Hey guys :) sorry this chapter took me longer than usual to upload. I have a challenge for you guys! I threw in a Pirates of the Caribbean quote in here and I was wondering if any on you will notice :)
That night is silent. No one dares make a sound, let alone speak. So many people have died in one day that no one is in the mood to talk. Cato is leaning against a tree because he's on watch tonight. The lack of sleep is beginning to catch up with him, but he knows he has to stay awake, so he pushes away the feeling of tiredness and the fact that his eyes are burning and focuses straight ahead. The anthem begins to blare over the speaker and he quickly looks at the leaves, refusing to see the photos of everyone who died.
It takes a long time for the anthem to stop.
He sighs and leans back, but another booming noise makes him jump. It's so loud that it makes Finnick wake up too. Until now, he had been asleep, not too far away from Cato, and he could swear he hear some muffled sobs coming from the strong District 4 tribute, but Cato knew better than to call him out on it. Finnick mutters a curse and sits up, rubbing his face with his grubby hands.
"Da hell was that?" he mumbles. Cato points to the source of the noise, a place beyond their little resting spot. The sound is a large tree with lightning crashing down on it. Cato realizes he has heard it before, but during the time someone was either dead or dying so none of them bothered to look at it. But now it's so loud and clear that it's impossible to ignore. Beetee's sudden voice causes Finnick to jump out of his skin.
"I need to go there," he says, pointing to the lightning tree.
"Um, why?" Finnick asks, wondering why on earth anyone would want to go near that thing.
"Because I have a way to destroy the other tributes and if you come along to protect me, all of you, than I can protect you. I give you my word," He says, raising his hand. Cato and Finnick look at each other, doubt clouding their eyes, so Beetee continues. "I've seen the most of the remaining tributes around the beach, because of what's going on in the jungle. They'll be on the beach tomorrow to find new supplies. We can have them all killed off before lunchtime."
By this time, Haymitch and Katniss have joined the conversation. Katniss begins to shake her head and open her mouth to argue, but Haymitch quickly grabs her arm as a sign for her to be silent.
"We'll do whatever you want us to do, Beetee." He says to Beetee. The man smiles and then begins cleaning his glasses. Cato notices that he still has one hand on his coil.
They've walked for what seems like hours. The five of them are practically dead on their feet. Haymitch managed to actually fall asleep while walking, which caused him to fall forwards, right on to Cato. Katniss had suggested for them to all stop and take a breather, but Beetee refused, saying there was no time for rest, so they all continued on. Beetee would have continued on regardless of them, and none of the group fancied getting fried by electricity.
Finnick is walking beside Katniss. She notices he has black bags under his eyes, which are also bloodshot. He looks at her and smirks.
"So, girl on fire, I do hope you're feeling well." he says.
She rolls her eyes and lets out an annoyed sigh. "What are you talking about, Finnick?" she mumbles.
"Didn't your dear district partner announce to the world that you're pregnant?" he says.
A multitude of swear words go streaming through her head. How the hell could she forget that?!
"We're both fine." she snaps at him, trying to cover up her complete stupidity. He's about to come back with some retort when Haymitch's voice interrupts him.
"We're here!"
They all stop and look up at the huge tree, it's nearly twice as large as the others. She takes a step back, admiring the huge thing. Beetee is already wrapping the coil around the trunk, but he begins telling them about his plans anyway.
"Ok, here's what we're going to do. Haymitch and Finnick, I need you to take the coil down to the beach and place it in the wet sand. As for Cato and Katniss, I need you here to protect me. Does everyone agree?" he asks.
"I like it, simple and easy to remember." Haymitch says. He snatches up the coil and he and Finnick begin making their way down to the beach. Katniss scans the invisible field in front of her, the only sign that it is there is the occasional quiver from the constant energy. She stares at the field, until an idea suddenly pops into her mind. She remembers watching the video of Haymitch winning his games. He used the force field to his advantage. She could do the same; but on a higher scale. She could use the lightning to bring down the damn arena. To break the Capitol. She finds herself grinning, but then the grin falls as she thinks of her family back home. They'd be killed for her pulling a stunt like this.
No, she tells herself firmly. Gale would protect them. He'd take them away before any harm could fall on them.
