They hurry me to a room. I search for Gale, needing him to know that I still love him. I can't die without him knowing that. A team of medics surround me, holding gauze against my shoulder. They start screaming things at each other but the world is quickly fading. I black out.
0O0
A flash of pain in my shoulder rips me away from my mind.
"Stay with me," one of the medics say, their face hovering above mine. I focus on the vibrant green eyes floating in a sea of black. They become the only thing I can see; two pinpricks of green tying me to life.
"We got it!" a medic says. The pain in my shoulder starts to ease.
"They just removed the bullet from your shoulder," my medic says. Her voice is relieved which reassures me. "We're getting some blood into you and then we're going to give you some drugs for the pain. But right now I need you to fight." I feel hands all over my body, stitching my skin together, rubbing different types of ointments over my skin, pumping blood into me. I feel some strength begin to return.
"I'm really tired," I mutter.
"You can sleep now," she tells me. Her bright eyes are the last thing I see before the darkness embraces me.
0O0
When I wake up, Abbott beside me, his injured arm wrapped in light gauze. He meets my gaze and smiles. I move my shoulder. There's a short burst of pain but nothing remotely close to what I felt before. I sit up.
"Where's Gale?" I ask. Abbott's gaze drops from mine. "Where's Gale?" I ask, more authoritatively. Abbott gently touches my shoulder.
"He ran back." I feel like throwing up.
"What?"
"He heard that the General was in trouble and he ran back to help him." My stomach flips.
"Is he alright?" I ask. I sit up and my head swims. Although I feel worlds better than I did, I'm by no means healed.
"They don't know yet," Abbott says softly. I start shaking. A medic wraps me in a blanket, but I know it won't help me. The uncontrollable shivering has nothing to do with the cold. Silent tears roll down my cheeks. Abbott's hands gently push me back and I lie down.
"Undersee," he says softly. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," I whisper, feeling another traitorous tear roll down my cheek. The look he gives me tells me he doesn't believe me. "Why didn't he just stay here?"
"Hawthorne wouldn't hide. You know that and I know that." Sudden anger flares within me.
"Yes. Gale Hawthorne. He has to be the hero. He's such a—a stupid, suicidal bastard!" I shout. Abbott looks shocked at my outburst. "He—he could have—we could have—Abbott, I don't know—" His hands push me back so that I'm lying down again. Each breath creates shock waves of pain.
"Undersee, you're hyperventilating. Take a deep breath." I listen to him, willing to do anything to stop the pain. Black crawls in from the edges of my vision. My breathing starts to slow but I feel drained. He clasps my un-injured shoulder reassuringly and sits beside me. I fall back into unconsciousness.
0O0
When I wake up an indeterminable time later, Abbott is still there. I flick my eyes up to him.
"Gale's going to be fine," he says, staring at the blank concrete wall. "There's going to be a meeting soon and the General wants the three of us there." I sit up, without pain. Thank god for modern drugs.
"Is he awake? Can I see him?" Abbott smiles.
"I guess I should have seen that coming. Can you stand?" I swing my legs over the side of the bed, surprised at how well my body is responding. "You've been out for almost a whole day so you'll probably be shaky," he says. A whole day? I wipe away the thought and carefully lower myself onto the ground, putting some weight on my legs. They hold. I look at him triumphantly, feeling strangely accomplished. He smiles and leads me around the corner. I follow him on slightly wobbly legs. He stops outside the adjoining doorway. "In here?" I ask. He nods and continues walking down the hallway.
"I'll get the two of you before the meeting starts."
"Thank you," I whisper. He nods again, the only way I know he's heard me at all. I peak in the doorway. Gale is pacing with a noticeable limp. He's heavily bandaged and has an IV attached to the inside of his arm which is severely limiting his movement. Instead of a shirt he's wearing a bandage over a large portion of his chest. But he's alive. I swallow, suddenly nervous. He puts his bandaged hands over his eyes and mutters something. I smile slightly.
I can't disturb him. I can't. He looks so stressed and I'll just—
But it's too late. He's already seen me. He stands frozen, watching me. His eyes quickly sweep my body and I feel heat prickle over my skin. I bite my lip, longing to close the distance between us.
"Madge," he whispers, so softly I'm forced to wonder if I'm imagining it. His stony eyes are filled with emotion, so much emotion. Suddenly I'm full of anger.
"You idiot," I say. He looks taken aback. "You stupid, selfish—" I break off, trying to think of another suitable insult. "Why? Why did you run back?"
"Because that's what—"
"That's what you do, right? You save people?" He stares at me as if I've grown another head.
