I'm sitting at the kitchen table, silently scanning through a letter that I found in the mail box from our town mayor, Coriolanus Snow. Peeta is seated in the living room, his eyes wondering out the opened window every now and again. There is no telling how many times I have begged him to close the damn thing, it was freezing outside. I'd always end up losing an argument with Peeta. It made me furious.

"Gale's waiting outside." I jump as his voice cuts through the air. It's very calm yet loud as it echos through the previously quiet room. I look over my shoulder at the blonde haired man, he hadn't quite taken a liking to Gale yet, not that he needed to like Gale.

Peeta and I are in an Arranged marriage. Pretty much everyone in town was, except Gale that is. That is why Peeta didn't like him very much, we were put through this while Gale just sat back and watched.

I push the wooden chair I'm in out from under me, my boots not even making a sound as I walk over to Peeta, laying the letter in his lap. "He wants us to come to his office at three," I inform him, knowing that he won't even bother reading it now. "Since I'm not allowed to leave this house alone, I'm assuming that you'll be coming."

He looks up at me, his blue eyes burning holes through my grey ones. "You might want to go outside, wouldn't want to keep Gale waiting," The way he says this makes me feel like I'm getting a slap in the face. It was just like any other time he would say anything about Gale.

I don't say another word, instead, I join the brown headed man outside. He has a smile on his face that I swear reaches all the way up to his ears. And before I can even say 'hello', he has me off my feet, his arms wrapped tightly around my waist. "Catnip!" His voice has gotten deeper then I remember it being. His hold has also gotten tighter. "You look amazing, how have you been?" Right then, he sets me back on my feet, and I can't lie, I feel like taking about thirty huge steps away from him right now.

"I've been good," I say this slowly. I somehow can't get the feeling that I have met this Gale before. He used to be my best friend, you'd think that I'd always have the feeling of knowing who he was. His hair was cut shorter then it had been when I last saw him, his skin paler. I had to blink to make sure I was looking at the right person. "How have you been?"

I hadn't seen him since I got married. Snow had many rules for arranged marriages and one of them was not seeing anyone close to you, including friends, parents and siblings. Gale shrugs his shoulders at me, throwing his hands in his pockets. "Same." He gives me a half a smile. "How is Mellark doing?"

My eyes find the open window, my brain remembering that he can hear every word we are saying. Peeta isn't sitting in the living room anymore though, I can see him in some sweat pants and no t-shirt heading into the work out room that we had put it the house. He turns his head, making it where he is looking at me again, as if waiting for my answer. "Fantastic I'm sure." With the look on Peeta's face, I can tell that I said the right thing.

Gale suddenly leans over to me, his lips incredibly close to touching my ear. "You're going to have to go to a shooting range soon," He whispers. "You and Peeta both, you two are both probably rusty." When he pulls back, I hope that he notices the confusion on my face.

Peeta and I were taught how to use guns when we were young, not many other people in town were. The shooting range in town was closed down years ago for that reason, no one shot guns anymore. My father had taught me on his own for years and years until I finally knew how to do it, and to teach someone else if I needed to. "Gale, the shooting range in town is shut down, has been for years," The way I'm talking to him is as if he is a three year old that I needed to slowly speak to.

Gale rolls his eyes at me. "I know that, Catnip," He stares down at his pants pocket, his hand moving around in it, his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth with concentration. I start to wonder what he could be doing but I let the thought slip my mind. When he pulls his hand out, a small card is in between two of his fingers. "Haymitch Abernathy, call him. He built one in his old barn, quite a genius I might add."

I hold out my hand and he lays the white card in my palm. I hold it up so I can read the small print. Haymitch Abernathy's Shooting Range 555-3282. I stick it into the pocket of Peeta's hoodie that I just happened to be wearing, who knows what Gale was thinking about this. I usually just grab something that is ontop of the dryer, Portia usually folds the clothes and mixes ours together most of the time. "I will call him after I see Snow today, all right?"

He nods his head, absolutely oblivious to what I was just thinking about. "I am heading out to Alabama, I will be sending you and Peeta a letter in a few days, be sure to read it before he does," The seriousness on his face isn't hard to miss so I nod my head, knowing it is the right thing to do.

"Why are you going to Alabama?" I ask tilting my head to the side. Who knows what Gale does now but I expected that he still lived in town, when we were little he said he'd never leave. But I couldn't say anything about it, I said that I was going to live here forever too. But Peeta had been talking about moving for weeks.

