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Chapter Seventeen
CANARY CRY
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We randomly choose a path and take it, having no idea what number we're headed for. When we reach the jungle we peer into it, trying to decipher what may be waiting inside.

"Well, it must be monkey hour. And I don't see any of them in there," says Peeta. "I'm going to try to tap a tree."

"No, it's my turn," says Finnick.

"I'll at least watch your back," Peeta says.

"Ember and Katniss can do that," says Johanna. "We need you to make another map. The other one washed away." She yanks a large leaf off a tree and hands it to him.

I see Katniss hesitate for a moment, probably trying to decide if we are trying to split them up to kill them but she follows after Finnick and I do the same. Finnick is about fifteen yards into the jungle, where he finds a good tree and starts stabbing to make a hole with his knife.

As I stand there, weapons ready, I can't keep my mind from returning to Nolan. He was one of the last remaining members of my family. He wasn't actually blood-related but that didn't change anything. I replay the events of the Cornucopia in my mind. Finnick blocking the spear that Brutus threw to save Peeta and then Enobaria throwing a knife at Peeta and Nolan shoving Peeta out of the way and taking the knife. I should have done something. I should have been the one to save Peeta because at least then Nolan would still be alive. I feel the tears start to form in my eyes and I know that I'm not good at standing guard while I'm in tears so I shove the emotion deep down.

"Katniss, got that spile?" Finnick asks, snapping me back to reality. I watch as Katniss cuts the vine that ties the spile to her belt and holds the metal tube out to him.

That's when I hear the scream. So full of fear and pain it ices my blood. Katniss seems to know instantly who it belongs to as she drops the spile and takes off into the jungle. I glance over at Finnick as he stands up from the tree and we run after her.

We run for what seems like minutes before he finds Katniss in the clearing staring up at the trees and then wiping her arrow clean with some moss. "Katniss?" I call out.

"It's okay. I'm okay," she says. "I thought I heard my sister but —" The piercing shriek cuts her off. It's another voice, a young woman's. I recognize it because I've hung out with her when I'm with Finnick. Annie. I see the color vanish from Finnick's face and I actually see the pupils dilate in fear. "Finnick, wait!" Katniss says, reaching out to reassure him, but he's bolted away. I chase after him, knowing that he is fearing for his friend's safety.

It's no effort to track him, even though he's moving so fast since he leaves a clear, trampled path in his wake. But the bird is at least a quarter-mile, most of it uphill, and by the time I reach him, I'm winded. He's circling around a giant tree. The trunk must be four feet in diameter and the limbs don't even begin until twenty feet up. The woman's shrieks emanate from somewhere in the foliage. Finnick's screaming as well, over and over. "Annie! Annie!" He's in a state of panic and completely unreachable.

I doubt that she would actually be in the arena, but they had to get the sound from somewhere. I find myself panicking as well. I see Katniss start to scale a tree adjacent to the one that we stand under and a few seconds later a bird falls down by Finnick's feet. Jabberjay's, of course.

Finnick picks up the bird, slowly making the connection, but when Katniss joins us on the ground again he looks more despairing than ever.

"It's all right, Finnick. It's just a jabberjay. They're playing a trick on us," Katniss tells us. "It's not real. It's not Annie."

"No, it's not Annie. But the voice was hers. Jabberjays mimic what they hear. Where did they get those screams, Katniss?" he says.

I feel my own cheeks grow pale as I understand his meaning. "Oh, Finnick, you don't think they..."

"Yes. I do. That's exactly what I think," he says.

I then hear the pained screams of an older woman and instantly I feel dread. I look up at Finnick in fear. "That's Willow," I whisper, unable to find my voice.

The thought of something happening to her terrifies me. She is the only person I have left aside from Finnick. The image of Willow in a white room, strapped to a table, while masked, robed figures elicit those sounds from her. Somewhere they are torturing her or did torture her, to get those sounds. My knees turn to water and I sink to the ground. Finnick is trying to tell me something but I can't hear him.

"It's not her." He says. And as I stand up another bird sounds somewhere off to my left. Finnick catches Katniss's arm before she can runoff. He pulls us downhill, toward the beach. "We're getting out of here!" Katniss still tries to resist as I try to tune it out. "It's not him, Katniss! It's a mutt!" Finnick shouts at her. "Come on!" He moves us along.

This must be another weapon of the clock. Four o'clock, I guess. When the hands tick-tock onto the four, the monkeys go home and the jabberjays come out to play. Finnick is right — getting out of here is the only thing to do.

