22: Split

Katniss POV

I wait for my allies to take out their weapons and kill themselves. I don't want to see this, I don't want them to have to die for me- but if it means that I get to leave the arena alive and go back to District Twelve and help the rebellion, it's a sacrifice that has to be made. They're willing to make it. I'm not forcing them to do anything they don't want, I try to reassure myself.

But none of them move. For a moment I am relieved, but then fear sets in. What if I was wrong and they aren't trying to save me? What if these Games will just end like most of the others do, with a fight to the death between the last few tributes standing? Would I be able to defeat Finnick and Johanna and Haymitch?

"I guess we have to split up now," says Beetee finally. "We can't stay allies when we are the only tributes left. I want Johanna."

"Take her," Finnick responds. "And I'll have Katniss and Haymitch. Our alliance will win, Beetee's weak and we'll have one more person than you."

"Beetee's intelligent, unlike all of you," Johanna retorts. "Strength can't always win the Games." She yanks her axe out of the sand from where she had been holding it as the cornucopia spun. "Get your wire and take some of the weapons," she orders Beetee. "Can you use any of them?"

Beetee picks up a sword from Enobaria's body. "Any weapon is better than no weapon, although electricity is my area of expertise, not barbaric killing."

Johanna glares at him. "Let's go."

She stalks off, Beetee following behind her with his coil of wire in one hand and the sword in the other. I'll have to watch out for them. Johanna doesn't scare me, but Beetee has a reputation of being one of the most intelligent men in Panem. Johanna's right that strength can't always save you.

It worrying that I was wrong about the plan though. Does this mean that it was all because of my skills with a bow and arrow and if it's me and Finnick left at the end, he'll just stick his trident in my neck and watch me bleed out without remorse? I thought so at the beginning, but now I'm not so sure. I hope not.

Don't trust him, I remind myself. This is the Hunger Games. He may be on my side, but that doesn't mean that he's willing to give up his life for me. I glance a the trident in his hands. When he swings it, it's like the weapon is an extension of his arm. He's dangerous. He never misses. He got eleven in training without having to rebel. He managed to win the Games when he was fourteen. Don't trust him.

"We need to stay here," Haymitch says. "Have you noticed that the mutts and weather always happen away from the cornucopia? They always do, that's why the careers stayed here. The only thing that has happened here so far is the spinning. We can wait the rest of them out."

And then attack each other until two are dead, I finish in my head. And both Finnick and Haymitch are stronger with close-ranged weapons than I am. But I can climb. I can get onto the cornucopia and rain arrows down on them from above. Gale will sponsor me, but he won't sponsor Haymitch.

"What did Johanna and Beetee take?" I ask.

"Beetee took his wire and a sword, Johanna her axe and our backpack."

Damn. That backpack had the spiel in it, now they won't need to come here for water. I think that this is the only water source in the arena; I haven't seen any ponds like there were in the seventy fourth. At least we have the cornucopia, so we won't need to worry about water.

Just a few more days- even hours- and they will be dead. Haymitch might even be willing to die for me, he was willing to volunteer for me after all. I glance over to Finnick, who is lying in the sun leaning on one of the rocks, his trident on his lap. He looks so comfortable in here. Maybe Haymitch and I could take him together.

There's nothing more to do now. We could try hunting down Beetee and Johanna I suppose, but they could be anywhere in the arena and I don't want to risk my life in a confrontation when we can just wait for them to die. I can't make plans with Haymitch because Finnick is here.

I could eat I suppose- I haven't eaten since this morning when our alliance still had seven people. Maybe I could venture into the forest to hunt something. It's been a while since I've hunted, longer since I've hunted in the forest in Twelve. I wonder how Melanie is doing at hunting at the moment. Teaching her was fun. She learned quickly.

The sun glinting off a parachute catches my attention. Most likely for me. Has Finnick had one package during these Games? Annie doesn't seem like the best mentor. It lands near me and I open it. There's a message from Gale.

Good luck Catnip. You'll be out soon, I know it. -Gale

Soon. How soon is soon? I'm so close to getting out now that even the minutes spent here feel like hours. I open the jar and a familiar scent wafts out. Rabbit stew, just like we ate together in Twelve. Only enough for one though. Good. I don't want to share this with Haymitch or Finnick. The only people I would want to share this with are Gale or Prim.

