[the hunger games series: catching fire]
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"Get up!" Cameron heard a voice bark as Katniss shook her awake. "Get up- we have to move," she continued. Cameron grumbled as she dragged herself to her feet. The girl snatched her crossbow from the edge of the shore as Katniss went to wake Wiress and Beetee.
"Tick, tock!" Wiress shouted in a panicked voice as Katniss tapped her on the shoulder.
The girl on fire nodded. "Yes, tick, tock," Cameron heard her say. "The arena's a clock. It's a clock. Wiress, you were right. You were right."
Cameron raised her brow as she leaned over to Johanna. "Do you have any idea what they're talking about?" she asked in a hushed voice, nodding towards Katniss and Wiress.
Johanna's eyes floated over to the pair, shaking her head slowly. "I don't know and I don't care," she stated.
"Fair enough," Cameron replied as the two joined the rest of the group.
Beetee still wasn't doing good, his injuries still seemed to be getting the better of him. "Wire," he stated, shoving Peeta away from him as he tried to pick the older tribute up.
Peeta nodded, "She's right here. Wiress is fine. She's coming too," he told the man.
Beetee kept shoving the boy's hand away. "Wire," he objected in a stern voice.
Johanna rolled her eyes, "Oh, I know what he wants," she said, strolling across the beach and picking up a stranger cylinder from the belt of Beetee's old jumpsuit. It was still covered in his blood. "This worthless thing. It's some kind of wire or something," she explained. "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?"
Cameron scoffed, studying the piece of bloody wire in Johanna's hand. "He really risked his life for a piece of wire?" she asked. Johanna raised her eyebrows at the girl. They both knew what game they were playing. They needed to place dumb in order to win over Katniss. There was no doubt in Cameron's mind that Beetee was planning on using that wire to get them out of the arena. She just didn't know how.
"He won his Games with the wire," Peeta said. "Setting up that electrical trap. It's the best weapon he could have."
"Seems like you'd have that figured out," Katniss said, staring directly at Johanna. "Since you nicknamed him 'Volts' in all."
Johanna narrowed her eyes at Katniss. "Yeah, that was really stupid of me, wasn't it?" she said sarcastically. "I guess I must have been distracted by keeping your little friends alive. While you were- what, again? Getting Mags and Mitch killed off?"
Cameron felt her jaw tighten but she didn't say anything, she knew better than to challenge Johanna. Plus, she knew that Finnick would scold her again if she snapped and killed another tribute. Apparently, Katniss did not as the girl's hand wrapped around the knife in her belt. "Go ahead. Try it," Johanna said dangerously. "I don't care if you are knocked up, I'll rip your throat out."
"Maybe, we had all better be careful where we step," Finnick suggested, shooting Katniss a careful look. He grabbed the cylinder from Johanna's hand and pressed it against Beetee's chest. "There's your wire, Volts. Watch where you plug it in."
Peeta was now able to pick up Beetee without any complications, carrying the man in his arms. He gazed around at the group, "Where to?"
"I'd like to go to the Cornucopia and watch," Finnick stated. "Just to watch sure we're right about the clock."
Cameron furrowed her brows, a little frustrated that she was out of the loop. Maybe it was because Finnick couldn't trust her, Cameron wasn't too sure why. She risked her life to participate in their little plan to get Katniss out of the arena, so why would that ice her out now? She grumbled under her breath as she trailed behind the rest of the group. Finnick was leading the group, trying to force them to take the path that would keep them hidden from the other tributes. Cameron thought it was pointless, most of them were bound to die anyway, so why were they trying to hide now?
The first thing that Peeta did when they reached the Cornucopia was lay Beetee down in a small section of shade. He looks over at Wiress. "Clean it, will you?" he asked, passing the woman the wire.
The woman nodded, scooping up the wire and dunking it into the water. She began to mutter a song under her breath, something about a mouse running up a clock.