"The—the General was—"
"Missing? Maybe he was in a far wing, ever think of that?"
"But he wasn't in—" Gale starts to say, clearly growing irritated.
"And how about this. Why did you run back for me?" He looks confused. I notice all of the bandages covering his arms are light, meaning they're probably covering burns. If he hadn't run after me… I break off the thought. He stares at me. I can see the gears working in his mind. He hadn't thought I'd ask that.
"You were going to die in—"
"You," I say, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You said that I—was it because of Abbott? You knew he would be with me and you—" The thought hurts me so badly I can barely finish it. "You wanted to be the hero? You wanted the—"
"How can you say that?" he asks, anger clouding his eyes. "How can you—how can you even think that?" He stops himself and takes a deep breath.
"And you went after the General…why? For a promotion?" More anger then I'd ever felt in my life boils within me. I hadn't realized I had the ability to hold this much rage inside of me. "Do you even realize what could have happened? You could have died, Gale! I could have—" lost you.
"You're right," he says. Seeing the strength of the pain in his eyes hurts me worse than all the burns and bullet wounds I could ever receive. "I was selfish. I didn't think of the good of the country or NUO or anyone else. I thought only of myself." He lets out a breath and looks at me. "I love you, Madge," he says. He stumbles over the words as if he's never said them before. As if they're the hardest things in the world to say. I can barely process the words myself. "That's why I ran back. Not because of Abbott. Not because of my hero complex. Not because of anything else."
"You said that you didn't love me," I say, refusing to believe what I thought was impossible. He takes a step towards me, his hand moving forward as if he wants to touch me but he doesn't dare. He looks so—broken.
"The General told me that if I stayed with you he would send you to a detention center and fire me. I thought—I thought that if I broke it off, then it would be easier on us. I thought we could move on and be happy but—" I feel a single tear roll down my cheek. Gale steps forward, closing the gap between us, and wipes it away with his thumb. A strangled sob escapes me. He crushes me against him. I hold him back, forgetting everything but the familiar feeling of his body against mine.
"Gale," I sob. He gently strokes my hair and plants soft kisses on the top of my head. I pull myself closer to him, not realizing how much I missed him and how afraid I was that he wouldn't survive. He pulls back and studies my face.
"You're alright," he says. I don't know whether he's trying to reassure me or himself. The look in his eyes makes me wonder why I ever doubted his love for me. "I thought you were dead." He kisses my forehead, the tip of my nose, both of my cheeks, then finally, and oh-so-gently, my lips. "Run away with me," he mutters against my mouth.
"What?" I ask, shock consuming me. I pull away from him, holding him at arm's length.
"Run away with me. Amatore won't let me be with you and I can't—I have to be with you. There's no other option. I tried to stay away from you and I sucked at it." I give a small laugh and he smiles at me. He lets out a strained breath. "Let's leave. Now."
"Gale," I say gently. "Think about what you're saying. You're a soldier. The base has just been bombed. We can't leave. We can't." His shoulders slump in defeat. He knows that. Deep down, he's known it all along. He takes a step forward and crushes his lips against mine. He pulls me against him. The pain I feel is so distant I don't care about it. He tilts his head and deepens the kiss. I loop my arms around his neck, relishing the feel of his smooth, heated skin. He pulls back again, so we can breathe, and rests his forward against mine.
Someone clears their throat. We quickly break away and look at the doorway.
Abbott.
I flush a bright red.
"The General needs the two of you. The meeting's starting in a minute."
O0O
Gale and I walk into the makeshift meeting room, hand in hand. General Amatore's eyes flash right to our intertwined fingers and I can see disapproval swimming in their depths. I start to pull away, but Gale tightens his grip and flashes me a look. We take seats next to each other. The meeting consists of me, Gale, Abbott, Amatore, Jund and another soldier I don't know.
"Does anyone know who the hell those people are?" the General asks, getting right to the point.
"I think it's a group of our people who aren't happy with the way we're running the country," Jund says.
"No. They were definitely Capitol. They had the look. And the accent," Amatore says.
"My theory," Abbott says, "is that they're ex-peacekeepers who banded together and are trying to take down our new government." I look carefully at Abbott and consider the possibility.
"But they were horrible fighters," I throw say. A couple people look surprised I've spoken, but I hold my ground. "I knew a lot of peacekeepers and they all knew how to fight a lot better than our attackers did."
"She has a point," Abbott says. "Peacekeepers would be able to respond too. Undersee and I were able to quickly take down two of them." Gale shoots me a surprised look and I blush, knowing that Abbott basically brought the soldiers down on his own. "And they didn't chase after us when we ran. Any seasoned fighter would have known to remove the threats quickly and effectively. Every cadet knows that."
