Puzzle Pieces • Finnick Odair

C H A P T E R 3 6

Wiress, Beetee, Katniss, Peeta, Finnick, Jessica, and Johanna all walk towards the Cornucopia.

"This entire arena seems to be laid out like a clock with a new threat every hour, but they stay only within their wedge. It all starts with the lightning, then the blood rain, fog, monkeys. That's the first four hours. At 10:00, that big wave hits from over there," Katniss explains.

"Wiress, you're a genius," Finnick compliments.

"Look, the tail points at twelve."

"That's where the lighting strikes at noon and midnight."

"Strikes where?" Beetee asks.

"That big tree," Katniss points to the lightning tree.

"Good," he replies, mostly to himself.

Wiress, or 'nuts', sat down near the edge singing to herself, "Hickory dickory dock. The mouse tan up the clock. The clock struck one, the mouse ran down. Hickory dickory dock."

Peeta draws something in the ground, "so 12-1, lightning. 1-2 is blood. Them fog. Then monkeys.

Wiress continued to sing.

"Then 10-11, the wave," Katniss adds, "what about everything else? Did you guys see anything?"

"Nothing but blood," Johanna says bitterly.

"If doesn't matter. As long as we steer clear of whichever sector is active, we'll be safe," Peeta points out.

"Yeah. Relatively speaking," Finnick adds.

The singing stops.

Wiress gasps.

They all turn to see Wiress drop to the ground, one of the Careers behind her with a knife in hand. A canon fires.

Katniss shoots the man in the chest. Another canon fires.

Another career, Cashmere, sneaks up but Johanna throws an axe her way. Unfortunately, Cashmere just hides behind the wall in time and makes a run for it.

Finnick is fighting two careers off successfully dodging both their blows apart from a dagger grazing his thigh but, he pushes past the pain. Katniss shoots but they dodge the arrows, swiftly running away.

All of a sudden, the ground begins to spin. It physically spins. Katniss falls, Jessica and Johanna manage to grab one hand each just in time though. It doesn't stop moving as things start to fly off the Cornucopia, threatening to knock them off. Katniss falls into the harsh waters below, also taking Jessica with her.

The Cornucopia stops spinning.

Katniss can be seen clambering back onto one of the stone paths and Peeta runs to help her, asking her if she was okay. She gave him a weak thumbs up as a reply.

"Where's Jessica?" Finnick asks the girl who had taken her down on accident as he realised she's not with Katniss.

Katniss' expression changes into one of worry as she points to the water, "she was thrown further from me, I don't know how far."

And with that, Finnick runs back to the cornucopia, followed by Johanna, as they run the perimeter to check.

They both return with anxious expressions.

A canon sounds.

The whole group look around frantically, silently hoping one of the careers had got caught in the spinning island too.

All of a sudden, a body with blonde hair floats up to the surface followed by Jessica.

She's pulled out of the water by Finnick and immediately pulled into a tight embrace as he kissed the top of her head and wraps his arms around her tightly for support, "I- I thought you were dead," he speaks as they pull apart.

"I'm okay," she reassured him, placing a hand on his cheek to get him to focus on her words. She gestures to the body in the water, "Cashmere."

Once Jessica had caught her breathe, she ties part of Finnick's clothing around his injured leg to reduce the bleeding at his thigh, "you okay?"

He nods as his arm finds its way around her waist for support, trying to force a smirk. "Never better," he answers sarcastically.

AN: cute near death experience 😍😍