Disclaimer: Suzanne Collins owns the characters and the plot. I however have made some changes to the original story making this FANFICTION, not the real story. Nor is this story affiliated with Suzanne Collins.

Chapter 20

There are twelve spokes, each with two tributes balanced on metal plates between them. Beyond the water, wherever you look, a narrow beach and then dense greenery. I scan the circle of tributes, looking for Peeta, but he must be blocked from my view by the Cornucopia. I dive into the water as soon as the gong rings. I kept swimming until I get to the cornucopia, I run up there and grab the bow and arrows.

Someone is behind me. I turn to look and realize it is Finnick glistening wet a few yards back with a trident ready to act.

"You can swim too? Where did you learn that in District twelve?"

"We have a large bathtub," I answer.

"You must," he says. "You like the arena?"

"Not particularly. But you should they seem to have built it especially for you." I say with an edge in my voice. There was no pool to learn in the Training Center either you come in here a swimmer or you don't. That gives District 4 a huge advantage.

For a moment we're frozen, sizing each other up, our weapons, our skill. Then Finnick suddenly grins. "Lucky thing we're allies. Right?"

Sensing a trap, I'm about to let an arrow fly through his chest. Then something catches my eye. A solid- gold bangle patterned with flames. The same one I remember on Haymitch's wrist the morning I began training. Suddenly I can hear other footsteps, I need to make a decision quickly. "Right!" I snap at Finnick.

"Duck!" He says quickly and I don't hesitate to drop on my knees. His trident goes whizzing over my head and there's a sickening sound of impact as the man from District 5 is impaled in the chest. "Don't trust One and Two," Finnick says.

Finnick goes around the other side of the Cornucopia and I stay here collecting weapons. I grab the other bow and arrows and some other weapons that could be useful. By this time Gloss and Enobaria are just reaching land. Now that they are on land and should be here in a few seconds.

"Anything useful?" I hear Finnick shout.

I survey all of my side. "Nothing but weapons!" I call back.

"Same here." He confirms. Grab what you want and let's go!"

I shoot an arrow at Enobaria, who's gotten in too close for comfort, but she's expecting it and dives back into the water before it can find its mark. Gloss isn't quite as swift, and I sink an arrow into his calf as he plunges into the waves. I sling an extra bow and a second sheath of arrows over my body, slide two long knives and an awl into my belt, and meet up with Finnick at the front of the pile.

"Do something about that, would you?" he commands me. I see Brutus barreling toward us. His belt is undone and he has it stretched between his hands as a kind of shield. I shoot at him and he manages to block the arrow with his belt before it can skewer his liver. Where it punctures the belt, a purple liquid spews forth, coating his face. As I reload, Brutus flattens on the ground, rolls the few feet to the water, and submerges. "Let's clear out," I say to Finnick.

The four careers are near now and they no doubt have a prior alliance. If I had only myself to think of I might be willing to take them on with Finnick. Now I can only think of where my husband is and if he is okay. I take off and I do not spot him but I see splashing in the water and Finnick follows me without question. Please let that be some other idiot fighting in the water and not Peeta..

When we finally get to the spot where they are fighting by standing on the spokes, I see the curly blonde hair that I love. Mags swims over to us now and Finnick helps her up onto the spoke. My bow and arrow is ready to fire, but I can't because it may hit Peeta unless they stop moving back and forth. "Peeta came in second at our school wrestling match. His older brother got first." I tell Finnick, even through I am just assuring myself Peeta will be fine.

Finally someone emerges alive and its Peeta. The male from nine floats to the top of the water. Peeta swims over to where we are at and pushes himself up against the spoke trying to get on top of it. Once he finally gets up he gives me a hug. It may have only been this morning when his arms were around me last, but it seems like forever ago.

"Hate to interrupt, but we have to go," Finnick tells Peeta and me.

