Sunshine | Finnick Odair

| part 6 |

They know we are down here now and they've unleashed something, a pack of mutts.

"Katniss! Get out of here!" Peeta says in an alarmed voice. I pull my knees up to my chest as I listen to the whispers. 'Katniss'

I feel my heart begin to pound out of my chest rapidly as the world around me becomes unrecognisable. I'm in the Capitol. I'm back. What was I thinking? I'm not stable for this. I'm going to die in the sewers being ripped apart by mutts.

"Why? What's making that sound?" Katniss asks

"I don't know. Only that it has to kill you," says Peeta.

"Mutts" I shout coming back to my senses. "Run! Get out! Go!"

"Whatever it is, it's after me. It might be a good time to split up." Katniss voices, not wanting to have more deaths in her conscious.

"But we're your guard," says Jackson.

"And your crew," adds Cressida.

"I'm not leaving you," Gale says.

We decide to split off in two groups.

Finnick with two guns and a trident. I suggest that he give one of his guns to Castor. Eject the blank cartridge from Peeta's, load it with a real one, and arm Pollux. There's no time to show them anything but how to point and pull the trigger, but in close quarters, that might be enough. It's better than being defenceless. We leave the room free of everything but our scent. There's no way to erase that at the moment. I'm guessing that's how the hissing things are tracking us, because we haven't left much of a physical trail. Outside the hum of the room, the hissing becomes more distinct. But it's also possible to get a better sense of the mutts' location. They're behind us, still a fair distance.

I'm beginning to think I should of stayed home. Why do I keep volunteering myself to come into these fucking games?! My mind wanders to the polar bear in my first games, the monkeys in the Quarter Quell, the monstrosities I've witnessed as a mentor over the years, and I wonder what form these mutts will take. Whatever Snow thinks will scare us the most.

"Avoxes," me and Peeta say immediately.

"That's what Darius sounded like when they tortured him." Peeta continues.

"The mutts must have found them," Cressida declares.

"So they're not just after Katniss," Leeg 1 says as we continue to move swiftly through the shallow waters.

"They'll probably kill anyone. It's just that they won't stop until they get to her," Gale answers.

"Let me go on alone. Lead them off. I'll transfer the Holo to Jackson. The rest of you can finish the mission." Katniss says trying to protect us but it won't work.

"No one's going to agree to that!" says Jackson in exasperation.

"We're wasting time!" Finnick
shouts in frustration.

"Listen" I whisper. The screams have stopped, and in their absence Katniss' name has rebounded, startling in its proximity. It's below as well as behind us now. We begin to run through the sewers praying Pollux knows his way out. Gale and Katniss begin to shoot explosive arrows in the direction of the mutts. Messalla is as still as a statue, poised up on the ball of one foot, head tilted back, held captive by the beam. I can't tell if he's yelling, although his mouth is stretched wide. We watch, utterly helpless, as the flesh melts off his body like candle wax.

"We can't help him!" Peeta starts shoving people forward. Amazingly, he's the only one still functional enough to get us moving. Katniss shoots another explosive arrow revealing the mutts. A shiver goes through my body as I lay eyes on the creature. A mix of human and lizard and who knows what else. White, tight reptilian skin smeared with gore, clawed hands and feet. Hissing, shrieking Katniss' name now, as their bodies contort in rage. Lashing out with tails and claws, taking huge chunks of one another or their own bodies with wide, lathered mouths, driven mad by their need to execute Katniss.

"Forget the mission. What's the quickest way aboveground?" Katniss shouts at Pollux in a panic as we are out numbered by mutts.

We follow Pollux for about ten yards along the Transfer and go through a doorway. I'm aware of tile changing to concrete, of crawling through a tight, stinking pipe onto a ledge about a foot wide. We're in the main sewer. A yard below, a poisonous brew of human waste, garbage, and chemical runoff bubbles by us.

Katniss takes a quick glance at our group and her look is confused. "Wait! Where are Jackson and Leeg One?"

"They stayed at the Grinder to hold the mutts back" I tell her.

"What?" Katniss says lunging back for the bridge, willing to leave no one to those monsters, when Finnick yanks her back. "Don't waste their lives, Katniss. It's too late for them. Look!" Finnick nods to the pipe, where the mutts are slithering onto the ledge.

"Stand back!" Gale shouts. With his explosive-tipped arrows, he rips the far side of the bridge from its foundation. The rest sinks into the bubbles, just as the mutts reach it. No mutt is good. All are meant to damage you. Some take your life, like the polar bear. Others your sanity, like the tracker jackers. The true atrocities, the most frightening, incorporate a perverse psychological twist designed to terrify the victim.

I take out my knives and begin slicing the scale-skin of the lizard like creatures. Pollux and Cressida make their way up the ladder with the rest of us trying our best to get there. Peeta and Katniss are up next leaving me and Finnick to fight of the mutts.

"GO! GET OUT OF HERE!" Finnick shouts at me with terror in his eyes.

"IM NOT LEAVING YOU!" I cry out.

"I'm right behind you just GO!"

"I love you, fishface"

"I love you too, sunshine"

I make my way up the ladder with Finnick right behind me. I make it to the top and hear Finnick scream out in pain, making my heart stop. I look down seeing Finnick struggling to hang on as three mutts tear at him. His grip falters, as one of the monsters rip his head back, resulting in him falling into the water. The mutts instantly view him as a threat and begin to attack the man I love.

"GIVE ME THE HOLLOW" I scream at Katniss with tears gushing out my eyes, she passes it over without hesitation. I choke out "nightlock, nightlock, nightlock." Through my tears, releasing it down to the sewer. The only thing I could do for him was make his death quicker. "I'm sorry" I whisper out.

He's gone. He was actually gone. In this moment I was sure of one thing. Nothing in this life, in this world, could ever hurt me more than this.

1203 words.

READ:
I'm so SORRY. But not everything is what it seems to be.

Is he really gone?

Am I just getting your hopes up?

I hope this makes you feel better about his death. Knowing it was people crawling around on the floor.