𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐈𝐄 ━━ finnick odair ✓

𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧. ( new plan )

  The moment Boggs enters the tent I'm on him.

"Let me see the Holo," I insist.

Everyone around us rises slightly from their seated positions, as if they expect a confrontation.

"Soldier Jones, can it wait until later?" His tone is desolate.

"No." I am unflinching, unbudging.

Boggs pulls the device from his pocket and speaks his name into it. I feel Finnick's hand on my shoulder, light enough that it's a question. He doesn't get it yet.

"Pull up the pod," I instruct him.

He obliges, clicking on the location of the small red dot to display a data screen. My eyes flicker across the description rapidly. It lists the coordinates, the type as muttation and the description as gnats. At the very bottom there's the pin for designation that the system uses to sort it into the proper buckets.

23J19_2P36L59_N_W_E.P.B._%95%

To anybody else, it's nothing but a string of nonsensical characters. To me, it reads as a glaring malfunction. The pin designates it as a projectile explosion system. The closest designation should have been shrapnel with a description reading out bullets . It doesn't make any sense. Everything in the pin is right. It had to be a bug in the code. The code that I wrote.

"Fuck," I curse, tears stinging hot in my eyes.

"Nobody could have known," Boggs says, loud enough for everyone in the tent to hear. He still doesn't get it, he thinks that I'm accusing him of fault. "Orders from Coin have us continuing to film propos moving a bit further into the city. We're receiving a replacement for Leeg 2. Leeg 1 is in the medical tents being assessed, but it's my understanding that she plans on staying to continue our mission."

"It's not your fault, Fara," Gloss scolds me from where he sits.

"The code," Finnick breathes, finally understanding.

"I'm going to go take a shower," I say, feeling the eyes boring into me from all angles. I need to get away from it all.

I don't head in the direction of the washrooms, but I doubt anyone expected me to anyway. The sun is starting to reach the point on the horizon where it turns to a brilliant shade of orange. I pursue it, running from my shadow until I reach the banks of the pond. Less than twenty-four hours ago we all played in the water. Emme carried me on her shoulders while I tickled Finnick like a child.

I sink down to my knees in the grass. It does not feel as soft as it did yesterday. This place is no longer a testament to life, but a prelude to death. The geese watch me from their nests, honking trepidatiously as I eye their goslings. In me, they do not see a girl who has changed her life for better, but just another animal. To them I am a large predator, waiting for the moment to strike so that I may take their clutch.

I allowed myself to lose my focus yesterday, to view things as poetry rather than reality. Losing focus gets people killed. If I had devoted more care to creating the GIS system, Diona wouldn't go to bed tonight without a sister. I put my head between my knees when my fast breathing makes me dizzy.

Audrey, Fritz, Arik, Johannes, my mother, Blight, Cashmere, Grant, Emme.

The list grows longer the longer that I live.

"I figured you probably came here."

"I don't want company right now, Finnick," I say, not looking away from the geese.