Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 33

"Nightlock. Nightlock. Nightlock," Katniss breathed into the holo before she dropped it into the sewer.

It immediately exploded, blowing up a storm of fire that Katniss had to hurl herself away from.

He had to have made it. He had to have. It was his idea to drop the holo, but what if he hadn't moved quickly enough? What if she'd just blown up Finnick?

"Come on, come on, come on," Gale yelled as he scooped up Taiya's unconscious body. "Let's go! Keep moving! Keep moving!"

Katniss could hear the sound of the girl's breaths. They didn't sound good.

The squad ran away from the tunnel, and out into an underground railway station. As soon as they emerged, they were being shot at by Peacekeepers. They'd been lying in wait, ready to pick off anyone who might have survived the mutts in the sewer system.

Gale had to run behind a pillar to avoid the gunfire. He didn't have many options to defend himself. His arms were carrying Taiya, he didn't have a spare hand to pull out a weapon. They had to get out of there now.

Katniss fired an explosive arrow in the direction of one group of Peacekeepers, successfully eliminating the threat, and then they were off. They were running away as quickly as they could, hoping to outrun the Peacekeepers.

This meant they were slightly distracted, which led to Mesalla's end. A beam of light had shot down from the ceiling, instantly disintegrating his body. Only the gun that had been in his hands was left. The rest of him was gone.

"Go! Go!" Gale yelled at Cressida as he passed her. The girl had frozen in shock as she processed what had just happened to her friend. She looked devastated.

"Keep going! Keep going!" Katniss snapped Cressida out of her stupor and pulled her arm along, forcing her to continue running.

The number of pods was increasing. These deadly lights were beaming down at random intervals, there was no predicting it. Gale had to quickly jerk out of the way to avoid him and Taiya being hit by them.

Peacekeepers were still firing at them. It seemed like a hopeless situation. Gale could feel Taiya's blood coating the hand that he was holding behind her back, she was growing paler and paler by the second. His neck wound was bleeding profusely as well. Holding Taiya meant he was unable to apply pressure to the injury the mutt had given him. He did not want to be responsible for her death, despite their arguments, they were on the same team. They didn't like each other, but that didn't mean either one wanted the other dead.

Turns out, the situation at hand could get worse though. Another pod activated. This one was buried in the floor. There were ripping saws in the ground that were quickly advancing towards them. The saws were vicious enough that it was tearing apart the concrete beneath their feet. If someone got caught in this trap, it'd be game over for them. The traps were moving faster than they were, it was gaining on them.

Gale pumped his legs as hard as he could. This wasn't how it was going to end. They hadn't come this far to be defeated. After what the Capitol had done to 12, he wasn't going to let them win this one.

He let out a groan of pain, but he'd made it. He'd gotten both him and Taiya to sturdy ground. The saws didn't reach here. But they couldn't stop now, they had to keep going. So Gale didn't stop, he kept running. He'd gotten to the bottom of the stairs that would take them to the ground level when he realised the others weren't following him.

He saw Katniss and Peeta on the ground when he turned around. They'd had to throw themselves to safety to avoid the pod, but it seemed Peeta was now stuck in another of his breakdowns.