Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games.

Chapter 19

Training

"So… What are you saying?" Asked Bryce, a refugee from District Ten. Coin looked at him incredulously. So did I.

Coin had just spend the past hour and a half explaining about how the war was getting worse, and that just going to a fight every so often was not enough. Also, the we were going to have to step up our game; not only do we need more propos, but better propos. The stuff we had done so far was superb, but the people were starting to notice that I only went no the smaller fights, and if it was a big fight, I was normally only there by accident; like what happened in District Eight. They needed me to do more to boost them up a bit. Clearly what Coin was getting at was that she wanted us to go out into bigger, more dangerous battles, and for that, she needed us to be soldiers.

At the present time, we were just kids that had made it through the games and got lucky on the battle field a few times. We had no training and no qualifications. Sure, we'd had that crash course before we went to Two, but that wasn't enough. We had to become real soldiers.

Coin had all but spelled this out to us, but Bryce hadn't seemed to be able to catch on.

"We're going to have to train, Bryce," I said, rolling my eyes.

"You're going to have to… But why? You never had to before." I refrained myself from going over and whacking my head against the wall, and settled instead for sighing loudly.

"We need to be seen doing more than just talking to people in hospitals," said Peeta, coming to my rescue.

"Yes, I know, I got that bit," said Bryce, looking at Peeta as if he were a young, naive child. "But you have done more than just visit hospitals, you know. You did all that stuff in District Two, or have you forgotten? Is it just too much for you to take?" I frowned as he smirked at the two of us.

"Yes, they did," said Coin, growing impatient. "However, that was one time. District Eight was an accident – yes, they did fight bravely, but still an accident – everyone knows that. And that leaves us with the issue that the two people that are supposed to be motivating the rest of the population have left the safety of District Thirteen to enter a battle a grand total of once. Not very inspirational, is it?"

"I don't understand what that has to do with-"

"They are going to need to enter more battles and face more danger. It is a risk, yes," she said as Bryce opened his mouth, "but one we'll have to take. This may well be the only way we can motivate the people, and we al know the only thing we have over the Capitol is out good intentions and numbers, and only then if everybody gets involved. To be able to face these larger dangers, they are going to need training."

"Right. And I am here because..?"

"Because you are a part of the team!" snarled Coin, finally losing her patience. "I don't know why I picked you, and if you don't stop complaining, you'll be out before you can say 'unfair'. Understand?"

Bryce nodded stiffly, and Coin turned back to the rest of us.

"So, are you ready for this?" We all nodded. What choice did we have? "Good. You'll all report to the training ground in twenty minutes for your first session." With that, Coin walked out of the door, seeming as if she couldn't get out fast enough.

"Well, that was interesting," Said Finnick, lounging against the wall next to me. I grimaced. That Bryce could really be a pain. I couldn't believe Coin had dumped him in with us.

The man in question snorted, and charged out of the room. When he was about ten meters down the hall, he stopped and turned back.

"Well, hurry up. We have to get there on time, you know, or Coin might throw us out of the mission."

"No," said Johanna. "You have to get there on time or she might throw you out of the mission. You are only here because we need numbers. We are here because we are actually important."

"You think that," sneered Bryce, "But you don't know for sure. I was in the main fight in Two, and-"

"And you ran and hid, then emerged pretending to have killed a peace keeper," growled Peeta. "Yeah, we've heard all about your little escapade." I frowned. I had never heard of this guy before today, but it seemed the others had. What had he done? Peeta didn't usually get so angry so easily.

"At least I didn't get shot," he said in a superior voice. "Unlike your little girlfriend here. Oh, I forgot. You're only faking, aren't you?"

"What do you know," I growled. "You know nothing of us."

"Actually, I'd say the whole country knows about you two. You've only been the most popular celebrities in Panem for the last year and a bit. And you may have fooled the Capitol with your lovey-dovey act, but not the rest of us."

"Watch it," snarled Peeta. "We know all about you, so you'd best be careful."

He grabbed my arm and started to drag me to the training area, Johanna, Finnick and the rest of the group trailing behind. They were almost the same group that had gone to Eight, except Rory wasn't present; Johanna and Bryce had taken his place.

"What was that about?" I asked. "Who is he?"

"Tyler Johnson's older brother," said Johanna.

"Who?"

"Tyler was a tribute in your first games," answered Finnick. "It makes sense that you don't know his name. I don't know the names of the majority of the kids that died in my Games either."

Oh.

"He was the one with… the one that limped."

"Yeah."

"So he hates us for surviving?"

"Not really," said Peeta. "He must have known that his brother wouldn't make it with that leg. And it's not like he was killed by a tribute, so he can't blame us… he died of burns after that fire. He lay there for days…"

"So did you," I whispered. Peeta sighed, and Finnick brought us back to topic.

"He hates the Capitol, Katniss. He'll do anything to stop them. That's why Coin didn't punish him too severely after Two. But he's not very smart, rather impulsive, quick tempered and extremely arrogant… well, you saw him. But he's with us because he was family of a tribute, and because he is so well driven, we know he won't betray us. We don't have to like it, but we'll have to live with it."

