The Name of the Game I Finnick Odair

The Force Field

The absence of water intensified Katniss thirst. She kept a sharp eye out as they continued to trek upwards, but with no luck. After about another kilometer, she could see an end to the tree line, causing her to assume they were reaching the crest of the hill.

"Maybe we'll have better luck on the other side. Find a spring or something."

But there was no other side. Katniss knew this before anyone else, even though she was the furthest from the top. Her eyes caught on a funny, rippling square hanging like a warped pane of glass in the air. At first she thought it was the glare from the sun or the heat shimmering up off the ground. But it was fixed in space, not shifting when Katniss moved. And that was when she connected the square with Wiress and Beetee in the Training Centre and realized what laid before them. Her warning cry was just reaching her lips when Peeta's knife swung out to slash away some vines.

There was a sharp zapping sound. For an instant, the trees were gone and Katniss saw open space over a short stretch of bare earth. Then Peeta was flung back from the force field, bringing Kenzie to the ground.

Katniss rushed over to where Peeta lied, motionless in a web of vines. "Peeta?"

There was a faint smell of singed hair. Katniss called his name again, giving him a little shake, but he was unresponsive. Her fingers fumbled across his lips, where no warm breath was although moments ago he had been panting. She pressed his ear against his chest, to the spot where she had always rested her head, where she knew she would hear the strong and steady beat of his heart. Instead, she found silence.

"Peeta!" she screamed, shaking him harder and even resorting to slapping his face, but it was no use. His heart had failed. Katniss was slapping emptiness. "Peeta!"

Finnick propped Kenzie against a tree and pushed Katniss out of the way. "Let me."

His fingers touch pointed at Peeta's neck, ran over the bones in his ribs and spine. Then he pinched Peeta's nostrils shut, which made Katniss yell out. She hurled herself at Finnick, believing he intended to make certain that Peeta was dead, to keep any hope of life returning to him. Instantly, Finnick's hand came up and hit Katniss so hard, so squarely in the chest that she went flying back into a nearby tree trunk. She was stunned for a moment, not only by the pain, but also by trying to regain her wind, as she saw Finnick close off Peeta's nose again. From where she sat, she pulled an arrow, whipped the notch into place and just as she was about to let it fly she was stopped by the sight of Finnick kissing Peeta. And that was so bizarre, even for Finnick, that Katniss' arrrow stayed in her hand. But Finnick wasn't kissing Peeta. He had gotten Peeta's nose blocked off, however his mouth tilted open and he was blowing air into Peeta's lungs.

"That is called CPR, which stands for Cardiopulmonary resuscitation." Katniss heard Kenzie's voice beside her. "We learn it at our lifeguard lessons."

If Katniss hadn't been so worried about Peeta she would've asked what a lifeguard was, but instead she found her arrow tip sinking to the ground as she leaned in to watch, desperately, for some sign of success. Her mother had done something similar to the so called CPR once, but in District 12 it was unlikely that the patient's family could get them to Katniss' mother on time. Yet, Finnick and Kenzie's world was different and as Katniss had just learned they were taught this at school, which explained the set rhythm and method. Finnick had done this before.

Agonizing minutes dragged past as Katniss' hope diminished. Around the time that Katniss had decided it was too late, that Peeta was dead, moved on, unreachable for ever, he gave a small cough and Finnick sat back. Katniss left her weapons in the dirt as she flung herself at Peeta.

"Peeta?" she said softly, while brushing the damp blond strands of hair back from his forehead and finding the pulse at his neck, which drummed against her fingers.