The Shade took Gale to a quiet clearing in e forest just outside a District 12, a peaceful and calm place.
Gale caught his breath, panting until his gasps returned to normal breathing. When he looked around, he felt noticeably calm. This was a good spot, one that he used to hunt with his father in. He reached behind his back, only to remember with dismay that his bow and quiver of arrows was left behind accidentally when he left district 2 after a disastrous stint as temporary mayor. Gale also remembered that he was an old man, and that he has not hunted in years and would not remember how even if he had his bow with him.
Gale just stretched his feet out as he would have when he was a child.
The peace of the clearing was short lived, as the distant sound of bombs dropping and the smell of burning coal carried by wind both became apparent to Gale. He sat upright, a look of fear in him. In the sky above where District 12 would be, both Gale and the Shade could see unmarked hovercrafts dropping their payloads over the population center. A cocktail of screams ranging all ages could be heard as the fire cut down the panicked masses of District 12. The wails of dying anguish could be heard even out here in the clearing.
The Shade turned to Gale and asked him a question in a calm voice. "Horrific? Isn't it?"
Gale is shaking with terror, unable to even speak. So The Shade takes this as an affirmative answer.
"Very few people survive something as gruesome as what you survived. A decant human being would never wish such suffering on even their worst enemies, especially if they themselves know the pain it causes."
Gale detected hostility in The Shades voice, and was about to ask what he mean by that. However, before he could, he saw shadows of the past spill out of the trees and into the clearing.
Their whole bodies were covered in soot and scratched from scurrying through the patch in the fence.
A younger Gale was the first to enter the clearing, his eyes wild with fright. Behind him was a blond haired girl named Delly's, holding her younger brother in her arms. Behind her were three hundred other District 12 civilians. Old people who were close enough to the escape when it happened, young children who did not yet realize that their parents perished, men and women who can not find their families, and many others as well.
When they sat down in the clearing, everyone was nervous.
"What are going to do? I can't find my parents." Exclaimed Delly, who's baby brother could not stop crying.
Gale replied in between his panting, "I'll ... go back ... and look for others."
Prim, who was covered in soot, replied. "Ok, but be careful."
Gale knew what his younger self would find there; ash and death. It was already too late to find anyone.
The Shade looked at Gale and spoke, "These people would have been dead, but you saved them."
Gale nodded.
The Shade continued. "At least you did that."
"What do you mean 'at least'?".
"I'll show you."
And with that, they left the clearing behind.
