Scarred | The Hunger Games

28.

We made our way to the lightning tree, getting started with the plan.

"You girls, go together now. Take this. Unspool it carefully, make sure the entire coil is in the water. You understand?" 

Johanna and I immediately nod, but I can see the hesitation in Katniss' eyes. 

"I'll go with them as a guard." Peeta speaks us. 

"No, no, no. You're staying here to protect me."

"No, I need to go with her." Peeta argues. They want to kill us off. I know it. 

"There are two Careers out there, I need two guards."

"Finnick can protect you just fine on his own." Ok, honestly, that's just a dumb argument, two Careers is crazy powerful.

"Yeah, why can't Finnick, Johanna and Nova stay with you and Peeta and I'll take the coil?" Katniss argued. Ok, that's a pretty good argument, three bodyguards are better than two.

"It's his plan, we all agreed to it." Johanna says. 

"Is there a problem here?" Finnick asks. I almost think we're screwed, since before it was just subtle separation, but with Finnick's question, it makes it sound like we want to separate the two. Which we do, but besides the point.

"No, there's not problem." Katniss says, before leaning to kiss Peeta.

***

The three of us make our way down towards the beach, traversing the rocks of the jungle. Suddenly, Katniss stops moving. "There's something." She whispers, so softly that I wouldn't hear it if it weren't deadly quiet right now.

The coil is cut, and Brutus' bald head pops up from behinds the rocks. Katniss goes to draw her bow, before she's knocked down by Johanna. 

"Jo, you hold them back, I'll get Katniss." I call out.

I crouch down besides Katniss, grabbing her arm. "Sorry, this will only hurt for a bit." I feel for the tracker in her arm, before cutting her arm and pulling the silver thing out. I smear her blood on her neck, "Stay down" I whisper.

I hear Johanna's axe ricochet against the rocks, before she calls out to me, "Nova? We have to go!"

"Katniss, trust me, stay down. I'm doing this for Otti." I hushly whisper, taking out my token, the hackmite crytal from under my sleeve putting it in the grip of Katniss' palm.

We run, as Enobaria and Brutus follow us. "Jo, do you have a weapon?"

"I have a knife but I threw my axe."

I reach for my spare knives, "here, take these."

I know we can't run forever, and the Careers are gaining on us. Johanna stops, turning and throwing three of the six knives she had. Two of them hits Enobaria, but Brutus dodges the third. 

"You keep going for Enobaria," I call out, before I hype myself up. I came to the arena to die, so here I go, I charge at Brutus. 

He also has his spear out, and although, he has more experience, I'm faster. I dodge as best as I can at his spear which was aimed at my throat, before cutting his knee. He lands a stab on my back, causing me to stumble back. I see him ready his spear to throw, but I duck, running at him and plunging my spear into his stomach. 

Boom.

"Johanna!" I yell. She and Enobaria must have started a chase, since they're nowhere to be found. There's a blood trail on the dark ground through, and with my eyes adjusted to the dark, I can just make out the blood splatters. I hope it isn't Johanna's.

I follow the trail, eventually finding Enobaria a distance away, not dead yet, but bleeding out, clearly not even wanting to fight anymore. 

"Jo?!" I call out, crouching besides her. She doesn't seem harmed, besides the miscellaneous cut or scratch here and there. She looks at me, suddenly, rising and throwing her arms around me.

"Nova! Oh my God I heard the cannon and I just, I though-"

I hugged her, rubbing her back, "hey it's ok, it's alright."

"Nova?" Johanna pulls away from me, looking at her hands. "You're bleeding."

"Yeah, Brutus got a good hit on me."

"He stabbed you."

"I'll be alright when we-" get to Thirteen.

I don't get to finish my sentence, as the entire sky shatters and glitches. The force field is coming down. 

Quickly, I grab Johanna's knife, cutting out both our trackers, smiling at Jo, "here comes the cavalry." My vision blurs from my blood loss, but I feel relieved at the sight of a hovercraft collecting Katniss.

***

I jolt awake at the feeling of water being poured over my face, the water rushing up my nose. 

I breathe in the disgusting water, mixed with the dead bodies of the tributes, as I struggle to breathe.

A rag is taken off my face, as I spit out the water, finally breathing. 

"Hello Miss Frane." 

No. No, no, no, no, no. I was meant to be in District Thirteen. 

Snow smiles above me. "Tell me about the rebellion."

My panic is quickly subsided as I snarl. "Or what? You'll play the sound of Otti being tortured? She's already dead."

"Correct." He says, calmly, being smirking evilly. "But I can still torture and kill 'Jo'"