"Get up! Get up, we have to move."
Katniss' hurried tone brought everyone from their slumber, Johanna mumbling out insults as Ramsey sent her pointed stares.
"The arena's a clock, Wiress figured it out!" Katniss sputtered out, her eyes scanning across to meet everyone's. Johanna rolled her eyes, Ramsey elbowing the bigger girl in the ribs. Finnick cocked an eyebrow, his eyes roaming across the arena, the gears turning in his head. Could she be right? It was a clock?
"Alright. Let's get to the cornucopia." Finnick snatched his trident from the sand and took the lead, Katniss seeming to be pleased with this.
Beetee protested for a moment as Peeta edged him forward, "Wire." He mumbled out, his eyes searching for something.
"No, Wiress is okay! She's right here." Peeta smiled to him, trying to calm him.
"Wire." Beetee stared him in the face, his eyes set hard with determination.
Peeta could only stare at him with curiosity, he was entirely unable to grasp what he was getting at.
"I know what he wants." Johanna snapped, her eyes rolling in aggravation. Ramsey couldn't help but giggle at her, turning to find Finnick's eyes already on her. He was staring at her again with that look that made her stomach twist in a somehow pleasant manner. She didn't like it.
"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 garrote or something. But really, can you imagine Beetee garroting somebody?"
Johanna picked up the large spool of wire, disgust etching her features as the dried blood crackled onto her hands.
"He won his Games with wire. Setting up that electrical trap, it's the best weapon he could have." Peeta spoke, Katniss raising her eyebrows. Why hadn't Johanna put that together?
"Seems like you'd have figured that out, since you nicknamed him Volts and all." Katniss' eyes were hard, her stare set on Johanna's face.
Johanna's eyes narrowed and Ramsey sighed, stepping forward and taking Johanna's elbow with her hand. She could practically feel the anger radiating off of her.
"Yeah, that was really stupid of me, wasn't it? I guess I must have been distracted by keeping your little friends alive. While you were...what, again? Getting Mags killed off?"
Ramsey pursed her lips, turning to see Finnick's eyes squint shut for a moment. They knew going into it that some of them might die in order to keep Katniss and Peeta safe, but they never realized that it would actually happen.
Katniss' hand tightened around the knife on her belt and Ramsey even felt her own anger bubble slightly. Was she really going to try and kill them?
"Go ahead. Try it. I don't care if you are knocked up, I'll rip your throat out." Johanna charged forward, Katniss' hands snapping towards her bow and arrow. Ramsey followed behind Johanna closely, silently begging Johanna to not do anything she couldn't fix.
"Johanna, don't do this. You need to remember who the real enemy is here." Ramsey mumbled against her, never daring to look anywhere else.
"Oh wow, you've got more secrets for Johanna, don't you?" Katniss snapped, her patience with both Ramsey and Johanna almost completely gone. She was sick of their secrets, of pretending to trust them, and of putting hers and Peeta's life in danger for nothing.
Ramsey's eyes slowly moved towards her, tiny little slits of gray staring out in anger. "Excuse me? I was trying to protect you and your loud mouth. You should be grateful."
"Grateful? For what? I'm not stupid, I know you're planning on killing us the first moment you have a chance."
"Katniss," Peeta warned, moving towards her tentatively.
"If I had wanted to kill you, I could have, and would have, a long time ago. Without a second thought. Trust me." Ramsey's voice was dangerously low, venom lacing every word.
The three females stared at one another, their bodies rigid and their blood boiling.
"Maybe we all had better be careful where we step," Finnick began, setting the wire down and moving towards Ramsey, "Come on, Ramsey, let's go." His hands gently reached towards the small blonde, grasping her upper arms.
Her eyes snapped to him, cold and hard and stormy. He hadn't seen her look so ferrel since he had last watched her victory games. It was alarming.
"There's your wire, Volts. Watch where you plug it." Finnick handed the wire to him, shaking his head in defeat. The tensions were running too high for his liking.
