Disclaimer: Portions of this text have been lifted directly from Catching Fire, which belongs to Suzanne Collins. Not one character belongs to me. This makes me sad. However, it has been confirmed that The Hunger Games 3 will be released August 24, 2010 (title will be announced early next year), and that is a happy thought, indeed.

AN: As mentioned in the summery, Redux is an expansion of my drabble And So We Run, a bit of wishful thinking about escape of my favorite ship. It may also be considered a sequel to Beholden and Repaid. If you haven't read them, that's ok. It's not necessary to follow this story – just know that Gale is in Madge's debt for bringing him the morphling, and that he's not aware of this debt. (His mother, however, is very aware of it.) Also, I published a one-shot entitled Love was a Fire Escape, which was originally a part of this story. However, several plot shifts later, it is no longer a part of this story arc. The events in that short story do not necessarily coincide with this piece, though some elements have been retained.

Oh yeah…this is blatant Madge/Gale propaganda. Shippers, ye be warned.

Chapter 1

[Gale's POV]

It's dark. Condensation drips from the black rock and I feel it land on the back of my neck, hear it sizzling as droplets land on my headlamp. I have no other lantern or any of my tools. I think that I should, but I'm not sure. Something isn't right. Where is my crew?

Leaves crunch beneath my boots and I am confused. Leaves in the mines? No…there are only leaves in the woods beyond the fence, or sometimes half-wilted, clinging to shriveled trees scattered over the Seam. I reach down and grab at the floor. In my hand I can feel the smooth, brittle membrane of an autumn leaf. It crackles between my index and thumb as I form a fist. What is happening?

I step forward. Then once more.

More crisp leaves and then – suddenly – sunlight.

I am in the woods after all, not far beneath the earth like I thought. Not in the pit. My heart leaps back to life, like a roe deer sprinting through a thicket.

As I walk deeper into the woods, I try to figure out if I know this forest, or if I've climbed out through the other side of the mountains into a strange land. I walk, not knowing the way, yet following some instinct that pulls me like an invisible trailing vine.

The trees gradually grow familiar, hoary oaks and silver birches, as they thin out into a glade. Within the glade a small lake reflects the sun. Leaves float against the bank, but the middle is clear and gently rippling. Beyond the water stands a hut. I know this place; know the cabin, though I haven't been here since the day my back…

The door of the hut opens. A young woman with blue-black hair steps out. Katniss. She smiles that same smile that only belongs to the woods. And to me.

My heart stops.

"Welcome home," she calls.

"Catnip?"

I step forward so very slowly, one foot at a time, dazed by her appearance in the woods. Home?

As I draw nearer, almost across the glade, she says, "You told me we could make it."

"I did," I reply, bemused.

Katniss smiles again and I'm struck by it. Never seen her so soft. "You were right, Gale."

I was? Joy nearly unhinges me. We made it?

I'm almost to the door, reaching for her. She holds out her arms to me, but they are already full of cloth. Huh. Hadn't noticed that before, but now I'm terribly curious to see what is in the bundle she holds.

"See?" Katniss asks, and lifts a swath of fabric away.

I see pink skin and sleepy grey eyes winking open and close in the face of a baby. Our baby. Somehow I know this, even if I've never seen this child before in my life.

Wait. No.

I lift more of the fabric away from the baby's head with my coal-blackened hands and see the downy, white-gold wisps of hair curling around a pink ribbon. This can be no child of mine. No child of ours.

And I look up, eyes burning and furious, ready to demand the truth from Katniss.

But she's gone.

Haymitch Abernathy stands in her place holding the baby now. It's crying and kicking its little legs around in the swaddling. He jiggles it a little in his arms, but it will not calm down. The unhappy squalls fill the glade and the pink ribbon falls to the ground in a pile of gold leaves. I reach down to pick it up, then searing pain shoots through my back as the woods melt away around a house that stands in the Victors' Village. Snow begins to fall overhead; and Haymitch sneers in the doorway, putrid breath visibly billowing toward me in the cold.

"Crazy girl."

...

"Gah!" I cry and bolt upright in bed. My whole body is wracked with shivers and sweat.

