Chapter Two
It took Katniss hours to fall asleep. She just couldn't stop thinking about Peeta. His face. His hands. His voice. And she wished she could hear that voice again. She missed it so badly. Missed him so badly. She sighed and rolled over. A few minutes later, she fell asleep. Her last conscious thought was that she had to save Peeta.
When Katniss woke, it was past 11:00 am. She felt disgusting, and the first thing she did was take a shower. The District 13 showers weren't as nice as the ones in the Capitol, but they had hot water, so they were a definite improvement over the ones back home. Come to think of it, the ones back home didn't exist. No showers in District 12. That was one thing she wouldn't miss. Another was the constant fear. The fear of being caught hunting by a new and less lenient Peacekeeper. The fear of starvation. She could provide for her family while she was healthy, but what if she had been injured? Even being unable to hunt for a few days would be unbearable. She was safe from those fears here. Sure, she was scared now, but she knew she was doing something about it. But that was the fear for herself and her family. The fear for Peeta was different. She had no idea where he was. Or if he was even alive. Those fears she could do nothing about.
She dressed and went down the elevator. She was a little scared of them, here is District 13. She was already deep underground, and the idea of going further didn't thrill her. When she stepped out, Gale was there, with Madge. For a second she was terrified he would be angry with her. Since she had rejected him, her best friend was gone, and she missed him. But then she saw the way he looked at Madge, and she was happier than she had been in days. He was finally over her. She hadn't wanted to hurt him, but it was the only option. It wasn't terribly obvious. He didn't look like a lovesick puppy or anything. No, he looked shy almost. And Gale Hawthorne was not shy. Katniss had known Gale for years, and he was definitely moving on.
"Hey Madge, hey Gale!" she said cheerfully. She didn't want to spoil the good mood with her problems. "Hey, Katniss," he said. And he actually smiled. He hadn't smiled around her in weeks. This was certainly progress.
"Hi, Katniss!" Madge chirped, perky as ever. Madge hugged her friend, and Katniss hugged her back. It was wonderful to see someone who made Gale happy, and she was glad it was Madge. Madge was a good person, a kind person, and besides, Katniss was perfectly aware that Madge had been crushing on Gale since fifth grade. Gale was probably still a little sad, but he had had three months. Surely that had helped. If that hadn't helped, Madge certainly had. That or he was high. Which was unlikely, since District 13 didn't allow drugs to be possessed by anyone but a trained medical professional. Nothing more powerful than Advil left a doctor's office. Plus, there was no way Gale was doing drugs. So, apparently, Madge was the antidote to his depression or anger or whatever was wrong with him. Katniss smiled back at him. Madge had her hand on his arm, and he looked even happier. Yes, Madge was the antidote alright. Screw time. This was what he needed. "Headed to the meeting?" Gale asked.
"Because if you are, you missed the entire thing. They had a tape to show. It's bad. You'll want to see it," he added.
"Do you think Haymitch is still there? Maybe he could show it to me," she said, all her cheerfulness gone.
"Probably. He said he'd wait for a while," Madge replied, no longer so chirpy.
"Ok. Thanks. I better go see what it is."
She knew she could have just asked them, but it was clearly awful, and she wanted to take the several minutes it would take to walk to the meeting to compose herself. What could it be? Had the Capitol bombed something important? Had they executed all the rebels they had captured? If they had, did that include Peeta?
