Catching Fire in Peeta's Point of View
The next chapter will be posted in a few hours, when I've finished writing it. Or possibly tomorrow, it depends on how well I do.
Also, did you guys see it? Did you love it as much as I did? Such a good film!
Chapter Fourteen
"Get up!" Someone is shaking me awake. "Get up – we have to move." I rub my eyes and sit up with a frown. Nothing appears to be attacking us, we're all on the beach and everything is quiet.
"What's going on, Katniss?" I ask groggily. When Finnick, Johanna and I are awake, Katniss quickly explains about the arena, and why Wiress is always murmuring 'tick, tock'.
"The arena's a clock," she says, which makes me frown more. "Every hour something happens in a particular section. Over there, the lightning hits the tree when it's midnight, or when it feels like noon. Then the blood rain, after that the fog. Straight after the fog came the monkeys. Every hour triggers something in each section of the arena. The wave didn't stay to its own section, so the fog or the monkeys might come out of the jungle." It makes sense, although Johanna doesn't want to admit that Katniss is right. She still agrees to move. We gather up the few possessions that we have, ready to move on and avoid either of the horrors that could leak out of the jungle.
Katniss rouses Wiress, who is panicked and shouting, "tick, tock!" Katniss nods.
"Yes, tick, tock, the arena's a clock. It's a clock, Wiress, you were right. You were right." Katniss reassures her, and the tension floods from Wiress' expression. She even manages to communicate better with us now that we understand what she has been trying to tell us. When we're all ready, I try to lift Beetee, but he shakes his head and resists me.
"Wire," he mumbless.
"She's right here," I tell him, thinking he means Wiress. "Wiress is fine. She's coming, too." He still doesn't allow me to lift him.
"Wire," he says again.
"Oh, I know what he wants." Johanna picks up the cylinder that had been attached to his belt. "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 garotte or something. But really, can you imagine Beetee garotting somebody?" I remember the tapes I had watched so many times
"He won his Games with wire. Setting up that electrical trap. It's the best weapon he could have." I say.
"Seems like you'd have figured that out," Katniss says rather suspiciously. "Since you nicknamed him Volts and all."
"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?" Katniss tenses up. Her fingers find the knife at her belt. "Go ahead. Try it. I don't care if you are knocked up, I'll rip your throat out," Johanna hisses. There's a tense, silent moment. I keep my hands free, just in case the two of them do start fighting.
"Maybe we all had better be careful where we step," Finnick finally cuts the silence. He places the cylinder on Beetee's chest. "There's your wire, Volts. Watch where you plug it." I take Beetee in my arms and stand up.
"Where to?"
"I'd like to go to the Cornucopia and watch. Just to make sure we're right about the clock," Finnick says. We carefully make our way to the Cornucopia, watching out for the Careers, but there is nobody around. I lay Beetee down in the shade of the Cornucopia, and pick up the coil of wire. It's covered in dried blood, so I call Wiress over and hand it to her.
"Clean it, will you?" I ask her and she nods, taking it from my hands and scampering to the water. She dunks the cylinder in the water and starts singing some song about a mouse and a clock.
"Oh, not the song again," Johanna groans with a roll of her eyes. "That went on for hours before she started tick-tocking." Wiress stands up, suddenly alert, pointing to the jungle.
"Two." I wonder how she knows the time exactly. Where she is pointing, the fog is rolling out onto the beach where we had been sitting. It's lucky that Katniss had figured out what Wiress had been trying to warn us.
"Yes, look, Wiress is right. It's two o'clock and the fog has started."
"Like clockwork. You were very smart to figure that out, Wiress." I smile at her, and she smiles before returning to her cleaning and singing.
"Oh, she's more than smart." I spin on my heels to look down at Beetee, who is slowly waking. "She's intuitive. She can sense things before anyone else. Like a canary in one of your coal mines."
"What's that?" Finnick asks Katniss.
"It's a bird that we take down into the mines to warn us if there's bad air," Katniss explains.
"What's it do, die?" Johanna asks, rather sarcastically.
"It stops singing first. That's when you should get out. But if the air's too bad, it dies, yes. And so do you." Katniss doesn't say anything more on the subject, and I wonder if her thoughts are on her father, who died in the mines. Or maybe Gale, who now works in them.
Johanna picks through the weapons left in the Cornucopia, and Katniss searches for more arrows to add to her stock. I take out the leaf I had collected from the jungle earlier. I hadn't been sure what I might have needed it for, but now it has a purpose. Squatting on the ground, I use the tip of my knife gently, creating a map of the arena. The Cornucopia in the centre and the twelve wedges around it, a circle for the waterline, and another larger one for the edge of the jungle. I examine It for a moment, noticing Katniss peering over my shoulder.
