Faulkner - Hunger Games: Invasion - 13
Chaper 21
I could never get used to being front of the camera, when we used to watch Caesar Flickerman's overindulgent and brash interviews of tributes going in to the games, I could never understand why he would want to be in the public eye under those conditions. I guess the Capitol were too preoccupied with their ego's and gambling to be bothered about what those interviews meant for everyone who participated.
Haymitch and some of the troops were busy with organising the furniture around the room; the large wooden desk was moved out altogether and replaced with the kitchen table. Blankets were taken from the bedroom and hung over the curtains, this made the room look very dark meaning the flickering candles would be the only lights focused on me. Still it's a lot subtler than those spotlights the Capitol used.
"If you excuse the new décor and new layout of the room, I think that looks good to go?" Haymitch says rubbing his chin with his hand. "Why the blankets, we not expecting bombings are we?" I say walking around to where Haymitch had placed a large white dot on the floor.
"That's exactly why, if Precia or Joanus finds out where this has been broadcast they will be on us in a flash, this makes it look like any ordinary building, especially with the limited light".
I am actually taken back by how quickly he had thought of all this, within half an hour he managed to put together a camera and the whole room has been transformed. "Was this planned, me doing a Propo?" I say.
"It was only going to be as a last resort, I know you don't like doing them but this is a last resort" Haymitch replies.
Peeta and Johanna have been stood in the doorway for a while watching the dramatic room reconstruction. "You don't want to say anything?" I say to Peeta. "Oh no, you will be fine Katniss, what you managed to achieve last time with your words will be more than enough, what else could I possible say to help the situation" he replies.
Johanna moves forward into the room. "I can add a few things if you want?" she says. Whilst I am not entirely sure if she is joking or not Haymitch puts his arm out to stop her advance to the filming spot. "No, I think Katniss has it. Wouldn't want the allies to go completely over the top" he says. I begin to look around for someone who I would have loved to give me direction. "Where's Cressida" I say. Peeta shrugs his shoulders "She left about 30 minutes ago, something about a call from 13. She got in a small jeep". I frown, partially as she isn't here watching and also because neither Peeta nor Cressida could be bothered to tell me that she was leaving".
Despite all the setting up and the decision that was made I would be the one to actually stand in front of the camera, Haymitch had failed in one simple point "What do I say?" I exclaim.
Haymitch actually looks worried by my comment as if he hadn't planned on this issue. He begins walking around the room again and picks up the bottle of liquid he liked to call water and pours another glass. After taking a very large sip he turns round. "We have more troops than they do; all they have are some people from the districts who don't understand what they are doing and a few military from Precia. They are outnumbered on the ground. We need to let Panem know that we are winning and that you saved Celestia" he says. It isn't the best of rallying speeches but if that is all I have to go with then I have to try my best.
"Are you ready Katniss, this won't be live so don't worry about any pauses" Haymitch says.
"It won't be live?" I say curiously. "No I have spoken to Beetee, he'll broadcast it without Paylor knowing, he's the only one that can" he replies.
I nod my head and look straight at the makeshift camera. Haymitch gives me a countdown from three, two, one.
"People of Panem, this is Katniss Everdeen your Mockingjay. I along with several other troops from District 13's military recently returned from Precia. A country whose people are kind, forgiving and completely oblivious to their leader Joanus Snow's plans to take Panem. He took people from our districts by poison and had them trained, hijacked and programmed to fight their own families, friends and allies.
Those of you who fight for him are blind to his cruelty, he has no morale's as to who he hurts, who he kills". As if on cue Celestia begins to walk over into shot and stands beside me.
"This is Joanus' daughter Celestia, we found her bound to a chair; her father used her as a way of escaping, a human shield" I say. "Father, please stop what you are doing, too many innocent people have lost their lives, for what? Panem has been fine since Grandfather died, I miss him and I know you do, but you are doing this for revenge not for the good of the people" Celestia says, she turns her head and looks up towards me. I can see her eyes welling up, she is being so brave for someone so young.
"Over ten thousand Panem troops are on their way to District 13 now, we need to stop the bloodshed, everyone out there fighting stop now, for your family's sake, for your children's sake, for Panem's sake. The games are over; no one wins if you continue to fight."
Out of the corner of my eye I see Haymitch frantically waving at the man operating the camera. Its stops and he walks over to us with a big smile on my face. "You're a natural Katniss, who would ignore what you have to say, one day my darling, one day soon" he says.
I bend down and put my hands on Celestia's shoulders and look her deep into the eyes. "He's going to be killed isn't he" she says, in a voice already expecting the worse. "If there is quick ceasefire there will be no more deaths, let's just hope enough people hear it" I reply. "You did brilliantly, I didn't expect you to want to say anything" I add.
Celestia looks down then begins to walk away. "I had to; you are more of a parent than he has been. I wish you were my Mother, I am sorry about what I said when I met you here last time, I didn't want to say those things" she says quietly before heading out of the room.
