𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗙𝗨𝗟𝗟 𝗢𝗙 𝗗𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗦 ༄ 𝖿𝗂𝗇𝗇𝗂𝖼𝗄 𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗂𝗋

chapter thirteen

Katniss jumped down from the tree a moment later, her hand running through her sweaty hair as irritation ate up her expression. "The force field. It's a dome. We're at the edge of the arena."

"I couldn't find any signs of fresh water." She huffed, Nadia holding back a whine as the dehydration was going to get to her sooner rather than later.

"It's gonna get dark soon, we'll be safe with our backs protected." Finnick spoke as he looked amongst the group. "We should set up camp, take turns sleeping. I can take first watch."

While everyone nodded in agreement, Katniss scoffed, gaining everyone's attention as she shook her head. "Not a chance."

Finnick blinked in annoyance. Where he would usually quip back with some lighthearted sentence meant for teasing, he instead gripped his trident and got back to his feet with his jaw clenched tightly.

"Honey. That thing I did back there for Peeta? That was called saving his life." He stated, holding his stare with the girl as she looked back and forth between his eyes and his trident. "If I wanted to kill either of you, I would've done it by now."

The glare they exchanged was nothing short of threatening, Nadia looking between the two before she caught Peeta's gaze. He looked like he was their father, completely exhausted of their relentless antics with his hands placed on his hips in defeat.

Peeta made a face resembling her own tight-lipped expression of discomfort before Nadia was off to help Finnick and Mags in their search for an adequate place to get some shuteye.

The woman wanted so badly to explain to Katniss why her and Finnick weren't going to slit her throat in the middle of the night, but she couldn't. They were being watched from every direction. There were more cameras in the arena than there was lights in District Five, and that was saying something.

༄༄༄

As the night grew cold and the sun's rays had since faded below the horizon, Nadia was stuck lying on the hard ground as she stared up at the night sky. It was fake, the dark blue hues cast through the darkness of the dome surrounding them. But it was still quite realistic and pretty.

On one hand, she was upset with Finnick for insisting she try and sleep even though he knew it'd be impossible for her when it was dark like this. On the other hand, she was quite tired and eager to clear her head of everything lashing around in her brain at the moment.

She remained wide awake as she had no choice but to listen to Finnick and Katniss' meaningless quips and jabs towards each other. They were acting like children.

As if to show her mercy, the Fallen Anthem played throughout the arena and immediately Nadia sat up to watch the hologram as it appeared in the sky.

Her breath was held in her throat, but once the male from Six showed up being the first face, she knew Apollo was okay. She hoped he found Johanna and Blight or Wiress and Beetee.

Both Cecelia and Woof from Eight were next which allowed her relief in knowing Johanna wasn't dead either. Although, once she saw Woof's face, she couldn't help but gulp down an uneasy lump in her throat as she remembered so clearly putting her knife in the man's chest. She could try, but that image wouldn't soon flee.

After them, the male and female from Nine, the female from Ten, and Seeder from Eleven finished off the anthem for the first night.

She was a little surprised to only see seven faces on that screen from a bloodbath in a Hunger Games that only held experienced killers. She also supposed it made some sense, considering they were all experienced in survival too and knew how to fight, run, and hide.