The Fallen
Summary – Peeta Mellark is the Winner of the 74th Hunger Games after Katniss Everdeen sacrifices herself to save his life. He soon finds himself in the middle of the rebellion as their beacon of hope, their Mockingjay. But as Peeta will soon discover, not all fallen tributes stay dead.
Disclaimer: These are all Suzanne Collin's toys. They're just in my playground.
A/N: And we're back, still woth Peeta this chapter. Thanks again for the continued patience.
As always, if you've haven't already, please review/follow/favourite but most importantly, enjoy.
After begrudgingly leaving Katniss, I headed to the food hall grabbed myself some breakfast. At least I was able to take solace in the fact that she was with the one person she loved the most in this whole world. It was the end of breakfast time and the kitchen staff were trying to shut down so I was met with a couple of hostile looks. This was probably one of the only times I was grateful to be recognized, as one kind gentleman allowed me a pass and quickly dished up some oatmeal for me. I needed to get better at feeding myself at the right times.
My sense of time down here had been sketchy so far, despite the fact that the time was displayed pretty much everywhere. It was most likely due to the fact that my time had been occupied with Katniss and those awful interviews, which admittedly, was a lot to handle. I knew I was burning out, I wasn't eating or sleeping properly. Soon I would have to catch up on a whole lot of sleep and sit down for a meal. The power naps and weren't going to cut it much longer and if I had be strong for her, I couldn't continue on like this. For now, though, I would endure it for as long I possibly could, because after seeing the reality of what she goes through, the thought of leaving Katniss too long scared me. I could almost hear Cato's voice whispering in my ear, cautioning me not to overwhelm her.
If anything, I was more concerned that she thought I was going to run out on her. She felt like her emotional baggage would scare me away so she tried to push me away first, but also it was partly because she didn't want to burden me with her troubles. I'll have to find that balance Cato was talking about a little later on, but firstly it was more important that Katniss knew that I wasn't going anywhere and reassure her that I would support her through this.
I sat in the empty food hall and ate my oatmeal as quickly as my stomach would allow as I didn't want to put out the kitchen staff more than I already had. I offered to clean my own dishes but the man who served me before wouldn't allow it so I thanked them all on my way out and then headed up to my quarters first. This time, there was no Gale in sight, nor my dad for that matter. I hadn't really seen much of him, since arriving here and we had a lot to discuss. Our family had perished in Twelve and that fact must been weighing as heavily on him as it was on me. I hoped he had time to grieve, that way he could grieve for the both of us.
I grabbed a clean set of overalls and headed for the men's communal showers. It was almost empty as everyone was already out and about following their schedules. My grace period officially ended tomorrow, and I too would have to start getting my daily schedule. Although I didn't believe that I ever had a grace period seeing as I had to go straight into filming the propo's.
I didn't agree with the interviews because I thought the whole idea of it was too insensitive to the fallen tributes, though I reluctantly agreed that they were a good idea for the rebellions efforts as I knew it would definitely help people side with us and inspire people to fight and take back the Capitol. But the questions they were making us put to them was too much, I definitely didn't agree to whatever that was. Never again, whenever they get their hands on Katniss and Cato, I wouldn't allow them to go that deep with the questions again, unless of course they were okay with it. I would make sure that Finnick was on the same page as me, though he generally was.
If these interviews and the propo's we filmed for the Games weren't enough to turn people against Snow and his regime and inspire more physically-abled people to stand up and fight back, I didn't know what would.
As I was getting dressed, Cato came out of a nearby shower cubical with a towel wrapped around his waist. "You were right," he said to me, "Someone came into my room this morning waking me up and telling me I was needed to film some stupid interview today,"
"I wished I wasn't," I replied,
"Don't ask me any personal questions about Everdeen," he warned, at least he was on the same page too.
"The questions come from Plutarch on a prompt, if any questions come up that I believe cross into personal territory, I won't be asking them. I'll ask Finnick to do the same, but if not you can refuse to answer." I told him,
"I didn't think you would be stupid enough to ask, but I thought I best make sure we were both clear on that," he said
"We're clear," I replied, "but I warn you, the questions aren't fun. Are you going to be okay with that?"
