DISCLAIMER: HG CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME
As Katniss turns around, she sees a woman standing before her in the cabin. She sees the woman is young, perhaps only a few years older than herself. She tries to process how the woman got into the cabin, but as she stares at the woman, she sees blood dripping quickly onto the floor, and realizes the woman is hurt.
As she tries to reach behind her to remove whatever object was pierced into her body, she sees the woman lounge for her and ducks but feels herself get knocked to the ground. Desperate to get her quiver out of the woman's reach, she kicks her bow and quiver, the arrows scattering all over the ground. She feels the woman's hands descend on her throat and her body automatically responding as the soldier and victor she once was, begins fighting back.
Both women engage in kicking, slapping, and grunting before both cry out in pain as Katniss takes one of the arrows and plunges it in the woman's collarbone, the woman in turn taking her foot and kicking Katniss in the back with every bit of her remaining strength left.
Katniss moans in agony as she crawls away from the woman, watching as her blood begins to stain the wood floor. She reaches the wall by the fireplace and props herself up with her back against the wall, deciding it was best to put pressure on the wound. Unsure how much time passes; she continues to sit near the fireplace as she watches the woman slowly begin to die as she lays in the middle of room. Realizing she must have pierced an artery when she stabbed her, once the woman removed the arrow she began bleeding profusely, her clothes now soaked in blood, she remains silent, not saying a word as she takes her last breaths.
Knowing this was her last chance, she says just slightly above a whisper, "how did you get in here?"
Panting heavily, the woman pauses for a moment before looking over at her and replies, "the plan was to move in from all sides of the cabin-I came in from the right-when the guns went off, I got hit, but I just kept moving and once I got past the gunfire and closer to the cabin, I saw you looking around. I was right under you, then I saw you look down at your device and I moved as silently and as quickly as I could. Once I got inside, your cat hissed and ran under the bed. When you didn't come in, I knew you didn't see me-and then I heard more gunfire."
Katniss looks over at the bed in response at Buttercup. Since sitting in this spot she has stared at the cat's reflecting yellow eyes under the bed-still as a statue. Knowing she should not have let herself get distracted while in the tree, she tries to push the thought from her mind as she says, "so there were three of you in the cave?"
"Four. Two couples, it was me and my boyfriend Zay and another couple."
Realizing this was not the woman she overheard in the woods, that woman killed by gunfire, she begins wondering if the man she stopped from reaching the cabin door was Zay, or the other man in the woods.
"Are you with the resistance groups?" Katniss says in a louder tone.
As the woman's breathing begins to rapidly slow down, her face pale, Katniss watches as her lips curl up in a twisted smile and she begins to laugh. A mocking laugh. "Wouldn't you like to know" she says before she closes her eyes and her head dips down to the side.
Knowing that she is finally dead, she tries to get up, but her legs will not move. Totally exhausted, she closes her eyes as sleep over comes her.
Katniss awakens to the sandy feeling of a tongue licking her hand. Buttercup now in her lap, she sees the cat is licking one of the small wounds on her hand. She begins petting the cat in response, then tries to rise from the floor.
"Ahhhh" she says, the pain in her back unbearable, she cannot stand, but manages to crawl over to the bed and with all her remaining arm strength pulls herself up onto the bed, and lays face down. Her head turned on its side, she sees Buttercup jump onto the bed and lay down beside her. No longer staring straight ahead at a corpse, she quickly falls back asleep.
As Gale descends to the bottom of the cliff, he sees movement near the trees. Quickly setting his two bags down into the snow, he draws his gun and slowly approaches. As he comes closer to the cabin, he sees the movement of wolves circling around. His eyes go wide as he sees a black and gray wolf hungrily eat what appeared to be a human body just outside the cabin, preoccupied in their feast to notice him approach. He raises his gun and fires three shots into the air. He watches the black and gray wolf run behind the cabin and notices at least three other wolves race off towards the left further back.
