This is the last chapter for the Catching Fire portion of the story, Chapter 12 will start the Mockingjay portion. Please leave reviews and let me know what you thought about this part! Any comment would be appreciated! And thank you to all of you who review regularly, or semiregularly, it means a lot to me.
Also, heads up, I cried writing the end...so maybe you want to have a tissue with you...
Beetee explains his plan to us about the tree and using the lightning with the help of a wire to electrocute the water and anything wet surrounding it. It sounds like a good sound plan that will work so we all agree.
"What can we do to help?"
"Keep me alive," says Beetee.
Peeta and I volunteer for the first watch because we're better rested, and because we want some time alone. The others go out immediately, although Finnick's sleep is restless. Every now and then I hear him murmuring Annie's name. And I wonder if that will be Peeta when I'm gone. "My nightmares are usually about losing you, I'm okay when I realize you're here." Its like a persistent hammer in my head. Peeta will not be okay if I die anymore than I will be okay if he dies. Boy, we are tragic.
Peeta and I sit on the damp sand, facing away from each other, my right shoulder and hip pressed against his. I watch the water as he watches the jungle, which is better for me. I'm still haunted by the voices of the jabberjays, which unfortunately the insects can't drown out. And then there's a whole new set of worries, and I feel guilty now more than ever about my plan to die for Peeta. Am I being selfish? After a while I rest my head against his shoulder. Feel his hand caress my hair.
"Katniss," he says softly, "it's no use pretending we don't know what the other one is trying to do." No, I guess there isn't, but it's no fun discussing it, either. Well, not for us, anyway. The Capitol viewers will be glued to their sets so they don't miss one wretched word.
"I don't know what kind of deal you think you've made with Haymitch, but you should know he made me promises as well." Of course, I know this, too. He told Peeta they could keep me alive so that he wouldn't be suspicious. "So I think we can assume he was lying to one of us."
This gets my attention. A double deal. A double promise. With only Haymitch knowing which one is real. I raise my head, meet Peeta's eyes. "Why are you saying this now?"
"Because I don't want you forgetting how different our circumstances are. If you die, and I live, there's no life for me at all back in District Twelve. You're my whole life," he says. And there is a lump in my throat. "I would never be happy again." I start to object but he puts a finger to my lips. "It's different for you. I'm not saying it wouldn't be hard. But there are other people who'd make your life worth living."
"Peeta pulls the chain with the gold disk from around his neck. He holds it in the moonlight so I can clearly see the mockingjay. Then his thumb slides along a catch I didn't notice before and the disk pops open. It's not solid, as I had thought, but a locket. And within the locket are photos. On the right side, my mother and Prim, laughing. And him, though he's not insisting on his staying alive, probably more like a memento than anything else.
There is nothing in the world that could break me faster at this moment than these three faces. And he makes a gesture that I know can only mean that he's talking about the baby, but I ignore that. After what I heard this afternoon … it is the perfect weapon.
"Your family needs you, Katniss," Peeta says."
"My family. My mother. My sister. To let me know I shouldn't ever have doubts about it. Everything. That's what Peeta wants me to take from him. Any I can feel my heart physically breaking. I wish he'd never started this conversation. As if the thought hadn't crossed my mind. I wait for him to mention the baby, but for some reason he doesn't.
"What about you?" I take a measured breath so my voice doesn't crack. The last thing I want if sympathy from the viewers. I mean I already got that with Peeta telling everyone about the baby…though I don't think anyone here believes it. Which I guess is fine, should make it easier for them to kill me. I hadn't realized how unfocused I had become until Peeta answers.
"No one really needs me," he says, and there's no self-pity in his voice. I choke down a sob, because this hurts more than I thought it would, but it's true his family doesn't need him. They will mourn him, as will a handful of friends. But they will get on. Even Haymitch, with the help of a lot of white liquor, will get on. I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.
"I do," I say. "I need you." He looks upset, takes a deep breath as if to begin a long argument, and that's no good, no good at all, because he'll start going on about Prim and my mother and the baby and everything and I'll just get confused. So before he can talk, I stop his lips with a kiss. I don't anticipate however just how much I've needed this. If this is our last moment to ourselves then I plan to take full advantage of it. I can't think of anything aside from this kiss. Peeta is always so gentle, but for the first time, I don't care about being gentle. I go to pull away briefly and he grabs my neck and pulls me back, I place my hand on top of his and am lost in his kiss. I'm lost in his touch. "I wish I could freeze this moment and live in it for the rest of my life." And I do. More than anything I do not want to let go of him, for fear that I'll never get him back.
