No faces in the sky tonight.
The anthem echoed across the arena, and for the first day in these Games, there were no faces of dead tributes in the sky.
"I think it's nine o'clock," Finnick declared, nervously swallowing before he did.
"Show time," Taiya breathed, sparing a quick glance at Johanna, who was also trying to hide her nerves. "Let's go Beetroot," Taiya stepped forward and held Beetee's hand, helping him off the ground.
The hike up was quiet, the moon was the only thing lighting their path. The oysters they'd all indulged in earlier sat nervously in their stomachs. Restless amongst the butterflies that grew with each step they took towards the lightning tree.
And when they got to the tree all they could do was stare at it for two minutes. This tree would either lead the way to their safety or destroy it.
"Could you help me Finnick?" Beetee asked, interrupting the silence.
"Sure," Finnick agreed quietly, stepping away from Taiya and towards Beetee.
While Beetee and Finnick wrapped the tree in wire, Taiya looked out at the trees. Somewhere out there was the remainder of the Career pack.
It was hard for Taiya to be resentful and dislike the Careers as people from the outer districts did. Technically District 4 was a Career district. It was hard for her to forget that these people started as children, who grew up being brainwashed about the power and glory the Games would bring its victor.
It was never until it was too late did they realise the truth. Districts 1, 2 and 4 were just as much victims of the Capitol as the outer Districts were. Sure, they weren't deprived of food in the same way, but their childhoods were taken away. Stripped from them as they were turned into brainwashed soldiers, Capitol puppets.
Enobaria and Brutus weren't the enemies here.
Taiya's eyes then darted over to the small sliver of beach she could see. The wave had just started.
2 more hours.
"We need to go over the rest of the plan," Beetee ushered them all to stand around him. This was going to be the difficult part. Splitting Katniss and Peeta up. "Typically, a lightning strike contains five billion joules of energy. We don't want to be anywhere in the vicinity when this hits. You three girls go together now. Take this," he handed Katniss the wire. "Unspool it carefully. Make sure the entire coil is in the water. Do you understand? Then head to the tree at the two o'clock sector. We'll meet you there," Beetee said before he started walking away.
Taiya exchanged a quick look with Johanna. Beetee was crazy if he thought that'd work, that there would be no protest from either Katniss or Peeta. Beetee never did have a lot of social tact.
"I'm going to go with them as a guard," Peeta immediately spoke up.
"No, no, no, no," Beetee shook his head. "You're too slow. The girls are small, they'll be able to slip through the trees easier and make less noise. Besides, I'll need you on this end, you're staying here to protect me. And the tree."
"No, I need to go with her," Peeta enforced.
"There are two Career's out there. I need two guards."
"Finnick can protect you just fine on his own," Peeta pointed out.
"Yeah. Why can't Finnick, Taiya and Johanna stay with you and Peeta and I will take the coil?" Katniss asked Beetee. "I'm sure they'd rather stick together."
"You all agreed to keep me alive till midnight, correct?" Beetee looked at the group. He was stuck, he didn't know what else to say. So Taiya stepped in.
"He's right, it sucks, but he's right. We'll be the fastest. And we'll be able to hide easier if we see the Career's. I don't want to be separated from Finnick any more than you two want to be separated. But it's the smartest way to do it."
"It's his plan," Johanna nodded. "We all agreed to it."
"Is there a problem here?" Finnick tilted his head, challenging Katniss.
"Excellent question," Beetee huffed, relieved the others had stepped in to take care of the dissent from 12.
"No. There's no problem," Katniss scowled in frustration.
"I'm sorry. If you girls are to get out of there alive, you need to move now," Beetee tried to get them moving.
"It's ok," Katniss turned to Peeta to reassure him. "We'll just drop the coil and come straight back up."
"Not into the lightning zone," Beetee reminded them. "Head for the tree in the one-to-two o'clock sector. If you find you're running out of time, move over one more. Don't even think about going back on the beach though, not until I can assess the damage."
Katniss' hands immediately reached for Peeta's face. "Don't worry. I'll see you at midnight," she kissed him. "Ready?" she turned, asking Taiya and Johanna.
"Why not?" Johanna rolled her eyes. She wasn't keen on being stuck with Katniss, but it's not like she could complain. "You and Taiya guard, I'll unwind. We can trade off later," she stormed off, snatching the wire out of Katniss' hands.
