Katniss' POV

District 13

0800 hours

The men are quiet as they board the airship, each taking station at one of the chairs gripped to the wall. I see a few heads hanging in dread… or maybe they're just asleep. Mellark is one of the last ones to come aboard, walking stiffly with a hand over his chest, no doubt mewling over his recent burn. I stop myself from saying anything when he throws his bag down like a pitiful child having a tantrum. If I spoke up, I'd just be asking for shit from him.

Listen to yourself, my conscience tells me, it's HIS job to be scared of YOU.

Hawthorne joins me, sitting next to me, isolated from the men. I frown. No salute? "Good morning, General." He says smoothly, straightening the buttons of his shirt.

"I think you're forgetting your manners, Hawthorne." I mumble, watching the men. Some look sick to their stomachs, green even. Mostly the one with the glasses, Beetee. He looks like he might throw up.

He smirks to himself as the door is closed and the lights dim to a point you can't see your hand in front of your face. "Not at all, Ma'am." He purrs. I open my mouth to say something but… I have nothing to say. Is he coming onto me?

"Well than you must be getting sick because you're not acting yourself." I manage. I sound like an idiot. The soft murmur of a few men talking fills the ship, aside from the far off whir of the engines.

"You could say that, Katniss." My jaw drops when he says that. I turn fully in my seat, gaping at him in the darkness.

"Lieutenant." I snap, "I don't know what the hell is up with you but you need to watch yourself. It's not your place to befriend me."

"I don't know if I'd use the word 'befriend'." I hear him shift in his seat, and I feel small, like I'm no longer higher than him. I calm myself, realizing my breathing was getting a bit ragged. No literally no words come to me. "You know, my men are responsible. They can handle themselves. You and I don't have to be there with them…"

My stomach turns. "Your 'responsible' men are the reason Denizen and Kapree are gone." I stammer. Is he really suggesting what I think he's suggesting? I would never go on a date with Hawthorne, or do what he might be suggesting. "So I'm going to go ahead and say your men need to be looked after. And you're not doing a good enough job."

"Well I-"

"If you say another word, I swear to god I'll have you whipped." I bark. The men fall silent. Lieutenant clears his throat, huffs, and does the same.


Landing is a bit more exciting than taking flight. We must be silent; making sure everything is collected as we wade into the dark building we landed on. I see Mellark has his gun thrown over his shoulder with a dark wet spot on his shirt that I'd imagine is… something leaking from his burn. I cringe, and Hawthorne is the first to speak.

"Around the time we lost Denizen and Kapree we were closer to the heart of the Capitol. We'll have to get there but do it carefully." His jaw seems to tighten when he turns and looks at Mellark, talking to him with an air of authority around him. "You'll travel on the rooftops, looking out as we pass. We can't travel as a group. If you mess up, you're fucked, you hear me?"

Peeta takes his time answering. Bravely, his eyes stay locked on Hawthorne's. "What's that mean?" he retorts.

Hawthorne becomes a shade of aggravated red. "You know damn well what it means. And if you pull that trigger unlawfully, I'll take care of you myself."

Audacity gets the better of Mellark. He cocks his rifle threateningly and my eyes grow wide. "Let's move." I snap, and all the soldiers get their asses going, including Mellark. Eventually, he splits off to head to the rooftops discreetly. I've never looked over my shoulder more.

We head out two at a time, and I order the young man Finnick to come with me. We walk about ten feet away from each other, and all eyes are on him, thankfully. The young women he passes bat their eyelashes and giggle at him, being overly flirtatious. He ignores them for the most part, except for when he passes a young dark-haired girl with green eyes. His feet stop moving and he turns as she walks by him, but I keep moving.

"Damn flirt." I grumble, feeling eyes on me. I tell myself it's Mellark. I slip through the thick crowd, observing the peculiar styles of the Capitol's citizens. I've been trained to nervously peer around me for cameras and in the blink of an eye, know their range and how to get around them. The cars in the street make me edgy; big, fast moving death machines, that's all they are. One stops, and a few Peacekeepers pile out.