"How about we get to the cornucopia and watch, just to make sure you're right about the clock." Finnick was begging for them to get off of that beach and to district the girls from their anger. He knew Johanna's threats were anything but open ended, he knew that Katniss didn't know when to quit talking, and he knew that Ramsey was entirely too volatile for her to be involved in that mix.
They followed a strip of sand and rocks up to the cornucopia, everyone on the lookout for the careers. They knew they wouldn't be there, though. If they had wanted to ambush them, the dispute on the beach would've been the perfect time.
Wiress wandered towards the edge of the cornucopia, her frail voice singing out a song about a mouse on a clock. The others circled around Peeta and a large leaf from the forest. He carved into it with a sharpened knife, Ramsey's eyes following the small blade with a dangerous gleam in her eye.
It didn't go unnoticed by Katniss. She would never trust the lunatic, and the sooner she was dead, the better.
They watched as Peeta etched in the words lightning, blood, fog, monkeys, and wave in the 12 sections of the arena. It was a complete clock, with the tail of the cornucopia pointing at 12. Peeta worked on the leaf, marking the areas of the clock they needed to steer clear of.
And then it fell too silent.
Ramsey's eyes flickered to Katniss in alarm and the younger girl already had an arrow positioned in Wiress' direction. The group spun on their heels to find Wiress' limp body dropping onto the rocks, her throat slit open and Gloss' large smile above her.
Katniss' arrow was through his temple within seconds, both his and Wiress' cannons booming.
"Katniss!" Ramsey's raised voice shocked them all as her small knife spun through the air to pierce Cashmere's throat. Cashmere had been just feet from Katniss' back before the dagger sliced through her airway. She dropped to the ground and Ramsey's heart pounded in her ears. She had been just seconds from the face of the rebellion being dead.
Cashmere's cannon boomed.
Katniss could hardly move as she tried to process what had just happened.
But Finnick knocking away Brutus' spear from its path towards Peeta lulled her from her shock and into action once more. Ramsey's small body shot towards Cashmere, easily ripping the knife from her neck and hurrying back towards Finnick's side.
The two took off after Brutus and Enobaria without a second thought, Katniss pausing for a moment to try and figure out what they were doing.
And then everything began to shake and twist as the cornucopia began spinning, throwing everyone to the ground. The jungle twisted in a blur as everyone struggled to grasp the unsteady platform of the cornucopia.
It spun for what felt like hours before it came to an abrupt stop.
Brutus and Enobaria recovered first and fled into the jungle, leaving the others to pull themselves together.
Katniss felt her eyes search for Peeta, easily finding him laying a sputtering mess beside the golden cornucopia. But he was alive, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ramsey, Ramsey, c'mon, Ramsey."
Johanna's worried tone snapped Katniss' eyes to her, her curiosity spiking.
Johanna pulled Ramsey from the water, her blonde hair dripping wet and her small body limp. Her previous wounds from Seeder flared angrily, the blood dribbling down her pretty face, new gashes painting her skin as well. A new one assaulted her neck, a thin but bright line of red trailing from behind her ear to above her collarbone. Her eyes were shut and her lips fallen into a frown.
Finnick was at Johanna's side in an instant, adrenaline coursing through his body with fear as he stared down at the small blonde.
"Ramsey! Common, Ramsey, don't do this!" He was angry.
Angry at her for not waking up, angry at the gamemakers for spinning that stupid cornucopia, angry at the careers for choosing then to attack, angry at the fact that he was in a death arena fighting for his life while also trying to protect his future and the only two people he was even relatively close with. And now here was one of them with some unknown wound and no sign of waking up.
For once, he didn't know what to do.
Ramsey always took care of herself, and sometimes even him. And yet, he had no clue how to take care of her.
Katniss and Peeta slowly wandered towards the scene, Katniss curious and somehow worried about the blonde's fate. She had saved Katniss from Cashmere.
With a burst of water and an aggressive coughing fit, Ramsey sat up with life. Johanna hugged the smaller girl to her chest, Finnick sighing in relief as he ran his fingers through his knotted hair.
"Don't you dare do that again!" Johanna's hand collided with Ramsey's tanned cheek, the blonde staring up at her in shock.
