BOMBSHELL - Finnick Odair

34

Katniss

"They're back. We're wanted in the hospital."

I want to run, but Finnick is acting strange. Like he's lost the ability to move.  So, I take his hand and lead him like one would a small child.

When we arrive in the hospital wing it's in an uproar. Doctors are shouting orders and the wounded are being wheeled through the halls.

We're sideswiped by a gurney. It bears an unconscious, young woman with a shaved head. She's covered in blood and bruises. Johanna Mason.

She knew of rebel secrets. And she paid the price for it.

"Finnick!"

Something between a shriek and a cry.

A woman with red hair and sea-green eyes is sitting up on her gurney. I can make out Finnick sighing out in relief as he strides towards her, "Annie."

But he still looks tense. It's not the woman he was looking for.

Boggs' boots scuff against the floor as he approaches Haymitch and me. He looks rough, but for the most part uninjured.

"We got them all out. Except Enobaria. But since she's from Two, we doubt she's being held anyway. Peeta's at the end of the hall. The effects of the gas are just wearing off. You should be there when he wakes."

Peeta.

Alive and well.

Haymitch is grinning at me when he says, "Come on, then."

I feel light-headed. Giddy. What will I say? Oh, who cares. Peeta will be ecstatic no matter what. He'll probably be kissing me anyway.

I'm wondering if the kiss will be anything like  the one we shared on the beach in the arena when someone yells out.

She's ripping her oxygen mask off her face and yanking tubes from her arm.

"No!" Ember cries.

The three of us pause as she's in the gurney just up ahead of us. The woman jumps down on two wobbly legs and blocks our path.

Doctors grab at her arms and try to reassure her. She thrashes against their hold.

"Listen to me!" She's screaming repeatedly.

Her wild eyes dart to mine and she seems to be pleading with me as she says, "Don't."

Don't what?

"Ember," Haymitch calls, holding his arms out in front of him, like one would a skittish animal. "You're safe here."

Her bottom lip wobbles, almost as if she's holding back a sob.

While he's distracting her, a nurse injects her arm with a long needle. A sedative that I'm all too familiar with. The team of doctors slowly ease her  calming body down onto the stretcher so we can pass by.

As we do, her eyelids fluttering close, she reaches out to grab my upper forearm.

"You're not," she whispers.