The group of five continued through the jungle cautiously. Katniss tossed small pebbles as she walked to show where the force field was so that they could avoid another incident.
Knox noticed the force field had begun to curve around slightly. She wasn't the only one as Katniss stopped walking, "hang on." She said,
Katniss put her bow onto her back and began to climb one of the taller trees. Knox, Finnick, Peeta and Mags waited below for her to come back down.
"The force field, it's a dome," said Katniss when she came back into sight, "we're at the edge of the arena, couldn't find any signs of fresh water."
"It's gonna get dark soon." Said Finnick.
"We'll be safe with our backs protected." said Knox, "we should set up camp. Take turns sleeping."
"I can take first watch." Said Finnick. Knox nodded but Katniss shook her head and scoffed, "Not a chance."
Knox stood up and turned to face Katniss, "Honey, you see that thing Finnick did back there for Peeta? That was called 'saving his life' if he wanted to kill either of you he would have done it by now." She said, "and if I wanted you dead you would have never made it out of the cornucopia." She smiled falsely at Katniss before moving to help Mags up from the floor.
Katniss swallowed and turned to Peeta, "why don't you get some rest? I'll take the first watch."
"Just for a little bit." Peeta said.
⚔️
Night had fallen and Knox was sitting with her back against a tree with Mags's head resting in her lap as they tried to get some rest.
Knox was woken as the Panem anthem played and the sky lit up with the pictures of the fallen tributes. Mags stirred at the sound, Knox gently stroked the older woman's hair in comfort.
"Seven." Katniss said, referring to the number of fallen tributes. Finnick hummed.
There was a rhythmic electronic chiming from above them, a sponsor had sent them something. Katniss stood to retrieve the parcel being carried by the small parachute.
"'Drink up'?" She said, reading out the card.
"What is it?" Finnick asked.
"It's from Haymitch." Said Katniss as she examined the small metal device from the package, "I think it's a spile."
"A what?" Finnick asked.
"It extracts water from inside trees." Knox told him as Katniss used a stone to push the spile into one of the trees. For a moment nothing happened but then a steady stream of water began to pour from the spile.
"You're kidding me. You're kidding me." chuckled Finnick.
Katniss Frank some water then moved to allow Peeta to get some, "get some water."
Peeta drank some water then moved so Finnick could drink some too.
Knox gently moved mags from her lap and walked over to the spile. Finnick moved so she could get some too.
"I'm gonna get a leaf," he said, finding a large leaf. Knox got some water in her hands and rubbed it over her face. "Here get some for Mags," she said, moving so Finnick could collect some water in a leaf for the older woman.
A short while later there was a loud clanging noise like someone was hitting a gong repeatedly. Knox listened and counted 12 individual chimes. "I counted 12.".
"Midnight?" suggested Finnick.
"Or the number of districts." Said Katniss. In the distance, a huge tree was struck by lightning.
"You two should get some sleep," said Knox, "I'll take watch."
Katniss shook her head.
"We'll... if you're not gonna sleep, I will." Finnick told her. He and Knox switched places.
"Okay."
Knox sat down on the rock beside Katniss in silence. After a few minutes, Katniss broke the silence, "I went back and watched your games," she said, "I was nine when you went into the arena so I couldn't remember them that well."
"Why would it matter?" Knox asked.
"I wanted to know what was so special about you, everyone loves you," said Katniss making Knox scoff, "I'm not special, I'm just good at pretending,"
"How did you know how to fight? In your games you seemed like you knew what you were doing," Katniss asked, from what she had seen Knox was an incredible fighter but it didn't make sense as she was from District 10.
"My dad taught me to defend myself when I was a kid, he's very protective because I'm all he has- had." Knox explained, "My mom died when I was a kid so after that it was mostly just two of us,"
"Mostly?"
"You already know the answer to that question, Everdeen, don't make me answer it," Knox said coldly, she did not like letting people know much about her private life, nor did she like reliving her past. Katniss nodded and didn't speak again.
⚔️
A while later Katniss had dozed off but Knox stayed awake. The jungle was eerily silent and she was the only one of the group that was awake. It was too quiet. Knox anxiously checked her surroundings, noticing a thick white cloud of fog that had not been there earlier rolling down towards them. She nudged Katniss awake before standing up.
It may be just normal fog but Knox knew better than to underestimate anything in the games, everything was put there for a reason and the entire arena was built to kill them, so she wasn't taking any chances.
The fog was moving quickly towards them, Knox cautiously stepped forward and extended her arm so that the tips of her fingers touched the fog. The second she did she groaned loudly in pain, her hand felt like it had been shoved into a vat of corrosive acid and her fingers were covered in small painful blisters.
"Wake up!" she yelled to the others who all shot up in a panic, "we've got to go now!"
"Run!" yelled Katniss, "Run! The fog is poison!"
The others scrambled to their feet, Finnick hoisted mags onto his back and they all ran down the sloping jungle landscape away from the fog. They ran as fast as they could but the fog was getting closer by the second.
Knox's lungs burned as she pushed herself to keep going. The fog seemed to be coming from all sides as they ran through twists and turns of the dense jungle.
Knox, Katniss and Peeta were separated from Finnick and Mags as the fog gained on them. Katniss tripped on a tree root and Peeta quickly pulled her back up, getting severely burned by the fog in the process. He tried to keep running but he was struggling to stand and kept stumbling. Katniss grabbed his arm and helped him move through this slowed them down.
Through the growth of trees, Knox caught a glimpse of Finnick just as the fog started to reach him. He screamed, stumbled and dropped Mags but immediately pushed himself back up again.
