· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
▎ RUINS ▎
»»————-　act three. from the ashes
FIFTY ━━ all must end

please give away the end, tell me it is us

— perry poetry

DESPITE THE HER ACHING LIMBS AND THE SHEER EXHAUSTION COURSING THROUGH HER BODY. ERIN CAN'T FALL ASLEEP, tucked away  in a cold and damp corner with Finnick's head resting in the crook of her neck. She envies how easily the man can still fall asleep, even as a child, Erin couldn't fall asleep anywhere beside her own bed. When she was little, she used to share her room with Alex, the two sharing a rather large bed that was almost falling apart under their combined weight. And after the Games, even her own bed didn't feel as comfortable and safe as it used to. Maybe it was because she didn't share the space with her brother next to her anymore, or maybe it were the horror flashing behind closed eylids. But Finnick looked peaceful as he slept, mouth slightly parted and breathing evenly.

"Katniss, it's yout watch." Lieutenant Jackson whispered softly, passing the raven haired woman on her way to get some rest too. She nodded silently, gathering her gear and started to carefully creep around the sleeping bodies of her team until she reached the opening that led back into the lower part of the sewer.

"Hey." Erin greeted softly, her own eyes already looking outside the round hole in the wall.

"Hey..." Katniss  blinked in surprise not expecting anyone else to be up. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Probably." Erin sighs, eyes traveling back to her sleeping husband nestled in her side and she laced her fingers through his. "Sleep doesn't come that easily anymore, but you know all about that."

Katniss doesn't reply to her and instead focuses her gaze outside their little hideout but she is quickly distracted by a seemingly sleeping Peeta across from her.

"You know," Erin starts again, "The two of you will get through this. You two have been through so much together and stayed by each other's sides. When this is all over, the two of you deserve to finally be happy." She says earnestly.

Katniss debates her next words carefully, and hesitates momuntarily and Erin can see the struggle in the younger woman's eyes as clear as day.

"I never deserved him." She admits after a moment, finally looking away from Peeta to look at Erin. "I never gave him a second look back at twelve. Couldn't care less about the baker's son who gave me a piece of bread that he shouldn't have given.

Erin watches carefully as she talks softly, hands interlaced in front of her with teary eyes.

"All I ever did was cause him pain."

"No," Erin shakes her head, a small smile gracing her lips, "Snow gave him pain, you Katniss, you gave him love. And he knew that you loved him, just as much as he loved you."

Subconsioucly she squeezes Finnick's hands tighter, "And take it from someone who knows, being loved it can cause lots of pain, and everyone has the potential to hurt you, all you can do is pick someone worth the pain, because the love that can come with it—it's the most rewarding thing there is."

"Thank you."

Erin just smiles kindly at the girl, before finally closing her eyes and hopefully drift of to sleep this time only to hear Peeta stir from next to Finnick. She knows he will notice Katniss across from him in a matter of seconds, but for some reason, she knows this moment is exactly what he and Katniss need.

    "You know, The Capitol, they used tracker jacker venom on me," Peeta announces quietly, brown eyes flickering up to meet the ones across from him as Katniss turns to face him "That's what the doctors in Thirteen said. You were stung once, too. Real or not real?"  

"Real," Katniss replies calmly.  

"When they used the venom on me, they would show me pictures of my life." Peeta continues, his voice sounding almost breathless. "But some weren't real. They changed them. At first, they all—they all blurred together. But now... now I can sort them out a little. Like the ones that they changed, they have this quality," He pauses, trying to find the right words. "it's like they're shiny. They've been glossed over." 

"You should get some rest," Katniss says softly, noticing his exhausted expression.  

Erin opens her eyes again, but remains quiet as she watches the two and her eyes soften as she looks at Peeta.

"You're still trying to protect me," Peeta whispers unsure, clearly confused by the fact that Katniss could still posisble care so much."Real or not real?" 

"Real." Katniss does not hesitate as she looks him in the eye, before elaborating. "That's what you and I do. Keep each other alive." 

