Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games and am making no money from this.
This story, like most Hunger Games stories I've read will be told from various points of view. As normal, I'll note when they change.
Katniss
So these wing suit things are stupid dangerous. I'm not sure why anyone is surprised; we're jumping out of a hovercraft like, two miles up or something, how could anyone think that's safe? And forget actually learning to use the things yet, it turns out Beetee has to invent some fancy thing just so we can use them. Apparently you're supposed to use a parachute when you're close to the ground, but that's not really fast or sneaky, so he's making some machine to do the job.
It's something about taking the hovercraft parts that make it, um, hover or fly or whatever; building small versions of them, sticking in a battery for a single use and in theory, we get close to the ground, the machine realizes it and then makes us slow way down. It's a nice theory. Right up until Beetee started tossing test dummies out a fifth floor window in one of the buildings downtown. Let's just say there's a lot of dummy parts in the street and not a lot of slowing down.
Supposedly it's all part of the process; it'll all be ready for, just issues with miniaturization and things like that. It seems like Beetee isn't really used to inventing with an audience. I wonder, was inventing force fields better? Whatever he tried to protect with one must have gotten really plastered with the stuff he tossed at the force field.
There isn't much we can do to practice in the meantime. Since the old way to land the things was with a parachute and we won't be using one, we're stuck just waiting around. Beetee says his fancy machine will be ready for us to test soon, and when it is, he's suggesting jumping out of a hovercraft at a low altitude over water, with some stretchy cord tied to us, so we won't wind up dunking the machine unless things go really wrong.
It's not that I'm even super eager to do this. Yeah, Glimmer left it up to me. I know she wants to do it, but would have gone along if I'd said no. Gone along and not said a thing about it. But like Gale said, we do have a responsibility. People believe in us and stuff, act like we're some new nobility and look up to us, and no matter how much I might not want to go back to war, all that does mean something. So I decided that we're going back to war.
So I've been trying to enjoy the last few days off with Glimmer. We're doing the same stuff: exploring, playing games, that kind of thing, but it's sort of tough. It's like, there's this nervousness that makes it hard to relax and enjoy things.
One of the last days before we're set to start learning to um… fly, Gale asks me something at the morning war stuff meeting. It's been a boring meeting, not a lot to talk about, just the usual stuff.
"Hey catnip," Gale starts. "Been meaning to ask you something. Figure before we're set to jump out of a hovercraft and maybe die this is a good time."
"Cheerful thought, Gale," Glimmer deadpans.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, why'd you two come back? I can see Glimmer, sure. This is the sort of plan that she can't resist. But what about you, Katniss?"
"I don't know, " I start. "You're right, Glimmer wanted to come back for this, but she didn't push it; didn't even say it actually. She just said it was up to me and she'd go with whatever I decided."
"What the hell?" Haymitch asks. "I came up with that crap so she'd drag you along."
"I know," Glimmer replies. "I wasn't going to just let Katniss get dragged around though."
"So what was it, catnip?" Gale asks again.
"It was a few things I guess. One was the whole responsibility thing. Not that we're responsible for Panem or any of that. It's just, well, we started it; that makes us responsible for it. You know, we have to finish it, see it to the end, or at least try to. And also, you all are doing it, fighting and stuff, and I really don't want to leave my friends and family like that."
"Ah. Glad you're on board again then."
"Yeah, I'm on board, Gale. But don't get the wrong impression here; I'm not doing this because I love it or anything. I liked this past winter; it's been one of the happiest times of my life in fact. Everyone was safe, warm, well fed, we had things to do and there wasn't anything hanging over our heads. I'd much rather keep doing that for the rest of my life than fighting more."
"It's not all bad," Madge tries to reassure me. "We're helping people. Just think about how everyone in 5 and 11 was after we liberated them. It's good work we're doing."
"I know, Madge. And you're right, there's good parts to it. But being left alone without anything trying to kill me or my family? I've wanted that all my life. So even if it has good parts, it isn't what I really want. Not like I've usually gotten to do what I want though, so I'm used to it. Anyway, can we just move on? I'm here, I'm doing this, we don't need to look at why, do we?"
