Catching Fire - Peeta Mellark (2)

}25{ - The Clock

"Wire." He mumbled.

"She's right here", Peeta told him, "Wiress is fine. She's coming, too."

But still Beetee still struggled.

"Wire." He insisted.

"Oh, I know what he wants", Johanna huffed impatiently as she crossed the beach and picked up the cylinder they took from his belt when they were bathing him- It was coated in a thick layer of congealed blood, "This worthless thing. It's some kind of wire or something. That's how he got cut. Running up to the Cornucopia to get this. I don't know what kind of weapon it's supposed to be. I guess you could pull off a piece and use it as a garrote or something. But really, can you imagine Beetee garroting somebody?"

"He won his Games with wire. Setting up that electrical trap", Peeta jeered, "It's the best weapon he could have."

There was something odd about Johanna not putting that together.

Something that didn't quite ring true.

Suspicious.

"Seems like you'd have figured that out", Livia quipped, "Since you nicknamed him Volts and all."

Johanna's eyes narrowed at Livia dangerously.

"Yeah, that was really stupid of me, wasn't it?", She spat, "I guess I must have been distracted by keeping your little friends alive. While you were...what, again? Trying to get everyone killed?"

Livia's fingers tightened on the knife handle at her belt.

"Go ahead. Try it. I don't care if you are knocked up, I'll rip your throat out." Johanna hissed.

And suddenly her view was blocked by Peeta.

"And I'll return the favor." Peeta snapped- letting the aggression he'd worked so hard to control, show to the new band of allies.

Just as fast as Peeta had moved in front of her, Livia brought a hand to her mouth before curling over and spilling her guts out into the sand.

She mustn't have drunk enough water because the heat was getting to her and instilled a ache of queasiness.

She stood back up straight, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Maybe we all had better be careful where we step", Finnick jeered without a second thought, shooting Livia a look. He took the coil and set it on Beetee's chest, "There's your wire, Volts. Watch where you plug it."

Peeta picked up the now-unresisting Beetee, "Where to?"

"I'd like to go to the Cornucopia and watch. Just to make sure we're right about the clock." Finnick explained.

It seemed as good a plan as any.

Besides, Livia wouldn't mind the chance of going over the weapons again- now that there were seven of them.

Counting Beetee and Wiress out, they still had five good fighters.

Livia had always hated the idea of allies- sure they made things easier, but you could only ignore the inevitable of killing them for so long.

Beetee and Wiress would probably find some way to die on their own.

If they had to run from something, how far would they get?

Johanna, frankly, Livia could easily kill if it came down to protecting Peeta- or maybe even just to shut her up.

What she really needed was for someone to take out Finnick and Leilani for her, since she didn't think she could do it personally.