Chapter Text
Peeta Pov
Everything’s gone wrong. Enobaria and Brutus showed up at the lightning tree, killing Beetee and drawing in Chad. Finnick and I are running through the trees wildly as the clash of fighting fades behind us. We’re following the golden trail of wire that marks the girl’s path, not bothering to be soundless.
We finally reach the beach, breathless and find the girls about to toss the coil of wire into the water. “Stop!” I yell. They turn to look at us, their faces surprised.
“Aren’t you supposed to be back at the tree?” Johanna asks us.
“Brutus and Enobaria found us. They killed Beetee and they’re now fighting Chad.” Two cannon shots fire. “We should go. Cut the wire and run to the first section.”
Johanna severs the wire with her axes and we run towards the trees. We walk uphill through the jungle for a while before turning and walking towards the 2 o’clock section. Once we’re in the five o’clock section after a long and difficult hike, we manage to create a modest shelter beneath a tree with sticks and branches.
“We’ll take the first watch.” Katniss offers as we settle down with our weapons near us. Finnick and Johanna accept and lie down, both of them quickly falling asleep. Katniss glances at them cautiously before whispering to me. “We should figure out our plan. There are only six of us left.”
I glance at our allies. “We could leave now while they’re asleep.” I say, feeling slightly guilty. I force myself to brush it away, because this is the hunger games, and Katniss can’t win if I’m trying to help our competitors.
Katniss nods and we gather our meager supplies. Katniss checks over the things in her parachute, the itch medicine, the pearl I gave her, my district token, the spile. I feel another stab of guilt at the sight of the spile. Not only would Johanna and Finnick now be without allies, we also took their only source of water.
I draw a short note in the moss with my knife and we leave, heading for the beach. At the edge of the tree line, we can see the wall of fog forming in the third section, and I feel even more relieved that we left when we did. There was only a few more hours before the attack moved to where we had been resting.
We walk on the beach, Katniss in front, me behind to erase our tracks, heading over to the 1 o’clock area, with the idea that this would give us a full twelve hours before we had to leave. As the fog rises into the air and disappears, we create a small area in a nook between three close together trees and I watch Katniss as she tucks a loose strand behind her ear and settles down on the moss. “Get some rest.” I tell her. “I’ll watch over you.” She lies down and puts one of her hands on her bow protectively.
I sit down next to her and find my hair stroking her hair as she closes her eyes. I smile as her breathing deepens, but I know that somewhere Finnick and Johanna are waking up to find that we have betrayed them. So I grip my knife in my hand and watch the trees for any kind of noise. Because nothing is going to hurt the sleeping woman next to me. Nothing.