Fire is Catching

Chapter 16: Be Strong

CHAPTER 16: BE STRONG

I know I'm awake when I feel Finnick shakily pick me up and carry me out of the jungle. We are both shuddering, and he almost drops me a couple times. We collapse on the sand, and I put my head in my hands.

Lilyanna is in pain. Chase is in pain. Georgina is in pain. I am in pain.

And the worst part is, I don't have Finnick to comfort me. He's sitting by the water, moving his hands through it and wading.

Peeta is muttering reassuring things to Everdeen, so I try and focus on that.

"You didn't hear them." Everdeen tells him.

True...

"I heard Prim. Right in the beginning. But it wasn't her. It was a jabberjay."

"It was her," Everdeen insists. "Somewhere. The jabberjays just recorded it."

Peeta tucks her hair behind her ears and rocks her back and for as she sits on his lap. "No, that's just what they want you to think. The same way I wondered if Glimmer's eyes were in that mutt last year. But those weren't Glimmer's eyes. And that wasn't Prim's voice. Or, if it was, they just took it from an interview or something and distorted the sound."

"No, they were torturing her." She replies. "She's probably dead."

"No, Katniss." He says softly, but oddly forceful at the same time. "Prim isn't dead. How could they kill Prim? We're almost down to the final eight of us. And what happens then?"

Peeta is so good for Everdeen. Where she lacks in positivity, patience, and overall kindness, he fills in.

"Seven more of us die." She answers.

"No, not here, back home. What happens when they reach the final eight tributes in the Games?" He lifts her chin up gently and makes her look at him.

I too, begin to think.

Everdeen's reached an answer, while I'm still pondering the question. "They interview your family and friends back home."

"That's right." Peeta says. "They interview your family and friends. And can they do that if they've killed them all?"

"No?" She asks.

"No." Peeta says. "That's how we know Prim's alive. She'll be the first one they interview, won't she?"

Everdeen still looks unsure.

"It was a trick, Katniss. A horrible one. But we're the only ones who can be hurt by it. We're in the Games, not them."

Everdeen thinks for a moment and looks at me. "Do you believe it?"

I sigh, and think. People back home must be rooting for Chase and I, right? And if they killed him, there'd be riots. And Lilyanna? Everyone loves Lilyanna!

"Well," I say slowly. "They didn't kill them. And anything they'd do to extract those sounds would show too much when it's time for the interviews. The Capitol knows that. But they could've planned this for ages." I say.

Finnick's joined us by now, focused on what I said.

Everdeen's eyes widen.

"Could they do it, Beetee?" Finnick asks. "Take someone's regular voice and make it...?"

Beetee's sure when he speaks. "Oh yes. It's not even that difficult, Finnick. Our children learn a similar technique in school."

Johanna rolls her eyes. "Of course Peeta's right. The whole country adores Katniss's little sister and Lilyanna. If they really killed her like this, they'd have an uprising on their hands. Don't want that, do they?" She throws her head up and shouts, "Whole country in rebellion? Wouldn't want anything like that!"

Everdeen's jaw drops in shock. She's surprised by Johanna's recklessness, but this is simply who she is.

Johanna picks up a shell for water and the spile, and says, "I'll go get some water."

Everdeen catches Johanna's arm on the latter's way to the jungle. Johanna snatches her hand out of Everdeen's grip and replies, "They can't hurt me, I'm not like the rest of you. There's no one left I love."

She impatiently heads for the jungle.

Finnick goes to the water again, Beetee messes with his wire, and Johanna's getting water, so that leaves Everdeen, Peeta, and I on the beach.

"Who'd they use against Finnick?" Peeta asks me.

I take a deep breath and reply, "Annie Cresta, the girl Mags volunteered for. She won 5 years ago."

"Was that the earthquake year?" Everdeen asks.

I nod. "Annie fell into mental issues when her District partner got beheaded. She ran off and hid, but the earthquake broke a dam, flooding the arena. She won because she was the best swimmer."

My throat chokes up because just like I am missing Chase, Finnick is missing Annie. But Chase can go on if I end up dying. Annie? She's not stable to begin with, but with Finnick dead? She'd be awful.

"Did she get better after?" Everdeen asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Um, Finnick helps her a lot. But when he's not there, she's just like she was before." I answer.

A canon blast startles us and alerts us that we are still in the arena. The claw from the hovercraft has to dip down seven times to receive the body.

Was that Chaff? Please don't be Chaff....

We all get to work. Johanna brings back Everdeen's arrows and goes to clean them, Finnick weaves baskets and catches fish, Everdeen cleans the fish. Peeta makes a map, and I try to tally up who's still alive.

Everdeen hands everyone some fish and we settle down to eat our meal, when the Capitol Anthem begins. I look up at the sky, and tell myself two words, be strong.

Cashmere is the first to appear, blonde curls as radiant as ever in the night sky. Then Gloss, looking fabulous, as always. Wiress, then Mags. The morphling from 6, and Blight. The man from ten.

There are nine of us left.

"They're um... really burning us through." Johanna says, for once at a loss for words.

"So it's us six, District 2, and Chaff?" I say.

They all agree that I'm right,

Suddenly, a parachute comes down, containing bread.

ABOUT TIME, PLUTARCH!

Finnick takes control and lays each roll out on a rock. "These are from your District, right Beetee?"

Beetee pulls down his glasses slightly to examine the bread. "Yes, District 3. How many?"

"24 on the nose." Finnick replies smoothly.

Okay, so day three, hour 24. That's when the lightning strikes the tree. Tomorrow is the day....