"Oh, sorry." I tell Finnick. I hand Peeta a bow, a sheath of arrows, and a knife, keeping the rest for myself. But Mags tugs on my sleeve and babbles on until I've given the awl to her. Pleased, she clamps the handle between her gums and reaches her arms up to Finnick. He tosses his net over his shoulder, hoists Mags on top of it, grips his tridents in his free hand, and we run away from the Cornucopia.

A while later Peeta runs into the force field. "Peeta no!" I scream as I run towards him. I lay my head on his chest where I always do and find that his heart isn't beating. "Peeta!" I scream as I collapse into tears shaking him and slapping him. His gorgeous blonde curls are singed and his perfect lips that always molded to mine are extremely puffy, but he still looks just as handsome as ever. "Peeta wake up!" I scream desperately. He won't wake up. I'm either going to win or I'm going to die in here, but either way I will lose. How am I going to explain to my baby what it sees on TV every year is what caused its fathers death?

Finnick quickly pushes me out of the way. "Let me." His fingers touch points at Peeta's neck, run over the bones in his ribs and spine. Then he pinches Peeta's nostrils shut.

"No!" I yell. Surely he means to make sure Peeta is dead, that he could never return to me. Then I see something so bizarre I don't even try to attack him, he's kissing Peeta. No, he's not kissing him. He's got Peeta's nose blocked off but his mouth tilted open, and he's blowing air into his lungs. I can see this, I can actually see Peeta's chest rising and falling. Then Finnick unzips the top of Peeta's jumpsuit and begins to pump the spot over his heart with the heels of his hands. Now that I've gotten through my shock, I understand what he's trying to do.

Terrible agonizing minutes go by before I hear my new favorite sound in the entire world: Peeta's cough.

"Peeta!" I yell as I fling myself at him as Finnick quickly moves out of my way. His perfect blonde eyelashes flutter open and his eyes meet mine. "Careful," he says weakly. "There's a force field up ahead."

I laugh, but there are tears all over my face.

"Must be stronger than the one on the Training Center roof," he says. "I'm alright though just a little shaken up."

"You were dead! Your heart stopped!" I croak out through my tears as I begin to make awful sound I make when I sob. "It seems to be working now. It's alright Katniss." I nod my head, but the sounds aren't stopping.

"Katniss?" Now Peeta's worried about me which adds to the insanity of it all. He starts to sit up and pulls me into his lap and pulls me in close. "Hey it's okay. I'm alive. We're together." Peeta says sweet nothings over and over trying to sooth me.

"It's just her hormones. From the baby." Finnick says.

"No it's not-" I start as another round of sobbing. Maybe it's the fact that my husband died in front of me. I owe Finnick and I can never repay him now.

"I love you, Peeta." I whisper into Peeta's ear. "I love you, Katniss." Peeta whispers back. We both lean in and our lips met.

"We better get going." Finnick says rudely interrupting Peeta and I. I help Peeta up carefully trying to be as gentle as possible.

We walk for hours without water and finally rest when it's dark out. Then Mags and Finnick make a tent type things and bowls to put the nuts I found earlier in.

"I'm going to go search for some water." I announce. "I'm going with you." Peeta says standing up. "Peeta you need to stay here and rest. I'll be fine I won't go far. Finnick, let him rest." Both boys grumble in response.

There are no signs of water however whenever I shoot something scurrying around on a tree it's nose is wet. When I get back to my allies they are extremely disappointed with the lack of water I bring. "It doesn't look to different from squirrel, it should be fine to eat."

It's getting dark, and we do not want to start a fire that will draw attention. Peeta finds a different way to cook it by throwing it against the forcefield. The sun starts to set and we sit around making small talk waiting for the faces to appear in the sky. The anthem plays and the faces start to show. The man from District 5, the one Finnick took out with his trident, is the first to appear. That means that all the tributes in 1 through 4 are alive - the four Careers, Beetee and Wiress, and, of course, Mags and Finnick. The man from District 5 is followed by the male morphling from 6, Cecelia and Woof from 8, both from 9, the woman from 10, and Seeder from 11. The Capitol seal is back with a final bit of music and then the sky goes dark except for the moon.