Gale clears his throat, running a quick hand through his hair. "Snow will tell you all about it today," He explains moving past me towards the gate. I slowly follow him, wanting to tell him goodbye since there is a very small chance that I will even see him again. Once we are right beside it, Gale turns towards me, pulling me into his arms once again, leaving me on the ground this time. "Wait just a few days, Catnip, the letter will be here soon. Wait for it."

With that, he pulls away from me, slowly jogging across the street to his car. I cross my arms over my chest and watch him drive away, yelling me a quick goodbye out of his rolled down window. I feel the tears that are starting to collect in my eyes. I wipe them away quickly and run towards the house, knowing that if I am caught outside without Peeta, all hell will break loose.

Once I'm inside, I slam the door closed, pressing down on every lock to make sure we don't get an unwanted visitor. I lean back on the door, my head was starting to throb and I wasn't sure why. The picture that hangs on the wall in front of me catches my eye. It's Peeta and I on our wedding day, my younger sister Prim and my mother are standing beside me while my father stands in the back, a huge smile covering his face while a deep frown covers Peeta's mothers.

To be truthful, I wasn't really smiling in the picture either, it was more of a lip biting, offering a small glimpse of my teeth. Peeta's father and brothers are wearing real smiles, along with everyone else. And the person that has the biggest smile, well, that's Peeta. It was always Peeta. In every picture he would smile like he had never smiled before. He was just lucky he actually had a decent smile.

I soon hear his loud footsteps coming towards me, this is why I barley got to test my gun out, Peeta scared off all of the animals before I could shoot them. Then the thought came to mind, I had my arrow somewhere in the attic, I'd have to go get that sometime soon. "Do you miss them?" Whenever Peeta asks a question, you always know he truly wants to know the answer. It brings a smile to my face.

I stare at the photo again, making sure my eyes take it in, making sure it tells me that I knew these people once upon a time. "I miss Prim a lot now a days," I admit, loving the feeling of finally saying it. "I miss my father like crazy, too." I turn towards him, noticing he has a towel wrapped around his neck, his hands holding both of the ends. He is still shirt less, drenched in sweat. "You need to take a shower."

He chuckles and starts climbing the stairs to the bathroom.

"Peeta and Katniss Mellark for Mayor Snow, please," Peeta says leaning up against the receptionist's desk. She has bright blue hair that is stacked on the top of her head, I have to try my best not to giggle at how silly she really looks. Her head pops up when she hears Peeta's voice, her mouth dropping open when she sees his face.

"Effie Trinket," She holds out her hand to him, her nails long enough to get to China and back. Being Peeta, he accepts it being careful not to get her nail caught in his grasp. "You're Katniss and Peeta Mellark?" She motions between the two of us, her nail almost hitting me in the face. Peeta nods his head while I glare at her. "Wow, I really didn't expect you to look like that." She looks Peeta down and laughs loudly.

I stand here impatiently, waiting on her to stop flirting with Peeta so that we could just get this thing over with. Finally after what feels like hours of showering Peeta with compliments, she lets us know what Snow is ready to see us. "What did you think?" Peeta asks, pushing through door after door to get to Snow's office.

I lift an eyebrow at him. "About what?"

"Effie Trinket," He whispers, looking over his shoulder as if she'd be behind us. "She was a bag full of joy, maybe she can rub off on you. I sure as hell haven't." I look up to find about three camera's motioned down on Peeta and I, it didn't take a genius to know someone was watching us right now and I can bet everything that it is Snow.

Peeta and I walk up to two huge red glass doors, small white roses are painted on the doorknobs. I ball my hand into a fist and reach up to leave a soft knock but before I can, the door is thrown open and Snow is standing right in front of us. There are deep purple bags underneath his eyes from lack of sleep, now I was starting to get worried about why we are here.

His eyes grow wide when he first sees us but he quickly regains composure. "Ah, Katniss and Peeta," Again, he studies the two of us, making me feel suddenly uncomfortable. "Come, come. Have a seat, we have important things to talk about."

I had only been in his office a handful of times and all of those times I left feeling as if all the energy in my body had been taken away. The chairs were a deep blood red, the walls a flawless white, no scratches what so ever. On his desk sits about seven computers, hidden so that Peeta and I can't see what is on them. Peeta pulls me inside, telling me to take a seat. He says this a bit to loudly because Snow turns around, waiting for me to take a seat.

I give him an unsuccessful smile and slip into the cushion, the smell of roses taking over my nostrils. I decide to hold my breath to try and not vomit all over the clean white carpet. Snow sits at his own desk flipping through a file before handing it to Peeta. "You two will read this tonight, then in the morning you will pack up and leave town," Snow says, no trace of humor in his voice. "Gale's letter should come in by then."