He feels himself breathe again once he sees that the body on the ground was not Katniss. He sees it is a male and sees two of Katniss's arrows in the man's body, one in his chest, the other in his leg. His face now chewed off, he quickly moves past the corpse and opens the door of the cabin, his weapon raised.
As Katniss continues to go in and out of consciousness, she is reminded of that fateful day in the Capitol, and the traumatic events that occurred. Longing to be back in dreamland, she continues to sleep. She is awakened by the sound of Buttercup's growls. Knowing the cat is distressed, she raises her head and sees the cat's back arched, his hair almost sticking straight up. She hears movement outside of the cabin and as the cat's growls get louder, she sees him quickly jump off the bed then hears him growling underneath in his hiding spot.
Knowing that most likely predators are outside, attracted by the scent of human blood from the dead bodies, she tells herself if this is the end, the best she can hope for is that she does not suffer, and that Buttercup can escape. 'Maybe Gale will find him and take him back to District 2' she says to herself as she closes her eyes and falls back into dreamland.
She awakens a second time to the sound of gun shots outside. Not hearing Buttercup anymore, she lays still on the bed, unable to process what she should do. Did the shots come from more resistance members? From District 13 residents? Has her secret spot finally been found? Should she take one of her arrows and plunge it into her neck and spare herself from whatever may come next?
But she does not have to ponder her next move when she hears a familiar voice shout, "Katniss!" It was his voice in that familiar tone. The tone she has heard many times in the last two in a half years since the reaping, the tone of concern, fear, and what she's come to learn as love mixed into one.
But no matter how she felt about him, no matter how relieved she felt it was his voice she heard, she knows that her fire and his is the root of their sins. Becoming a killer yet again, her past coming back full circle where she was supposed to have a so-called fresh start, she now knows her only true way to do that is to remove herself from her source of pain.
When Gale enters the cabin, he sees darkness inside instead of the familiar natural light from the windows. As his eyes adjust, he sees a figure on the floor, and quickly realizes it is a dead body for he sees a large amount of blood, along with Katniss's arrows scattered everywhere. Feeling as if he is trapped in a nightmare, his gaze moves to the left and he sees Katniss on the bed with something sticking out of her back.
"Katniss!" he shouts as he rushes over to her.
Placing his weapon securely on the side of the bed, he leans down and sees what looks to be a makeshift weapon plunged into her upper back. As much as he wants to remove it, he knows it is best to leave it in at this point until he can take her somewhere safe. He sees her forehead is damp with sweat and she says in a groggy tone, "Gale-"
"It's me, I'm going to get you out of here."
"Butter-" Katniss mumbles but before she can finish she falls back into a deep sleep.
Gale moves quickly as he runs outside to grab his bags and pulls out the emergency device to send a message to the District 2 pilot's communicuff. He figures the pilot is probably halfway back to District 2 by now.
As he waits for a response, he goes back into the cabin with his bags and begins packing Katniss's belongings. He packs her clothes, collects her arrows and places them in her quiver, grabs her bow, grabs the stack of letters from the mantle which he noticed was now half the size it was before, and her birth control pills from the bathroom. As he opens Buttercup's carrier, his communicuff beeps and the message on the screen from the pilot lets him know he will be arriving to their usual drop off spot in 15 minutes. Knowing there was no way he would be able to carry Katniss up the cliff without causing more injury, he sends another message telling the pilot to look for his signal from his flare gun to pick them up.
Katniss remains passed out on the bed as Gale manages to wrangle Buttercup into his carrier, acquiring a few scratches on his hands while doing so. He then takes Buttercup's carrier along with all the bags and carries them outside and heads towards the right along the lake's path. Once he is out of sight of the cabin, he sets the carrier and bags down and jogs back to the cabin and carefully lifts Katniss and places her over his shoulder. He hears her stir as he closes the cabin door behind him and moves as quickly as he can through the thick snow.
Katniss feels herself being lifted off the bed, disturbed yet again from dreamland. Moaning softly in response for she felt sudden discomfort, she flutters her eyes open then squeezes them shut, her eyes were overwhelmed by the sunlight reflecting off the snow.
