Suffocate

They’d managed to do with the spinning exactly what they must have planned.

We’d lost our clock face. I’d climbed up, wrung out my hair as the silence continued and re-clipped the belt to myself, the sword hitting gently against the outside of my thigh. Finnick had removed his vest and wrapped it tightly around his thigh, “Is it bad?” I asked timidly, the silence a little overwhelming, the relaxation I had felt in the water vanishing as it dried upon my skin.

“It’s not deep.” He assured me, although I looked pointedly at him until he would let me check it, he was right, at home a stitch or two would have kept it closed.

“Well we need to make sure with infection and stuff...” He lifted up the top half of his wet suit, fishing his arms back through but leaving a large portion of his chest uncovered to let the skin breathe.

“Shut up Elenia.” Johanna sighed, standing properly and cracking her back, “Let’s just get off this stinking island.”

That was where the confusion hit. We had no idea which way was twelve, we’d lost all sense of direction and every section held that same large tree I’d noticed that first day.

Finnick reckoned it had been close to four in the afternoon before the attack and the confusion. It hadn’t felt like we had been here that long but I trusted him, not that it helped. “If they can move the Cornucopia, you know damn well they can change the sky.” I sighed, seconding Katniss’s point before Beetee explained it far more scientifically.

In the end, before an argument could start again we picked a random path, edging towards the jungle carefully. ““Well, it must be monkey hour. And I don't see any of them in there,” says Peeta. “I'm going to try to tap a tree.”

Finnick and Katniss both offered their services, “And I want something other than fish.” Johanna added, “Elenia?” I pouted quickly but nodded, whilst she told Peeta to start drawing up another map and to watch Beetee.

“Are you sure?” Finnick said carefully, trying not to seem overly defensive, it made me smile a little.

“It’ll be fine.” I promised, “We won’t go far, and Johanna knows what nuts to look for and stuff. Plus if we’ll all in the jungle the Careers might come back out and Peeta can get an idea of where they’re going, which will help.”

That seemed to win them all over and Beetee took several heavy steps so he was hidden in the undergrowth. I knew it had to be more than that though, the only reason Johanna would want to be alone with me was to tell me something, or to threaten me. Either one had to seem important to her so I went with it.

And with Johanna I didn’t have to try. I knew Finnick would ask eventually about my reaction over Cashmere, the blood. I didn’t want to lie to him but I also didn’t want to add to his worries. It had to be down to the final eight, or nine, something like that. We were getting close to the end.

Or at least close to whatever was supposed to happen. It had too, after all this. I trusted Peeta, it sounded stupid but it was true, if anyone was going to kill us in our sleep it was her.

“Fine.” Finnick settled, “We’ll find a decent tree.” He shot Johanna one last look before we trod in.

We could easily, if we were just going to collect nuts have gone with them, everyone had to see that, it was clear. And I was sure the game makers were ready to cut between the three odd pairings that had formed. I followed her for a few minutes, watching as we passed several bushes of the familiar seeds, having to manoeuvre around wines, thick weeds that caught underfoot.

My stomach started turning again, cracks of doubt appearing. Why was she bringing me so far away, alone? I pulled the sword out from my belt, trying to be quiet, she noticed and scoffed. “That’s charming.”

“Why are we going so far away?” I stopped and she followed suit, crossing her arms, “Or are you trying to make me nervous on purpose?”

“Blight saw something else when before it started raining properly, they grow higher up, it’s some fruit thing. I thought they might be nice.” I loosened my grip a little, “And there I was trying to be sweet.”

“Fine, I’m very sorry I hurt your feeling Johanna.” I said sarcastically, irritation flushing, she smirked, continuing onwards a little longer before she stopped, pointing upwards, “There!” I followed her gaze, I could see something that definitely looked like fruit.

“Sure they’re safe?”

“You’re the one that went on that station, I didn’t go anywhere near it. But Blight reckoned they were and he was always in to all of that plant shit.” I paused, chewing the inside of my cheek again.

“I am sorry about Blight Johanna.” She shrugged.

“I was surprised he lasted as long as he did.”

“He was helpful Johanna, with a lot of things, don’t be like that.” She spun on her heel, tearing a large leaf from a lower branch.

“Why? Are you upset he died?” I frowned at her vicious tone, “As sad as you are about Wiress, Cecilia, fucking Cashmere?” My teeth met. “I thought not, you’ve got some really fucked up priorities.”

