GALE'S POV

It feels as if the weight of the world has fallen on my shoulders. Why won't Katniss wake up? I cry openly. I thought the hand thing would work. I mean, she breathed in no water at all. I decide to try CPR one more time. I try to choke back my sobs so I can try CPR again. I breathe in her mouth.

I press her ribs.

One more time.

I breathe in her mouth, and have just moved my lips away from hers when Katniss's eyes fly open, and she starts gasping for air.

"Katniss!" I exclaim, and everybody cheers. Katniss starts coughing.

"What happened? I thought I was dead," Katniss said smiling.

"I thought you were too," I say. She sees my tears and she sits up. Katniss kisses me, and then she climbs into my lap and hugs me. My tear-soaked cheeks are pressed against hers.

"Thanks," she whispers in my ear. I smile, but I'm still shaky from crying.

"Uh, not to ruin the moment or anything," Sam says, winking at me, "But it is 7:30 and the sun will be completely set soon." Emily and Emerson agree, and start shooing people out of their oasis.

I pick up Katniss as we begin to walk home. I'm not losing her again.

TIME PASSES

The next day, I'm on Katniss's porch. "Hey," she says, standing on her front step with just her pajamas on: a thin spaghetti strap shirt and really short flannel shorts. It was a really hot summer night last night… But I can't help staring at her bare shoulders for a second or two.

"Uh, hi," I say, "There's an emergency school meeting thing that they just announced." Katniss's eyebrows shoot up.

"Crap! I'm not ready!" she says, ushering me inside while she went up to her room to change.

When she comes down, she's in her school uniform: a short red plaid skirt, a white short-sleeved shirt with the school's red logo on it, and a red plaid tie. But the tie looks good on Katniss. Of course, I'm wearing my red plaid baggy shorts (that resemble boxers--the idiot who designed the uniforms…), white shirt with logo, and my red plaid tie. Katniss's hair is really wavy, too, but only because she just took out her braid.

At school, Katniss and I find seats somewhere around the middle of the auditorium. The principal takes the stage and taps the microphone.

"Ahem. Attention, students: This year, we may not even have school," the principal begins, but is interrupted by a huge explosion of cheering. Katniss and I laugh.

"Ahem! I said may not. Depends if our school survives. Anyway, astronomers in the Capitol have detected two huge meteors that have been flung out of the Asteroid Belt. The meteors are expected to collide in about… hmm, 2 hours. A bunch of tiny meteorites are expected to hit Panem during the next three or so days. The meteorites aren't supposed to reach great sizes, but be careful. You can collect a paper telling about meteor safety at the door. Thank you," the principal walks off the stage. Kids start to get up and walk away.

As Katniss and I walk outside, we see a large crowd of kids outside. Curiosity gets the best of us, so we push to the middle of the circle. A huge, smoking rock sits half-imbedded in the ground.

"Oh my gosh," Katniss says. I look at the safety sheet some teachers handed me. Hmm.

"The meteorite shower must have started earlier than they thought," I say. I pull Katniss out of the circle, where it was starting to get dangerous. People were shoving each other on the steaming hot rock, and daring each other to touch it. "The meteor was kind of big… What if another one hit our houses?"

Katniss bites her lip, "The paper says that 'A cave or rock overhang can be of protection from meteor showers'. Think Emily or Emerson knows where another cave is?"

"Maybe… But I know where a cave is," I say, thinking. I remember back when I was little and my dad showed me a small cave, but the mines. There were four rooms in the small cave, and it was almost like another home. Now and then my little brother and I would go with Dad to camp in the cave for a day or two. But then there was an earthquake, and stalagmites were falling from the ceiling like crazy. That's when my phobia of caves started. But I'm fine with caves now.

"What? Where?" Katniss asks. I hold a finger to my lips, signaling that there are too many people around. I hear a gentle whistling sound, and look around. Thunk! A smoking meteorite is imbedded in the ground at my feet.

"Crap," I say to Katniss, "Maybe we should start packing for the cave." Katniss nods quickly, eyeing the smoking rock.

TIME PASSES

"We're almost there," I say, carrying my bags. Katniss, Prim, Katniss's mom, my mom, and Timmy (my little brother, his real name is Tim) are following me to the cave. Timmy doesn't remember where the cave was since he was only 3 at the time, but I remember fine. Our families, since we didn't know how long we would have to stay in the cave, had to pack almost everything: all our food (which isn't very much), all our bedding, most of our clothes, and pretty much everything else we owned besides our furniture.

"We're here!" I say, and I brush away some sticks and leaves covering a huge flat rock. Then I take the flat rock and lift it out of the way. A 2-foot-wide entrance to the cave was hidden under the rock.

"Let's go!" I exclaim. I drop my bags inside and sit on the edge of the hole. Then I grab a limp tree root dangling from the ceiling of the cave and swing down. I let out a whoop. It's been a long time since I've been in here.

I guide Katniss's hands to the root, and she swings down nice and easy. Once everybody else was in the cave, I took a couple of candles from my bag and slipped them into small holes my dad had carved into small ledges throughout the cave. I lit them with the matches I had brought, too, and after I hung oil lamps from roots in the ceiling, the whole cave shone bright.

KATNISS'S POV

The cave actually looked… roomy. I may get over my fear of caves after all. Anyway, there are four rooms in the cave. They're separated by huge glistening columns of rock, and sheer rock walls. Then there are these huge boulders that look like they have fallen from the ceiling, but the boulders look like furniture. It's really cool! There are small dents in the boulders so it looks like you can just curl up in it. There are also these flattish rocks that look like they could substitute as beds. An old rope hangs between two stalagmites. It looks like it could serve as a… rope for hanging laundry on, maybe? There's also a small pool of water with tiny pebbles in it, and cute little fish are swimming around in it. The water could serve as drinking water if it's boiled clean. Speaking of fire and boiling, a fire pit (remains of ashes and a circle of rocks around it) is in the middle of Room 2. Yes, I already named the rooms. Room 1 has a lot of those "bed" rocks, which means it could serve as a bedroom. Room 2 looks like a kitchen, maybe, since it has the fire pit and the pool, but it also has the laundry rope. But Room 2 also has a shallow pit dug in the corner, and a flat rock which looks like a lid is sitting next to it. The shallow hole would probably cool food like those fancy and expensive refrigerators do. Then Room 3 has a lot of the "curling-up" boulders, so it could be the living room. Room 4 has nothing, really, except stalagmites, stalactites, columns, and other cave formations. This could be fun.