"I'll be fine, stop worrying about me, Lover Boy," Cato waved his hand nonchalantly
"You don't have to keep doing that you know?"
Cato was focusing on himself in the mirror, drying his hair with a towel, "Doing what?" he replied, sounding almost exasperated with me.
"Pretending," I shrugged, "you can talk to me if you want,"
"Calm down, Lover Boy, it's only been 5 minutes since we tried to kill each other," he said, but after a beat, he gave a heavy and relenting sigh, "I had breakfast with the others this morning and they all told me how much it sucked. Not that any of them felt like they had much of a choice about it. Ultimately though, they knew why they needed to do it, as do I." he shrugged
"They must hate me,"
"They don't hate you," he replied, "I think it's physically impossible for people like them to hate you. Of course, they hated how personal the questions got, they believed a lot of the questions were unnecessary and stirred a lot of mental shit up for them, but they don't blame you. May said it was obvious you were struggling with the prompts most of the time, and they also knew Coin was hovering around making sure everything was done her way,"
It was a relief, I hated the idea of upsetting anyone,"I hope you're ready," I sighed, "They definitely won't go easy on you, especially because of our history,"
"Not at all," he said, "In fact, I think I might show up fashionably late and watch for Coin's reaction," he smirked
He was a braver man than I. I had already earned some of her ire and I could do without it today as I was exhausted enough. "I guess I'll meet you up there then," I put my dirty towels and old clothes down the laundry chute and headed out, taking the elevator to the studio floor.
When I got up there Cinna was ready and waiting for me, somehow, he had retrieved my outfit that I wore yesterday in the interviews, I had tossed them on the floor of my room in my rush to get back to Katniss. He had them cleaned and pressed too.
"How are you holding up?" he asked me, he looked concerned, "You look tired,"
"I'm not doing too good right now, Cinna," I replied honestly. Cinna was my friend and a man I could trust, why lie to him? I wiped the tears away before they had chance to form, running on little sleep I knew I was overly emotional.
"I heard about what happened last night," he said sadly, "that must have been hard,"
How had he heard about that already? "Word travels fast around here," I muttered
"Yes, it does," he replied
"Cinna, can I ask you something?" I knew that I was walking dangerous territory here, but I needed to ask,
"Anything,"
"President Coin... is she someone we should be rooting for?" I asked
His eyes met mine with a hint of warning, "I believe in what she's doing, but maybe not always how she's doing it," he said carefully,
"I feel the same way, but if the problem lies in the how... are we sure that she'll be a better President than Snow?"
His eyes skirted around checking if there was anyone nearby, listening. He lowered his voice, "I can't really answer that, Peeta, I don't know. I'd like to hope so. Anything is better than this,"
"Is it?" I mused
"Peeta, you're playing a dangerous game, asking these questions," Cinna warned
"If it's such a dangerous game, then it really is no better than the Capitol," I answered firmly, why would Cinna react this way? He wanted a better Panem for everyone.
Cinna clearly had an opinion, and was about to reply but Plutarch barged in, "We've gotten word regarding the response of the first interview. It began riots across 3 Districts, especially in 10 where the girl was from. That was almost an hour ago, Beetee is about to air the next one. Come on Peeta, we need to get Cato's finished and edited ready to roll in sequence with the others" he said excitedly
"He's almost done here, and Portia is working on Finnick now," Cinna answered,
"Good!" he beamed, "And Peeta, we managed to put something together with the footage of you and Katniss yesterday, we'll roll that out after all the interviews. Editing works wonders you know!" I dread what they did with that footage.
A short while later, Finnick and I were dressed in the same black outfits as yesterday, and Cato was dressed in black slacks and a simple white shirt. They made no attempt to make him look Capitol fresh, like they did for me and Finnick, instead it looked like they used makeup to make him paler, to highlight how sunken his eyes looked and embellished those dark circles under them to exaggerate the effects of what being a fallen has done to him.