I catch sight of Peeta and Johanna standing at the tree line and I'm filled with relief. I wonder why none of them came after us. Even now they hang back, Peeta has his hands raised, palms toward us, lips moving but no words reaching us.

The wall is so transparent, that Finnick, Katniss, and I run smack into it and bounce back onto the jungle floor. I'm lucky. My shoulder took the worst of the impact, whereas Finnick hit face first and now his nose is gushing blood. This is why Peeta and Johanna and even Beetee, who I see sadly shaking his head behind them, have not come to our aid. An invisible barrier blocks the area in front of us. It's not a force field. You can touch the hard, smooth surface all you like. But Peeta's knife and Johanna's ax can't make a dent in it. I know without checking more than a few feet to one side, that it encloses the entire four-to-five o'clock wedge. That we will be trapped like rats until the hour passes.

Peeta pressed his hand against the surface and Katniss puts up her own to meet it. Then the birds begin to arrive. One by one. Perching in the surrounding branches. And a carefully orchestrated chorus of horror begins to spill out of their mouths. Finnick gives up at once, hunching on the ground, clenching his hands over his ears as if he's trying to crush its skull. But I'm not better. I lay against the barrier with my own hands over my ears and shut my eyes as tears fall down my face.

I know its stopped when I feel Johanna place her hand on my shoulder and sit me up. She sits down beside me and lets me cry.

"You heard Prim. Right in the beginning. But it wasn't her," Peeta says. "It was a jabberjay."

"It was her. Somewhere. The jabberjays just recorded it," Katniss says.

"No, that's what they want you to think. The same way I wondered if Glimmer's eyes were in that mutt last year. But those weren't Glimmer's eyes. And that wasn't Prim's voice. Or if it was, they took it from an interview or something and distorted the sound. Made it say whatever she was saying."

"No, they were torturing her," Katniss answers. "She's probably dead."

"Katniss, Prim isn't dead. How could they kill Prim? We're almost down to the final eight of us. And what happens then?" Peeta says.

"Seven more of us die."

"No, back home. What happens when they reach the final eight tributes in the Games?" He lifts her chin to look at him.

"They interview your family and friends back home."

"That's right," says Peeta. "They interview your family and friends. And can they do that if they've killed them all?"

"No?" she asks unsure.

"No. That's how we know Prim is alive. She'll be the first one they interview, won't she?" he asks.

I want to believe him that this is all some terrible trick, but the sound of Willow's voice still plays in my mind.

"You really believe that?" I ask.

"I really do," says Peeta. He looks over at me. "And they wouldn't kill Willow, everyone in the Capitol still loves her. Plus she's your mentor and she is needed."

I give him a grateful look and then I turn to Finnick. "Do you believe it Finnick?"

"It could be true. I don't know," he says. "Could they do that Beetee? Take someone's regular voice and make it..."

"Oh, yes. It's not even that difficult, Finnick. Our children learn a similar technique in school," says Beetee.

"Of course Peeta's right. The whole country adores Katniss's little sister. If they really killed her like this, they'd probably have an uprising on their hands," says Johanna flatly. "Don't want that, do they?" She throws back her head and shouts, "Whole country in rebellion? Wouldn't want anything like that!"

I smile at Johanna, she has no fear of the Capitol, not anymore. I watch as she picks up some shells and walks towards the jungle. "I'm getting water," she says.

Katniss reaches out and catches her hand as she passes her. "Don't go in there. The birds —" Katniss starts but by now the birds must be gone.

"They can't hurt me. I'm not like the rest of you. There's no one left I love," Johanna says, and she frees her hand with an impatient shake. I look up sadly at her. I remember after her games she was seventeen and from the way that the citizens of the Capitol looked at her I knew what would happen if she won. A part of me wished that she didn't just she didn't have to suffer the same fate as Finnick and I do. But she did win and she refused. Snow had everyone she cared about killed. I admired her standing her ground, but I wonder if she regrets her decision.

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Hey guys, thank you guys so much for reading this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it and if you did then don't forget to vote and comment.

I am fixing to go to a twenty one pilots concert so I won't be able to write in a few days but I hope that when I get back I will be able to write since I'll probably have the post concert depression and not want to do anything.

Anyways thanks for reading and thanks for 6.81k reads on this book and 195 votes and for 28.3k reads on the first book and 771 votes it really does mean so much to me.

So after this chapter there is only three left in this book. I had hoped to have more of the third book written before I finished this book but I have had some major writers block.