"Mags, please, please! Come on! Come on!" He yelled as she climbed back onto his back and he started running again.
Peeta collapsed to the floor. Knox quickly pulled the sheathed Katanas from her back and handed them to Katniss, "take these ill get him," she said, "Go! I've got him!"
Katniss started to run again and Knox hoisted Peeta onto her back with all her strength. Knox was incredibly strong from all the years spent lifting heavy things on the farm at home so she only struggled slightly to carry the boy.
She moved as quick as she could away from the fog, only a few paces behind Katniss but the fog was closing in on them all.
A wave of fog hit her left side making her scream in pain, she pushed forward but it was too much and she tripped and dropped Peeta. Finnick rejoined the three where Knox had fallen. Knox quickly pulled her arms through the straps on her Katanas and she and Katniss tried to lift Peeta again but they were too weak, the dehydration, pain and exhaustion were too much.
"I can't carry him." Katniss whimpered, "Peeta please,"
Mags placed a hand each on Knox and Finnick's shoulders making them turn to look at her. She pressed a kiss to Finnick's lips before turning and walking towards the fog.
"Mags? Mags!" Finnick yelled after her as the older woman walked into the fog, "Mags!"
Knox grabbed his arm to stop him from running after her, "Finnick, come on we have to go," a cannon went off signalling that Mags was dead.
"We have to get out of here." said Katniss, "we have to go,"
Finnick quickly regained himself, "all right, come on, come on"
Together Knox and Finnick pulled Peeta up by his arms and placed them over their shoulders. The four of them stumbled as fast as they could away from the fog but they had slowed down severely and the fog hit their backs. They all screamed and groaned in pain and found themselves tumbling uncontrollably down a steep bank.
When she stopped falling Knox couldn't move, her entire body ached and burned. Countless white boils and blisters littered her skin. She lay there on her back on the jungle floor waiting for the fog to reach them and feeling like an utter failure.
She could see the fog spilling down the bank that they had just fallen down but only barely as her vision had grown blurry. Then something odd happened, the fog stopped coming closer; it was like it had hit an invisible wall.
Knox could not make herself feel any comfort from this as she struggled to breathe from the intense pain all over her body. She heard shuffling behind her head but she could not see what it was. Someone screamed in pain.
"The water!" gasped Katniss, "the water helps."
Knox heard this but she had no strength to pull herself up. She heard Katniss and Peeta groaning in pain as they rid themselves of the blisters with the water. "Here help me get them," Katniss said and a moment later Knox and Finnick were dragged into the water by the pair.
Knox screamed and hissed in pain as the water hit her skin but felt a rush of relief as the water washed away the boils.
"We need our weapons," said Katniss to Peeta who stepped out of the small pool of water to grab them from where they had fallen.
After a few minutes, Knox was able to sit up by herself and so was Finnick. Peeta used the spile to collect some drinkable water from a tree while the others washed away their remaining wounds.
"I'm sorry about Mags," said Katniss.
Finnick stayed silent for a moment, looking down at his hands, "She was never gonna make it." he said sadly, "so..."
Knox squeezed his shoulder comfortingly, she knew Mags was like his family. He looked up and noticed something over Katniss's shoulder and nodded to it. Katniss and Knox turned their heads to see what he was looking at. In a tree sat what appeared to be two huge Mandrill monkeys.
Katniss slowly stood and pulled an arrow from her quiver. Knox and Finnick stood too and Knox slowly unsheathed both of her katanas, from where they were strapped criss-cross to her back, as she noticed more and more monkeys were beginning to surround them.
Finnick readied his trident just in case the monkeys pounced. "Peeta?" Katniss said calmly.
"Yeah?"
"Walk over here slowly." As soon as the words left her lips one of the monkeys roared in Peeta's face. The boy backed away from the monkey steadily in hopes of not triggering the other monkeys into attacking.
The monkeys began to become unsettled and were gradually closing in on the four tributes.
"Get to the beach," said Katniss but their path was blocked. She aimed her bow at the monkeys.
One jumped at her from behind but Peeta brought his machete down onto it mid-flight. The monkeys were roaring more intensely now, Katniss fired arrows at the ones closest to her.
One of the monkeys ran at Knox but she swung out her right arm, killing it. The four of them began fending off the monkeys as more ran at them.
A monkey pounced on Katniss making her fall back into the water but Peeta stabbed it and pulled her up. "We gotta get to the beach."
Katniss and Peeta started to run towards the beach, Knox and Finnick just behind them, killing any monkeys that blocked their way. Knox threw out her arm impaling one of the monkeys on her sword.
As they ran a monkey jumped on them from behind, scattering the group slightly. Peeta scrambled back into a tree as a monkey ran towards him. But before it could reach him, someone jumped out in front of him from their hiding place in the vines of the tree. The monkey bit into the tribute's neck making them scream. Peeta stabbed it with his machete.
Knox continued to slash at the incoming monkeys with her katanas.
"Who is that?" Katniss asked Peeta, the tribute on the ground was gasping in pain, "A Morphling! Help me get her!" Peeta said.
Peeta and Katniss carried the female Morphling to the beach and Finnick and Knox ran behind them. Once they reached the beach however, the monkeys did not leave the treeline. It was like they were stuck in the jungle.
Knox took a deep breath and collapsed back in exhaustion, sitting down on the sand with her swords loosely gripped in her hands. She watched as Katniss and Peeta comforted the wheezing Morphling in the water as she died. A cannon fired in the distance and Peeta let the Morphling float on the water on her back. The monkeys had retreated.
A Capitol hoverjet came and collected the Morphlings body with a large metal claw.