Battle Cry ➳ Finnick Odair ³

8 | Whispers of Hope

With any luck, I'll see my friends again shortly. I'll see Willow, who is hopefully still alive, and I'll see Haymitch, who has become a good friend of mine over the years. Even Katniss who I barely know I will be happy to see. Then there's Finnick. I have very good reason to believe that he is alive, I heard his voice, which of course could just be a figment of my imagination but I don't think it is. These people have his necklace, but I also know that they could be using it to trick me.

The car stops and Homes open up his door and Boggs stands up. I still sit there, waiting for them to tell me what to do. Too many times in the Capitol I would stand up whenever they entered my cell and would punish me for it until I stayed seated and looked down until they dragged me out of the cell. That's how I sat now, looking down at my hands in my seat while the other got out of the car.

As if realizing that I am not with them Boggs comes back to the car, "Ember, come on we don't have long before they show up." He says gently, but the sound of his voice is enough to make me flinch. After weeks, or was it months, of only being treated terribly, I expect it from everyone. I close my eyes as I wait for him to grab ahold of my arm and drag me out of the car, to hit me. But it doesn't come, instead, I open my eyes and he is staring at me, "Come on, you'll be safe on the hovercraft."

The word safe seems foreign to me at this point. I haven't felt safe in years. Ever since my first games, but then again the fear of the reaping was always there. I was never safe. I've never been safe my entire life. I have always been surviving but not living. I don't trust the word safe when I don't even know what it feels like, but off in the distance, I can hear the sound of another car and it propels me out of the car.

I follow Boggs onto the hovercraft. As I step abroad my leg wobbles and I trip over the dress that I am still wearing from the interview I was doing. Boggs catches me before I can fall and guides me inside. The door shuts quickly after we enter and before we have a chance to sit down it takes off.

"I got you some clothes you can change into," Boggs says and hands me a black package. I grab it, anything is better than a dress at this point. I go to one of the nearby rooms and strip out of my clothes. Inside the package is a black armor jacket and pants. There was also a pair of combat boots similar to what I wore in my first games. I put them on and head back outside.

The throbbing in my leg is forgotten when I see everyone else aboard the hovercraft. Katniss and Haymitch were the only ones I recognized. She looks relieved to see me just as much as I am to see her. I race over towards her and bring her in for a hug. We weren't the best of friends before all of this, but I sacrificed so much for her. Haymitch smiles at me but from the look in his eyes, I can tell that he is happy to see me as well.

Haymitch and I had become friends through the years. I think he always saw me as the daughter that he never had. Though we don't suffer the same fate, I still understand what he had to go through. His family was killed because of what he did in the arena, and my mother was killed because I refused one time.

I wouldn't say we were close, but I was still glad to see him alive and well.

Relief floods over me. Boggs was telling the truth. They are from thirteen, and they really did rescue me. Finnick is alive and he helped me.

Finnick is alive.

"Are you really here?" I hear myself asking, my voice barely above a whisper as if I'm afraid that if I spoke normally then I would be punished.