A/N: I know it's been forever. I'm sorry. I still have plans for this. Thank you for reading and all the reviews.

Chapter Seven

A week passes and Peeta cannot even look at Katniss.

Katniss doesn't mind; she lives on. Is glad that he is not dead five days after she's given him the shot. The rest of her family is equally healthy and robust, whether thanks to the shot or not. Not that one could say the same for the handful of other slowly withering people about the district.

The first week is spent uncertainly. Gale and Katniss watch themselves, and they watch their siblings, and those who touch and speak to their siblings. They stick close, pull their sisters and brothers closer, and hardly part. When she has time, she notices Peeta limping through the hall, and he does not come to school for three days out of five. (Each time her chest tightens, but she breathes again when she sees him later that day, working at the bakery, skipping school for a job.) Friday ends with Gin Panders collapsing in the hall; Katniss is not surprised to hear about her death the following Sunday.

Monday dawns with the first Seam child vomiting blood on the Everdeen's doorstep. The little girl dies on their kitchen table six hours later. Katniss goes hunting, and drags Primrose along. Something she never does, because Prim is frightened half the time beyond the gate and she does not like putting her sister in unnecessary danger of the law. This is an exception, though. Her mother won't leave the infected patients well alone, but Prim, at least, can be coaxed away with a hearty pleading and Katniss' utmost encouragement.

Their mother keeps them home come Tuesday. Katniss sits in bed and tells Prim old stories, until Gin Pander's mother comes in, supporting a sick husband and they flee to the Hawthorne's house. There, she curls up on their couch, smiles thinly at Posy and indulges the girl with dolls and plays along. Primrose and Rory sit on the floor, conversing. Eventually Gale sits beside Katniss and tucks her under an arm; she leans into him, he is solid and healthy... and his chest does not shake violently, does not rattle and bubble with liquid as he caws.

And this happens frequently; because soon, all manners of Town people are coming to Mrs. Everdeen, in hopes that she can aid them, where they can not afford the aid of the Capitol or the doctor of District 12. The mayor ignores their questions, mostly. Madge has not been seen since the night she gave Katniss the shots; this worries Katniss, but she is determined to appear unwavering, for everyone else.

"I'm scared," Prim whispers Thursday night, curled up into Katniss' side. Posy is snoring on Prim's other side and Katniss can hear the sighs and snores of all the other Hawthornes in the house around them; their mother advised them not to return home just yet.

Katniss breathes deep, hoping to calm her own voice, and runs a hand through the silky blonde hair.

"You're safe. You took the shot," she reassures. "This will pass."

"How?"

"It just needs to burn out."

Prim is silent. Then, "That's what that girl said. Daisy. She said it burned. Like fire."

"It can't last forever." But neither can we, Katniss thinks, unbidden.

Thankfully, Prim does not think the same, or if she does, doesn't speak her objection.

By Friday, two weeks passed, Gale and Katniss have no choice but to go to Town in hopes of trade; they don't run out of food with all the extra time to hunt, but they need other things, other supplies. The Hob is near empty, near closed, and they stumble upon Haymitch Abernathy demanding he get his white liquor from Ripper. The woman is earnestly telling the man that she doesn't have any; the supply train for this month never came. She doesn't have anything she needs to make it on her own; he'll just have to wait.

Katniss slinks over once the paunchy man staggers away, cursing profusely about the late Capitol train. She places a hand on the counter and leans toward Ripper. "The supply train hasn't come for this month?" she asks. "But there's only five days until the next. It can't be that late."

Gale grumbles at her side. She silences him with a glance.

Ripper shrugs one arm high. "You didn't ask me, but I don't think it's late, really. Just not coming."

"Not coming.."

"What do you do when you've got a bruised, ugly piece of an apple?" Ripper asks keenly.

Gale answers the question somberly, "You eat it, you don't waste it just because it's ugly."

Ripper rewards him a small smile. "Exactly. You wouldn't. I wouldn't. District Twelve wouldn't. But the Capitol isn't us. They don't want the rotten piece of their apple interfering or infecting the rest of it. "

Katniss understands perfectly. The Capitol doesn't want the Districts interfering with their perfection. They never have. Just.. how long do they plan on ignoring the problem? Until they're all dead? Until they've all been burned out? Will they simply gather a new population for the mines once the original population of District 12 is gone? Katniss nods her goodbye, turns, and after a small mental deliberation (she thinks of visiting Madge, or Peeta, because she thinks of the missing supply train, and his extra work hours, and wonders how well the bakery is doing if they can not bake bread.. then remembers she isn't supposed to care about that anymore – she doesn't owe him...) and makes the decision to return to her family.

