Vicious monkeys, orange in color and clearly here to kill us. I pull out my knife and just start hacking. I hear Katniss and Finnick join me. I stab my knife into the orange fur over and over and cannot stop thinking that things will not stop coming at us. One by one, it's something. The Gamemakers are not messing around this time. Katniss, Finnick and I stand with our backs to each other, each fighting tooth and nail to keep these things off of us. I hear Katniss shout at me, "Peeta! Your arrows!" I turn and see that she is completely out of arrows. I didn't even think to use the bow. I rip the sheath off, but not before I am knocked sideways from a direction I was not expecting. I look around and see the female victor from District 6 throwing herself in-between me and an oncoming monkey. I drop the arrows and begin stabbing the monkey that has its teeth sunk into the chest of her. I see it release its jaw and I kick it away. I stand over her, this woman I do not know, who just saved my life, ready to take on more of these horrible creatures.
"Come on, then! Come on!" I shout, the bloodlust for these creatures running through my veins. But the monkeys are retreating away from us.
"Get her. We'll cover you," Katniss tells me. I quickly pick up the victor and head back toward the beach. I carefully lay her in the sand and Katniss cuts away her jumpsuit. The holes in her chest are barely bleeding and I know that the damage is really deep. The way she is breathing I think the fangs must have punctured her lung. There's nothing we can do except stay with her until she dies. Katniss takes her hand and I suddenly know how to keep her mind off her pain.
"I'll watch the trees," Finnick says, walking away. I kneel down next to her head and rub her hair. I begin speaking softly, hoping she will understand what I am telling her, what I am doing for her.
"With my paint box at home, I can make every color imaginable. Pink. As pale as a baby's skin. Or deep as rhubarb. Green like spring grass. Blue that shimmers like ice on water. One time, I spent three days mixing paint until I found the right shade for sunlight on white fur." She looks into my eyes, mesmerized by the words I am telling her. She make swirling motions in the blood that has gathered on her chest. I have to blink away tears and keep my voice even. "You see, I kept thinking it was yellow, but it was much more than that. Layers of all sorts of color. One by one. I haven't figured out a rainbow yet. They come so quickly and leave so soon. I never have enough time to capture them. Just a bit of blue here or purple there. And then they fade away again. Back into the air." She lifts her hand up to my cheek and I feel her draw something. "Thank you. That looks beautiful," I whisper, barely able to speak. Her suddenly grins and makes a small sound, sort of like a mouse. Her hand falls back onto her chest and she takes one last breath. I hear the cannon fire and see the hand that was gripping Katniss's fall down as well. I carry her out to the sea and let her go. I let few tears fall and I walk back to sit next to Katniss. We watch as she floats for a few minutes, then the hovercraft appears and takes her body away.
Finnick shows up just a few seconds later and drops bloody arrows next to us on the sand. "Thought you might want these."
"Thanks," Katniss says. She goes into the water and cleans them and her wounds. I just sit and let myself go numb. When I am finally able to do that I notice that my wounds from the fog is scabbing over and itching like crazy. I turn toward the jungle and bit and begin scratching. As I look the vines seem to move and suddenly the dead monkeys are gone.
"Where did they go?" Katniss asks, walking up behind us.
"We don't know exactly. The vines shifted and they were gone," Finnick answers. We all sit and stare at the jungle for a while. Suddenly Katniss looks over at us and says,
"Don't scratch. You'll only bring infection. Think it's safe to try for the water again?"
We walk back to the tree I was working on and I set to trying again. Katniss and Finnick stay on guard I work. All I can gather, besides the insane itching, is that I am exhausted. I finally get the spile in and am rewarded with a gush of water. We each drink our fill and let water run over our bodies. I mainly let it work on my face since that is where the itching is the worst. We fill a few seashells and go to the beach.
"Why don't you two get some rest? I'll watch for a while," Katniss says.
"No, Katniss, I'd rather," Finnick says. I look at his face and know he needs time to mourn. I do not say anything, but Katniss says, "All right, Finnick, thanks."
Katniss and I lay down next to each other and I am out almost immediately.
