ODDS

ʜᴏᴜʀꜱ

"𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓷𝓪 seems to be laid out like a clock with a new threat every hour, but they only stay within their wedge. It all starts with the lightening, then blood rain, fog, monkeys. That's the first four hours. At ten that big wave hits from over there."

I watched Katniss draw something into the sand near the cornucopia. She looked up, watching me study the map.

"But the tail points at twelve." Peeta mentions, pointing at the edge of the map near Katniss.

"Yeah, that's where the lightening strikes at noon and midnight." she continued. I nodded at her words.

"Where?" Beetee asked, adjusting his glasses before peering to Katniss. Her head turned as she pointed somewhere behind her.

"That big tree."

Beetee nodded, a pleased look on his face. "Good."

I peered over my shoulder to check on Wiress. She'd been affected greatly by the forcefield. At the moment, she was singing a little nursery rhyme that I'd remembered in the deepest parts of my mind. I thought I'd remembered my mother singing it to me, but I didn't know if it was a memory, or simply a dream.

Peeta began going over the information. "So twelve to one is lightening. One to two is blood. Fog, monkeys." He traced some small sketches in the sand to reflect each hour and its horror.

"And ten to eleven is the wave." Katniss discussed. "What about everything else? Did anyone see anything?"

A few shakes of the head, and Johanna piped up, "Nothing but blood." Her voice was full of disgust.

"Lots of blood." I muttered under my breath. I felt Finnick's hand on my shoulder, offering some form of comfort. Katniss looked at me once more, a look of pity hidden in her eyes. She'd been out in the water helping Wiress clean up when Finnick brought me to the beach. Despite her distance, she'd seen the affect the rain had on me. Then again, just about everyone had.

"I don't think it matters. As long as we stay clear of whatever sector is active, we'll be safe." Peeta assured. I shrugged my shoulders, agreeing with what he was saying.

"Yeah, relatively speaking." Finnick's joke didn't get it's desired affect. Mainly, this was due to a noise coming from where Wiress was. A canon went off and my eyes went wide as I spun around, wobbling on my hip.

Wiress was gone. Behind me, Katniss let an arrow loose into Gloss, who fell into the water. Another canon sounded.

One of the Careers, Brutus, leapt up from his hiding place to land in front of me. I pulled out one of my kukris, only to have Finnick slide between us, trident held in an attack position. I called out to him as Brutus swung his sword, narrowly missing his head by mere inches. While he was crouched, I took the opportunity to flick my kukris, aimed at his chest. He ducked in time to miss it, my kukris flying into the water. I cursed under my breath as his and Finnick's fight continued.

Suddenly, an arrow whizzed past my head, narrowly missing Finnick. Brutus threw his sword up to deflect the attack. Before anything else could be done, I noticed Katniss go after the remaining Careers.

"Katniss!" I called. She either didn't hear my cries or she ignored them. Either way, it wasn't going to end well. Johanna ran after her as I threw a dagger in her direction. She caught it with ease as she slipped out of our sight.

Then the ground shifted under our feet.

It started of slow, making me wobble slightly, but it soon picked up speed. On my way down, Finnick reached for me pushing his body weight under my own. My hip couldn't have taken another fall, and even in the chaos, I couldn't help but be grateful for his quick thinking. In our immediate vicinity, it was only Finnick, Peeta, and I. I held on as tightly as I could to the rocky earth, feeling the water splashing around us . Beetee was further into the cornucopia. Who knew where Katniss and Johanna were? I could only hope they were safe.