People take the hint. Or rather, the blatant request, and no one asks me why I'm here anymore.
Haymitch
One battle, that's all I got out of the girls. Past that it's on the B team to prove they can get something done. Not that I disagree. Those three need to actually accomplish something (bodies of murdered kids on TV don't fucking count). Being under pressure isn't cool though. Fact of the matter is, I don't have some readymade plan here. Actually I don't even have some half assed idea to start with. So basically I'm stuck talking to the B team and seeing what they've got. Hopefully one of them has some insights, probably on how to take their home district. If that's even possible at this point. It may not be.
But whatever, got to try. Just, I don't want to do it here in Charleston; the last damned thing I need is the kids or some family member hearing I don't know what the fuck to do or that there's no plan or shit like that; people hear that and crap starts to falls apart. So I figure since the B team's all doing training shit in the districts I'll hop a hovercraft with them and we can talk in the air.
It's early morning when they're flying out, of course. I mean, why the fuck wouldn't it be? Don't they have any respect? Some of us have hang overs, you know. But I've got to just suffer through it I guess.
"So we need to talk," I start.
"Huh, that's why you're here?" Finnick asks. "I thought you just passed out on this thing last night and randomly woke up here."
"Hilarious. But I'm serious here. There's something we need to discuss. The kids are only willing to keep fighting if you three can take a district on your own."
"What the hell is their problem?" Johanna demands.
"Apparently even teenagers have a sense of self preservation if you have enough people try to kill them. So after a winter with no fighting the girls got into this normal sort of routine and decided they aren't going to do it all themselves. They only agreed to our attack on 6 if you all get a district on your own, no help from the kids at all."
"So you have a plan, or are you expecting us to come up with one?" Finnick looks at me.
"I'm here to see what you all think. Obviously one of your districts makes the most sense; you know the place, know people there and all."
"Obviously 2 is out. The people are hostile and Peacekeepers are based there," Enobaria slams the door shut on that one. I knew it was coming, so no big deal.
"4's tough," Finnick starts. "Since 13 and Snow are both there, twice as many people to fight. If it was just one, maybe, but with two? I'm not sure what we'd do. It's not a huge place, the town's on the end of a barrier island, long narrow thing, so there isn't a lot of room to operate. We can get in east of town, east of the Peacekeeper base, and east of where 13's basically certain to be, but then what?"
"Can we just get into the town from the west?"
"There's another island west of the one 4's on, sure, and that's empty. But we still need to get from one to another, and the only bridge is a train bridge. That and it's got to be watched. And the water is patrolled by Peacekeeper boats."
"Besides, even if we get into town, so what?" Johanna complains. "I mean, say we get in, big fucking deal; we're in a town with no army, no plan and it sounds like shit for room to move."
"So are our options better in 7 now that you shit the bed there?" Yeah, I'm still kind of ticked about that whole thing.
"Oh yeah, real unbiased question there."
"Just answer the damned thing. If you go in is there anyone who will actually deal with you? And shooting at you or asking if you really did kill those kids or are responsible for all the Peacekeeper overreactions doesn't count."
Johanna gives me a dirty look. "You think you sound smart asking asshole questions that you should already know the answer to?"
There's a reason Johanna Mason wasn't picked as the face of the rebellion, and it isn't her face; it's what comes out of it. Frankly I don't know if she even had any friends back in 7 or what, but at least we had people friendly to the rebellion. If we just show up with those three and no army backing them or cool new super weapon or any shit like that we're not going to get anywhere at all. Fuck.
"All right, fine, so it's 4," I announce. "So your asses are getting dropped in there, tell me how you're going to make it happen."
"Well we have to get in somehow," Finnick starts. "South is the ocean, I mean, we can jump in and swim, but I doubt Johanna or Enobaria can swim that far. We'd have to make it pretty far too, within a few miles of shore the hovercraft would get seen, so south is out."