I dream I am with Katniss. We are moving through the woods and somehow I know we are the woods beyond our District. Katniss is armed with her bow and arrows, but I feel no fear, so I know we are not running. I look behind us and see Prim and Gale following, both of them smiling. I cannot help but smile back at them. I am not sure where we are going, but I feel happy and I do not question it. We keep walking, not rushing, sometimes laughing at an errand joke that Gale cracks behind us. We reach a meadow and all stretch out in the grass. I take Katniss by the hand and kiss it. Gale and Prim sit close and we all talk about our ideas on starting new and I gather we are finally free from the Capitol's rule. Gale talks about hunting full time to earn money. Katniss nods along eagerly. I talk about taking over the bakery from my father, letting him live the rest of his life in peace, and Prim wants to be a healer, like her mother.
"Peeta," Katniss says, almost singing to me. I turn and look at her, her face shimmering out of sight. "Peeta, wake up."
I open my eyes and suddenly jump hard. Katniss and Finnick both have their faces resting just inches from mine. "Aa!"
Katniss and Finnick find this really funny. Hilarious, it seems. But after my initial shock and embarrassment, I find it very hard to keep a stern look on my face. The sight of me trying not to laugh sends them into fits again. I trick was really funny and I find myself laughing along with them. When we are all finally done laughing, a parachute lands next to us. It is from District 4, you can tell by the green shade that the seaweed gives it. Finnick grabs it and rolls it over and over in his hands. He must be thinking of home or maybe even Mags. Clearly, this bread was sent for him.
"This will go well with the shellfish," Finnick says, laying the loaf on the parachute and going back to pulling the meat out of the shells. While he does that Katniss shows me the medicine that was sent to us. She helps me apply it to my scabs from the fog and they immediately stop itching. I see that Finnick has woven some bowls, a few have the shellfish in it and others have fresh water. We all gather around after Finnick is done with all the little shells and eat a nice meal of fish and bread.
As we are finishing our meal we begin to hear screaming. Right across from where we are sitting we see a huge wave begin crashing down the side of the hill, knocking over trees and everything in its path. The surf rises on our side as well and we quickly gather what we want to save. We hear the cannon and watch as a hovercraft appears and takes a body from that area. Well that makes a total of twelve dead. Twelve of us left. Once the water retreats we go back to our beach and begin to arrange our things. Katniss suddenly freezes and says, "There." We both follow her gaze and see three figures two sections down from us. We all retreat back into the jungle at once and watch the newcomers. It appears that one is badly hurt, being dragged by another and the third seems confused, walking around in small circles. They look like they have all been painted a nasty red color as well.
"Who is that? Or what? Muttations?" I ask, quietly. Katniss readies her bow at my words as the three come closer. One of them collapses in the sand and the one dragging it stomps their feet like a child and pushing the circling one. I look over a Katniss, who has her eyes narrowed at the three, and then at Finnick, whose face suddenly lights up.
"Johanna!" he says, already running for them.
"Finnick!" I hear her say.
Katniss and I look at each other and she asks, "What now?" I would really like to just leave them now, but I know we will survive longer if we are with Finnick.
"We can't really leave Finnick," I say.
"Guess not. Come on then." Katniss heads toward the three and I can tell she in not happy about the situation. "She's got Wiress and Beetee."
"Nuts and Volts? I've got to hear how this happened?" I say, completely confused. Every one of the victors just look at them as a joke. I never really got to spend much time with them, but what little I did I thought they were a bit strange, but obviously very smart. And Katniss wanted them and she is a pretty good judge of character.
Johanna's talking a mile a minute when we reach them, openly agitated and gesturing toward the jungle. "We thought it was rain, you know, because of the lightning, and we were all so thirsty. But when it started coming down, it turned out to be blood. Thick, hot blood. You couldn't see, you couldn't speak without getting a mouthful. We just staggered around, trying to get out of it. That's when Blight hit the force field."
"I'm sorry, Johanna," Finnick says. Blight, the male victor from Johanna's district, District 7. The one who never even bothered to show up for training.
"Yeah, well, he wasn't much, but he was from home. And he left me with these two. He got a knife in the back at the Cornucopia and her….," she says and we all turn and look at Wiress. She is walking around in circles and seems to be saying, "Tick, tock. Tick, tock." Under her breath.
