Rising Rebellion [#3]

Chapter 16 - The Lightening Strike

John and Sylvia were woken up by Finnick. They sat up as the rest of them were almost ready to go already. “We need to get going if that plan’s going to work.” Finnick said. John and Sylvia rubbed their eyes as get up on their feet. John was slightly unsteady, but he managed to walk just fine on his own. While walking upwards, he ended up walking next to Katniss. The two of them had never really spoken properly together since they got in to the Arena. Mostly it had been because of the different situations they had been through throughout the Game themselves. “So who was that girl you heard at the jabberjay-attack?” She then asked him as both of them were trying to find a conversation-opener. “My best friend Marge…it can’t have been her though, her real voice. She was taken by peacekeepers at the announcement of the Quell.” John then explained. “The entire District rebelled against the twist.” John added shortly afterwards.

“The girl you heard was your sister, right?” He then asked. Katniss nodded. “She might be the one person in this life that I fear for the most.” She said. John nodded understandingly. “Trust me, I understand that.” John answered as he attracted Katniss’ attention. As if she wanted to ask him what had happened. John noticed her look. “You’re allowed to ask, but I’m afraid the answer is painfully obvious. I acted out of line according to a certain someone.” John answered as he looked ahead of him where Sylvia was walking. “I do still fear for one person in this world though, but I know you wouldn’t understand why.” John said. Katniss followed his gaze and nodded. “You’re absolutely right about that, but I guess you have your reasons. Of the two, you seem reasonable enough.” She said with a dash of irony. John smiled. “It was never just about being reasonable, Katniss. Despite of the attitude she’s having towards you, she was the only one who understood what I was going through after the Games. I had this massive guilt and she was one who helped me cope with it.” John then said as Katniss was listening intently. “She got to me when nobody else could, not even my own family. I doubt anyone will get to me in the same way.” He then added as he saw Katniss were taking those words into mind.

Not long after that, they all got to the big tree where the lightning would strike. Beetee just stood there for a while to assess the size of the tree. “So what’s next?” Finnick asked. Beetee had been walking over to the tree to look at it closely. “We are going to need to put a lot of wire around the stem of the tree, that way the lightning will be sure to follow it all the way down to the water.” Beetee started. “Some of us help him and the rest keep watch. The Careers are still out there.” John then said. Finnick went over to help Beetee with the wire while the rest kept their eyes locked in different directions to make sure they weren’t unpleasantly surprised.

It didn’t take long before they were finished. Finnick did most of the work, but at Beetee’s instructions to make sure that the full amount of electricity was contained by the wire. “Okay, that part is now done. We need someone to take the coil down to the water.” Beetee said. Finnick was holding the coil. “Katniss, John and I will take it.” Sylvia then suggested as Finnick handed it to her. John noticed that Katniss wasn’t too comfortable with the idea of leaving Peeta. And then it hit him: they had been spending time together last night. Had they been discussing something regarding the alliance? “Won’t you two be fine on your own?” Katniss then asked. “We need to be stronger in numbers in case the Careers show up. Three against two will scare them enough.” Sylvia said. “Finnick and Peeta can hold the fort here with Beetee.” John then added. There was a moment of hesitation between Peeta and Katniss, but they gave in. “Okay then, let’s get going, I for one wouldn’t want to be around here when the lightning strike arrives.” Sylvia said as she started walking. As John turned around, he received a secretive nod from Finnick before leaving.

The lightning strike wasn’t far away as they could hear the rumbling in the sky while they were walking down with the wire-coil. There was still quite a distance to go so they had to keep their pace up. “Let’s try to pick up some pace. That lightning can strike at any point and I for one, will not be anywhere near this coil.” Sylvia said as she was walking in front. She handed it to Katniss at one point and the three of them kept on walking. They were climbing down big rocks and John for one, had trouble keeping up as his artificial leg probably wasn’t built for these kinds of hikes. As the three of them were walking in silence, John thought he heard movement. He looked up at the rocks they had passed, but he only saw trees moved by the wind. “John, come on! We really don’t want to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Sylvia said as she turned around and noticed that he had stopped. “I just thought I heard movement, but it was probably just the wind.” John said as he got down to Katniss and Sylvia.