"What about an inflatable boat?" Enobaria asks.
"We could use one, assuming we scrounged one up somewhere. We'd need the right weather though, the seas kick up in a storm and a raft isn't going to be a good idea if that happens at all. And to not get the hovercraft seen we'd need to drop way offshore, ten miles at least I'd say."
"Damn, it really has to be that far?" Johanna wants to know.
"The ocean's really open, you can see things amazingly far there, so yes."
"Fine, what's the options for other directions look like?"
"Like I said, west is another barrier island. Railroad bridge and Peacekeeper patrol boats on the water. But it's not a super long swim, half mile, maybe a bit more, so if we time it right we can get across between patrols."
"You're going to be carrying guns and ammo and shit, none of which floats. How you going to make that swim with all that crap, fish boy?" I demand.
"Fuck. Ok, so west is out. Um, north is a bay, maybe four miles wide. I never was big into catching bay fish, but some people are. Supposedly the north shore is all bombed out and destroyed; old military base from the Dark Times people claim. We probably could land there and use a little inflatable to get across the bay. The bay's patrolled though, and it's a lot smaller than the ocean, so odds of being found are good."
"A poor option then," Enobaria comments.
"So that just leaves east. It's a long barrier island; it won't be hard to be dropped east of town, the Peacekeeper base and any of 13's forces."
"And what then?" Johanna asks.
"They we walk."
"How far exactly are we supposed to walk, and just what are we walking through?"
"Imagine it'll be ten or twenty miles, at least. And you can walk on the beach or on ancient crumbling roads basically."
"Why so god damned far?"
"Like I said, it's a barrier island, this long narrow thing. It looks like a giant dash on a map. Town's at the western tip, east of town, reaching up to the northern shore is the Peacekeeper base and 13's basically going to have to be east of that; there's just no room anywhere else for them to stage their forces. So we need to get past 13 and then Snow's forces before we get to town. If you want to do it all undetected, and I think we do, that means we have to insert real far east of town."
"What's the terrain like?" Enobaria demands.
"It's um, not great, actually. The ocean has a beach, sure, fine white sand, not that walking on sand is the easiest, especially when you're loaded down with guns and stuff. It's a little easier at the water's edge though. Inland of that is sand dunes and thick scrub then, well, swamp. Like real swamp."
"Those choices suck," Johanna points out. She's right, but there's no point piling on. Actually, since they're more or less planning this out on their own for now I'm content to just sit and watch.
"That's why I said we might want to take the roads, not that that's without risk too; we'll be easy to spot."
"So beach, swamp or roads. That's all crap."
"The swamp is really not what I'd recommend. It'd dense, it's wet, it's slow. If we make one or two miles an hour through it, we'll be lucky. And there's predators around too. Gators in the swamp, bears and supposedly a few people have seen some big cats, jaguars or something." Finnick explains.
"Ok, fuck the swamp."
"Isn't there a shoreline across that bay to the north?" Enobaria asks.
"Not really," Finnick replies. The woods and swamp just sort of end right at the water, there's no beach or normal shoreline that's clear or anything."
"So it's shit all around," I finally step in. "Sounds like a coin toss from what I'm hearing then. So whatever makes for the easiest drop point will be the plan. We'll put you all in just after dark and that'll give you all time to move."
"And if we actually get to the town, what then? Sneak around, get the lay of the land, wear thick coats and stuff and try not to get recognized?" Johanna suggests.
"Coats aren't going to happen." Finnick shoots that part of the idea down. "In 4, people wear a coat maybe two or three days a year, that's it; it just plain isn't cold enough. So it's going to be more normal clothes, a lot of sneaking around and hoping we don't get noticed. Once we actually get into town, I should be able to wing it."
Wing it; this is starting to sound like a princess plan.
Glimmer
I get to fly, actual honest to god fly today. Cinna's finished with the wing suits, Beetee's done with the um, whatever part he was working on and it's time to test them. We're heading up in the hovercraft to try it out now. We're all here, me, Katniss, Madge and Gale, along with Haymitch, Cinna, Beetee and of course Prim.
