Heart of Gold • Finnick Odair

-62-

Castor tells us he knows the tunnels really well, having spent time down there working sanitation after becoming an Avox. It had taken him five years to get out, not seeing the sun once.

You can tell it was hard for Pollux to be back down in the tunnels but after some reassurance from his brother, he took a deep breath and braved onwards.

Pollux with his experience and Katniss with the Holo led the group through the tunnels.

When a train comes and they all have to rush behind a wall to hide, they decide they're too exposed.

Pollux leads the group through a door and down a long ladder deeper underground.

Walking through the water whilst trying not to think about what may be in the water, Finnick's hand never left Rosalie's.

They find a gap and see a small dry area and decide it's a good place to stop and rest.

Finnick guides Peeta where to sit and then takes a seat beside the blonde, dragging Rosalie to sit beside himself and Johanna automatically sits on her other side.

Johanna falls asleep the second her head leans up against the pipe behind her, from pure exhaustion and anxiety from having to trudge through water.

"Hey, you doin' okay?" Finnick leans down and whispers into Rosalie's ear.

She nods, whispering back, "I just have a bad feeling, like something's gonna go wrong."

Finnick wraps his arm round her shoulder, bringing her body as close as possible to his own, "let's talk about something else then."

"Like what?" Rosalie looks up at her husband, memorising every detail of his face.

"Like what we were talking about the night before we came on the mission," Finnick smirks.

Rosalie rolls her eyes, a soft smile on her lips, "no, Finnick, we're not naming our first child Finley."

"But it'd be like a mini me," he argues. "And remember, Rosita for a girl."

"No, you child!" Rosalie giggles quietly. Despite her reluctance to call her children names relating to herself, she can't deny that Finley would be a cute name. Maybe she could even come round to Rosita.

To prove her point, Finnick sticks his tongue out at her childishly.

After a few moments, he speaks again, "I love you, Rosalie Odair. You and your heart of gold."

She looks up at him, a blush tainting her cheeks, as her hand traces his jawline, "I love you too, Finnick Odair."

She leans up as he leans down and when their lips met in a soft but meaningful kiss, Rosalie felt safe, almost convinced that maybe everything could be okay because everyone knows she deserves a happy ending, a family, a future with a happy life.

Rosalie falls asleep rather easily too with the help of Finnick's hand tracing patters against her arm. Sleep found Finnick easily with the knowledge that Rosalie was safely tucked under his arm.

Though, no matter how easily they'd fallen asleep, the second people starting talking about mutts being let out, they were wide awake and ready to fight.

Pollux began leading them the fastest way out, Katniss and Gale using fire arrows to light the way and check for mutts every now and then.

Everything was dark.

One by one, the squad begin crawling through a narrow opening in the wall. Pollux first. Then Gale. Then Katniss followed by Peeta. Johanna follows. Next was Rosalie and then Finnick. Then Messalla and Castor. Just as Jackson was about to start climbing through, she turns on her heel and the light on her gun reveals the mutts that had, almost silently, been sneaking up on them.

The lizard-like mutts were four-legged with sharp talons at the end of each finger and had tight pale white skin and were the size of humans. They had long reptilian tails, arched backs and jaws that seemed strong enough to decapitate their victims in one bite. The mutts were both walking on their hind legs like people as well as on all four like an average animal. They give off a scent similar to that of President Snow's roses, which filled their noses as soon as they came close. Rosalie momentarily froze at the smell but was quickly snapped back to reality when she felt Finnick grab her arm and start to pull her away as Katniss shoots a bomb arrow at them as they attempt to crawl through the gap to reach the squad.

As Pollux is hastily leading the squad out of the sewers, a group of mutts leap onto Castor, ripping him to shreds.

After a quick push from Gale, Pollux continues to lead the group away, tears streaming down his face as he does so.

The mutts continue to hiss and screech as they chase them, both running like people and scattering about like lizards.