Peeta and I have kissed before that's nothing new, but there is an intensity in this one that I don't know if it can be stopped, and at this point I don't want it to be. I've unknowingly twisted fully in his direction and he in mine, we'd be the easiest target in the world right now, but I don't care. I'm so close to Peeta now that I can't see anything but him, and I don't want to. I want the last thing I see to be his face. Peeta's taken ahold of my face and my hands have grasped his underarms. Just when I think nothing could interrupt us, lightning strikes the tree and we both jump. It's midnight. Peeta pulls me down so my head is on his chest and he just holds me.
The lightning rouses Finnick as well. He sits up with a sharp cry. I see his fingers digging into the sand as he reassures himself that whatever nightmare he inhabited wasn't real.
"I can't sleep anymore," he says. "One of you should rest." Only then does he seem to notice our expressions, the way we're wrapped around each other. "Or both of you. I can watch alone."
Peeta won't let him, though. "It's too dangerous," he says. "I'm not tired. You lie down, Katniss." I don't object because I do need to sleep if I'm to be of any use keeping him alive. I let him lead me over to where the others are. He puts the chain with the locket around my neck, then rests his hand over the spot where our baby is. Oh God, where our baby is. "You're going to make a great mother, you know," he says. He kisses me one last time and goes back to Finnick.
I know I should sleep and eventually I'm sure I will, but all I can think about now, is that no matter who lives and who dies, we will both be damaged beyond repair. It's all I can do not to get back up and crawl into his strong arms and refuse to let go, but he told me to sleep and so I'll sleep. Before I sleep I think that if only one of us can be a parent, anyone can see it should be Peeta.
As I drift off, I try to imagine that world, somewhere in the future, with no Games, no Capitol. A place like the meadow in the song I sang to Rue as she died. Where Peeta's child could be safe.
When I wake, I have a brief, delicious feeling of happiness that is connected with Peeta. Happiness, of course, is a complete absurdity at this point, since at the rate things are going, I'll be dead in a day. I sit next to Peeta on the sand to eat my rolls. For some reason, it's difficult to look at him. Maybe it was all that kissing last night, although the two of us kissing isn't anything new. It might not even have felt any different for him. Maybe it's knowing the brief amount of time we have left. And how we're working at such cross-purposes when it comes to who should survive these Games.
Today is the day that we will carry out Beetee's plan. As we head for the tree I take the lead. The lightning tree's unmistakable as it towers so high above the others. I find a bunch of nuts and make everybody wait while I move slowly up the slope, tossing the nuts ahead of me. But I see the force field almost immediately, even before a nut hits it, because it's only about fifteen yards away. My eyes, which are sweeping the greenery before me, catch sight of the rippled square high up and to my right. I throw a nut directly in front of me and hear it sizzle in confirmation.
About this time we hear the sound of clicks rising from the sector adjacent to us. That means it's eleven o'clock. It's far louder in the jungle than it was on the beach last night. We all listen intently.
"It's not mechanical," Beetee says decidedly.
"I'd guess insects," I say. "Maybe beetles."
"Something with pincers," adds Finnick.
The sound swells, as if alerted by our quiet words to the proximity of live flesh. Whatever is making that clicking, I bet it could strip us to the bone in seconds.
"We should get out of here, anyway," says Johanna. "There's less than an hour before the lightning starts.
I look coolly into the blue eyes of the person who is now my greatest opponent, the person who would keep me alive at his own expense. And I promise myself I will defeat his plan.
The laughter drains from those eyes, and they are staring so intensely into mine, "it's like they can read my thoughts. "The locket didn't work, did it?" Peeta says, even though Finnick is right there. Even though everyone can hear him. "Katniss?"
"It worked," I say.
"But not the way I wanted it to," he says, averting his glance. After that he will look at nothing but oysters. Of course this would happen. I knew it would. He must resent me so much for being so stubborn to be willing to sacrifice more than just my own life. I still can't get over the guilt of knowing that when I die, I will taking two people from him.
There's nothing to do now but wait. Peeta and I sit at the edge of the water, hand in hand, wordless. He gave his speech last night but it didn't change my mind, and nothing I can say will change his. The time for persuasive gifts is over.
