Finnick and Annie

Lockdown

Dead by morning. The words resonated in my mind. The room was loud, everybody spoke at once, except for Katniss who sat quietly, her expression unreadable. I recognized the look of panic in her eyes though, I'd seen it many times in Annie's. What we'd all seen on the screen was too much, but nobody else seemed bother by it by Peeta's blood, they were more worried about what he'd meant.

            "Shut up," yelled Haymitch. We all looked at him. "It's not some big mysetery! The boy;s telling us we're about to be attacked. Here. In Thirteen."

            "How would he have that information?"

            "Why should we trust him?"

            "How do you know?"

            "They're beating him bloody while we speak," he growled "What more do you need? Katniss, help me out here!"

            "Haymitch's right. I don't know where Peeta got the information. Or if it's true. But he believes it is. And they're−"

            "You don't know him," Haymitch said to Coin. "We do. Get your people ready."

            I watched Katniss, worried, as Coin worked out an action plan. She pressed some bottons on her keyboard and the sirens started blaring loudly throughout the building. Boggs guided Katniss and me out of Command and towards the stairway.

            He lead us further and further away from the surface. We moved down the stairs along with everybody else in District Thirteen. At the ned of the staircase stood the entrance to a huge cavern, that seemed natural and man made at the same time. I felt dizzy, my eyes heavy and my ears popped, like when I tried to swim too deep.

            We were directed towards a machine that scanned the schedules printed on our arms, and then we went inside. The place was already crowded. Boggs told us to head towards the compartment stamped on our arm so I wondered away from Katniss. I followed the instructions on my Bunker Protocol and found myself a pack from the Supply Station.

            I readied my station and sat on my bunk bed. Katniss was gone and I didn't know anybody else. The only people I knew in the District were the people at Command and the hospital staff. I sighed and pulled out my piece of rope, which I hadn't used in a while. I tried not to think of Peeta. Because he was my friend and I was worried. Because he was being tortured in the Capitol. Because Annie was also in the Capitol and she was probably being tortured as well.

            I lost track of time, but snapped back to reality when Coin's voice rang across the cavern through the speakers, going on about how it was not a drill. How Peeta had warned us that there would be a bombing. She wasn't even done with her sentence when the first bomb hit. The bunker shuddered and a loud explosion could be heard in the distance. I wondered how far underground we really were. The lights went out and frightened murmurs filled the air, but the bunker was strong and we were safe.

            After a period of silence following the first bombing, the bunker was quiet. Then the speakers filled the room with Coin's calm yet somewhat strained voice once again. "Apparently, Peeta Mellark's information was sound and we owe him a great debt of gratitude. Sensors indicate the first missile was not nuclear, but very powerful. We expect more will follow. For the duration of the attack, citizens are to stay in their assigned areas unless otherwise notified."

            I was awoken throughout the night several times (though I was barely sleeping). Four more bunker missiles shook the ground, but we were still safe. I followed instructions like a robot barely aware of my surroundings. During socialization time I stayed in my bunk and knotted my rope with strenuous dedication, as if tying the right knot would give me Annie.

            Later that night, when everybody else was sleeping, I sat under the safety light on my bunk, playing with my piece of rope, when Katniss startled me. She emerged out of the darkness, but I knew even before the safety light shed some light on her face that it was she.

            "Shouldn't you be sleeping?" she asked. I looked at her, eyebrow raised to make a point. "True... I couldn't."

            "What's up?" I asked, making room for her on my bed.

            "I've been thinking... snow is trying to break me by using Peeta. I realized this a while ago when I was torturing Buttercup by pointing the flashlight around. He'll desperately try to catch it, and he'll eventually move on if I turn it off, but he's inconsolable when I point it somewhere out of reach. I'm Buttercup, Finnick. President Snow is using Peeta to break me. He wants me to know that it's solely to hurt me that he's torturing Peeta because it only makes it that much worse." She sighed and looked at the ground. "This is what they're doing to you with Annie, isn't it?"

            "Well, they didn't arrest her because they thought she'd be a wealth of rebel information," I muttered bitterly. "They know I'd never have risked telling her anything like that. For her own protection."

            "Oh, Finnick. I'm so sorry," she said.

            "No, I'm sorry. That I didn't warn you somehow."

            "You did warn me, though. On the hovercraft. Only when you said they'd use Peeta against me, I thought you meant like bait. To lure me into the Capitol somehow."

            "I shouldn't have said even that," I sighed. "Since I hadn't warned you before the Quarter Quell, I should've shut up about how Snow operates." I looked down at my piece of rope again and yanked it so that the knot flatted out into a straight line once more. "It's just that I didn't understand when I met you. After your first Games, I thought the whole romance thing was an act on your part. We all expected you'd continue that strategy. But it wasn't until Peeta hit the force field and nearly died that I-"

            "That you what?"

            "That I knew I'd misjudged you. That you do love him. I'm not saying in what way. Maybe you don't know yourself. But anyone paying attention could see how much you care about him," I said gently. And I knew it was true. Katniss loved Peeta.

            I turned my attention back to my rope and continued my knotting. We sat in silence for a while because she had a lot on her mind and I didn't know what I could say that would help her feel better. "How do you bear it?" she asked, breaking the silence.

I faced her, in disbelief. How do you bear it? How could she think that I did? I was sitting on my bunk in the middle of the night tying knots. My hands were raw! I'd shared a room with her in the hospital; she'd heard me crying over Annie. Anyone with some sense could see that I was not okay.

            "I don't, Katniss! Obviously, I don't. I drag myself out of nightmares each morning and find there's no relief in waking." But her expression reminded me of something. She looked broken and distraught. She'd finally understood what I'd been suffering for years. So I sighed and lowered my voice. Nobody deserved what we were going through. "Better not to give in to it. It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart."

            "The more you distract yourself the better. First thing tomorrow, we'll get you your own rope," I said, handing mine over reluctantly "Until then, take mine."