I nodded, and we all sped up a bit, or we really would be late.

"Ah, you're all here already. Good." I grinned as Boggs walked in, happy that he was our commander. I liked Boggs; he'd been good on all our other missions. "Now, today I'll just be finding out what you can do. We have different stations set up-" I glanced around to see the large room was set up much like the training center back at the Capitol, "-and I want you to all have a go at everything. Today you will practice, tomorrow I will see how well you do. After that, we will train everyday until your testing. And, once you have passed your test, you will be ready to go; but you will train every day until the actual mission. Understand?" All of us nodded, expect for Bryce.

"Don't we get a day off or something?"

A terrifying expression crawled across Boggs' face.

"Did you expect this to be a picnic? Did you expect to be home by next weekend? Did you think it would be easy? Because it won't be, and you need to be ready for anything. We have to fit months of training into weeks, so that means hard work. If you don't want to join the mission, then that is fine. Leave now."

Bryce grumbled and looked at the floor, but did not say anything else.

"Right then. Grab a partner, get to a station and get going!"

I immediately took Peeta's hand and tried to drag him over to the archery station. But Boggs stopped me.

"Oh, I don't think so, Katniss. We all know you can shoot an arrow, but let's see how you can shoot a bullet." I groaned. I had practiced with guns before we had been sent to Two, and I didn't like them. I mean, sure, they were quicker and more efficient than bows, but they were so loud, and made such as mess! What if you needed to be discreet? But I admitted that I needed the practice, and we went to the gun station, leaving archery free for Finnick and Johanna.

Once Boggs was satisfied that I did indeed know how to aim and fire a gun, we went to the grenades. Then the gas bombs. Then the gas masks. Then disguises, which I didn't particularly want to do, but Peeta assured me was important. The more we worked, the more I realized how unlike the training center this was. The only thing that was the same was archery, and then the closest was how to survive if you got separated from the group.

Peeta and I were learning how to use a complicated communicating device when a doctor walked in and conversed with Boggs. Then he walked towards us. As he approached, I recognized him as the doctor in charge of Gale. I wondered what was going on.

"Hello, Katniss," he said, nodding at me. Then he turned to Peeta. "Would you come with us, please?" We both stood up, but he shook his head. "No, just Peeta."

Peeta and I frowned. We didn't like to be separated. But he nodded, kissed me on the cheek, squeezed my hand and followed the doctor out of the door.

I shook my head. It probably wasn't important; they probably just wanted to check his leg or something. That doctor couldn't be only concentrating on Gale; there were to many patients and too little hands for that. I pushed everything out of my mind, put the communicator down and went to join Finnick and Johanna, who were running laps of the room.

~~0~~

"So, what did the doctor want earlier?" I asked at dinner. "Was it about your leg?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, my leg," muttered Peeta, poking his food.

"What's wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing."

"Come on, Peeta, I know you well enough to know when something's wrong."

He sighed, then looked up from his meal.

"It's just the… morphling they gave me while they poked at my leg. It's nothing."

I frowned. Morphling didn't make people act grouchy. Normally more happy. I shrugged it off. Maybe he reacted differently.

"What did they do it?"

"Not much really. They wanted to see what the Capitol had done to it. I think they want to see it again tomorrow."

"There's nothing wrong with it though, is there?" I asked, panic setting in.

"Oh no, they're just wondering if they could replicate it. So many people lose limbs in battle…" I nodded, my panic subsiding. It made sense.

"It's going to be odd, isn't it?" I asked.

"Odd how?"

"Well, before this, we'd had most of our time to ourselves… I know we had those schedules, and meetings, and before we went to Two there was a bit of training, but this is going to be full on, with no rest at all."

"It's what we have to do."

"I know… It's just, I think we'll need a bit of rest. I know that when it needs to, the human body can go on for a long time, such as in the Games. The games were a couple of weeks with no rest at all, save for the few days we spent in the cave. But even then, we were always on guard, never truly resting… When it's under pressure, the body can cope. But this is going to be training, with no threat, nothing to keep our focus other than our determination. But if it's what we have to do to bring down the Capitol, then I'll do it."

Peeta grinned.

"That's my girl. Now, as you pointed out, we have a rather tough time ahead of us. So I think I'll be heading of to bed, to rest while I can. Coming?"

"I think I'll regret it in the morning if I don't."

~~0~~

The next day found us awake, dressed, and yawning in the middle of the training area at five thirty. I was so glad Peeta had suggested an early night the night before.

Boggs was running through what we were to do. It was the same as yesterday, except today he would be watching us and writing down what we knew, and what we needed to work on. We were once again to work in pairs, but this time I was with Johanna, and Peeta with Finnick. Boggs wanted us all to be friendly with different people, so we knew we could all work together if the need aroused.

I didn't mind at all; Johanna and I had become closer since she had arrived in Thirteen. We worked through the stations, Boggs nodding at us every so often. We could do almost everything, though I was still stumped on the communicator, and Johanna was having a few issues with archery.

After a while, Boggs led us up to the surface. We were a little nervous; hardly anyone went to the surface here.