Erin smiles at that and the exhaustion of the day finally takes it toles as her eyelids slowly close, giving away to a dark oblivion.

· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽

SUDDEN MOVEMENT AND LOUD SHUFFLING BRINGS ERIN BACK TO CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE PANIC THAT IS ERUPTING AROUND HER JUMPSTARTS HER INTO GEAR QUICKER THAN ANYONE CAN BLINK, she is on her feet in a matter of seconds, katana handle gripped tightly in her right hand as she stands beside Finnick who is holding his own weapon up.

She can see Katniss standing just oustide in the sewer, the Holo hold out in front of her, but what catches her attention quickly is something more unsettling. Loud screeches echo throughout the small passageways, bouncing on the concrete wall and fear creeps into her heart. "What the hell is that." She shouts out, heart hammering in her throat as her eyes dart nervously around their group.

"We gotta go. We gotta get outta here now." Peeta states loudly, and clearly on edge as he gazes at Katniss in worry and he pushes himself up to his feet.

"Keep your voice down." Gale snaps as he advances forward to look outside the round hole and into the dark sewer, crossbrow already raised.

"They released mutts!" Peeta continued nontheless, voice raising even higher and Erin breath hitches in her throat.

"Pollux, what's the fastest way out?" Katniss calls out from where she stands and the man quickly jumps to his feet to join Katniss and lead them away.

  "Come on, go, go, go," Jackson bark out the order to the squad, rushing them all out of the room and into the open halllway.  

Once they all were back into formation they slowly started to move forward, only the sound of dripping water filling the corridor before Gale raised his crossbow and shot a flaming arrow, giving them some sort of brighter light source than the small flashlights they all head.

Erin swallowed, watching the end of the tunnel become illuminated by fire and her heart started to race inside her chest, a feeling of complete dread filling her as she looked up at Finnick before they started to advance once again, her grip on her katana only becoming more forcefull with every corner they rounded.

They finally reached the end of the tunnel, and Erin prayed they were almost outside this godforsaken sewer. A small opening in the wall was hopefully the last obstacle between them and the outside world.

Pollux was the first to crawl through the tight space to make sure the area was secure for them to continue. Erin watched nervously as the man waved his flashlight around, inspecting the room before looking back at them and signaling for them to wait as he turned the corner.

Her breathing started to grow heavier as the seconds ticked by, and she exchanged a nervous glance with Jackson who stood behind her, flashing her light down the tunnel anxiously.

Finally, Pollux returned, and a small sigh of relief fell from her lips when he signaled for everyone to join him on the otherside.

Erin watched nervously as Gale placed down his crossbow and slowly started to crawl through the small space while pushing his weapon forward. Even though Pollux told them it was safe, a nagging feeling in the back of her head kept telling her anything was going to jump out any second.

Slowly, but surely everyone made it across, leaving only Erin and Jackson on the other side of the tunnel. Exchanging a quick glance, the lieutenant motioned for her to go first, and with sweaty palms, Erin carefully crawled through the tight space before sliding out and pushing herself back to her full height.

The woman shined her flashlight behind her once more, before turning on her heel and the moment she bend down, from the darkness, a pale looking creature jumped out, digging it's claws in Jackson back and pulling her backwards.

A loud ear piercing scream left Erin's lips as she fell backwards when more mutts appeared, and the first one started to crawl through the tight space.

Erin hurriedly pushed herself backwards as an arrow flew over her head, causing a large explosion to blow up the wall.

She could feel Finnick's finger dig in her skin as her reached under her arm and pulled her up. Her eyes were blown wide in fear as the screams of their group echoed around, shouting to get moving as quickly as possible.

Everyone sprinted for their lives, water splashing all around them as the almost blindly ran through the tunnels with Castor yelling at his brother to lead them to safety and just as the reached an intersection, a groups of mutts came running at full speed from the right, latching on to Castor who screamed in agony as they teared him apart.