So with that confirmation in her mind, she reaches over and pulls Cato close. He seems surprised and raises his eyebrows. She stands on the tip of her toes so she can put her lips close to her ear.
"We can bring it down. All of it! The arena! We can do it, Cato! Stop the Games once and for all!" she whispers. She sounds almost excited. Cato swallows hard, processing her words. But then he takes a step back and shakes his head.
"That won't stop them, Katniss. Nothing will ever stop them. This will get us all killed and your family too! This wouldn't work!" he says angrily. She should fucking know better.
"Yes it would!" she says, just as angry as he is. A sudden rumble causes them both to look upwards. The black clouds are starting to form above them. Shit, the lightning is starting sooner than they thought it would. Katniss looks back at Cato, knowing it's now or never. She remembers that Cato once told her the easiest way to knock someone out is to hit them in this one place in the jaw. At the time, he never dreamed she would use it on him. She has once chance, if she fails she better run really fast because he's going to be pissed.
"Cato," she says, raising her bow in the air. He takes his eyes off the black clouds and looks at her. It takes him a second to realize what she's doing, but she's just a little faster than him. She brings her bow down so fast on his jaw that she hears a crack. His neck snaps to the side and he crumples to the ground.
Shit, that really does work.
"I'm sorry," she whispers then turns around and goes to the tree. Beetee has watched the entire time and now stares at her like she's insane. She raises her leg and kicks him hard in the stomach, knocking him out of the way. She grabs the end of the coil, Beetee has left a considerable amount. He must have planned to tuck it in at the last minute. She wraps it around the arrowhead and ties it quickly. She hears Haymitch screaming at her to stop, but she knows it's too late for that. She sees the brim of white against the black cloud, and a moment later the lightning strikes the tree. And she release the arrow. The sheer force of the electricity causes her to fly back. She sees that the arrow has hit the force field, causing an explosion of fire. She hits the ground, but her head comes in contact with something hard and sharp, and the world goes black within a few seconds.
A sharp pain in her arm causes her to jolt awake. She sees Finnick crouching beside her. He's covered in burns and cuts, which must have been a result of the explosion.
"Welcome back, girl on fire." He mutters. He's wrapping a white bandage around her forearm, which is where the pain is coming from. It takes her a second to remember that she once had a tracker there, but she assumes he's cut it out. She notices he has a matching bandage on his own arm.
"What happened?" she mumbles. She feels groggy and disoriented and when she sits up, he quickly pushes her back to the ground.
"You destroyed the arena. But, luckily, someone anticipated that something like this would happen so he was prepared so he was able to get us out." he responds as he finishes wrapping the bandage around her arm. It's only then does she notice that she is no longer in the arena; instead they're in a Hovercraft. Then reality hits her like a ton of bricks.
"Wait, who did he get out?!" she asks him, her voice rising as she begins to realize what she did.
"Calm down! He was able to get you, me, Beetee, Haymitch and Cato." Finnick answer, pushing her back on to the ground.
"Where are they?" she asks. Finnick bites his lip, unsure whether he should answer, but Katniss glares at him so he finally tells her.
"Beetee and Haymitch are up there," he says and points to the room behind them. Then he looks back and points behind her. "And Cato is back there." She jumps and looks behind her, only to see Cato lying motionless behind her.
"He was on his feet when we got there, but then he got caught under a piece of metal. Katniss, um, his face got kind of... Burned." he says. Katniss quickly goes to her friend, but her heart stops when she gets to his side. One of the first things Katniss noticed about Cato was his flawless, beautiful face. That's what everyone noticed, but now the entire left side of his face has been eaten away by fire. His pale skin has turned black and large red welts and blood cover his eyebrow and down to his ear. Katniss covers her mouth with her hand, the smell of his burned skin making her stomach flip.
"They may be able to repair it, where we're going... But, Katniss, this is the worst burn I've ever seen. He may always be scarred." Finnick says quietly. He's staring at Cato, pity written clearly across his face.
Katniss can't take her eyes off Cato's now charcoal colored skin and there's only two things going through her mind.
This is my fault, this is all my fault, he's mutilated because of me.
He'll never forgive me.