The work on the trunk's completed just as we hear the wave begin. I've never really worked out at what point in the ten o'clock hour it erupts. There must be some buildup, then the wave itself, then the aftermath of the flooding. But the sky tells me ten-thirty.
This is when Beetee reveals the rest of the plan. Since we move most swiftly through the trees, he wants Johanna and me to take the coil down through the jungle, unwinding the wire as we go. We are to lay it across the twelve o'clock beach and drop the metal spool, with whatever is left, deep into the water, making sure it sinks. Then run for the jungle. If we go now, right now, we should make it to safety.
"I want to go with them as a guard," Peeta says immediately. After the moment with the pearl, I know he's less willing than ever to let me out of his sight.
"You're too slow. Besides, I'll need you on this end. Katniss will guard," says Beetee. "There's no time to debate this. I'm sorry. If the girls are to get out of there alive, they need to move now." He hands the coil to Johanna.
I don't like the plan any more than Peeta does. In fact we both probably hate it the exact same. The last thing I want it to get separated from him. How can I protect him at a distance? But Beetee's right. With his leg, Peeta is too slow to make it down the slope in time. Johanna and I are the fastest and most sure-footed on the jungle floor. I can't think of any alternative. And if I trust anyone here besides Peeta, it's Beetee.
"It's okay," I tell Peeta. "We'll just drop the coil and come straight back up." His eyes are frantic with worry, and I know there is nothing I can say that will comfort him or me. For now, this is the hand we've been dealt. And for better or for worse, we're going to get split up.
"Not into the lightning zone," Beetee reminds me. "Head for the tree in the one-to-two-o'clock sector. If you find you're running out of time, move over one more. Don't even think about going back on the beach, though, until I can assess the damage."
I take Peeta's face in my hands. "Don't worry. I'll see you at midnight." I give him a kiss and, before he can object any further, I let go and turn to Johanna. "Ready?"
"Why not?" says Johanna with a shrug. She's clearly no happier about being teamed up than I am. But we're all caught up in Beetee's trap. "You guard, I'll unwind. We can trade off later."
"Without further discussion, we head down the slope. In fact there's very little discussion between us at all. We move at a pretty good clip, one manning the coil, the other keeping watch. About halfway down, we hear the clicking beginning to rise, indicating it's after eleven.
"Better hurry," Johanna says. "I want to put a lot of distance between me and that water before the lightning hits. Just in case Volts miscalculated something."
"I'll take the coil for a while," I say. It's harder work laying out the wire than guarding, and she's had a long turn.
"Here," Johanna says, passing me the coil.
"Both of our hands are still on the metal cylinder when there's a slight vibration. Suddenly the thin golden wire from above springs down at us, bunching in tangled loops and curls around our wrists. Then the severed end snakes up to our feet.
It only takes a second to register this rapid turn of events. Johanna and I look at each other, but neither of us has to say it. Someone not far above us has cut the wire. And they will be on us at any moment.
My hand frees itself from the wire and has just closed on the feathers of an arrow when the metal cylinder smashes into the side of my head. The next thing I know, I'm lying on my back in the vines, a terrible pain in my left temple. Something's wrong with my eyes. My vision blurs in and out of focus as I strain to make the two moons floating up in the sky into one. It's hard to breathe, and I realize Johanna's sitting on my chest, pinning me at the shoulders with her knees.
There's a stab in my left forearm. I try to jerk away but I'm still too incapacitated. Johanna's digging something, I guess the point of her knife, into my flesh, twisting it around. There's an excruciating ripping sensation and warmth runs down my wrist, filling my palm. She swipes down my arm and coats half my face with my blood.
"Stay down!" she hisses. Her weight leaves my body and I'm alone.
Stay down? I think. What? What is happening? My eyes shut, blocking out the inconsistent world, as I try to make sense of my situation.
All I can think of is Johanna shoving Wiress to the beach. "Just stay down, will you?" But she didn't attack Wiress. Not like this. I'm not Wiress, anyway. I'm not Nuts. "Just stay down, will you?" echoes around inside my brain.
Footsteps coming. Two pairs. Heavy, not trying to conceal their whereabouts.
Brutus's voice. "She's good as dead! Come on, Enobaria!" Feet moving into the night.
