Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
Let's get to it.
the mysterious Mr.E: Well, because of that protective vest Cinna gave her, no physical harm has come to the baby. However, the stress caused by all the strenuous activity is going to have an affect on Katniss, which we'll see by the end of this chapter.
Chapter 17- More Allies
I take another big bite out of the fish that Finnick caught with his trident. He managed to catch two fish, and Peeta and Seeder managed to retrieve a number of oysters that they are now opening to get the meat. The fish are uncooked, but I don't really care right now. We have no way to light a fire anyways, and while we could probably use the force field to cook the meat, I'm not about to go trekking all the way back up to the force field through that nightmarish jungle. Especially not when I'm feeling cramps all over, especially in my stomach. I need to rest. I've been too active the last few hours. It can't be healthy for the baby.
Beside me, Peeta cracks open another oyster, and inside finds a pearl. He picks it up, turning it in his fingers, and then smiles as he hands it to me, saying, "For you."
I hold out my hand and let Peeta drop the pearl in my hand before I look up at him and say, "Thank you."
He just smiles at me before returning to cracking open oysters. I carefully store the pearl away before I go to take another bite of the fish when I hear a scream. We all look up and hear several more screams.
"That's new," Peeta says and stands up, helping me to my feet as Finnick and Seeder also stand up.
We look across the water, and see what looks like water moving through the trees. Finally, a massive wave surges out of the trees. As it does, a cannon goes off.
The wave surges across the water until it seems to run into some wall as it reaches the Cornucopia. The water disperses in all directions, washing up onto the beach. The water comes up just above our ankles before receding back.
We watch as a hovercraft descends to just above the trees near the treeline where the wave emerged, and lwoers a claw, hauling up a body. The hovercraft then flies off and disappears.
We all stand there for several moments, wondering who just died. Then, I notice something out of the corner of my eye. "Someone's here," I say, whipping out an arrow and getting ready to attack if need be. Everyone pulls back behind some thick tree branches growing out over the sand.
We watch as two figures make their way out onto the beach, then turn back towards the trees. A moment later, a third figure stumbles onto the beach.
Suddenly, Finnick says, "Johanna?" He then runs out from behind the branches and down the beach, calling out, "Johanna!"
"Finnick!" Johanna yells and laughs as Finnick runs up to her and the others.
"Guess we have more allies," Peeta says before he walks out and starts lightly jogging after Finnick. I follow Peeta, just speed walking as that's all I feel safe doing right now. Seeder follows beside me.
As we get closer to Johanna and her companions, who I quickly recognize as Wiress and Beetee, I hear Johanna saying, "Well, I got 'em out. We were all the way into the jungle where I thought it was gonna be safe. That's when the rain started. I thought it was water. It turned out to be blood. Hot, thick blood. It was coming down, it was choking us. We were stumbling around, gagging on it, blind. That's when Blight hit the force field." She then pauses for a moment before saying, "He wasn't much, but he was from home."
Behind Johanna, Wiress is stumbling around, muttering, "Tick tock. Tick tock."
"What's wrong with her?" I ask the three of them.
"She's in shock," Beete responds as he removes his glasses, "Dehydration isn't helping. Do you have fresh water?"
"We can," I reassure Beetee.
Wiress turns to Johanna, repeating her "Tick tock" more urgently. Johanna reacts angrily, yelling, "Stop it!" as she pushes Wiress to the ground.
"Hey, lay off her!" I yell as I step forward and push Johanna away from Wiress. I feel another cramp in my stomach, but I don't let that distract me.
"Hey!" Johanna yells. Finnick quickly runs up and pulls her away as she yells, "What do you think you're doing! I got them out for you!" She then yells at Finnick to let her go.
"For me? What does that mean?" I ask out loud.
"Well, you did want them as allies," Peeta says. He had stepped up next to me in case he needed to protect me from Johanna.
Wiress stands up and looks at me with a kind of dazed smile. I smile at her as I toss my bow down and say, "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up."
I walk up to her and try to lead her over to the water. She looks at me says, "Tick tock."
"Tick tock," I repeat.
"Tick tock!" she says more urgently.
"Tick tock. Okay," I say, trying to calm her down.
I take Wiress a short distance into the water and have her kneel down in the water. I start washing the blood of her body and out of her hair.
As I'm washing the blood off Wiress, I glance back at the beach, and see Beetee doing something with some kind of coil. I look at Johanna, who's a few feet away from me, cleaning blood off of her axes, and ask, "What's Beetee got there?"
"The coil? It's some kind of wire," Johanna replies.
I look back down at Wiress as I ask Johanna, "Did he get it from the Cornucopia?"
"Took a knife in the back to get it," Johanna responds.
As I scrub a spot of blood on Wiress' neck, she gasps and says loudly, "Tick tock! Tick tock!"
Johanna groans and says, "I-I can't. Just…have fun with Nuts." She then starts to walk away.
As she does, I hear something. I look into the jungle to see a lightning storm beginning, with a number of massive lightning bolts striking a particularly large tree one after the other.
A second later, I realize something. It's in the exact same place, and the exact same tree, as we saw last night.
"Tick tock," Wiress says one more time.
I then look around the arena. The spokes of land are dividing the arena into twelve even section. Two sections over is where the fog came, and the next section over is where the monkeys showed up. And I realize what Wiress is trying to tell us.
"It's a clock. It's a clock," I mutter. I then pull Wiress to her feet and turn her to me as I say, "It's a clock! Wiress, you're a genius! You're a genius!"
Suddenly, I feel a sharp cramp in my stomach, and almost a relief of pressure at the same time. A moment later, I feel something wet flowing out of me.
I cry out in alarm, loud enough to draw everyone's attention. I look down at my stomach in horror.
Peeta comes running out into the water. "What is it?!" he cries in alarm.
I look at Peeta in horror, and manage to get out, "My water just broke."
And, I'll end there. Hope you liked it.
So, yes, many of you probably guessed this would happen. The baby is going to be born in the arena. That will happen next chapter.
Next chapter will be up soon. Until it is, please leave a review, and stay tuned!