Faulkner - Hunger Games: Invasion - 12
Chaper 7
We travel across district 12 the people down there unaware of the chaos that borders them then in distance a long towering flume of smoke bellows into the sky. Johanna shouts across to us "Well if 12 didn't know about what's happening they certainly will now".
The noise of the hovercraft speeding through the sky makes it difficult for anyone to hear but Gale tries to reassure the group "It could be anything; they will think it's just waste being incinerated" he says. I don't think it worked, the people on board are showing that their minds are saying that this is a bad idea. I grab Peeta's hand as I feel us start to descend his grasp is almost painful, I turn to him and look at his frail demeanour, he is going to see what his condition does to people face to face.
We touchdown and the pilot fires a smoke grenade that covers the plane hiding it away from prying eyes he speaks to me over the holo "Commander Everdeen, you are clear to disembark, we will have to leave the area as soon as your off do you copy". I frantically reply "Ok, are you staying close by". There is a period of silence before a somewhat weak response "We will try our best".
The door begins to lower and Gale steps up, Johanna is quickly by the side of him; the rest of us are a little more reluctant to leave the relative safety of the hovercraft.
"Katniss what's your plan of action" Gale says shouting over the departing aircraft. I talk to the group "We will break up into 3 teams, I will go with Peeta, Gale and Helsa, team two Stipar, Frostine, Gauis and Tressa. Fergus, Ivory, Tenney, Johanna your team 3. Make sure you're no more than 100 yards away from another team, you all have your trackers on so I can see where you all are. We will meet back here in 1 hour" I say.
We head off in our groups Gale is leading out front, we can hear screams in the distance along with shouting and crashing. As we get to the first path a man bursts out from a house with his back on fire. He rolls around on the floor attempting to douse the flames. We are stopped in our tracks, Helsa shouts over "Do we check on the casualty Commander?". "Have a look but keep your distance and from now on call me Katniss!" I reply.
We watch as she walks over, Gale checking out the area with his rifle ready, she finds a blanket near to the house and throws it over the man, she bends down and we watch as he sits up and pulls her to the ground. In a matter of just a few seconds she now has a half burned man on top of her trying to get to her face. As quickly as it happened there is a crescendo of shots fired and the man falls violently off.
We run over "Are you ok Helsa" I say, Gale comes up to the side of us smoke still rising from his rifle. "We need to be more careful from now on, we don't know who's hostile" he says. Helsa gets back to her feet brushing off her clothes "Just a scratch" she says wiping her face. "Did he say anything to you" Peeta says. "Just 8 is evil, 13 is hell".
We don't have much time to recover from the event when a woman comes running down the street towards us. "Stand down" Gale says lining up his rifle with her. She doesn't stop, the problem is we don't know if she is running to or from someone. "This is your last warning, stand down or we will fire" Gale demands. She begins to slow down to a walking pace. "Help us, please help us, my husband, my son" she says crying.
"Where are they" I reply to her. She falls to her knees and points to house at the corner. "Peeta come with me on this one" Gale says.
I follow them with Helsa a few feet behind as they enter the house a loud bang rattles the windows. They both quickly run in, before we can get to the doorway we hear more shots fired. I am too frightened to look in, what if someone else had a gun what if Peeta or Gale have been killed.
Helsa walks past me and into the building, she's close enough for me to hear "It's Ok Katniss they're both ok". I walk in and see Peeta bending over a man on the floor. "Peeta?" I say not knowing what to think.
"He was trying to kill the boy, I had to" he says rubbing his eyes. The women comes into the house and screams running over to her husband lying on the floor "Brena, my darling, why, why you". As she hugs the man the boy runs over to comfort her. Already I am seeing what Joanus is prepared to do and I already want the same outcome as his father.
As we leave the building we can hear shots being fired all around us, I begin to feel sick about what we are having to do, we are not here to save; we are here to eliminate anyone who is a threat. We walk back down the path checking on houses through the windows I notice some of the houses have been boarded up from the inside, some are empty the rest of the occupants seem to be ok.
Gale turns to me "We should go on to the next street and head towards the smoke" he says. Reluctantly we go along with his lead and start to walk down between 2 houses to the next row. As we turn the corner Helsa suddenly drops pulling out her rifle. In a split second she fires a single bullet we watch as a man falls from a roof 5 buildings down. "How did you know he was going to attack us" Peeta says.
"I didn't but why would you be up on a roof with all this going off". She says assertively. I have no response to what she says but I am certainly glad we have a woman who can shoot for our team. We carry on down the road towards where the man fell when I notice a door slightly open. As look across I see a small girl peering through the gap. "Gale, over here" I say beginning to jog over. As we reach the door the girl runs inside.