"I almost died and you hit me? Maybe I'll just die next time!"
They stared at each other in mock anger for a moment before Ramsey felt her lips turn up and they smiled at one another.
Their laughter broke the silence and Katniss stared at them with bewilderment. She had never seen two people interact so peculiarly, especially not when they were supposed to be killing each other in an arena. They were best friends, not at all worried with the idea of having to murder one another in order for the games to end.
There was something off about their casualness.
"Where's Volts?" Finnick broke the eeriness, his eyes searching the surrounding water, the others following suit.
They found him staying afloat in the distance, Finnick swimming out to save him. While he situated the older man back near the cornucopia, Katniss found herself in search of his wire reel, carefully placing the strange coil beside him.
Johanna had hardly let Ramsey go since she had woken up and Finnick couldn't help but gravitate towards the small blonde. He had almost lost her, too. His hands begged to touch her skin just once, just once to secure the fact that she was there and alive.
Ramsey looked up at him, his sea green eyes roaming over her in worry. She cocked a thin eyebrow at him and he sighed, "Are you okay?"
She giggled at him and nodded, "I'm still alive, aren't I?"
Johanna cackled beside her, "Hardly." Ramsey rolled her eyes at her before bringing them back to Finnick. He was still genuinely worried.
Ramsey sighed once before hesitantly wrapping an arm around around his waist and pressing her face against his side for a moment in attempt to reassure him. The motion brought a flutter to his stomach as he relished in the affection from Ramsey.
Katniss looked on as the three huddled together, regrouping themselves. Beetee clutched his wire, still, obviously grieving over his loss of Wiress. Katniss felt overcome with emotions, knowing she was the only one among them who still had their district partner. She embraced Peeta tightly, silently thanking him for being alive.
"Let's get off this stinking island." Johanna's voice broke their silence, the others agreeing and starting towards a wedge of beach.
Ramsey's small body wavered as she began walking, the salt water in her system slowing her down slightly. Finnick's hands shot towards her, ready to steady her.
"Don't touch me." Her voice was cold once more and she didn't even look in his direction as she pushed herself forward.
He was taken back. Not minutes ago she had been smiling and laughing and even initiating contact with him, and now she resorted back to their first day in the arena when she wouldn't allow him to touch her.
He didn't understand.
They reached a section of jungle upon random choosing, simply in search of a tree to tap for water.
"It's my turn, half of my body is salt water right now." Ramsey's small hand reached for the spile from Peeta.
"I'll at least watch your back." It was the first time the two had even really interacted, though Peeta felt bad considering that she had obviously saved Katniss' life multiple times and had also obviously almost died multiple times.
He couldn't quite figure out why the wily coyote herself had purposely killed and almost died on behalf of Katniss, but he was grateful nonetheless.
"Katniss can do that, we need you to make another one. The other one washed away, remember?" Johanna looked to Peeta, both eyebrows high. She snapped a leaf from a nearby tree and handed it to him, he only nodded in agreement.
Katniss grew wary of the situation once more, though she hesitantly agreed and followed Ramsey back into the jungle.
The small blonde stopped at a tree she deemed suitable and pulled her knife from her belt. The sharp metal was still stained with dried blood from Cashmere and she sighed in annoyance, wiping it off on her tattered suit before beginning to work on the tree to make a hole.
Katniss watched her with caution, watching as she craftily worked through the bark with her knife at ease. She recalled how skillfully she had launched it at Cashmere, hitting her in the dead center of her throat. Ramsey had to have been trained with knifes, there was no way she could've just picked it up.
It reminded her horrifyingly of Clove. The way both of the small girls wielded knives as if they were a part of them was unnatural. The more she thought about it, the more she realized how unnatural Ramsey really was.
"Katniss? May I have the spile?"
Her calm voice pulled Katniss from her thoughts and she nodded, handing her the small metal tube.
All at once the spile dropped to the ground, both girls' heads shooting towards the thick jungle in horror. The screaming was overwhelming and sent each girl into their own personal fit of terror.
