Epiphany | Johanna Mason

Chapter Twenty-Six

They'd found water, at least. The woman didn't move, instead speaking louder. "Are you fucking kidding me? I dragged you out of the fucking rain, and now you're going to act like this? Forget it."

This was ridiculous. That was a grown woman, she could take care of herself. Johanna didn't have the energy or patience anymore to play nice. She Saw Beetee move towards him as she turned, needing a fucking moment. If they didn't find the others soon, she might leave them. Forget the alliance, she just needed some peace.

"Johanna!" For a moment she thought it was Odette, because she'd been awfully quiet and who else would be needing her?

It wasn't, though. When she turned around she saw a tall boy with a trident, and couldn't believe her luck, no matter how ironic. "Finnick!" She called back, walking towards the jogging man.

"Whoa," he said as he saw her. "What happened to you?"

Johanna scoffed, kicking the sand with her shoe. "Well, I got them out," she said, noticing two other people were jogging towards her. District twelve. At least they were both alive, looking a little bit too well. "We were all the way deep into the jungle where I thought it was safe." She almost laughed at herself. Safe. As if anywhere would be safe. "That's when the rain started. We thought it was water, it turned out to be blood."

Wiress walked out of the salty water, looking almost clean. "Tick tock," she said, eyeing their new allies, but not approaching them.

"Hot, thick blood was coming down on us," Johanna ignored her, like she'd become almost good at. As Wiress reached out to her, she pushed her arms away, pacing away from her. "It was choking us, we were stumbling around gagging on it blind." As she kept talking, so did Wiress. The anger rose easily again.

"What's wrong with her?" Katniss asked, finally stepping up from behind Finnick.

It was Beetee who answered, still crouched in the water, wiping at his neck. "She's in shock," Finnick extended his hand to help him up, and Johanna rolled her eyes, pacing again. At least they were no longer her concern. "Dehydration isn't helping. Do you have fresh water?"

"We can get some."

Out of nowhere, two hands wrapped around Johanna's shoulders, startling her. "Tick tock," her grip was firm, her tone urgent. There were so many other people to bother, and she still came to her? "Tick tock!"

"Stop it," Johanna snapped, wringing Wiress' hands off her body. She'd had enough of her. Wiress didn't stop saying those same two words, faster, louder, as she struggled to keep her grasp. What was her problem?

"Hey!" Johanna heard someone call. "Get off her!"

Finally, Wiress' grip broke, and Johanna pushed her to the ground. "Leave me alone!" She snapped again, only to be pushed backward herself. "Hey!" She turned to see Katniss. "What are you doing?" She pushed her back, not even really having touched her when Finnick had grabbed her, dragging her backward. Was she being serious? She got two cray people through the jungle alive for her, so what if she wasn't as gentle with one of them? Katniss didn't have to sit through almost two days of fucking tick tock.

"It's okay, it's okay, easy," Finnick said as he pulled her away from something bound to escalate. Johanna didn't care.

"I got them out for you!" she snapped at her, as Finnick repeated his words. "Let go of me," she told him, wildly moving in his grip to get out. She only noticed they were in the water when she splashed water on her own face.

"Are you going to kill her?" Finnick asked, only half teasing.

"No," she huffed, pushing his arms off her. The water was cool, the permanent flush finally lifted for a moment as she waded deeper into the water. She'd never admit it, but she was grateful Finnick was there. It was nice to see a friendly face, especially when he was the only reason Katniss wasn't shooting at her yet.