Stay with me? [Finnick Odair]

93

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Chapter ninety three
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As Castor and Pollux use anything they can to stuff in the cracks of the door to stop the fumes from getting into the kitchen, and Gale empties his stomach into the sink, we all finally get a moment to catch our breaths. Parker stands beside me and Finnick, looking around at everyone.

"Mitchell?" He asks, looking down at me. I shake my head, lowering my eyes, and Parker moves away from me; his face twisting into a frown. I sigh, turning to Finnick and cuddling into his side. He wraps an arm around me, but his attention is elsewhere.

He's staring down at Boggs, watching as he whispers something to Katniss and then his body goes limp. He's dead.

There's a silence that lingers among us as we all stand in the small kitchen. The only sounds we can hear is our ragged breathing and the desperate slamming of Peeta's feet on the closet door. It sounds like he's about to break it down, but the door holds strong as his kicks soon diminish into silence.

"He's gone?" Finnick asks finally, his eyes on Boggs, and Katniss gives a small nod. "We need to get out of here. Now. We just set off a street full of pods. You can bet they've got us on surveillance tapes."

"Count on it," Castor replies. "All the streets are covered by surveillance cameras. I bet they set off the black wave when they saw us taping the propo."

"Our radio communicators went dead almost immediately," Jackson speaks up, moving around the kitchen to Katniss. "Probably an electromagnetic pulse device. But I'll get us back to camp. Give me the Holo." She makes a grab for the Holo, but Katniss is quick to snatch it away from her. She clutches it to her chest as she sends a look of distrust to Jackson.

"No. Boggs gave it to me," Katniss denies, which seems to annoy Jackson.

"Don't be ridiculous," she snaps.

"It's true," Parker defends Katniss. "He transferred the prime security clearance to her while he was dying. I saw it."

"Why would he do that?" Jackson demands, her voice sounding rather offended. She watches with furrowed brows as Katniss stands there silently. There's no doubt in my mind that she's just as confused as everyone else, but she has her own mission that she has to complete — no matter who is on her side — so I assume she'll use that as an excuse.

"Because I'm on a special mission for President Coin. I think Boggs was the only one who knew about it... besides Clementine."

I was right. Jackson's eyes flicker over to me for a split second before she turns her attention back to Katniss. "To do what?" She asks, clearly not convinced by this obvious lie. I think she saw the way my brows furrowed and my eyes snapped over to Katniss as my name was mentioned, I'm not quick enough to hide my reaction, so it's possible that Jackson could tell from that one moment that Katniss is lying.

"To assassinate President Snow," Katniss replies. "Before the loss of life from this war makes our population unsustainable."

"I don't believe you," Jackson says accusingly. She's getting frustrated with Katniss, it's obvious by the clear scowl on her face. "As your current commander, I order you to transfer the prime security clearance over to me."

"No," Katniss refuses immediately. "That would be in direct violation of President Coin's orders."

Immediately, guns are pointed. Most of them are on Jackson as she raises her gun first, some are on Katniss, and for some reason some are pointed at me. I stand still, keeping my gun at my side, and I decide to try and help Katniss along with this mission of hers. If she thinks that it's important enough to lie to the whole team about in hopes that we'll allow her to go on this mission, then I trust her to lead us.

"It's true," I say, making Jackson turn her eyes to me. Though, she doesn't dare lower her weapon. "President Coin wants us to assassinate Snow to make sure we still have a decent population to grow on."

"That's why we're here," Cressida speaks up, jumping on board with Katniss' plan even though she doesn't seem fully convinced with what Katniss has told everyone. I don't get why she's defending Katniss, when they should all be following the one who is actually qualified to lead us, but I'm all for it as long as it gets us out of here before the Peacekeepers arrive. "Plutarch wants it televised. He thinks if we can film the Mockingjay and the Sparrow assassinating Snow, it will end the war."

This makes Jackson pause. She looks between me and Katniss for a moment before swinging her gun back and aiming at the closet where Peeta was locked in. "And why is he here?" She demands.

She has me there. I have no reasonable explanation as to why Peeta is here that will help Katniss' cause, so I sit this one out. It doesn't seem like Katniss can think of a decent reason either, but luckily Cressida comes to her aid once more. "Because the two post-Games interviews with Caesar Flickerman were shot in President Snow's personal quarters," she says quickly. "Plutarch thinks Peeta may be of some use as a guide in a location we have little knowledge of."

Jackson still doesn't look happy with the entire situation, she's still sending looks of disbelief to Katniss, but now isn't the time for Jackson's personal problems with Katniss.

"We have to go!" Gale steps in, sounding urgent as he steps towards Jackson. "I'm following Katniss. If you don't want to, head back to camp. But let's move!"

Parker opens the closet door and heaves an unconscious Peeta over his shoulder, nodding tensely as he looks Katniss' way. "Ready."

"Boggs?" Leeg 1 questions, hesitant to leave Boggs behind.

"We can't take him, he'd understand," Finnick says, offering a small smile to her before freeing Bogg's gun from his shoulder and slinging the strap over his own. "Lead on, Soldier Everdeen."

Katniss doesn't move, she stay rooted in her place with the Holo clutched tightly in her hands; her eyes flicker over to me as if to ask me if I'm on board with this mission. It seems like she doesn't want to lead on without my permission, but it's not like I have much of a choice. Even if I didn't agree or even believe her plan, I can't just leave everyone. Everyone else is going along with it — and there's definitely no way I'm leaving Finnick — and I trust Katniss enough to know she at least has some sort of plan, so I nod my head.

"We're all with you, Katniss," I say, flashing a gentle smile towards her. "Lead the way."

Her eyes fall to the Holo. It's activated, but she just looks completely lost when trying to figure out what to do with it. So, she turns to Jackson. "I don't know how to use this," she admits. "Boggs said you would help me. He said I could count on you."

Jackson isn't happy with this, it's kind of like Katniss just rubbed salt in the wound that is the fact that Boggs didn't trust Jackson to have the Holo in the first place, but she snatches the device away from Katniss anyway and inputs a command. "If we go out the kitchen door, there's a small courtyard, then the back side of another corner apartment unit. We're looking at an overview of the four streets that meet at the intersection," she explains to Katniss, trying to sound as patient as possible, but you'd have to be blind to miss the very obvious scowl she has plastered across her face right now.

Katniss stares at the intersection displayed in front of her, her eyes flickering as she tries to make sense of all the blinking lights of known pods that are situated in the intersection. She bites down on her lip as she looks around at all of us. It's clear she doesn't know what she's doing, but none of us are about to question her as we wait for her instructions. Eventually, she comes up with a plan.

"Put on your masks. We're going out the way we came in."