A shutter goes through my body, how did he know about that? I know Peeta wants to know what he is talking about but he doesn't look at me, doesn't even send me a glance. Instead, he opens up the folder and the first thing you see is the word zombie in big bold letters. I hold back the urge to laugh, zombies? Was Mayor Snow going crazy?

"What is this?" Peeta finally speaks, amusement is clearly in his voice. The way Snow looks at him sends chills down my spine. "Zombies Mayor Snow? Isn't that like, out of the ordinary?"

Right then I regret not slapping my hand over his mouth, he really needed to stop talking. Snow stands from his chair, walking over to a huge window behind us. My mind is flashing from reality to dream right now, I had no clue what was going on. "You see Mr. Mellark," I can't see Snow at the moment, but I can just picture motioning his hands in the air. "A man tried to find a cure of a sickness in town, he tested it out on animals first, said it worked and we all believed him. Next day, he tested it out on a young boy, Marvel Jameson. His sickness was lifted, his parents said they had never seen him healthier. He went to bed that night and the next morning his mother said he was acting strange, she was walking him to the doctor across the street when he reached out and bit a man on the neck, leaving a huge bite mark."

Peeta and I sit silently, waiting for him to continue. "The man was rushed to the hospital and so was Marvel," The way he says the kids name hurts me, he is acting like it was all his fault. "Later that night the man awoke, the nurse went to take his temperature and he bit her arm, standing up and pinning her to the ground. In the morning, the doctor found her torn apart and left to rot."

Finally, I've had enough. "You're acting like this was their fault!" I scream at him, standing from my seat. "It's because of that ever clever man who made the cure, Mayor Snow! Did he take some himself? Since he has killed how many lives already?" The older man turns towards me, his eyes a dark black.

"Mrs. Mellark, you and Peeta were Arranged for a reason," I look down at Peeta himself, he is watching all of this in horror. "Over the years, many parents decided not to teach their children how to shoot because of the huge protection of the town. Your parents thought it would be better if they taught you, and they were right." I stare at him, how could he just bring up my parents like it was nothing? "You and Peeta were two of the few people in town that know how to shoot, when we found this out, we arranged you two together. We knew this would be coming soon, we had to be prepared."

Peeta stands beside me, ready to speak. "You're saying that all of these years you knew that there were going to be zombies?" He says this calmly, far from how I asked my question. Snow nods. "Can you answer this question for me? Why couldn't you have stopped that man for sending out the cure?" His voice was starting to get higher.

"He tested it on the animal, Mr. Mellark," Snow snaps at him. "You should really listen. He tested it out on the animal and the animal didn't turn flesh eating, so he gave it to a human. He didn't know it would turn into another sickness."

"That is why you try and put more than one animal in a cage!" Peeta yells. I'm not going to lie, it made me jump, Peeta never yells. "I bet you people didn't try that, I bet you all thought one right time would cure everything, turns out you were wrong. Come on Katniss, we are leaving." He grabs my hand and starts to pull me out of the room before Snow grabs his shoulder, pulling him to a stop.

"Mr. Mellark," He says softly. "I'd much rather everyone die, I brought you here because I am very kind. I decided I'd tell you two so you could get a move on, go somewhere safe maybe." My heart is pounding out of my chest, what was he saying? "I'm to nice is what I am, maybe I shouldn't have told you, you're just going to try to save everyone else, your parents," My eyes flicker up to him, I needed to see my parents. "But you know, you're going to die by the end of this."

With that Peeta has had enough. "Thank you, Mayor Snow, you are way to kind," You can hear the sarcasm in his voice as he pulls me out of the room, rushing out of the building. We hear a quick call from Effie, something about why we were in such a hurry.

When Peeta and I are in the car, he has his head on the steering wheel whispering things to himself, or me, I'm not exactly sure. He lifts his head up and this time, I know he is talking to me. "What letter from Gale?" He asks, a small bit of hurt in his tone.

I clear my throat and try to turn away from him, but all I end up doing is staring at him again. "Gale told me he was going to Alabama," I explain. "He told me we would be getting a letter in the mail from him soon, he told me to read it before you do." An unreadable expression flashes over Peeta's face, I have no clue if he is mad or hurt by this.

"Did Gale tell you anything else?"

I stick my hands in Peeta's hoodie and smile when I feel the small piece of paper between my finger tips. Haymitch. "He gave me a card for a man that made his own shooting range in his barn, I'm sure its not fancy, probably the targets are in horse stables." I smile. "But we can give it a try, after all, we are a little rusty."

"All right," He says with a nod of his hand. "Let me see the card."

Should I continue or no? Review?