Johanna groaned. "Oh, not the song again," she complained. "That went on for hours before she started tick-tocking."
Wiress stood straight up, pointing to a small section of the jungle. "Two!" she stated.
Katniss nodded, trying to get the group's attention. "Yes, look, Wiress is right. It's two o'clock," she stated. "And the fog has started."
Cameron followed her finger to where Wiress was pointing. Her eyes widened, watching as a wall of poisonous fog began to spill out onto the beach. "Oh," she mumbled, the gears in her brain beginning to turn, watching as the fog began to fill into a shape, kind of like a cone. "Oh! Clock," she stated, her eyes snapping toward Finnick. "That's the clock you've been referring to!" Finnick raised his brow at her.
"Took you long enough," he commented.
"It's like clockwork," Peeta clarified. "You were very smart to figure that out, Wiress."
"Oh, she's more than smart," Beetee chimed in, causing the group to glance at him. "She's intuitive. She can sense things before anyone else. Like a canary in one of your coal mines," he finished, giving Katniss a small nod.
Cameron watched as Finnick's brows furrowed. "What's that?" he asked Katniss.
"It's a bird that we take down into the mines to warn us if there's bad air," she explained.
"What's it do, die?" Johanna asked.
"It stops singing first," Katniss started. "That's when you should get out. But if the air's too bad, it dies, yes. And so do you."
Cameron cleared her throat. "That's a morbid note to end on, thank you, for that," she said sarcastically as she began to wash the tips of her arrows off in the salt water. It seemed that everyone in the group seemed to find some sort of rhythm at the Cornucopia. Wiress continued to wash Beetee's wire as she sang her little song about the mouse. Finnick and Johanna began to collect more weapons for the group. Cameron eyed Finnick carefully as he passed her another sneath of arrows. "Aren't you worried I'm gonna, you know, fuck shit up with these?" she asked, bitterness coding every word she spoke.
"I think you need to have a little faith in me, Cam," he told her. "I'm not an asshole. Be careful," he reminded the girl.
Cameron nodded, pursing her lips as she accepted Finnick's gift. "Thanks, I guess," she replied, going back to her cleaning.
"Don't mention it," Finnick said, before turning on his heel and resuming his action of collecting tridents and axes, basically any leftover weapon that wasn't grabbed in the initial bloodbath.
Cameron's eyes floated over to Katniss and Peeta, who seemed to be engaged in a conversation. She bit her lip, trying to see if she could make out any of the words that they were saying, she couldn't. Finnick and Johanna seemed to do the same thing, studying the pair carefully. No one knew who was going to move first, but whatever Katniss and Peeta were talking about, seemed to be important.
Johanna was the first to break the waiting game, strolling over to the lovebirds quickly. Cameron looked up at Finnick, who gestured for her to join them as they crowded around Peeta and Katniss. "Twelve to one is the lightning zone," Cameron heard Peeta explain as he drew a small circle in the sand.
"And ten to eleven is the wave," Katniss pointed out as Peeta began to add little words to each section of the circle.
Katniss turned to Johanna and Beete. "Did you notice anything unusual in the others?"
"Nope, just the blood," Johanna responded.
Katniss sighed, "I guess they can hold anything," she expressed.
"I'm going to mark the ones where we know the Gamemakers' weapon follows us out past the jungle, so we'll stay clear of those," Peeta decided, drawing diagonal lines in the sections labeled 'fog' and 'beach waves'. He bit his lip, looking down at his unfinished map. "Well, it's a lot more than we knew this morning, anyway."
Snap.
Cameron's head turned toward the direction of the noise and immediately grabbed onto the arrow at her side, but it was too late. Wiress had fallen to the ground, a large slit across her throat. A soaked Gloss stood over the woman, a wicked smile spreading across his face.
The group immediately sprung into action, Cameron didn't bother to see how many enemies they were facing, and honestly, she didn't really care because her gaze seemed to be focused on one woman in the middle of the Cornucopia: Amiria Ihu. She was there when Cameron killed Greenwood, and she must've been there when Greenwood killed Mitchell. The girl was filled with a certain rage that began to pump through her veins. Ihu needed to be next. That woman needed to die.