Katniss merely scoffed before following after her.
Taiya turned to Finnick before she grabbed him tightly, slamming her face against his. In hindsight, he would have wished he said 'screw Beetee's plan, you're staying here'. But dwelling on the past is never helpful. It doesn't undo what's happened.
"I love you," Finnick whispered.
"Until my last breath," Taiya released her hold on him slowly. He couldn't release her though, his hand trailed from her cheek, down her neck, down her arm until he reached the end of her fingertips and she was out of reach.
She spared him one last glance before she sprinted off after Johanna and Katniss, who were already rapidly descending down the slope.
"Took your time," Johanna quipped.
"Sorry," Taiya mumbled as she pulled out a blade, on alert for anything that might come their way.
Most of the downhill trek was made in silence. None of the girls were that open for conversation.
"Better hurry," Johanna said as a noise got louder in the next sector. It was after eleven o'clock. "I want to put a lot of distance between me and that water before the lightning hits. Just in case Volts miscalculated something. Frying is not how I want to go."
"How do you want to go?" Taiya queried.
"Old," Johanna smirked.
"I'll take the coil for a while," Katniss offered.
"Here," Johanna passed over the coil of wire before shaking out her arm. It was hard work laying out the wire.
As Johanna was handing the wire over, the three of them notice a vibration ripple along the wire that makes them freeze.
Katniss pulled at it, thinking it was just caught on something. She gave it one more tug when suddenly the thin golden wire sprung down at them, bunching in loops on the ground at their feet.
The wire had been cut.
And it only took a second to register this terrifying turn of events.
Enobaria and Brutus. They'd found them.
Katniss immediately reached for her arrow, but Taiya knew it'd do them no good. If they got stuck in a fight in this sector they'd be dead anyway. So she lunged forward and ripped the coil out of Katniss and Johanna's hands before she swung it up as violently as she could, smacking it into the side of Katniss' head, sending the girl falling onto the ground in a heap.
"You didn't have to do it that hard!" Johanna snapped at Taiya before she leapt down onto Katniss' chest, holding the girl's arms down. "Hurry! Before they get here," Johanna shook Katniss' left arm at Taiya.
Taiya glared at Johanna but did as she was asked. She leant down next to Katniss and began cutting into her forearm.
It brought a sick sense of satisfaction to her. Watching Katniss squirm in pain. She knew it shouldn't, but it did. In a way, it felt like a small sense of vengeance for Seneca.
"Not that deep!" Johanna gasped, grabbing Taiya's knife away.
"I got it," Taiya growled, ripping the tracker out of Katniss' arm and throwing it away.
Johanna reached down and rubbed her hand over Katniss' arm, gathering as much blood as she could before she coated half of Katniss' face and neck with blood.
"That'll do the trick," Johanna glanced up in the direction of the Career's, who would shortly be appearing. "Stay down!" she hissed at Katniss before standing up. "They'll think she's dead. What do we do?" Johanna asked Taiya frantically.
"We should try to split them up. If we run in separate directions they'll each follow one of us." Taiya knew Career's tactics. Neither one held a sense of loyalty towards the other, they wouldn't stay together to help each other. They were in this to win it for themselves. "Yoo-hoo!" Taiya cupped her mouth as she yelled out. "Who do you want baldy or toothy?" Taiya asked Johanna quickly.
"Brutus," Johanna nodded.
"Yoo-hoo!" Taiya yelled again. "Are you there Enobaria? You shark-toothed freak! Bet you can't catch me."
"You little…" was all Taiya heard Enobaria retort with before she ran away from Johanna, tearing through the trees back up the hill. Away from Johanna and away from Katniss.
She ran and she ran and she ran. At first, she could hear the footsteps following her. Rapid and frantic as Enobaria chased her up the hill. But Taiya was young and fit and more accustomed to a warmer environment.
Enobaria was slightly older but less agile and quickly fell behind.
She didn't stop running until she slammed into a body.
"Oh my god!" she sobbed. "Finnick!" she grabbed at his arm frantically.
"What happened? What happened?" he asked as he looked her over for injuries. "The wire went slack! I ran off to find you."
"They found us. The Career's found us. We took care of Katniss though," Taiya told him. It wasn't time, they couldn't speak plainly yet. There was time for the cameras to pick up valuable information and for Snow to step in and thwart the whole plan.
