If you haven't read it go back and read chapter 8 i've done a double upload to make up for the wait you guys have had. Sorry and i hope you like it.

Chapter 9 – Reunited

The trio of people stumbling out of the jungle don't seem to have noticed us and I move slowly towards my bow. Before I get to it Finnick jumps up, a smile on his face. He runs towards our potential attackers and I have no choice but to follow. I realise who it is before we reach them, partly through my own deductions partly because Finnick is shouting Johanna's name at the top of his voice; such a smart thing to do.

"Johanna!" Finnick shouts.

"Well if it isn't my favourite Fish brains. Ooh and Captain Brainless too!" Somebody remind me why I like her. Wow, I just admitted I like someone, and someone who could possibly kill me one of these days no less. I think Johanna and I could have been good friends if it wasn't for these damn games.

"Nice to see you too Johanna." I smile widely.

"Johanna, Beetee, Wiress. Fancy seeing you here." Haymitch says. Is he serious?

"Seriously what are you on? We're in an arena to fight to the death with no way out; of course we're going to run into each other." Johanna rolls her eyes.

"Tick tock." Wiress mutters. It's then that Johanna goes crazy.

"I swear if she says that one more time I'm gonna kill her. I don't care about this stupid alliance." She shouts.

"Hey lay off her." I protest.

"You don't know what I've been having to deal with Katniss!" She screams at me.

Seeing that the situation could soon get out of hand, Finnick hoists Johanna up over his shoulder and walks into the water. She's kicking and screaming at him to put her down so he does, straight into the water. They both start laughing and I feel a pang of something. It can't be jealousy I'm not jealous of Finnick and I'm most definitely not jealous of Johanna. That would be absurd.

Yeah ok keep lying to yourself

Seriously back off, goddamn voice in my head.

I notice that they're all covered in blood and that Blight is missing and make a mental note to ask Johanna later; I don't think now is the best time. I look at Beetee and discover that he has a large gash on his arm.

"How'd you get that?" I ask softly.

"Getting my weapon." He replies quietly gesturing to a coil of wire Wiress is holding.

"What's wrong with her?" I ask again just as softly as before.

"She's in shock." He explains slowly as if I'm a small child, patronising me slightly.

I nod and move away towards Haymitch.

"He likes you, you know sweetheart." Haymitch whispers to me.

"Who?" I play dumb.

"I saw the look on your face when he dragged Johanna off into the water. You like him but you're too scared to admit it. Either that or you're just emotionally challenged."

I walk away from him in a huff and over to Wiress. She keeps mumbling the same two words over and over.

"Tick tock, tick tock."

It's a relief when Finnick beckons me over to him and Johanna in the water. We swim around for a while and then we decide to try to catch some fish to eat, with our weapons, which means going back to the beach to collect them. Johanna doesn't join us when we go to hunt fish so it's just Finnick and I.

The salt in the water starts to irritate my skin where the fog got me so I start to rub it. When I do the blisters all but disappear and all that's left is new pink skin.

I call to Finnick who is quite far off now, "Hey Finn I found a way to make you pretty again!"

His face lights up and I laugh. We scrub ourselves all over and end up looking relatively normal.

"We should probably put more of that salve on though to protect our skin." I point out.

"Yeah ok," Finnick seems distracted. "Hey Katniss watch this."

Finnick jumps up and dives into the water again, he then goes under and doesn't resurface.

I look around scanning the waters for him, when I don't see him I start to panic. I feel a tug on my legs and I get pulled under by Finnick. I wriggle out of his grasp and resurface. He follows closely behind me and we start splashing water at each other. We end up starting a full scale water fight.

"I'm gonna get you for that!" I scream at Finnick after he practically makes a tidal wave cover me.

"Not if I get you first." He replies shamelessly.

I chuck up as much water as I can and try to get it in Finnick's face. He moves forward and his speed in the water is crazy. He picks me up and throws me into the water. I hit the water with an almighty splash, my hair swirls around my face sometime during our antics my braid became undone.

"Hey Katniss, I'm gonna take the fish back to everyone else you coming?" Finnick asks me.

"I'll catch you up." I reply.

