Blaze

Remember Who the Enemy Is

We don't rest for long and I'm too anxious to anyways. Peeta puts a hand on my shoulder and I open my eyes immediately. He looks grim. The anthem begins to play as we're about to trek into the jungle towards the lightening tree. No faces flash across the sky tonight and I'm amazed that the Gamemakers haven't sent something sinister after us. Maybe they're intrigued by Beetee's trap. Who knows.

Making the climb that evening is harder than it was in the morning, probably because we all ate so much. I begin to regret my full stomach. We climb the last slope and I let out a sigh of relief but I'm still on edge about our plan. I'm not sure how it will work and I wish I could understand it better.

When we reach the tree, Beetee, with Finnick's help, wraps the wire over and over around the trunk of the tree. I'm not sure why he does it but the interlocking pattern he makes with his end of the wire looks important. When they finish, Beetee explains the rest of his plan to us.

"Finnick, Peeta, you will stand guard here with me and the girls will head down and throw the wire into the water. You need to make sure it sinks and then get out of their as quickly as possible. If you leave now, you shouldn't have any trouble getting out of danger." I stiffen when he says the girls. He means Johanna and I.

"I want to go with them as a guard." Peeta speaks up stubbornly.

"I need you both here in case Enobaria and Brutus attack. I'm more of technical man, not a fighting one and I'm sorry but we can't argue about this. If the girls don't leave now, they'll be in danger later." Peeta clenches his fists and opens his mouth but I touch his shoulder. He looks at me.

"It's okay Peeta. We'll be fine." I say with a small smile. "I'll see you in no time." He purses his lips but nods his head. Beetee explains to us not to head back into the lightening section. We're to go straight to the Blood Rain one and we are not to step back onto the beach. Beetee hands Johanna the coil of wire.

"Catora." Peeta says softly. I walk towards him and immediately lean in. He kisses me hard, his hand on the small of my back. "Come back to me."

"Always." I murmur. Kissing his cheek before joining Johanna at the edge of the forest. We wave goodbye and head off down the slope.

"We can trade off carrying this damn thing." Johanna says.

"Sounds good." I reply lightly. I've never been alone with Johanna and I don't like it and I can tell that she doesn't either but we're not about to argue anymore with the clock literally, counting down.

It's hard to lay out the wire, we have to make sure it doesn't get caught or snagged on anything because we don't want it to get cut by a sharp piece of wood or something. I guard Johanna, an arrow notched in my bow as we move downward. We're going at a steady pace though and when Johanna gets frustrated as she untangles the wire from some wood I suggest that I take over for a bit.

"Fine, here." She's handing it off to me and as I grasp the handle, the wire goes taut. We both look up towards the rest of the wire. It's strung tight like a clothesline.

"Is it stuck on something?" I ask quietly as fear rises up in my stomach. I know the answer though before she replies. We've been careful. We've cleared a path. The wire isn't stuck on anything. She opens her mouth but before she can say anything, the wire springs toward us and coils around our ankles. All I can do is stare at the end of it. The wire has been cut clean.

I'm grabbing an arrow out of my sheath when Johanna takes a swing at me. Yelping, I duck, the butt of her axe hits my shoulder and I cry out in pain. Johanna jumps me, pinning me to the ground and presses the blade of her knife against my skin. But she's forgotten something, I'm holding the coil of wire.