Chapter 7: Scream

A combination of cold and potential Career ambushes made a very early start on Day Four a necessity.

Kori appeared rather pleased about this.

Which is only strange because it's Kori Aoki.

Katniss led the way per usual, her pace quick. She only allowed occasional pauses for Haymitch's sake, despite his grumbling every time.

It was still well before noon when they found what had to be the source of the northern beam: a roughly six-foot tall pillar of opaque white crystal rising out of a mound of ice and rocks. After inspection, Kori confirmed it, then tossed a snowball to show that the Arena's force field was only a few yards beyond it. "Careful around that. Let's get started. If we set up the trap now, we can keep watch, draw them in whenever the soonest display is about to go off."

"Will the wire hold more than one...I don't know, electrical surge?" Helvius asked. "If they don't show up in the next couple hours or so and we have to wait until midnight? Or even later?"

Lee held back a wince. Hal, please shut up.

However, Kori didn't seem bothered. "It'll hold," she said. "Beetee invented this type of wire." She then started giving instructions, showing far more initiative that usual.

It's her plan, after all. Or Beetee's.

Setting the trap involved unraveling all the wire from the spool, wrapping much of the central portion around the pillar, and using one end to create a number of tight concentric circles on the ground, each one mere inches apart. Around the pillar, Kori formed a circle that left a few feet between the wire and the pillar. "In here is the safe zone," was all the explanation she gave.

She didn't explain the extra length at the other end of the wire that she left aside, either.

Early on in the process, Lee was getting worried that Helvius might start asking questions again when a scream rent the air.

Lee didn't really recognize it, but Helvius did. He went white as the screaming continued for several seconds.

"Cashmere!" the One shouted, dropping his portion of wire, sweeping up his bow, and rushing towards the sound. He stopped several yards away as the noise came again, this time clearly emanating from the beak of a black bird as it swooped above Helvius's head. He let out a wordless yell as he loaded an arrow from the quiver on his back and fired. The bird dropped, and more screams started up in the distance, several black dots in the sky drawing swiftly closer.

"Jabberjays!" Katniss had her own bow in hand. "Me and Glitz will deal with them; the rest of you, finish the trap!"

Lee didn't recognize many of the screams from the birds that fluttered overhead while the alliance struggled to keep working. Yet even a few moments of Axela's tortured voice sent him hurtling towards panic. For once, he wished for the numbing fog.

She's dead, he kept reminding himself through shaky breaths. She's gone and they can't hurt her anymore.

As the jabberjays, maybe two dozen in all, kept falling around the pillar to Katniss and Helvius's arrows, Orla sobbed openly. Haymitch started looking pale and shaky. Kori, stone-faced, finally lost it and screamed "Fuck you!" as she grabbed one of the lowest-flying birds and ripped it in half with her bare hands.

It was probably fifteen minutes or so, but felt like hours, before Katniss brought down the last wailing jabberjay in the flock and everyone took a minute to breathe in the sudden silence.

Lee went to Helvius and tugged him into a hug. "They wouldn't hurt her," he said. "It's just a trick."

"I know." Helvius's voice shook, and he pulled away. "I'm fine," he added, not looking Lee in the eye.

Haymitch, after helping Kori toss any remaining dead birds off away from the trap, called everyone back to work. "If the Careers were anywhere within earshot, they would've heard that!"

It didn't take long to finish, and for Kori to suggest that everyone spread out to scout for Careers. "I'll stay here with Katniss, to guard the trap. If you see the Careers within the next…" She glanced at the sky. "...half hour or so, lead them back here. Make some noise, too, for backup."

"If I'm staying, so is Haymitch," Katniss said flatly. "I know it's your plan and all, but…"

"Katniss, it's fine," Haymitch interrupted. "The trap needs bait, multiple baits. We don't know what direction they might come from."

"No, it's not fine." Perhaps due to the jabberjays and whoever they had been mimicking to target her, Katniss seemed closer to tears than Lee could remember ever seeing her. But she stopped protesting.

A couple minutes later, Orla headed off southwest and Haymitch southeast, with Lee and Helvius going due south. Katniss's casual suggestion that they split up as well was met by a glare and a loud "No." from Helvius.

Lee found he couldn't find anything to say as they kept up a rapid pace. Less than an hour, no Careers in sight yet, less than an hour…

His racing thoughts came to a sudden halt when Helvius said, "They're all dead."

For a second, Lee wondered if he'd drifted off again and missed multiple canons. "What?"

