DISCLAIMER: HG characters do not belong to me.
Words not spoken in English will be italicized.
Some may be shocked by the events in the last chapter, I was sad to do but it is part of the character growth for Katniss. It will also come into play for a major dialogue scene between her and Gale. So stay tuned!
Chapter 17-New Information
Katniss awoke to lying in makeshift shelter. She looked around, the space was very small. She slowly got to her feet and walked outside. She saw a lot of snow on the ground. She figured this was why a shelter was made for her. She approached a campfire and saw the two soldiers still tied up, the man's wounds were tended to. They both gave Katniss a weary look and didn't say a word to her.
Red Bear came up to her and said, "You alright?"
Katniss nodded her head and said, "I'm fine, I hadn't eaten much the last two days."
"We cleaned up the white man's wounds, do you want us to kill them?" Red Bear said the words without any hesitation. Katniss was a little taken aback. But then she realized they didn't understand a word of the conversation earlier.
"No" she quickly responded. "I was wrong to hurt him in the first place, I took my anger out on him over Rainbow's death, and I should not have done that. I don't think they mean any harm. I plan to try to get more information from them today. How far away are we from the Comanche tribe?"
"Six days walk, but with the horses we should be able to get there in three." Red Bear responded.
"Is it okay if after I talk to them what I decide we should do?"
"Of course, we are going to hunt for food now. We also buried Rainbow and Otter this morning after the storm." Red Bear pointed to where the graves were and turned and walked off with the others.
Katniss wished she could have gone with them, but she had other business to attend to.
She approached the man and the woman. She decided to keep standing but she said in the most sincere tone she could, "Were you given food today?"
The woman hesitated before answering but finally stated, "Yes".
"What are your names?"
"My name's Sequoyah Barnes" the woman responded. She turned and looked at the man who sighed loudly and said, "Trent Green".
There was something about Sequoyah that bugged Katniss, she reminded her of someone. But she decided to brush it off.
"Look-I'm sorry they took you, but like I said yesterday, I was recently taken by a member of a militia group. And we found cameras back at the village where I was staying at. I could tell those cameras came from the Capitol. When they found you in the forest they were not taking any chances". Katniss hoped this would settle some of the awkwardness between them.
"Are you going to let us go?" Trent asked.
"Depends, I need you to answer some questions for me first."
"What do you want to know" Trent said in an annoyed tone.
"Why were the camera's there?"
Trent rolled his eyes. "We were on a mission lead by Commander Hawthorne to keep you safe from the militia group, called the Jay Killers. Get it? Jay Killers? As in killing the Mockingjay?" He quickly saw by the look on Katniss's face that she got it. He continued on, "Anyway, we brought two cameras with us to keep surveillance. The other one had been there, I'm assuming from the previous regime. Why it was put there, we don't have clearance for that."
"Why didn't your squad just come to me from the beginning, tell me what was going on with the militia group? Why hide?"
"I don't know, Commander Hawthorne just said it had to be this way" Trent responded.
"Was your group following us after we left the village?"
"Yes".
"Why were you two found alone then?"
This time Trent didn't answer. He looked over at Sequoyah who nodded her head at him encouragingly. "We ran off."
"Why?"
"I don't think we are at the point we were can trust you enough to tell you why." Trent said nonchalantly.
Katniss nodded, "Fair enough."
Katniss thought for a few moments what she wanted to do next after hearing this information. She had to know why Gale decided to hide from her instead of being upfront about being in the wild territory practically the whole time she was here. "Look, you may have your reasons why the two of you have deserted your mission, but, I am going to need your help in reaching Commander Hawthorne. Surely you have some type of radio, some way to contact him?"
This time Sequoyah spoke. "We did, but we ditched it after we ran."
"Well, I'm sorry but I can't let you go until you help me find a way to talk to him." Katniss then turned around and walked off.
She went over to Rain and Otter's graves. She didn't know which was which, she just saw freshly raised dirt. She sank to her knees and touched both spots. She wanted to cry but she didn't want to show any emotion in front of Sequoyah and Trent, she found it odd they would run away from Gale's unit. Katniss knew Gale was a good solider and would be a good leader, for them to be deserters meant something was up. Something not good. She instead focused her anger on this new information about these militia groups that wanted her dead, and the Capitol. She wanted to trust Paylor but she couldn't, not anymore.
Once Red Bear and the others returned Katniss walked up to him and said, "After we eat we need to leave immediately to head for the Comanche tribe, and we are taking these two with us."
