12.
I'm uneasy as I watch Katniss talking with Peeta. I can't hear what they're saying, but I have a feeling it has to do with leaving the alliance. Who would stay in it when there's only three non-alliance tributes left, anyway? But they can't leave. That would ruin everything. I'm caught up in how I should work this out when Katniss calls me over.
"Hey, Finnick, I found a way to make you look pretty again!" She's scrubbing off the green scabs with sand. I almost forgot what she looked like being non-green.
I scrub off the ointment, the fresh skin underneath looking red and irritated. Kind of like sunburns back in District 4.
"Maybe you should put some more on" she suggests, taking in my raw skin. I shake my head vigorously. There's no way I'm going to slather more olive green grossness on me.
Beetee gathers us together. "I think we'll all agree our next step is to kill Brutus and Enobaria," he says mildly, "So I have devised a plan that will get them." I notice how he's choosing his words very carefully, so as not to set off any suspicion from Katniss or Peeta. "Where is the safest location in the arena?" he asks.
"Where we are, on the beach," Katniss answers.
"So why aren't they on the beach?"
"Because we're here," Johanna says, exasperated.
"Exactly. So my plan is after the lightning strike at noon, we will wind this wire," he says gesturing toward the coil he's never let go of, "Around the beach and the lightning tree before the lightning strike at midnight. Of course, the beach will still be wet from the ten o'clock wave. And salt water is highly conductive."
"You're going to electrocute the arena?" Peeta asks slowly. Beetee nods.
"What about food?" I ask, trying to look curious.
"We have sponsors. The seafood will probably be more than cooked, but we've been getting bread." The ever-important bread.
"How do you know if it's going to work?" Katniss asks.
"Because I invented it," Beetee says, then bites his lip. I don't think that was supposed to come out. "Because this isn't real wire, just like these trees aren't real trees. You know more about trees than any of us, Johanna. You can tell us these aren't real." That was possibly the worst excuse I've ever heard but Johanna has the sense to agree. "So what do you say? Want to give it a go?" he asks, already knowing most of our answers.
"Sure," I say.
"Fine," Johanna says.
"Okay," Wiress whispers
"Why not," Mags says. I notice how everyone tries to look like they just heard about the plan right now. Cautious. Tentative.
"Um...sure," Peeta says, glancing at Katniss, who's staring at the ground.
"Might as well try it," Katniss says tentatively raising her head.
Beetee fine tunes the weapon while Peeta draws another clock on a leaf, adding JJ for the jabberjays.
Mags weaves a net and then we collect seafood, just in case the plan doesn't work. I pry open an oyster and find a surprise. A pearl. I've only seen one in an oyster once, when my father discovered it. I walk over to Katniss, who looks a little out of it again. "For you," I tell her, knowing Johanna wouldn't care if it was a pearl or a lump of coal.
She looks up at me with a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Thanks."
Soon the wave floods over the beach while we watch from the jungle.
And after waiting two hours, it comes. Twelve bongs. Lightning strike. It's go time.
A/N: Starting to switch things up a little now!