Alright, so, Chapter 21! By the way, only three more days of school for this term (Friday, Monday, Tuesday) and then I'm free! So, as I said before, hopefully I'll get more chapters up then.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, except for maybe Bryce... But I'm not too proud of owning him, if you get what I mean...
Chapter 21
Numbers
"Now then, rules," said Boggs, pacing in front of us. We were all standing in a group at the mouth of the cave, ready to go and shoot some 'oh so extreme' propos, and Boggs was giving us a pep talk. I didn't see the point, really, as Plutarch had already explained the basics to us. "Number one. You may only shoot the pods I tell you to, those that marked on the map in green."
"Well, we already know that," muttered Bryce. The rest of us ignored him.
"Number two. You must stick with your assigned buddy at all times, unless I say otherwise. I have paired each of you with the person I think you will work best with, so don't try changing them."
"You'd think we were still in primary school or something," said Bryce, this time a little louder. The rest of us ignored him.
"Number three. You will answer to roll call whenever I say. You each know your number; if I yell out one, Soldier Jackson will yell two, Soldier Everdeen will yell three, and so on."
"And how come Little Miss Birdie gets to be a higher number than the rest of us? Don't you think we outrank her?" He was speaking in normal tones now. We still ignored him, but a couple of hands clenched into fists.
"If you miss your number, you will be considered absent, and we will send a search party. If you are not found within a half hour, you are on your own. If you fail to call your number without good reason, you will suffer the consequences, which I will decide then."
"As I said before, it's like bloody primary school." I, along with everybody else, fought the desire to turn around and break that pointy nose of his.
"Number four," continued Boggs.
"Five." Boggs finally turned to look at Bryce, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, sorry," smirked Bryce, "I thought we were numbering off."
"First warning, Soldier Johnson. Next warning and you'll be sitting out."
"Oh, thought of a punishment, have we?" he mumbled, but other than that he stayed quiet.
"By the way, Soldier Johnson, your number is twelve. Be sure not to forget that."
"Twelve?" he muttered. "Twelve? I'm so far down on the list I'm only number twelve?"
"Number Four," continued Boggs, as if there had been no interruption. "You will do everything that I or Jackson tells you to do. That is the most important rule above all. Following our orders could be the difference between life and death."
"True," said Bryce, back to his louder tone, "it could be. Either follow your orders and die, or don't and live!"
That was it. Enough.
I turned around and slapped Bryce across the face. He groaned and fell to the floor, and I rolled my eyes. Honestly, I hadn't hit him that hard. Wimp.
Then I realized I wasn't the only one who thought Bryce had spoken one time too many.
"Soldier Everdeen, Mason, Odair, Mitchell, Homes, and you too, Messalla, that was very…" I smirked as Boggs tried to find an appropriate word. I was almost positive he normally would have used 'unreasonable'. He abandoned his search, probably after realizing 'uncalled for' wouldn't work either, and shaking his head he just said; "Get back to your positions. You need to learn to control your temper. Soldier Johnson, get your act together and get up off the floor!"
Tears streaming down his face, Bryce staggered upright, trying to nurse his jaw (where I'd slapped him), his arms (where Homes and Mitchell had punched him), the back of his head (where Finnick had hit him), his foot (which Messalla had stomped on) and, rather disturbingly, his groin (where Johanna, being the lady she was, had kicked him) all at the same time. I tried unsuccessfully to keep a smile off my face as I watched him.
"Now. Any one who does not comply with the rules will sit out after the first offence, and will leave after the second. Punishments may be changed depending on the severity of the rule breakage."
As Boggs paused, we all waited for some snide comment to come from Bryce, but, thank goodness, none did. Although, I swear some of them wished he would say something, just so they had a reason to hit him again. I'm not actually sure where I stood on that front.
"Does everyone understand?" asked Boggs. There was a murmur as everyone said that they did, and a groan of acknowledgment from Bryce. "Alright then. Just to make sure… One!"
"Two!" Said Jackson.