Prim shouldn't be doing too badly at the moment. It's not like the last Games where she was reliant on me hunting, they have my victory money now. The rules say that it's for as long as I live, and even if I die, Gale will provide for them. Has Prim grown, I wonder. She's hardly my little duck anymore.

I can see her little face in mind's eye, her blonde plaits, cradling Buttercup in her arms. He would never sit in my arms without trying to scratch my face off. Prim has a way with her though, maybe that's because Buttercup knows that Prim is the only thing that stopped me from cooking him.

I scoop the rabbit stew into my mouth, not letting a drop of the warm, brown sauce flow through my fingers. It almost tastes like it's been made by Greasy Sae herself- but as far as I know Gale can't just add something to the sponsor list. Maybe the Capitol have her recipe, they probably had people tracking Gale and I back in Twelve. A few more rogue peacekeepers in the Hob wouldn't look conspicuous.

xXx-X-xXx

Beetee POV

Johanna runs through the forest in front of me with her axe, just slow enough for me to keep up. Glad she's in front of me, that's her job in the plan. To protect me for long enough to get Katniss and as many others as possible out. Hopefully Plutarch will lay off the mutts and freakish weather conditions, for the next few hours at least.

The special ways of killing us seem to come almost every hour; we haven't gone a day without having to run from or attack muttations or a killing fog or blood rain. What's next? It all seemed to start when the lightning struck the tallest tree, that was the first interesting thing. It didn't seem to serve a point other than to look dramatic.

That's happened more than once now- it did it again when I was on watch. What does it do? The gamemakers wouldn't put anything in without a purpose, I know that. I've spent enough time working with them on arena technology to think that they'd spend valuable money on something which served no purpose.

Maybe to look pretty, the Capitol seem to love shiny light shows. I doubt that many of them understand what goes on to make that light show happen. But it could be more important than that. I try to visualise everything that I've seen of the arena in my head. Plutarch once told me that gamemakers sometimes take inspiration from everyday objects when creating an arena. That or they just make a forest or try to utilise every new piece of technology that has been made that year.

It's not much, but it's a place to start in working this arena out. I know that I have to break the force field by harnessing the electricity in the lightning. Easy. Dangerous, but simple. There was a sponsor code for possible plans and being sponsored nothing meant that I would have no outside help breaking the force field. A knife, suicide. More wire, they would break it.

No, the problem is not in the actual act of breaking the force field. The problem is that there are twelve trees much taller than the others and I don't know which one of them the lightning will strike. Why wasn't there a sponsor code for this? I expect they think I can work it out. I'm famous for being intelligent, I need my brain more than ever now.

An everyday object. Then the pieces all fit together in my head so beautifully. The cornucopia- twelve strips of platforms coming out from the central block. A new plague coming every hour, but repeating. Twelve sections, each difficulty passing no further than the border of the section. It's a clock. It's a clock.

"It's a clock!" I blurt out.

"What?" Johanna asks. "What's a clock? God, please don't tell me that you're losing your mind like Nuts."

"Wiress," I correct. "The arena. The entire arena is a clock, a new thing comes every hour. First the lightning, then the blood rain and the gorillas and the fog and the jabberjays. They're on a timer."

"Nice realisation, but does this help us?" Johanna asks.

"Yes. Yes it does." It takes me a second to phrase it in a Capitol-friendly manner. "When the lightning strikes the tree, we can use this wire to route it through to the water of the cornucopia, where Katniss, Haymitch and Finnick are staying. Anyone in the water or the sand will be electrocuted. We have to hurry, the tree is near the edge of the arena.."

She nods. She understands the real plan to use it to break the force field. Good. "How do you know that it will be the tree in this section?" she asks. A decent question.

"I saw it strike almost an hour after the attack from the gorillas. Look over there." In the next section, the gorillas have begun to congregate around the edge of the invisible wall separating us from them. "We have around an hour. I'll head towards the cornucopia, you go to the tree. Wrap the wire around the stump thickly a few times."

I quickly unwrap the wire and hand one end to Johanna. The cornucopia is much closer than the tree is and she can run much faster than I can. I don't like to trust her to do the more difficult part of the task- although it is fairly easy- but I have no choice if I want this done in time. Another twelve hours and I might be dead. Even Johanna won't be able to protect me.

xXx-X-xXx

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Next chapter should be up soon, it's getting to the climax of the story, so I'll probably update more quickly.

-MoonOfPluto