Finnick and I took our seats across from him on the stage, Portia was applying some final touches to Finnick's look. The more I glanced across to Cato sitting underneath the stage lights, the less convinced I was that they had used any make-up on him at all. Up close and under the lights, you could usually tell how much make-up had been applied to a person, but I couldn't see any traces, this was in fact how Cato looked naturally. Was it just the lighting in here that made it more obvious or had I been so focused on Katniss that I was blinded to it before? I'd like to think it wasn't the latter, that I wasn't that selfish. I knew things were bad for him. Cato and I had talked enough by now for that not to be the case, but how did I not see it this clearly?
Like the other fallen tributes, Cato looked haunted. I couldn't see the strong brute I knew from before, during our time at the Hunger Games, nor was he the calm and commanding presence from last night who was trying to help Katniss. Right now, I was seeing a scared 18 year old boy who had been through hell and was about to face his demons.
When Portia finished on Finnick and walked away I turned to him, "If any personal questions about Katniss come up, please ignore them." I pleaded, Finnick gave a half nod in agreement. We knew personal questions about Cato himself would unavoidably crop up, that's what all this was about, but scared or not, I had no doubt that Cato knew how to handle himself and no one would dare force him to answer a question that he didn't want to. I didn't want the subject of Katniss coming up in this interview at all, though I knew it would be unavoidable given our shared history in the arena.
"And we're rolling, in 3, 2, 1. Action!" Plutarch cried
"Hello Panem," Finnick began, "If you have seen our previous broadcasts you will know by now that President Snow had a mansion within the Capitol where he held past tributes from the Hunger Games captive. Not Victors, but some of the fallen tributes. Children that we had been falsely led to believe died in the arena. Snow had ensured the the survival of some of them, only to be used by his friends for nefarious reasons."
"We are now here with an old foe of mine," I read from the prompter, "One of my fellow tributes from the 74th annual Hunger Games. From District Two, Cato Hadley. Hello Cato."
Cato just nodded, "How are you doing, Cato?" Finnick asked him
"Been better," he replied, he was playing this surly and aloof. I couldn't say I blamed him.
"Would you mind if we start at the beginning? Can you tell us, in your own words, what happened when you woke up after you thought you had died in the games?" I asked
"Actually, for the longest time, I was never led to believe I died in the games. I woke up in the hospital, which had its own wing in the mansion, and pretty much my entire body was covered in bandages and gauze. I was freaking out. Both of my legs from the middle of my thigh down were missing, that was the most shocking thing," I remembered when I woke up to find one of my legs missing too, it was a strange feeling, of course I at least had someone to tell me what was going on.
"Wait so no one told you where you where? Or what was happening to you?"
"No one talked to me at all. I asked questions, but not a single person answered, it was as if they were all under strict orders not to talk to me. The only time someone talked to me was to give me basic instructions when they needed me to do something or to give me basic information about my treatments and later during physical therapy after I was given these prosthetics," he explained, knocking on them. "I mean, my legs had been shredded and eaten by those mutts. There's no fixing them after that." he snorted
"What was that like?" I winced at the question Finnick read from the prompter, "Being torn apart by those awful mutts?" he then clarified
Cato gave him an incredulous look, "What do you think it felt like?" he asked, "I honestly don't know how they brought me back from that. For hours they tore at me, it was torture. It's like they were programmed to know exactly what they were doing. Make it look gruesome enough to make it a believable death but don't tear up any major organs or arteries. I should have bled out."
My mind went back to that night, hearing his screams, that look of fear in his eyes. No matter how I felt about Cato then, it was not a death I would wish on anyone. I felt awful that I didn't have a second arrow so that I could put him out of his misery. "I'm sorry I didn't help you more," I told him sincerely, it was not what was written on the prompter, "I wished I could have done something to help, to end the pain for you. It's always haunted me."
