Change Me

TWENTY THREE

Remember, you were art long before he came to admire you, and you'll continue to be art even after he is gone.

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"CATO!"

My heart was beating a hundred beats a second. I looked behind me, a knife in hand in case anI felt dizzier the more blood I lost from my arm.

I continued to run back towards the tree where I thought Cato would still be. He promised me he'd meet up with me. But I got there, minutes later, and he was gone -  everyone was. I saw something out of the corner of my eye, it looked like sparks. I ran over there to the best of my ability and bent down when I saw Beetee's entire body shaking. Did he hit the forcefield?

I saw something in his hand, I picked it up to see that he had wrapped the coil around my knife that I had given him. He tried to stab the forcefield with it?

And then it finally clicked.

Beetee's plan wasn't to electrocute the rest of the tributes, that was just the cover up so the rest of the capital didn't catch on to what he was actually planning.

Beetee wanted to use the coil to make a hole in the forcefield. Once the tree lights up with lightning at midnight, he would've used something to make a hole in the arena so that Plutarch and the other's could get in and make the rescue.

That was the point that they failed to mention to Cato and I.

"Beetee?" I ask as I look at him. He had been electrocuted, just like Cato had from hitting the forcefield. "Oh no..." I see someone hobbling over to me out of the corner of my eye. I reach for my knife when I realize it was only Katniss. "Hey! Get over here," I say to her. She ran over to me quickly and bent down.

"What happened to him?" she whispered. I looked down at Beetee to see the smoke coming off of his body.

"He hit the forcefield." I look behind her and show her that he had the coil wrapped around my knife. She looked up at me, with a 'oh my god' expression on her face. She caught onto the plan quick, just as I had. We didn't talk about it, they could drop a bomb on all of us and kill us now. I could hear thunder rumbling in the sky. I look up to see the clouds moving in circles. "You have to hurry," I tell her and stand up. A cannon goes off.

"PEETA!"

There wasn't a response. Katniss looked at me with the same weak but worried look in her eyes. Why were we the only two left? Where was everyone else and why aren't they answering?

I heard rustling through the woods and I bent down, ready to throw my knife. Katniss was next to me, as we both peaked through the plants to see who was coming our way. Katniss had her arrow ready to shoot, in case it was Cashmere.

"Katniss where are you!" It was Finnick.

I look at Katniss, expecting her to lower her arrow. But she doesn't. She keeps it aimed at Finnick.

"What the hell are you doing," I whispered to her. She looks at me out of the side of her eye and then back at Finnick. "It's Finnick Katniss." He must've heard me, because he spots us hiding behind the plants. I could hear the thunder getting closer from the distance. It sounded like it was about to strike any second.

Finnick puts his hands up, in means of no harm to attack us. "Katniss," he tells her.  All that could be heard was her heavy breathing. "Remember who the real enemy is." I glanced at her, it seemed to have some meaning to her. She lowered the arrow.

More thunder, I look up at the clouds knowing it has got to be close to midnight. I grab the end of the coil that was connected to the tree. I started to wrap it around my knife.

"No," she says next to me. She takes the coil and unravels it, and puts it around the head of her arrow instead. I look up at the sky and then back to her.

"Wait, you're gonna..." She pulled the arrow back, as she looked up in the sky. She's going to shoot the arrow into the forcefield? She's going to die. "Katniss," I say to her. She doesn't listen, she aims it at the sky. "Don't," I tell her. We were all way to close at this point. We all could die.

"Katniss get away from that tree!" Finnick shouts as he runs to us. "Katalina! Do something!"

I look around for Cato, ignoring what Finnick was screaming at me. Why did Cato and I have to separate? This wouldn't have happened if we stayed together like we originally planned. I feel a hand on my arm, and Finnick gives me a good tug.

"Finnick," I say. "Have you seen Cato?" I feel disoriented, and extremely confused.

"No," his breath was heavy. "We got attacked, he ran once he killed Chaff. He ran after you."

My heart started beating rapidly.

"Where is he?" He ignored me and looked over my shoulder.

"Katniss! Get away from that tree!" he shouted.

"Cato where are you!" My lungs burned from the helpless cries that left me. I felt tears in my eyes as I got worried something happened to him. I heard Katniss let out a scream. "Cat-"

I got flung backwards by a great force. I landed on the ground with a hard thud. I felt something drip from my ears as I was to weak to move any part of my body. There was a ringing that stayed in my ears.

My eyes laid open, I could see Finnick ahead lying on the ground as well. I could hear something, despite the ringing, it sounded like metal scraping on metal. It was loud. The tree's around us were caught on fire, but this was a real fire. Not something the gamemaker's would send to try to harm us. A very bright light appeared, I could see it was right above Katniss. I looked up at the top of the arena to see that it was breaking.

Our plan worked.

The arena is destroyed.

Will there be a victor to the 75th Hunger Games? Or will everything be over?

A hovercraft appears at the gaping bright hole, I can't help but think is that Plutarch and Haymitch in there? Or is that President Snow waiting to capture us all and kill us?

It grabs Katniss first. I watch her body slowly being lifted towards the opening in the hovercraft. Pieces of the arena are starting to collapse as Finnick and I lay here. I look back up at the hovercraft to see it pick up Fininck next. His eyes were shut now, I could see that he had dug out his tracker too.

The crane came for me next, I wanted to run for Cato, though. To make sure he was okay, to make sure they get him too. But I was frozen in place, all I could do was think. Who were the people inside of this hovercraft? Where are they going to take us?

They must be picking up Cato next.

They have to be, they're rescuing all of us. They got Katniss. That was Plutarch's promise.

I felt myself being lifted into the air. I could see the entire arena, but as I got closer to the hovercraft I could only see the shadows of people awaiting. I was surrounded by doctor's in white lab coats, all unfamiliar faces.

My eyes were the only thing that could move, I knew nothing was wrong. But I couldn't move my body. I felt a hand on my forearm and my eyes quickly switched to the opposite side.

I made eye contact with my father.

"Dad?" I cracked out weakly. He smiled at me.

"You're okay honey," he says to me. I see Plutarch walking towards us, checking on Katniss first. "You'll be okay. I got you now." They saved us?

"You have to get Cato... we....we were-"

Then, everything went black.

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