guest: Thank you for your opinion but I dont think katniss been too friendly with Rhosy. She didnt open with her, she just tried to be nice to a poor girl who she felt she owed because Rhosy helped her and who has some thought similar with her.

Disclaimer: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, of course.

Chap 10

I can't believe it. It seems like just a minute ago, I was excited checking the awesome bow Beetee had designed special for me and admired Cinna's thoughtfulness for my Mockingjay uniform which has a tiny pocket to hold the nightlock pill we will receive before every mission in case of failing. A minute ago, I still struggled with Coin about working with Haymitch in my first mission. Just a minute ago, in the hovercraft I tried to remember the line I should say for the camera when the time comes. Fulvia told me to act naturally, normally but if I felt I wanted to say something, to send a message to Snow, I should try some line they had prepared for me. Just a minute ago, I stood with Commander Paylor of the Eight, a young but capable woman, hearing her directions about where to go, what to do. A minute ago, I helped the Eight's soldiers taking care of wounded people from last night bombing. People were excited seeing me alive and well, showed me their sympathy about my fake child's miscarriage, comforted me about Peeta.

It seems like just a minute ago…

… Then all hell broke loose.

"Katniss, let's go. You can't do anything right now. Come on." Gale shouts. Then his strong hands pull me up from the fallen beam I was trying to lift up. A hundred wounded people, mostly women and children, they are stuck in the house. And there's no way to save them.

"Come on. They will come back in a minute." Gale urges me.

As he says, I can hear they're coming back. The bombing hoverplanes have the Capitol seals. I took down two, wounded one. Gale took down one. Paylor's men took down two but that's not enough. They already destroyed the temporary hospital and one warehouse. And they're coming back.

"Retreat! Retreat!" I hear someone shouting command.

"Haymitch, Plutarch, where are you?" Gale yells at his headset. We lost contact with two hovercrafts that brought us here.

"Katniss, come here." I see Commander Paylor waving at me. I pull Gale and we run to her. She leads us to an underground shelter. My film crew is already there. I know my other bodyguards were down from the first bombing. Part of it was my fault. I was furious, because they attacked a hospital, so furious that I ran after a hoverplane without commands. They ran after me. At least, I shot the hoverplane down.

"Stay here, Soldier Everdeen." Paylor uses my status to press me, she surely doesn't want a running like before. She throws me a first aid kit.

"Take care of them." Then she runs out and disappears behind the thick smoke. Few minutes later, while I'm bandaging Gale's bleeding arm, Bogg runs in. I feel relief. I thought of him as a robot until before our taking off, when I saw he carefully placed a photo of a little boy into his pocket.

"You, never again, am I clear?" He grumbles at me.

"What am I supposed to do? They bombed a hospital. People in there were already dying. That… that… I can't let them get away with that." I yell. The warmth of a little girl's hand still lingers in my mind. She was as small as Posy.

Fulvia chips in from behind me.

"And she got us an excellent scene when she took down that hoverplane."

Bogg shoots her a deadly glare but with the dark in the shelter, she may not see it.

"That's reckless, Soldier Everdeen. You can be spotted and they will keep bombing." Bogg says.

"She must be spotted, already." We all turn to the shelter's door. Paylor is back. Her face is darkened with smoke.

"They stopped bombing but started their anti-aircraft guns. They don't want your hovercrafts back. And as I was reported, one of those two was down." In Eight, the Peacekeepers still keep a strong hold of the center town though the suburb and factories are all in the rebels' hand. I feel my stomach churning. I hope Haymitch were not on that down hovercraft. I don't forgive him yet but I don't want him die without saying sorry to me.

"Or worse, she might be reported." Gale says. I turn to him. He looks straight at me and we share the same thought. Rhosy. I told her to come to Madge for me and she saw me coming down to the hovercraft hangar. I feel my ears burning. I was so careless. After all, she's Snow's granddaughter. Everything she said and did was to approach me. Suddenly I'm angry at Peeta. He becomes my soft spot. She helped me with his problem and I feel I owed her. And I started caring for him because I owed him, too.

"Yes, that's a case. They bombed exactly the hospital and they must know you came here by hovercrafts. We have never been bombed fiercely like this." Paylor says while looking outside thoughtfully. I can hear the sound of the anti-aircraft guns from far away. After a while, they stop but the hoverplanes come back. Three waves of bombing in a day. They want to crush me one and for all. Paylor leaves us again to go to her men.

"She will pay for this." My blood is boiling. Gale frowns when I tie the bandage on his arm a little tight.

"Who?" Bogg asks.

"Rhosy Snow. She must be his spy." I pick up the kit to Castor.

"Snow?" Gale asks, puzzled. I don't care anymore.

"Yes, she's Snow's granddaughter." I tell him. He looks at me and then Bogg in disbelief.

"And you let her come near Katniss? And you let her approach you?" He growls at us.

"Coin knows what she's doing." Bogg says calmly. But I can see a hint of wondering in his eyes. "And we don't have any proof. Furthermore, with District 13's security system, I don't think she can contact outside without notice."

"She's still his granddaughter." Gale yells.

"That's a reason we need her for his information. Her profile was accepted by Coin. If you have any idea, wait till we come back to Thirteen and ask Coin yourself." He turns away to end the conversation. Gale shoots a look at me, I glare him down and finish bandaging the wounded quietly.

The bombing is less fierce but longer. They reduce the amount of bomb falling at one time but keep coming. The night falls and the A.A. guns start. Gale and I sit together in a corner of the shelter. The crew sits sleepily in another corner. Bogg and Paylor discuss things at the door way.

"I can't believe you let your guard down." Gale mutters.

"I'm sorry. It was… she helped me. You know about owing." I bite the inside of my mouth.

"It's all about Peeta, right?" Gale says after a while. His voice is little hurtful. "You were ready to leave Prim, your mother, me for him and this owing thing, twice. You know I really felt betrayed when you pull out those nightlocks."

"Gale!" I exclaim. "If it's not for him, there would be no me to know you and leave you."

"Then how many people you will leave behind to save him? Answer me if we can come back this time." Gale snorts angrily.

"You know what, Gale. I owed him my life and if you want me to finish this payback thing, I will do it right now." He goes too far. I shout and run to the shelter's door. Bogg blocks me. I struggle.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'll give them what they want. Me. And you can come home." I explode.

"Stop it, you fool." People come to aid him pushing me down. "You die, the rebellion die with you."

"Wait!" Paylor cuts in. "She's right. If we give them what they want, they will stop the bombing."

"No way we give them her." Gale says.

"Of course not. We just need them think that they have what they want."

The gears in my head start working quickly.

"NO! I don't want a decoy." I scream. "I don't want any one die for me."

"They already did. If the bombing continues, and surely they will be reinforced in the morning, we will all die." Paylor says with determination. "Take off her uniform. I will go and find a volunteer."

I scream, I struggle but they all agree with Paylor. They have to tie me up and put Fulvia's handkerchief in my mouth to stop me from fighting and screaming and biting them or the nightlock pill. I see the girl, my decoy coming in, put on my clothes and running outside, to her death. A century after that, Paylor comes back and they bring me out, to the hovercraft. Haymitch and Plutarch are alive, but that doesn't help my feeling. I cry until we land on District 13. The first thing I do when they release me is running to Rhosy's room.

I will make her pay.