Author's Note: ZOMBIE AU (I'm actually kind of surprised no one's done this yet. Or maybe they have. I don't know.)
Pairings: Not sure yet, currently gen
I own none of the characters.
Word Count: 1346
Warnings: Um. Death. Zombies. Swearing.
I'm hoping to include all the important characters in this - So yes, Peeta, Rue, Cinna, Haymitch, Cato, Clove, Snow, Coin, everyone's going to show up at some point. I'm planning on actually making this a story or series, so stay tuned. :E
Prim dances in a graveyard. She loves graveyards; she thinks that they're pretty. Gale hates them. He tells her that they need to keep moving, and then he'll turn to Katniss and try to convince her to tell Prim to keep going. Katniss likes them, though. The graveyards are usually quiet and serene, something she needs since everything ended and then began. She doesn't like that Prim dances in them, though. But her sister needs some happiness in her life, so she keeps quiet and asks Gale to do the same.
Gale is leaning against one of the taller graves, his rifle across his lap. He's the only one who has one – Katniss prefers the bow she snatched from their archery-teacher neighbor before the outbreak happened. Her dad, an avid lover of hunting and camping, taught her to shoot, once upon a time.
He'd also taught her how to make arrows and how to turn a stick into a spear. Gale knew how to make snares incredibly well, and Prim seemed to know the places that were safe and air-tight. They're a good team, really, if only Katniss knew what they were traveling toward.
Gale says that there's a town in Washington that is safe and clean. He says that there's people there. Katniss is pretty sure he's lying. He just wants to give them some hope.
But it's been nearly four months since they've seen other people – other living people, since there are plenty of zombies all around them. Gale keeps a mental kill count. Katniss tries to forget about it.
Prim's seen far too much for a girl her age, stuff that Katniss has tried time and time again to keep her from seeing, but when a monster rips its way through the windows, all hungry for your blood and hell bent on killing you, you don't have time to usher the children from the room. You can't stop it and say "Hey, could you hold on for a sec, just let me get my sister out of here." You kill the damn thing and then comfort the kids.
Prim's not exactly a child though. She's thirteen years old and she's seen so much already. She was the one who found their mother, sitting alone in her bedroom with an empty bottle of pills in her hand. That was during the days where everyone said that locking yourself in your house was better so long as you kept everything locked and stayed away from the windows. That was in the days when everything was a rumor.
Katniss! Katniss! It's mom, come quick, come on, oh no, mom! MOM!
"Catnip?" Katniss jumps and opens her eyes, shaken from the memory of Prim screaming and reaching for her, to find Gale's face near her's. "You okay, Catnip?" They look similar - people always thought him and Katniss were related when they were little. They both have similar olive skin and grey eyes, and when they were younger they were inseparable to the point where there was no question as to going home for dinner, no asking needed to spend the days out in the woods, climbing trees with their friend Madge.
He's always called her Catnip, ever since he misheard her say her name. She whispered it and it had stuck. "I'm fine." She tells him, and her eyes go to Prim, who is standing a little ways away, her head tilted back and her blonde hair blowing with the breeze.
"Do you ever wish we could've saved your brothers, too?" Katniss asks him, her eyes never leaving Prim.
"Yes." Gale says quietly, his voice not even a whisper. "But what's passed is passed and we can't change it." All of his brothers died quickly, his mother too, and his father had died in the same hunting accident that took Katniss and Prim's dad years before this whole mess. "You should braid your hair again." Or cut it, Katniss thinks, but the thought doesn't stay long.
The scientists explained it by saying it's a mix of many chemicals that bring the body back to life, just not the brain.
"Prim, come on," Katniss calls across the graveyard. "We need to keep going."
She turns and frowns at them, but she walks back over anyways. She grabs one of the bags and puts it over her shoulder even though it hurts her, and Katniss wants nothing more than to find a place where they could just live forever, live safely.
Prim turns around to look at the graveyard again and Katniss spies her shirt hanging out of her pants. The shirt's too big for her, Katniss thinks, but it was their mother's and Prim likes it. "You've got a ducktail." Katniss laughs and reaches forward to tuck it in for her when a gunshot goes off, loud and everywhere and right nearby.
Katniss turns to look and then hugs her sister close. Prim cries quietly and Katniss hopes that she didn't see anything. She turns them around, Prim's back to Gale.
Gale stands very still, the gun still pointed toward the fallen zombie. Zombie, Katniss thinks, it's a funny word. He steps closer, studying it, watching for movement and listening for sounds. It's face down on the ground with short brown hair and bloody clothes that were once white.
The religious said that there was no more room in hell.
Gale shoots it in the head, making sure it's done for, and Prim sobs loudly. She shakes and digs her nails into Katniss's shoulders without thinking. Katniss says nothing. Prim's just a scared little kid – and that's all any of them are, really.
"Gale, don't—"
He was pulling off the watch on the thing's arm. It had dried blood all over it, but she could still see the gold shine to it underneath. He looks at her. "Why not? She doesn't need it anymore."
"Gale, come on. Let's go."
"She has a backpack." Gale points out. He stands with a leg on either side of the zombie – Katniss realizes that it was once a very small human – and peels open the backpack. A few cans tumble out of it and land next to its face. Gale digs around inside and pulls out a hunting knife and a set of matches.
"It's what we needed to do." Gale tells her. Katniss knows that they need to take what they can find, even if it was on a zombie's body. Katniss lets her sister go. Gale stuffs the cans into his backpack and gives the matches and knife to Katniss. "Let's keep going."
Gale checks the compass and Prim pulls out the map. "We're right here," She says. Her face is still red and puffy, but she's not crying anymore. "We need to go this way." Katniss can't see the map, but Prim's finger trails along it, pointing to some road or trail.
He looks off toward the town and nods. "Let's get going then. We might even be able to find a working car."
Katniss looks back at the zombie, it's backpack flat and it's wrist free of a watch. She wants to wonder where the person's from, who they were once, but that kind of thinking is dangerous. That kind of thinking makes you feel sorry for them, and you can't feel sorry for something that's trying to kill you and everything you love.
"Come on, Catnip!" Gale shouts. Katniss turns her back to it and the rest of the graveyard and jogs toward them. This is all she needs – Prim and Gale, her sister, and her best friend.