Querencia | Finnick Odair

Eight

First of all, holy guacamole, this is so much more than I ever expected! Thank you guys for reading, voting and commenting, it always makes my day a little brighter to see your reactions and hear your opinions. So, Thanks. Now a chapter, because I am in a slump and my job is keeping me real busy at the moment.

Love - Lissa

After some more time, they bring Peeta back in. He is muttering incoherent words and once back in his cell, rocking back and forth on his heels.

"Mutt. Mutt. Mutt...", these are the words I can make out, but my body feels as if it is too weak to crawl over, to move at all anymore. So I just call his name until he stops and looks.

"Your name is Peeta Mellark. Your favourite colour is orange. You love cherry pie. You love Katniss. You promised to fight."

But the boy only goes back to rocking on his heels, arms wrapped around his body.

I sigh sadly. Poor boy.

Suddenly the lights go out and we are surrounded by darkness. Instinctively I reach for Gloss' hand, holding onto it as I wait for something to happen. But there is nothing. No sudden blaring, no weird mutts, no midnight beating. Complete and utter silence. We wait longer, an hour. Two. Three. Faint red light shines through the small gap between the door and the ground.

This is it. Either we die now, or we get rescued. It is a real fifty-fifty chance, to be honest.

The door flies open and people in uniforms storm in. Black uniforms. I let out a soft shriek of joy and a flashlight finds my face. I shield my eyes.

"Get back", a voice calls and the doors get bashed in, two uniformed men enter my cell. I can see their eyes widen as they take in the state of my back, my body.

My captors hadn't bothered with new clothing so I laid there naked, apart from my slip.

I yelp as they help me up, but refuse to be carried. It would just hurt more, every contact with my back would hurt more. I grit my teeth and look at Gloss, who sends me a weak smile.

Peeta is thrashing around, fighting against the gloved hands that want to help him.

"Peeta. It's okay. They are the good guys. We are safe. Listen to me. You don't have to trust them, just trust me. We are safe now."

I grunt as I take the first steps, my back I can't feel. I only feel pain. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that we can go. That we are safe. If we make it back to whatever they used to get here.

"We need to go", I say.

"It is a blackout. Nobody knows we are here", a man says, through his mask, I see that his skin is dark and his eyes a deep brown.

"Make no mistake. He knows you are here. He knows. Snow knows. He knows it. He just doesn't need us any longer. So, please. I don't want to carry the consequences when he thinks you take too long."
They seem to take me seriously because they carry Johanna and help Gloss walk, while I get two men to use as support and Peeta walks by himself.

We walk through the hallways as fast as we can and arrive at a flight of stairs.

The first flight I manage, the second I break out in cold sweat, my whole body trembles and tears run down my cheeks from the pain in my body.

Gloss stops worried, and the men offer again to carry me, but I just usher them further up the stairs. Two more flights and my body is at its end and my knees almost buckle beneath me. But adrenaline is coursing through my veins and when I see a small round object roll into the room I don't hesitate and throw myself to the ground, taking my two walking aids with me as the room explodes in white light and splinters hit the walls around us. I hear a few pained grunts, heave myself up, my teeth clenched so hard they might shatter, my eyes adjust to the darkness once more.

And when the door flies open I hurl myself at the first person that enters the room. It is a guard, this time in full armour, but that doesn't help him now.

He falls to the ground and I let my fist collide with his throat, shattering his hyoid bone and grab his weapon, but already shots rang out from behind me and the other four drop to the floor, while the man beneath me is still trying to get air into his lungs.

"That's karma. Bitch."
Then the world tilts and I hit the ground next to him.

~~*~~

I wake up to the hum of a hovercraft. Someone bandaged up my back and gave me a shirt. Slowly, very slowly, I sit up from my position on my stomach and lean my head onto the seat behind me.

Many of the men are asleep, one woman among them. But two people are awake.

The dark-skinned man and a man with grey eyes that seems oddly familiar. He has a shard of metal embedded in his abdomen.

"You shouldn't sit up", the older one tell me at which I scoffed.

"Please, I could stand with this while they added more of these to my legs. I can sit now."

It was true. They used lashings and then made me stand while the cut open my thighs.

"Wanna tell me your names or what? Cause I know you from somewhere", I tell the boy.

"I'm Gale. Katniss'...cousin."

"Ah, yes. They showed you during her games. But I know you from somewhere else...my victory tour. You had less of a beard, but a very harsh glare. I would guess Etan was your friend? Or Celeana?"

He looks at me baffled.

"What? Surprised I know their names still?"

"Etan. And I am not really her cousin."

I chuckle lightly.

"Of course not. But she was so in love with Peeta, she couldn't have such a handsome friend, could she?."

He just nods and a question pushes into my mind, the images that Snow showed to me.

"Is...Is Finnick? I was told he was dead. Is he dead?"

"What? No."

I close my eyes as relief washes over me. Tears slip down my cheek.

"Sleep Talisa. We have a few more hours to go", the dark-skinned man says.

"Did you knock the others out?", I ask.

"Some. You killed that man", Gale states.

"Yes, I did."

"How?"

"How as in, how could I do it and not feel too bad about it or as in, you know...how?"

"You had no weapon."
"I shattered his hyoid bone. You still haven't told me your name", I say to the other man.

"Boggs. Now sleep, your pain medicine won't hold forever."
"Ey Captain"

"Commander."

"Very well. Wake me when we arrive."