The reek of Haymitch's breath outlasts the dream. I gulp clean air, willing it to clear the weird swirl of images. I gently swing my legs over the side of the thin mattress, rubbing the tender muscles in the center of my back. Make that three waking blows from Vick's bony knees tonight, and with them, the termination of three nightmares. They ranged from kaleidoscope images of yesterday's Hunger Games: of Katniss paralyzed in the arena, of pearls and lockets and kisses; to this strange manifestation of her betrayal. Golden-haired babies with my eyes or hers?

And Haymitch's cryptic words.

"Urh. Forget it," I whisper in the darkness. Willing myself to do just that.

I stretch my arms over my head and flex my feet as I yawn. Feels good to do that. Just move without damaging anything. Wiping grit from my eyes, I scan the bedroom for my family. Vick is still sound asleep on the narrow mattress we're sharing with Rory. Those two will sleep through anything. Across the room, Mrs. Everdeen sleeps in my mother's bed with her arm wrapped around Prim's narrow shoulders. The trundle is pulled out for my baby sister Posy and our mother Hazelle to share.

Only, Posy is alone under a pile of raggedy blankets.

Mom must be up getting things ready. My body's natural clock tells me it's too early to get up for work in the mines, but it's definitely morning. Very early morning. Even by my standards. Probably time to get up soon, anyway, if we're going to go through with our escape plan.

Katniss's words float through my mind.

"President Snow personally threatened to have you killed."

Fear volts through my veins, but I've had plenty of practice with fear. Masking it, anyway. The emotion barely registers on my face. "Anyone else?"

"Well, he didn't actually give me a copy of the list. But it's a good guess it includes both our families."

Thanks for the heads-up, I think, since I had to use that very conversation as leverage to convince Mrs. Everdeen to leave last evening. After what happened in yesterday's Games, Katniss isn't coming back to District 12. That's certain. So, there's no reason for us to stick around. No sense in making things easy for President Snow. I silently review the route we'll take to the Meadow, which part of the fence we'll try to breach. Hoping Snow will take his time targeting us for retaliation.

Instinctively, I grab under the bed.

My hand connects with the leather strap of my game bag. Rory and Vick also have makeshift packs stashed in the corner of the room along with the Everdeens' belongings. Everything's in them that we'll need to survive in the woods.

Mom comes in to the bedroom carrying another pack. Like my brothers', it's made out of an old pillowcase with two holes cut into each lip. She inserted a length of rope first through one hole, into the one on the opposite side, and so on in a square so that the rope cinches the mouth closed. She thrusts it at me without a word and I finish the knot for her. There's enough give on the rope to form a strap, like a messenger bag. Crude but efficient. I look inside and find more of the food and paper packets filled with loose tea that the Everdeens brought with them. She also packed the extra snap tins I bartered from my crew, as well as the few pieces of cutlery we own. There isn't much in the house, bare essentials, and most of it is in our five bags.

While I've been working on the rope, she's shaken the Everdeens awake and gotten the boys up.

Rory lets out a huge yawn. "Time to go?"

She's about to reply when someone bangs on the door.

We freeze.

"Peacekeepers?" Mrs. Everdeen whispers in alarm as she hastily finishes Prim's braid.

"I'll look," I say, grabbing a shirt to throw over my head. "Better put those away." I point to the bags in the corner and Vick runs to throw them under the bed.

I step out of the bedroom. One stump of a candle lights the only other room in our house, the common room, which serves as kitchen, living room, and space for Mom's laundry business. Carefully making my way around the large tub and scattered dynamite boxes we use for chairs, I open the door. It takes me a moment to register what I see.

It's not a gang of Peacekeepers. It's an exodus. Our narrow street is full of men, women, and children shouldering a few meager possessions and running. One or two break from the stream and pound on their neighbor's doors that don't stand open already.

And I can hear it. The tread of many feet over the packed earth. And something else. Something constant. A droning. What?

Before me stands my good friend Bristel, a member of my crew. A threadbare backpack hangs low on his back, but he looks like he's dressed for work. He looks surprised, for some reason.

"Didn't think you'd still be here," he says. "Good thing I decided to check."

I step out into the street. The air is warm and humid, pulsing with agitation and urgency. I can practically taste it, the way I can taste the end of my prey in the woods. "What's going on?"

"Planes." Bristel gestures over his shoulder. I step away from the house so I can see down a side street and look west to the hills beyond the mines. An orange strip lights up the sky.

