Sorry about the wait. And sorry that this chapter kind of rambles. I just wanted to get all the technical stuff out of the way. I hope to have Chapter 3 up by tomorrow. Please review. Thanks.
Chapter 2 – The Plan
I spend rest of the morning hunting. No use in wasting a perfectly good day. By the time noon hits, my game bag is about to burst open. I make my way back to the District, stopping at the fence just to make sure. No buzzing. I crawl through and make my way to the new butcher in town.
He is quite a replacement for Rooba. If she was around to see the nice deals he makes, she would probably chuck her large cleaver at him. He doesn't have it in him to haggle with me. I tried once. It ended with him crying and telling me how much he wanted for Peeta and me to make it home from the first games together.
This time I sell him half of what I caught and get out before the water works. After the butcher's, I usually head over to Hazelle's and pay a visit. But I stay clear incase Gale is there. I quickly make my way home to Peeta instead.
When I walk into the door, I quickly hear Peeta shouting from the kitchen. "Boots!" I stop dead in my track and start cursing under my breath as I take off my hunting boots. There is hardly any mud on them. As I kick the last second one off, I hear something strange. People's laughter. I make my way slowly down the hall to the kitchen. The smell of whatever Peeta is making for lunch hits me. That and alcohol.
"What's taking so long, sweetheart?" Haymitch slurs out as I enter the room. It takes a moment to process everything that I see at once. Annie Odair, Johanna Mason, Plutarch Heavensbee, Beete and Haymitch sit at my table. Fulvia Cardew stands in the corner talking on the phone while Gale stands by the oven next to Peeta. When my eyes finally fall on Peeta, I realize what he has in his arms. A toddler. Annie and Finnick's son, Kai.
"Hey, Katniss, look who showed up." Peeta sticks his tongue out at Kai, who laughs. "Kai, you've gotten so big!" I cross over to Peeta as he starts to teach the small boy how to cook.
"What's going on?" I ask Peeta discreetly. He smiles at me.
"I think you know what they are all doing here," he answers me.
"Katniss, can I just be the first to say, I'm so glad you except to be part of this exciting moment in history." Plutarch has had this speech prepared. "The President is glad to see you on board this project. Anything that we can attach your name to is always met enthusiastically by the public." I hold up my hand to stop him.
"When did I say yes?" my question brings a confused look to Plutarch's face.
"But Peeta said…" Peeta stops him this time.
"I said that she wanted to. Doesn't mean she's going to. We want to know more about the entire mission before she is sent into it. This isn't going to be a repeat of the Capitol." I grab on to Peeta arm to show my support in what he says.
"Well, I guess Beetee and Gale could explain more about that. So I'll turn it over to them." I see the frustration in Plutarch's eyes at not being the center of attention anymore. Beetee sits quietly at the table for a moment. He stares at me. He must be thinking about the right words to say.
"How much do you know?" he asks after a moment.
"Nothing much, only what Fulvia told me. We go back in time and save Prim. We would like to know how it works and what we will do when we get there." Peeta nods his head. Kai repeats after him. "And why is everyone else here?" Johanna lets a short, sharp laugh out.
"We're all going. We all have some that we lost and we all want to go back and save them. Still as brainless as ever." I can't help but smile at Johanna as she says this.
"Well then let me fill you in," Beetee states as he goes into a giant presentation. Apparently, a lab has found a way to create a wormhole. It's some kind of physics thing in space. He loses me about half the time by using the correct scientific names and saying. This wormhole can be manipulated to connect two very specific times and places. That's when Beetee came up with the idea to go back and save people that had died at the hands of the Capitol. However, this was one problem. That would create a paradox in which time would become messed up. But that's where Gale comes in.
"Like I told you I got a job transfer," Gale says as he takes over. "I work with a group of scientist that is attempting to eliminate dangerous muttations from nature. I've been helping get rid of tracker jackers in District 11 to make the area safe for the workers. We've been genetically altering tracker jacker queens. At first we introduce a fake queen, but she was quickly spotted and killed. I realized it was because the fake queen was releasing the same pheromones as the real queen. So, we took a DNA sample of the real queen and cloned her exactly as she was but added a virus that killed off the colony. So far we've manage to kill off 75% of all tracker jackets in testing." He takes a moment to catch breath. "Now, the way this fits into the plan is pretty ingenious. Instead of going back in time to save the person that we want and bringing them to the present and possibly creating a paradox that could damage the world, we are just going back to get a DNA sample."
"That's it?" Johanna looks at Gale with a blank expression. "We just sat through this whole lecture so you can tell us we are going back to get blood samples? Why don't you just go get some from their bodies?"
"Because Finnick and Prim died in explosions. There's not much left and what little there is, it would take years to find." Annie's body fidgets under the table. I can see her tying knots with a small rope. "Plus there's more to the plan. Beetee, tell her."
"We also have discovered a way to scan memories from the brain. We call it Memo-share. After the brain is scanned, the memories can be transferred to another brain." Beetee seems pleased with himself over this fact. "Using all this technology, we can create an exact copy of the person with the same memories. What do you think?" Everyone's eyes fall on me.
I look to Peeta. "Go with me?" I ask.
"Always," he replies and kisses me. I turn back to everyone.
"When do we begin?"