"Look how the Cornucopia's positioned," I say.
"The tail points towards twelve o'clock," Katniss notices what I have.
"Right, so this is the top of our clock," I scratch in the numbers one to twelve in each wedge. "Twelve to one is the lightning zone," I write lightning in the top wedge and work my way around what we know. Blood, fog, monkeys.
"And ten to eleven is the wave," Katniss reminds me, so I write that in. Finnick and Johanna come over to see what we are doing, looking well armed. "Did you notice anything unusual in the others?" Katniss asks. Beetee and Johanna shake their heads, explain they've only seen the raining blood. "I guess they could hold anything."
"I'm going to mark the ones where we know the Gamemaker's weapon follows us out past the jungle, so we'll stay clear of those." I explain, drawing diagonal lines on the fog and wave sections. I sit back, looking at the small drawing. "Well, it's a lot more than we knew this morning, anyway." Everybody nods.
Katniss suddenly loads an arrow in her bow, and everybody else tenses and readies their weapons. It's silent, no more singing. I glance up just in time to see Gloss dropping Wiress to the ground, her throat slit open. An arrow embeds into his right temple, and within seconds Johanna's axe is in Cashmere's chest. A spear is flying through the air towards me, but Finnick knocks it away before I have time to react. Three canons fire. We can't help Wiress, and Gloss and Cashmere are also gone.
We all start chasing Brutus and Enobaria, but the ground jerks just as I step down on my fake leg, making me lose my balance and fall to the ground. The circle of land starts spinning fast, the arena around us just a blur. I attempt to sit up, but I feel like I'm going to throw up. I have to dig my hands in the sand to stop myself from being thrown off into the water, and I get a mouthful of it. I close my eyes in an attempt to block out the spinning, until it finally stops.
I sit up slowly, feeling extremely queasy and having to scrape sand from my mouth. I see that Katniss, Finnick and Johanna are in the same position. The dead have been tossed into the sea already and Beetee is -
"Where's Volts?" Johanna asks, just when I realise I can't see him. We all jump to our feet and make an uncertain circle of the Cornucopia, but he's not on the sand. Finnick spots him barely keeping afloat in the water, and instantly jumps in to retrieve him. Katniss starts looking around, and then tosses her weapons aside.
"Cover me," she says and jumps into the water before we can say anything. She's swimming towards Wiress, and I wonder what on earth she's doing. Finnick reaches the shore with Beetee and I run over to help them up onto the land whilst Johanna keeps an eye on Katniss. Beetee splutters, coughing up water, and clutching his glasses. At least he'll be able to see. Katniss wanders across the sand and drops the coil of wire in Beetee's lap. He pulls some of the fine, golden wire out and examines it. Nobody says anything. Katniss walks towards me and wraps her arms around me. Mine enclose around her instantly.
"Let's get off this stinking island," Johanna says. We retrieve our weapons and make sure we have all of our possessions, Finnick wraps his undershirt around the wound on his leg, and Beetee decides he can walk. We decide to go up the beach to twelve o'clock, where we will have a few hours of calm. I start walking in the direction that the tail is pointing, and notice that Johanna and Finnick are both waking in different directions.
"Twelve o'clock, right? The tail points to twelve." I say.
"Before they spun us," Finnick points out. "I was judging by the sun."
"The sun only tells you it's going on four, Finnick. "Katniss says.
"I think Katniss' point is, knowing the time doesn't mean you necessarily know where four is on the clock. You might have a general idea of the direction. Unless you consider that they may have shifted the outer ring of the jungle as well," Beetee says, and Katniss nods along with him.
"Yes, so any one of these paths could leave to twelve o'clock." The Gamemakers have managed to completely disorientate us, so now all that we had learnt and pieced together does not mean much. We circle around the Cornucopia, trying to find something familiar in the jungle that might piece together where the times are. Everything looks the same. Johanna thinks to follow the tracks of Brutus and Enobaria, but there's nothing left. "I should have never mentioned the clock. Now they've taken that advantage away as well," Katniss says bitterly.
"Only temporarily. At ten, we'll see the wave again and be back on track." Beetee reminds her.
"Yes, they can't redesign the whole arena," I say. At least, I don't think they can.
"It doesn't matter. You had to tell us or we never would have moved our camp in the first place, brainless." Johanna cuts in.