"Three," I said.
"A little louder Katniss, we need everyone to be able to hear you," said Jackson.
"Three!" I said louder. Jackson nodded.
"Four!" cried Peeta.
"Five!" said Finnick.
"Six!" said Johanna.
"Seven!" said Mitchell.
"Eight!" said Homes.
"Nine!" sang Cressida.
"Ten!" said Messalla.
"Eleven!" growled Gale.
"Twelve," muttered Bryce, still angry about his 'attack'.
"Sorry, Soldier Johnson, couldn't hear you" said Jackson. "Say it again?"
"Twelve!" He said.
"Sorry?"
"TWELVE!" He screamed.
"Shhh!" cried Boggs. "We have to be quiet! We don't want Snow to find us before we've even started!"
If looks could kill, we'd be needing a new commander.
~~0~~
"Every one in position?"
"Ready!"
"Lets go then."
"No! Wait! Stop!"
"What's wrong?"
"Katniss! To the left!"
"On it."
"No, not there! The explosion is going to be there!"
"Here then?"
"No! Get over to where the bees will- Peeta! Watch it! You can't go there!"
"Where should I go?"
"Just over to the- Whoa! Finnick! What are you doing? Get out of there! Now!"
"But-"
"No! Now!"
"Do as she says Finnick, trust me, your life depends on it!" Called Messalla. "She has an awful temper when things don't go her way!"
"Hey!"
"It's true!"
"Uh, Cressida? You never said where you wanted me to go."
"Ah yes. Peeta, you head over by Katniss… yeah, that's good there. That pod should send the giant bees straight at you, just keep firing at them and you'll be fine. If it looks like you'll be overwhelmed, call out and Messalla can activate this pod, which should trap them in a net. Is that right, Boggs?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Brilliant. Oooh, these shots are going to be amazing!"
"Yes, well, getting on with those amazing shots…" droned Bryce.
"Ah yes. Johnson, you need to get out of the shot for a minute, this one id off Peeta and Katniss. Got stand over with Finnick by the- FINNICK! I said by the tree, not by the bees! That's not Katniss and Peeta! You and Johanna will get your shot soon! Boggs, a little help, please?"
"Finnick, do as she says."
"Fine. It's just this seemed the most interesting propo we've done all day."
I sighed. We had been at this for hours now. At first, we had been very serious, doing exactly what Boggs and Jackson told us, keeping quiet, and keeping watch. But the area we were in had been long since evacuated, and nothing had happened. We had relaxed and lapsed our security measures. At the moment, the group was lounging against a large tree in someone's front yard, with the exception of Peeta, Finnick, Cressida and I. Peeta and I were getting ready to do yet another propo, Cressida was trying to film us and Finnick was trying to get in on the action. He was right; this would be one of the more interesting propos. So far, all of the ones we had shot involved running, jumping, dodging and a bit of shooting. This one might actually involve a bit of action; the pod would set off an explosion, which we would duck – we had done this in the morning, but this time, after the explosion half a dozen giant bees would rise out of the ground and attack us, and we would actually get to fight something.
None of us here actually enjoy violence, but they're mutts and not real creatures… also, it gets incredibly frustrating doing hardly anything in the middle of a war.
"Right then. Are we ready?" asked Cressida as soon as Finnick had slouched over to the tree.
"Yes," said Peeta and I in a dry tone, lifting our guns.
"Good. Three, two, one, aaaaaand action!" I tired not to roll my eyes; Cressida must be getting bored too. I aimed my gun, and, calling for Peeta to duck, pulled the trigger.
The moment the gun went off, I fell flat onto my face, waiting to hear the tinkle of glass as the pod, which was disguised as a glass jar, broke.
But nothing happened.
I heard Bryce's cold laughter erupt from by the tree.
"Ha! Missed! Maybe you'd better go back to Thirteen for some more practice, Katniss!"
I felt myself turn red and pulled myself off the ground, but felt a smile erupt onto my face as I heard the tell-tale sound of Johanna's hand connecting with Bryce's face. We had been hearing that sound rather a lot over the course of the day.