Another week passes. The new month comes. There are no trains.

Katniss and Gale try to trade, but no one has anything to give for their meat.

Finally, a train does come in the middle of the first week. People peek out their windows and venture close in hope. Only to watch as the masked Peacekeepers collect the corpses of the dead that have been layed out, ready for burial. Then, without a word of comfort or assurance, they depart. This happens three times again in the next three day; there has to be at least sixty bodies in total. Enough dead to rival the amount of death Katniss has seen in the Hunger Games.

Gale comes home with reports about the people that bombard the Justice Building with questions. He is under the impression that the people in the Justice Building are just as equally abandoned to this threat. No one has seen the mayor to confirm anything, and Katniss knocks on Madge's window late one night in vain.

School becomes a joke. No one can go in fear of getting sick. Primrose and Katniss become a regular piece of the Hawthorne household. They hunt near all the time, not only to get away from the district, but to feed everyone in the household. What can be spared (which is very little) is given to the family of the most recent victim. Mrs. Everdeen does not come to visit often, and Katniss thinks that is for the best. Her mother is happier helping the sick, and not being treated as the sick.

Then – impossibly – it starts to get worse.

Rye Mellark death comes to Katniss' attention three days after it happened. She stops what she's doing (mending a tear in Prim's pants) and looks up at her mother for half a heartbeat, before she goes back to the task at hand, stiffer than before. She knows every time she sees her kitchen table now she's going to think of the Mellark that died there. And then to add worse to worst, she returns from hunting that same night and her sister mentions the list of people that their mother has seen, and Peeta Mellark is on that list.

Katniss is kicking off her boots, but pauses. "What was that?" she asks.

Prim look up from Rory and cocks her head slightly. "Peeta Mellark."

"What was he doing there? He isn't sick, is he?" Katniss is aware of Gale's eyes on her back.

"I saw him there, that's all."

Katniss calms herself, and tells herself she will slip out later to speak with her mother about it. But later never comes. Gale is watching her. Posy wants her to tuck her in. Vick and Prim curl up around her on the coach and Rory is telling a story that must be completely made up, because both Hazelle and Gale are rolling their eyes. The night passes without pause. Then the next day, too. Four days pass, slowly. Most of them uneventful, but busy with small, necessary task. Unless you're Mrs. Everdeen. Or the one with her that is, in fact, dying.

Katniss slips out on the fifth day at sunset.

She's a mess, of course. Hair ruffled and unwashed, face tired and tight, clothes dotted with animal blood and soap from when she had helped Hazel with the wash. However, the air is nice and light outside. Katniss savors this. Lets the burden on her shoulders lift with the breeze and float high and away.

Then a Peacekeeper sees her nearing town and raises a gun.

At first she isn't sure what to do. She pauses. Her eyebrows arch slightly, but she stays otherwise still. The man, the Peacekeeper, paces forward, eying her. "What's in that bag there?" He indicates her game bag.

"A squirrel," she answers. "And goat cheese."

"Well then, give it here."

Katniss clutches a hand around the strap on her shoulder. "It's not for trading."

"I wasn't going to give you anything for it, darling." He's mocking her. "I'm hungry."

When she moves to argue or object, the Peacekeeper makes his gun more apparent. The bullets click into place and he smirks in an infuriating way. Katniss throws the squirrel and cheese at him and stomps away. It's not worth dying for. Not when Primrose needs her.

But two Peacekeepers relieve her of her empty bag as she is passing through town square.

A third tries to con her out of her father's hunting jacket on the steps of the bakery. At that point she is wroth and threatens in return, reaching for her knife. This Peacekeeper seems more nervous than the rest however and this proves to be useful. Without much of a fight the Peacekeeper sidles off.

The bakery's doors are locked and the sign reads closed. All curtains cover the windows. She knocks.

A female voice shouts back, "We've said it once, I won't say it twice! We aren't paying no tribute!"

"No.. tribute," Katniss replies, uncertain. It occurs to her she's here. At the Mellarks. Why, again? "I just.." Just what?