As she is carried away from the cabin, she feels Gale stop suddenly and then hears a flare gun going off. She begins to drift into dreamland again as she feels herself being lifted into the hoverplane soon after.
She is not sure how many hours or days pass when she wakes, but when she does, she feels no pain, and feels refreshed, as if awakening from a very long sleep. She sits up and sees Gale asleep on the couch. She does not see Buttercup in the hospital room, but knows he is safe, for she knows Gale would not leave him behind. She lays back down and closes her eyes, she is not tired but her mind wanders, eventually getting lost in thought as she contemplates what she will say to him once he wakes.
"It's a good thing you did not remove that weapon from your back, its what saved your life" the nurse says to Katniss the next morning. She learned from the nurse she was in a hospital in District 2 near the justice center.
She also learned she had been there for two days, and that she had been treated for malnutrition and dehydration.
Just then the door opens, and President Paylor enters, followed by Plutarch Heavensbee and Gale.
Katniss remains silent as the nurse exits the room and Paylor and Heavensbee greet her. She sees in the corner of her eye Gale's discomfort, most likely since she has not spoken to him since arriving here.
"I'm relieved that you are safe and okay" Paylor says in a genuine tone.
"We both are" Heavensbee adds in his cheerful tone.
"But we have a slight problem. Word will start to trickle out that you were spotted here, so we need to come up with our next course of action. It was very apparent that the weapon you were attacked with was handmade, so Plutarch had an idea."
"We are going to say you were attacked in a prison fight and were brought to a hospital in District 2 for security reasons" Heavensbee says proudly.
"But obviously I cannot allow you to return to District 13."
Katniss looks at Paylor in surprise.
"Gale informed me that you going off grid meant being in District 13, but that's all we know. I also know that resistance fighters attacked you, but Gale will need to return to District 13 to clean that up."
"They might not have been resistance fighters" Katniss clarifies in a short tone.
"Whoever they were, they meant to do you harm, and there could be more of them."
"You're right, but I killed them, with Gale and Beetee's help, they are good at creating weapons of destruction" Katniss says with a forced smile.
Sensing the tension between Katniss and Gale, Paylor dreads asking the next question, "At this point, I think we need to inform Panem you are being released due to time served, but you will still need to lay low-at least for a little while longer. Do you want to return to District 2 and live with the Hawthorne's?"
Without hesitation Katniss looks at Paylor and says, "No."
Her response is met with silence. She sees by Paylor's reaction that she is not surprised, Heavensbee has a look of shock on his face, while Gale's face remains unreadable.
"I want to return to my home."
"Very well. We will arrange for your transport back to District 12 later this afternoon and tonight I will make an official announcement to the nation."
Once Paylor and Heavensbee leave, Gale approaches Katniss's bed and says, "Buttercup has been staying in my office, it is less than a five-minute walk from here."
"Thank you for taking care of him, and for bringing him here" she says sincerely.
"I know you are angry with me, I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner."
"I can't complain about your timing."
"So, what now?" and she can tell by his body language that he is nervous to hear her response.
"Even if I could go back to the cabin I wouldn't-too much has happened there. I had to do things I didn't want to do…again. It never ends. I don't know…if its good for me to be around you. I came with you to District 2, I tried, I really did but my home is in 12. It's where I feel most comfortable, Haymitch and Greasy Sae will be there."
"And Peeta" Gale says curtly.
"Yeah" she says in an uneasy tone.
"I knew I was right."
Katniss gives him a puzzled look.
"I said you'd always be thinking about it. What happened that day in the Capitol."
She looks down in response, refusing to meet his gray eyes that bore intently into hers.
"Do you love me at all?"
Again, he is met with silence in response.
"Goodbye Katniss" he says before turning around and storming out.
Once the door slams shut, she realizes his tone was a mixture of anger, sadness, and heartbreak rolled into one.
A/N: Those who know my work know I like the dramatics so of course I had to somewhat remain in canon and have K/G break up.