CHAPTER 10:

Katniss understood now. Wiress was not completely insane, she was trying to explain something to them, trying to make them see.

"Tick, tock," she mumbled, tossing and turning in her sleep.

The sun was overhead of them now, like it was noon. She had seen the ball of lightning strike the tree in the distance and that was when it hit her. It had been the same as last night. The tolling of the bell, it was like it was midnight, and now it was noon and the same thing had happened again. The segments. The lightning, and then the blood rain in the section over from them. They would have been in the third section, and when the rain stopped, the fog had started, like clockwork.

"Tick, tock."

That was right, the arena was a clock. Each hour began a new horror, a new Gamemaker weapon, and with it the previous one would end. At present, the blood rain was falling and they were all on the beach below the monkey segment. Much too close to the fog for her liking. Katniss had no idea whether the various attacks stayed within the confines of the jungle, the tidal wave certainly hadn't. She was not willing to stay and find out about the fog or the monkeys.

"Get up," she ordered, forcing Peeta, Finnick, Cashmere, Gloss, Johanna and Kailani to wake up, though in the latter's case, one hand on her shoulder and her eyes snapped open of her own accord. The spear was in her hand and pointed at her before she could even blink.

Kailani relaxed when she saw that it was only Katniss, "What is it?" she asked, "What's going on?"

"We have to move." There was enough time to explain the clock theory to them. About Wiress, the lightning and the segments. She seemed to have convinced everyone except Johanna and Gloss. Apparently, they were capable of agreeing on something, and that was that they were both sceptical. But even they knew that it was better to be safe than sorry.

While the others collected their few possessions, she roused Wiress. The elder woman awoke with a panicked, "Tick, tock!"

"Yes, tick, tock, the arena's a clock. It's a clock, Wiress, you were right," she said, calmingly, "You were right."

Relief flooded her face- she assumed it was because finally someone had understood her. "Midnight," she said.

Katniss nodded, "It starts at midnight," she confirmed. Wiress looked over at the blood rain, "One-thirty."

"Exactly. One-thirty. And at two, a terrible poisonous fog begins there," she said, pointing towards the nearby jungle, "So we have to move somewhere safe now." Wiress smiled and stood up obediently. "Are you thirsty?" Katniss handed her a woven bowl and she gulped down about a litre. Finnick handed her the last bit of the bread, and she gnawed on it happily. With the inability to communicate overcome, she was functioning again.

Beetee was still pretty out of it, but when Gloss tried to lift him, he objected, "Wire," he said.

"She's right here," said Peeta, comfortingly. "Wiress is fine. She's coming too."

But still, Beetee struggled. "Wire," he insisted.

"Oh, I know what he wants," said Johanna, impatiently. She crossed the beach and picked up a cylinder, he must have dropped it when he had collapsed earlier. It was coated in a thick layer of congealed blood. "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 garrotte or something. But really, can you imagine Beetee garrotting somebody?"

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

There was something odd about Johanna not putting that together herself, it made her suspicious. "Seems like you'd have figured that out," she said, "Since you nicknamed him Volts and all."

Johanna's eyes narrowed, "Yeah, that was really stupid of me, wasn't it?" she spat. "I guess I must have been distracted by keeping your little friends alive. While you were… what, again? What the hell were you doing while Finnick and Kailani pulled your ass along? While Glossy-" He scowled at that, but she didn't care. "-Did all the heavy lifting? While Cashmere kept your dumb self in line?" Katniss felt her fingers tighten on the knife handle at her belt. "Go ahead. Try it. I don't care if you are knocked up, I'll rip your throat out."

Kailani sighed, loudly and ran a hand over her face. "Maybe we should all just take a deep breath," said Finnick, shooting Katniss a look. He took the coil from Johanna and set it on Beetee's chest, "There's your wire, Volts. Watch where you plug it." He received a grateful smile from Kailani for his efforts. Gloss rolled his eyes and picked up a now unresisting Beetee.

"Where to?" asked Cashmere.

"The Cornucopia," said Finnick, "That's the centre, we can make sure we're right about the clock from there."

It seemed as good a plan as any. Besides, it gave her a chance to look over the weapons again. There were nine of them now, that was more than the other tributes still out there. They had seven good fighters, four of them could technically have been considered Careers. They had the best in the field, and they were all still working well enough together as a group, as a team almost. It was strange, having allies this time. She wasn't alone, there were people watching her back. She just had to ignore the fact that these were also people she would have to kill. Beetee and Wiress would probably find some way to die on their own. Johanna, well, if it came down to protecting Peeta or even just shutting her up, she could easily bring herself to kill her, assuming she and Gloss didn't take each other out first. He and his sister, Katniss still considered them wildcards, they were more dangerous than anyone, and there was some part of her that hoped they would get taken out in an attack, perhaps by District Two. They were probably pissed off that those two had left them to fend for themselves. Finnick and Kailani however, were a different story in the scheme of things. She almost wished that something would happen to one of them, just so that the other might go off on some kind of suicide revenge mission. That would make her job a lot easier. She didn't want to kill them, in fact, she wasn't entirely sure that she could. Katniss tried to thing about something, anything else. But the only thing that came to mind was killing President Snow, killing him for all of this. Not a very pretty daydream, but it was nothing she supposed.

