I apologize for the slow ass updates. I've completely lost my train of thought on this fic, so I'll post what I have and leave it open in case my inspiration returns.
Katniss
Sitting down beside Finnick, I pulled my seat belt over my chest and clipped it to the loose end attached to the seat. My Mockingjay suit pressed tightly against my body- as if Cato's arms were around me. My engagement ring was safely secured in the picture frame that held one of the only portraits of my father in existence. "Alright, to District 5 we go," I muttered. Gale took the seat beside me and I held onto his shoulder as the airship took off. Keeping my gaze locked on the seat in front of me, I offered a small smile to Peeta, who- after two weeks of intense training and therapy- was allowed to come with us to District 5.
The airship shook and jostled us as it flew upwards. I looked out the small windows beside each seat and saw us slicing through clouds and making our way through the night sky. The stars glimmered and shone, as if welcoming us into a new world.
Once we were in the air, I released Gale's shoulder and exhaled. Looking at Finnick, I scowled to see him smirking at me. "Airsick?" he asked.
"In your dreams, Odair," I replied, clenching my hands into fists. "It's just two hours. I'm more worried you'll be getting sick on me," I smirked. Finnick clutched his chest in a form of mock-hurt and shook his head.
"Finnick Odair getting sick on an airship? Please, I'm too beautiful for trivial things like getting sick," he claimed brushing something off of the top of his glove. "Domitius, what would Cato say if he were here?" he called out to Domitius- who was busy looking over maps and marking them with a pen. Without bothering to look up, Domitius replied in an even voice,
"He would hit the back of your head and tell you to get off your high horse. Keep in mind, Finnick, we have both seen you retch the contents of your stomach on nights of binge drinking, parties, and that one time on my airship when you-"
"Ah!" Finnick exclaimed, waving his hands around. Laughing, I watched as Domitius scoffed and returned to his maps. "The past is the past! I'm a married man now!" Finnick shouted. A few laughs could be heard around the airship and I joined in on the mirth. Even Domitius cracked a smile.
"You should act like one," Domitius muttered before tossing a map to Gale. "I marked that one, Hawthorn. You would do well to not lose it," he said and Gale nodded before opening it and beginning to read. Perplexed, I looked over Gale's shoulder and looked at the red dots on the map that equaled bomb sites. There were green points for safe areas and pink for unknown areas that we had to stay clear of. Before I could ask why Gale got a map and I did not, I watched as Domitius handed a map to Peeta along with whispered instructions.
Meanwhile, Finnick was busy responding to Domitius' jab. "I'll act like a husband when we get back o the ground, but for now-" a map hit Finnick in the face and I stifled a laugh as Domitius patted Peeta on the back.
The next few hours were filled with playful banter as we tried to forget what lay ahead of us. District 5 was a bombed, gunned, and destroyed area.
Domitius' careful planning came into play when we began our descent. As the airship tipped towards the ground, he traded seats with Gale so that I was wedged between him and Finnick. Suddenly, Finnick's laughter ceased and he and Domitius locked hands in front of my chest, forming another seat belt, and placed their hands on opposite sides of my head, blocking my ears of all noise.
The vicious plummet of the airship caused most of the men and women on the airship to open their mouths in screams, most likely their ears popping and their skin crawling. Some people rose in their seats, but I remained where I was, unfazed by what was happening. Finnick's expression clenched and even Domitius gritted his teeth at the side effects of the fast descent.
Gale and Domitius took hands, pushing me down against my seat, their strong grips keeping me from floating off my seat.
When the airship touched down on the ground, my seat belt was ripped off and my bow was placed in my hand along with a quiver of arrows strapped to my back. With Domitius and Finnick flanking me, Gale in front of me, and Peeta at my back, I was hurried off the ship and into a safe zone.