"I never gave you any reason to help me," Cato replied, "If the tables were turned, I know that I wouldn't have done it for you, so don't sweat it,"
His words did nothing to alleviate my guilt. Cato was fully capable of admitting he knew he was a shitty person and he owned it. He didn't pretend to be someone else to spare people's feelings. That's another reason why I knew Katniss would have been drawn to him. He was unapologetically himself and honest about what he thought, I was beginning to see how she was like him in many ways, but she never had the capacity to be cruel like he once was.
"So if no one talked to you or told you anything, how long was it before you learned the truth about where you really were?" Finnick asked
"I was recovering in there for a couple of months. As I said, the only time I was spoken to was when I was getting orders like when to eat, sleep, bathe and things like that, or when I was going through my physical therapy, but no one said a word to me about what the hell was going on. I believed that I won the games. I thought that somehow, I had outlived you and Katniss. I mean, what other explanation was there for being alive and them fixing me up, right?"
I worked out the math from what he said, Cato was in recovery for a couple months, Katniss was in there a couple of months longer. Just how long did Katniss need to recover? It would make no sense for them to withhold her from the clients that were impatient for her to become available. Physically, she wasn't as broken as Cato, which means she must have been broken mentally. Was it as bad as she is now? Was she worse? What happened in that hospital?
"Did you suspect anything out of the ordinary at all?" I asked, getting back to the prompter
"Not really, I mean after a while I started to wonder why I wasn't out doing all the usual interviews and speeches that a Victor would have normally done by that point. I assumed because of the nature of my wounds I needed a lot longer to recover and be presentable,"
"When did you learn the truth?" I asked
"When I was finally given TV privileges in that hospital room, they had conveniently timed it so that the first thing I saw was you, Peeta, doing your homecoming speech, that's when I knew I wasn't a victor, but I still had no idea what was going on."
This was a much different story to one all the others told. The rest of the surviving fallen tributes said that they were told what was happening to them, as soon as they were lucid enough in their recovery to understand. So why was Cato different? Why was he purposely not told, understandably leading him to believe he had won our Games. Why would Snow do that? What purpose did it serve? Did they just want to drive him mad before he encountered Katniss again? Or was it some kind of punishment?
"How did you react to that?" Finnick asked, "Thinking all that time you were the winner and then seeing Peeta's interview, what did you think was happening to you then?"
"I wasn't sure, I was still completely in the dark." he said, "I was obviously not the winner, so I began to question what my purpose was. I considered as many possible scenarios such as mutt experimentation or being mutilated until I was unrecognizable and being turned into an avox, but never did I once land close to the truth. I would shout at them until I was blue in the face, demanding to know what was going on, why I was still alive and what they planned to use me for, and still no one would tell me a damn thing. It wasn't until they dumped me in the mansion with the others that I found out." he explained, "At first I thought they were the enemy and I was ready to attack them all, I punched Monty in the face and broke his nose, just for being the poor sap who broke the news to me, but luckily after that I quickly began to recognize a few of them from my training days of watching past footage and believed them."
"That must have been hard to hear after all that time." I said, "How did it make you feel?"
"As you can imagine, I was pissed. I flipped out, starting smashing shit up and throwing shit around. I became very difficult, not only for the people running the place, but for the others like me who lived there. I tried to bust out, tried to kill guards and the clients. But you learn quickly in that place what a waste of time it is to do any of that,"
"Because of the trackers, right?" Finnick asked, referring to the devices they all had implanted in their arms.
"The trackers, and the torture," Cato huffed,
"Ruby told us about her time being tortured when she became difficult,"
"Yes, I'm sure Ruby told you all about the multiple times she was tortured for her insubordination." Cato rolled his eyes, "She likes to brag about it like she's a god damn hero standing up for the weaker man or something." he added, "but I managed to get myself into trouble a few more times than she did before I gave up trying myself. I was tortured a total of 7 times, that is if you don't count the other stuff that was going on in there. And I didn't put myself through any of because I was trying to be a hero by any stretch of the imagination. I wasn't trying to help anyone get out of there but myself and if Ruby were honest with herself or us, neither was she."