Am I? I drift in and out of consciousness looking for an answer. Am I as good as dead? I'm in no position to make an argument to the contrary. In fact, rational thinking is a struggle. This much I know. Johanna attacked me. Smashed that cylinder into my head. Cut my arm, probably doing irreparable damage to veins and arteries, and then Brutus and Enobaria showed up before she had time to finish me off.
The alliance is over. Finnick and Johanna must have had an agreement to turn on us tonight. I knew we should have left this morning. I don't know where Beetee stands. But I'm fair game, and so is Peeta.
Peeta! My eyes fly open in panic. Peeta is waiting up by the tree, unsuspecting and off guard. Maybe Finnick has even killed him already. "No," I whisper. That wire was cut from a short distance away by the Careers. Finnick and Beetee and Peeta — they can't know what's going on down here. They can only be wondering what has happened, why the wire has gone slack or maybe even sprung back to the tree. This, in itself, can't be a signal to kill, can it? Surely this was just Johanna deciding the time had come to break with us. Kill me. Escape from the Careers. Then bring Finnick into the fight as soon as possible.
I don't know. I don't know. I only know that I must get back to Peeta and keep him alive. It takes every ounce of will I have to push up into a sitting position and drag myself up the side of a tree to my feet. It's lucky I have something to hold on to because the jungle's tilting back and forth. Without any warning, I lean forward and vomit up the seafood feast, heaving until there can't possibly be an oyster left in my body. Trembling and slick with sweat, I assess my physical condition. Still pregnant, still wobbly.
"Peeta. My dying wish. My promise. To keep him alive. My heart lifts a bit when I realize he must be alive because no cannon has fired. Maybe Johanna was acting alone. As I get nearer the tree I know that when the insects go silent, the lightning will start. I have to move faster. I have to get to Peeta.
The boom of a cannon pulls me up short. Someone has died.
The tree swims into view, its trunk festooned with gold. I slow down, try to move with some stealth, but I'm really just lucky to be upright. I look for a sign of the others. No one. No one is there. "Peeta?" I call softly. "Peeta?" I'm in panic mood now. I need to find Peeta. I have to find Peeta. Peeta needs to be alive. I get to the tree and find Beetee unconscious, but alive.
I've got to get away from this tree and —
"Katniss!" I hear his voice though he's a far distance away. But what is he doing? Peeta must have figured out that everyone is hunting us by now. "Katniss!"
I can't protect him. I can't move fast or far and my shooting abilities are questionable at best. I do the one thing I can to draw the attackers away from him and over to me. "Peeta!" I scream out. "Peeta! I'm here! Peeta!" Yes, I will draw them in, any in my vicinity, away from Peeta and over to me and the lightning tree that will soon be a weapon in and of itself. "I'm here! I'm here!" He won't make it. Not with that leg in the night. He will never make it in time. "Peeta!"
It's working. I can hear them coming. Two of them. Crashing through the jungle. My knees start to give out and I sink down next to Beetee, resting my weight on my heels. My bow and arrow lift into position. If I can take them out, will Peeta survive the rest?
Another cannon.
"Katniss!" Peeta's voice howls for me. But this time I don't answer. Beetee still breathes faintly beside me. He and I will soon die. Finnick and Enobaria will die. Peeta is alive. Two cannons have sounded. Brutus, Johanna, Chaff. Two of them are already dead. That will leave Peeta with only one tribute to kill. And that is the very best I can do. One enemy.
Enemy. Enemy. The word is tugging at a recent memory. Pulling it into the present. The look on Haymitch's face. "Katniss, when you're in the arena …" The scowl, the misgiving. "What?" I hear my own voice tighten as I bristle at some unspoken accusation. "You just remember who the enemy is," Haymitch says. "That's all."
Haymitch's last words of advice to me. Why would I need reminding? I have always known who the enemy is. Who starves and tortures and kills us in the arena. Who will soon kill everyone I love.
My bow drops as his meaning registers. Yes, I know who the enemy is. And it's not Enobaria.
I finally see Beetee's knife with clear eyes. My shaking hands slide the wire from the hilt, wind it around the arrow just above the feathers, and secure it with a knot picked up in training.
I rise, turning to the force field, fully revealing myself but no longer caring. Only caring about where I should direct my tip, where Beetee would have driven the knife if he'd been able to choose. My bow tilts up at the wavering square, the flaw, the … what did he call it that day? The chink in the armor. I let the arrow fly, see it hit its mark and vanish, pulling the thread of gold behind it.
