Survivor's Remorse

(VII) Imperfects Vs. Mutt 2.0

I watched Peeta dozing almost peacefully with his gun across his lap. I'd been rather captivated by a small bead of sweat that'd escaped the curls at the nape of his neck. It was traveling down his neck in a snake dance down the column of his throat, down around his Adams apple to rest in his collar bone. Then I feel an instinct awake within me that forces me to my feet. I quirk my sharp ears and focus down the shaft trying to get used to the night vision these eyes give me. I needed it right now. Something was very wrong. Then I feel it on the nape of my neck, just behind my ear, tickling an aggression within me I didn't know existed. It made me want to rip something apart. It was a pure malicious wave that rolled through some part deep inside of me.

"Peeta"

It's a hiss. A vicious malevolent hiss.

"Everybody, get up now!" I whisper as loudly as I can while tugging my restraints against the bar

They're on their feet in seconds.

"What? What is it?" Peeta asks releasing me from the bar before the hiss comes again
"Peeta"
"Mutts" I gasp fighting the mania filling me with a scorching rage that I knew was not my own "What's the fastest way out to the street?" There's no way they haven't flooded the underground with them. We need to get to the streets now. I direct my gaze to Polluck. "Quickly!"

Polluck directs us forward and as we run, I hear the screams. Avoxes.

"They're killing anything they can get their hands on trying to find us" Gale pants

Johnson is snatched and that's when I get a good look of the mutt. Ashen white, limbs unnaturally long that lead down to sharp claws for hands. No faces but wide mouths full of razor-sharp teeth.

"Finn my claws!" I snarl to him at my left, mapping out our escape routes as we can

He doesn't even have to look anymore as he deftly unhooks them and frees my nails, extending the middle so I could spread my arms as far as my outer hips. It's all the give I would need.

Mutt to mutt. Bring it on.

As we run, we spot the ladder and Pollux quickly begins to climb. Peeta and Gale are right behind him. They're coming from all four tunnels. We're going to be overrun. Messalla is viciously dragged from beside Katniss and it distracts a horde of them. Katniss fires two quick incendiary arrows into opposite tunnels sending an explosion that rips through everything in them. It makes me wish I had mine so I could help her clear them out but my hands still couldn't hold one properly yet.

I can hear Peeta screaming at me to keep climbing but then I see Finnick, surrounded. He's holding his own as Katniss fires at everything around him, until one gets its teeth on his shoulder and yanks him backwards toward two more. Not Finnick!

"No!"

I hurl my body back down the hole right on top of it, wrapping the cord around its throat and yanking backwards so its head is sawed clean off, throwing my leg out behind me to kick one of the others. I throw the headless body into the confused horde who swoop down it. I shove Finnick towards the ladder before throwing myself at another reaching for him, my teeth clamping around its throat, the claws on both of my hands gripping the heads of the two that'd been aiming for Katniss. Its nails caught her arm instead of her throat as I yank it back.

They want to see a true mutt I'll give them one!

I'm blinded with a violent fury. A fierce protective instinct takes out more of them than I care to count as I use the mutt programmed rage and power to propel myself forward. My claws find throats while my teeth rip off limbs, dishing out venom with every chomp as I shove my way to the ladder, not needing to see as I reacted off instinct and reflex.

I have to get them out!

I grab Katniss around the waist and practically throw her halfway up the ladder. I snatch Finnick's trident and hurl it, with strength I didn't know I possessed, down the hall successfully pinning at least ten of them to it like a shish-ka-bob. Their blood is disgusting. I fill my mouth with my saliva, spitting as much of it as I could out.

"Fucking climb!" I snarl at her before doing the same to Finnick who is losing way too much blood.

I begin to climb with them, pushing Finnick upwards as his strength begins to wane.

"Eyes open Finnick! You're almost there!"

I feel a tug at my leg but just barely through my adrenaline and bloodlust. I kick hard enough to hear a loud crack beneath me. I can see Gale and Pollux yank Katniss to safety. As I push Finnick up with my right hand, Gale is back with Peeta and they haul him up together.

I got them out. I'm so relieved.

"Blow the holo!" I cry out loudly

Peeta is reaching for me now, his eyes wide and desperate. I hear the hisses of his name not 5 feet below me and as I look up at all the faces shouting at me, gesturing me forward...I realize I've done it. They're all together.

Safe.

I'm not like them anymore. No longer a Victor. Just a mutt who survived. Like those wrapping their claws around my ankle. I belong here. They don't. I look into Peeta's warm face one last time, tears spilling over my cheeks as I give him a smile, and his eyes go wide as he realizes what I have decided.

I let go.