They walked down the nearest strip of sand and approached the Cornucopia, carefully, just in case someone else was there, there wasn't. The area was abandoned, only the structure itself and the picked-over pile of weapons remained. Gloss laid Beetee down in the shade, and he called out to Wiress. She crouched beside him and he placed the coil of wire in her hands. "Clean it, will you?" he asked.

Wiress nodded and scampered over to the water's edge, where she dunked the coil in the water. She started to quietly sing a strange little song, about a mouse running up a clock. It must have been for children but it seemed to make her happy.

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

Suddenly, Wiress stood up very straight and pointed to the jungle, "Two," she said.

Katniss followed her finger to where the wall of fog had just started to seep out onto the beach. "Right on time," said Peeta. "You very smart to figure that out, Wiress."

Wiress smiled and went back to singing and dunking the coil. "Oh, she's more than smart," said Beetee, "She's intuitive." They all turned back to Beetee, who seemed to be coming back to life. "She can sense things before anyone else. Like a canary in one of your coal mines."

"What's that?" asked Cashmere.

"It's a bird that we take down into the mines to us if there's bad air," said Katniss.

"What's it do, die?" asked Johanna, doubtfully.

"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." She frowned. She didn't want to talk about this, about dying songbirds. They brought up too many memories, thoughts of her father's death and Rue's death, of so many others. Her mind wandered to Gale, her dear childhood friend probably down in those mines right now. President Snow could kill him so easily because of her, he could make it look like an accident. A silent canary, a spark, and nothing more. Her mind goes back to killing the president, all of this would end if he were dead and even if it didn't, she'd certainly feel better for it.

Despite her annoyance at Wiress, Johanna's as happy as she has ever seen her in the arena. While she added to her stock of arrows, Johanna poked around until she came up with of pair of lethal-looking axes and her eyes glinted, pleased. It seemed like an odd choice until she threw one with such force that it stuck in the sun-softened gold of the Cornucopia. Of course, she was Johanna Mason, from District Seven, their trade was lumber she'd probably been throwing axes around since she was a toddler. It was like Finnick with his trident, it was like Kailani with her spear, or Beetee with his wire. Cashmere and Gloss used their knives and daggers with such precision, if there was a target they could find it. And Rue, she had her knowledge of plants. It was yet another disadvantage that District Twelve had faced over the years. They didn't go down into the mines until they were eighteen, whereas most of the other tributes seemed to learn something about their trades early on. There were things you did in the mines that could have helped during the Games, whether it be wielding a pick or blowing things up, it could have given them an edge but it was learned too late for it to be useful.

While she messed around with the weapons, Peeta sat squatted on the ground, drawing something with the tip of his knife on a large, smooth leaf he had brought from the jungle. Katniss peered over his shoulder, curiously. It was a map, he had created a map of the arena. In the centre there was the Cornucopia on its circle of sand with the twelve strips branching out for it, it was like a pie sliced into twelve equal wedges. There was another circle that represented the waterline and a slightly larger one that indicated the edge of the jungle. "Look how the Cornucopia's positioned," he said.

She examined his drawing, focusing particularly on the middle. "The tail points to twelve o' clock," she said.

Peeta nodded, "Right, so this is the top of our clock," he said, and quickly scratched the numbers one through to twelve around the clock face. "Twelve to one is the lightning zone." He wrote lightning in tiny print in the corresponding wedge, then worked around clockwise, adding blood, fog and monkeys in the following sections.

"Ten to eleven is the wave," said Cashmere, wandering over to them. Her brother, Kailani, Finnick and Johanna along with her, all of them armed to the teeth with tridents, spears, axes and knives. They looked about ready to go to war.

"Did you notice anything unusual in the others?" asked Katniss, looking to Johanna and Beetee. They were the only ones that hadn't been with them the whole time, even so though, all they'd seen was a lot of blood. "I guess they could hold anything."

"I'm going to mark the ones where we know the Gamemakers' weapon follows us out past the jungle, so we'll stay clear of those," said Peeta, drawing diagonal lines on the fog and wave beaches. He sat back, admiring his work. "Well, it's a lot more than we knew this morning, anyway."

