Lethal Charm - THG [1]

17

Katniss and Peeta sat away from the others on the beach, it was beginning to get dark.

Knox, Beetee, Johanna and Finnick had secretly discussed the real plan. Each person's instructions were whispered almost inaudibly in their ear so that the cameras and microphones didn't pick up what they were saying.

Peeta And Finnick were going to stay with Beetee at the tree and the shock from the lightning was going to disable their trackers.

Johanna and Knox were going to go with Katniss and take the wire down to the beach and they were going to cut out Katniss's tracker and then cut out their own.

The real plan had been made before they had even stepped foot in the arena with Plutarch and Haymitch.

As they waited for nightfall in the arena, Haymitch and Plutarch were preparing outside to get them out.

"All right, lovebirds!" Johanna called out to Katniss and Peeta when it was time to leave.

The group hastily made their way through the jungle towards the lightning tree with the coil.

The Panem anthem played, making them stop as the sky lit up with an image of the fallen tributes.

Cashmere's face faded out and Gloss's appeared before fading away and into Wiress's which faded into Mags then the girl from 5, the Morphling, Blight, Enoch and then Chaff before the sky went dark again and the music stopped.

Now that the sky was clear again they continued their journey to the lightning tree.

The jungle around them was almost silent apart from the occasional cricket chirping or the crunch of the leaves under their feet.

They came to a stop in front of the huge tree, "Minimal charring." examined Beetee, "it's an impressive conductor. Let's get started."

They all followed Beetee towards the tree and helped him with wrapping the copper wire around the trunk.

"Typically a lightning strike contains five billion joules of energy." Beetee told them, "We don't want to be anywhere near in the vicinity when this hits." He finished wrapping the wire around the three. "You three girls go together now." He said handing the coil to Katniss, "Take this. Unspool it carefully. Make sure the entire coil is in the water. You understand?" They nodded, "Then head to the tree at the 2:00 sector. We'll meet you there."

"I'm gonna go with them as a guard." said Peeta, making Knox raise her eyebrows. "We don't need a guard," she said.

"No, no, no." Beetee shook his head, "You're staying here to protect me." he told him. "And the tree."

"No, I need to go with her." Peeta insisted.

"There are two careers out there. I need two guards." argued Beetee.

"Finnick can protect you just fine on his own," said Peeta, "or Knox could stay with you instead,"

"Why can't finnick, Knox and Johanna stay with you and Peeta and I'll take the coil?" Katniss asked.

Knox and Johana shared a look, signaling that they understood what Peeta and Katniss were trying to do; They were trying to leave and be on their own. Knox didn't blame them really, from their point of view once the careers were dead they were next but that wasn't going to happen, they just didn't know it.

"You all agreed to keep me alive till midnight, correct?" asked Beetee.

"It's his plan." Johanna pointed out, "We all agreed to it."

"Is there a problem here?" asked Finnick. Knox crossed her arms over her chest,"'Cause there seems to be," she said.

"Excellent question." said Beetee.

"No." said Katniss, "There's no problem."

"Good to hear," said Knox.

Katniss walked over to Peeta and pressed a kiss to his lips, "I'll see you at midnight." she told him.

"All right, let's go!" said Johanna. Katniss, Knox and Johanna began to make their way back to the beach, Katniss carefully unpooling the coil as they went. Knox had one of her katanas in her hand just in case.

⚔️

The three young women climbed down over the rocks that they had climbed up around 20 minutes earlier.

"Come on." said Johanna, "I want to put as much distance between me and this beach as possible. Frying is not how I want to go."

"Yeah, me neither." Knox agreed.

Katniss stopped walking as the coil stopped unspooling, like it was stuck on something, "There's something..." she pulled on the coil and the wire snapped and Brutus and Enobaria appeared at the top of the rocks.

Knox picked up the coil and smacked Katniss across the back of her head with it, knocking her to the floor.Johanna and Knox crouched down out of sight of the careers. Johanna took out a small knife and kneeled down on the floor beside Katniss. She made a small incision on her arm and pulled out her tracker. Knox used the blade of her katana to make an incision on her own arm and remove the tracker, biting her tongue to muffle any noises of pain.

Katniss cried out in pain and Johanna placed her hands around the girl's neck, smearing blood all over her and making her look severely injured, "stay down." she whispered to Katniss.

Johanna stood and threw her axe at Brutus and Enobaria but missed them, Knox quickly handed her katana to Johanna who ran off in the opposite direction.

"I'll get 7. You get 10." Enobaria instructed. Enobaria ran out of sight as she followed Johanna further into the jungle.

Brutus threw his spear at Knox but she dodged it. She unsheathed her other katana and Brutus ran at her full force. He tackled her, making them both roll a small way down the rocky bank.

They stopped rolling and Knox's katana had slipped from her hand and lay just out of her reach. Brutus was on his back with Knox on top of him. They were both weaponless. She reared her fist and punched Brutus across the jaw, disorienting him so that she could move to grab her katana.

Just before she could reach it he grabbed her ankle and pulled her back towards him, she used her free leg to kick him in the stomach but this didn't seem to affect him much. Rocks and sticks scraped her back as he dragged her across the jungle floor.

He punched her in the face and there was a sickening crack of her nose breaking. She groaned in pain. He raised his fist to punch her again but she quickly moved her head to the side making him punch a rock that was under her head. She brought her knee up between his legs, kneeing him as hard as possible. He cried out in pain and she grabbed his shoulders and leaned up, headbutting him.

She pushed him back and stood up. She quickly grabbed her katana from the ground and ran him through making him gasp. Blood spewed from the wound as she twisted the sword before pulling it out. She stabbed him with the sword once more just in case he tried to get back up again but she didn't stick around for a cannon.

She left him there, turning back and heading in the direction of where she left Katniss but the girl was gone.