"All right, here's the wing suits," Cinna announces, handing a bundle of this really funky black lightweight material to each of us.
I take mine and unfold it, looking the thing over. It's certainly, um…. "Uh, Cinna, no offense but this is um…. Yeah, no. You forgot everything that'd make it actually look, you know, good."
Seriously, the thing is this black overall sort of thing with material between the legs and between each leg and arm. It's practically shapeless. I know I've said I can make most anything look good, but I think I finally found something that might not be doable for me.
"I'm afraid this is what they look like. It's about aerodynamics rather than fashion you see. They have to fly," Cinna responds. "And the color is practical as well. This plan depends on your being undetected as I understand it."
"Can't you just fiddle with the wings you already made me?"
"I'm afraid not. Those are strictly for show, no flight possible."
"No fancy modifications or magic thing from Beetee?"
"You've seen what I have a for a lab, Glimmer," Beetee replies. "You got me most of my materials in fact. I was hard pressed to even make enough equipment for you all to land safely. Anything more elaborate will require a more complete lab, my old one back in District 3."
"Yeah, sure, we'll get right on that." More districts to take, sure, why not. Everything seems to come back to that, doesn't it. Well, except for ruin exploring, but war stuff is all districts or nothing.
"Quit your bitching and put the damned things on already," Haymitch interrupts.
So we put the things on. Flattering or no, it's what we came to do. They fit and look exactly like I expected, with this little gold colored box sitting more or less where a belt buckle would be.
"The box you've all noticed by now is my work," Beetee announces. "It's a deceleration device, based off the technology that keeps hovercraft in the air. It's what will reduce your speed from an almost laughably fatal rate to a much safer rater just before you land."
"That's the thing that let all those dummies you tossed off a building die horribly in the street?" Katniss asks.
"All part of the process, I assure you. All that trial and error is what led me to the current version, which not only works but has multiple redundant systems to accurately gauge your range to your target and slow you down at the last moment. It's what will make a fatal crash feel more like jumping out a second story window."
"Hey, jumping out a second story window can still get you hurt you know, twist an ankle, things like that," Gale points out.
"Quite so. But with the resources at hand this is the best I can do. Again, if you want better, I'll need access to my lab and associated tools and materials in District 3."
"So how do we use all this stuff?" Madge asks.
"You put it on, you jump out the back. There's a little visor thing Beetee made for all of you, has your air speed, altitude, indicators where the others all are, a target and a path to get there," Haymitch explains.
"How about how we actually steer and shit?" Gale demands.
"How the hell should I know? You think I jump out of hovercraft? Fuck no."
"Focus on keeping the wing sections open," Cinna offers. "That will allow you to glide, from there try small adjustments to steer and adjust altitude. But above all try to maintain a stable glide. The device on your waist is designed to slow you from a gliding speed, which although quite fast, is still less than pure free fall. If you simply plummet, I can't guarantee that you'll survive no matter how hard the device tries to slow you down."
"And if we can't glide, what then?" Gale asks.
"Then I'll be needing a spatula," Prim says. It's pretty grim humor, especially for her, but from the look on her face it's pretty obvious she isn't liking this at all. She knows what I know, what I think we all know (even if some of us might be trying to deny it or not think about it): if something goes wrong, we die.
No one laughs at Prim's grim joke; no one says a thing actually. Haymitch just walks to the switch for the rear gate and opens it. The hovercraft is in the air over the beach, and from how it's facing it looks like we'll be flying above the beach the whole way. I guess so if something goes wrong we can veer to the water, maybe have a softer landing in it? I don't know, I'm no expert but I think it's wishful thinking. We're high enough up that no matter what we land on if we just free fall it won't matter.
"We have to be this high up?" Katniss asks after staring out the back for a minute.
"This is just for a test jump, sweetheart. The real thing will be at four times this altitude," Haymitch answers. Clearly not the answer Katniss was looking for.