He nods and starts collecting all the fish we left on one of the rocky spokes. When Finnick and I were having our water fight I was genuinely happy, like the happiness I feel when I'm hunting.

Now Finnick's gone my thoughts invade my mind.

Tick Tock

It starts at midnight

12 sectors

Tick Tock

It starts at midnight

12 sectors

Tick Tock

It starts at midnight

12 sectors

I gasp out loud when I realise what we're basically living on.

I run to the others splashing my way through the water, they've managed to start a fire and are starting to cook the fish.

"I've figured it out!" I cry.

"What?" Johanna raises an eyebrow.

"The arena!"

"Oh yeah by the way, I wouldn't go in there," Haymitch points to one of the sectors. "There's some sort of deadly insects in there."

"How do you know that?" I ask curiously momentarily forgetting my big news.

"We all heard this clicking noise, it's been going on for the past hour." He explains.

"Oh right."

"Katniss what was it you wanted to tell us?" Beetee asks calmly.

"The arena, it's a clock! We have to move, each sector has something terrible in it." I tell them quickly. As if on cue, the twelve bells sound and the lightning strikes the tree in the lightning zone.

Wiress jumps up and hugs me still repeating her earlier words. I know realise she has been trying to tell us the arena's a clock all along but she's still in shock. We all walk along the beach and move to the 10 o'clock section. It's twelve now so we have 10 hours until the wave hits. Along the way I ask Johanna why she was covered in blood earlier and she tells me how Blight hit the force field but didn't make it and how at first they thought the rain was water but they then realised the droplets were bright red and the size of their fists.

We're at the Cornucopia collecting supplies, Wiress is still mumbling away. She's like our canary, in the mines back in 12 they used to send canaries down the mines to see if they were safe, if the bird stopped singing it would be because it was dead signifying it wasn't safe for the men to go down there.

I'm trying to work out what is in each sector whilst the others collect whatever else we need. Something's changed, missing. I look up trying to work out what it is. I can hear Finn, Johanna, Haymitch and Beetee talking and that's when I realise what it is that's missing. Our canary has lost its voice.

I run to where Wiress was sitting clutching Beetee's wire. Gloss is standing there with a sadistic grin on his face, he's slit Wiress' throat and she's bleeding out; if Gloss is here, the other careers can't be far away.

I raise my bow and I take aim and shoot, just as the others come running round to me. Gloss dodges my arrow and makes his way towards us. Cashmere is behind us and Brutus and Enobaria are advancing up the rocky spokes.

Just as I think we're done for, the Cornucopia starts spinning. We all hit the ground and try to hold onto something, anything. I hear a high-pitched shrieking and it takes me a few seconds to realise it's my own.

Two canons boom and I realise they must be Cashmere and Gloss's because as the Cornucopia started spinning Enobaria and Brutus ran back into the jungle. All of my friends are still clinging onto the rocks and I catch Finnick's eye and smile slightly although I'm terrified that one of the people I'm beginning to trust is going to die.

As I'm looking around water splashes over me and I start slipping. I slide right down the rock until my feet are in the water. As I'm about to go in, Johanna grabs my hand and I cling on for my life. Johanna starts slipping too and she stabs her axe, which she got from the Cornucopia, into the wet ground to secure our position. My hand starts to slip out of Johanna's grasp and I take one final look at my comrades and plunge into the salty water.

I sink into the depths of the water that the Gamemakers must've made deeper before it dawns on me that if I don't move I could drown. Somehow my fuzzy brain manages to get my arms and legs to move and I make it onto one of the rocky spokes. I gasp for air as soon as I break the water and when I reach the spoke I lay down panting, I don't think I could go anywhere even if I wanted to.

"KATNISS!" Someone is calling my name and I sit up and wave my arms in the air. It's then that I comprehend that the Cornucopia has stopped spinning. When I regain the use of my brain, I stand up and start jogging down the spoke back to the Cornucopia and the others.

"Hey guys I'm here!" I shout.

I look at them and realise that we're down to five people in our alliance and only tributes. We're going to have to break our alliance soon, or risk killing each other. I look at my allies and realise Beetee is missing.

"Guys, where's Beetee?" I ask startling them, they hadn't realised I was there.