"I do remember you missing four of your pods this morning," said Finnick, glaring at Bryce. "And that was Katniss' first miss."
Bryce shot a scathing look at Finnick before turning away, his hand against his cheek, which had turned a flaming red colour.
"I think we should move closer," said Boggs. "It is a small target after all. I would suggest that you use your bow rather than your gun, but then you wouldn't be able to shoot quickly enough and might get overrun by the bees."
"But if we move closer, won't we be overrun by the bees anyway?" asked Peeta. "I thought that was the reason we were so far back in the first place. Also, if we move forward we won't be able to use the net without getting caught in it ourselves."
Boggs nodded.
"You're right. Here's what we'll do; you can move forward, and Johanna and Finnick will join you."
"There should be at least two more than that if they are to get close enough for it to be worth it," said Jackson. "Why don't you say this can be a propo for everyone, and go even closer? Peeta and Katniss can have their own propo later, maybe on that pod which releases a lion? I'm sure they could take that out nicely."
"Good idea. Cressida!" called Boggs, "We'll have everyone but me, Soldier Jackson, Messalla and yourself in this shot. Everybody, move forward! A bit closer, a bit closer… yes, that'll do. Now then, when Cressida says so, Katniss, shoot that pod. Everyone fall to the ground on Katniss' signal. The moment the shock-wave has passed over you, get up, and start shooting. There will be smoke, but the bees will be there, understand?" We all nodded, except for Gale.
"Commander, are you sure you want me in this?" He asked. "I haven't done a propo with Peeta yet, or Katniss. I've only been with Mitchell, Homes, Johanna and Finnick. Are you sure you want me in this one?"
"Yes," said Boggs. "You haven't done anything wrong yet, and we do need a shot of you working with Katniss, preferably with Peeta as well, so people don't think she's swapped boyfriends or anything." I felt my face grow hot at this statement, but, thankfully, no-one noticed. "Don't you think that it would be better to get that shot with everybody else, rather than just the three of you?"
Gale sighed and nodded, but he still looked apprehensive, and maybe a little scared.
"Okay then. Cressida, when you're ready."
Cressida smiled, but she looked a little nervous this time. I felt nervous too, actually. The other way we were doing it, with just Peeta and I, had been so carefully planned that we were sure nothing could go wrong. This time though, we had no fall back plan… as Peeta had said, we couldn't use the net, and we were all so close to the pod…
"Three, two, one, aaaaaand action!" called Cressida.
"Get down!" I yelled, and everyone fell to the floor. I lifted my gun, and aimed carefully, then, after silently hoping that everything would turn out okay, pulled the trigger and fell flat on my face.
The explosion was bigger than we thought it would be – or maybe it was just because we were a hell of a lot closer. It was still small though, and we didn't get hurt. However, the world seemed to split apart as my ears pounded with noise, and heat rippled across my back. Suddenly, even though I was as flat as I could be it almost felt as if I were being pushed backwards as a blast of pressure smashed against me. I realized that this must be the shock-wave, and the moment it passed, I jumped up, lifting my gun again.
The street was full of smoke, and I couldn't see a thing. However, there was a buzzing in my ear.
I thought it was just the aftermath of the noise of the explosion, but it got louder, and louder, and louder, and suddenly I realized what it was.
Then I started firing.
Everyone else did as well, and soon the air was thick with gunfire. After maybe twenty seconds the smoke had cleared enough for us to be able to see. In front of us were four bees, each maybe seven feet from head to stinger. They were charging at us, stingers turned towards us, angered by the fall of their comrades, for two of their number already lay dead on the floor.
"Well," I heard Finnick say over the gunfire, "At least they can only get one of us each!"
They kept coming at us, but we kept firing. Soon, there was only three left… then two… then one…
Yes, there was only one bee left. But it was so close now, I wasn't sure if we'd be able to kill it in time.
