Fire is Catching

Chapter 14: Tick Tock

CHAPTER 14: TICK TOCK

"Get up!" Everdeen orders. "We have to move, get up."

She explains how the arena is a clock, a new threat each hour. Wiress figured it out.

Plutarch should've told us that. But I can hear his voice in my head, "Where's the fun in being spoon-fed information? You're a smart girl, you can figure it out."

I'd love to slap him right now.

We all stand up and pack up our weapons and possessions. I grab the necklace Livie gave to me and put it around my neck. Beetee's glasses are next to it, so I hand them to him and help him up.

"Let's try the Cornucopia." I suggest, looking at the large golden horn that looks small from all the way over here.

We help Wiress and the still-injured Beetee across the water to the Cornucopia, and since Everdeen has taught Peeta to swim since the Bloodbath, we don't have to assist him. At the Cornucopia, I tackle the knives and see if anything good is left. Nothing. Just a bunch of dull-tipped knives I already have.

"The blood rain is happening now." Everdeen says from underneath the mouth of the Cornucopia. She is fixated on the jungle. "At two, the fog begins there."

I shudder. "Then the monkeys?" I suggest.

Everdeen nods.

I look at Wiress. "You're a genius, Wiress."

She smiles, nodding.

Johanna is beside me, rubbing her temples.

"Wire," Beetee croaks. "Wire."

Johanna rolls her eyes and goes to retrieve the coil of wire Plutarch and Beetee talked about at the meeting. It's at the edge of the island, covered in blood.

"What is that?" I ask, even though I could write an entire book about it since Beetee talks about it so much.

"Some kind of wire or something. That's how he got cut, running to the Cornucopia to get this. Maybe you could pull a piece off and use it as a garrote, but really, can you imagine Beetee garroting someone?" Johanna replies.

Peeta and Everdeen look at us like we're crazy. "He won his Games with wire, setting up an electrical trap. It's the best weapon he could have." Peeta says.

Everdeen is looking at us weird and suddenly I know Johanna and I have screwed up.

"Seems like you'd have figured that out," Everdeen says. "Since you named him Volts and all."

BAM! Shots have been fired. Most people would know Everdeen is a bratty jerk and let it go, but Johanna takes it as an insult to her intelligence. Her eyes narrow dangerously. This is going to get bloody.

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

Everdeen's expression is calmly angry. But her fingers are gripping the knife on her belt so hard they're turning scarlet.

"Go ahead, try it." Johanna says, smirking. "I don't care if you're knocked up, I'll rip your throat out."

Finnick and I exchange a look and I decide I have to break them up. "Jo, there's some axes over here."

Johanna's eyes light up and she jogs over to them. I hand her a lethal-looking one and she chucks it at the metal Cornucopia. And it sticks.

Wiress begins merrily singing a song about a mouse and a clock.

I climb on top of the Cornucopia and survey the arena. The fog seems to be going on, and the monkeys are next. Choosing to stay on top due to the amount of relaxing sunlight hitting me, I focus on my allies' conversation.

"Wiress is intuitive." Beetee is saying. "She can sense this before anything else. Like a canary in one of your coal mines."

"What's that?" Finnick asks Everdeen.

"It's a bird we take down in the mines to warn us if there's bad air." She replies.

Johanna scoffs. "What's it do, die?"

"It stops singing first. That's when you should get out. But if the air's too bad, it dies, yes. And so do you." Everdeen stops talking, with a look of pondering on her face.

Peeta begins making a map of the arena on a big leaf, which Everdeen, Finnick, and Johanna help him with.

I tune them out until a sharp knife whizzes past my ear. Behind me is Cashmere, eyes alerting me of an attack. Without even thinking how grateful I am for her, I slide off the Cornucopia as Wiress slides to the ground, dead. Gloss is behind her, pulling his sword out of her throat. Everdeen mercilessly buries an arrow in his temple.

Johanna's axe makes contact with Cashmere's chest. She looks at me with sad eyes, and without thinking I rush to her aid.

"Win your battle," she says. "please." Her last words.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"Alex!" Finnick yells at me. I follow his gaze to Brutus, who's spear is aimed at my head.

Finnick's trident knocks it away at he last second and I spring to life. I quickly grab my knives and thrust one at Enobaria. It hits her in the shoulder and her and Brutus dash away. We are rounding the horn when the island suddenly begins spinning. It's so fast I think I'm puking, but I don't know.

Gloss's body flies past me. He had so much to live for... Gloss had a girlfriend too, Masie. She would be so sad right now, bawling. And what about all of Cashmere's friends? I should be dead too, just like them.

My mind doesn't quite catch what my body does until it does it: lets go of the rocky island and flies into the ocean.