A.N. Everyone go read my new story Real or Not real! Please let me know what you think!
As Beetee wraps the wire around the tree, I grip Peeta's hand tightly, dreading the moment I will have to let go. His hand is warm and comforting around my small one, but my nerves still soar and I can't help but feel something isn't right. "Peeta, are you sure about this? We could still leave."
He looks at me and nods. "We can run after the careers are gone." He whispers back.
"That is it." Beete says, while handing over the coil over wire to Joanna. "I want Katniss and you to take this wire and place it in the water. Go quickly and meet us at the tree in the two a clock area." Joanna nods her head and looks to me.
"You ready fireball?"
"Why can't Peeta and I take the wire, while Joanna and Finnick stay here." I ask.
Beetee shakes his head. "No, you two are the fastest and smallest people here. Peeta would not be fast enough on his prosthetic."
Anger fills me and I move closer to Beete pointing my finger. "You should know that Peeta is faster than me on his prosthetic. He isn't handicap."
"Katniss," Peeta warns me and pulls me back to him.
"Is there a problem?" Finnick asks, twirling his trident.
Peeta shakes his head and I follow his motion. "No, just give us a second."
"Katniss, you need to do this and do it quickly. As soon as the lighting hits the tree at midnight, you and I will be far away from the others. I'm going to get you home." He pauses and drops to his knees, burying his face in my swollen stomach. "Keep her safe, Katniss. I love you both." He whispers to my stomach and kisses it one last time before standing. He pulls me in for a final hug and kisses my lips, leaving me wishing for more. "I'll see you at midnight."
I nod my head and will myself not to cry. "I'll see you soon."
He release his grip on me and his arms drop limp at his side. I turn to face Joanna and give her a nod, running into the jungle behind her. I don't look back.
Johanna unrolls the wire while I guard, and we're weaving through the trees at a pretty fast pace. "Better hurry," Johanna says, her voice slightly breathless from the exertion. "I want to put a lot of distance between me and that water before the lightning hits. Just in case Volts miscalculated something."
"I'll take the coil for a while," I say. She's had a long turn anyway and it's more work to unwind the coil than it is to guard.
"Here."
Just as I take the coil, both of us feel a vibration run through the wire and then suddenly it goes slack. Johanna and I stare as the wire drops down from above and falls in curls around our wrists and at our feet. Then the end of the wire falls between us.
Someone above us cut the wire. Someone close to us cut the wire . . . and it wasn't any of our friends. It only takes a split second for me and Johanna to reach this conclusion. I'm reaching back to my quiver for an arrow when something hard and metal slams into my temple. The world immediately starts spinning and blurring as I crumple to the ground, dazed. My head is pounding, amplifying the excruciating pain in my skull. A warm, sticky substance drips down the side of my face. Blood.
But none of this explains why I'm having trouble breathing. I force my eyes to focus and am stunned when I see Johanna on top of me, her knees planted on my chest. Johanna? I see a blood spattered spool on the ground beside her. Johanna hit me? Why?
I knew I couldn't trust her, that untruthful lier. She said she was a rebel, that she was on my side. But she isn't, she's breaking the alliance.
Suddenly, I feel a sharp, stabbing pain in my forearm. I resist the urge to scream as Johanna twists the point of her knife into my flesh. It's like she's digging for something, carving into my arm. I try to jerk and twist away from her, but Johanna is much stronger than she looks, and I'm still too incapacitated from the blow to my head. There's a terrible ripping sensation in my arm that brings tears to my eyes and causes a warm flow of liquid to gush from my arm, coating my hand. Before I can blink, Johanna slides her hand down my arm, coating her hand with blood, and then smears it on half of my face.
"Stay down!" she hisses and then takes off running in the opposite direction.
I've just barely processed her words when I hear two sets of feet approaching. Unthinkingly, I close my eyes. "She's as good as dead!" It's Brutus. "Come on, Enobaria!"
Then I hear them thunder away, not bothering trying to remain unnoticed, in the same direction that Johanna went. What's going on? Why did Johanna turn on me? Betrayal stings in my chest as I think of the woman who has slowly been growing on me since reaching the Capitol. She seemed to be on my side.
I put my hand on the jagged cut to my forearm, ignoring the stinging pain that magnifies as I apply pressure to the wound. I reach for moss that hangs next to my head and wrap it around my wound, trying to keep from loosing too much blood. My head is fussy but there is only one thing on my mind, Peeta.
I have to warn Peeta.
But the second I'm on my feet, my world is spinning rapidly. Blood loss. The cut on my forearm is bleeding at a fantastic rate. Get back to Peeta. That's my only goal at the moment. Have he and Finnick seen the wire go slack? Do they have any clue about the deadly turn of events? Has Finnick turned on him?
