☆ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN! ☆
017. monkey business

|| MR. BRIGHTSIDE ||
❝Let me go, and I
just can't look it's
killing me, and
taking control.❞

➳➳

THE FIRST THING that welcomed me was pain, a red-hot pain that engulfed the entirety of me until I shouted out in a desperate attempt for it to stop. I felt like I was underwater- my ears were blocked and my mouth was filled with some kind of icy liquid as I tried to scream for someone to help me, even if it felt like the noise was only heard by my own amplified ears. It was overwhelming in its magnitude, and reminded me just why I had always found comfort in the coldest of days back at home. There was sweet relief enticing me in the form of the liquid that surround me as the heat began to get engulfed in shards of frozen band aids.

All at once the pain subsided from its great height only to be replaced with a pleasant calm. The feeling of being underwater left me when the calmness hit, it was enough to push that little bit more to open my eyes, even as the weight from what I was engulfed in suddenly left me too. It no longer felt like each eyelash was weighing down my whole head, and my hands were no longer kept upright by the very thing that pushed me into the ground.

The canopy of the jungle was out of focus; a blurry figure sat over me obscuring the sky while an array of colours danced around my line of sight until they twirled into oblivion. When I blinked, I realised that the light was what created such a show. It made leaves into fallen angels and made the grey sky look like it was a metropolis of wealth and fortune, and it made the figure look like an alien that was scanning me for spare parts. The figure slowly concentrated as I blinked one more, and then as I blinked again until I could see Katniss on top of me instead of a monster with my swords keeping her off the ground. She was using them as crutches as her chapped lips moved silently like I was watching her in mute.

Perhaps I had become deaf.

I would of asked her, or tried to make a sound so that I could test the theory that seemed to stem from worry, but my throat was dry and raw. The memory of what happened returned to me once I tried to speak; grief's familiar arms embraced me as I replayed the last seconds of Mags' life over and over again until I was sure I saw her in front of me. She looked more real then Katniss did, but she disappeared faster.

Or maybe she had simply waddled out of sight- all I wanted was to stand up.

Katniss could see it as I strained my neck, and again as I curled my hand into the soft dirt so that I had something to latch onto when I slowly brought myself up. When I went to place one foot on the ground, she clutched under my arm so that I didn't have to do so much work.

In the cloud of dizziness that surrounded me I could just about see Peeta and Finnick; both of whom were twitching horribly as they seemed to be recovering. I couldn't look at the man from District 4 without feeling sick, and I couldn't move without a spasm in my lower knee that almost made me fall again.

"What happened?" I groaned; my voice was pushed through with air instead of an actual noise. My skin felt soft when I clutched my hands to my arms- as if it had been made again after the mist had abused it so horribly.

"The water took away the blisters." Katniss explained as her own voice scratched. "I could do Peeta on my own but- Finnick's bigger."

She was showing a minute amount of pity for me, I hardly looked passed that and towards the water source we had stumbled upon as her mouth corners finally turned up a little. That must have been the liquid- the ice nipped at me still as I let myself dry in the jungle humidity.

Then I glanced at the boy from 4 as he wriggled from the pain; I couldn't leave him like that. There was no way that I could live with myself if I let him suffer.

My muscles felt like they were made of led, or something much more toxic as I took every single step in the small clearing we had literally stumbled apon. When I caught sight of the further half of his face I could see the blisters that made his face look wrinkled and destroyed, and then the burns that were creeping down his neck and under his own suit. It was as if the acid had painted his skin like a canvas; or like the world had finally decided that he was too pretty to still be untouched. I couldn't imagine being worse than how Finnick was as I looked over his body twitches.

"He still looks pretty." I muttered as I bent down beside his face. I didn't know that I said it out loud until Katniss inhaled what seemed to be a smile, or maybe she was inhaling the energy she needed to pick him off of the ground.

When he dragged him to the water it felt like it was miles away, even if it was barely a meter. And even then, I didn't have the energy or will to pull him into the water like I had been pulled in. It was Katniss that pushed his whole body under water.

I didn't seem to have the guts to do it.

Somehow Finnick managed to find my hand within the cloudy water when his head got pulled under. He gripped it tightly while he screamed, one long noise that stretched his crumbling blisters that much faster and made the green poison that much easier to get away from up till it turned into a single small wail. Then he began to swim around the small pond like a fish would, and I let myself take my hand back.

I let it stay close however as I watched him turn every couple of seconds, or as I tried to see a morsel of his face to make sure that he wasn't in a worse state. Peeta had been beside the pond as he gained his strength, and it seemed that he had finally found enough of it to talk as he also watched the man go by.

"I'm sorry about Mags." He tried his best to sound sincere.

He looked terrible- his blonde hair was muddy and weathered and his face had aged years in one night- but he was doing better than I thought he would be after what we had endured. He looked more alive in spirit than the rest of us, even if Peeta Mellark had been shocked and poisoned in the space of eight or so hours. Even then, he was the most content out of all of us.

"The Hunger Games ruins everything good in the world. It was going to happen eventually." I dismissed while Finnick turned to swim away again. Then, he dived a little further down before taking his next lap, only to swim the exact same route again. "She was too good."

My eyes burned like my body had as I glanced at the baker, only half sure that he could understand just how much the old woman had done.

"Where are my weapons?"

"I think they're still on the hill where Katniss put them." Peeta dismissed as he looked away from me and towards Finnick once more.