They all nodded in agreement, but that's when she noticed it, noticed that something was missing. There was no noise, it was silent. Their canary had stopped singing. She didn't hesitate, she loaded an arrow and twisted on the spot. A tribute, she wasn't sure who, let Wiress slide lifelessly to the ground, her throat slit open in a bright red smile. The point of Katniss' arrow disappeared into his right temple. The woman allied alongside him let go of her knife, and it flew through the air. Gloss dodged, just as Johanna buried an axe blade in her chest. Her eyes darted around, looking for more. Finnick batted away a spear Brutus had thrown at Peeta and for it, received a knife to his thigh from Enobaria. Kailani was quick to respond, she threw her own spear, and if not for the Cornucopia that he just managed to duck behind, Brutus would have been dead. Him and Enobaria, both of the tributes from District Two. Katniss sprung forward to pursue the pair, as the canon sounded three times throughout the arena. That was it then, there was nothing that could be done for Wiress, nor the other two tributes that had been killed. She and her allies, rounded the horn and started to give chase to Brutus and Enobaria, to their biggest threats, as they sprinted down a sand strip towards the jungle. But before they could get too far, the ground jerked beneath their feet.

It was moving, the circle of land that held the Cornucopia started to spin, and spin fast. Johanna could feel herself being pulled towards the water, but she dug her hands in the ground and held on. There was a yell to the side of her that sounded a lot like Kailani, but there was nothing she could do about it. All she could see was the jungle spinning, the sand flying. She wasn't surprised when rather than slowing down, they just slammed to a stop. No warning, nothing. The Gamemakers were real assholes, that was for sure. Doing her best to blink away the dizziness, and the queasiness, Johanna looked around. All of them had managed to hold on, at least, so it had seemed. It was Kailani that she had heard, with her bad hand she must have slipped but Gloss had a tight grip on her wrist. He had kept her from being flung into the water. Finnick couldn't decide whether to look relieved, or annoyed by the display. Not that it meant anything, she knew that and so did they. It was just Finnick, poor, idiotic Finnick. That was when she noticed it, noticed that they were one person down. The three dead bodies had been thrown into the seawater, but so had someone else.

"Where's Volts?" she asked. Shakily, Johanna pushed herself to her feet, the others doing the same. It was Finnick that spotted him about twenty metres out, barely keeping afloat. He dived into the water and swam out, to haul him back in. Katniss spun about frantically, her eyes scanning the water. Before Johanna could even think to question her, she tossed her weapons to the ground.

"Cover me," she called back.

"Wait!" yelled Kailani, but she was already gone. Katniss raced down the land strips and dived into the water. The hovercraft appeared in the sky above them, and they all eyed it, warily. Katniss was going after Wiress, she still had the wire that Beetee had given to her to clean.

Johanna shook her head. "That idiot." Did that girl forget that she was carrying life inside of her? Unless that was all a lie, who even knew. Nonetheless, any one of them would have been better than her to go after the coil. She forced herself not to frown, they were more expendable. Johanna supposed Katniss wasn't aware of that though, the girl on fire had no idea.

Finnick dragged Beetee back to the Cornucopia, and Peeta helped him pull the man onto land as gently as possible. He was coughing and spluttering, but otherwise alright. The hovercraft had taken the body of Wiress by now, and Katniss walked back to where they had gathered, the coil of wire clutched tightly in her hand. Silently, without a word, she placed it in Beetee's lap before wandering across to Peeta and wrapping her arms around him. Johanna took in the people around her, all of them, their faces sober in their loss. There were more here than she had expected, the biggest surprise had been Gloss and Cashmere. She was sure that they had no idea of the plan, had no idea of their true goals in forming this alliance. It made her wonder why they did it, why they hadn't just teamed with Brutus and Enobaria like they'd probably originally planned, and been done with it. If they intended to kill them, they had lost their chance, they were outnumbered it would be suicide. Perhaps they did know something, perhaps they had figured it out. Everything they did, revolved around Katniss. They weren't dumb, they were both victors and mentors, they would have to have noticed that. Gloss met her gaze, and raised an eyebrow. She scowled at him. Even if they did intend to help, even if they had an inkling of what was going on, that didn't keep him from being any less of a bastard. He enjoyed getting a rise out of her. Hell, he enjoyed getting a rise out of everyone. How Kailani had put up with him for so long was beyond her, then again, it wasn't like they talked. Their encounters, only had one purpose in mind. She had a distinct feeling that the only reason he and his sister was here, was because of Kailani. She must have said something, she must have done something, because no one else would have. Johanna looked over at her then, kneeling down next to Finnick. His attention was entirely on Kailani, as she shook her head, scoldingly and wrapped the bandages she had used for her hand, around his leg instead. Those two, they frustrated her more than Katniss or Gloss ever could. Every move, every little thing revolved around each other. It always did, and it always would. The only time it didn't, was when Annie became involved. Johanna would quite like to teach her a lesson given the chance, but Finnick would have her head if she tried. Kailani would as well, it would reveal too much. She looked out at the beach, there was no sign of Brutus or Enobaria now, they were long gone, and it was about time they did the same. They were wasting time here, they had to get moving.