Another voice pipes up, "Katniss? Hold on, I have this.."

There's the sound of grumbling, then coughing. Footsteps.. no. A footstep nears, accompanied by a heavy, horrible dragging sound. Doors open. A lock clicks. Chains clank against the other side of the wood and suddenly, it's open and Peeta is there. He looks around the street, grabs her arm and says, "Hurry, before they see us."

Inside the front of the bakery there's no lights on, only the sunlight illuminating closed curtains and the streams of yellow falling from the crack underneath the door that leads to the kitchens. Overhead is the sound of voices, coughing, and footsteps.

Thinking of footsteps, Katniss' eyes fall to Peeta's leg. It's held aloof. He's leaning into the front counter, lowering himself into a stool, wincing. She doesn't move to join him, but nears. She feels skittish. Can't remember why she came. She thinks of his brother. "I'm sorry, about Rye," she murmurs.

"Thank you."

The coughing upstairs turns to vomiting. Katniss feels her stomach whirl and she sits in the stool next to him, only to hide the unease. He notices anyway. "My mother," he says, and is watching her face.

She wonders what reaction is supposed to be there. Saying "Good" comes to mind but she merely nods.

"How's your family?" he asks. Awkward hangs in the air, because he's suddenly realizing she is there. Here. With him. Came to his home, sought him out in this strange time. Yet. For a moment Katniss feels as though the distress is distant. It is a slow thing. A tedious disaster. It isn't the immediate type.

Is somehow soothed at this moment.

"They're fine." More than fine. All alive. She doesn't want to rub it in his face. "How are you?"

"Dandy." His smile is brittle. When Katniss makes no move to return it, or change her smooth expression, he sighs and rubs at his knees. "Alive, still."

"And your leg?" If she didn't know any better, she might dare to say her voice sounds detached and professional. Like some careless medical attendant. This is no warm friendly chat full of concern. And she sees that he knows this.

"Honestly?" Peeta laughs wheezily. It cracks. "I'm too scared to look."

Katniss doesn't know what to do with that. She frowns.

"Yeah, I know. I'm a coward." He rolls his eyes, shrugging.

"Yes." Katniss is surprised when Peeta laughs more at that; isn't offended. There's a small tug on her own lips, but was never meant to be a true smile. Her eyes are too focused at the moment. "Has my mother seen it?" He was there the other day.

"No."

"Why not? You're not like the others who are sick. She can't help them. Maybe you.."

Does he have no sense of self preservation? she wonders.

"Can't affor–"

"My mother won't make you pay," Katniss insists, almost insulted by that.

Peeta waits for her to finish, holds her gaze and retries.. "I can't afford to lose my leg."

"You're losing it right now. If you don't get healed how do you expect to keep it?"

"I mean," Peeta says, as sharp as he's ever gotten with her, "she'll take it from me. I remember her amputation story. Saw the marks."

"Even if it saves your life?"

Peeta stares down at his hands for a second. Then; "What life would it be?"

Katniss opens her mouth to object, but finds nothing. It's true. District 12 has no place for cripples. It would be a homeless life, with no job, no food, no respect. No miners will be taken legless. Even in the bakery Katniss doesn't expect he'll be particularly useful – families like his only reach so far. And at the rate the district is going who knows if the bakery will survive without supply trains.

Her mouth closes and Peeta doesn't look up from his lap.

For long moments there's silence. Upstairs the witch of a mother is cawing.

"Have you heard about the Peacekeeper's tributes?" Peeta asks, composed again.

"No."

"It's just... them, trying to tax us. They want money, food, anything they can take really. They're saying it's their right. The Justice Building isn't doing a thing about it and so they think it's okay. My brother.." he halts.

"Your brother?"

"He thinks it's only a matter of time before their confidence grows and the Peacekeepers overthrow the Justice Building entirely."

The news is bad. It explains the harassing she got on her trip. Why there is no one out and about. It's something her family needs to know as soon as possible. When the Peacekeepers sweep Town clean of what they want, then they'll head out to the Seam and take anything that's worth taking. She stands and Peeta looks up at her, surprised. "I have to go back, it's late."

"Okay."

She hesitates.

"I won't come back." It's true. She won't. She won't have time. Shouldn't have risked..

