I walk into the banquet hall; Gale grabs my hand and leads me to my chair in between him and Haymitch. He looks at me and rolls his eyes.
"Whataya think President Snow wants with us?" he asks with a smirk, taking a swig of beer.
I shift uncomfortably in my chair but fake a smile when Gale puts his hand on my shoulder.
"What is it Gale?"
"Look…President Snow brought guests."
I turn my head over to the big double doors where President Snow has just entered. He had three people trailing behind him. I freeze as I recognize their faces. Enobaria. Johanna. Peeta. I stand up, about to run and hug Peeta but Gale grabs my hand. I look down at him and try to fake another smile. I pull away and run up to the Peeta. A Peace Keeper jumps in front of him though, with a whip. I take a few steps back and try to stay calm. President Snow is outraged.
"GO BACK!" he yells at me.
I obediently sit down again and President Snow takes the stage at the front of the room.
"Let the entertainment for the night begin!" his voice booms.
Three Peace Keepers step forward. They take out their whips and the torture begins. Enobaria, Johanna and Peeta were being whipped right in front of us. They let of screams of pain and shout for their loved ones. The Peace Keepers just laugh and continue whipping. Enobaria is the first to pass out after 30 whips. Johanna and Peeta are now trying to fight the Peace Keepers. I cry into Gale's chest and he wraps his arms around me.
Then, they finish whipping and the Peace Keepers leave the room. Johanna and Peeta are put in some sort of cage and dinner is served. I look down at my meal and realize that I have lost my appetite. Haymitch on the other hand, eats as if he hadn't seen food in years. How could he? He had coached Peeta for the past two years. Why doesn't he care? Peeta and Johanna look at us longingly, they see everyone eating and they lick their lips. They probably haven't been feed in a while. They do look quite thin. A Peace Keeper comes in, gathers Enobaria and quickly takes her out of the room.
President Snow takes the stage again. He asks me and Joshua Mason to join him on stage. Since Johanna was the only living victor from District 7 President Snow had called upon Johanna's father. We both walked up and two more Peace Keepers led us to the cage that Peeta and Johanna were imprisoned in. Gale was shooting me an annoyed look, I could just feel it. He hated the relationship that Peeta and I shared. I walked up to the cage, holding my hand out as if I could touch Peeta. He did the same and looked at me sadly. He looked horrible, scratched, bruised and bleeding.
I look over to Joshua who is looking at her daughter, right into her eyes. Tears fill his eyes. Then, I realize I am crying too. I wipe my eyes and turn to see everyone else who is seated, watching us. Most of them haven't touched their dinner. I see everyone is crying. My mom and Prim who are seated next to Hazelle are crying. Gale's family is crying and Gale is too. Haymitch is crying and even one of the Peace Keepers. I turn back too Peeta who had been staring at me the whole time. I try to devise a plan to rescue him, Johanna and Enobaria. I slowly remove my mocking jay pin and hand it to him.
"We are the rebellion." I whisper. Then I slowly walk back to my seat and everything goes back to normal, or as normal as it could possibly be. Some people have gone back to eating, others just look down at their food in repulse. I saw most people wiping their eyes with handkerchiefs and blowing their noses. Gale just looked at me.
"Where's your pin?"
"Um….we're going to save Peeta….and Johanna and Enobaria" I struggled with the answer, not knowing how to word it.
"We….are?" Just us? Will we even make it?"
"No we can probably get some others to come with us."
"Brutus…Beetee…Finnick…Haymitch? Who Katniss?"
"I don't know Gale!" I yell at him and someone comes up behind me.
"Katniss!" I turn around and see Madge.
"Where's your pin?" She asked with wide eyes.
"We are going to save the captured victors." I replied, more confident then when I explained it to Gale. Her eyes got even wider.
"Save them!?!"
"Yeah…is there a problem?"
"Well…I guess not but…"
"Okay then! We sneak out of this place and go find them!"
"Katniss-" Gale starts, putting his hand on my shoulder. I cut him off.
"We leave tonight!"
"Okay! Okay! We leave tonight!"
I smile approvingly and walk over to see my mom.
"Katniss honey…what's wrong?" She asks.
"I just say my fellow victors get whipped! How do you think I am?"
My mom gives me a sad smile. "What are you going to do?"
"I am going to save him!"
"What? Save him?"
"Yes. I am." I run off to Gale and Madge. "Say goodbye to Prim for me!" I yell back.
"Okay, let's go." I say as I approach them.
"Okay." Madge answers. "I'm with you guys."
"I'm not!" Gale says.
"What?! Why? Please come!" I plead.
"No. I am not saving him just so you two can live happily ever after."
"But Gale-"
"No." he answers simply. He steps forward and embraces me…he kisses me.
"Oh Gale…" I say pulling back. "I didn't think of it that way."
"Oh well….have fun saving your fiancé."
"Okay…" I say and pull out of his grasp, looking to Madge. We slip down the hallway and look in each door. We get on the elevator and on the next floor we are greeted by four Peace Keepers. We run as fast as we can and once we get to the room at the end of the hallway we slam the big metal door behind us and lock it. We look around the room and see three heads in the moonlight that is coming through the window pane. They are facing the opposite direction but as soon as they hear us they turn around. Brutus. Beetee. Finnick.
"What are you all doing here?" I ask in a breathy tone.
"Well…we aren't trying to kill eachother anymore." Brutus states. "So we figured we'd team up and look for the victors."
"Who's this?" Finnick asks, motioning to Madge.
"Oh. This is my friend Madge Undersee. She's the mayor of District 12's daughter. Well, the mayor of District 13 now."
Finnick winks at her and Madge blushes.
"Okay. Let's save the victors." I say in a determined voice.