"Wiress, what's up?" Melissa asked. She noticed Wiress looking at the conveyor belt in an intent and worried way.
"I - something's not right." Wiress said. She hurriedly assembled some components and hurried upstairs to where her parents worked monitoring the conveyor belts.
"Wiress, honey?" Her mother asked. "What's wrong?"
"The belt's slowing and starting up downstairs." Wiress said.
"We know, honey." Mrs. Carpenter smiled at her daughter.
"You're our little engineer keeping us on our toes." Wiress' father said chuckling. Suddenly they heard a loud clunking and hissing sound. "Wiress, honey - go back downstairs." Wiress ran to the wall and pulled the alarm seconds before the whole machine was engulfed in a fireball.
"MOM! DAD! MOM!" Wiress screamed. She grabbed a fire blanket and beat at the flames as she ran into the inferno trying to find her parents. Other workers were screaming or laying on the ground injured and trying to crawl away from the flames.
"WIRESS!" She heard Melissa's voice from far away. Wiress took a breath to tell Melissa to stay back, but felt fire rush down her throat. She fell to her knees coughing as the flames began licking her factory jumpsuit. Tears came to her eyes. She saw an outstretched arm by a large piece of the machinery. She ran over to see if it was one of her parents. As she peered around the machinery part, she dropped her blanket and screamed. The arm was separated from a charred body that was a foot away. The image burnt into her brain much like the flames burning into her skin. Suddenly she felt someone push her to the floor. The person held her close to his body as he rolled across the floor.
"Cover your face!" He ordered before crouching and jumping through the window of the factory seconds before the third and fourth floors exploded in a fireball. Wiress felt both of them hit the ground on their side. The person disentangled himself from her and helped her lay down on the ground. By that time, the other workers had evacuated.
"WIRESS!" Melissa's frantic voice pierced the crowd. "WIRESS! WHERE ARE YOU?"
"She's here!" Wiress' rescuer called. Wiress gasped as she recognized the voice. She began coughing. "It's ok - shh - it's ok." Beetee said.
"She looks pretty burnt." The medical technician of the factory said. Beetee nodded. "Hey little lady, I'm just going to examine you." Wiress nodded.
"My - parents -" Wiress whispered as tears streamed down her face.
"I'm sorry." The medical technician whispered, grief feeling his face watching the burnt girl on the ground sob. "I'm so sorry. You're the only survivor from that room." The technician cleaned her wounds as best he could. Surprisingly, she only had one third degree burn on her right leg. "She'll have to go to the hospital." The technician said. They lifted Wiress onto a stretcher. Melissa grabbed one side and Beetee grabbed the other. Soon Wiress was surrounded by her parents' co-workers. In an odd sort of procession, Wiress was borne on the stretcher held by at least ten people as they walked down the streets to the hospital. The technician briefed the doctors about her condition as the workers transferred Wiress to a bed in the hospital.
"You stay strong, Wiress." One of them said.
"Your parents would be proud of you."
"We need you back, our little genius." Wiress nodded her thanks through her tears as the workers of Factory Four wished her well and squeezed her hands before leaving.
"They won't have died in vain." Beetee said barely above a whisper before squeezing her hand. He turned back at the door to the emergency unit and looked at her one more time before leaving the hospital.
Wiress spent a week at the hospital before going home to her grandmother. "Your father would talk about you nonstop when he visited me." she said embracing her granddaughter. "He loved you. Both of them did. I know you tried to save them, I know, honey." Wiress nodded as her grandmother held her in her arms. "Anabel down the hallway had an extra bed that you can have, dear. You'll have to share a bedroom with this old lady, but I don't mind." Wiress' grandmother smiled at her.
"Grandma -" Wiress paused looking around the one bedroom apartment. "It isn't too much of a burden?"
"Honey, you're my family. My son lives on in you." Miss Carpenter said cupping Wiress' face in her worn hands. "I'm taking care of you, do you hear me?" Wiress nodded. "That's a girl." She said kissing her granddaughter's tearstained cheeks. "Now, you rest while I fix some tea. The doctors said to take it easy even though you're home." Wiress nodded. She thought yet again about the factory accident. She couldn't shake the idea that somehow the Capitol had taken not only her sister but her parents as well.