The bee was heading straight towards Bryce. I know it's incredibly selfish and mean, but I sighed with relief when I realized that. As Finnick said, it could only get one of us, and I didn't want that one to be Peeta or me. In fact, Bryce was the person I would rather was attacked, and I'm sure everyone else felt the same.
Soon, the bee was so close it was dangerous to shoot at it in fear of shooting Bryce or Gale, who was standing next to him. It has bullet hole in it's wings and there was a green substance – which I figured was it's blood – seeping out from all over it's body, but, impossibly, it just kept on flying.
It was within metres of him now, and would have skewered him in seconds if he hadn't moved. Bryce jumped across and ran away, screaming like a little girl. Boggs and Jackson quickly grabbed their guns and ran forward to help, while Messalla and Cressida dropped their cameras and ran back to the tree; they weren't armed, and Bryce was leading the bee straight for them.
Still screaming, Bryce tripped over a camera and fell on the ground just as one of Boggs' bullets hit the bee in the head, killing it instantly. But, in his fall, Bryce had hit the pod Messalla had been standing near; the pod that activated the net.
As soon as I saw what happened, I grabbed Peeta and shoved him aside, but I needn't have bothered. We were over to the side of the street a little, so we could be in full view of the cameras. The net was in the middle of the street.
I watched as a net erupted around Mitchell and Homes, scooping them up towards the sky. I was confused as their skin seemed to immediately turn red and they cried out in pain, but soon I understood.
"It's a barbed wire net!" I cried, raising my gun.
"No!" Yelled Finnick, pushing my gun down. "We can still save them!"
"I know, Finnick! I'm not killing them, I'm going to try and break the wires!"
Comprehension flickered in Finnick's eyes, and soon the whole lot of us were shooting at the net.
"You idiots!" Yelled Bryce. "Let's leave them and go! The Capitol will know we're here now, lets get out while we still can!"
"NO!" yelled Peeta. "We are not leaving! They are our friends, and they would rescue us if we needed it. It's your fault their up there in the first place, so help us!"
Bryce grumbled something under his breath before raising his gun, but just before he pulled the trigger he seemed to see something, and redirected his fire.
"NO!" screamed Boggs, much like Finnick and Peeta had. "BRYCE, STOP!"
Time seemed to stand still as we watched another pod, this one shaped like a milk bottle, shatter.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"
"I thought I saw one of those bees move!" yelled Bryce. Anyway, it's not doing anything, just letting out a bit of mist, look!"
On the word mist, Finnick's, Peeta's, Johanna's and my eyes widened, and we all spun around. Mist may look harmless, but the four of us know that it an be deadly.
We lost a friend to mist.
When we saw it, however, Finnick, Peeta and I sighed with relief. It wasn't mist at all; it was just a little shimmer in the air, almost like gas.
Wait. Gas.
"Gas!" I yelled.
"Gas-masks on, people!" called Jackson, and we all reached into our packs. All, that is, except Johanna.
"No," she whispered.
"Soldier Mason, gas mask on!" yelled Jackson.
"No!" cried Johanna. I frowned; it didn't seem like she was disobeying an order. It almost seemed as if she were in denial, as if she recognized the gas, but couldn't believe that it was there.
"Soldier Mason, that's an order!"
"NO!" She screamed, finally taking her wide, scared eyes off the gas. "That's not gas," she said.
"Well, what is it?" asked Boggs, pulling off his gas-mask. The rest of us went to do the same, but didn't have time before Johanna spoke again.
"It doesn't matter! Run! Just run!"
"But-" Boggs was cut off as a low rumble sounded from the ground as a crack opened.
"RUN!" Screamed Johanna.
Not needing to be told a third time, we all sprinted off. But it was too late.
There was a second explosion, and a wave of mud erupted from the crack in the ground and headed for us. It looked just like the mud from our obstacle course.
Then something inside my brain clicked. It looked like the mud from our obstacle course. Just the sight of that mud had reduced Johanna to a gibbering wreck.