"Yeah, we know. Tick, tock. Nuts is in shock," Johanna says. Wiress walks toward her, but Johanna pushes her down and says, "Just stay down, will you?"
"Lay off her," Katniss snaps.
"Lay off her?" Johanna says. She steps toward Katniss and slaps her across the face. I step up behind Katniss, about to pull her out of the way if Johanna raises her hand again, but she just says, "Who do you think got them out of that bleeding jungle for you? You…." With that Finnick picks her up and tosses her on his shoulder. He takes her into the water and dunks her under a few times until she stops screaming and insulting Katniss.
Katniss turns to me, "What did she mean? She got them for me?"
"I don't know. You did want them originally," I remind her gently. If we are going to be an allied group this large, someone will have to keep the peace.
"Yeah, I did. Originally." She looks down a Beetee, who seems to have lost consciousness. "But I won't have them long unless we do something."
I lift Beetee and walk him back to our little camp. Katniss takes Wiress by the hand and sits her in the shallow water. She then take Beetee's belt off, setting it and the wire cylinder he had attached to it in the sand. I take him to the shallow water and Katniss works on loosening his clothes so we can strip him, get him clean and check out his wounds. After he is clean I carry him back to Finnick's mat and lay him face down. The wound is still very bloody, but doesn't seem to be too deep. Katniss sits back, trying to figure out her next move and I just stay quiet. I know she thinks better without interruption. We need something to stem the blood flow so the wound can start healing. The only thing I can think of is cloth, but we do not have much of that. Katniss says, "Be right back." I watch her go to the edge of the jungle and tears some of the spongy moss and bring it back. She fashions it into a kind of pad and place's it on the cut. We coax him to drink some fresh water and hen drag him into the shade of the jungle. Again, I find myself amazed with the things this girl can do.
"I think that's all we can do," she says, clearly thinking it is not enough.
"It's good. You're good with this healing stuff. It's in your blood," I say.
She shakes her head. "No. I got my father's blood. I'm going to see about Wiress." She walks away and I just wish that, for just a moment, I could understand how she sees herself. She defiantly does not see herself clearly at all. And there is no way she sees the effect she has on almost everyone. I watch her as she cleans Wiress, working with her like you would a child. She soaks her undergarments, along with Beetee's and is almost done cleaning Beetee's suit when Johanna, looking much cleaner, and Finnick join us.
Johanna eats and drinks while Katniss tried to get Wiress to eat the fish and drink fresh water. Finnick tells Johanna about the poisonous fog and the crazed monkeys. I notice he does not say anything about Mags. I imagine he must have known her well, maybe she was his mentor or something. They defiantly seemed to be close. I try to imagine what it would be like to lose Haymitch in this type of situation, but I know I will not know what it feels like. Then I stop thinking about Finnick's feelings, because sometimes soon I will have to figure out a way to kill him.
Finnick, Johanna, Katniss and I all offer to stay awake. After a few arguments, Johanna and Katniss are the one's taking the shift. Johanna just refuses to sleep and Katniss said she feels really rested. I know I feel tired because of what happened to me yesterday and I will need all the strength I can muster to survive the next few days. When I finally fall asleep the last thing I register is Katniss and Johanna, quietly sitting to the extreme edge away from each other.
It seems like minutes later when Katniss is shaking me awake. "Get up." She wakes Finnick and Johanna too and starts talking, pretty quickly.
"It's a giant clock. See?" She points at a very large tree. "The lighting hits that tree at noon and midnight and that's when it starts. Each section has a different horror. I didn't put it all together until the lightning struck again and Wiress was saying Tick Tock next to me. The fog is really close and so is the monkeys. Who's to say they stop at the edge of the jungle? That wave didn't. We need to move." Finnick and I are convinced, but Johanna seems to get against anything Katniss is thinking. Finally she agrees we should move, just in case. We get Beetee back in his suit, and Katniss wakes up Wiress.
"Tick, tock."
"Yes. Tick, tock. The arena's a clock. It's a clock, Wiress, you were right. You were right," Katniss tells her. Relief fill her face and she says,
"Midnight."
"It starts at midnight."
Wiress nods toward the blood rain and says, "One-thirty."