"Come on, I need water. Anyone have a good gut feeling?" Katniss asks. All we are able to do is choose a random path and head into a random section. We pause at the jungle and peer into the trees, trying to figure out what may be awaiting us.
"Well, it must be monkey hour. And I don't see any of them in there." I say, shuddering at the thought of their claws and talons. "I'm going to try to tap a tree."
"No, it's my turn." Finnick cuts in.
"I'll at least watch your back," I offer, but Johanna speaks up.
"Katniss can do that. We need you to make another map. The other washed away." She yanks off another large leaf and shoves it into my hands. Katniss hesitates, but finally leaves with Finnick. I sit down on the ground and take out my knife, drawing out everything I had on the previous small map, writing out what we know is in each section. When I'm finished, I sit back and wait for Katniss and Finnick to call for us, or come back. A scream makes me jump up, with knife in hand. It isn't Katniss' voice, but Prim's. But why would Prim be screaming in the jungle?
"Was that Katniss?" Johanna asks, grabbing her axe.
"No," I answer slowly, frowning in my confusion. "It was her sister." Johanna stares at me. "Come on," I urge, heading in the direction of the sound and where Katniss and Finnick had disappeared. I can't hear anything else, and shout out for Katniss. There's no reply. I start to panic, call out for her again. I run straight into an invisible barrier. I stumble back, rubbing my shoulder where I had hit it. "There's some kind of wall," I say to Johanna and Beetee, running my hand over the surface. It's not a forcefield, because I can touch it. I drive my knife into the barrier, but it has no effect.
Finnick and Katniss are in there somewhere. Listening to Prim screaming? Other people?
"You said you heard her sister screaming? How is that even possible?" Johanna asks. I chew on my lower lip, slamming my blade into the wall again. Still, nothing.
"A jabberjay," Beetee says finally. "Used in the rebellion to record conversations," he seems to be thinking, and I try pounding my fists against the invisible barrier. "I suppose with the interviews from last year, they could have distorted some sound to make it sound like her screaming." He muses out loud.
"That, or they tortured her," Johanna cuts in casually.
"No," I snap.
"This is the Capitol-" she starts to say.
"If they tortured Katniss' sister, then how many of our family and friends have they tortured?" Johanna doesn't answer.
Katniss and Finnick finally come into sight, and Katniss is glaring down at us, with daggers in her eyes. I place my hands flat against the barrier. She probably doesn't know about it yet, perhaps thinks that we hadn't attempted to pursue them.
"Katniss, there's a barrier. We can't get through it, are you two okay?" I try to tell her, but they still keep walking towards us. They don't seem to hear me, and walk straight into it, just like I had. Katniss walks into it with her shoulder, but Finnick gets hit in the face and his nose starts gushing blood. I try my knife again, and Johanna even takes a swing at the barrier with her axe, but it still remains intact.
I press my hand against the solid wall, my gaze on Katniss. She lifts her own hand to meet mine, and I pretend for a moment that I can feel her. I want so badly to be on the other side of the wall with her, to protect her from the horrors they are about to face.
"It's okay, I'm right here Katniss. It's going to be okay," I say, but she just stares blankly at my face.
"She can't hear you." I ignore Johanna.
Something happens on the other side, because Finnick curls in on himself, laying on the ground. It looks like he's covering his ears and shaking his head, trying to block whatever he is hearing. Katniss pulls out her arrows and shoots down some of the birds, but I can see that there are many more perched in the trees around the two of them. Katniss takes the same stance as Finnick, curled up and shaking. I bang on the wall again.
"Let me in, damn it!" I shout, but of course it does nothing to change the minds of the Gamemakers. I sit on the ground and wait, gazing at Katniss. There's nothing else I can possibly do. I feel so helpless, sitting here and watching Katniss suffer. It feels like an eternity, but there's a shift in the air in front of me. I reach out tentatively, and my arm goes straight through where the wall had been.
I rush over and slide my arms under Katniss' body, lifting her up and carrying her away from the jungle and the horrors that it hides. She doesn't move, or relax. She stays rigid, her hands clamped over her ears. I sit down and pull her into my lap, speaking to her softly and rocking back and forth, until her muscles start to relax. She begins to tremble instead.
"It's all right, Katniss," I whisper.
"You didn't hear them."
"I heard Prim. Right in the beginning. But it wasn't her, it was a jabberjay." I try to reassure her.
"It was her. Somewhere. The jabberjay just recorded it," she murmurs.
