Fire is Catching

Chapter 12: Mags

CHAPTER 12: MAGS

I jump up and let out a blood-curling scream.

Everdeen groans in pain. The fog has brought up blisters on her hand. "Run!" She yells in terror. "Run!"

Finnick picks up Mags, who is still asleep and bounds away. Everdeen pulls up Peeta and drags him along. I barrel after them. I feel the blisters bubbling on my back. My jumpsuit is thinner than the people in 12, so it offers almost no protection.

Peeta is having some trouble, so Everdeen tells him to follow her footwork.

Finnick and I cheer them on, but there isn't too much we can do.

Everdeen and Peeta keep stumbling along. The left side of his face is drooping low, and Everdeen's arm is blistering heavily.

Finnick and I exchange a look. We can't leave them. Mags nudges Finnick on, and we run back for the 'star-crossed lovers'.

I offer Peeta a hand and he takes it. Everdeen is supporting his other side. Finnick grabs ahold of me. We run away from the sinister fog.

Peeta is stumbling, and his legs are all blistered. Everdeen and I try to lift him up and pull him along, but my back is painful enough without him tugging on it.

Finnick and I glance at each other. I know we're both wanting to abandon them. It's the victors in us. But the rebellion can't go on without stupid Everdeen.

"Finnick," I say. My throat is dry. "You'll have to carry him."

Everdeen looks between the two of us in awe. She didn't believe we'd save Peeta. Our alliance needs work.

Finnick sighs once he remembers Mags. "Can you take Mags, Katniss?" He asks.

Everdeen looks at me, wondering why I can't take her, then notices my back. She nods at Finnick.

As Finnick hoists Peeta onto his back, he glances at me worriedly, "Lexi?"

I nod weakly. "I'm fine!"

We start hobbling away now. The fog is closing in on us in three directions. Everdeen is having trouble carrying Mags.

"Can you hold her?" She asks me. But even Everdeen knows it's a lost cause.

I look down at my back, and my suddenly jerky limbs. No, I can't. But Mags can't run, she's old!

She gets the message and asks Finnick if he can take both of them. With a heavy heart, he says, "I can't. My arms don't work."

It seems to happen faster than I can comprehend it. Mags hoists herself down, kisses Finnick on the lips, and walks into the fog.

"Mags!" Finnick cries hoarsely. "Mags!"

"Mags!" I shout.

Her body twitches uncomfortably, and a canon sounds.

Finnick looks at her limp body in the fog. His mentor has just died.

I call out his name in the hope of breaking his trance. "Finnick!"

He still seems out of it, so I shove him forward, away from the incoming fog. He gets moving with a jolt. Everdeen grabs my hand and we hobble along. There is not a part of me without blisters. I trip and fall onto the ground.

I contemplate giving up, but Georgina would hate me if I did. Lilyanna would be motherless, and Chase would do something stupidly rebellious.

Everdeen pulls me up, and while we're both looking at the fog, we trip down a small hill, and fall onto Finnick and Peeta. Our bodies are broken, and in pain. Determined to save her, I sit up and pull Everdeen a few more feet. Then we stop, both unable to move.