In Katniss opinion, the Capitol citizens wouldn't care enough, and if they did they wouldn't have the backbone to do anything about it, but the Capitol still took pains to ensure that its citizens were entirely clueless. And from the examples Katniss had seen, it worked perfectly. Pretty much everyone there was a total idiot. She couldn't help but think of Venia, Flavius, and Octavia. They weren't really bad people, but they were idiotic and petty and wasteful. She really couldn't stand them. It wasn't that she really disliked them in particular, but they were too Capitol, too inhuman. They really didn't seem like people, and they didn't act like people either. Or at least not her kind of people. Not Seam people, or even merchant families. Merchant people might have it easier that Seam people, but they still had to work hard, and they didn't dye their skin or change their eyes or make themselves throw up just so they could eat more. And there was another more important difference. Merchant kids still had to go into the reaping, but Capitol kids did not. The Hunger Games nauseated Katniss. She still felt like throwing up or crying when she thought of Rue. And she felt almost worse about Marvel. He had been murdering a little girl, and she hated him for it. But then she had killed him. And now she felt horrible about it. Sure, he was a Career. And sure, he had killed Rue. But who she really felt pure, untempered anger and hatred toward was the Capitol. She despised everything about it. It was beautiful, but it was really a whitewashed tomb. Lovely to look at on the outside, it looked pure and wonderful to the eye. But on the inside it was full of sadistic, hateful people, who did sadistic, hateful things to innocent teenagers every year, in punishment for something that had happened 75 years ago. It was full of death and decay. Especially death. Every year, not only were the tributes killed, but anyone else who displeased the Capitol had three options: death, pretty popular, becoming an Avox, also common, and prison. Which was actually a lot like a death sentence. There was a prison where Capitol people went, for minor things, and it really wasn't that bad. Probably the worst torture undergone there was that the floodlight by the tennis courts only went to 11:00 pm. But the prison camps were another story entirely. Filthy, with little food, and what there was disgusting. And
plenty of rebels knew that from experience. There had been a few escapes, but the Capitol always claimed this person had been executed, or released because they had gone insane, or some other ridiculous and totally false excuse. But the Capitol didn't have to make them very often, because these prison camps were nearly impossible to escape from. All things considered, prison, or at least District Prison, made being an Avox look like a bed of roses. At least you get fed regularly and were provided a bed, albeit an uncomfortable one. The Capitol kept it's Avoxes in decent shape, or else they would become useless.
"Hello, Haymitch," she sighed. "So, how bad is it?" she asked.
"Terrible. Here," he replied, hitting the play button. He had gotten it all set up for her. As she watched, her mouth fell open. It was horrible.
"What are we going to do?" she groaned.
"I thought your mother would want to be included. She's over there. I have her 'sorting medical supplies' with Prim. Before we let her join us, though, we should decide what we want to do."
"Well, I'm going, and I don't care what she says."
"Yes, of course you're going, but we have to spin this one right."
"Spin it? How? I think it's pretty obvious what they're doing! I'm just not letting Peeta die like this!"
"Quite. But what do we want the Capitol to think?"
"Umm, that we're not letting them squish us this easily?" she guessed.
"No. We want them to think that we aren't too worried about Peeta, we want them to think that we have another plan up our sleeves, and that he's not really necessary. Then we should have a chance of getting you two back out
alive."
"Ok, how do you want to do that? Cuz if you expect me to do some brilliant acting job and convince them of it, you're out of luck."
"A little faith! I didn't base this on your acting abilities, I'm not stupid. No, this is based on the efficiency of our pilots, how good our spies are, and on your nerve. Yes, you have nerve, if not brains or a talent for the cameras."
"Gee, thanks."
"Welcome, sweetheart. So, ready to sell your mom on this?"
"Yeah. This is gonna be a lot of fun."
Haymitch went to the medicine closet and called to Mrs. Everdeen. She gave Prim her checklist, and went to see what he wanted. He didn't show her the video, but he explained the situation.
"So, if we pretend we have no intention of letting Katniss go, but she-"
"Pretend? That won't be necessary! We have no intention whatsoever of letting Katniss go, and that is final!"
"Is it now?" Haymitch began, starting to get angry.
"Yes! Letting her go would be a death sentence! I'm sorry about Peeta, but they'll kill both of them if she goes. I'd rather see him die then see both of them die."
"But Mrs. Everdeen, not letting her go would be a death sentence! Surely you don't think the revolution will succeed without this boy? We need his power over words! We need him as much as we need the Mockingjay!"
"Well, losing one is better than losing both!"
"But we will lose both of them, and everyone else, without him! The Capitol was harsh and unforgiving seventy-five years ago. Do you think they have changed?"
"No. But she is not going. I'm her mother, and it's for me to say."
"Wait just a minu-"
"It's for neither of you to say! I'm sorry, Mom, but I have to go, and you can't stop me."
"Oh yes I can! I'm your mother and you'll do as I say!"
"Oh no I won't! You weren't a mother to me after Father died, and you aren't taking over my life now!"
Mrs. Everdeen gasped as if she had been struck, and swept out of the room, leaving the building. Prim had watched the whole thing, but she wouldn't have had to look to know her mother had tears streaming down her face. Prim melted back into the shadows. She hadn't ever been a sneaky person, but it's funny what being part of a war can do to a person. She wanted badly to join the army, but she knew she wasn't old enough. Even if she were older though, Haymitch probably wouldn't let her. She knew as well as anyone what had happened to her sister with the jabberjays during the Quell. She told herself she was helping. After all, her mother told her she was a big help with the medicines. Maybe she could help more, once the injured were flowing in. She really wanted to feel useful. She sighed, and headed back over to the checklist.