"What was that like?" Finnick asked, "The torture?"
"A fun and different experience every time," Cato replied sarcastically, "Water boarding, dry boarding, electric shocks, impalement, dunking, boiling water, whippings, beatings, broken bones, starvation and dehydration. They had a good mixture of the classics with some new and creative treatments thrown in too,"
"I'm sorry you went through that," I was stunned, how was he still sitting her before me today as together as he is? After all that I would be a dribbling mess in a straight jacket. In the arena I saw his sanity slip but just look at him now! He had come through all that knowing who his true enemy is. His strength of character could never be denied. "What happened after the torture?"
"After a solid 2-3-day torture session they pull you back in clean you up as if it never happened and put you back on the market." Cato's eyes seemed vacant as he was talking about it, "At first I thought that the torture would be preferable to the shit they make us go through in the mansion. Turns out however the Capitol have clever ways of making you eat your own words,"
I could only imagine what sadistic torture methods they had to make them feel the constant sexual abuse was preferable. I wondered if Katniss ever suffered any of the torture? It would certainly be in character for Katniss to rebel, but the thought of her going through it made me feel sick. The next question on the prompter was for me to ask, it was about Katniss, but luckily it wasn't personal and didn't go against our mutual agreement. "What was your reaction to seeing Katniss in the mansion after your complicated history?"
"I was angry about everything at that point," he said, "her appearance definitely amped up my rage, but after a while, I was able to direct my anger towards the real enemy. I know now that it was never her," he said, giving us no hints about their deeper connection. Unfortunately Plutarch and everyone else here already knew they had become close and they wanted us to get him to talk about it.
"What was your relationship like with Katniss after that?" Finnick asked the next question, he has slightly reworded it from the prompt so it wasn't such an invasive question.
"It had it's ups and downs, but we became allies, friends even," he said, "but that's not what we're here to discuss is it?" he turned his head to the side where Plutarch was stood behind the prompter ordering someone to quickly type out what questions to ask. He narrowed his eyes at them, "That is all I'm going to say about that," Finnick and I both nodded, ignored Plutarch's glares and went off script. I was impressed with his deflection. No doubt that tid-bit would be edited out the aired version of this interview.
"The others discussed times with the clients they had, would you tell us about some of your experiences with the clients?" Finnick then asked, even though this wasn't currently on the prompt, it was a question that was inevitably coming anyway. Luckily, his timing seemed to serve its purpose by encouraging Plutarch to drop the topic of Katniss.
Cato took a deep sigh, he knew this would be coming just as I had warned him, "I hope you people understand just how hard it is to sit here and spill all of this shit? It's fucking hard. There is only one reason we agreed to air this shit and that is to confirm what the President of Panem is really like," he shuffled uncomfortably in his seat, he was looking more and more triggered by the second
"Can you start by telling us about your client or clients?" I asked, "that's what you called them isn't it? Clients?"
"I have a few better choice words for them but yes, client was the term used around that place. Clients were only allowed to purchase exclusivity with the girls because there were much fewer male fallen tributes to select from." he said that with distaste in his mouth,
"You have a theory about that?" I wondered aloud,
"About why there were fewer men?" he clarified, I nodded, "Of course I do. Same reason why there were hardly any career tributes despite their obvious popularity within the Capitol,"
"To keep you weak," Finnick answered, instantly jumping on Cato's train of thought.
"Bingo." Cato replied, "So, as we men were fewer in number, we were usually in higher demand with Clients. In less than a year, I had a total of 16 clients, all of which I saw multiple times during my time in there," he said finally, "7 were women and 9 were men, most of whom were married to women, so obviously they weren't gay, they just liked having sex with boys" he said as if he were repeating the words that had been said to him, probably by one of those men. "I guess the secrecy of the place served them all well,"
"Let's do what we can to end that shall we? Could you name them for us, Cato?" Finnick asked. Cato nodded and named all of them for the camera. For the few clients he didn't know the a full name of, he described them in crippling detail. We had heard most of those names before most of them had spent time with some of the other fallen tributes and some were names I had heard during my time spent in the Capitol, some I had shook hands with at parties. They made me sick to my stomach.
