𝚑𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕 (Finnick Odair)

𝚡𝚟.

𝚑𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛: 𝚡𝚟.

Katniss moved quickly away, right into a delivery area called the Transfer.

She destroyed the first pod, full of flesh-eating rats, with an explosive arrow.

They followed her carefully until Finnick spotted an unmarked pod waiting for one false move. It was Messalla who triggered it.

"Katniss!" Finnick cried, pulling her to a stop.

She looked back to see Messalla staring up into a beam of light as the flesh melted off of his body.

"Can't help him!" Peeta was shouting, shoving the others along. "Can't!"

Gunfire burst up, showering plaster down on them. Peacekeepers raced down the Transfer toward them.

All that they could do was fire back. They had gotten down about three-quarters of them before more came running.

"No," Saffreen whispered as she realized with startling clarity that it was not Peacekeepers running at them, but mutts.

Four-legged, white, about the size of an adult human, but they were not human at all. Naked, reptilian.

They swarmed the Peacekeepers, tearing into them, ripping off their heads with simple movements.

The Peacekeepers died quickly, and then the mutts were advancing on them.

"This way!" Katniss shouted. She ran ahead, clinging to the wall, waiting for the others to join her before she activated a pod called the Meat Grinder.

It roared to life, mechanical teeth gnashing at the air.

"Forget the mission. What's the quickest way aboveground?" Katniss asked Pollux.

He took charge, leading them about ten yards down the length of the Transfer and through a doorway.

Tile shifted to concrete and then they were crawling through a tight-fitting pipe out onto a ledge. A yard below them, poisonous waste bubbled threateningly. Parts were on fire. Others let up puffs of vapor.

They moved as quickly as they dared to when Pollux reached a ladder, tapping at it, showing that was the way out. "Wait!" Katniss cried before they could leave. "Where are Jackson and Leeg One?"

"They stayed at the Grinder to hold the mutts back," Homes answered.

"What?" Katniss started back for them, but Homes pulled her sharply away.