² MANIA ─ catching fire

[ 014 ] i hear voices over my shoulder

"YOU'RE HURT," Atlas said, frowning at his daughter, his gaze latched onto something on her left side.

Alecto followed his stare. Only when she found the torn fabric of her jumpsuit at the blood seeping into the grey material and the wound slashed into her side from the top of her hip to the middle of her ribs did she remember that she was. Like a call and response, the wound, which hadn't scabbed over but was no longer weeping blood, began to sear and sting. Alecto shrugged, despite the discomfort. It wasn't deep, just an unfortunate scratch. You should've seen the other guy, she wanted to tell her father, but the words never came.

"Let me see—"

Alecto shook her head. She lifted her arm anyway, just to reassure her father that it wasn't anything to worry about. There wasn't much she could do about it, and they were already looking for a source of water. Chances of infection weren't low, by any means, but as long as she kept the wound relatively clean, she would be fine. Besides, she'd survived three days in her previous Games with multiple infected wounds—no thanks to Nikolai—driven half-mad with delirium by a ravaging fever and the hallucinogens in the arena and lived anyway. This, compared to everything she'd been through, was minuscule in consequence.

Atlas opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by Katniss' warning cry and a sharp noise.

One moment they were slashing through the jungle, their monotonous hunt for water still yet to come to fruition, Peeta taking the lead as the others brought up the rear, the next, Peeta's blade connected with something invisible and his body was violently flung back against them. Pain slammed into Alecto's chest as Peeta's body crashed into Finnick and Mags, sending them careening into Alecto. She hit the ground hard, Mags' elbow jamming into her jawbone. Atlas was the first to react, lifting a mumbling and shaken Mags off Alecto as Katniss checked for a pulse. Thankfully, a tangle of thick green vines had cushioned their fall, and Alecto shook off the impact easily.

"Peeta!" Katniss screamed, fear slashed across her pale face as she fell to her knees at Peeta's side, shaking and slapping him hard enough to wake him. Still, Peeta lay limp in her arms, and in that instant, Alecto knew what had just happened. Desperation clawed at the raw edges of Katniss' ravaged cry, her shoulders shaking with panic as she clung to Peeta like a lifeline, like she could drag his soul, screaming, back from wherever it'd gone. "Peeta!"

Finnick was the first to react, pushing Katniss out of the way and touching his fingers to Peeta's neck. As he searched for a heartbeat, each point coming up empty, Alecto could see Katniss' confusion cutting through the wild mania of panic in her expression. Then Finnick pinched Peeta's nose shut. In that instant, Katniss lunged forward with a furious shriek. Before she could touch Finnick, Atlas had her around the waist, dragging her backward to give Finnick space to work.

"He's killing him!" Katniss shrieked, until Atlas put a hand over her mouth to muffle her protests.

"He's saving him," Atlas said, his voice gruff as Katniss thrashed and writhed in his grip, eager to wrest herself free and rush back to Peeta's side, a wild animal caught in a net. "It's CPR. Watch."

Despite the reassurance, Katniss didn't stop, elbows and fists flying as she resisted Atlas at every second, until Alecto grew tired of the commotion, and pressed a knife to Katniss' right side. One wrong move, and it was Katniss' liver that would require medical attention. Katniss went rigid, stilling against the warning tap. Clearly, either Katniss truly doubted Finnick's intelligence—to kill Peeta right in front of her would've been a suicide mission, anyone here knew—or she was too blinded by her panic to recognise the resuscitation attempt. They watched as Finnick breathed into Peeta's mouth, inflating his lungs.