My hair stands on end and the lightning strikes the tree.
A flash of white runs up the wire, and for just a moment, the dome bursts into a dazzling blue light. I'm thrown backward to the ground, body useless, paralyzed, eyes frozen wide, as feathery bits of matter rain down on me. I can't reach Peeta. My eyes strain to capture one last image of beauty to take with me.
Right before the explosions begin, I find a star.
As the arena begins to fall apart I can see the hovercraft over me. The next thing I know I'm waking up inside it. I look around for any sign of Peeta. "Peeta…" I call quietly. But as I start walking I see nothing and no one. I don't know where to look and then I hear voices. Maybe Peeta's with them I think, hoping that I am right. I see a syringe and wanting to be able to defend myself with something I grab it.
"She's gonna lose it when she finds out about the boy," say Haymitch. Haymitch? What the hell is Haymitch doing in the hovercraft.
"But she'll still cooperate," says Plutarch Heavensbee. Plutarch? Haymitch what have you done?
"Without Peeta, there's no guarantee," Haymitch says.
Without Peeta? What does he mean by without Peeta? I start to have an problem breathing, I've been unknowingly moving closer to the door. "Just tell her when—" Finnick says as the door opens but stops upon seeing me.
I don't know what to think. How can they all be here? Why are they all here? Why are they together? What is going on? Why did Haymitch say without Peeta? I'm frantically scanning their faces for anything but all I see is hesitation and dread. No one wants to say anything to me.
"Morning, sweetheart," Haymitch says with a smile. With a smile? I rush over to him arm and syringe in the air.
"What are you doing with them?" I blurt out.
"You and a syringe against the Capitol," says Haymitch pulling the syringe from my hand, "see this is why nobody let's you make the plans."
"The hell are you doing here?" I ask Finnick. No one is answering me. Why is no one answering me? What is going on?!
"Stop, stop, stop," Finnick says raising his hand to us. Even though I'm confused beyond belief something tells me to listen to Finnick. "Just listen."
"We couldn't tell you," says Haymitch. "With Snow watching you it's too risky. Better for you to know nothing."
I'm sick of not being told anything, and I need Peeta. "Where's Peeta?" I'm terrified of the answer. Terrified because of what I heard before I even got in here, and even more so now.
"Katniss," says Plutarch. "You have been our mission from the beginning. The plan was always to get you out. Half the tributes were in on it. This is the revolution, and you are the Mockingjay. And we're on our way to District 13 right now."
"Thirteen?" I ask.
"Yes," Plutarch answers.
"Where's Peeta?" I ask. Why won't anyone answer me?
"He still has his tracker in his arm," Haymitch says. "Johanna cut yours out."
"Where is he?" My heart is sinking. I don't want to hear it.
"In the Capitol." He pauses. "They got him and Johanna."
Oh my god! How could they let this happen? It doesn't take long for me to decide what to do as I fling myself at Haymitch. Pregnant women shouldn't be messed with and after this news the last thing you want to do is tell me that my husband has been taken prisoner and you're not going to do a damn thing about it!
"You son of a bitch!" I run at him and slap him several times. "You son of a—" I'm so emotional, I can't breath. "You promised you would save him over me! You promised me!" I can feel a needle in my back. "You're a liar!" I can't breathe, I can't think. My whole world has been ripped from me and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. "Haymitch…" I'm whimpering. "I…love…him…" and then I slip into a state of unconsciousness.
The next thing I know I wake up in a hospital room and Gale is looking down at me. For the moment I don't care what happened before the Quell. Gale has never lied to me. "Hey Catnip," he says. "You're okay, you've just been asleep for a few days. You just needed to rest."
"Where's Prim?" I ask but he doesn't answer. "Gale…where's Prim?" Worry is sucking out my oxygen like a vice.
"She's alive," he finally answers. "So's your mother. I got them out in time."
"Got them out?" My whole entire world is collapsing.
"After the Games they sent in hovercrafts. And they started dropping fire bombs."
"They're not in Twelve?" I can hear my voice crack.
"There is no District Twelve. It's all gone."
Everything I love…my home…Peeta…I don't have them anymore…
I will probably have the next chapter up shortly, until then...I'm sorry for any tears shed in this chapter...