***I've changed a lot of Mockingjay and this part is no exception. I own nothing.****

When we arrive at our designated spot the next morning, the sun is just glaring over the Capitol buildings. I'm smushed between Peeta and Boggs as they rush me into a safe house of sorts. From what I was able to glimpse, the entrance to the Capitol has already been bombed and I see flames shooting out of a house down the street. There's plenty of gunfire and Boggs has to yell at us because of it.

"I don't know what Coin was thinking sending you all here so late! And especially you Everdeen!" He shakes his head as he looks at me.

I shoot Peeta an 'I told you so' look and he nods once. He knows now that Coin could care less if I come back alive. Apparently she wants my death on video too, because we have two cameramen following us with the smallest video equipment I've ever seen recording everything. There had been another cameraman already out here, but he had been killed three days before.

"Listen, you two will stay close to me. My second in command, Soldier Jackson, will give my orders to anyone else. Peeta, you always take up the rear, Katniss, stay in the middle, bow always at the ready! Understand?" Boggs orders. We both nod.

"What about me?" Gale asks, pissed that he was overlooked. Boggs looks at him and replies,

"Rear with Peeta."

"What? I'm a bodyguard now?"

"You will do as I say, Hawthorne. Now," He activates his Holo and shows us the street we're on and what direction we'll be going soon. "We'll follow this straight down and turn right here. Two pods have been deactivated by our men that were in the path. That's when a house was set on fire and another one released some kind of trackerjacker."

Peeta and I look at each other. We know all too well what that venom does to a person. We nod to Boggs again and Gale sulks behind us as we get into a formation. There's a group of five ahead of us and about thirty seconds after they leave, we go out into the morning haze. There are Capitol people running and screaming everywhere. Some are injured, blood splattered on their faces and clothes, others just look lost. They have never had to go through anything like this and I feel a little sorry for them. Then I remember that these are the same people who watched children fight to the death avidly every year for seventy-five years.

I have an arrow all ready to launch if needed and see Peeta with his gun at the ready. I've never seen him with any kind of weapon besides a knife, so it unnerves me a little to see how comfortable he is holding it. There's also a rifle on a strap across his back resting on top of his slim backpack. Gale has the same weapons and by the look on his face, he would love to at least hit me with one of them. My eyes roam everywhere and I am three steps away from Boggs.

We're good for at least five minutes amid all the gunfire, screaming, and fires when an explosion hits to the left of us. I stumble sideways and Peeta's arm catches me swiftly and securely, though he is unsteadied by the blast as well. Boggs goes to one knee, checking above hi,m to his right and left and finally behind him. Once he sees that we're all fine he waves his hand forward and we continue. We make it to the end of the street and make the right as we're supposed to, when we see a group of people running towards us.

A pod has been detonated and a swarm of birds comes shooting out of it. Of course, being the Capitol, these are no ordinary birds. They are the ones from the second Quarter Quell, the pink birds with scary long thin beaks. I watch as a few people don't run quickly enough and just as we're all putting our helmets over our heads, I watch a young girl get skewered in the neck. It seems the birds die just as quickly, like when a bee stings you. I run after Boggs, feeling Peeta's fingers on my back, pushing me a little. We run straight into an open-doored house and slam the door shut after the cameramen run through. You can hear a few of the birds hit the windows, walls, and door with a loud thunk. It amazes me that none of the Capitol people thought to go into a house, but they aren't bent on survival, they usually have everything they could ever want right at their fingertips.

We all pull off our helmets and Gale goes to a window to pull aside the curtain. He looks around the street. "It's done. Everyone is done running anyway."

"Keep your helmets on, those birds are one of the few things we can get stuck with." We do as he says and once he opens the door, we slowly file out.

All the birds have disappeared, though many of them are stuck in the bodies scattered throughout the street. So many of the people are in their bedtime clothes. They weren't warned, they weren't prepared for an attack at all. I see two children wandering around aimlessly, poking at the dead bodies, probably looking for their parents. I keep my bow ready at my side, the arrow hasn't even slipped. We all quietly follow Boggs and the team that's ahead of us. They only lost one person in the bird attack, but move on as if nothing happened.

I start to hear a lot of commotion ahead of us and Boggs has us still behind a building. We have made it to the city's center. It seems too easy, shouldn't there have been more pods, obstacles? That's when I see it, a large group of children at the steps of Snow's mansion. Some are crying, some are holding toys or blankets or who seems to be their sibling, most look very lost as to why they are there. All of a sudden a hovercraft appears and drops parachutes down. The children recognize these as presents from the Games and so wrongly assume that it's the same. I look to Peeta and Gale behind me. Peeta shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders, he has no clue, but I see Gale's reaction and that's the one that I'm scared of.

He knows what those parachutes hold. He knows! And I remember the conversation he and Beetee had in the lab one day a few months ago, right after I had gotten to District 13. I start to go forward and he pulls me back. Peeta tries to loosen his grip on me and Boggs has turned around to see what's going on behind him. "What the hell!"

Then the small explosives go off. One by one, I see little puffs of fire and sparks light up their tiny faces. The screams are what reach us seconds later. I yell out at the same time. I know none of them, but they're only children! Gale lets me go into Peeta's arms as I sob. It's the second wave of people who run towards the children that I should have been worried about though. I see the blond braid, the shirt untucked as she passes us.

"Prim! No!" I wriggle out of Peeta's arms, run past Boggs, his hand catches my arm but I swing at him and when he goes to block it, I take to running again. "Prim! Stop!"

She hears me just as the next surge of parachutes come floating down. She is turning to the sound of my screams when one drops right next to her and she is engulfed in flames in an instant. This time I am thrown back by the blasts and slam into other bodies. I hear Peeta yelling, I feel someone hitting my legs with their hands, feel the cruel heat climbing up my side. Just as Peeta's face is coming into my line of sight, I also see the butt of a gun hit him in the head and I black out.