Infelicitous | f. odair

45 | AS DARK AS THE OCEAN

Every step Greyson took she felt her heart thump in her chest, her palms sweaty with nerves. Gale and Leeg 1 started shooting at anything they could hit, another explosion going off, opening up a hole in the street. Minesweep, Greyson thought briefly as she heaved, her knees beginning to ache. Finnick pushed on forward, his face set into a determined scowl.

Further up ahead of them, Katniss and Homes started dragging Boggs where Gale and Leeg 1 were, his painful cries emitting a sad song into the pungent air. "Come on," Finnick growled, grabbing Messalla from Greyson and throwing the man over his shoulder. He latched onto Greyson's hand like a lifeline and started sprinting to catch up with the others. They were far behind them. Greyson kept looking straight ahead.

A flash of blonde hair jumped at the sight of Katniss, yanking her back and throwing her to the ground. Peeta stood over her with wide, dilated eyes that had the hint of madness in them. The same as a mutt. Mitchell tackled Peeta in an attempt to capture him, but Peeta, being as strong as he was, launched Mitchell backwards toward the massive wall of darkness.

A snap filled Greyson's ears, a sharp agonizing cry, and more grunting from a few others. Choking on the fumes from the black wave, Greyson's eyes watered as she saw Mitchel strung up in a net of barbed wire. Katniss and Homes were still dragging Boggs' body, and Gale and Leeg 1 had begun shooting at the cables holding Mitchell up after gunning down a door at the corner of the block. The wave to the tar-like ocean had started to crest and lean forward, ever so slowly beginning to fall.

"Finnick," Greyson panted, "where's Johanna?"

He barely shook his head, glancing around at the chaos that bred around him. "I don't know," he said defeatedly.

"I'm right here, you fuckers," she breathed, running beside them. "Can't get rid of me that easily."

Katniss and Homes were far ahead of them, and Greyson could feel her chest burning with fearful thoughts running through her mind. "We're not going to make it," she cried loudly as she heard the soaring splash shake the ground from behind her. Last she checked, Gale and Leeg 1 were still there.

"We will," Finnick panted, tightening his grip on her hand. She had a flashback then, to when a same encounter was happening, in a different time, in a different place, but with the same man behind the gun and herself and Finnick at the bullet. She wasn't going to sacrifice herself this time, not for the boy Katniss loved or to save Finnick, but for herself, no matter how greedy it made her feel.

Her feet hit the inside of a velvet pink living room, all of them following the trail of blood that led down a hallway with photos strung up of strangers, their gleaming smiles sending hatred spiraling to her queasy stomach. They entered a small kitchen, where mostly everyone was. Someone was kicking behind a door off to the side, which she assumed was Peeta. Leeg 1 and Cressida followed in after them, but a frantic Katniss screamed out Gale's name.

The young man entered the room shortly after, coughing wildly, shutting the door behind him and shouting, "fumes!"

Castor and Pollux began to stuff every crack and open crevice with towels and aprons, as Gale wretched into the kitchen sink.

"Mitchell?" Homes asked. Leeg 1 shook her head.

Greyson felt someone yank her to the floor, Katniss was grabbing her wrist. Boggs' eyes were still open, his lips moving surely, as if he was repeating something. He gave them both a look of urgency as she lowered her head down to his lips, just as Katniss had done seconds ago. "Don't trust them. Don't go back. Kill Peeta and Johanna. Do what you came to do," he whispered harshly.