*Note: The name of Gale's mom is supposed to be Hazelle, but I made is Rose…my bad!
Sorry for not updating in a while! Here is a short (for this story) chapter before the next one!
Also, Happy MLK day! I'll still be in school :(
"I have a dream..."
-MLK Jr.
I finally solved the problems of what to do.
"I'm going in."
Cato and Glimmer both protested, listing all the reasons why I shouldn't. The peacekeepers would find me, I would be arrested, there might not even be a way into the District anymore…
They could have talked until they were blue in the face, I was still going in.
"I'm the only one who knows District Twelve well enough to sneak in and out without being noticed. I can slip in, do recon, and come back. I won't contact my family, not yet…I don't want to bring trouble on their head."
Glimmer sighed.
"You need to bring someone in with you."
"Cato and Marvel are too recognizable, and Thresh will stick out because no one in my district had darker skin because we spend most of our time in the mines."
Rue opened her mouth and I pointed a finger at her and said, "No way."
"I'll go in alone, and if I'm not out by sundown, get out of here as quickly as you can."
Roan was curled up against my shoulder, his small nose against my neck, tickling me with every exhale and inhale.
A couple of moments of mental math reminded me that Roan was almost three months old.
Now he was able to hold his head up when he was sitting up between my legs, but he would pitch forward. He could locate sounds and turn his head, and even smile a little when he saw someone who he knew; the only person who got a smile besides me was Glimmer and Rue.
I pressed a kiss to his forehead, breathing in a deep breath of his baby smell, and handed him off as I threw my bow and quiver over my arm.
I waved goodbye to the others, who just looked at me solemnly.
Stopping one quick moment to get my extra hunting knives I leave in the woods, I stopped for one moment to make sure the electricity wasn't on.
It was only then that I realized that someone was walking behind me.
I sighed, half expecting to see Rue trying to sneak in with me, so imagine my surprise when I saw Cato of all people sneaking behind me.
He looked sheepish for one moment before his face hardened and his eyes closed off.
"What are you doing?"
"You're not going in alone."
"Because you're worried about me or because you don't trust me?"
He didn't answer, but the words were clear in his eyes and body language.
Hurt, but not willing to show it, I turned and walked to the fence, trying to keep the feeling of betrayal from showing.
His heavy hand was on my shoulder before I could take two steps.
"It's not that I don't trust you personally…I just-"
I jerked my shoulder out from underneath his hand and kept on walking, even though every nerve ending in my body was yelling at me to stay right there with him.
"Stay here. Do not follow me in."
Pausing for only the barest second to make sure that the electricity wasn't on, I dove underneath the wiring and hurried to my old home.
There was no one on the street. There was an eire silence that had fallen on the entire Seam that just screamed SOMETHING IS WRONG HERE.
My house stood silent, every door shut and window curtained.
Slowly, I slipped in the back door, my hand wrapped around my knife.
When I opened the door, an arrow was being aimed at my face.
Gale's face broke into a relieved look, and the bow and arrow clattered to the ground.
"Catnip!"
"Gale!"
I threw my arms around him in a hug, so relieved to see a familiar face.
"Katniss!"
A small voice echoed Gale's, and next I felt Prim's small, skinny arms being thrown around my waist.
I was welcomed back by everyone; Mom gave me a tearful hug, holding my head to her shoulder like she thought she would never see me again, Gale's mother kissing me on the cheek with tears in her eyes, Rory and Vick tag teaming me in a tackle hug, and Posy wrapping her arms around my neck and refusing to let go until Gale bodily peeled her off.
"How the hell did you get back?"
I slowly told them all about how the surviving tributes and I managed to escape from the Arena, with Roan. I showed him the note that Haymitch had sent me.
I told them about how we managed to escape, until I found the tree where we had carved our initials, and then knew where we were.
"What's going on? What happened to the town?"
I could tell by the look on Gale's face that it wasn't pretty.
"After they found out about what happened to you, the entire District was in revolt. I hear tell that there were other Districts who revolted too. You went off air, and the Peacekeepers came flooding in."
He went on to tell me about the executions of some random people around the Seam who had revolted in my name, how there were new rules and a curfew.
I had to sit down in shock.
I had caused all of this?
Gale broke into my thoughts.
"Katniss, we love having you here, but you need to get out of here. If they find you here, if they find any of the other tributes, there is going to be hell to pay. The rebels, Katniss, they're from District 13."
I wouldn't have been more surprised than if he had told me that he had found his father alive, walking around in the woods.
"WHAT?"
The other's winced, and I remembered to keep my voice down.
"The rebels are District Thirteen. Apparently, they hadn't been leveled out. The Capitol didn't know that they were still alive until they attacked the arena, trying to get you out. There is now a war."
They were throwing too much information at me right now.
"I would have gone, but they would have known and gone after the family. You need to get the other there. The rebels will protect you. Go!"
I had been home for all of maybe ten minutes, and I already had to leave.
Mom threw me a jacket, and my heart tugged a little when I realized it was Dad's old hunting jacket.
Prim hustled over with my game back, stuffed to the brim with stuff I didn't have time to look through.
I threw it over my shoulder and picked up my weapons.
"Make sure you have things ready to move at a moment's notice. I have a bad feeling about what the Capital might do to you guys."
Mom nodded, pointing to a small pile of things by the front door. I assumed it held all of the prized possessions we owned.
I hugged everyone else goodbye, tears pricking my eyes. Was this the last time I was going to see any of them?
I tried not to dwell on it too much as I slipped out of the door and hurried back to the gate.
Pausing only the barest moment to make sure the electricity wasn't on, I slipped through the gaps and then sprinted for the forrest, only relaxing when I was in the small meadow I had left Cato in.
Speaking of which, the moron in question was pacing up and down, around and back again the length of the meadow, sword gripped so tightly in his hands I thought his knuckles were going to break.
When I tumbled in, my hair a mess from the wind and out of breath, he spun, sword at the ready. When he saw it was just me, he calmed down.
"Well?"
I ran past him, not even bothering to see if he was following. The sound of his footsteps told me that yes, he was following.
It didn't take long to get back to the others, who were all in various states of tense relaxation.
When the two of us came barreling in, they all jumped up.
"What's going on? What's happening?"
Still out of breath, I took the canteen offered to me and drank long hand hard.
"Sit down. It's going to take a while to explain all of this."
So I related everything Gale had told me, told them everything about District Thirteen and how we needed to head there.
Clove spoke up.
"What makes you think they're not going to kill us on sight?"
I looked at her like she hadn't heard a word I had been saying.
"We're their symbol of the revolution, they want us alive."
Clove sighed, rolling her eyes.
"They want you. We're Careers, symbols of everything they hate. Symbols of the Capital. They want us dead."
I picked up Roan from where he was laying on Rue's lap and turned to Clove.
"They won't get my help if they try to harm you guys. What's in the past is in the past, and mulling over it now isn't going to help."
In other words, I trust Clove, Glimmer, Marvel, and Cato, even if they (cough, Cato, cough) didn't trust me.
Rue shook her head affirmatively as well, skipping over to take Clove's hand.
"I won't go anywhere without you Clove. You protect me."
I smiled at little at her innocent words, and Clove smiled as well, her eyes filing up a little with tears. If was clear she had been speaking what she had been fearful of.
Motioning to the others to pack up, I dumped water on the fire and kicked the ashes around, mixing it with dirt.
Glimmer paused to take a look at me.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"Believing that we are more than just vicious killing machines."
I love that ending :)
OK, the next chapter is halfway done, and then needs to be reread, edited, and then will be posted! Thank you so much for all of your sweet reviews, they really make my day! Please keep reviewing!
