Oh, great. Not only does he want to kill me, he wants to kill himself as well.

"So who's first on your kill list?" I ask, my voice dripping in sarcasm. "Me or yourself?"

"I just murdered a member of our squad!" He protests. "You're right, Willow. I'm a mutt, and it's only a matter of time before I snap again. I'm not in control. I need a nightlock pill, so I can die when I need to."

"If it gets to that point, or if you go for my sister again, I'll kill you myself," Gale promises.

"Er- I can protect myself, Gale, for your information! I don't need you to save my skin!" I shout indignantly.

Austin, meanwhile, says. "Thank you."

"No!" I protest again.

"It's only fair, Willow," Austin shrugs.

I look mutinously at Gale before standing up and going to sit beside Finnick.

We find some food in the cupboards and tuck in. "I don't think I ever really understood the Capitol until now," I hear Gale say to Katniss. "You eat like this, you'll believe anything."

Suddenly, the anthem starts to play like it does in the games for dead tributes, and sure enough, on the screen there's the faces of our squad.

Cressida comes first, then Castor, then Pollux, then Mesalla. After the camera crew comes Finnick, Austin, and me. They obviously didn't have faces for anyone else, or they just didn't want to put them up there.

Then Snow's on the screen, addressing Panem. "So, Willow Hawthorne, a poor, unstable girl with nothing more than a small talent with an axe, is dead. Not a thinker, not a leader. Simply a face, plucked from the masses. Was she valuable? She was extremely valuable to your rebellion, because you have no vision. No true leader among you. You call yourselves an alliance, but we all saw what that means. Your soldiers are at each others' throats-"

Suddenly, it's not Snow I see on the screen, but Coin, as Beetee must've interrupted the broadcast again. "For those of you who don't know me, please allow me to introduce myself. I am President Alma Coin, leader of the rebellion. I have interrupted a broadcast from your President in which he attempted to defame a brave young woman. A face picked from the masses he called her - as if a leader, a true leader, could be anything else."

Her eyes start to go slightly teary. "I had the privilege of knowing a small town girl from the Seam in District Twelve, who survived the Hunger Games and the Quarter Quell, and rose up and turned a nation of slaves into an army!"

She's actually crying now, but inside, I know she must be celebrating, she finally got what she wanted. My death.

"Dead or alive Willow Hawthorne will remain the face of this revolution," she promises. She will not have died for nothing!"

"I had no idea I meant so much to her," I drawl sarcastically. "I guess now I'm dead I'm a lot more likeable."

"Her vision and ours will be realised. A free Panem, with self-determination for all, and in her memory, we wil all find the strength to rid Panem of its oppressors! Thank you, and be safe."

REMEMBER THE MOCKINGJAY shows on the screen, complete with my four note tune and a picture of me in Eight. Then the screen fades to just the seal again.

"Snow's in his mansion," I say, getting the holo out and placing it on the table next to me. I activate it and the map of the Capitol shows. "Where is that?"

Cressida points it out as everyone comes around us. "That's us," she points to a house on the outskirts. "That's the city circle," it's all the way on the other side. "It's at least seventy or seventy five blocks north"

"Seventy five blocks?"

"Uh huh."

"Nobody knows we're alive," I point out. "This is our chance. These buildings, do these overlook Snow's garden?" I point to a cluster of tall buildings near the mansion.

"I-" Cressida doesn't know.

"They do," Messala answers surely.

"If he goes outside at all I could get a clear shot," I say, looking at the whole map.

"We're getting ahead of ourselves here," Jackson reminds us all. "Whether they're looking for us or not, we are pinned down. Hit that button, scan for pods." I do as she says and the red dots surface. There's thousands.

"Just about every ten steps," Holmes says.

"Yeah, and that doesn't even show the new ones," Gale adds.

"So we can't go anywhere in the streets."

"And the rooftops are just as bad."

Suddenly, Pollux taps Castor on the shoulder and starts signing something to him.

"There might be another way!"

☘︎☘︎☘︎

Below ground. The sewers, basically. We climb down a ladder one at a time and descend. This plan is brilliant.

"My brother knows these tunnels really well," Castor explains. "He worked sanitation down here, right after they made him an avox."

Everyone turns to Pollux, who turns around and doesn't look at any of us. I can tell that he has bad memories here.

"Hey, hey," Castor walks forward to check on him. "You're gonna be okay? Look at me. Look at me. We're gonna get through this. I promise."

He walks forward and Castor walks back. "Took us five years to buy his way outta here," he discloses. "He never saw the sun once."

And just because they're safer, doesn't mean they're safe. We know this because at some points, we have to stop and hide because lorries of peacekeepers ride through the tunnels. And trains with weapons stacked within them.

All the while, I hold the holo in front of me, checking for the odd pod. But finally, when another train pulls past, I make up my mind. "We're too exposed here," I look to Pollux, who nods. But he points to somewhere else, and we run. I should count on him to know the way.

We descend even lower to the actual sewers. We get sprayed with water, have to wade through it shoulder high, and by the time Jackson calls that we should rest, we're all soaked, tried and cold.

"I'll take first watch!" She also calls.

I climb out of the water and sit down, leaning against the pipe that we're in. I fall asleep immediately.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

"Willow," Jackson gently shakes me awake, whispering lightly to me. "Your watch."

I sit up and get my axes, then I sit opposite Austin.

