Katniss and Cato lay in their bed. They could not sleep because of excitement that they would soon be escaping. However, this excitement is mixed with fear. Katniss was unable to find a position conductive to sleep, no matter how much she tossed or turned.
She and her husband had been training for the last sixteen days in a row, they now knew how to march like Lieutenants bodyguards, how to shoot handguns, how to shoot, District 13 machine guns, and how to stab someone to death with District 13 combat knives. They knew everything they would need to know to survive the escape attempt, and had combat experience befitting a huntress and a career. Yet they were still afraid.
Cato calmly whispered to her, "Are you scared?"
Katniss turned to face Cato, and answered his question. While at first she wanted to snap at him, she realized that he must be scared too.
"A little bit. Are you?"
"Kind of, but you don't need to be scared. I won't ever let anything bring you to harm."
"Why?"
"Maybe because I care about you."
They just left it at that. Cato held Katniss close to him, his arms wrapping around her. They just lay there until they fell asleep.
Dragomir lay in his bed, listening to his father telling him a story.
It is quite normal for a four year old child to have troubles sleeping, and it is equally normal for a four year old child to be afraid when there was a big day tomorrow. It is normal for someone to be afraid when they are going to try to escape from a prison, no matter how old he or she is. When all these things are combined, Boggs's four year old son really needs a story to get to sleep.
The story he told him was one of the very rare stories he brought back from the Carib wars that was actually heartwarming (as apposed to the numerous heart-wrenching ones that he will only tell Dragomir when he reaches the age of twenty).
"Well, once upon a time, on an island far far away, there was a warrior. His name was ... I think it was Luthier."
"That's you're name."
Lieutenant Boggs chuckled, "Yes, I guess it is. Anyway-"
"Is the story about you?"
"You are a smart kid, do you know that?"
"Continue with the story."
"Yes, yes, I almost got sidetracked. Anyway, when I was on the Carib island, I loved to swim. I could swim even better than a fish. One day, when me and the other warriors were sailing down a river in a sailboat, and it started to rain. It rained harder and harder, until one of the people on the boat fell overboard and was pulled under the water. The others were too afraid to go into the water after him, but I didn't even think if myself at that moment. I sprang into action and, pulling on a life jacket, jumped into the water. I pulled the drowning man out of the water and held onto the side of the boat with my other arm."
Boggs left out a few facts about that story, as telling them would have dampened the mood of the story. Lieutenant Boggs did not tell Dragomir that the sail boat had way too many people onboard than there should have been. Apart from that, the person who he rescued from drowning was a child-soldier; the commander actually told Boggs to let him drown, and Boggs was chastised for disobeying orders. Boggs also left out that the child soldier statistically went on to massacre entire villages, or get blown up by an artillery shell. Boggs without a doubt did not tell his son about the brutality there.
Still, Boggs saved someone from drowning, that much is true.
"Wow, that's amazing. What happened next?"
"What happened next? While, the brave warrior named Luthier went home and lived happily ever after."
Well, Boggs hoped that he would reach the 'happy ever after' part of his story after his escape; his story was not finished just yet.