Finnick understood what she meant though and grabbed at her left arm and lifted it up. Her tracker was still in and his eyes went wide. He immediately held his hand out, requesting her to hand over a knife so he could take care of it.
Taiya immediately ripped a knife out of her belt and grabbed Finnick's left arm and immediately cut into it, much lighter than she did to Katniss, and removed the tracker.
"Sorry," she apologised as she looked at the blood coming out of his arm.
"Ok, now your arm," Finnick held his hands out to take her arm back and her knife.
Taiya was halfway to handing her knife over when they heard the yell.
"Katniss!"
"Peeta?" Taiya muttered, whipping her head around, trying to ascertain the direction of the yell.
"KATNISS!" he yelled again.
"Where did you leave him?" Taiya asked Finnick wide-eyed.
"With Beetee."
"Shit!" Taiya gasped. He'd obviously escaped from Beetee with ease, his worry for Katniss outweighing any concern for their plan. Just like Finnick had done. "I got to find him. You get back to Beetee!" Taiya instructed Finnick as she took off running.
"Wait! Taiya! Wait! Come back!" he yelled after her, but it was too late. The wind was in her ears. She was flying in the direction of Peeta's yells.
"KATNISS!" she heard one more time, this time closer than she thought. She pushed a little harder when she heard a second voice, a more unfamiliar voice. Had a Career found Peeta before she could?
Taiya burst through a small clearing, knife at the ready, prepped to let it fly into the body of whoever was with Peeta when she froze.
It was Chaff. He was the one with Peeta.
"Chaff?"
"Taiya," he smiled in relief.
"Where in the bloody hell have you been!" she hissed angrily as she lowered her knife. he was part of the alliance but they hadn't seen the man at all.
"I tried to find you guys. I did. But then I saw Seeder get killed by Cashmere at the blood bath and I just panicked. I ran."
"Holy shit Chaff," Taiya rubbed her eyes. This night was in and of itself, exhausting.
"What happened?" Peeta asked Taiya as he stepped cautiously towards her. "Where's Katniss?"
"Katniss is fine," Taiya assured. "The Career's think she's dying. She's a little bloodied up, but Brutus and Enobaria bought that we killed her so she'll be ok. Johanna led Brutus away and I led Enobaria away. She's safe. I promise. Why didn't you wait at the tree like you were meant to?" Taiya asked as she walked forward to stand next to Chaff.
"As soon as the wire sprung back Finnick took off running after you. I followed, Beetee told me to stay but…"
"I get it," Taiya nodded. "Can you give me your left arm?" she asked Peeta, not bothering to try and skirt around what she was doing. She needed to cut out his tracker and get him to safety.
"Why?" Peeta asked with a frown. But Taiya didn't respond. She had frozen. "Taiya?"
"Shh," she hushed him.
"Taiya?" Chaff repeated.
"SHH!" she aggressively hushed him. "Get down!" she yelled, throwing herself to the ground just in time to avoid the spear that had been flung at her. Chaff wasn't so lucky though. The spear went straight through him.
Bang!
A cannon echoed through the arena.
Taiya frantically looked around for Peeta. He was sitting on the ground, having fallen over in the commotion. Quickly she turned her face back to the direction the spear had come from and saw Brutus emerge. He looked fierce. Terrifying. And ominous.
He was here to kill. One down, two to go.
"Hello Ambersnow," he taunted. "You've swapped fish boy for the sap from 12," he snorted as he glanced over at Peeta. But he didn't take Peeta seriously, he didn't think the boy was a genuine threat to him. "I'm here to ruin the party. Too bad Gloss and Cashmere aren't here to see this," he smirked.
Taiya let out a sob as she leapt to her feet. If she ran, maybe she could pull him away from Peeta.
But Brutus knew what she was trying to do and he lunged. Tackling her from behind and slamming her into the ground.
Her bloodcurdling scream burst through the eardrums of everyone around them. Her scream blocked the sound of the crack as Brutus landed clumsily on her ankle.
"KATNISS!" Peeta screamed out in a panic.
Taiya twitched about underneath Brutus, trying to escape from underneath him, but each time she moved another pained scream left her mouth.
He knew he'd done some damage, accidental or not. He knew she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. So he did get off her. And he turned to Peeta. The boy had stood up and looked ready for a fight.