Katniss looks at me. "So just what part of this sounded fun to you?"
Johanna
Fuck it's humid. Like seriously, what the fuck? It's spring. We're on the beach. It should not be this oppressive. And people actually live in this shit? Dumb bastards.
We landed on the beach just like we planned, a little after dark. Just when the last of the light is gone, once that shit quality failing light is over and your eyes actually start to get their night vision going. It sounded nice, actually. Some good moonlight, a nice beach, just stroll across it. I mean, people do that for fun. People are idiots.
We've got armor, sort of spiffy black shit, covers everything below the neck. It's not all custom like the damned kids have (we don't rate anything that cool or unique. Beetee said he was busy making the kids fly, which was obvious bullshit.) But hey, body armor, that's good stuff. I mean, I fought for my life in just regular clothes in two arenas, so this should be good. Yeah, that's bullshit. Armor is hot. Oh, and guns and ammo and water and food and all the other provisions we're carrying are heavy as fuck.
Sand sucks to walk in too. We're walking in the harder packed stuff near the water line, so it's not as terrible as that super soft shit (that crap's as bad as trying to walk in snow) but it still sucks. And we have about twenty miles of this crap to go. Not all tonight at least, that's the good news. We're going to get as far as we reasonably can, maybe go until midnight then cut inland and find a place to camp. Finnick seems to think we can probably find the ruins of an old house or something, so that should work pretty good.
So we're walking along, not saying a word. It's enemy territory, after all. Ok, technically not, we're way outside the District fence, but there's two armies around, both hate us so we can't chance it; we've got to act like we're in enemy territory and they could be watching or listening all the time.
We've been going a few hours, walking in silent single file when Finnick puts up his fist, the silent instruction to stop. It takes me just a second to realize why Finnick called a halt: there's the sound of an engine in the water, and a moment later a search light appears. Shit, a boat.
Finnick gestures to his right towards the dunes and we make a run for it. The boat isn't lighting up our section of beach yet, but it will before too long. It's not far to the dunes and scrub brush, thirty yards maybe, and even in the sand we make it in no time. As soon as we do, it's slow as shit though. Whatever the fuck kind of crap grows in these dunes is this dense crap, awful scrub shit that's got branches growing in every direction that's almost impossible to move through.
Finnick has a machete, but we're in such a hurry he can't use it much; a few hacks here and there for the worst of it, but mostly we're stuck climbing through this shit. Like some fucked up jungle gym. It's slow going, probably the slowest sort of terrain I've ever seen. If it was summer I'd have said we should have tried to ocean, just wade in and keep just enough of our heads above water to breathe, kind of just disappear in the waves. Stupid spring. Stupid District 4. Too humid to walk in, too cold to swim in.
We find the ruins of an old road maybe a hundred yards in (which at the like, one mile per hour or less that we moved through that scrub crap took forever to cover.)
"Ok, this looks like it follows the coast," Finnick quietly announces.
"Is it safe?" Enobaria asks.
Finnick shrugs. "No idea; I've never been outside the district like this."
"Maybe we find a place to spend the night then?" I suggest. Like bumble fucking around on some abandoned road looking for the ruins of a house is going to be easy.
The good news is that this road is mostly residential. There's a few stores or restaurants or crap like that (ok, ruins of them) but houses are actually common here. Finnick moves us up a little road, a few houses in so we're off the main drag, on the off chance anyone will come down it looking for us.
It's too dark to tell much about the house we set up camp in, and we aren't risking a light much. Basically we just go to in an interior room and set up camp. It's not much, three sleeping bags and a little camp stove, just enough to heat up some food on.
"We're keeping a watch I take it?" Enobaria asks.
"Of course," Finnick confirms.
"I'll take first," I offer. "Let me just get something to eat first." Middle watch is the worst, it's like you get a short nap, then you're up for a while and then a nap after. It's not real sleep, it's two god damned naps. I'm not a huge fan of last watch either. It's like waking up extra early for work; fuck that. I'll take first watch. I'm not dead tired so I can manage then I get nice sleep and I'll be good to go for tomorrow.
