A Million Pieces - Hunger Games (Catching Fire & Mockingjay)

Chapter 42

Just as we're about to leave the room, Finnick bumps my shoulder. When I look to him, he ruffles my hair. "Time to save the world, Sapph."

I smile back. Then we're in the tunnels again; the hissing is still distant, but louder and clearer. We follow Katniss, trying to move quickly, but this makes us noisier and clumsier. We've covered three blocks when we hear the screams. Strangled, like they're being forced out of the chest and not the throat.

"Avoxes," says Peeta. "That's what Darius sounded like when they tortured him."

"The mutts must've found them," says Cressida.

"So they're not just after Katniss," determines Leeg 1, which is little comfort to any of us.

"They'll probably kill anyone. But they won't stop until they get to her," Gale explains.

"Let me go alone," says Katniss. "Lead them off. I'll transfer the Holo to Jackson. The rest of you can finish the mission."

I prepare to go into a complicated argument about all the things wrong with that idea, but Jackson sums it up for all of us, "No one's going to agree to that!"

"We're wasting time!" says Finnick, and I feel his anxiousness at our slowness, our stalling.

Caspian glances at Finnick. "We need to go now," he agrees urgently.

"You can abandon us later, Katniss," I say, reaching out to grab her arm.

"Listen," Peeta whispers.

The screams have stopped, and now the hissing is horrifyingly near, closing in on us from multiple directions. "Katniss."

We take off running, but as soon as we reach a set of stairs, Katniss starts gagging, and Jackson yells at us to put our masks on. But there's no poison in the air, just something about the strange scent that overwhelms only Katniss. She recovers quickly, stumbling out onto the tiled streets and exploding the first pod. She starts sprinting again, the rest of us following close behind. She looks ahead at the next intersection, which is labelled 'Meat Grinder' and misses the next pod. But Messalla doesn't. A shaft of golden light envelopes him and in seconds, his flesh starts to melt off his bones.

"Can't help him!" Peeta shouts, shoving us forward. I'm the second to react, grabbing Cressida's arm and pushing her ahead. We're all moving again, until a spray of gunfire stops us at the next intersection.

The Meat Grinder is blocking our way, so all we can do is fire back at the squad of Peacekeepers. I think of the test in the Block in Thirteen and level my gun. I hit two Peacekeepers in the stomach and they collapse, but they're still moving when Katniss shouts, "This way!"

I follow her gaze, but she's just looking at the new Peacekeepers swarming the tunnels. Then one of them leaps over a body, and I realise they aren't Peacekeepers at all. They are white, four-legged mutts with long tails that launch themselves onto the Peacekeepers and rip off their heads.

Katniss shoots an arrow into the pod, and huge mechanical teeth burst through the street, buying us some time. Pollux takes the lead and most of the squad follows him, but I glance back and realise two people have stayed behind. Jackson and Leeg 1, their guns pointed at the mechanical teeth. Caspian turns around at the same time as I do. He moves to join them, but I grab his arm before he can go.

"I have to help them, I'll catch up!" he tells me, but I shake my head.

"They've made their choice. But you, please don't leave me," I beg, the words rushing out of me. "Not again."

Somehow, I know Jackson and Leeg 1 will not survive, and if Caspian stays, neither will he. He takes in my distraught pleading, glances back at the soldiers, then seizes my hand and pulls me into a sprint again. We go through a doorway, crawl through a pipe, make our way across a narrow bridge, and finally catch up with the others in the main sewer. Below us is the Capitol waste, flowing like a toxic river.