Cameron grabbed her crossbow from her belt and immediately loaded an arrow into the contraption. When she looked back up, the woman was gone. She whirled around, her finger ready to pull back on the trigger when she saw the woman. A few seconds passed before Cameron felt it, searing pain in the lower back. She wasn't sure if the girl had stabbed her, or just made contact with her skin, but whatever she did hurt like hell. Cameron groaned, her crossbow falling to the ground. Cameron was about to react when she felt a tight rope around her neck.
"You really thought you could kill my mate and think I wouldn't find out about it?" Amiria asked, brushing a section of Cameron's blonde hair out of the way so she could whisper in her ear. "Carnett deserved to die, and so do you," she spat.
Cameron began to struggle against the girl's grip, kicking, flailing her arms around, doing anything to try and loosen the rope around her neck, but it wasn't working. She wasn't sure how much time she had left, but she seemed to accept her fate. She was going to die. This was her time to go. Maybe she would be able to see Mitch again, apologize for not being able to save him, or Mags, or Wiress... She felt her fingers go numb and her vision began to get blurry, she could barely make out the battle that was going on in front of her.
"I'm gonna watch the life drain from your eyes as you-" Amiria started but her voice was cut off. Cameron began to cough as she regained feeling in her fingers and toes. She immediately spun around, gasping for air as Amiria's body fell to the ground, revealing the man standing behind her.
Finnick Odair.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Cameron wasn't sure who else was dead, but she knew that she didn't have to worry about Amiria anymore.
"A 'thank you' would suffice," Finnick said, removing his trident from Amiria's back. "I did save your life after all."
"Thank you," Cameron said sassily.
Finnick didn't have time to give the girl a snarky response as the platform they were standing on began to spin rapidly, Cameron planted her feet on the rock-hard ground, trying to keep herself stable as the world around her rotated. She felt like she was going to puke, she was no idea what was going on and found herself trying to grip onto any open land that save her from slipping into the salt water.
Cameron couldn't tell if she was dizzy from the lack of air, or from the spinning cornucopia, but when the rotating stopped she found herself limping toward Peeta, Johanna, and Finnick. She looked down quickly, and whatever map Peeta had drawn in the sand had disappeared.
"Oh, fuck off!" Cameron exclaimed, throwing her middle finger up at the sky. The Capitol, game makers, and whoever was behind this entire mindfuck, thought they knew too much, and they needed to get rid of the evidence, screwing them over. Yet again. "Bitches," she mumbled under her breath, kicking an arrow into the water.
"Where's Volts?" Johanna asked, looking around the cornucopia for Beetee. Finnick nodded towards the water, looking at the man who was struggling to stay afloat.
Finnick sighed, tossing his trident to the side. "Stay here, I'll get him," he told the rest of the group before diving into the water, swimming out to get the other tribute.
Katniss decided to dive into the water and try to find Beetee's wire, which seemed to be one of the only things Beetee cared about besides Wiress, who was now dead, and the plan to get Katniss and the rest of the tributes the hell out of there. Cameron took a deep breath in, beginning to collect the rest of the arrows that were scattered on the ground, deciding to split them up between herself and Katniss. Cameron wasn't sure how many tributes were left beside the six of them, but if they didn't get out of the arena soon, it wouldn't end well for the group.
Cameron passed Katniss a pile of arrows once she had returned to the rest of the group. "Thank you," she said, sticking them in the back of her sneath.
"Don't mention it," Cameron responded, straightening up to join the rest of the group. Finnick had managed to get Beetee to his feet, slinging the man's arm over his shoulder.
"Let's get off this stinking island," Johanna asserted, swinging her ax over her shoulder and allowing Finnick to lead the way once more. The group ended up deciding to try and settle at the edge of the twelve o'clock beach. They figured that it would give them enough cover and peace for the time being.