"Be careful Katniss, we don't know if this is some kind of trap" Peeta says pulling my arm back. I put my head around the door, everything is silent, a solitary candle burning. I walk in checking around the room. Gale walks by the side of me pointing his rifle at the walls and doors. As we slowly edge to the bedroom we hear the girl "Don't hurt me, please don't". I lower my bow and push the door open. The girl is sitting at the end of the bed; she is dressed in a nightgown which is covered in dirt.
"Hey there, we are not going to hurt you we are here to help" I say sitting down beside her. She looks at me; she has dried tears on her cheeks as though she had been crying for so long they had run out. I pull the cover up around her "What's the matter, where's Mummy and Daddy" I say. "They're gone; they went away" she replies. I can feel myself filling up with emotions; all that leaves my lips is "Peeta". He walks over to us and picks the girl up pulling the sheet over her. "We can't take her with us Peeta, it's too dangerous" Gale says.
"I know where she'll be safe, at least until we can get more people here" he says walking out of the house holding the girl, "Where are you going Peeta" I say trying to keep up.
"Gale, Helsa wait hear I will be 5 minutes" he shouts back. I am not going to let him out of my sights, we walk back round to the last path we were on to; the house with the mother and son, I wait at the top. Peeta knocks on the door, after a few moments it opens the women stands there, they talk and then the women takes the girl and kisses Peeta on the cheek. He walks back to me. "Well I wasn't going to leave her alone, I just asked if she would look after her for a while until we can send some help" he says.
I suddenly forget all that's going on around us, that's why I love him so much; he knows how to protect. As we walk back to Gale and Helsa we see Gale waving at us to hurry up. "There's a lot of shots coming from the West we need to get over there to see if any of them need help" he says. As we are running I hear a beeping sound from my holo, I look down and notice where the 3rd team are, all the locations are in the same area apart from one. "One of the team has been isolated from the group we need to get over there quick". I say and suddenly have a horrible feeling about Johanna.
We see 3 of them in front of us, Johanna is there, and I sigh with relief. "Katniss, we got overrun, we lost Ivory" She says out of breath. "What do you mean lost?" I shout back.
Gale is pacing backwards and forwards obviously trying to think of a way to get in. "Where is she" I say to Johanna "At the back of that house 4 maybe 5 of the hijacked charged us from behind she got knocked over we had to get out of there" she replies.
I look down at my arm and press the blue button labelled "F" a short hissing sound comes from my quiver and an arrow comes up. I take it out, aim and fire. "Cover your eyes" I shout. The arrow flies through the air almost humming, it hits the roof of the building where Ivory is. It feels like the moon has fallen onto earth as the sky is lit up in a bright white light. "Right let's get in there" I say running. As we turn the corner to the back of the house there are people crawling all over ground as though they were blind or had lost something. "Over here". Peeta says picking up Ivory. She looks in a bad way, unconscious bleeding from around her mouth and I can see patches of blood on her stomach and legs. "We need to evac now" Gale says. We run back out to the open area when I notice Gale isn't with us then it dawns on me. Rifle fire echoes around the buildings, its seems to go on for minutes before he re-appears. "I did what I had to do" he says walking past me. He is right they were a threat, they were hijacked but I hate the man Coin made him into, a soulless, heartless soldier.
We carry on walking back to the drop off point when I call in "Requesting immediate evacuation, we have a casualty" I say into the holo. "Affirmative, we will be there in five" a voice replies.
As we reach the evacuation point the other team is waiting, all of them sitting down on the floor looking exhausted "I have never seen anything like that in my life, they were relentless" Stipar says wiping his forehead. "Did you get many" I say worried about the impending answer. Gauis stands up "Put it this way, I am out of bullets" he exclaims almost enjoying the moment. Peeta sets Ivory down and she opens her eyes. "We did good?" she says squinting at me. I don't want to show her how I am feeling that wouldn't be how a commander should act so I smile, trying to be strong "Yes Ivory, you did great. When we get back you get better and I will see about a promotion" I say. "Sure thing Boss" she says closing her eyes.
As we sit there looking at each other on the return back to 13 Ivory takes a turn for the worse, she slumps down in her seat Frostine rushes over to her and injects some morphling. Then as we just begin to relax President Paylor speaks on my holo.
"Katniss, we have reports of people in district 7 going missing in similar circumstances to 8. We have Cressida on route already to asses" she says. I put my head in my hands "We can't cope with this Paylor, it's too much" I reply. "Don't worry I have issued a mandatory enlisting; we need an army not a squad. I have been discussing it with Haymitch; as soon as you get back we will explain what we will do next" She says.
The holo goes off and I look down, Gale shouts over "Was that Paylor? Is there an update". I am almost about to tell everyone the news when my throat becomes dry, I feel dread rush all over me. District 7, that's where Johanna's from, that's were her boyfriend is.
"We have to meet with Paylor and Haymitch when we get back, there have been further developments and they want to discuss them with us." I say avoiding the question, if anyone is going to tell Johanna I want it to be Paylor, I don't want to be part of any more peoples suffering.