"But we wiped out all the Capitol citizens," Jund says.
"It's improbable that we have them all," I put in.
"So you think a group of rogue Capitol citizens attacked a high-security army base? Where do you think they got their supplies?" the man I don't know asks.
"I'm not sure what I think. But I know there are rogue Capitol citizens. There has to be. And I'm pretty damn sure that's who our attackers were," I respond.
"But that doesn't answer the question of how they'd get their supplies," Amatore says. I flash a glance at Gale, who's stayed silent so far. His jaw is tense and he's rubbing his hand over his eyes. I squeeze his hand, worried about him. He glances up at me and offers me a brief smile. "There haven't been any raids recently."
"Maybe they have some supplies stored away from before. Someplace we haven't found yet," Jund suggests.
"Or," Gale says. "We could have a traitor." No one says anything. "Think about it," he continues. "We know the attackers were Capitol. Anyone who saw that wouldn't even question it. We know they're not soldiers. They were cowardly, slow, and stupid. I'm sure they have a leader somewhere. They said so themselves. There has to be a mastermind behind this plan."
"And why is that, Commander?" Amatore asks. I can't tell if he's intrigued or irritated.
"They managed to bomb us without us having a clue they're coming. We have people manning the radars 24/7. A whole group of guys. That leaves two options. The first is that they were drugged, which would have to be done by one of our own. That in itself would be risky because they would have to be damn sure that no one would walk in and see the drugged guards. They'd also have to be able to get their hands on the drugs, which we have under lock and key, and drug them in a way that wouldn't be suspicious. Then there's the second option." Gale stops, as if contemplating whether or not to say what he's thinking. "They could have had a hovercraft that left no signal."
"That's impossible!" the unknown man says.
"That's new technology," Gale counters. "Beetee and I have been working on the prototype. As far as I know it's the only one in existence. If that's the case, then we have a traitor who's feeding the enemy intelligence." I stare at Gale. He's completely right. I glance around the room and it looks like everyone else is thinking the same thing.
"How do we know the Capitol didn't already have the technology and the attackers are just using the hovercrafts we didn't know existed?" Jund asks.
"I've spent hour upon hour searching through the old technology records left from before the war. There's nothing there. Believe me," Gale says.
"Let's say there is a traitor. Who is it?" Amatore asks.
"Wouldn't the prime suspects be Hawthorne and Beetee?" the man asks. Gale slams his palms on the table and stands.
"A traitor?" Gale asks, fury dripping from his voice.
"You were missing in action during the bombing."
"Saving lives—"
"Or ending them."
"Where were you when the damn place was going up in flames? In the basement like a coward?"
"I sure as hell wasn't charging into a burning building like a fool!"
"A fool? I can take that. I'd rather die a fool then live as a coward."
"You are a coward! And a traitor—"
"Remind me what you do again, Hayford? That's right. You're in charge of operations. You sit on you damn ass while the real soldiers fight your battles for you!"
"Real soldier?" the man shouts, getting to his feet. "You don't even know what a real soldier is!" Amatore tries to interject but they keep fighting. Gale pounds his fist on the table. Blood seeps through the bandages but he doesn't notice. "Real soldiers don't betray they're country."
"You son-of-a-bitch," Gale says, he starts to move forward but I grab his arm. He glances down at me.
"That's enough!" Amatore shout. "I have half a mind to fire you both! Now is not the time to be fighting! If you want to fight do it on your own time!" Gale lets out a strangled breath then sits back down. He looks down at his bleeding hand. I grab it gently, trying to silently reassure him.
"That's right," Hayford murmurs. "Go back to your bitch." Hot anger coils within me.
"I said enough!" Amatore screams. Hayford sits down and shoots a glare at Gale. I meet Gale's eyes.
"He's the new Abbott," I mouth. Gale smiles tensely.
"Worse," Gale responds.
"Gale's not a traitor," Abbott says. I smile at Gale then look at Abbott, happy to have someone else on our side.
"Neither is Beetee," I say. "Why would a victor be fighting for the Capitol?" Gale gives my hand a grateful squeeze.
"What does this mean for the base?" Abbott asks, looking at Amatore. "If we don't know who the traitor is…"
"It means we can't let anyone in or out."
"But what if the person's already gone? What if they left with the attackers?" I ask. Suddenly a thought rushes into my mind, filling me with fear. "What if they're already planning the next attack?" The room is silent. I glance at Gale, looking for comfort and finding uncertainty. Right. We're screwed.