The Capitol must have used this stuff to torture her, and it was the worst form of torture she experienced.
"RUN!" I screamed, my voice joining Johanna's.
We had gone no more than five meters when an explosion sounded from the center of the mud-like substance, and it sprayed everywhere. Peeta pushed me down to the ground, crying out as some of the mud hit him in the back. Some landed on my face, but luckily I was still wearing my gas mask. We both got up and kept on running until the mud stopped. As we collapsed back on the ground, I pulled the mask off quickly to inspect it.
Where the mud had touched the mask… well, the mask wasn't there. It was almost as if the mud had made the parts of the mask that it had touched disappear. Gasping as I realized that it had gone on Peeta's back, I quickly got back up again and took a quick look, letting out the breath I had been holding when I saw that his shirt had caught most of the stuff, and that his skin was only a little sore.
Others weren't as lucky as us. Boggs also had burns on his back, but worse than Peeta. Jackson's pants were almost completely gone and her legs bright red. Finnick was probably the worst though; he had rolled his sleeved up to his elbow, and a large portion of the skin on his right forearm was gone. I went over to him and pulled off his shirt – he seemed to be in shock – and put it on his arm. He seemed to come back to senses then and yelped in pain, but held the shirt to his arm nonetheless. I glanced around at everyone else.
Johanna was surprisingly calm, and was helping Gale up off the floor. Bryce was no-where to be seen.
I frowned, thinking that our group was much larger than this. Then I remembered Homes and Mitchell, and quickly looked up at them.
I immediately looked back down and threw up.
The net had been hovering almost directly over the spot where the mud had exploded and… well… I don't think I need to add the details. Suffice to say there wasn't much left.
And yet… and yet, one of them was still alive.
I saw him move his hand. There he was, with his skin… his skin… well…
I promptly threw up again.
"One!" croaked Boggs.
"Two!"
"Three," I managed to force the word past my lips.
"Four," muttered Peeta as he came over to me and started rubbing soothing circles into my back.
"Five."
"Six."
We all waited for a second, refusing to look up. After a moments pause, Cressida, who only a couple of small burns on her arms, called out:
"Nine."
"Ten!" Came Messalla's voice from down the street a little ways. I heard Cressida sigh with relief, and I felt a wave of guilt surge through me as I realized I hadn't thought about my camera crew since the bees.
"Eleven," said Gale, who had a small burn on his left cheek – his gas mask seemed to have helped him as well – the shirt covering his left shoulder was missing, revealing the shiny red skin underneath. He was also missing most of his trousers on his left leg.
We all waited to hear a grudging 'twelve', but didn't come.
"Search party?" asked Jackson.
"No," croaked Boggs, having difficulty talking. "We need to get out of here. He wouldn't do the same for us, anyway. And if we don't leave now..."
Before he could reach for his communicator to call the hovercraft, another spatter of mud rained down upon us.
I heard more people yelling out as mud hit them. I could hear Jackson yelling at us, and I pulled Peeta towards the house she was gesturing to. As we got through the door, my foot caught on a rug, and I fell, pulling Peeta down with me. We were both too exhausted to move, and so, as we were safe from the mud, we just lay there.
As everybody else trickled through the door, I counted them with my tired eyes. One, two, three, four, five, six.
Finally, Gale came in. His eyes were wild, and he looked half mad. I realized with a jolt that he probably was mad. Just as that thought entered my mind, Gale made that same noise heed made back in Thirteen in the training center – the one that could only be described as a snarl.
"Get off her, Peeta Mellark," he growled. "Get off her now or you'll never move again!"
If anyone is having any trouble visualizing the bee part... well... for any fellow Doctor Who fans out there, just imagine the wasp from the Episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp" (4.7) only with a bee, not a wasp (obviously.) Those of you that haven't watched that... well... I'm sure you all know what a bee looks like.
By the way, thanks to EchoDeltaNine for the inspiration on the Bryce part... you're right, he really did need a slap in the face! I enjoyed writing that part. =P