Catching Fire (Billdip AU)

Chapter 16

(Dipper pov)

They all look at me confused. "What are you talking about, Pinetree?"

"The mist, monkeys and tsunami couldn't leave a certain area and I'm guessing the same was true with the blood rain. All of them lasted for how long?"

"I don't know, maybe an hour."

"Exactly. Each segment has some kind of horror that only last for an hour. Come on."

I lead them to the cornucopia, Wires lagging behind everyone else as she quietly sings 'Hickory Dickory Dock'. I point to the huge tree that the cornucopia is pointing towards, it standing out.

"Everyday at midnight and noon lightening strikes that tree exactly 12 times. One strike for every hour."

"Holy shit."  Bill mutters quietly.

Beetee kneels down and draws out the arena in the sand, labeling the sections that we know of. "Do we know what the other sections are yet?"

"No. These are the only ones we've seen or experianced so far. Although I don't think that any of these things can reach the beach."

"This at least gives us an advantage over the careers since they don't know about this yet and we'll know now to avoid which areas and which times."

"Our bes bet would be to stay on the beach then. The jungle is just a fucking death trap."

I open my mouth to say something else but stop, realizing that something was horribly wrong.

"Pinetree? Hey, what's wrong?"

Bill puts a hand on my shoulder but I hastily pull away from him, as it horrifingly dawns on me what's wrong.

"Wires." I quietly mutter to myself as I grab my bow. I turn quickly nocking an arrow and drawing the string back just in time to watch one of the careets slit open Wires' throat, the cannon goes off being the final nail in the coffin.

I angrily release the bow string, my arrow lodging itself into his chest. I barely hear the cannon go off, fuming with anger.

"To your right!" I hear Johanna yell from behind me. I nock another arrow and fire it at another career but they duck behind the cornucopia forcing me to miss. Johanna picks up her ax chasing after them. "Get the fuck back here, you damn thud fuck!"

I go after her when the ground beneath our feet moves unexpectedly, causing everyone to fall to the ground.

The whole island that the cornucopia sits on starts rapidly spinning around. I do what I can to cling onto the wet rocks as Johanna drives her ax into the stones. Glancing up I see the other careers and anything that was still in the cornucopia gets flung into the water.

I scream as my fingers slip from the wet rocks and I fall towards the water only for Johanna to grab my hand at the last minute. I use my other hand to hold onto her wrist tightly.

"Just hold on, Dipper!"

Despite our best efforts to hold onto each other, my fingers slip from her grip and I'm plunged into the unbearably hot water.

Salt water stings my eyes and throat as my body is helplessly throws around in the water that I lose all sense of direction. Everything hurts from how hard my body had hit the water. Pain flares at the smallest of movements.

I feel like I'm just about ready to give up when a hand grabs the back of my shirt pulling me back onto land.

I lay on my side harshly coughing up salt water as I try to get air back into my lungs. Bill rubs my back as he carefully helps me sit up and puts his hand on my cheek making me gently look at him.

"You alright, Pinetree?"

"Y....Y-Yeah,,,," I glance around realizing that the last three careers are nowhere in sight. "Where did they go?"

"Ran off once the island stopped spinning. Good riddance." He helps me stand up as Finnick hands me back my hat. "Let's get the hell off this rock."

We head back to the beach, the air silent and heavy with tension from Wires' death. I angrily clench my hand into a fist before punching a nearby tree, instantly having to hold my hand as I yell in pain.

"Son of a fucking bitch!"

"Pinetree, calm down!" Bill grabs my wrist as he looks over my cut up knuckles. "You're lucky that you didn't break any of your fingers doing that. Come on, let's get you cleaned up."

He pulls me over to a nearby tree as the others make camp. He puts the spile into the tree and holds my hand under it as the warm water runs over my cut and bleeding knuckles.

"You want to tel me what that was all about?"

"It's nothing."

"Bullshit. Pinetree, please don't lie to me."

"....Wires is dead because of me."

"That isn't true."

"Yes it is. Johanna brought her along only because I wanted her and Beetee as allies. I should have been paying better attention to her but I wasn't and now she's dead."

"That's not only on you. We all should have done better. You are not responsible for everyone's lives, Dipper. Shit is messy and we can't save everyone no matter how much we want to."

He rips off part of his shirt and wraps it around my knuckles. He softly kisses my knuckles once he's done.

"What was that for?"

"Just a small kiss so you'll feel better soon."

The small amount of blissful peace is ruined by an all too familiar scream that rips through the air. Horror and dread fills me, knowing exactly who that scream belongs to. Without wasting a minute I sprint into the jungle, desperate to find her.

"Mabel! Mabel where are you?!"

"Help!"

I skid to a stop, panting heavily, knowing that she's got to be somewhere close now.

"Mabel, I'm right here!"

"Help me, Dipper, help me!"

I look up, the source of the screaming coming from a bird flying in the air. I nock an arrow, taking aim and shoot it out of the sky. I take my arrow out of the bird's body, feeling relief that it was only a jabberjay.

"Dipper!"

"I'm over here, Finnick."

Finnick jogs up next to me. "You alright?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm all good."

Another woman's scream rings out, this one unfamiliar to me. Finnick's face pales before he takes off running.

"Finnick, wait!" I run after him.

"Finnick, help me!"

"Annie!" He gets to a clearing as he franticallys looks around for whoever is screaming.

I look up seeing another jabberjay flying around. I shoot it down before grabbing Finnick's arm making him look at me.

"It was just a jabberjay. Calm down."

"Jabberjays repeat what they hear. Where do you think they heard those screams?"

Before I can even think of an answer more screams fill the air.

"Mason! Help me please!"

"Dipper help!"

"Finnick help us!"

We both look in horror as dozens of screaming jabberjays fly right towards us.

Finnick grabs my arm as we take off running back the way we had just come from, the jabberjays right on our heels.

We're almost to a clearing where Bill and Johanna are waiting when we crash right into an invisible wall.

Bill slams his hands on it and throws his shoulder against it as the jabberjays fly all around us as their screams just get louder.

I put my hands over my ears as I fall to the ground, trying to do everything I can to block out the screams of everyone I have ever loved or cared about.