I don't expect him to speak. "You know, the Capitol, they used tracker jacker venom on me. That's what the doctors in Thirteen said. You were stung once too. Real or not real?"

"Real," I nod.

"And... when they used the venom on me they would show me pictures of my life. But... some weren't real. They changed them. At- at first they all blurred together but now... now I can sort them out a little. Like the ones that they changed they have this... quality to them. It's like they're shiny, that they've been glossed over."

He's still in there. My heart leaps but my face is still. "You should get some rest."

He looks at me for a second. "You're still trying to protect me. Real or not real?"

"Real," I answer. "That's what you and I do. We keep each other alive. You used to do it because you loved me, but I don't know why you do it now."

"You know, every day, there's a part of me that loves you," he admits. "But that part that wants to kill you keeps fighting."

He used to be this blunt. "You should sleep."

This time, he doesn't argue, and tilts his head back to rest. I look at him, trying to decide which part of him is winning as of late.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

The water starts to drip in the middle of the night. I expect it to wake everyone up but no one moves. I stand up as the holo starts to beep for a reason I don't know. Then I hear it. The hissing.

"Willow?" Austin's suddenly awake.

"What is that?" And Jackson.

"We gotta go, we gotta get out!" Holmes' eyes crack open and suddenly he's up.

"Mutt's, they released mutts!"

And I know they're right.

"Pollux, what's the fastest way out?" I turn to the mute.

Gale and I look back towards the tunnel filled with water and as we do, Gale says. "Throw an incendiary axe down there. To light it up."

I do, and when it reaches its target, the end of the tunnel goes up in flames. Nothing's there.

"The other way! Go!"

We head out the other side and reach a tunnel that's filled knee deep with water. Still, nothing shows.

I end up having to throw another axe to light up the tunnel again, since torches won't show us what's in our path.

We continue along the tunnel. Jackson leads the way. I don't throw another axe.

And in hindsight, maybe I should've, because then Jackson would've been able to see the scaly, white, horrible mutts that jump on her just then.

Instantly I know she's dead because I don't hear a scream. And I have no time to either, because they're headed for me next. I take an explosive axe and blast about five of them back, but there are more coming now, and again, headed for me.

I splash into water, running as fast as I can to catch up with the squad. The mutts cna obviously swim though, because they follow me in.

I catch up with them just as we enter shallower water, which we run through, not wade.

"CASTOR!"

I turn to see him get hauled down by the mutts and devoured by their long spiky teeth. Two dead at the hands of these things. Two dead because of me.

"FALL BACK!"

Just as the mutt that got Castor is going for Cressida, I blast it with an explosive axe. Cressida gets more with her gun and we run.

We reach a ladder soon enough; a ladder that'll take us above ground. But the mutts do too. I explode a few more but more just keep on coming.

And just when I think I'm alright, one corners me. It's going to get me. I thought my death would be to tributes or gamemakers, but no. It's right here.

"AAARRRGGGHH!"

Out of nowhere, Austin runs at the mutt, knocking it over and then hitting it with his gun. It goes down and Finnick finishes it off with his trident.

Austin's still fighting for me. He really is still there.

Whilst everyone climbs the ladder Finnick, Gale, Austin and I try to hold them.

Off. "You go!" I yell to Gale once everyone's up. "I'll follow you up!" I add as he looks reluctant.

But I don't. "GO, GO, GO!" Finnick yells to Austin as he helps him up. He runs towards the ladder and starts to climb it rapidly.

Now it's only Finnick and I. And I can tell he's not going to go first, so after throwing a normal axe at a mutt's chest, I start to ascend.

And I'm just at the top when-

"WILLOW!"

Finnick's on the ground, one of the mutt's on top of him. "FINNICK!" I yell in horror, pulling out an axe as I reach the top of the ladder.

He gets doused in the water again as he tries to get out. "WILLOW!"

He sticks a knife in the mutt's back, finally reaching the ladder and climbing it. But the mutts are one step ahead, pulling him
down-

"FINNICK!" I roar, as he hits the ground yelling, going under. About ten mutts jump upon him, devouring him-

"Nightlock," I say once, flipping a switch on the holo. The self destruct switch. "Nightlock, nightlock."

For the sake of Finnick, I chuck the holo into the water as it explodes, very nearly getting us.

"Come on, come on, keep moving, let's go!" Gale shouts.

We're now on level ground. Not above, not below. That's why when we get out, peacekeepers are shooting at us. They know we're alive. They've known as soon as they set the mutts on us.

I shoot at them as we run, Cressida and I somehow ending up together. "Come on! Come on!"

The whole place starts to blow up around us, and cracks in the floor start to follow us, Cressida runs faster and goes ahead so I somehow end up with Austin beside me. We run and run and just when the cracks are about to catch up, we jump. They stop.

"Austin come on!" I shout, getting up from where I lie. "Come on!"

But he doesn't move, he just lies there.

"AUSTIN!" I shout, but he covers his ears and cries.

"Austin we have to keep going!"

"I'm a mutt!"

"We have-"

"I'M A MUTT!"

"No, we-"

"LEAVE ME, I'M A MUTT!"

"LOOK AT ME!" I shout, pulling him up.

"Look at me," my voice softens as I kiss him for the first time since I left him. He kisses back as well and when I pull away, he actually seems sad. "Stay with me."

His answer gives me confidence. His one word answer.

"Always."