"Exactly. One-thirty. And at two, a terrible poisonous fog begins there," Katniss points to the jungle close by. "So we have to move somewhere safe now. Are you thirsty?" She asks, Wiress, who is finally standing and seems to be in much better spirits, since someone finally understood her. She drinks out of one of the bowls and eats a piece of bread Finnick hands her.
Beetee is pretty much out of it, so I try to pick him up. He pushes me back a bit and says, "Wire."
"She's right here. Wiress is fine. She's coming, too," I explain to him.
"Wire," he demands.
"Oh, I know what he wants," Johanna says, going over to the cylinder and picking it up. It is covered in blood. "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?"
"He won the Games with wire. Setting up that electrical trap. It's the best weapon he could have," I explain. I thought she would know this.
"Seems like you'd have figured that out. Since you nicknamed him volts and all," Katniss says, accusingly.
"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?" Johanna snaps back. I see Katniss tighten her hand around her knife. "Go ahead. Try it. I don't care if you are knocked up, I'll rip your throat out."
Finnick steps up and says, "Maybe we all had better be careful where we step." I am confused by those words. But he places the coil of wire and sits it on Beetee's chest. "There's your wire, Volts. Watch where you plug it."
I am finally able to pick him up and ask, "Where to?"
Finnick answers, "I'd like to go to the Cornucopia and watch. Just to make sure we're right about the clock." No one objects, so we make our way to the Cornucopia by walking down the nearest sand strip. The area is deserted and I lay Beetee in the shade. He calls to Wiress and asks her to clean the wire. She takes the wire and goes to the edge of the water and begins cleaning it. She is singing some sort of children's song and Johanna says,
"Oh, not that song again. That went on for hours before she started tick-tocking."
Wiress suddenly sits up and points the way we came. "Two."
Sure enough there's the poisonous fog where we just came from. "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 say, looking over at her. She smiles and goes back to cleaning the wire.
"Oh, she's more than smart," Beetee says. "She intuitive. She can sense things before anyone else. Like a canary in one of your mines."
"What's that?" Finnick asks.
"It's a bird we take down into the mines to warn us if there's bad air," Katniss explains.
"What's it do, die?" Johanna asks.
"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 finishes. I know she does not like to talk about the topic of death in the mines, given that is how she lost her father.
While everyone picks through what's left of the weapons I start drawing a kind of map of the arena with the tip of my knife. I draw the Cornucopia in the center, the tail facing noon/midnight, and draw out twelve sections. Katniss joins me and I say, "Look how the Cornucopia's positioned."
"That tail points toward twelve o'clock," she says.
"Right, so this is the top of our clock." I write the numbers around the clock. "Twelve to one is the lightning zone," I say writing it down. I write clockwise, adding in the blood rain, the poison fog and murderous monkeys.
"And ten to eleven is the wave," Katniss says. I add it. Johanna and Finnick join us, armed like crazy with axes, tridents and knives.
"Did you notice anything unusual in the others?" Katniss asks. They only saw the blood. "I guess they could hold anything."
"I'm going to mark the ones where we know the Gamemakers' weapon follows us out past the jungle, so we'll stay clear of those," I say, drawing a diagonal line on the fog and wave sections. Everyone else notices it before I do, but Wiress has stopped singing. I turn in time to see Finnick deflect a spear that was send towards me by Brutus and he takes a knife to the thigh by Enobaria. I see that Wiress is dead, along with Gloss, an arrow sticking out of his temple and Cashmere, who has an ax in her chest. Brutus and Enobaria flees and I follow Katniss and Johanna as they sprint around the Cornucopia, trying to catch up to them. The cannon booms three times and suddenly the ground beneath our feet begins to shake. We are spinning, faster than any kind of top, making the jungle almost disappear into a giant green blur. I snap my eyes shut and cling to the rock like it is a life force. We slam to a stop and I hesitantly open my eyes. Everything stays still and I get up. I see Finnick, Johanna and Katniss are all ok. The bodies of Wiress, Gloss and Cashmere have been flung into the ocean.
"Where's Volts?" Johanna asks, looking around. Finnick spots him in the water and quickly swims out to get him. Katniss notices his coil of wire is gone and we spot it in the hand of Wiress.
