The Mentor. (Cato Hadley)

Chapter Fourteen.

Katniss awakes the group as I watch on, mentally calculating which consequence comes with each section. "The twelve sections, it's all part of the game."

"Midnight," Wiress manages to get the word out, telling us that the clock starts at midnight.

"You're right, midnight. Lightning strikes at midnight, then the blood rain at one.. the acid fog comes at two. Which means we should get moving." Finnick gives Wiress the last of the bread, filling a basket Mags wove with water.

Peeta tries to lift Beetee off the beach, but Beetee protests. "Wire," he says simply, using the only word he could muster.

"She's right here," Peeta gestures to Beetee's district partner. "She's coming with us."

Beetee struggles, shaking his head. "Wire."

"Oh," Johanna says simply, walking over to the spool of wire Beetee had been carrying around. "He wants this. It's worthless, some kind of wire. He almost died getting this from the Cornucopia."

"That's the best weapon he could have, he won his Games with that wire. Set up that electrical trap with it." Peeta stands up for Beetee, reminiscing about the intelligent way to win the Game. Katniss and Johanna take some shots at each other, something I stay out of.

"I'd like to go to the Cornucopia," Finnick breaks up the fight, looking off into the distance. "I wanna watch, just to make sure we're right about the clock."

"Brutus told me before we started that I'm his number one target. He told me he'd make sure that I was twenty-fourth," I think back to the conversation, when someone I truly figured was my friend began to tell me that he was plotting my death. "He'll move to take me out the second he gets the chance."

"He's not going to get to you," Peeta's words are somewhat reassuring, the man I've barely spoken to promising me my safety.

We make our way along the sand strip, getting to the Cornucopia safely. It's abandoned, nothing left but a picked over pile of weapons. Peeta lays Beetee in the shade of the Cornucopia, handing the wire to Wiress and asking her to clean it.

As Wiress cleans the wire in the saltwater, she begins singing a child's song about a mouse running up a clock. "Oh, not that song again," Johanna scoffs.

To turn the events, Peeta compliments Wiress on her intelligence, thanking her for figuring out the clock. "She's very intuitive, like one of the Canary's in your coal mine. Figuring things out before everyone else."

"What's that?" Finnick asks, the District Four citizen unfamiliar with birds such as canary's. I know what they are, but I'm from District Two. We do have a few coal mines, very few coal mines, as our main export is masonry.

"It's a bird we take into the mines that warns us if there's bad air," Katniss explains, a faraway look on her face. I remember Haymitch telling me that Katniss' father died in a rather suspicious mine explosion, one that took most of the mining force of District Twelve.

"So it just dies?" Johanna asks, a scowl painted on her face.

"It stops singing first. That's when you should get out. But if the air is too bad, yes, it dies. And so do you." I sense the fact that the girl does not want to talk about the mining community of her district.

Peeta draws in the sand with his knife, carving out a map of the arena. "Look how the Cornucopia is positioned, the tail points toward twelve o'clock. This is the top of our clock." He scratches the times into the sand, giving us a visual.

"Twelve to one is the lightning," I say, glancing down at the drawing. Being in the cornucopia has me on edge, my back pressed to the cool metal with my sword poised. I'm expecting a Career attack at any moment.

Peeta adds the times of the blood rain, acid fog, and monkeys to his drawing. "Ten to eleven is the wave," Katniss adds. At this point, Finnick and Johanna join us in our circle. Finnick has replenished his weaponry, armed with new tridents. Johanna has replaced the axe she lost in the blood rain, throwing one against the cornucopia with all her force as it lodges into the metal.

"We didn't get the chance to see what goes on in the others," I tell Peeta before he can ask the question. "All we saw was a hell of a lot of blood."

Then there's silence. Wiress isn't singing at the mouth of the Cornucopia anymore, just like the Canary's in the mines of District Twelve. I don't need to say anything, because before I could move Katniss sinks an arrow into Gloss' temple. Just as fast as she appears, Johanna's axe is lodged into Cashmere's chest.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

We run outside the Cornucopia, just in time to see Brutus and Paula running down a sand strip into the jungle. Paula, from District Five, made an alliance with the Careers. I never thought I'd see the day.

Sudden movement throws me into the water, and I cling on to the sand strip the best I can as the Cornucopia spins with immense force. It seems like forever until it stops, my eyes trailing over to my allies. The three dead bodies are floating in the water, Finnick, Johanna, Peeta, and Katniss all clinging to the ground like I am.

Finnick jumps into the water to save Beetee, who's currently flailing in the water. Katniss, however, swims toward Wiress' dead body. She makes it to her just as the hovercraft is ready to lift, prying Beetee's wire out of her dead hands.

"I should've never mentioned the clock," Katniss spits like venom, throwing the now clean wire to Beetee. "Now they took that advantage away from us."

"They can't redesign that whole arena," I nod, digging the sword I've somehow clung to into the sand. "We'll figure it out again eventually. The tree that gets struck by lightning, there's one in every sector. They're trying their best."

Johanna is obviously impatient, sick of the conversation. "It doesn't matter, you had to tell us or we wouldn't have moved our camp in the first place. I need water, anybody have a good gut feeling?"

"It must be monkey hour, and I don't see any of them. I'm going to try and tap a tree," Peeta says, holding his hand out for the spile.

A small argument ensues, with Finnick saying it's his turn to tap the tree. I don't know what's going on, and I can't even pretend to. These Victors, Mags, Eliza, they're sacrificing themselves for Peeta. They're keeping him alive.

In the end, Finnick and Katniss head into the jungle for the water. It's quiet, a silent regrouping to figure out the clock once again. Beetee has his back pressed to a tree, still catching his breath from his near drowning. Johanna and Peeta focus on redrawing the map, while I stand guard - on edge.

That's when I hear the screams.

A/N: we're just a few chapters away from Catching Fire! I am so incredibly excited to conclude book two for you guys, there's only a few chapters left. I cannot thank you guys enough for your continuing support, it's been a long and wild ride here writing The Mentor! But Marblyn's story isn't even close to over, I'm so excited for you guys to see the conclusion.