The room is emptying quickly and I make my way back to Peeta and Johanna. "What's the plan now?" Johanna says. "We sleep then I guess we set off for 13 in the morning" I reply, knowing that tomorrow will be one of the worst days of my life.
"Do you think we will ever get our house back after all this" Peeta says. "I don't want it back, it holds too many bad memories now, we need to find a new place, let's just hope it's in Panem" I reply.
It felt wrong but Peeta said that Effie had sorted out our room and we were allowed to sleep in our own beds. It seemed it had been used as a weapons storage as there were now boxes and boxes of bullets and shells on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. I wasn't going to complain though, just being in a soft bed and closing my eyes with Peeta was all I wanted to do.
It must be almost dawn when I wake up with a jump, my head sticky and all my clothes wet with sweat. I try not to remember any of the nightmare's I have anymore, since the children were born I had managed to almost wipe them out completely. There were more good things in my life than bad, but now they have all come flooding back. Luckily I cannot remember the vivid details, but the last thing that happened before I woke was Willow coming in to the house with a Mutt on a piece of rope. "I found it wandering in the forest" she said to me. Its blood red eyes and huge teeth that I watched biting into Cato were almost next to my face.
I turn and look at Peeta, he is awake and is looking at me. "You ok" he says. "I'm fine, just glad you're here" I say before closing my eyes once again.
I awake with a start once more, only this time it isn't from a nightmare it's from the sound of engines roaring past the bedroom window. Peeta gets up and rushes over and peers through the curtains. "What is it? Are we being attacked" I say.
"No, we are definitely not being attacked, they're ours and there's loads of them". I get up out of bed and pull on my dressing gown and Peeta opens the curtains up fully. The sky is almost completely clear, beautifully blue, almost perfect. I'm almost transfixed by seeing the outside world from our house again, and as my eyes slowly fall down to the ground there are rows and rows of military vehicles lining up outside. "It looks as though we won't be walking after all" I say to Peeta, as he begins to get dressed. "Yeah, only problem is we get to the front line quicker" he replies.
We pack our things up and get ready to leave our home once more. By the time we walk down our steps many of the trucks have already left, a long convoy is beginning to wind its way out of the Victor's Village grounds and towards the main road to 13. The troops on the front of the group of trucks must have been ready before night fell.
I had wanted to say goodbye to Haymitch and Effie before we left but they were nowhere to be seen, and as today we could see our children again I didn't want to go searching for them. A young man no older than 16 is directing people onto different waiting trucks, they look very much like what the Capitol used especially in the time between the 74th and 75th games. They no longer bear the Capitol Crest, a Mockingjay with a feather in its beak has replaced it, it certainly looks less military to the ones President Coin used in the Propo's.
Peeta catches the eye of the young man and we are directed to a truck with the number 05 on the side, as we climb up the metal ladder at the back we notice Johanna, Stipar, Fergus and Frostine already sitting patiently at the front of the seating area. "Bout time you showed up, don't you know we have a very important meeting today" Stipar says jokingly. "Let just hope it's not with a coroner" Johanna replies, which instantly changes the mood.
As we sit down the young man comes around the back of the truck. "You are on standby, just waiting on 2 others, sit tight, you are Spear squad" he shouts.
As the truck is quiet large it doesn't surprise me that more are to board, it must have room for 12 to fourteen people. We wait, so much so that the driver of the truck kills the engine; at this rate we will not only be at the back of the convoy but miles behind the rest of them.
"What do you thinks happening, what's the holdup" Frostine says. Peeta lifts himself up to look out of the back of the truck. "Must be someone important, perhaps they are getting intelligence on the situation". My first thought is Cressida, but then remembering that she is more use to 13 in the air, we could be her mode of transport to reach the nearest airbase.
We sit and watch the last truck next to us pull away, everyone is now visibly uneasy about the delay. Peeta stands up, "I am going to find out what's happening, we need to get moving". Ducking his head from the low roof he walks to the back of the truck, but before he can jump down he stops and moves back. Two hands appear on the railings and Haymitch climbs up. "Haymitch?" I say expecting him to give us some final orders or words of advice.
He has changed his clothes and is now wearing a long trench coat with dark rough trousers, he pulls out a holo from one of the coats oversized pockets. I put my hand out ready to accept another one of these contraptions when he pulls it away from my grasp and presses the screen.
"What are you doing, won't they let me have another one" I say. Haymitch begins to laugh under his breath "No, I think I am going to keep hold of this one, just for a while at least."
Peeta as confused as the rest of us smirks, "You don't mean to say Paylor's made you come as well".
Haymitch looks over at Peeta, then the others and then me. "Paylor has nothing to do with this, in fact I haven't heard from her in a couple of days. I think it's about time I actually did some doing rather than saying what not to do. I can't let you all go into this with me sitting watching it all on the screens" he says.
"What about Effie?" I say concerned. "Well let's just say she wasn't happy about it, maybe she is realising how much she can't do without me. Heck she might go easy on me with the medicine when I get back. Your message we recorded has been sent to Beetee, by now he will be waiting for an opportune moment to broadcast it. Let's just hope enough people see it and hear what you are saying" he adds.