"I recognize all of those women's names," Finnick said, "5 of them had requested my time as well at some point," he explained, "Petunia Fisk, in particular, was a nasty piece of work,"
"You don't know the half of it," Cato murmured, and his eyes met mine as if trying to tell me something without saying it.
Finnick missed the hidden message, but he turned to me, "I know you've met at least one of the women too," he said, "Do you remember Helena from the Victory tour party?" Oh, that Helena. She was the woman hanging off Finnick's arm the night I first met him. She seemed like a snake to me as she was also trying to weasel her way in with a drunk Seneca Crane.
"I know it might be difficult. But are you able to discuss anything that happened with these people?" I asked
"I think you know the drill by now," he said, "they all used my body. Some were abusive, some wanted to treat me like a date and some liked playing head games" he shared another meaningful look with me, one that I wasn't understanding yet.
"Are there any moments that you particularly wish to share?" Finnick enquired, again he masterfully changed the phrasing of the question put forth on the prompter
"Absolutely not. This information isn't needed so I will not be discussing any of it. I'd like to keep the small shred of dignity I have left," he said with a finality that couldn't be challenged, "but I will leave you with this. This place broke us all down mentally and physically and we're the ones who have to live with this shit and its effects for the rest of our lives. We might be free now, but we will never be the same again. We'll never be free of the hold it has on us."
"Thank you, Cato," I told him,
"But you can bet your asses," he continued, "that I am not going to take this lying down. I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure that none of it was in vain. I might be broken, but I'm not dead. I'm not going to rest until that son of bitch, Snow is dead and this bullshit regime of his is gone. I was raised to believe in everything he told us and in the sanctity of the Hunger Games, but I know better now. I implore everyone to understand that, that is exactly what it all is. Bullshit. Especially to all those out there in District Two who were raised just like me. The Hunger Games aren't an honor, it's all a con to keep us in line. Stop buying into it, it needs to stop. You hear that Snow? It's not just the Mockingjay you need to worry about anymore. It's me, you fucker."
"And CUT!" Plutarch called, "Bravo, Cato! Bravo!" he clapped and cheered
Coin entered the room then as if she had been waiting in the next room for the interview to finish, Gale was at her flank dressed as one of her personal guards, how the hell did that happen so soon?
"That was perfect," she said to Plutarch, "We couldn't have scripted it any better ourselves." did she not see the irony in that? "That is just the propo we've been waiting for to help swing District Two,"
"My thought's exactly, President Coin," he smiled taking the credit for Cato's words
"It's given me an idea," she smiled, "I want to present an all-star team. The Mockingjay squad." she said, "I want Peeta, Cato, Finnick, Johanna, Gale and Katniss, when she's ready, to be the faces of this team. We'll add some experienced soldiers to the mix."
"Good looking ones," Plutarch agreed
"When it's time to storm the Capitol, we'll send them out behind our troops with camera crews and make it look like they're the ones taking back the Capitol, it might inspire others to fight back and for the opposition to retreat."
"No way, I'm not going to be your little propo puppet again," Cato said, "If you want me in this war, I'm in this war properly, on the front lines. I'm a trained soldier anyway it's all I'm good for. If not you can count me out. Either way you can leave Katniss out of it,"
"I agree. Katniss is not fit for a war," I nodded, I was worried about how going to war would effect her already prevalent PTSD and anxiety symptoms. It could destroy her.
"No way! I know Katniss better than either of you. As soon as she can, she will want to help take Snow down with us," Gale argued
"Oh great a pissing contest," Cato rolled his eyes, "If Katniss in the right state of mind I'll be inclined to agree with you, but you've not really seen what she's been like for the last year. If something triggers her in the middle of a warzone causing her to have a panic attack or a PTSD flashback, it could get her killed" he explained, "or someone else killed."