"You're next 12," Brutus sneered.
Peeta's eyes held firm though, he didn't show any signs of fear. Brutus took one step towards Peeta when Peeta burst towards him, knocking the larger man to the ground.
Everyone always underestimated Peeta's strength.
Taiya couldn't even see straight, she couldn't see anything past her tears. But she knew she needed to be alert. Sobbing in pain, she frantically wiped at her eyes, trying to remove the flow of her tears as she reached down to her belt searching for a knife. She could hear grunts coming from the side and she wanted to help.
She managed to clear her sight just enough to see Peeta and Brutus standing up, Peeta had Brutus in a headlock that the man was struggling to break. But without a weapon, the fight would drag on too long.
Taking aim, Taiya threw. Her knife soared through the air and into Brutus' upper arm and he groaned in pain.
Peeta immediately knew what to do. He ripped it out of Brutus' arm and stabbed it into his chest before stepping away, letting Brutus fall to the ground in a heap.
Bang!
"Oh god," Peeta ran towards Taiya. "Are you alright?" he asked, not wanting to touch her and cause more pain.
"The douchebag landed on my ankle," Taiya reached down and hovered a hand above her already swollen ankle. "He always was a jerk. Ah!" she yelped in pain as she moved her leg. "I think I need help," she groaned.
"KATNISS!" Peeta howled for his partner, howled for help.
"PEETA!" Katniss screamed back.
He went to reply when Taiya cut him off. "No, we have to go. Enobaria might've heard this fight. She could be coming," Taiya clutched at Peeta's arm. "You have to help me stand up. We have to get to safety."
"Come here," Peeta wrapped his arm around her waist and hoisted her off the ground. "We have to find the others," he groaned as he started limping forward.
Taiya froze as the realisation hit her. Find the others. "No there's no time!" Taiya sobbed as she threw herself out of Peeta's arms and onto the ground. She knew what was going to happen. They had no time to find the others. And she and Peeta both still had their trackers in. Taiya was in no shape to safely cut them out. "Oh god!" she cried.
This is what she was afraid of. The plan was never going to work.
That's when the sound of a storm began to swirl around them.
Taiya let a loud sob burst through her chest.
"It's ok, I think we're in a different sector now," Peeta tried to comfort her. "We can find them after the lightning."
"No, no, no," she shook her head. "It's the third day! It's the third day! Midnight on the third day. It's too late. It's too late for us. Oh my god, Finnick!"
"It's fine. It's fine," Peeta looked around them frantically.
"We're not going to make it. We're not going to make it."
The priority was Katniss. Not Peeta. She needed to be with Katniss if she wanted to get out of there. The rebels wouldn't have time to grab them all. Plutarch had made that clear. They wouldn't have time to cut out their trackers. They were goners.
The lightning hit. But at the same time, a bright blue flare burst across the sky. This was a change from the previous strikes. Something had happened. Something different.
Then the sky went black. The computer technology that replicated the sky had been destroyed. Then the sky started falling.
Everything seemed to erupt and Peeta dived on top of Taiya to protect her from the falling debris. The arena was exploding. They could see trees burst into flames and fireworks blast through the sky as the rescue operation began.
She could see it. She could see it in the distance.
The hovercraft.
The hovercraft that wouldn't have time to come for her.
But it could come for Finnick. She'd cut out his tracker. She didn't have time to count how many people it collected though, because a burning tree fell in front of her and Peeta, pulling her attention away.
"Come on!" Peeta yelled, hauling her up and dragging her away as they tried to avoid the falling matter.
Another blast echoed through the arena, this one sending Peeta and Taiya off their feet and flying through the air. They collide heavily against the ground and all the air was knocked from their chest.
Taiya looked to her side and reached out for Peeta. Their hands had only just touched when metal claws locked underneath Taiya's stomach and she felt her body begin to lift.
She lay limp in the hovercraft's claw, unable to find the energy to move. Her head was whirring and her eyes were blurry.
And the first thing she saw when she entered the hovercraft was white. Pure, burning white. White walls, white floors, white uniforms.
Then she felt the prick in her arm and her vision went black.
Ok so this was meant to be the last chapter of Catching Fire but I've decided to do one more. One tiny little chapter!
Coonchitaa: or perhaps they both go? Or does that make me evil haha!