"Katniss, I'm so glad your ok." Finnick rushes over and wraps his arms around me, he's like a boa constrictor.

"I'm glad you're not dead Brainless." Johanna smiles at me and I return it.

"Good thing you can swim isn't it sweetheart." Haymitch nods to me. I know he was secretly worried about me.

"Uh guys… Where's Beetee?" I say hoping he's just around the corner.

"Oh crap. BEETEE!" Johanna yells.

"Finnick it's nice to know you care but we should probably look for Beetee right now." I point out when he doesn't let go I continue, "So that means stop trying to crush me and go find Beetee."

Finnick lets go just as Haymitch calls out to us.

"We've found him so if you two are done making out one of you go get him." Haymitch calls out.

As Finnick jumps into the water going for Beetee I mutter in response to Haymitch.

"We were not making out."

"I bet you wish you were though eh Brainless. Who wouldn't want to lock lips with that fine specimen?" Johanna blurts making me turn beet red.

I don't satisfy her with an answer as I've realised that Wiress was holding onto Beetee's wire. I look around and see her body floating in the lake, I also see Cashmere's and Gloss' too. I dive in the water and swim as fast as I can towards Wiress. The hovercraft is collecting bodies now and it has already taken Cashmere, it is working its way to Gloss now.

When I reach Wiress, the hovercraft is above her. I try to pry the wire out of her stiff lifeless hands but it is proving difficult. After a lot more pulling and bending I finally manage to save the wire, just in the nick of time too as, as soon as my fingers leave hers, the claw grabs her and takes her away.

When I get back to the others, they are huddled in a group whispering. I cough loudly and they all turn around trying to 'act natural'. Something is definitely going on and I will find out.

"We should head back to the 12 o'clock sector. Lets go." Haymitch says.

"Right."

"Yes."

"Great idea."

They are such bad actors, they are practically telling me something is going on. Then they promptly walk off in completely different directions with only Beetee staying with me.

"Yes that would be a good idea except, we don't know where that is exactly." I point out.

"Katniss is correct, as a result of the spinning we have lost all sense of direction." Beetee justifies my point.

"Well the tail pointed at twelve before they spun us right?." Finnick says.

"Right." I confirm.

"Well I was going by the sun." Finnick tells me.

"That only tells us it's going on four though." I reply.

"I think Katniss' point is, knowing the time doesn't mean you necessarily know where four is on the clock. You might have a general idea of the direction, unless you consider the fact that they could've spun the outer ring of the jungle too." Says Beetee.

That was most definitely not Katniss' point, my pint was one hell of a lot more basic than that but I just nod my head and pretend I'm on the same page as Beetee.

We circle around the Cornucopia but we can't work out where we are. Every sector now has a tall tree like the lightning tree so we can't judge by that.

"I should never have mentioned the clock. Now they've taken our biggest advantage away from us as well, I should've known they'd use it against us." I mutter bitterly.

"Only temporarily," says Beetee, "At ten we'll see the wave and be back on track."

We chose a random path and make camp on the beach. I draw out another map leaving the sectors unknown to us blank. My throat feels dry and I stand up giving the map to Beetee.

I look at Finnick and we both speak at the same time.

"I'm going to get some water."

I laugh and silently say jinx.

We head to the jungle and peer into it. It must be monkey hour by now and I don't see any monkeys. We enter cautiously careful not to set off any booby traps or whatever else is lurking in here.

We are tapping a tree with the spile that miraculously stayed inside the parachute along with the cream during the dizzying experience earlier.

"Uh Finnick… I kind of need to pe-" I'm cut off by the sound of a girlish scream.

They are screaming my name; it's Prim!

READ THIS IT'S IMPORTANT!

I said before that the 25th reviewer gets to choose something to go in the story. That reviewer was a guest who said: 'PLEASE UPDATE SOON- LOVE the plot, can't wait for more Katniss/Finnick moments! I LOVE the story!'

So 'Guest' you get to pick anything you want and i'll add it to the story, the first available chapter that I can put something in is Chapter Eleven (where it'll be day three) so leave in a review what you want to happen. No Imposters Please!

Thank you for reading and as always, Reviews = Sugar cubes from Finnick!