Ember
"I should have never mentioned the clock," Katniss says bitterly. "Now they've taken that advantage away as well."
"Only temporarily," Beetee reassured her. "At ten, we'll see the wave and be back on track again."
"Yes, they can't redesign the whole arena," Peeta adds.
"It doesn't matter," Johanna says. "You had to tell us or we never would have moved our camp in the first place, brainless."
I give her a look and she rolls her eyes at my scolding. "Come on, I need water. Ember, you have a good gut feeling?"
We pick a path and take it, despite not knowing what number.
"Well it must be monkey hour. And I don't see any of them in there," Peeta starts. "I'm going to try to tap a tree."
"No, it's my turn," I say, trying to keep the boy out of the jungle.
"I'll at least watch your back," he argues.
Johanna, picking up on what I was trying to do, says, "Katniss can do that. We need you to make another map."
I can tell Katniss is suspicious, but she reluctantly follows me into the jungle. I find what I believe to be a good tree and begin drilling into it with a knife.
The girl is silent. Deep in thought.
"Katniss," I say, pulling her back to reality. "Do you have the spile?"
Still silent, she cuts the vine holding it and holds it out for me to take. But that's when we hear a bloodcurdling scream.
Immediately Katniss drops the piece of metal and runs wildly in the direction of the noise. "Prim!" She hollers out.
I follow a few feet behind her as she repeatedly cries out for her younger sister. "Prim! Prim!"
I'm trailing further and further behind her, but can still hear her and the screams from what sounds like her sister.
The screams abruptly stop as I push through the vines and into the middle of the clearing she was standing in.
"Katniss?" I ask.
"It's okay. I'm okay," she says. "I thought I heard my sister but-"
A piercing shriek cuts her off and I recognize the sound from anywhere.
"Wes!"
"Ember-wait!"
I bolt in the direction of my younger brother, not taking the time to question how he even got here. I'm running uphill, panting, but still pushing forward. I reach a giant tree that I believe he's stranded in.
"Wes! Wes!" I say in a panic.
His screams echo through the jungle.
"I've done everything you've asked!" I cry out to Snow.
Then, his screaming stops, something landing at my feet with a thud. I pick what looks to be a bird up and slowly make the connection.
"It's alright, Ember," Katniss says softly. "It's just a jabberjay. They're playing a trick on us."
"It's not real. It's not your...." Her voice trails off. "Wes"
While that may be true, it doesn't explain where his voice came from.
"No, it's not Wes. But the voice was his. Jabberjays mimic, where did they get those screams?" I question.
Her cheeks pale. "Ember, you don't think they...."
She can't get the rest of the sentence out before I say, "Yes. I do. It's exactly what I think."
Somewhere they must be torturing my innocent brother. I can feel tears prickling my waterline, but I fight them back. I will not let him see me cry.
Another bird starts up and when I don't recognize it, I know it must be for Katniss. I grab her arm and begin pulling her back down the hill.
"No! We're getting out of here," I say.
The girl struggles against me.
"It's not him, it's a mutt! Let's go!"
I half drag her until she stops fighting against me. The two of us don't stop running until we see Johanna, Peeta, and Finnick standing at the tree line.
Why didn't they come after us? This thought alone distracts me from the fact that I can see their lips moving, but hear no words.
Katniss and I suddenly smack into a transparent wall, bouncing back onto the jungle floor. My face took the worst hit, and I can feel the blood gushing from my nose already.
That's why. We're stuck.
I raise my head to see Finnick attempting to break it with his trident, to no avail. His lips start moving, but I'm unable to understand anything he's saying.
His hand presses against the wall and my shaky one reaches up to meet it. I squeeze my eyes shut, wishing more than anything that I could feel it.
The rest of the birds arrive, announcing their presence with excruciating screeches. I hunch over, my hands gripping at my ears while Katniss empties her arrows into them. Every time one drops, another replaces it.
She eventually gives up and curls up next to me. I can hear a mix of Wes, Finnick, Felix, and Haymitch in combination with the unfamiliar voices that I know must be for her.