Erin's eyes widened at the sight and she and Finnick raised both their weapons while Cressida started to fire away with her gun just as Katniss fire another arrow, which caused a large explosion, giving them a couple seconds to get away again.

"Katniss, let's go! Move!" Erin screamed loudly, just barely slicing the head of one of the mutts off that was about to leap on top of her. "We have to go!"

Everything inside her body ached as the started to spint down the tunnel once more, every part of her body just begging for her to stop, but she only pushed herself harder to follow after Pollux, Peeta and Katniss, silently begging that Finnick was still running behind her.

Pollux turned a sharp left, and led them into a larger room, a ladder in the center of it, but it was surrounded by multiple other tunnel openings and within seconds the mutts came tumbing in the room screeching at them.

Erin felt all air leave her lungs when she was knocked over from behind and she tumbled across the metal walkway and when she finally stopped rolling the agonising pain of claws digging in her thigh made her let out a horrible scream. Her katana had long since slipped from her hands as the pale and slippery mutt came closer to her, mouth open and trying to devour her whole.

She could barely keep the thing away from her with her arms outstreched in front of her and digging into its skin. A loud and estranged scream left her lips as she lifted her legs and kicked the thing as harshly as she could.

By some miracle she managed to get it away from her and she quickly sprung to her feet and rushed towards her katana laying a couple feet away from her, but before she reached it, another mutt latched onto her legs, bringing her to the ground and her head smacked harshly against the metal of the floor. Blood ran down the side of her face in a steady stream, blinding her slight when it fell into her left eye. She squirmed as she tried to crawl forward but the thing kept pulling at her legs and she streched her arms, fingertips grazing the handle and with one finale leap she grabbed ahold of it and turned around as quick as she could and brought the sword down into the mutt's head.

It slumped, claws finally releasing the grip on her legs, whom were profoundly bleeding at this point but she bit through the pain as she looked around at the chaos around her, wiping the stream of blood off of het face with her sleeve before she saw Katniss pull herself from the water to rush towards Peeta's aid who was pinned down and left defenseless by another mutt.

But just as Katniss managed to slam against the thing, another took it's place and made the Girl On Fire back up against a wall.

A loud battle cry like scream fell from her lips as she sprinted across the walkway and towards her friend just as Finnick did the same, both victors slicing through the mutt and killing it. Back to back they turned towards the other creatures that started to surround them, when loud gunfire echoed throughtout the room and Cressida and her crew came barging through one of the openings in the room.

"Go, go— go!" The blonde shouted, pushing them towards the ladder in the middle of the room and everyone quickly listened to her orders and started to scale up the ladder.

Erin breathed heavily, arms tired from continuesly swinging the katana around and she looked around to see only herself, katnnis and Finnick still down here with the mutts.

She quickly pushed Katniss forwards towards the ladder, Finnick right behind her, heart hammering in her chest and adrenaline pumping through her veins as she watched Katnnis scale up the ladder before she latched onto the metal herself.

  "Erin!" She could only look over her shoulder for a split second, seeing the mutt leaping through the air, arms outstreched and ready the take her down when Finnick's trident came flying through the air, piercing through the pale skin of the creature as it dropped back into the water— leaving Finnick completely defenseless where he stood.

"Finnick!" Erin shouted terrified when another mutt leaped onto Finnick tackling him into the water and disappearing from her view. "Finnick!?"

An hand latched on to her arm, hauling her up despite her protests as she fought against Katniss' iron grip. "No let me go—Finnick!"

Erin watched with wide, panicked eyes from the top of the ladder, "Finnick!" The man finally appeared, fighting endlessly with the creatures that surrounded him. "Finnick come on!"

She watched as he scaled upwards, just out of her reach when another mutt leaped towards the blonde male, latching onto his back and digging his teeth in his shoulder. She felt completely helpless as the man struggled to hold on to the ladder and she reached behind her, grabbing ahold of the katana that had gotten her out of so many sticky situations before.

She held it out in front of her, both hands latched onto the white handle, "Please" She whispered under her breath before throwin it down with all her might.

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soo... that happened 🤡