Not after her kindness and everything he'd done for Peeta.
Livia considered maneuvering them into some kind of encounter with the Careers.
She was aware of how cold it was, but what were her options?
Now that they knew about the clock, they probably wouldn't die in the jungle, so someone was going to have to kill them in battle.
Because it was so repellent to think about, Livia's mind frantically tried to change topics, but the only thing that distracted her from her current situation was fantasizing about killing President Snow.
Not very pretty daydreams, she guessed, but very satisfying.
They walked down the nearest sand strip, approaching the Cornucopia with care- just in case the Careers were concealed there.
Livia doubted they were, only because they'd been on the beach for hours and there had been no sign of life.
The area was abandoned, as she expected- only the big golden horn and the picked-over pile of weapons remained.
When Peeta laid Beetee in the bit of shade the Cornucopia provided, he called out to Wiress.
She crouched beside him and he placed the coil of wire in her hands.
"Clean it, will you?" He asked.
Wiress nodded and scampered over to the water's edge, where she dunked the coil in the water.
She started quietly singing some funny little song, about a mouse running up a clock- It must've been for children, but it seemed to make her happy.
"Oh, not the song again", Johanna groaned, rolling her eyes, "That went on for hours before she started tick-tocking."
Suddenly Wiress stood up very straight and pointed to the jungle.
"Two." She stated.
Livia followed her finger to where the wall of fog had just begun to seep out onto the beach, "Yes, look, Wiress is right. It's two o'clock and the fog has started."
"Like clockwork", Peeta muttered , "You were very smart to figure that out, Wiress."
Wiress smiled and went back to singing and dunking her coil.
"Oh, she's more than smart", Beetee assured, "She's intuitive."
They all turned to look at Beetee, who seemed to be coming back to life.
"She can sense things before anyone else. Like a canary in one of your coal mines." He explained.
"What's that?" Finnick quizzed.
"It's a bird that they take down into the mines to warn if there's bad air." Livia explained, reiterating what Gale had once told her.
"What's it do, die?" Johanna asked.
"It stops singing first, I think. That's when you should get out. But if the air's too bad, it dies, yes. And so do you." Livia muttered.
Peeta glanced at her in awe because he, himself, didn't know of that and he'd lived his entire life in district twelve.
Livia only shrugged and the conversation died there.
So Livia began adding to her stock of weapons- even finding more stars.
Johanna joined her poking around until she came up with a pair of lethal-looking axes.
It seemed an odd choice until Livia watched her throw one with such force it stuck in the sun-softened gold of the Cornucopia.
}25{ - The Clock
Start from the beginning