Dust flew and debris clattered around as the plane lifted off once more. "Alright," Domitius shouted, "we will go to a hospital and then to a soldier base. Keep the Mockingjay safe and all will be well. Anyone who breaks rank will be punished. Your one priority is keeping the Mockingjay safe, am I clear?!"
"Yes, sir!" The reply was immediate and we began running through a solar panel factory to reach a hospital. Keeping my head ducked, I pressed my hand against Gale's armor, looking around at the carnage and destruction left in the wake of the bombs.
The hospital was an old energy mill with the roof blown off. In place of the roof was a huge tarp that not only trapped dust, it made the entire place unbearably hot.
After making sure the area was secure, we set up camp in the solar mill beside the hospital. This building also had no roof, giving me a view of the stars.
Lying on my bedroll, I looked to my right and saw Gale snoring, his hand covering his eyes. On my left, Peeta stared up at the ceiling, his eyes wide. With a pointed finger, he whispered to himself while drawing patterns in the air. The only lights aside from the moon and stars was from Domitius' portable lamp, whose light he used to read and mark maps.
"Hey," I whispered to Peeta.
"Hey," he looked at me and smiled.
"What're you doing?"
"Finding the star patterns my dad taught me. It's been so long since I've seen them... I've forgotten a lot of them, but I can see most of the ones I know," he whispered and I nodded
"Do you miss them? Your family," I asked. Peeta swallowed and shrugged.
"I don't know. I miss my brothers and father, but my mother... well, I guess she was family too. It's been really long since I've been out in the open. I want to enjoy every minu-"
"Hey! Some of us are trying to sleep!" someone shouted. Peeta ducked his head and I stifled my laughter.
"He's right," Peeta said. "We should sleep; tomorrow is a big day."
The hospital was crowded and smelled like shit. Flies buzzed around the wounded and dead alike and the gross overpopulation of patients overwhelmed what few doctors were left. I wanted to leave. I wanted to run at the sight of men with missing limbs, women whose eyes were blown off, and children whose ribs could be seen so clearly.
The supplies we brought, food, clothing, medical equipment, and best of all, anesthetics, were distributed as soon as we stepped into the tent. Those who were capable stood and they stared.
My skin prickled as a woman with one hand reached over and touched the plates of my armor. "Mockingjay," she whispered. When Gale tried to stop her, I shook my head and allowed her to step forward.
A child with dark hair ran towards me, clinging to my legs. I picked him up and held him, fighting back tears as he clutched me with his weak little arms.
Misery and death hung like a cloud inside the hospital. The little boy held onto me until we reached the center of the hospital. There, he closed his eyes and leaned into my shoulder. "Hey, where's your Mamma?" I asked him. "Hm?"
A doctor took the child away.
Before I could say something, an explosion rocked the ground. Dust and debris flew towards us from about mile off and immediately, an oxygen mask was shoved onto my face and I forced onto the ground. "Everybody get down!" someone shouted. With my face inches from the ground and protected by impenetrable glass, I groaned as someone draped their body on top of me. Was it Finnick?
Another explosion jarred me from my thoughts. This time, I could feel my body shaking. Someone screamed and our team began kneeling. They knelt around me, protecting me with their bodies. Through the crevices of their armor, I saw the little boy's head fly off of his body, an arc of blood streaming from his open throat. My scream was lost in the sound of the next bomb.
"Get her out of here!" Someone ordered.
"No!" Domitius roared. "Stay put!"
The explosions lasted for the next ten minutes. When Domitius gave us the clear to stand, I looked up from the ground and groaned as Finnick's weight disappeared from my back. Peeta offered me a hand and I accepted it, pulling myself up. Cressida ran over to run her hands over the weak parts of my suit and run her fingers through the back of my head to check for injuries. "Pollux? Do we have that on film?" she called out.
And as the mute man nodded, I looked to see the carnage left behind in the wake of the planes... and how a clean circle was left around us. "He left us untouched." Domitius snapped his fingers at Gale who handed him a map.