The hour is long. No medicine will ever heal these wounds.
I know it's finally stopped when I feel hands on me. My hands remain clasped over my ears and my eyes are still squeezed shut, feeling too stiff to move.
"It's alright, Ember," Finnick whispers as he carries me through the tree line and back onto the beach.
I'm sitting with my back pressed against his front and my head craned far enough to be buried into his neck.
"I've done everything that he's asked."
He rubs my back as he says, "I know, you have."
I can hear Peeta to my left who's reminding Katniss of the family interviews for the final eight.
"It was a trick, Katniss. A horrible one. But we're the only ones who can be hurt by it. We're the ones in the Games. Not them," Peeta says.
"You really believe that?" She asks.
"I really do."
She glances over at me for confirmation. "Do you believe it, Ember?"
"It could be true," I say quietly. "They could take someone's voice and make it..."
Beetee picks up where I left off. "It's not difficult, Ember. Our children learn a similar technique in school."
But it sounded so real?
"Of course Peeta's right," Johanna scoffs. "The whole country adores Katniss's little sister. If they really killed her like this, they'd probably have an uprising on their hands."
She throws her head back and shouts, "Don't want that, do they? Whole country in rebellion? Wouldn't want anything like that!"
I'm not the least bit surprised by her outburst.
"I'm getting water," she says flatly.
Katniss catches her hand as she pasts. "Don't go in there. The birds-"
She pulls her hand from her grasp as she says, "They can't hurt me. I'm not like the rest of you."
Her eyes scan over Finnick and I. "There's no one left that I love."
And it's true. It's not unknown that Johanna is a problem Victor. When she won, Snow offered her the same deal he had Finnick and I. She refused and paid the price.
When she returns with water for Katniss and I, we both simply nod in thanks. Johanna was never one for empathy.
"Who did they use against Ember?" Peeta asks.
Katniss, who sits in his arms still, says, "Someone named Wes."
The name is unfamiliar to the pair.
"Her kid brother," Johanna informs them, dropping arrows at their feet.
"Why haven't we ever heard of him before?" Peeta inquires.
Johanna laughs sarcastically. "Wouldn't be much leverage if everyone knew about him, would it?"
I jump, a canon blast pulling me out of my inner turmoil.
A hovercraft appears in the six o'clock sector and the claw has to drop down repeatedly to pick up the pieces. Peeta scratches "JJ" and "Beast" onto his map.
I start to help Finnick weave another basket and net for fishing, but mine are not quite up to par with his. He glances over at my mess of knots, smiling, but doesn't comment on it.
"I know," I huff.
"Maybe you should go join Katniss and clean up," he suggests, politely telling me that I wasn't helping.
I mumble out a fine and sit at the edge of the water, not having the courage just yet to dunk myself in completely.
Katniss and I resort to cleaning fish to pass the time, until the sun sets and the moon takes its place.
When it's time to settle down and eat our meal, the anthem begins.
Cashmere.
Gloss.
Wiress.
Mags.
I subtly grab Finnick's hand.
Then his face.
My district partner.
Markus.
Finnick squeezes my hand in acknowledgement. Markus and I never really formed a connection, but, like Johanna had put it, he was from home.
Blight's face flashes, along with the man from 10.
I glance at Johanna who is trying to keep up her tough exterior.
I tip my head at her and her lips settle into a flat line. She turns her gaze towards the sand as she says, "They're really burning through us."
I let out a huff of air in agreement.
A parachute floats down that contains small, square shaped rolls from District Three. Three days.
"These are from your district, right, Beetee?" Peeta asks.
"Yes, from District Three," he says.
"How many are there?" Finnick asks, counting them and turning each one over in his hands. "Twenty-four."
Only twenty four more hours left in this arena.
"An even two dozen then?" Beetee asks.
"Twenty-four on the nose," he says. "How should we divide them?"
"Let's each have three, and whoever is still alive at breakfast can take a vote on the rest," Johanna says, ever so optimistically.
I'm surprised when Katniss joins me in laughing. Johanna, seeming pleased at the reaction, smirks at the two of us.