I begin to stumble back up the slope, trying to move as fast as I can. But the world is still spinning, my vision is fading in and out, and the blood loss from the cut on my arm is quickly sucking all my energy. No doubt Johanna did irreparable damage to veins and arteries, not that she really had time to be exact about it.
I've barely gone fifty yards before I hear someone coming toward me a fast clip. Too fast to be Peeta or Beetee. Finnick, then. It must be. But just in case I grip the arrow loaded into my bow and duck behind a curtain of vines. Finnick flies by me, yelling, "Johanna! Katniss!"
I stay silent, hidden behind the vines. I watch as he sounds around, trying to find me. But he won't. This alliance is over.
Finnick hesitates for a second more before hurrying off in the direction Johanna went. I resume my trek up the slope at as fast as I can manage without the world spinning. Peeta. I have to get back to Peeta. It's this thought that fuels my legs to move a little faster. Find Peeta. Get back to Peeta.
I quickly become aware of another problem. How close is it to midnight? How much more time do I have? Half an hour? Maybe less?
I will my feet to move, but I've only gone twenty yards before they get caught up in a snag of vines. I fall on my face and struggle, flailing, trying to dislodge myself from the vines. But when the trapping foliage hits the moonlight, I see that it's not vines at all. It's a mess of the golden wire. Well, at least I'm not so disoriented that I'm on the wrong path. I free myself from the wire and then follow it uphill, staying the right side. If the lightning hits, anyone touching that wire is dead.
Midnight is fast approaching, I can feel it. Have the insects begun to fade? My mind is too consumed with getting back to the lightning tree, where Peeta and Beetee should be waiting. But when I finally make it to the little clearing, I only find Beetee lying prone on the ground. A pained moan escapes him as I collapse to my knees beside him.
"Beetee!" I hiss, but he doesn't answer me. I see a bloody gash on his arm. His arm has been cut into as well.
Beetee!" I call to him again. "Where's Peeta?"
A moan is all the answer I get, and I growl in frustration. I have a feeling that Peeta took off after me not too soon after Finnick. That overprotective fool. He should have stayed!
Beetee moans again and makes a weak gesture toward me. A knife is clutched in his hand, Peeta's knife, with Beetee's gold wire wrapped around it. I pick up the wire in my hand and see that it's tied to the tree. My brow furrows. What did Beetee try to do? My eyes find the force field in front of me, not even three paces from me. It's not invisible like the one in the Training Center that separated us from the Gamemakers. This one is more like a mirror, and from Peeta's encounter with it earlier, I know that the real world lies behind it.
How do I bring it down? What was Beetee's plan? Did he mean to send the lightning bolt's energy into the force field? The force field is mainly energy, right? Would the energy of the lightning bolt, combined with the existing energy of the force field, result in some kind of overload and cause the force field to collapse?
I have only minutes. Maybe less. And I'm not kidding myself into thinking that I can stay conscious that much longer. Blood is seeping from the moss covering the cut on my forearm. I'll pass out within minutes.
"Katniss!"
Peeta. It's Peeta. I hear him, trampling through the jungle, but he's far away from me. "Peeta!" I call as loud as I can, hoping to steer him back in the right direction. "Peeta, I'm here!"
"Katniss!" His footsteps change direction. He's moving back toward me.
"I'm here! I'm here!" I call again, hoping that he can keep on the right path.
And then a cannon sounds.
Who was it? Peeta? Johanna? Finnick? What about Chaff? Brutus or Enobaria? It could be anyone. Time is running out. Midnight is coming. The lightning is coming. Beetee is incapacitated and at the moment I'm the only way we're getting out of the arena.
If only I knew how.
Two feet reach my ears, and I look to my left to see Finnick. He's reached the lightning tree, but he can't see me high on the slope, camouflaged by the ointment. I have to bring down the force field. Running out of time. Running out of time.
Another cannon fires.
"Katniss!" Peeta hollers, and I want terribly to answer him, but I can't with Finnick here. I can still hear Peeta, though, plowing through the jungle. He's closer. He might make it to me.
My eyes find Beetee's knife, the golden wire wrapped around it. What was he trying to do? Minutes to midnight. Minutes until I black out from blood loss. What were you trying to do Beetee? I stare at the knife and then back to the force field.
And that's when I see the rippling square about fifteen feet above me. The flaw in the force field. The chink in the armor. The flaw in the system. And suddenly, it all clicks. I know what Beetee planned to do. The wire is the key, yes. And I now know its lock. The force field.
