Part 5: The Girl On Fire

Chapter 18

Me and Finnick sat at the edge of the pond. He looked so distraught.

"I'm sorry about Mags." I said. Finnick looked down  at his feet. After a minute or so he finally spoke up.

"She was never gonna make it." Finnick sighed. Suddenly Finnick was looking up over my shoulder. His eyes were wide. I slowly turned my head. Then my eyes grew wide. I slowly took out an arrow, sliding it on my bow. Surrounding us were monkeys. Big ones. I could hear a low growl coming from them. Finnick slowly picked up his spear. I looked through an opening in the trees. I saw the center. That's the closet way out of here. I saw Peeta leaned up against a tree.

"Peeta." I said.

"Yeah?" Peeta lifted his head up then he saw what was going on.

"Walk over here slowly." I demanded. The monkeys started growling now enclosing us in the pond.

"Get to the beach." I ordered. There were so many monkeys that I didn't have a lot of hope of escaping. Suddenly the monkeys started attacking. We did too. One by one I shot the monkeys down. It was difficult they were fast and strong. But I kept fighting as best as I could. Finnick and Peeta were fighting them too. I saw a clear way now to the beach. Suddenly a monkey jumped on top of me. I was pushed underwater. I held the monkeys teeth back with my bow. I was quickly running out of air. I was trapped. Then the monkey's lifeless body was dragged off. A hand pulled me out. Peeta.

"Get to the beach!" Peeta yelled. We started running towards the beach. More monkeys ambushed us. I fell to the ground. Peeta was backed up against a tree. I was out of arrows. I started kicking the monkey that was on top of me. Finnick came over and killed it with his spear. I saw Peeta still against the tree. Suddenly a girl came out of nowhere and tackled the monkey that was ganging up on Peeta. The monkey bit into her neck. Peeta quickly stabbed the monkey to death. I ran over to them.

"Who's that?" I asked. The girl was lying on the ground gasping for breath. Her neck was severely bleeding.

"A morphing. Help me get her to the beach." Peeta said. I nodded and helped Peeta. We picked up the girl and ran the rest of the way to the beach. We ran into the water. Finnick was right behind us. Somehow the monkeys couldn't get onto the beach. It was like with the fog. There was an invisible wall. I looked down at the girl who was wheezing now. She isn't going to make it.

"Hey shh. Hey you want to see something? Look up." Peeta comforted the girl. The girl looked up. I did too. A beautiful morning sky was in the air. I remembered that it was fake though.

"Look at that. All those colors. Don't worry about anything else. I'll be right here with you. It's okay." Peeta said. I looked back down at the girl. She stopped wheezing. I saw the life leave her eyes as the cannon sounded. Peeta set her into the water and we watched the girls body float off. Me and Peeta stood on the beach as a helicopter came in and picked up the body out of the water.

"She sacrificed herself for me and I didn't even know her name." Peeta said. A wave of confusion washed over me.

"You think she sacrificed herself?" I asked.

"Looked like it." Peeta said. Why would another Tribute sacrifice themself?

"That doesn't make any sense." I said.

***

Finnick caught fish for us to eat. We sat on the beach eating. Peeta cracked open an oyster. Peeta picked up something out of it. He smiled.

"Look. For you." He said. He handed me a small pearl.

"Thank you." I said with a smile. Suddenly a woman's scream filled the air. I heard a rumbling in the distance. We all stood up. On the other side of the center trees were shaking.

"That's new." Peeta said. Suddenly water burst out of the trees and into the lake. A cannon went off. A small wave washed over my feet. I saw a helicopter come in to pick up a body. Out of the corner of my eye I saw two people come out onto the beach a few yards away.

"Someone's here." I said. I already had my bow in my hands ready. We stood behind a palm tree hoping they wouldn't see us. I focused in on who the people were. Wiress and Beetee. A third one emerged from the jungle.

"Johanna?" Finnick said. He immediately ran out from the palm tree up to the trio. Him and Johanna happily greeted each other. I don't like this.

"Guess we have more allies." Peeta said starting to go up with them. I hesitated but then I followed. I still had my bow in hand. I don't trust Johanna.