mockingjay. You must understand we did what we could, Finnick."

"Well it wasn't good enough."

I slump into the seat I had found myself next to as I had been pacing without realising it. I just sit with my head in my hands as they discuss their concerns for Katniss' possible reluctance without Peeta.

"She's gonna lose it when she finds out about the boy," Haymitch sighs.

"She'll still cooperate though?" Plutarch wonders.

"Without Peeta? There's no guarantee."

The doors slide open to reveal an incredibly confused and stressed out looking Katniss, understandably so, as she glances around the table at us.

Her eyes seem to linger on me and I realise it's because I'm silently crying so I just turn away from her as Haymitch talks.

"Morning sweetheart," he speaks in an uncharacteristically soft, kind of sarcastic, tone.

Katniss snarls as she lunges for him but she's weak compared to the blonde drunk so he easily pins her to the wall and disarms her of the... syringe?

"You and a syringe against the Capitol? See, this is why no one lets you make the plans," he mutters as he holds her hands above her head.

"What are you doing here?" This question is now directed at me.

I clear my throat in attempt to make my voice a little stronger, a bit more comforting, "stop. stop. Just listen."

"We couldn't tell you with Snow watching. It was too risky," Haymitch tells her. "Better for you to know nothing."

She's released from his hold and immediately asks for Peeta.

"Katniss, you have been our mission from the beginning. The plan has always been to get you out," Plutarch talks slowly, carefully. "Half the tributes were in on it. This is the Revolution. And you are the Mockingjay. And we're on our way to District 13 now."

"13? Where's Peeta?"

I turn away as the question causes tears to reappear. I just about see Plutarch move to the side of the room to grab another syringe making Haymitch the only person left to answer.

"He still has his tracker in his arm, Johanna cut yours out. He's in the Capitol, assumably along with Johanna and Rosalie. They got them."

Katniss turns like a switch as she pounces onto Haymitch to attack him. Haymitch holds her in place against him as Plutarch injects her with something that sends her to sleep as she mutters about how Haymitch lied.