once upon a time • finnick odair

xiii. the plan

"I have a plan," said Beetee.

At those words, Johanna stared at Beetee as if he was crazed before sighing and standing up.

"Finnick! Kim! C'mon here!" she hollered.

The two men in the water exchanged glances before standing up and heading toward them.

"I have a plan," Beetee repeated as the two walked over. "Where are the Careers head to the safest? The jungle?"

"The jungle's a nightmare," said Johana.

"Probably here on the beach," Devon guessed.

"Then why are they not here?" asked Beetee.

It seemed like Beetee had the answer to everything, but everyone went along with it anyway.

"Because we are. We claimed it," said Johanna, playing with her axe.

"And if we left they would come."

"Or stay hidden in the tree line," Finnick disagreed.

"Which in just over four hours will be soaked from water from the ten o'clock wave," Beetee pointed out. "And what happens at midnight?"

"Lightning strikes that tree," said Katniss.

Beetee shifted a little nervously. "Here's what I propose. We leave the beach at dusk. We head to the lightning tree. That should draw them back to the beach. Prior at midnight we then run this wire"—Beetee showed the group the large coil he had carried from the beginning—"from the tree to the water. Anyone in the water or the damp sand will be electrocuted."

"How do we know that the wire's not gonna burn up?" Johanna questioned.

"Because I invented it," said Beetee with confidence. "I assure you it won't burn up."

Everyone sat in silence at that.

Devon didn't like the idea. The coil was too big, and there were too many risks involved with the plan. He knew that it was Three's way of doing things—using their brains to win, but it didn't agree with him.

What if the Careers weren't in the sand or the water, and one of them was in there? Then they would just be losing more people instead of establishing what they needed to happen. What if the coil did burn up? After all, the Capitol could've manipulated it for all they knew.

"Well it's better than hunting them down," said Johanna, breaking the silence.

"Yeah why not," said Katniss, and Devon looked at her in disbelief. He knew that she was reckless, but this reckless? "If it fails no harm done anyway right?"

"No," said Devon. "If it fails and one of us is in the sand or the water, we're all dead meat."

"I say we try it," said Finnick. At Devon's glare, he shrugged. "It's a good opportunity. You have to admit that."

Devon wanted to disagree but sighed. "Fine. So we try it. What do we do to help?"

"Keep me alive for the next 6 hours? That would be extremely helpful," said Beetee.

Devon had a terrible feeling about this.

***

"I think we need to go," said Katniss.

After the plan was announced, the group had a little downtime with Finnick keeping watch and Beetee explaining the plan profusely to Johanna, who seemed completely bored. Consequently, Katniss and Devon were sitting together on the beach.

Devon looked more weary than last year, Katniss observed. Even though last year, Devon was drenched with liquor, and this year he wasn't, Devon looked much more tired this year than last year.