Hello again everyone! Midterms are finally over! (Thank goodness) Thank you to all who have been reviewing! Please keep on sending me your thoughts. I'm debating on if I wanna carry this story through Mockingjay or if I'll just carry them in just a bit and end it there. Eh, I'll have to think on it. Anyway, on with the chapter!
Clove
Our little, okay well no not really little, group decided to head on out to the cornucopia. A.) Because there's food and supplies there B.) Since we're such a large group, nobody would mess with us, right? C.) It would be the center of our clock and allow us to get our bearings. We were up to our hips in the water when we heard a rumble, it started slow at first, but then grew. I looked up towards the direction the noise was coming from. Above the tree line you could see the top of a giant tidal wave, ripping through the trees like Enobaria rips meat of a chicken leg. Except the trees weren't uprooted. Just like the mist, the giant wave began to funnel into its now shrinking wedge, slowly decreasing in size and velocity. It came to a halt when it crashed against the Cornucopia, which was drenched, but still stood firm. Beetee looked up at the forest where the wave had just ripped through, then at the lightning tree, then back to the forest.
"10 o'clock."
"Looks like we got another one figured out.", Finnick commented. About a third of the way to the Cornucopia my feet didn't touch so I had to start swimming, the others shortly after one by one. When I reached the black, jagged rocks of the Cornucopia island I hauled myself up and onto one of the more flat rocks. Cato's blonde head popped up from behind one of the rocks. I made my way over to him as he hauled his giant butt outta the water. Gloss was out too and dragging Cash out like a wet puppy. The lovebirds were murmuring amongst themselves, but hey, whatever floats their boat. Our job is to get their sorry asses outta here, not be up to date on their whatever kind of romance you wanna call it. Looks like Finnick had found the food and was happily munching on a bag of beef jerky…wait… He isn't gonna eat all of that is he? Damn it, I WANT SOME OF IT!
"FINNICK DON"T YOU DARE EAT ALL OF THAT!", I screeched and sprinted over to the rock he was sitting on.
"Finders keepers!", he said defensively while holding the bag over his head. Well if that's how he wants to play…I braced myself for collision and launched myself at him. The two of us tumbled back and I grabbed the bag from him. I grinned and stood up, brushing some sand and rock bits off of me. We had nearly crashed into Beetee it looks like, who was completely absorbed in some kind of copper wiring. Wiress was sitting by the edge of the water singing an old nursery rhyme about a mouse and a clock. Eh, she's completely bonkers so I guess that's to be expected. I stuffed some jerky into my mouth and plopped down next to Cato, who was watching Katniss draw a circle in the sand and divide it like a clock.
"Alright, so we know that at 1 it's the blood rain, then at 2 the poisonous mist, 3 is the howler monkeys, 4 is Jabberjays.", Katniss began. Jabberjays? I looked up at Katniss and Finnick, who had joined our little pow-wow a minute or two ago. Both of them wore grimaces on their faces. Finnick look at me and saw my questioning look.
" Don't ask.", he muttered. I shrugged and Finnick motioned for Katniss to continue.
" The wave is at 10. That's all I've got."
"There's some really annoying bugs in 11 and alligator mutts in 9 then, if the tidal wave is at 10... We had headed there and made our way around looking for you guys.", Johanna piped in while making her way over to the pow-wow. I looked up at the wedges. The beach where we had come out of while running away from the imitations was to the left of the jabber jays, meaning that they had been in the 5 o'clock wedge.
"Imitation mutts in 5.", I added. Katniss, Finnick, Peeta, Johanna, and our resident techies (who had just joined us) all looked at me, I just shrugged in response.
"What do you mean by imitation mutts?", Peeta asked. Was it really not that obvious? Well at least out of the lovebirds we know which one has the brains.
"It's exactly what it sounds like. The mutts imitate friends of yours. Look and act just like the real ones, then they will turn on ya and try to kill you.", I said. A little bit of my irritation came out by accident. Well, I was irritated, he might as well know.
"Yeah, ran into Brutus, Enobaria, and Alexandrite. It wasn't fun.", Cato added. Finnick busted out laughing.
"Dang, I can't believe I missed that! I woulda paid good money to watch you guys duke it out with each other.", he chuckled.
"Didn't fight half as well as the real ones.", Gloss commented while twirling his spear. Oh yeah, he was definitely going for the macho man look. Bet the Capitol women are swooning. Looks like the only one though that he's trying to impress is Cashmere. Unfortunately for him, she was too busy wringing out her hair and putting it into a ponytail.
"Enobaria's gonna kick your ass nest time she sees ya."
"You mean before or after Lexi does?"
This elicited a chuckle from all the Careers , myself included, and Johanna. The others looked at us as if we had two heads.
"Anyway, it looks as if the Cornucopia points towards midnight.", Katniss said getting us back on track. A loud drone began to sound from somewhere. It was getting louder and louder until we all heard the sound of something unlatching. Then, the Cornucopia began to spin,, quickly catching speed. The movement had caught us all off guard and sent us all flying in different directions. I yanked one of my knives from my vest and lodged it into the ground, using the other to cover my head. Boxes of supplies came at me from around the mouth of the Cornucopia. I pressed up as close as I could to the rocks, hoping that some of the debris would bounce over me. I could hear Johanna and Katniss screaming. Then came the faint sound of a cannon. Oh god…someone's dead. Please…please don't be Cato. I didn't have time to continue on that train of thought though, because the island slowed down to a stop. I shakily stood up, gripping a large rock next to me for balance.
"Cato? Cato?!", I called, a bit to frantically for my taste but screw it.
"Over here babe!", came his all too familiar voice. I let out a sigh of relief and shakily made my way over to where his voice was coming from. He was leaning against a rock, obviously a little motion sick. I fell against his chest, burying my face into his chest. I felt his arms wrap tightly around me as he slid down the rock. Finnick came over to us a short while later.
"You guys alright?"
"Yeah. You?", Cato answered.
"Yeah."
"Whose cannon was it?", I asked.
"Wiress."
"Oh…how's Beetee taking it?"
"He's been pretty quiet about it. Looks like she fell in and hit her head against one of the barriers. At least it was better than drowning."
I nodded my head in agreement. Drowning would be long and painful, at least if she hit her head she would have been out pretty quick. Cashmere and Gloss were clinging on to each other, while our resident official lovebirds were checking each other for injuries.
"3 left…", I whispered into Cato's chest.
"We'll be out of here soon baby. Very soon.", he whispered back. I buried my face back into his chest, so the cameras couldn't see what I was saying.
"Sometime tomorrow we're busting out."
"Beetee's been working on a plan from the inside."
"Come on, otherwise we'll look suspicious."
We walked over and joined the others, who were picking through the few crates not swept into the water. Beetee still had the bronze wire and the rest of us still had our weapons.
"I have a plan. But first, let's go to the beach, I don't fancy another spin anytime soon."
We all shuddered and nodded our heads. Back to the beach. When we all reached the white beaches that bordered the forest, we all circled up for another pow-wow. Beetee explained how the coil worked, with some hints of pride. The plan was to pull a stunt similar to the one that won him the Victor's crown. We'll wrap the coil around the lightning tree and shock the beach, which will still be damp from the 10 o'clock wave. Beetee gave each of us a discreet look, begging us to see what he was really planning. He then kicked some sand against one of the force fields, the collision of sand and technology sending tiny sparks flying. Then it hit me. Beetee was going to use the electricity from the lightning tree to short out the force field above the arena, giving the others an opening to rescue us. Oh yeah, he's earned his name volts.