"She'll be fine," Gale said, "I saw how she gets. Give her a few weeks and she'll be good as new,"
Cato was turning red, "you really don't get it do you?" he uttered between clenched teeth
"Cato's right, Gale" I interjected before Cato lost it on him. Last thing we needed was anymore in-fighting.
"Seems like your taking Cato's side an awful lot lately," Gale retorted
"You didn't see her last night," I told him, "in the middle of a full blown PTSD episode. It's nothing like what happened the other day. Her recovery isn't a matter of days or weeks. It's more likely to be years or even a lifetime." I hoped some of this would get through to him, "I'm not taking sides with Cato just to go against you, Gale. It's because we care about Katniss, I thought you did too,"
"Of course I care!" Gale exploded, "How dare you-"
"Enough squabbling." Coin interrupted him, "This is my District you will follow my rules and my orders." she turned to Cato, "You can fight the war in the Capitol but there's no way I'm letting you out in the front lines," she told him, it was almost a compromise, though I didn't see how it was any different to her original suggestion. "Katniss's involvement is not up for debate, it's an order. We need her in this too," she said "Cinna design me some costumes for the Mockingjay Six," she said, "They need to be suitable for live war combat,"
"Yes Ma'am," he said, I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Whether he was happy about this situation or not, he kept his face as stone. Perhaps I had been wrong about him. I really hoped I wasn't.
"The interviews are being received as we expected. Cato yours will be the turning point whether District Two will help or not. Lyme is currently out there trying to get as much information as possible but until we have command over the nut, all our efforts are futile."
"What's the nut?" I asked
"It's a mountain in Two," Cato told me, "it used to be full of mines but it was later turned into a military base filled with an arsenal of weapons and computer intelligence, all ready for Snow and the Capitol's disposal at a moments notice."
"So far, all attempts to conquer it had been futile." Coin added
"Because it's literally a fortress," Cato rolled his eyes,
"While the nut still stands, we're basically screwed," Gale added, I wondered how he knew so much in such a short amount of time. How had he worked his way up Coin's chain so quickly?
"Send me to Two," Cato said, "I know the nut,"
"How?" I asked
"I used to go there all the time, my dad is a pretty high ranking commander stationed there, perhaps I could get them to listen if not, at least I know it's weak spots,"
"Not a bad plan but we need a backup," Coin responded, "Any ideas anyone?" she asked
"Let me see those blueprints again," Gale said, "I think I have one,"
Someone pulled up a hologram projection of the blueprints and Gale started making notes on a little notebook he pulled out of his pocket.
Not only was my mind consumed with worry for Katniss, but it was now consumed with thoughts of war. Whether I wanted it or not, I was now a solider, yet I knew nothing about fighting in a war.
"Once I know more about the states of the Districts after all of the interviews have aired, we'll make plans to send you all out to Two. How long before we can get Katniss to film a propo," Coin asked
"No way," I said,
Her eyes fell on me with disdain, "Do I need to remind you, yet again, that I give the orders around here, Mr Mellark?"
"Katniss is too fragile to talk about what happened to her," I argued
"Katniss is one half of my mockingjay pair," she said, "Panem needs to hear her speak, preferably in a one on one interview with you. That is not up for debate, do I make myself clear?" Was it the mockingjay pair or the mockingjay six? She needed to make up her mind.
"Crystal," I replied through gritted teeth,
She then checked her watch, "Come along Hawthorne," she commanded, and he followed her out of the room.
He was getting too close to her. I needed to have words later.
I made a quick call to the hospital floor using a phone in Plutarchs studio and ask if they could pass along a message to Katniss telling her I wouldn't be long. I hated being apart from her when my plan was to prove to her I'm not running from her, but it seems that Coin was determined to keep me busy.
They informed me that Prim was still sat with her and advised me to get some well needed rest. I wasn't sure if I could sleep at a time like this. Reluctantly, I headed back to my, once again empty, chambers and climbed on my bunk and managed to doze off the second my head touched the pillow.