Everyone from the hospital was dead. Everyone. Doctors, patients, men, women, babies, and children. Dead. My eyes burned and I tore the oxygen mask off in fury. "Turn the camera on," I said in unison with Cressida. But while she said it in a calm voice, I snarled the words, my expression contorting.
Standing in front of Castor and Pollux, I pointed to the mess of destroyed bodies, shredded tarps, and dislocated appendages. "People of Panem! Look at what the President has brought upon the weak, the helpless, and the ones in need! President Snow sent airships to destroy a hospital in District 8. A hospital! A hospital full of the weak, injured; men, women, and children! President Snow!" I stared at the camera, addressing the man whose name I loathed to spit. "Look at this and know that if we burn, you burn with us!"
The red light on the camera faded and I allowed my legs to collapse beneath me, sitting down on the charred ground. There were no survivors. No voices and no cries of sorrow. No one I could help and no one I could cry for.
"Very good, Katniss," Cressida called out. The tattoos on her head glittered in the sunlight and I focused on them to keep from hyperventilating. The vines were light green and the leaves were dark. A single flower hid behind the lobe of her left ear.
An hour passed. Then two. Aside from Domitius who immediately began siting the bombs and looking at his maps, no one moved. I could hear him muttering, counting, and adding digits. "Hawthorne!
A slight buzzing sound hummed around us and Domitius looked up in worry. "High intensity waves from the Capitol," one of the soldiers from District 3 said. "They're broadcasting a message."
From the rubble of the hospital, a projector flew out and opened into a screen in the shade of the abandoned solar mill beside us. Swiveling, I shaded my eyes from the sun and watched as the projector began to play a video.
"Miss Everdeen, how are you?" Snow's soft lilt made my stomach clench. I could see his face on the screen, a small, mocking smile sewn onto his disgusting features. "I see you have reached District 8. How do you like it there? Are the people nice?" he mocked me with a plain smile and I sneered. "I hope you know that we still have your beloved in our hands... and he is being taken care of the way his status befits him."
The screen changed and I saw a shaved, skinny Cato curled against the pristine white bars of his cell. His body was bruised and scarred. An infected cut ran along his scalp, dripping yellow pus onto his temple and ear. His face was gaunt and one eye was swollen shut while the other was bruised green and blue. He wore a pair of white pants and his shirt was tied into a homemade sling for his left arm. "Water," he croaked, his voice close to inaudible. "I need water."
"What, dog? What do you need?" A peacekeeper jeered. I could hear Domitius hiss beside me and I glared at the screen as a bucket of ice was tossed onto Cato.
Cato looked up at the peacekeeper and grabbed a handful of the slush on the ground, about to put it in his mouth. He paused as the ice touched his lips. "I said water," he whispered. "I need water in a cup or bowl. I need it to stay alive, you imbecile," he said before tossing the ice aside.
My strong, stubborn, loving, and arrogant fiance did nothing as the peacekeeper jabbed at him with an electric rod. The crashing in my ears did little to mask the pained wheezes and grunts that fell from Cato's lips as he was kicked and electrocuted.
Different scenes were shown and in each one, Cato grew thinner and thinner. His hair grew out in one scene and in the other, he was bald. In one scene, I could see pink in his cheeks and in the next, his ribs were showing. I did not know which one to trust. The last scene showed Cato strapped to a metal bed with only a white sheet to cover his modesty. Cords were taped to his body and he convulsed on the table, screaming. His shoulders rose off of the table as he tried to distance himself from the metal. "Katniss!" he screamed. "Katniss, help me!"
"As you can see, Ms. Everdeen, we are taking good care of him," President Snow said before the projector began to smolder and fell to the ground in a broken heap.
I remained rooted in my spot as Finnick placed a hand on my arm to steady himself. Domitius' knees buckled beneath him and he held onto Gale for support. "My son," he whispered. "What have they done to my boy?"