Peeta decided to try and figure out where they were. "Twelve o'clock, right?" Peeta asked, pointing right in front of him. "The tail points at twelve."
"Before they spun us," Finnick added. "I was judging by the sun."
"The sun only tells you it's going on four, Finnick," Katniss chimed in.
"I think Katniss' point is, knowing the time doesn't mean you necessarily know where four is on the clock. You might have a general idea of the direction. Unless you consider that they may have shifted the outer ring of the jungle as well," Beetee explained.
Cameron scrunched up her face in confusion. "Like, a combination lock?" she suggested. "There's the rotation of the outer ring, and then the rotation of the inner ring," she continued, looking over at Beetee. "You think they might've moved both?" she questioned.
"It's a possibility," Beetee replied.
"Right, so any one of these paths could lead to twelve o'clock," Katniss said, gesturing to paths in front of them.
The group decided to pace the outer ring of the Cornucopia, trying to determine if they could figure out which sector was which. But it seemed like the game maker's plan worked, they had lost their spot on the clock. Katniss seemed to be beating herself up about it. "I should have never mentioned the clock," she expressed. "Now they've taken that advantage away as well."
"Only temporarily," Beetee reminded her. "At ten, we'll see the wave again and be back on track."
"Yes, they can't redesign the whole arena," Peeta reasoned.
"But they can keep confusing us," Cameron added. "Or we could get picked off one by one because of the remaining careers, or those fucking monkeys could kill us, or-" she looked up, feeling a hand on her shoulder.
"I think they get it," Finnick said. Cameron narrowed her eyes, brushing his hand off her shoulder silently.
Johanna pursed her lips. "It doesn't matter," she said, referring to the comment that Peeta made. "You had to tell us or we never would have moved our camp in the first place, brainless," she snapped, looking back at Katniss, who seemed to agree with the woman, for once. "Come on, I need water. Anyone else have a good gut feeling?" she asked, looking at the paths ahead of them.
The group didn't have time to stand around and logically figure out what path to choose, so they just headed down the path nearest them, stopping at the edge of the jungle.
"Well, it must be monkey hour, and I don't see any of them," Peeta reasoned, peering through the gaps in the trees. "I'm going to try and tap a tree."
Finnick shook his head, "No, it's my turn," he decided.
"I'll at least watch your back," Peeta continued.
"Katniss can do that," Johanna decided. "We need you to make another map. The other one washed away, and I don't think Cameron here is a great artist," she said.
"She's right," Cameron insisted. "Katniss and Finnick will get the water, while you draw the map. No doubt Johanna and I can find some way to assist you."
Peeta looked a little hesitant about leaving Katniss, but he eventually agree to the plan. He sat down at the edge of the beach, took the large leaf from Johanna's hand, and began to draw in the sand. Cameron found herself pacing around the edge of the jungles, she wanted to make sure that the careers, or what was left of them, didn't come after the group on the beach. She hoped that the group in the jungle could take care of themselves, Katniss had Finnick after all, and it was clear to Cameron that Finnick would kill to keep his allies safe. Because he did that exact thing for her.
Maybe he did care for the girl...
Say you'll remember me,
standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset,
babe ☁︎
Grace talks ig: slayyyyyyyy. I actually really like this chapter and I ended up writing it in one sitting. It did take like four hours, but we don't mention that, we don't talk about that. We also don't talk about the fact that I haven't updated this in a long ass time, we don't mention that either. Ummm, I forgot how much I loved writing kodair scenes until I wrote them again and OMFG- I think I'm literally in love with them. Their dynamic is so fun and I can wait to explore it more in the future. Also, I wanted to thank y'all for the love you've shown this book. It literally just hit 7k reads today and that's absolutely insane. So, again, thank you for continuing to read this book (vote/comment if you want too) and I'll see y'all in the next update. BYEEEEE <3