"No, that's what they want you to think. The same way I wondered if Glimmer's eyes were in that mutt last year. But those weren't Glimmer's eyes. And that wasn't Prim's voice. Or if it was, they took it from an interview or something and distorted the sound. Made it say whatever she was saying." I tell her softly, but she shakes her head.
"No, they were torturing her. She's probably dead." Could she be? I doubt for a millisecond, but realise if they do kill Prim, then who will they interview?
"Katniss, Prim isn't dead. How could they kill Prim? We're almost down to the final eight of us. And what happens then?"
"Seven more us die," she answers miserably.
"No, back home. What happens when they reach the final eight tributes in the Games?"I lift her chin gently with my finger, forcing her to look me in the eyes. "What happens? At the final eight?" I coax the answer from her.
"At the final eight?" it takes her a moment. "They interview your family and friends back home."
"That's right. They interview your family and friends. And can they do that if they've killed them all?"
"No?" She makes it a question, still uncertain. Those jabberjays must certainly have been very convincing.
"No. That's how we know Prim's alive. She'll be the first one they interview, won't she?" I ask, and she doesn't answer. "First Prim. Then your mother. Your cousin, Gale. Madge. It was a trick, Katniss. A horrible one. But we're the only ones in the Games. Not them."
"You really believe that?" I think she sounds a little hopeful, wanting badly to believe me.
"I really do." She still doesn't seem sure. Her eyes flicker across to Finnick, who is watching the both of us.
"Do you believe it, Finnick?" she asks him.
"It could be true. I don't know. Could they do that, Beetee? Take someone's regular voice and make it..."
"Oh, yes," Beetee answers right away. "It's not even that difficult, Finnick. Our children learn a similar technique in school."
"Of course Peeta's right. The whole country adores Katniss' little sister. If they really killed her like this, they'd probably have an uprising on their hands." Johanna says. "Don't want that, do they?" Suddenly, she's shouting. "Whole country in rebellion? Wouldn't want anything like that!" She shouts to the sky, and I stare at her in shock. Nobody ever speaks that way about the Games or the Capitol, not publicly. No doubt they've already cut from Johanna, and edited away her words. She picks up some shells and heads towards the jungle, deciding the get some water.
Katniss catches her hand, trying to stop her. "Don't go in there. The birds-" She doesn't finish, and I realise these birds really have riled her. I wonder how quick I would have been to give in to the torture.
"They can't hurt me. I'm not like the rest of you. There's no one left I love," Johanna replies flatly, shaking her hand free. I stare after her, wondering if that could possibly be true. She does seem very cold, almost unfeeling. But surely, there must be someone in her life that she fights for.
The others busy themselves with small tasks, but Katniss stays with me in my arms, perhaps still a little shaken from her time in the jungle. I can't say that I mind all that much.
"Who did they use against Finnick?" I ask her quietly, so that Finnick doesn't overhear.
"Somebody named Annie."
"Must be Annie Cresta," I say, thinking of the mad girl who Mags had volunteered for.
"Who?" Katniss frowns.
"Annie Cresta. She was the girl Mags volunteered for. She won about five years ago."
"I don't remember those games much," Katniss says distantly. "Was that the earthquake year?"
"Yeah. Annie's the one who went mad when her district partner got beheaded. Ran off by herself and hid. But an earthquake broke a dam and most of the arena got flooded. She won because she was the best swimmer," I explain, thinking I may have watched those tapes a few too many times.
"Did she get better after? I mean, her mind?"
"I don't know. I don't remember ever seeing her at the Games again. But she didn't look too stable during the Reaping this year." Had the Capitol hidden her away? Not wanting the country to see the effect the Games can have on somebody? I wonder about Annie Cresta being used against Finnick, and remember the poem he had read about the one girl he really loved.
A canon breaks through my thoughts, and everybody returns to the beach. A hovercraft appears, but the claw has to lower five times to collect the remnants of one body. There's no way of being able to identify that body until they show their face later on. I make a mental note to stay far away from that area.
I draw a new map, not sure where the other one had been lost. I add in the jabberjays, and simply put 'beast' for where the latest victim had fallen.
After some while, the anthem plays and we all watch the faces that float over the sky. Whilst we are remembering the tributes who are left, a parachute sails down with a pile of bread. I recognise the bread as that of District Three. We decide to have three each, and will figure out what to do with the leftovers in the morning. After the weave crashes down in the ten-to-eleven section, we make our way there in the hopes that it should give us twelve hours of safety. When we have settled in to a camp, there's some disagreement over who should keep watch, but it ends up being Katniss and I. I'm glad for it, because I'm certain we have a lot to talk about.