Peeta is aware that my response to Gale was not genuine, he knows me too well now, things have moved on quite a bit from favourite colour. He knows I am hiding something. "You were great today" I say leaning my head onto his shoulder. "As soon as I saw that little girl I had purpose, it reminded me of our children. I forgot about what I was worried about and thought about what would happen if our children were in this situation, I would hate to think they wouldn't be moved somewhere safe" he says. I smile at him "I know Peeta, I know" I say.
"Jeez I need a hot shower and big meal" Johanna says putting her hands behind her head. "I just want to sleep for days" Stipar adds.
"Don't get too comfortable when we get back, we might be back out again in the morning" I say. I know that its more than definite that will be the case but for now I want to forget everything, just for an hour until we land.
Across the ocean Joanus walks into his operation's room, it has similar screens and keyboards to that of District thirteen but a lot smaller. It was never meant to be used for anything other than talking to the Capitol. People are busy working away in front of the screens there are images of the Districts and also two very large screens on top of the others showing numbers. Joanus stands beside a man with a map of Panem on the screen. "Sir, everything is going very well, we have managed to bring 91 from district 7" the man says. "Good and it seems 13 are running around like lost sheep, they have no idea what to do. No, wannabe President and her spoilt school kid are going to be able to recover from this" Joanus says. He moves to a women dressed in uniform it has badges on both shoulders and on the front, she is smart and looks to be a high ranking officer. "I think it's time we addressed Panem" Joanus whispers leaning towards the women. "I think you are right Sir; it will certainly help our next push" she says.
Joanus takes a few steps back "Attention all, I want to congratulate you all on your excellent work over the last couple of weeks but now it's time to increase our efforts, I want a feed into Panem's broadcast system in the next 15 minutes" Joanus says. The people stop work for a moment and listen before they begin rushing around the room; three of them sit at one computer which displays the same diagram of the defence system that Beetee designed.
Joanus returns to his office, "Layus, Mesita" he shouts, "Come and tidy the room, wouldn't want to have our first broadcast with piles of paper around". Layus and Mesita run into the room and quickly begin picking up paper, glasses and begin moving furniture around.
After a while a voice sounds from a speaker "We are ready to go Sir on your mark". Joanus clears his throat and puts a finger up. The camera in front of him begins to focus and a light beams to highlight him. The screen in the room switches on and a countdown is displayed.
Back in district 13 Peeta hands me a bread roll. "I can't believe she has started walking already, times are going so face" I say. "I can't believe we are having a meal together after all that's happened, Paylor must be having to rethink her plans or we would be out there again already" Peeta replies.
A crackle comes from the screens in the room and a picture of a crest of arms is displayed. It has an eagle flying above a city holding a white rose with the wording "Resurget ex Favilla - Radicem Rosa" written underneath. I walk over to the screen not sure what is happening then I hear the sickening fanfare that accompanied our public presentation before the games. I put my hand up to my mouth my eyes immediately focus in on the rose. The screen goes dark for a moment then there, sat behind a desk Joanus Snow, he doesn't look like what I had imagined, nothing like his father. He hasn't got the signs of drinking poisonous wine. I stumble back to my chair next to Peeta.
"Citizens of Panem, let me introduce myself. I am Joanus Snow son of Coriolanus. Several years ago there was an attack on the Capitol that led to my father's death caused by Katniss Everdeen your Mockingjay. The rebels who supported this attack and the military of District 13 who carried it out are not the people you think they are; they are now leading your Panem. You may not know that it was 13 who dropped the bombs on the defenceless children, it was 13 who killed many innocent people in the Capitol and it was 13 who forced untrained civilians in to battle leading to their deaths. The People of Panem were fooled into thinking that this group of people were the way forward, to end the symbolic yearly Hunger Games. But, and I ask you this; what difference is it from the children they killed, the innocent people they killed, the untrained civilians that were killed?"
I can feel a tear falling down my cheek, I quickly wipe it away hoping the children didn't see it, the thing I hate the most about this is he is right, it was us that killed the children, the people and it was me that caused the deaths of untrained civilians like Messalla and Caster.
"I will add that your Mockingjay from 13 also killed the next President, now is this any way for a democratic government to behave. Whilst I am talking about the government what steps have they taken to improve your lives I am sure if your honest you are in a worse state now than when my father was brutally killed." Joanus continues.
Peeta shouts across the room "Turn it off, I have heard enough".
"I will leave you with this, District 13, President Paylor do not know what they are doing, there has been a virus outbreak in a couple of your districts and they have been keeping it a secret from all of you. We are here to help and we will do everything in our power to make Panem a better place, thank you for your time" Joanus says. The screen goes off. Immediately my holo begins beeping, I put the earpiece in "Katniss this is Paylor did you see that?" she says. "Yes, yes I did" I reply, I already know what she will say next and look across to Peeta "We need to get feet on the ground in Precia, you and Peeta come to the comms room now"