A parachute glides down to the foliage behind us, and no one reaches for it.

"Who's do you think it is?" I finally ask.

"I don't know, but Peeta can claim it since he died today." Finnick says looking at the parachute oblivious to my glaring at him.

On the parachute sits a small metal object that I can't place. "What is it?" I ask. No one knows. We pass it from hand to hand, taking turns examining it. It's a hollow metal tube, tapered slightly at one end. On the other end a small lip curves downward. It's vaguely familiar. A part that could have fallen off a bicycle, a curtain rod, anything, really.

Peeta blows on one end to see if it makes a sound. It doesn't. Finnick slides his pinkie into it, testing it out as a weapon. Useless. We pass it around testing it out, but no one knows what it is. I can almost hear Haymitch growling at me, Use your brain if you have one. What is it?

I stretch out, pressing my hot cheek on the grass mat, staring at the thing in aggravation. Peeta rubs a tense spot between my shoulders and I let myself relax a little. I wonder what's going on back home. Home. My woods. I miss my family.

"A spile!" I exclaim bolting straight up.

"What?" Finnick asks.

I pick the spile up from the ground and show it to everyone. On a cold, windy day long ago, when I was out in the woods with my father. Inserted snugly into a hole drilled in the side of a maple. A pathway for the sap to follow as it flowed into our bucket. Maple syrup could make even our dull bread a treat.

"It's a spile. Sort of like a faucet. You put it in a tree and sap comes out." I look at the sinewy green trunks around me. "Well, the right sort of tree."

"Something else must come out of these trees." Peeta adds. We're all on our feet at once. Our thirst. The lack of springs. The tree rat's sharp front teeth and wet muzzle. There can only be one thing worth having inside these trees. Mags gives us her awl to drive a hole into the tree then we put the spile in.

Terrible agonizing minutes go by before a drop of water rolls down the lip. We take turns holding our parched mouths under the tap before Mags brings over a basket she knitted so tightly that it'll hold water. We start to prepare for bed soon after and Finnick takes first watch, I tell him to wake me when he's tired. Instead of Finnick waking me up, I'm jolted awake by the sound of sounds like a bell. Bong! Bong! Somehow Peeta and Mags are still asleep.

"I counted twelve," Finnick says.

"For each district?" I ask him.

"Probably." He says yawning.

"I'll watch now." I tell him getting up. Finnick just nods his head tiredly walking over to the hut. We wait for an announcement or something, but the only thing that occurs is lightening striking a tree. Finnick finally lays down and I sit with my bow loaded, watching the jungle, which is ghostly pale and green in the moonlight. I sneak a quick glance at the hut, and Peeta looks cute as ever sleeping. After an hour or so, the lightning stops. I can hear the rain coming in, though, pattering on the leaves a few hundred yards away. I keep waiting for it to reach us but it never does.

The sound of the cannon startles me, although it makes little impression on my sleeping companions. There's no point in awakening them for this. Another victor dead. I don't even allow myself to wonder who it is.

The elusive rain shuts off suddenly like the storm did last year in the arena.

Moments after it stops, I see the fog sliding softly in from the direction of the recent downpour. Just a reaction. Cool rain on the steaming ground, I think. It continues to approach at a steady pace. Tendrils reach forward and then curl like fingers, as if they are pulling the rest behind them. As I watch, I feel the hairs on my neck begin to rise. Something's wrong with this fog. The progression of the front line is too uniform to be natural. And if it's not natural ...

A sickeningly sweet odor begins to invade my nostrils, and I reach for the others, shouting for them to wake up.

In the few seconds it takes to rouse them, I begin to blister. My skin feels as if it's burning when the droplets touch my skin. "Run!" I scream at the others. "Run!"

Well chapter 20 is completed. Please let me know if I made any grammar or spelling errors. Lately I've been editing the chapters before. Some of the details have changed, but nothing that you need to know, just some that make the story better. Thank you for reading!

~ XOXO KD Howell