Less than a moment after they noticed that something was wrong with the wire. The wire was too loose. As they looked back up, the two Careers, Brutus and Enobaria from 2, were standing there with their knives in their hands. John grabbed a couple of arrows and fired them at the same time, but none of them hit him. He then looked over at Sylvia and Katniss. “I’ll distract them!” John said as he took off. Looking up, he noticed that only Brutus was following him. Only seconds after he left, Sylvia knocked Katniss out with the coil while Enobaria was watching from above, and sat on top of her. John had given her the knife to do this. She cut open Katniss’ arm and removed the tracker, and then she smeared Katniss’ throat with the blood from the arm.  She then bent down to her ear. “Stay down!” She said as she first threw her axe at Enobaria without hitting her, and then took off, with Enobaria following her.

She ran in John’s direction as she heard the sound of metal hitting metal. As she was running, she looked between the trees above her, where Enobaria was following her and descending towards her at the same time. She made her way quite aware of Enobaria as Sylvia knew that she was better with the knives than what Sylvia was. Sure, Sylvia knew how to use one, but when it came to combat, she had always been better with the axe and had usually stuck to it. Sylvia stopped for a moment to catch her breath, but Enobaria was still moving, and within seconds, she jumped at Sylvia. Apparently Enobaria had lost her knife on the way, but she still had her razor-sharp teeth as she was in her favorite position: on top of the prey.

The metal sound that Sylvia had heard earlier was Brutus’ flying knife hitting John’s artificial leg. Once it hit him, John managed to keep in balance for a little while, but the leg was damaged at the ankle. It was getting poorer and poorer in movement. At one point it cracked and John fell to the ground, losing hold of his bow which was now several meters ahead of him. Brutus was now running fast towards him. John tried to crawl those final meters to get to the bow, but as his hand reached the bow, so did Brutus’ foot. He was standing on John’s hand and at the same time, in his own hand, holding a knife ready to kill him. John was sure that this was it. Nobody had followed the two of them as far as he knew. He looked down on the ground for a moment, as if he was praying that the rescue would come any minute. As he was about to look back up, he saw another set of legs behind Brutus. The Career then collapsed to the ground. As John looked back up, he saw Peeta.

John retracted his arm as he tried to get up. “I never thought you were that kind of person, Peeta: the person that would kill.” John then said as Peeta handed him the bow. “I’m not…I never thought I’d have to be one either.” Peeta then answered. “Are you going to be okay?” Peeta then asked looking down at John’s leg. “I’ll be fine, Peeta.” John said as they heard someone was fighting in the bushes. “That might be Sylvia. I heard she followed me, but Enobaria probably caught up with her.” John started before they heard someone scream. “I’ll show you, Career-trash!” They then heard. “That’s definitely her.” John said as he led the way in the direction they heard it from. As they got there however, Enobaria had gotten on top of Sylvia again was having the advantage. Sylvia’s knife was quite a distance from her reach. Now Enobaria could use her teeth, if hadn’t been for John’s arrow. “Sylvia!” He yelled as he let the arrow fly. Enobaria was aware of the arrow, but he managed to hit her in the shoulder and chase her off.

“I almost had her.” Sylvia said exhausted. As John helped her up, they heard the lightning strike. The blast that came with the strike was more powerful than any of them had anticipated. None of them knew what was up and what as down as the blast threw them into trees surrounding them. Sylvia and Peeta were knocked out by the impact with the tree, whereas John was barely conscious to see what was going on around him. As he looked up at the sky, he saw pieces falling down. The Arena was a dome. Someone had directed the power of the lightning strike towards the top of the dome causing it to explode. Smaller and bigger pieces were falling down quite a distance away from John, Sylvia and Peeta’s location. He then saw two hovercrafts appearing. One of them was picking someone up by the lightning tree, the other one was picking up Peeta first, Sylvia second and then at last him.

“We made it…” John managed to utter quietly to himself in the hovercraft. They did it. They had done just what Heavensbee had asked of them, and now he was going to bring them to safety: to the rebellion. The Capitol’s terror was over for good and they could finally make a difference in the rebellion for all of the loved ones they had lost to the Capitol, to end its rule over the Districts. But something was out of place. As he half-consciously opened his eyes, he didn’t see Heavensbee, or Haymitch or Katniss for that matter. All he could see were peacekeepers. He barely got to lift his head up when he felt someone knock him at the back of the head.

This was not the rebellion!