As Beetee concludes his plan, telling us each detail of what he desires to happen, I feel something churn in the pit of my stomach, making me step backwards towards Katniss, taking her hand in mine.
"I want to go with them as a guard." I say sternly. Beetee shakes his head.
"No no. I need you here. As a guard to protect me.
"Finnick can protect you fine on his own. I need to go with her." I snap. Beetee only shakes his head.
"Why can't me and Peeta take the coil, and Johanna and Finnick protect you?" Katniss offers. I see Johanna and Finnick give each other a worried look, making that thing in my stomach twist again.
"No. I need Peeta and Finnick up here."
"Is there a problem?" Finnick interjects.
"It's his plan, and we all agreed to keep him alive. We do what he says." Johanna growls, stepping forward to take the cylinder from Beetee. My body begins to tremble in frustration. I made a vow to protect her. To keep Katniss alive. How do I do that from a distance?
"Hey, it's alright. We'll just come right back up." She says, looking from me to Beetee, who once again, shakes his head quickly.
"No, no, no. Go to the one o'clock to two o'clock sector, go over one if you need and stay away from the sand. We'll meet you there." He says. I look down at Katniss, who pulls her hand away from mine, only to cup my cheeks in them. She leans up, pressing her lips to mine. She pulls away too soon, looking directly into my eyes.
"I'll see you at midnight." She says, nodding at her own words and before I can object, she turns to follow Johanna into the trees. She turns to face me one last time, giving me a small smile, before disappearing behind Johanna. My hand grips the spear tighter as I watch her go.
The time passes quickly, Finnick and I walking around the clearing in circles, staring into the treeline, waiting for Enobaria and Brutus to leap out at us. But they never do. At least fifteen minutes have passed when chaos starts to erupt.
My eyes catch glimmering from the treeline, and I approach it slowly, noticing that it's the coil leading away from the tree. I lift it, expecting it to be tight, yet it's not. It's loose, as if someone had cut it... 'Something's wrong...' The voice in the back of my head says. I pull the coil towards me, growing more and more anxious the faster it comes. The end of the coil. I look down at it confused, turning around to face Finnick.
"Someone cut the coil." I call over to him. He looks confused for a moment, but realization hits him suddenly and he starts to walk towards me when I hear a strangled scream in the distance. I stand, spinning around to face the jungle, but jumping as Finnick bounds through the brush. I face Beetee, who looks concerned for a moment, but then I turn away at the sound of Finnick's voice calling for Johanna and Katniss.
Katniss.
I take off in the direction of Finnick's yelling, searching the brush. I can hear heavy running to my left, making me freeze before bounding to my right. I tear through the underbrush before thinking higher. The trees. My attention moves upward, searching the tree branches and seeing nothing. I sigh in frustration before continuing to move.
I come across a few boulders, slowing down at the sight of shimmering. My eyes spot the gold coil, following it downwards towards where I stand. I look to my left and see the cylinder of coil, and blood around the rocks and dirt.
"Katniss!" I yell into the darkening jungle. If she's hurt, she can't have gone far. I call her name a few times, waiting for a response.
"Peeta! Peeta!" She yells, making a small smile begin to form on my lips. It disappears as I hear clamoring a few yards away. I crouch down, hiding behind the vines in between the rocks, and waiting for the movement to stop.
When it does, I climb from my spot, bounding up towards the tree.
"Peeta! Where are you! Peeta I'm here!" She screams.
"Katniss! I'm coming! Stay there!" I yell back, cursing as I stumble over branches and rocks. Her voice sounds a lot farther than I thought. How the hell did I get so far from the tree?
My body freezes as a cannon goes off and I feel my heartbeat pick up at least 20 beats in my chest. "Katniss!" I yell into the jungle, begging for a response.
"Peeta! I'm here! I'm here!" She calls. She's alive.
I feel my leg snag on a branch or something and then I begin to stumble backwards, falling down the steep hill, cursing all the way down. I know my leg has been injured, as I feel the blood start to come out quickly and the burning pain shoot all throughout my lower half. Another cannon goes off.
I lay on my back, clutching my leg, remembering the time last year when Katniss and I were in the cave, and she was tending to the same type of injury... I shake my head of the thoughts as I see the cloud above the Lightning Tree start to swirl around, churning the electricity inside. As if in slow motion, I see the bolt begin to spring down, when it is met in the middle by a string shooting up. I squeeze my eyes shut as something explodes, and I can faintly hear a high-pitched scream in the distance.
Opening my eyes, I see that it was the dome. The dome has been blown open. Falling pieces of the arena rain down into the jungle, littering the ground with fiery heaps of debris. I try to process everything that's happened in the past five minutes. Someone cut the coil, attacked Katniss: maybe Johanna? And left a mess around where they were. Then, someone went back to the tree and shot something up into the lighting... Causing it to fall apart. What could have moved that fast and that high? Not a spear, nor an axe...
Arrows. Katniss.
"Katniss!" I try to yell, but my throat is sore, making my voice no louder than normal talking. She's alive, that's all that matters. There's only three people left for her to fight off.... And I'm as good as dead with this damn leg.
My vision is blinded by a bright light above me, and I hear the sound of an engine. I squint my eyes to see a hovercraft above me, opening a hatch to reveal the long claw that picks up the dead. I see it come towards me, and debate whether or not to try and roll away.
The talons come closer, finally gripping around my body and lifting me above the jungle. I'm as good as dead. I'm as good as dead. I repeat in my head, praying for death to take me so she can survive. This is a Capitol hovercraft, come to pick me up and take me to Snow. He'll kill me anyway, but she'll survive. She has to.
Those are my last thoughts as my eyes involuntarily close, departing me into a state of darkness.
~~~~~~
I wake with a pounding headache, which turns out to be the worst I've ever experienced, and I open my eyes slowly, only to have them be burned by a bright light. I blink a few times before examining the room. It seems to be dark, except the bright light above me. I see a monitor next to me, and feel the needles in my arm. I try to move my hands up to my arm, but they are stopped by a pair of cold, metal handcuffs.
"What the hell...?" I whisper. I jerk my hands around, trying to get out of them, or brake the bar or something. But it just becomes noise. I don't stop, even when the cuffs begin to cut deep welts into my wrists. I groan at the pain, but continue my squirming.
"Will you just stop already!" Someone snaps. I jump slightly, not realizing anyone was here. My head turns to see Johanna laid out next to me, needles, cuffs and monitors all hooked to her as well. I can see the deep, bloody cuts in her wrists from trying to get the cuffs off.
"Johanna.... Where are we? Where is Katniss, and Finnick?" I feel myself beginning to ramble, and my throat hates me for it.
"Peeta... We were too late. We messed up, Finnick and I messed up." She looks away from me and down at her hands.
"What are you talking about?" I say. She doesn't answer. "Johanna!"
"Peeta.. We still have our trackers. Finnick didn't get yours in time. I got Katniss's out. But we didn't get ours... They're all safe." She says. I clench my eyebrows together in confusion.
"And we're not? Safe?" I ask. Johanna shakes her head.
"No Peeta, we most definitely are not. I'm sorry." She says and her head rolls to the side, drifting into sleep.
We aren't safe. But Katniss is. She's alive. We saved her. I feel a weak smile creep on my lips at the thought of her being safe, out of Snow's hands.