In all the green leaves of the jungle two metallic handles stood out like sore thumbs; even as a rain cloud seemed to form above my head to stop me from seeing anything clearly I caught the glint of them against the moonlight. It was like they had heard me ask for them, and appeared with the same amount of loyalty I would of expected from a dog instead of some inanimate objects. The sheath was placed elegantly beside them as well, as I strapped it back onto my back it's close fitting hug reminded me of one cut that didn't heal; there was something about it being so close to me that made my heart less messy when I glanced around the clearing again.

The raincloud lessened, and the grey feeling that accompanied it became distinctly white because of the strangely powerful sense of calm that took over me when I knew the blades were near again. The sun hadn't risen yet, but for a brief moment I felt as if dawn was near.

And then the night dragged me back into the daze I had been in before with a simple shuffle within the leaves.

The air was too still; I realised almost like an icy slap to the face that the jungle was too silent for the Hunger Games and for Snow's wicked games that he played so relentlessly. I expected there to be some kind of buzz, but the only actual sounds that I could hear after such a loud rustle was the hiss that came from between Finnick's teeth where he stood next to Katniss- his eyes were wide in horror.

When I turned back to where the sound came from, I realised just why.

I could feel a bead of sweat fall past my distorted eyebrows as I watched Finnick gesture for me to walk over to him as one of a dozen large monkey-like mutts slowly ripped through the plants behind him. They were monsters, with blue and grey fur that looked as thick as the wax in my ears and teeth as sharp as the trident that was pointed behind my shoulder. With each step I took their red noses wrinkled even more with their wide jaws open, and the silent growls got a little but louder.

It wasn't peaceful at all, and the momentary white had been dragged through the mud. I unsheathed my blades as quietly as I could; the mutt behind Finnick and its slowly building army that surround us all growled at me the second that I reached the middle ground the others had found. Well, almost everyone.

"Peeta." Katniss stopped the silent conversation Finnick was trying to have with me through his eyes with her crackling whispers. I assumed there was one behind me like there was one behind him- that was why I made sure not to turn my head to glance at the boy from 12 that must of left the pond just after I had.

"Yeah." Peeta spoke as loudly as usual as he filled up his canteen with the spiel. He was so unaware that he even lightly tapped his foot while he completed the task; each tap made me cringe a little bit more- the mutts seemed to take the noise as a countdown until their strike.

"Walk over here slowly." Katniss instructed, as the taps seemed to speed up.

A monkey screamed at Peeta when it heard the taps speed up, it's mouth curled back to reveal teo sets of the sharp fangs that I had only ever seen from the wolves they used in the arena. Simultaneously all the mutts began to screech as I slowly crept further towards Katniss with my blades raised ready for a fight. We were outnumbered in knives and in bodies, and we all knew it.

The only thing we had was intellect, but even that was almost lost on us.

The noise grew around us, each time Peeta spotted one more of them or as I tried despiratly to make a plan that could give us an edge another monkey began to chant. The snarling got to its loudest point as I reached for Finnick's wrist so that I could pull him flush against my back- I didn't even consider the dull ache it gave me as I savored one last full breath.

It only took a second for the first monkey to attack, and it seemed to start a chain reaction almost instantly.

From all angles the monkeys began to charge at us, their sharp teeth hitting against our weapons in an attempt to maul us to death in their thousands despite how thin are chances really were. The teeth were strong enough to rival the steel we were using, but ours were flexible enough to slice through their soft gums or down their deranged throats with the smallest change in angle. I swung on both sides with the same intent as Finnick stabbed forward on the other- even as I watched Katniss drag some of the pack away.

Another monkey jumped for me as I move to the left of Finnick; its teeth landed just an inch away from my shoulder as I stuck one of my blades through its forehead, the thick blood squirting unapologetically over my body as I pulled it free. I used the other blade to cut the second monkey from me before digging it into the next ones head.

We had been keeping them away, but the pile of bodies just gave the mutts the high ground they needed to jump over our heads.

Water grazed my ankle when I heard a splash come up from the pond. I didn't hesitate to run over to the water once I saw who had fallen, my blades were outstretched so that they sliced any animal in my way without me having to move my arms at all as I sent a breathless warning to the man behind me. Katniss was being held down by a single mutt that was drowning her beneath the surface with each passing snarl, it's large head slid off of it's shoulders as I sliced my left blade right through him.

The raven-haired girl didn't even get to catch her breath for a second before she gasped in horror at something behind her.

A mutt had lunged for Peeta on the other side of the small clearing. The thick fur obscured the outcome of the jump until a cannon rang out loudly; I didn't get to see anything but blood.

Katniss ran, but I was caught back by the claws of one of the creatures as it tangled itself up with my hair. Without having to glance back, I was set free when a thud ricocheted off of the tree the animal had been impaled onto.

I didn't gasp at how close Finnick's trident came to my head, or at how quickly he pulled me away from the next fatal hit. Instead I just pushed my arms out to slice open the monkey that had been trying to take a bite out of his leg, and then ran forward once more with the two from District.

It didn't occur to me to thank him for saving my life, and it didn't occur to him either. We didn't need to, as our hands ripped a path onto the sandy beach both of us knew that the other was grateful, and that we would probably have to do it again.

•••••••••••
2592 words.

Ooof this one had
to just come out
quick so I could
move on, but a cute
lil' ship fight scene
for y'all that are
getting Lornick
deprived.