Hell's teeth. "Fire?"

I stagger backward and bump into Bristel.

"D13 all over again, they're saying," he tells me matter-of-factly, like I'm asking about the weather.

My heart beats urgently in my chest. "How long have we got?"

"Who knows?" He shrugs. "It's not certain how many the Capitol sent. Some townsfolk just passed through saying Thread and his lot pulled out. They'll give the train long enough to clear the district. Half hour?"

Oh god. The realization sinks in slowly. Snow isn't content with targeting a family or two. He's taking out the whole district. And he didn't waste any time.

"Where are you headed?" I ask urgently, grabbing his arms.

Bristel points northwest. "Meadow. Everyone is."

I pull him inside by his coat. "They'll never make it over into the woods while the generator powers the fence."

"I know," he says. "Maybe they'll bomb the town first and take out the Power Station?"

Not likely.

I lower my voice so that Bristel has to lean in to hear me. I'm going out on a limb, but I think I know him well enough to trust him. And this might help both of us. "Listen, I talked the foreman into smuggling a canister of dynamite in exchange for a coat's worth of pelts and all the wild pennyroyal I could find, his wife just had their third set of twins…"

"Are you nuts?" he gasps.

"…hid the charges in the Everdeen's old place for a rainy day."

I finish and he stares at me like I'm about to voluntarily walk off a cliff. "Gale, you could have received a bullet for that if the nitro didn't detonate on you first. Don't you think you've earned enough trouble for a lifetime?"

Even for a miner living in the Seam, Bristel doesn't understand just how desperate our situation has become. What, with being targeted personally by the President, and all. Yeah, before Thread whipped me within an inch of my life, I wanted to stick around for the sake of the district folk who couldn't run, despite the threat. I guess I learned that the only people I can help are my family members, and maybe not even them. Bristel doesn't have anybody but our crew, so maybe he doesn't get that kind of desperation.

"Bristel, it's the only plan I have. Not like we had anything to loose if it didn't work," I admit, letting frustration and fear put a sharp edge on my words. "At least now we can blow our way through the fence. It'll break the circuit and everyone can clear out before the planes reach the town."

While he's considering this, my mother pokes her head timidly through the doorway of the bedroom.

"Gale?"

"It's Bristel," I tell her. "We need to leave. Now."

"What is it?" she comes into the room.

"D13," is all I have to say. Her eyes grow wide with comprehension and she's stumbling back into the bedroom.

"Lucky we were going to pull out anyway," I mutter wryly to Bristel.

"That's what Thom and I thought," he replies. "Seeing as you're high profile and all."

Even in a crisis, Bristel has time for sarcasm. That's what I like about him. People with edges, I can handle. But, it still throws me a little, how easily those two can read me. It's something I'll miss about them – male friends who just get it.

I smirk. "Yeah, Thread's my best friend. Anyway, better go see what's going on in there," I say, gesturing to the door my mother disappeared behind. "You can go on, if you want."

He shrugs and adjusts the straps on his shoulders. "Guess I'll stick with you."

I nod, feeling oddly relieved to have an extra set of hands to count on, especially Bristel's. "Fine. Just give us a moment."

Mom must have let on about the danger because everyone is dressed with their packs ready – wary and waiting – when I enter the room. Except for Posy, who has been sleeping soundly in her trundle bed the whole time. Her threadbare nightgown is on the floor. She's tired and whining as Mom coaxes her back into her clothes.

"It's morning, sweetie. Time to wake up," she soothes.

"It's nighttime, Mama. It's dark out."

I can't help grinning at her logic despite the dire straights we're in. She's a cute kid when she isn't cranky.

"Posy, hold still and let me pull your shirt on."

Her long, black hair is matted around her face. She tries to rub it away from her cheeks, but it's sticking to places where she's smudged her tears. "I'm tired," she whines with frustration.

Time is running out. Inside the house, I begin to hear the throb of the approaching airplanes growing near enough to hear inside the house. The shrill whistle of a train adds itself to the cacophony.

I touch mom's shoulder and she looks up from where she's kneeling beside Posy. I crouch down next to her.

"Listen, kiddo," I murmur in a soft voice I reserve only for my baby sister and, sometimes, Prim. "We have to go or we'll get in trouble. So listen to Mom and get your clothes on. I promise to carry you and you can sleep."

