"Stop! Do not shoot! I repeat, Do not shoot! That girl is innocent!" I look up, and see Katniss and mother running up the stage. Katniss has papers clutched in her hand. If I could put my face in my hands, I would. The president has raised a hand to the firing squad to signal them to lower the weapons, but be prepared to shoot.
"What now?" The president is agitated.
"We have...proof. Prim is innocent!" They are out of breath, they must have been running a while.
The president rolls her eyes, and signals again to the firing squad, who raise their weapons. Boggs steps forward, out of the shadows in the wings of the stage. "Do you want to kill an innocent 12-year old in front of everyone?"
"She's not innocent!"
"Prove it."
She is spluttering now. "Well, it doesn't matter. If she didn't kill him, what did?"
"Smallpox." Katniss steps forward. "If you'd actually looked at the man, may he rest in peace, you would have seen the lesions on his feet, and in his mouth," she turns to me, "Prim, you said he had back trouble, right?" I nod. "That's a symptom of smallpox, Ms. President." Handing her the papers, she continues, "We had an autopsy done-"
"On whose authority?"
"Mine." Boggs steps forward again.
"As I was saying, the doctor wrote these notes. Read them. There's no question, he died of smallpox. Prim might have even helped the poor guy out of some misery in his death!"
"Still, she was wandering the corridors without permission!"
"So was Boggs, and the man who died. The one's already dead, but you gonna kill Boggs too?"
"No, but still-"
"With all due respect, I would like to free my daughter." My mother's voice is strong, and she stands almost as tall as the president, at her full height. The full ensemble is rather menacing.
"Very well." The president glares at me, as I am untied from the post, and helped to my feet. Katniss walks over to the podium, nearly shoving the president aside.
"People of 13. Many of you do not know me. My name is Katniss Everdeen. I ran from District 12 with all my family, to escape the capitol and its cruelties. We were apprehended on our way to the wilds, to live free of the hatefulness. We were assumed to be spies and thrown around by your president. My little sister, who is 12 years old, was taken prisoner, and almost killed, without proof of her guilt, by President Coin here. It was evident that she was innocent, with barely a glance at the dead man, but no, the president wanted to punish us. Will you stand for this? Or will you end her riegn of terror?"
And though no one knew who she was, Katniss' speech was very empowering, and the whole of 13 was screaming for Coin's impeachment. Suddenly, Boggs stumbles forward, pukes, and collapses.
"No one touch him! He may have smallpox! Do not go near him without a biohazard suit, or you could get killed!" Everyone backs up. It is complete chaos. Coin takes the podium back, and screeches until the crowd is quiet enough to hear her telling everyone to report back to their compartment in an orderly fashion, and for the most part, they do. A team of doctors with a stretcher, and bright orange suits walk up and pull Boggs to a containment room.
That night, I wake up to the sound of coughing. It's Posy. I walk over and find her lying on her cot, tears running down her face, and coughing hard. I get my mother, who helps me bring her to the hospital. They have developed a test for smallpox already, and find her to have it. They take her from us, make us change into clean, uncontaminated clothes, and leave. Posy is now not only scared, but alone.
I walk dejectedly back to our compartment. I flop on the bed, but can't sleep. By morning though, I find my way into sleep. When I awake, Posy's cot is gone, and all of her things. They are being cleaned, no doubt. Hazelle is in the hospital in a biohazard suit, sitting with little Posy. The doctors can't find anything to help her. They've been pumping all kinds of chemicals into her and all the small pox patients, trying to find a way to beat it out of the steadily growing number of patients. It's spreading like wildfire. It is very possible that it could become an epidemic.
My mother is the next to come down with it, and is curled on a hospital bed when they finally let me in. I just take her hand, and hold it. Days pass, and the doctors can't do anything. The number of dead slowly rises.
Then, hope peeks its head. I'm holding mother's hand, talking softly to her sleeping body, when she wakes up. She seems better than before, but she clearly has something on her mind, and wastes no time telling me what it is.
"There's a plant that can stop it. Pitcher plant. It will save us all." She gulps, and falls back into her deep slumber.
I hurry out of the containment room, strip off the suit, and run. I find Katniss, who grabs Gale from Posy's side, and pulls us to Coin.
"Ma'am, I know you hate us. But we have to work together on this. I know a way to stop the sickness. But you have to trust us, and let us find this plant."
"First of all, who is 'we' refering to? Second of all, why should I trust you?"
"'We' is the three of us, and you should trust us, because otherwise, you'll lose it all." She considers this, but still says no, and kicks us out of the office.
Gale returns to Posy, and Katniss and I trudge back to our room. I know Katniss is coming up with some kind of plan, but I don't care. If she won't let us save everyone, she will suffer.
The days pass by, the death count slowly rising. Then, it goes up one too many, as Posy's name is added to the list. The tears fall from everyone's eyes, as they take her body away. We go again to Coin, with the tears still fresh on our faces.
"President, the most adorable 4 year old in all of 13 just died of smallpox. What other names do you want added to that list?"
"Fine, go! It doesn't matter, it's been classified as an epidemic, officially. The death count is just going to rise!"
"Not once we return, that's a promise."
Author's Note
Thanks to KatnissEverdeen2, Sophia Lele, Geniusboy1024, TheMostRandomOfWriters, jenna2468, carmencielle,