When we got outside, Boggs told us that there was an obstacle course set up. We would go through a series of obstacle which would prove our fitness and endurance levels.

Johanna and I were to go last. Peeta had a few difficulties due to his leg, but made it through alright. Finnick struggled a bit when asked to fit his huge body through a pipe, but squeezed himself through. When it was my turn, I ran through easily, earning myself a pat on the back from Boggs and a smile from Peeta, who was watching from the sidelines. Unfortunately, when it was her turn, Johanna had a more than couple of difficulties.

The first obstacle were a series of bars that came up to about my waist; you had to jump one, then duck under the next, then jump, and so on. She managed this, but seemed to be panting harder and harder with each duck, and was clearing the bars by less and less on her jumps. When she reached the tunnel – a small concrete pipe about 50cm in diameter – she took longer than I thought she would crawling through, and came out looking a little pale, breathing heavily, her eyes wide. However, when she got to the wall, she scrambled up and over easily, and then jumped across and along logs as if it were second nature. I realized it probably was for her, being from the timber district. But it surprised me she could do it so easily after struggling with the pipe.

She struggled to climb up the ropes, over the wires and across the chains, but she managed never the less. I figured it must have been the fact that she'd been locked up in a cell for so long that had drained her energy. I remembered she had seemed more out of breath than normal for her when she had been running laps the previous day. But as she came to the pool of water, it became apparent that it wasn't just a lack of exercise that had her stumbling.

The idea of the exercise was to walk across the long ladder placed over the pool. Most of us had stepped from rung to rung easily, the only one of us experiencing any difficulty being Peeta because of his leg, but he still got across without falling. But Johanna just stood there. Staring at the water, shaking. I wondered what was wrong; she hadn't minded the water at all during the Quell. I wanted to call out to her, but Boggs motioned for me to keep quiet. After about a minute, a look of determination crossed Johanna's face. She whispered something that sounded like:

"I will not let you beat me."

Slowly, very slowly, she got down on her hands and knees, and began crawling across the ladder. Johanna didn't look down, but kept her face pointing at the land on the other side.

When she reached the other side, she let out a huge sigh and collapsed on the ground. But after a couple of seconds, she heaved herself up and climbed over the platform in front of her.

After that, it seemed like nothing could stop her. She ran through the course, the look of determination never leaving her face. Until, that is, she reached the very last obstacle.

It was a pit of mud with a net over the top. What you had to do was crawl under the net and through the mud. Sure, you got a bit dirty, but it was pretty easy.

But the moment Johanna saw the mud, she froze. Then she began to shake violently, and curled up on the floor in a foetal position, clutching her head and rocking back and forth. She didn't seem to be able to fix herself this time.

Boggs ran across to her, calling a doctor with his communicator at the same time. He tried to get Johanna to respond, but when she didn't, he called us over.

Peeta, Finnick and I tried to talk to her, but all we got were moans. Eventually, the doctor came, and gave her a shot of what looked like morphling. She calmed down a little and her eyes glazed over. The doctor wrapped an arm around her and tried to pull her up, but couldn't lift her himself. He asked Peeta to help him - giving Peeta a knowing look – and then the three of them left. I frowned as I realized that it was the same doctor who had talked to Peeta the day before; Gales doctor.

Well, it would make sense if he were treating all the Victors. Even if Gale wasn't a Victor, he was almost family to me. At least, he to used to be.

As Johanna had been the last to attempt the course, we all went back underground and had a lunch break. Peeta was still not back after lunch, and neither was Johanna, so I paired with Finnick for the rest of the day.

Later, when I talked to Peeta, he just said he had been asked to stay with Johanna, but he couldn't quite look me in the eye as he said it. He easily told me what had been wrong though; apparently the Capitol had used water and a substance that looked like mud when they were torturing her.

"And they kept her in a tiny cell, alone in the dark for a whole week while Gale was being hijacked" he said, shuddering. I couldn't begin to imagine how terrifying that would have been. All alone with no light, no noise, no company, and no space. I think I would have gone mad. No wonder she was shaking when she came out of that tunnel, even if she could see the light at the end.

The next few days followed just as Boggs said they would. We were given lessons at each of the stations, put through drills of different situations, and forced to run multiple laps. Every day we would each complete the obstacle course and try to beat our previous time. When Johanna returned two days after the incident, she stayed clear of the course. Then, over the next few days, she did a bit at a time, trying to overcome her fear. After about a week, she could stand up to her ankles in the mud, but she still couldn't lie in it.

Every day, a doctor would take Peeta away for about half an hour. He didn't tell me what was going on, other than the fact they were researching his leg. When I asked why I couldn't go with him, he faltered, but told me I needed the rest. Something was going on, I just wasn't sure what.

~~0~~

I found out what was going on with Peeta about a week and a half after we'd started training. We were all watching Boggs give a detailed demonstration of how to make a bomb out a some string, a tin can and a heap of petrol when the doors slammed open and a person came in.

He seemed nervous, and was shaking with rage, but looked determined as he walked towards us. I froze as I recognized him.

Gale Hawthorne was coming to join our training group.