Just as the warning sirens in District 8 began to wail, the first bomb hit and Katniss was knocked to the ground, dust and debris raining down around her. The Capitol's hoverplanes had appeared out of nowhere, and now they were under siege. Katniss felt a second shock-wave and tried to stand, only to find Cressida pulling her back down. Panicked, she struggled against her hold.
"Stay down, damn it! We need to wait for orders." Cressida shook her hard, snapping Katniss from the blind panic that had wound its barbed tendrils around her mind. She took a few deep breaths, feeling the tightness in her chest ease somewhat. Somehow, keeping her eyes on Cressida's helped her stay present and grounded.
Katniss knew they needed to find better cover, but she didn't know this district, didn't know where she would be safe. Just as she was about to wrench herself from Cressida's grasp and run to the nearest building she could find, she heard Plutarch's voice in her ear piece. "Head to the blue warehouse two hundred yards away on your left. There's a bunker in the north corner."
Katniss waited for the hoverplanes to pass, and then, shaking free from Cressida, sprinted in the direction Plutarch had indicated. As she neared the building, she caught sight of Gale heading in the opposite direction.
"Gale! What are you doing? The bunker is this way!" She turned to follow him, only to be stopped short by the next wave of bombing. She ducked behind one of the few walls left standing in her vicinity to shield herself from flying debris. Suddenly, she found that was being yanked to her feet and pulled away from her cover.
Katniss watched as the wall she had taken shelter behind fell, slamming rubble into the ground where she had been crouching just seconds ago. She turned to see who had pulled her from harm's way and found Cressida looking at her with wide eyes.
"Shit, that was close! You OK, kid?"
Katniss nodded to let her know that she was fine, but she had more important things to think about than yet another close call. "Did you see where Gale went? He was running away from the bunker! We have to find him!"
Cressida was shaking her head. "I don't think the Capitol knows you're here, and we need to keep it that way! We need the element of surprise."
"What do you mean they don't know I'm here? Why else would they be bombing again?" Katniss looked back in the direction she had seen Gale running. As she watching the bombs fall, she realized she wasn't being targeted, something else was. The hospital! No! She took off toward the hospital as fast as she could, drawing her bow and an explosive arrow as she went.
Turning a corner, she spotted Gale on the top of a building overlooking the hospital. She hurried up a set of stairs and joined him at the building's ledge. The hospital was already ablaze, and a few soldiers were struggling to make a path into the inferno to rescue the others. Katniss looked to the sky, and saw that the hoverplanes were circling back to make another pass. She exchanged a look with Gale and they both raised their weapons to aim at the approaching crafts.
Their arrows hit their targets, and two hoverplanes spiraled out of the sky, exploding a couple hundred yards behind where Katniss and Gale were standing. She felt a surge of victory watching the planes explode, but the feeling was short-lived. She and Gale ran down the steps and through the smoke toward the burning hospital. The closer they got, the sicker she felt.
There was no way anyone had survived the attack. The roof had collapsed and what was left of the building was completely engulfed in flames. The hospital was now a tomb.
Katniss stood surveying the carnage. She felt the rage and sorrow grow inside of her chest, clamping down like a vice on her heart, squeezing until she thought it would burst. Someone grasped her hand, tugging, imploring her to turn. It was Cressida. Her steady gaze pierced the reverberations of pain that emanated from deep inside, trying to pull Katniss under.
"He aired this, Katniss," she said. "He put this atrocity on live television to send a message to the rebels. Do you have a message for the rebels?"
Katniss nodded. With nothing more than a small squeeze of Katniss' hand, Cressida stepped back and directed her crew to focus on Katniss and the smoldering mass grave just behind her.
. . .
Katniss was still dazed when, a short while later, the shell-shocked soldiers and media crew trudged through the dust and smoke to where the hovercraft was waiting to carry them back to District 13. When it seemed that the Capitol had made its point and would not be sending any more bombers, Plutarch decided it was safe to land.
She supposed she should be used to the shock, the trauma, the fear, but each incident just built on the last until Katniss felt like she was suffocating within her own body. Well-meaning people would periodically urge her to talk to someone, anyone, about what she had been through. Who the hell was she supposed to talk to? Gale hadn't been where she had been, and anyway it made them both uncomfortable to talk about her time in the games with Peeta. Oh, Peeta. Couldn't talk to him, either. Even if he were around, there was too much pressure and confusion between them.
Was she supposed to talk to a stranger? Someone who couldn't even fathom the things she had witnessed? The horrors that had been inflicted upon her, and that she had been forced to inflict upon others? The suggestion would have been laughable if Katniss laughed much anymore. So she kept it all in. She knew it wasn't healthy, but what choice did she have?
She found herself seated in the hovercraft, wondering how she had gotten there. She didn't remember climbing inside or strapping in, but they were already taking off. Fighting fatigue, she raised her head and glanced around the plane, taking in the exhausted countenances surrounding her. The experienced soldiers were taking the opportunity to have a nap, while Gale simply stared at the floor. The cameramen were busy reviewing the footage they had captured, but when Katniss' gaze landed on Cressida, who was seated directly across from her, the older woman was looking right back.
"I would tell you to try to get some rest, but I imagine it's impossible to turn your brain off right now." Cressida gestured to her camera. "We got some terrific footage. You did some amazing stuff back there. I'm impressed, kid."
Katniss rolled her eyes. "Do you have to call me "kid?" You can't be much older than me."
Cressida just laughed. "About five years, give or take. I guess that's not all that much in the grand scheme of things."
"You must have started working in media pretty early. I would have thought that directors would be a lot older."
"Most are," Cressida agreed. "I was something of a novelty; precocious, if you will. I found myself in the right place at the right time to gain experience early."
"Why did you leave? Why join the rebellion if you were successful and happy?"
"I never said I was happy. But that's a story for another time, perhaps." Cressida closed her eyes and leaned her head back on her seat. "I have a long night of editing ahead of me. I think I'll try to get a few minutes of sleep."
Katniss watched her sleep. Cressida hadn't pushed her to talk about what had happened, hadn't even asked how she felt. And she was impressed, which, for some reason, made Katniss a little bit embarrassed but the tiniest bit giddy at the same time. She hadn't done anything she thought particularly remarkable. Hell, she couldn't even recall what she had ranted about outside the hospital. Something about fire, and the Capitol burning. Oh, well, she'd see the footage soon enough. For now she was content to study the tattoo on the side of Cressida's head. It was oddly soothing to trace the pattern over and over, over her scalp, down her neck, across her shoulder. She wondered about its significance. Maybe she'd ask about it later, if she thought about it. She barely had time to think about anything other than surviving hour to hour, but something about this woman made her want to make time.