Peacekeepers? Why are they here? I look hard for Mellark, spotting the sheen of the barrel of his gun reflecting sunlight up at the top of a squat building, rifle pointed at the new arrivals.

The Peacekeepers head into the building Peeta's on, and my breath hisses through my teeth. Finnick passes, mumbling under his breath subtly to me, "Someone saw the ship land." I hold off my shock as another truck identical the one the Peacekeepers arrived in passes by slowly. I wait for Finnick to be a ways off before rushing onward, eyes darting up to where Mellark was. He's gone. There's a commotion in the building, and I stop dead in my tracks.

No, Katniss. That's a deathtrap. Mellark would fire if he was in trouble… But Gale told him… "Fuck…" I mumble, being shoved along by the throng of people, and I go with the flow. I try to glance back at the building, but it's out of sight. Finnick's by my side in a moment's notice, and I mutter, "I've lost Mellark."

"You're not supposed to be looking for him. Sorry Ma'am, but keep your eyes down." He whispers, then he slows and disappears again. He's right. Mellark's a big boy, he can handle himself.

It's you who can't handle yourself, Katniss, I tell myself. I can't afford to lose Mellark. Suddenly, I duck to the left, jumping off the sidewalk, walking against the grain in the road, drawing eyes. More Peacekeepers are headed in that building, so I can tell myself I'm going to check out what's going on instead of I'm freaking out about losing Mellark so I'm putting my ass on the line. I dash across the road and dip into an alley, ditching my formal jacket, and then head in the building.

It's dark and full of men talking, and I've never felt so claustrophobic in my life-squished between dozens of enemies. I don't dare say anything, not even excuse me, because then a Peacekeeper would surely find me suspicious. I'm shoved into a wall, and a tall man with pale-blonde hair turns and squints at me. "Hey…" he says shadily, and I press myself against the wall. Just don't hit him, Katniss. He can kill you if he wants, no one would care… or find out.

… What the fuck is this place?

"The hell are you doing here?" he asks, getting very close, "I don't think you's supposed to be here." I've never met such an unintelligent sounding human being. I slip away from him, heading up a staircase, and I hear the thudding footsteps of the tall man following. "Hey!" he calls.

Instinct makes my feet move faster, telling me to run. A door in the hall I turn into flies open, and I'm grabbed by overbearing arms that are seemingly made of steel. I'm thrown into a closet, and the door slams shut. Something's prodding my back, something cold and hard. A gun. I open my mouth, and the man shushes me.

"Be quiet," Mellark whispers, "what the hell are you doing here?"

I gasp, relief flooding through me. My pursuers footsteps pass us and fade away, and I grow red in the face, quite aware now of how disrespectfully close he is, his pelvis pressed to my knees. "Me?" I ask, "Why are you inside? You're supposed to be watching over us!"

"There are Peacekeepers crawling all over the place, if you hadn't noticed. And there's something up there, some kind of animal. There's something in this building, and they're protecting it with this… lion thing. It's a mutant." He says hastily, and I can practically taste the sweat on his skin. I turn my head to allow some space between us.

"We need to get out of here. Now." I hiss, and he huffs angrily.

"You think I don't know that? There's a hoard of Peacekeepers downstairs and a beast on the roof." I squirm, pushing against him as one of his arms laces around me, grabbing the shaft of his gun.

"You couldn't have possibly known that was me coming this way." I mumble, looking for a loophole to make him feel in the wrong.

"I was planning on catching a Peacekeeper and snatching his uniform. I got lucky." I can hear his smile in his tone, as well as some form of flirtation. "New plan. We get out of here and try to find a window or something to sneak out of."

"We're going to jump out of a window?" I ask, "That sounds safe."

"Safe? I'm not sure that's in my vocabulary." He snickers for some reason, and I hear the shift of him standing, and I manage to stand too. He makes sure his rifle is cocked, and he puts a finger to my lips. I slap it away. He opens the door, and dim gray light allows for some visibility. He peers around, gun pointed at the floor safely. I restrain from holding onto his shirt. We walk forward silently, and his broad shoulders block me from seeing ahead of us. He grabs a doorknob which doesn't twist, and then he tries another one.