“I’m sorry about Blight.” I repeated carefully, “And I am sorry about everyone who had died in the last two days.” There was so much more I wanted to say, but it was dangerous, Johanna didn’t care.

“That’s sweet, I’m not sorry, because in here it’s us or them. The problem is the people who,” She lifted her voice, “Put us in here to die for your sick little fucking fetishes!”

I let her direct her rage up at the sky again, stabbing the sword into the ground and staring to scale the tree, it was fairly easy, especially now my hands felt a lot better. I was going to reapply the cream soon I decided; inspecting them as I waited for her rant, now under her breath, a whoosh of air as she embedded her axe into the tree below me finished her off.

“If I throw them down will you catch them?”

“No, I was going to let them fall.” She snapped, but I didn’t reply, pulling a knife from my side and releasing a couple. They were about the size of apples but squishy, the flesh inside must be sweet, tangy, probably a bit like an orange.

She cleared her throat loudly and I dropped them, not even trying to aim towards her. Her temper was getting on my nerves as well. I understood she was angry, everyone was angry. But her constant level of ferocity was tiring and hard to deal with, she was so fucking vicious.

I assumed she knew about the whole plot, the escape. Wiress. I swallowed hard, dropping another, had she been vital? Could we do it without her? Was there even a way I could find out without blowing anything?

I sighed, I had given her six and started to descend, watching her wrap them in the leaf and shove it under one arm as I hopped back onto the ground.

“What are we going to do?” I lifted up my rest, wiping it over my face, the water had dried but I could feel the salt merging with the sweat.

She glanced at me, obviously thinking along the same lines, “I guess we could hunt them down, there’s only two of them and we’re not in bad shape...” But that was her; she was more bothered with revenge.

What if she didn’t know as much as I thought? What if she was just using this all to get herself into a good position and all too soon I’d be dodging that axe? It made me shiver.

“And then what, how long until Twelve turns on us?” She shrugs, “You think they will?” I had to keep asking, I think I needed that reassurance from someone as brutally honest as her.

“Well, that’s how you win isn’t it? You’re the one who played that game properly before.” I twisted, shrugging awkwardly, letting her bite go, “Come on. Use your head.” She sighed, grabbing my arm unnecessary, and pressing her thumb nail down hard.

I whined, about to snap at her until it dragged down a little, over a lump in my skin. Over the tracker.
“Come on, get a move on. No time to waste and all that.” Her hand was gone but the gesture wasn’t. She was too smart not to do anything without meaning.

The tracker. Of course, it let them all know exactly where we were, a beacon. If we wanted to escape we would have to be without them, they’d be hunting us blind. It was hard not to let my face change as the revolution spiralled around me.

So she did know, completely. That was a hint of relief even with the hit of jealously that I was clearly the least informed.

“You think Beetee is doing okay without her?” She nodded curtly, again the real tone of the conversation was hidden from intruding ears. “He’ll miss her but he’ll do fine without her.”

So the plan was still in effect, I just didn’t know how or when, although I had already guessed his obsession with that coil of wire was something to do with it. And after all, his nickname was Volts, he was a master of electricity.

“We should get some other nuts as well, see if we can spot any of those rats Katniss was on about on the way-“

A scream echoed through the air suddenly and I tensed instantly, frozen in place. It was a girl, the scream pained, begging for Katniss. “That’s her sister.” I span for the source, it was to the left of us, there was no way they could have her in here. Be hurting her, it was insane, it was completely breaking any sort of rules. I was dumbfounded.

“She can’t be in here surely? That doesn’t...”

“It’s a trick, a lure.” She said definitively, although even her voice shook, “It’s one of the hour things it must be.”

Another call met us now, Katniss, screaming, throat hoarse for her sister.

“So it’s a trap, we need to stop her!” Johanna nodded, and we changed directly, fighting through thick vines when silence dropped again. I was terrified, not for myself, but for her. She had to stay alive, the whole purpose of any of this was for her to stay alive, “Johanna...”

“She’s with Finnick, whatever it was is...”

A third scream burst out, even further from us, deeper into the jungle. The pair of us stopped moving and I felt her head turn, her eyes find mine. I knew the scream, the way it called for help, help from him, pain flowing through every word.

I knew the scream because it was mine.