I remember the day in the Training Center, when Wiress and Beetee pointed out the squares in the force field. They were showing me, they showed me the flaw.
With trembling hands I slide the wire off the handle of the knife and wrap it just under the feathers of my arrow. Then I step out of my cover, fully revealing myself, but not caring. Seconds to midnight. I aim for the rippling square, and then let my arrow fly. I watch as my arrow and the wire connected to it disappears through the force field.
Then the lightning strikes.
The wire flares a bright white and for a fantastic moment, the entire dome of the arena lights up in a dazzling blue hue.
And then I'm blown backward, hitting the ground hard. I lie there, completely stunned, paralyzed, and only able to look up at the fake sky above me that is now collapsing and exploding. Matter rains down on me, but I can't move. I can only lie there motionless on the ground. Explosions rock both the ground and the sky, bright flashes of red and orange light flaring everywhere. It's complete chaos.
The ground continues to explode, sending dirt and plants spraying everywhere. Trees go up in flames. Everything is burning. Everything is destruction. But I'm not focusing on that.
"Katniss!" His voice is faint, whether due to injury or distance or the loudness of the explosions rocking the arena, I don't know. "Katniss!"
I manage to get to my knees. "Peeta!" My eyes try to focus more on what's around me, but all I see are explosions and flying dirt and plants and flames. Where's Finnick? Johanna? Beetee still lies prone on the ground. He won't last much longer.
"Peeta!" I force myself to my feet, and just as I take a step forward, he crashes out of the jungle. "Peeta!"
His eyes immediately find mine and then he's right in front of me. "Are you alright?" he asks quickly, looking me over. He doesn't look too injured, except for a few bleeding gashes on his chest, arms, and face. Probably due to catching vines as he ran through the jungle. "What happened?"
"Wire cut," I tell him simply. "Johanna cut out my tracker."
"Finnick and I didn't know what happened. The wire just went slack," Peeta says quickly, so quickly that my faint mind can barely keep up. "He took off and I stayed with Beetee, but I couldn't stay for long. I had to find you."
Another explosion rocks the ground beneath our feet, causing me to pitch forward. Peeta's arms wrap around me to steady me, and I place both my hands on his chest to brace myself. "You're such an idiot for going after me!" I tell him harshly. "You should have stayed here!"
"I wasn't about to wait around for you to come back, especially when everything went south."
Suddenly, a hovercraft materializes above us. I'm filled with dread when I see the seal of Panem painted onto the side. The Capitol hovercraft. It drops its claw, and before I can react, Peeta yanks on my good arm and we're running through the exploding jungle. We're able to maintain a stumbling sprint for a good two hundred yards when we encounter a thick section of the jungle that hasn't been blown to bits by the explosions yet, and Peeta suddenly comes to a stop.
"I had to have another minute with you, if only for a second." He tells me and he looks around for the hovercraft.
"You need to run, Katniss. You need to get out of here." I shake my head no.
"I'm not leaving you. I can't leave you. Peeta, I can't do this without you," I sob, and the look in Peeta's eyes is so pained that it causes my already breaking heart to wrench. "I can't survive without you."
"Katniss," Peeta pleads with me. The hovercraft appears above and the claw drops. Lowering itself down. "I'll find you, I promise. Now run!"
"Stay with me?" I question and he kisses me quickly before the claw grabs him.
"Always," I hear him reply.
But instead of watching him be lifted into the sky, I turn and run in the opposite direction. The baby. That's the only reason I'm doing this. Keep the baby safe. That is mine and Peeta's purpose. Keep the baby safe. I repeat this over and over in my mind to keep my feet moving away from Peeta.
Each step causes the claws gripping my heart to sink a little deeper.
I drop to my knees, unable to run any longer. Tears rack my body as I replay what Peeta did. He saved me. He saved the baby.
Daddy will protect you.
The words he whispered to our child the morning we went into the arena, fill my head as I watch the hovercraft appear. The silver claw descends once again, and I don't fight it as it lifts me up. I'm dazed and broken. Blood drips from my forearm. Agony rips at my heart. My eyes flutter shut as I succumb to the blood loss. Darkness envelopes me, and right before it takes me away, I think of Peeta. Of his smile, his laughter, and his hugs.
"You said always," I whisper to the jungle, wishing Peeta were there to hear.
A.N. NO WAY! You guys we are DONE with catching fire. Yay!! On to mockingjay we go. Thanks for all the support! Love you all! Oh and don't forget to check out my new story, Real or Not Real.
This chapter is dedicated to teaandwriting bc she made me the most amazing cover for my story Real or Not Real. Thanks again! Everyone go check her out.
Xoxoxoxo
See you in Mockingjay