"Peeta-" I say, clenching my eyes shut and cursing myself. He turns and looks at me with an audacious smirk. Never, ever call a soldier by their first name…

The door he'd just tested flies open, hitting him hard, knocking his gun from his hand and him into the wall. Three large figures emerge, looming in the darkness. "RUN!" Mellark snaps. I scramble back, unable to see Peeta against the shadows casted over the wall, and I turn, doing as he said.

I don't make it far before becoming hopelessly lost and dazed. I can't find a door or a window that gives me any more light than a dying lightning bug. I tug on a doorknob, fleeing when it doesn't open. Who knows what could be hiding behind them, ready to come after me when it hears my frantic searching? I hear a low growling, and I'm reminded of Peeta's story of the mutant on the roof. Slowly, I head towards a door that has a strip of promising light peering out from under it. I grab the unlocked handle, and turn it slowly. As I peer out of the door, I see it, hunched in the blinding sunlight.

It's a large beast with yellow fur and rows of teeth that jut out from its lips like jagged rocks on a deadly cliff. Large claws clench against the concrete roof, sounding as unfriendly as its snarl. There are no chains or bounds holding it back, but I see something that makes my heart drop; a small square above it by the edge of the rooftop, like a block of disturbed air or rippling heat waves.

A force field. The mutant hunches its back and gets ready to pounce, giving an ear-splitting yowl. Quickly, I pull the door shut, jumping back when the beast throws itself against it. One more hit like that and the hinges will break. I turn and run, stumbling when the beast bursts through the door into the hallway, giving an almighty roar, claws grating against the wood floor as it tries to get its footing.

The maze of halls seems never-ending, until I hit a dead end. I've lost the beast for a few moments, and I try to open one of the doors surrounding me. It's like a house of mirrors, every door making you think you have a different way out. One finally opens as the mutant rips down the runway towards me, and once again it slides past its target.

The room is lit by a lantern, a few Peacekeepers looking terrified at my sudden arrival, but they're also probably a little freaked out by the fiend on my tail. They move towards a door to the left but I beat them to it, flinging it open and running face-first into Mellark, the butt of his gun knocking the wind out of me, and we end up toppling on the floor. The Peacekeepers scream as the creature enters the room, but it seems confused at the sudden amount of bodies-potential meals. Peeta sees the glint of its teeth as it decides on its next victim: him.

Using his legs, he slams the door on the Peacekeepers, and my stomach turns at the sound of screams, breaking bones and dying men.

Peeta pulls me to my feet, throwing me back into a run, and he says, "I found an exit, but we're on the fourth floor!"

"We can't go up to the roof! There's a-"

"Force field, I know." He cuts me off, jerking open a door with one kick, and he leads me to a window in the corner. I look out, cringing at the uninviting cement waiting below. "I'll go first. If I don't break both legs I'll try to cushion your fall." He hands me his rifle, swinging one leg out the window.

"Wait!" I say, "There's got to be another way out!"

"We don't have time, honey." He tells me, and then he's gone. I gasp, sticking my head out the window in time to see him hit the ground with a roll. My heartbeat picks up tenfold when he lays still for a few moments, and the peaks when he groans. He sits up, grabbing one ankle. He looks up and me, a scrape running along his cheek. "Throw it, General." It takes me a moment before I actually drop the gun, and he has to stretch to catch it. He uses it as a cane, and stands.

"Hurry it up!" I call, and he flicks me off. He grabs a few garbage bags and lays them down, then motions for me to jump. I take a deep breath, slip both legs out of the window, and plunge downward.

The landing is hard and unforgiving, and I feel what must be broken glass pierce my back. I cry out, but it seems relieving to Peeta. Uncaringly, he pulls me up again, stopping when four or five Peacekeepers spill into the alleyway and point guns at us. He does so back. "Run," He says, "into the woods. I'm right behind you." He backs up quickly as I run in the same direction. Two gunshots ring out, and I hear the clunk of Peeta limping along behind me at top speed.

The woods are vast and unfamiliar. My watch reads 1100 hours, and I know the others must be long gone. We're stranded, stuck and wounded.

Fuck…


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