So I get to wander a dark house, trying to skulk around learning the sight lines, watching for movement, listening for attack and waiting for my turn to actually lie down and rest. Oh well, at least I don't need to do it in a full god damned pack. Small favors.
Madge
It's not that I have a fear of heights; I don't. I like to think of it as a healthy respect for things that can kill you if you let them. You know, not being scared so much as butterflies in my stomach. I can work through them, but they're always there when that rear gate opens, when I walk to the edge of the hovercraft and look out. The first time was the worst, even though we were the lowest (lowest; that's a laugh. We were half a mile up.)
It's ok once I jump. Sure, there's that bit of hesitation right before, we can't all be like Glimmer and take running leaps out the hovercraft giggling like a little girl (or is that a deranged girl?) but once I'm actually out it's ok. There's that weird feeling in your gut when you free fall, then the fun sets in.
It really is fun too. Exhilarating, blissful, amazing, whatever you want to call it, it's great. Once you spread the wing parts of that suit it feels like you're actually flying. It's easy to see what Glimmer loves so much. Even Gale and Katniss enjoy that part of it, though not as much as me, and not nearly as much as Glimmer.
We all survived those practice jumps. Actually they all went basically fine. The flying part we all figured out fine, I mean going straight isn't hard. Turns were pretty ugly and hesitant at first, and it's not like we're up to flying through some obstacle course even now, but we're good enough to more or less hit a target now.
So it's time for the real thing. We're in the air outside 6. Our forces on the ground are in position and should have hijacked their train by now. Actually they should be on the train headed for the district.
"I've included all your standard weapons, strapped to your packs," Beetee announces. "That being said, I strongly recommend against using your usual fire arms unless absolutely necessary. Instead I've prepared a sub machine gun for each of you that you can strap on your fronts as you see fit. I've installed a suppressor on each one."
"What, like a silencer? Like in the video games?" Glimmer asks.
"Um, in a manner of speaking. The term silencer is actually deceptive, because while they do muffle the sound of a gunshot, they do not silence them by any stretch of the imagination. So it is not actually a clicking sound like games depict. It will be quieter than a normal gunshot, and hopefully that difference should help you maintain your stealth, but try to be aware of the limitations."
"Beetee's right," Haymitch interrupts. "You don't want to be fighting the whole damned district here, so play it smart. Land on the roof your display tells you to, get inside, find the radio room and take it over, all as quietly as possible. Then I'll coordinate shit from up here, just send the orders to the Peacekeepers I tell you to and let our boys do the rest. With any luck the assholes will be twisted into knots and picked apart and never know what's going on."
"And if it goes bad we make for the roof we came in on and you pick us up?" Katniss looks at Haymitch.
"In theory. But you're going to be on the roof of a god damned Peacekeeper base, not exactly the safest pickup spot, so no guarantees. Personally, I'd suggest not fucking up and making sure this plan actually works."
"Gee, thanks for that brilliant pearl," Gale mutters. "Where would we be without you."
"Where you are is about to jump. Princess is up first. As if I need to say that. Then sweetheart, you kid and finally girlie at the end."
I don't mind going last. Haymitch is right, Glimmer was going to be first no matter what he said. But after Glimmer I'm probably the best at this flying stuff (once I actually get out the door that is.) So I'll bring up the rear, that way I can sort of keep an eye on everyone else. Not that I could do anything if there is a problem, but it feels like I'm helping at least.
Haymitch opens up the back gate. It's night, so just black outside. Glimmer gives us a cocky grin then runs to the back gate (as much as anyone can run in these wing suits) and jumps out. Katniss shakes her head (I'm pretty sure she's annoyed just for show) and follows. A few seconds later Gale jumps out the back and finally me.
Author's Notes:
Thanks to that-fan for his help with edits. This chapter was light on them, thankfully, but some need a ton of work. Also, thanks to everyone who reviews, I really appreciate it.