Don't Drown | Finnick x OC

Peril

Finnick and Katniss were lingering in the pond, splashing some water on their mostly healed wounds or cleaning the weapons. I left them to it. Whether Finnick knew it or not, he and Katniss were awfully similar and he needed to talk to her more than I did. 

Plus, I'd be lying if I said that Peeta's company wasn't easier. We were working at a tree nearby, Peeta was hammering the spile into the trunk with a rock. 

Water immediately spilled out and I handed up the coconut shell I was holding. While filling the shell I watched him shift uncomfortably. 

"Something wrong?" I asked. 

He handed me the shell to drink from and even took a sip directly from the spout himself before he finally spoke. 

"It's nothing it's just..." he paused. "Why are you doing this?" 

"What, drinking water? 'Cuase you handed it to me. You haven't poisoned it have you?" I deflected with a chuckle. 

He forced a laugh but still looked thoughtful. 

"I mean take care of us. You and Finnick, is there something going on I don't know about?" He looked as if he wasn't sure he wanted the answer. 

I hesitated. There were cameras everywhere and Haymitch was adamant that if Katniss and Peeta knew the plan they'd stop us. 

I was saved from answering, however, when Katniss's voice spoke from somewhere behind us. 

"Peeta," her tone was a forced calm and the air on my arms raised. "Walk over here slowly." 

She was looking over our shoulder. I turned and a large, menacing ape roared in my face. I stumbled back, grabbing Peeta's arm to pull him with me. He yanked the spile out of the trunk and followed me back into the pond. 

All four of us formed a circle with our backs to each other. We were each brandishing weapons but the monkey creatures were surrounding us, crawling down the vines so they we getting closer. 

"Get to the beach." I heard Katniss say. 

Easier said than done. The ape's faces were weirdly distorted and they roared louder and louder. These weren't just monkeys, they were mutts, which made me terrified to find out exactly how lethal they were. 

Finally, one of them jumped off its branch, aiming for Katniss but Peeta stabbed it before it could manage to attack her. That set them off. Suddenly they all jumped at once and it was chaos. 

Water sprayed around me as we all whirled, swung and stabbed the creatures as best we could. One jumped on my back, it's weight pulling me down into the knee deep water. I rolled onto my stomach, my lungs screaming for air instead of water but I couldn't do anything with it pushing me down.

I felt its claws scratch at my back as the weight was pulled off me, I sat up, sputtering, and saw Finnick ramming his spear into the ape-mutt. He grabbed me under my shoulder to pull me up and we ran to follow Katniss and Peeta onto the beach. We both dived onto the sand, spinning around and expecting the mutts to follow us, but they stopped at the tree line. I stood and stared. They were still gnashing their teeth and thrashing their claws in mid-air, trying to swipe at us but they wouldn't come onto the sand. Fin and I looked at each other, and watched as the apes lost heart and retreated back into the forest.

I turned to see Katniss and Peeta with one of the morphlings. She was bleeding out in the water, they were both holding her. I knew she had to have jumped in front of an ape to save them. Both the morphlings were on board with the plan. I heard the gong and closed my eyes. 

There goes one of ours.

When I opened them, Peeta had let her go and they were both watching her float out to sea. Katniss spotted us.

"You guys alright?" She croaked.

We both nodded. I watched Peeta glance at me and then back at the morphling, now being picked up by the helicopter's claw. A bit of recognition dawned on his face.

Giving Finnick a worried look, I gestured to the water. When were a good distance away, he immediately began stabbing his spear through the surface, hunting for fish.

"Peeta's going to figure it out." I said in an almost whisper.

He caught a salmon and handed me the fish to toss onto the dry sand. Looking back at Katniss and Peeta who were now catching their breath, sitting together, he turned back to me and quirked his brow.

"You sure?"

"Positive. He was suspicious before, but that morphling just sacrificed her life for him."

"Well," He pulled some clams from the sand in the shallow water. "We know he'll always save her if it comes to it." He gestured to Katniss.

"Yeah but –" I cut myself off so I could lower my voice even further, there were cameras everywhere. "She will never work without him. The Mockingjay plan can only work with them both."

Fin was quiet for a long time, grabbing more clams and handing them to me.

"Let's just eat some food." Was all he said.