This upsets Peeta's face for a moment, but he composes himself. "Goodbye, Katniss."

"Goodbye."

Thinking it's all he'll ever have, he walks her to the door, limping. She ignores the way his hand hovers near hers in the air. The door opens. For a moment, it seems he wants to say something, but he struggles to find words.

Peeta watches with remorse as Katniss rushes down the front steps, and disappears down the street.

It'll be the last time he sees her that year.

Winter passes in a daze.

Chaos meets plague when the supply train ceases to exist. Peacekeepers seem to be looking for the train, too, with desperate, hopeful eyes – but Gale must be right, because no one is saving the Capitol place men and women any more than the others. They are doomed to the citizen's own apparent fate. They build their own way of surviving; bullying. They use their guns to force people to give up their precious supplies and to ward off the sick, locking themselves up in their barracks.

After near a month, Peeta's brother's prediction comes true. There is a fight in the Justice Building one night; between whom, Katniss can't know. But the Peacekeepers must come out victorious, because they are the only ones coming and going from there now. Darius' corpse is left laying spread eagle in Town square. For some reason beyond her, people begin dragging the infected there. Corpses pile up without a train to haul them away. Cray and his remaining Peacekeepers demand they be put somewhere else. There's a slight tension over this.

Eventually the order comes that Katniss dreaded. They go to the Meadow, where they can be burned.

But she's not the only one who feared this. Those who still live are bitter, are scared. They have suffered more, their own diminished supplies taken by the Peacekeepers.

There, in the Meadow, the people of District 12 revolt under the gunpoint of the Peacekeepers.

Of all of this, the Hawthornes and Everdeens try not to participate. Most of the time they hunt in the forest (where they can find some more of the braver and desperate citizens, attempting survival without the electric gate being used). They sit in their house when not out beyond the dangers of the district and wait. Or tend to the sick. Or play and tell stories to distract the children. Katniss and Prim rarely see their mother, and haven't been back to their own house in weeks.

Winter brings snow. This encourages more people inside. The dead don't both seeking aid. They die in the streets, hacking scarlet over white. No one feels motivation to move the corpses.

Prey becomes scarce, as it always does in the season. Ribs and hips and collarbones become sharp and fine, faces thin and solemn. Katniss runs her fingers down Primrose's stomach when they sleep at night and she frowns into the girl's hair. Their mother looks pale most days and as if the wind will pick her up and sweep her into the clouds – yet remains uninfected. Skinny, pale, but healthy. The whole lot of them.

After Gale threatens a fight (and Katniss reels him in), they lose Lady to the tax as well as the remaining drugs Mrs. Everdeen possessed. Prim cries for days.

Peacekeeper and citizen clashing continues hot in Town. Rarely the conflict moves beyond the Justice Building or square. Someone from one side or the other burns the Mayor's house down. Katniss hears there was no one there anyhow. She wonders if the Underseas abandoned the district in the fall and Madge is somewhere beautiful. Perhaps the Capitol, lavishing and robust. The thought is too bitter and ungrateful, and isn't worth thinking.

They wait, still, for something. Waiting as the people fight over power. In the end, a straggling group of Townspeople land on top, and they hold the guns (the true meaning of power left to the district) and, considering that they are even more paranoid and careful than the Peacekeepers, Katniss expects them to take what they can, then retreat to the Justice Building..

But no.

Their power lasts no more than a few days, as the sky clears up and soil thaws. The sun rises on the first day of spring with mockingjays singing harmonies. Katniss wakes to the sound of running feet, sucked at by the mud, and voice rising outside. Worried about riots, Gale shakes his own mother awake and Katniss rushes toward the door, tripping over a chair on the way there. Standing in the front yard, she grabs Gale's arm for support and he slips an arm around her waist. There's no impending fight. Outside, not too distant, they can hear what everyone is moving toward: a high, thin whistle.

She can imagine the sight. A shining silver train cutting through the morning mist, sliding into the drab little coal mining district as if from a different world. The Capitol, finally returned. A collective sigh is in the air. Someone shouts hope and Katniss turns to see who –

Then behind her she hears gagging.

Prim, pale, stands not a foot away. They catch gazes. There is panic there, but something else. Something like an apologetic wish. As if to say sorry, for something she's done wrong. And this is moments before she doubles over and vomits blood on Katniss' boots.