"Get her on" he shouts to the back of the truck. I am almost about to ask who he meant when Celestia is helped up the ladder by the young military man. I am already feeling on edge about her joining us. What use is she if we get attacked?
"Celestia has agreed to accompany us into 13, let's just make this clear, I didn't ask her, it wouldn't even have crossed my mind. She asked to come, but in fairness it might just be the weapon we take down Joanus' army with".
Celestia quietly walks down the truck and sits down next to Frostine. I am almost relieved as there was a seat next to me, but maybe she is trying to keep out of my way as a child would its parents after doing something wrong.
Two bangs on the side of the vehicle and finally we begin to move, the driver obviously trying to catch up with the rest of the convoy begins to throw us into corners, so much so we are struggling to stay in our seats. Frostine fastens Celestia into a seatbelt. I have to smile as seconds later Johanna looks down and begins to search for hers before finding them and locking them so tightly it almost cuts her clothes in half.
It's not too far now to the border of 13 although the final stretch will have to be done on foot, especially as most of the area is protected with dense forest. The talk in the back is very false, no one is talking about anything in particular and it's just a way of passing the time and an attempt of trying to forget what is about to come.
After around two hours we notice the truck begin to slow down rapidly. This prompts Haymitch to pull out the holo. He begins to press buttons on the screen. His face turns from almost calm and patient to angry and frustrated. He turns and almost throws the holo at me. "Can you sort that thing out; I have no idea what to press" he says in a huff.
I quickly get the communications menu on the screen and then the radar. As I am looking at a map of the close proximity a message is displayed over the map.
'Enemy articulated troop unit spotted SSW of 13B 5Miles. Possible 40-50 foot soldiers 2-3 armoured ground to air vehicles'
"What does it say" Peeta says, Haymitch is now leaning over almost in Peeta's lap.
"We have to get off the truck" I say abruptly. Almost coincidentally the driver slams on the breaks and we veer to the right before coming to a stop in a small ditch. That is the prompt for us to rush out the back.
As our feet touch the ground I am almost expecting bullets to come flying past my face or even the sound of gun fire close by but there is nothing. It's deadly silent apart from a few birds in the sky. I look towards the route we were taking and there are 10 other trucks also waiting with us, there passengers all standing around like we are. "We need to get off the road" Stipar says running over to a small hill at the side of the road.
As we begin to make our way to Stipar the holo communicator goes off. "This is Squad Mace requesting instruction from Spear squad, over" a voice says. I almost disregard the message until Haymitch tells me that is us. "Spear squad received, everyone take cover to the west of the road" I reply. All 10 groups of troops begin to rush over to the same hill we are behind, it is almost synchronised. I did that, I say to myself, I just told 900 people to do something and they did it.
We wait for a little while simply with our heads down, none of us really have any idea how long we should be waiting, but it wouldn't be long. "Spear Squad, this is Mace, enemy troops approaching from the north along the road. They have seen the trucks" a voice sounds on the comms
Although we are at the furthest point away from the front vehicles I lift my head up just enough to see over the top of the hill.
Like ants walking inline I watch as they get closer and closer to our vehicles before stopping around 500 meters away. They are too far away for any of us to see what they are doing but several of them move to one of the 3 vehicles. In a matter of seconds a missile flies straight up into the sky. My eyes gaze up as I watch it dance silently towards the clouds, but to my horror it dramatically turns around and begins hurtling straight down. I imagine everyone one else is witnessing this same event but I put the call out anyway. "This is Spear squad everyone heads down now" I shout into the holo.
As the last word exits my mouth the missile impacts on a truck in the middle of the convoy sending it upwards in to the air, large pieces of metal are flung around like pieces of paper in the wind. It comes down in a fiery ball and lands on another truck next to it. The noise is terrible, too loud to make another call. I pull out a flare arrow and fire it low above the trucks, the signal to attack.
As I get to my feet I can already see most of the other troops leaping over the side of the hill, the sound of machine guns rattle and echo around the surrounding valleys. I am just about to run down to support the others when Haymitch grabs my arm and stops me. "No Katniss, we need you in 13 leave the others to deal with this" he says.
"We can't just sit and watch, we are here to help" I scream back at him. "There are more important duties we need you for when we reach 13 believe me" he says letting go of my arm. Defiant I pull out an explosive arrow and fire it into the heart of the invading army, an almost perfect shot detonates right on top of one of the missile vehicles causing a ripple of explosions. I can see men and women lying on the ground too far away to see any injuries but I know that my actions have caused loss of life. I say to myself "Sometimes war isn't personal". For once I think Gale was right, sometimes it takes death to stop killings.
As quickly as the fight began its over, the Precia military have been completely wiped out with only a few casualties to our forces. "Frostine, go and see if there is anyone you can help" I say. "Yes Ma'am" she says picking up her medical bag from the back of the truck. As she runs down the road I shout, "Check their fighters too, we may have to fight them but that doesn't mean we don't care for the injured". Frostine turns and grins before continuing to the wounded.