"All the ones I tried to help, even the ones I did. Mika, Darien...You're the only one left." As they reached the crest of yet another small rise among the hills, shaded by one of the ice formations, Helvius stopped and turned to him. "I know I promised to listen to you, and I'll stand by it, but I honestly think we should leave now."

"Leave?"

"We could just keep going, wait to see how many faces are in the sky tonight or the night after, and go from there. Whether or not Aoki's trap works, there's going to be a bloodbath and then the alliance is going to break up. I don't want to be there when that happens."

Lee's throat was so tight he felt like he should be having trouble breathing. It's not going to happen, not the way you think…We can all make it out if things go just the right way...Less than a half hour, maybe...

And he couldn't tell Hal that. He couldn't tell him anything.

"Let's just...hang on a little longer," he said, struggling to keep the helplessness out of his voice. "Please, Hal. I've got a feeling about this. Just until we see if Kori's trap can get the Careers."

Maybe if he hadn't been struggling not to let anything slip and Helvius hadn't seemingly been occupied trying to come up with some kind of response, they would've noticed that they were being stalked.

Lee was facing the right way to see Leviathan Wells emerge from behind the outcropping first, raising a spear aimed at Helvius's back. He reacted without thinking.

The next thing he knew, he'd seized Helvius and shoved him out of the way, losing his footing in the snow and sending both of them tumbling down the hillside. Something hit Lee on the way down, then tore away as he fell.

Moments later, Lee got himself sitting up enough to see Helvius manage get up on one knee and sent an arrow flying at the Career. Leviathan let out a yelp and ducked behind the outcropping again. Scrambling to his feet and reloading his bow, Helvius glanced at Lee and demanded, "Are you okay?"

As Lee opened his mouth to say yes, pain ripped through his left shoulder. He looked down and saw a ragged hole in his coat, edged with spreading blood.

The spear hit me.

The searing pain radiating from his shoulder down his arm felt disjointed from the sudden dizziness in his head.

He hadn't even looked up before Helvius grabbed him and started half-guiding, half-dragging him back in the direction of the trap. The One kept talking, saying things that Lee couldn't understand through the buzzing in his skull. His legs must have still been working because they were retracing their steps fast, but he couldn't feel them. He kept seeing the world around him in disjointed flashes.

It can't be that bad...just a little longer...

They had reached the top of a hill, just in sight of the trap and in earshot of people shouting, when Helvius let go of him and spun around, loading his bow and aiming it at someone else.

It took a couple seconds for Lee to realize that not only was Helvius hesitating, but the person wasn't moving to attack. The sword in her hand hung limply by her side, the other sheathed on her back. Her gaze moved rapidly between them and the distance behind them.

Two's color this year must be dark red.

The world snapped into focus for a minute.

Eve Charades tilted her head. "What's going on over there?"

"It's none of your fucking business," Helvius snarled.

She almost smile. "I thought not." She glanced over her shoulder.

Is that Leviathan, running at us? Has to be…

A cannon fired.

"Fuck," Eve said, looking at whatever chaos was occurring around the trap. "What am I worth?"

"Excuse me?" Helvius demanded.

"I'd get out of here if I were you." She shook her head and turned away, drawing her other sword and charging away to meet Leviathan.

What the fuck just happened?

Helvius was pulling him again, back towards the trap. Lee could hear Katniss yelling something about Haymitch, could catch a glimpse of another red-coated figure sprawled on the snow with an arrow sticking out of him.

When is the display going to...

Another cannon went off.

Someone tackled them, and Lee fell on his injured shoulder, sparks exploding into blackness behind his eyes. For far too long, he couldn't catch his breath. When he did manage to roll over, he could see Helvius, a distance away now, wrestling with Shimmer, blood spraying onto the snow.

"Hal…" he choked out, seeing Shimmer gaining the upper hand, raising a knife. No...He'd never reach them in time. He didn't know if he even still had the dagger Hal had given him.

Then Kori was there, wrenching Shimmer off of Helvius, shoving her down in the snow, breaking her neck with a twist. Two cannons boomed in quick succession, a bleeding Helvius shouted something, and Kori turned and started running towards Lee. She skidded to a halt as blaring white light cast sharp shadows across the snowy landscape.

Lee looked toward the trap to see the pillar lighting up. The only person near the trap was Katniss, bowstring drawn. Aiming at the force field.

Hal…

A beam of light cut across the sky, and the world exploded.