"Let's get off this stinking island," she said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them all.

They gathered their weapons, and Cashmere helped Beetee to stand. He insisted that as long as they went slowly, he could walk on his own. Kailani suggested they head to the twelve o' clock beach, it would provide them with hours of calm and keep them well clear of the poisonous fog. Johanna was almost glad she'd only had the blood rain to deal with instead, given the states of her allies, the fog looked like it had been a right pain in the ass to deal with. She went in one direction towards the twelve o' clock beach, and so did Finnick and Peeta.

"Twelve o' clock, right?" asked Peeta. "The tail points to twelve."

"Before they spun us," pointed out Finnick, "I was judging by the sun."

"The sun only tells you it's going on four, Finnick," said Katniss.

"I think Katniss's point is," began Beetee, "Knowing the time doesn't mean you necessarily know where four is on the clock. You might have a general idea of the direction. Unless you consider that they may have shifted the outer ring of jungle as well."

Katniss' eyes screamed confusion, but nonetheless she nodded her head as if she understood exactly what Beetee had explained. "Yes, so any one of these paths could lead to twelve o' clock," she said. Johanna resisted the urge to groan, that means they were right back where they started, clueless.

They circled around the Cornucopia, scrutinising the jungle, trying to recognise something about the sectors that could put them back on track. It was impossible though, it was all uniform in structure, the beach looked the same, the trees all looked the same. They couldn't tell where anything was, even Brutus and Enobaria's tracks had been either blown or washed away.

"I should have never mentioned the clock," said Katniss, her voice bitter. "Now they've taken that advantage away as well."

"Only temporarily," said Kailani. "At ten, we'll see the wave again and be back on track."

"Yes, they can't redesign the whole arena," said Peeta.

Johanna rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter," she said, impatiently. "You had to tell us or we never would have moved our camp in the first place, brainless." If anything, that did seem to make Katniss feel better. "Come on, I need water. Anyone have a good gut feeling?"

They choose a path randomly and take it, having no other choice but to hope for the best. The jungle stared at them menacingly, as they tried to decipher what lay inside, just waiting for them.

"Well, it must be monkey hour, and I don't see any of them in there," said Peeta, "I'm going to try to tap a tree."

"No, it's my turn," said Finnick.

"I'll at least watch you're back."

"It's okay," interrupted Kailani, "I'll go with, Katniss can come and keep watch."

Johanna nodded in agreement. "Good idea, we need you to make another map anyway. The other one washed away." She yanked a large leaf off of the tree and handed it to Peeta. Katniss hesitated, her eyes flickering to the rest of their companions. Gloss, Cashmere, Johanna, Beetee, all of them alone with Peeta. Kailani understood her concern, she didn't know of any alternative plans, the only thing she was worried about was keeping her partner alive. That was all she wanted, she could see it in her eyes. She could relate to that, she supposed.

"Come on Katniss," she said, lightly. "Those trees won't tap themselves." Kailani tried to keep her voice as calm and soothing as possible, nothing too suspicious just enough to ensure that Katniss followed them. It was better if she trusted them more, it would all go much smoother that way. They would get the water, come back and she would find Peeta perfectly fine. Finnick walked into the jungle, and she followed behind him. Katniss joined them, her face still twisted in uncertainty. They went a good fifteen metres in before Finnick found a good tree and began to stab at it with a knife. He glanced at her coolly, and Kailani had the sudden feeling that he was about to question her.

"Gloss keep you from being thrown into the water?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. She was getting real tired of this, of him constantly acting jealous because that was exactly what he was doing. He had been a right mood after Gloss had fished her out of the water at the beginning of the Games, though that might have also had something to do with the fact that she had nearly drowned. "No, we were just holding hands," said Kailani, sarcastically. She couldn't understand it, why he kept focussing on these little things. Katniss glanced at them, but kept her mouth shut.

Finnick feigned a look of hurt. "Come on 'Lani, I was just curious."

She didn't believe him for a second, just fixed him with a long look. "Just be glad he did, I wouldn't have enjoyed being thrown out into the middle of nowhere."

"I could have brought you back in."

"I know you could have."

He stabbed at the tree again, before turning to Katniss. "You got the spile?" She nodded and handed it to him. That was when they heard it, a scream. Katniss became a deathly shade of white, and before they could stop her, she was pelting into the jungle, following the sound. Finnick and Kailani exchanged one look, before going after her. She couldn't go in there alone, and whatever it was, whoever she had heard, it could not be good.