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Aries was the first one to pull away from her, and he winced after she loosened her grip on his shoulders. For the first time since seeing him, she noticed that his skin was peppered in small welts, and the flesh covering his neck was scaly. A few superficial scratches lined his tanned face. The welts were what concerned her. They looked like the remnants of blisters that had popped, the puffy pink afterthoughts of pus. Plume exhaled, her chest feeling significantly deflated.
"Where did all the blood come from?" Aries asked concernedly. Plume opened her mouth to speak, but Johanna interrupted from behind, her voice thick with annoyance.
"We were all the way deep into the jungle where I thought it was going to be safe," Johanna gestured behind her with the ax, toward the trees. "That's when the rain started. I thought it was water. It turned out to be blood--"
"Tick-tock!" Wiress interrupted, her eyes manic and her face still coated in blood.
"—Hot, thick blood. It was coming down. It was choking us. We were stumbling around, gagging on it, blind—"
"Tick-tock."
Plume turned back to Aries and the others, her vision lingering for a moment on Katniss. "Blight hit a forcefield with his ax. It happened so quick nobody could help him."
Johanna exhaled, nodding. She pointed her head up to the sky as if trying to keep her eyes from watering. "He wasn't much. But he was from home."
"Tick-tock," Wiress walked in between the group, waving her hands slightly. "Tick-tock!"
"What's wrong with her?" Katniss asked.
From the beach, Beetee responded. He was busy cleaning off his glasses, his coil of wire right next to him. "She's in shock. Dehydration isn't helping. Do you have fresh water?"
"We can get some," Peeta replied.
Aries nodded. "We got a spicket or something. It gets water out of trees."
"Just—" Johanna began, but was cut off as Wiress clung to her frantically, smearing more blood onto Johanna's arms. Johanna reacted immediately in response, recoiling from the woman's touch. She shoved Wiress back with immense force, her ax narrowly missing Wiress's hands. "Listen! Stop it!"
Katniss leaped into action, grabbing Wiress and gently pulling her back to de-escalate the situation. Finnick grappled for Johanna, who was busy yelling at Wiress. Katniss spat with venom. "Hey! Lay off her!"
"Just sit down!" Finnick commanded Johanna, but Johanna refused, still fighting against his arms. "Hey, hey, hey."
"Plume and I got them out for you!" Johanna yelled. She wriggled away from Finnick. "Let me go, Finnick!"