"Cover me," Katniss says and she drops her weapons and runs down the strip of sand closes to Wiress's body. I watch her dive in and swim over to the body. Of course she can swim. The big bathtub comment from Finnick at the beginning of the Games makes sense now. I assumed that Finnick got Katniss off her platform like he did mine. There must be a lake in our woods as well. She quickly gets the coil out of her hand and I see her shut Wiress's eyes.
When she gets back to the Cornucopia, she gives the coil to Beetee and walks over to me and puts her arms around my waist. I hold he too and everyone is just silent. These Games are taking a big toll on the tributes, us victors, and I wonder how it is looking to the people of the Capitol.
"Let's get off this stinking island," Johanna says. Finnick ties his under shirt around the wound left by Enobaria's knife. Beetee thinks he can walk now, if we go slowly. Katniss and Johanna checks the weapons again and we all decide we should go back to twelve o'clock. Johanna, Finnick and myself all head in different directions.
"Twelve o'clock, right? That tail points at twelve," I say.
"Before they spun us. I was judging by the sun," Finnick answers.
"The sun only tells you it's going on four, Finnick," Katniss says.
"I think Katniss's point it, 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. I didn't think of that possibility. Katniss nods and says, "Yes, so any one of these paths could lead to twelve o'clock."
We start walking around, trying to see any sign that we know which area is which, but with no luck.
"I should have never mentioned the clock. Now they've taken that advantage away as well," Katniss says, somewhat bitterly.
"Only temporarily. At ten, we'll see the wave again and be back on track," Beetee explains.
"Yes, they can't redesign the whole arena," I say.
"It doesn't matter. You had to tell us or we never would have moved our camp in the first place, brainless," Johanna says impatiently. "Come on. I need water. Anyone have a good gut feeling?"
We chose a path and head toward the jungle, not knowing what we are looking for. When we reach the edge of the jungle we all look into the jungle, trying to figure out what could be waiting for us.
"Well, it must be monkey hour. And I don't see any of them in there. I'm going to try to tap a tree," I say, reaching for the spile from Katniss.
"No, it's my turn," Finnick says.
"I'll at least watch your back," I answer.
"Katniss can do that. We need you to make another map. The other washed away," Johanna says, ripping a large leaf from a nearby tree. Couldn't someone else make one? Are they trying to divide us? I don't see suspicion in Katniss's face, so I don't say anything as she walks away with Finnick. I get my knife and begin scratching out the new map. I leave out the Cornucopia since I do not know which way it is pointing right now, but I draw in every area we know about and cross out the ones that go beyond the jungle.
I am just finishing up the map when I hear a scream. So horrible and with obvious pain. My blood turns cold because I know whose voice it is. Not Katniss, not anyone in the arena, but Prim. Sweet Prim. I drop everything and run toward the sound. I find the tree Finnick was working at, but no one is there. I follow the sounds of Finnick through the woods and run smack into a clear wall. I am knocked backwards, into Johanna, who has followed me. I cannot hear Katniss anymore and I follow the wall down to the beach, trying to find a way in.
"It's no use, Peeta," Johanna says. "We will have to wait it out."
"Katniss!" I yell, but I get nothing in return. I finally see her and Finnick making their way back to the beach. She catches sight of me and I know she does not know about the wall. She looks angry that I am standing so far away. I put my hands up on the glass and will her to read my lips. "It's a wall! Stop!" She doesn't and runs right into the wall, banging her shoulder. Finnick also hits the wall and I see him with blood gushing from his nose. I take my knife and start trying to pick my way through the wall. Johanna has me stand back and tries her ax. Not even a dent.
I put my hand up on the wall and Katniss does the same. She looks at me like she is trying to figure out what I am saying.
"It's going to be okay. Just stay calm." I tell her through the glass. I get not nod of agreement, so I know she is not understanding. He just stares at my face and I keep telling her it will be okay, even though I know she is not understanding.
Suddenly Finnick is on the ground, hands over his ears, trying to block out the sound made to drive him insane. Katniss turns and begins firing arrows into the birds. I recognize jabberjays, but her arrows are in vain, because I see them get replaced time after time. Finally she is out of arrows and she curls up next to Finnick, hands over her ears. I feel so helpless. I am kneel down next to where her body is and will the next hour to go by in a flash.