Her bottom lip pops out in a pout, but she lets Mom pull her arms through one of Vick's old, ratty sweaters. Actually, I'm fairly certain that it was my sweater once. As she's buttoning it on, Mom whispers, "How much time does Bristel think we have?"

I swallow, not wanting to answer – or add to her worry. "Half hour."

She takes a deep breath. "We can get the kids to the fence." She catches Mrs. Everdeens eyes and the latter nods her head. "Gale, I need to ask a favor of you. I need you to get the Undersee girl."

I feel my eyes pop. "What?" This is completely unexpected.

Mom stands up and faces me. I passed her up by a good few inches before I turned fifteen, but she has this mom thing about her that puts me in my place with a mere look.

"Please, just make sure Madge got out." She looks uncomfortable, like she isn't telling me something.

"People in the town already know," I say peevishly. "Mayor Undersee will get her out."

"His wife isn't well," Mrs. Everdeen murmurs worriedly. "He'll need more help than Madge can give him if they try to get her out."

This is madness. Run away from the direction we need to go, toward a strategic target, to check on a girl who may be well ahead of us?

"And for all we know the Undersees hopped on the train with their pal Thread."

Something flickers across Mom's face. Disapproval?

Prim's little voice pipes in, "Madge isn't one of them, Gale. She's our friend."

I don't like feeling backed into a corner like this, especially when I know what needs to be done to save my family – my only priority. "I don't have time to save everyone," I snarl. "I'm just one person. Getting you all out of here is the only thing that matters. And we'll be lucky if I can do that."

"I'll go myself, then," Mom says. "It's my obligation, anyway."

My mother and I have been through a lot together. Kept this family from starving; worked to keep them clothed and healthy for four and half years despite some pretty steep odds. She's been amazing and strong, working her hands raw from hours of washing other people's grimy clothes when she could have folded into herself and given up – or let me take all the burden. But she didn't. We've been a team.

Fire's raining from heaven and this is when she decides to become difficult; to go counter to what's good for our family for some mysterious obligation? What could she possibly owe Madge Undersee that she'd risk her life or mine? It's enough to make a guy pull his hair out. But there's not time for that, either.

"You'll have to carry my pack until I can find you again. Take Bristel," I tell Mom with a growl. She looks confused for a moment and I grab my game bag out from under the bed.

Right. Like I would let her go herself, I think as I shove the bag into her empty hands.

I look at twelve-year-old Rory, then Vick, who only just turned eleven. If I don't make it back, it's up to these two to take care of Mom and Posy and the Everdeens. I regret not teaching Rory how to hunt. To survive in the woods like Dad showed me. Those Sundays with Katniss were more expensive than I thought.

For some reason I can't bring myself to make eye contact with Mom as I herd my brothers around me. Because I'm miffed about giving in or because I'm shamed by the look of disgust she gave me earlier, I don't know. "Listen up. I stashed some charges at the Everdeen's old place. Hid it under the back stoop where a chunk of mortar is missing. Bristel will know how to detonate it safely. Don't wait for me to get back. Just get into the woods. Understand?"

My brothers nod, wide-eyed, and I feel my stomach cramp with fear for my whole family, for how unprepared they are. I leave the room briskly, with them following in my wake.

I pull Bristel and Rory aside. "Listen, there's an old maple that stands out from the others not far from the E's place. The bottom branches just barely clear the top of the fence. Make for that tree and follow the deer trail back into the woods." I put my hand on Rory's shoulder. "The forest floor will start to rise until you run into a patch of blackberry bushes and then a sort of alcove in the rock. Take shelter under the ledge. I'll meet you, if I can." My eyes sweep over them. "Got it?"

They nod.

Families are still running in the direction of the farthest corner of the Meadow as I herd everyone outside. I don't know what good it will do any of them to reach the fences while it's live.

It's better than sitting in their shacks, waiting for the fire to fall. I guess.

Rory looks a question and I nod north toward the Everdeen place. I'm headed east toward the town.

"Now beat it."

"Good luck," he says.

"You, too."

To be continued…

Happy holidays! Thank you for reading.

p.s. any beta readers willing to take me on? My grammar is deplorable. I try to catch all the typos, but another pair of eyes helps so much.