The Life of A Victor || Finnick Odair

CHAPTER 60

He stood still for a minute before rising from his seat, taking Dove's hand as she guided him to the rest. "Should we free his hands?" asked Leeg 1.

"No!" He growled, taking the cuffs closer to his body.

"No," Katniss muttered. "But I want the key." Jackson complied, passing her the keys without a word.

When Homes opened a small metal door to the maintenance shaft, they realised there was a slight problem with Pollux's and Castor's camera-shells. There was no way they could fit with those. However, they seemed prepared as they took out two show-box-sized cameras and left the camera-shells in the closet.

They walked through the narrow passage, arriving at a second one that had a bedroom called utility, where the entrance to the tube that led underground was. Messalla frowned at the entrance, wondering something for a bit before speaking up.

"It's why no one ever wants the centre unit. Workmen coming and going whenever and no second bath. But the rent's considerably cheaper." He immediately noticed Finnick's and Melo's amused looks and added, "Never mind."

The cover was easy to remove, letting them descend a wide ladder. They waited at the foot of the ladder until their eyes adjusted to the dim lights. They could smell a mixture of chemicals in the air.

Pollux, who was abnormally pale, reached out to Castor's wrist. "My brother worked down here after he became an Avox," Castor explained simply. "Took five years before we were able to buy his way up to ground level. Didn't see the sun once."

No one knew what to reply to such horror. No one but Peeta, who turned to face Pollux. "Well, then you just became our most valuable asset." His comment made Castor laugh while Pollux smiled.

After a few minutes walking through the tunnels, Peeta resulted to be right. Pollux was definitely their best asset. As he explained, there was a series of tunnels, called Transfer, that led above ground, filled with pods that during the day were deactivated, but not at night, causing it to become a minefield. However, there were many other passages they could take to avoid them.

After six hours of prolonged walking, Katniss suggested to rest. It was three in the morning, so they still had a few hours until their bodies would be found to be missing.

Pollux guided them to a room with many machines humming and held his fingers to make them know they had to be gone in four hours. Jackson created another guard schedule.

Melo and Johanna were on the first shift, while Finnick was scheduled with Katniss at six o'clock. "If anything happens, wake me up." Dove made all of them promise before going to a corner to sleep next to Finnick, who didn't have to try for too long as the exhaustion took over.

Hours passed like seconds and by six o'clock, Dove was awakened by the sudden movement of Finnick being lightly shaken awake, which startled him. She tried her best to go back to sleep, resting her head again on his shoulder, but she couldn't. There was just one hour left until they had to be gone, so she didn't care.

With her eyes closed, she involuntarily overheard Katniss' and Peeta's conversation about his torture. He was able to differentiate between real memories and the venom somewhat better now.

"You're still trying to protect me. Real or not real," Peeta whispered, which Dove barely heard if it weren't for the dead silence all around.

"Real," Katniss assured. "Because that's what you and I do. Protect each other."

Just minutes before seven o'clock, Katniss, Finnick and Pollux awoke everyone else. Dove, who was still awake since six o'clock, got up immediately. However, the rest who had slept peacefully during the last hours took a bit more to fully wake them up.