Catching Fire: Peeta's POV

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-three

I'm shook awake a short time later by Katniss. "Get up. Get up--we have to move." She continues without another word to me and rouses the rest of the group. She leaving Beetee and Wiress asleep. "I've figured out what Wiress has been trying to say," she begins.

"Oh, you've figured out what Nuts has been saying. It's tick, tock. She's crazy obviously," Johanna says.

"No. She's been trying to tell us the arena is like a clock," Katniss continues.

"A clock?" I question.

"Yes. Every hour a new horror begins. At midnight and noon an electric storm starts. One, the blood rain. Two is the fog and three is the monkeys. And ten is the wave," Katniss explains.

I'm convinced Katniss has figured it out what Wiress is trying to say. I can tell Johanna still doesn't believe it but agrees we should move. Finnick gets Beetee back into his jumpsuit while Johanna and I collect the possessions surrounding the campsite. Katniss goes to rouse Wiress. Katniss talks with her quietly before handing her a bowl of water. Finnick then hands her the last of the bread.

I go to lift Beetee up to move him with us. But he objects. "Wire," he croaks.

"She's right here," I tell him. "Wiress is fine. She's coming, too."

But he still struggles. "Wire," he insists.

"Oh, I know what he want," Johanna says, crossing over to the cylinder Katniss took off Beetee's belt earlier. "This worthless thing. It's some kind of wire or something. 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?"

"He won his Games with wire. Setting up that electrical trap. It's the best weapon he could have," I say.

"Seems like you'd have figured that out. Since you nicknamed him Volts and all," Katniss says to Johanna snidely.

"Yeah, that was really stupid of me, wasn't it? I guess I must have been distracted by keeping your little friends alive. While you were . . . what, again? Getting Mags killed off?"

Katniss's grip tightens on the knife at her belt.

"Go ahead. Try it. I don't care if you are knocked up, I'll rip your throat out." Johanna snarls.

"Maybe we all had better be careful where we step," Finnick say, stepping forward. He takes the coil from Johanna and sets in on Beetee's chest. "There's your wire, Volts. Watch where you plug it."

I pick up Beetee, who is no longer resisting. "Where to?"

"I'd like to go to the Cornucopia and watch. Just to make sure we're right about the clock," Finnick says.

We move down the nearest sand strip. We cautiously approach the Cornucopia in case the Careers are there hiding. I doubt it though because we've been on the beach for hours now, and there's been no sign of any other life.

The Cornucopia is empty of any Careers, and the pile of weapons remains at the center. I lay Beetee in the small amount the Cornucopia provides.

I pick up the coil of wire. "Wiress. Clean it, will you?"

She nods and hobbles over to the water's edge and dunks the coil in. She begins to quietly sing to herself.

"Oh, not the song again," Johanna says, rolling her eyes. "That went on for hours before she started tick-tocking."