A/N: Dear readers and reviewers, I do apologize SO much for not updating this story recently. I know how you must be upset that I haven't been updating it, but I have never had time. My life is so busy right now. I hope you understand. Please read and review. The reviews really do help me work faster. And once again, I do apologize. Anyway, enjoy!

(21)

The light blinds me when I step outside. I squint and make out two people standing in front of me. I open my eyes and smile. It's Annie and Madge. Annie is biting her fingernails and looking around the room. She looks to be a little nervous about something and I note she avoids my gaze. Madge is smiling brighter than the sun and she is dressed in a yellow sundress.

"Good morning, sunshine!" Madge says, grabbing my hands.

"Sunshine?" I say.

"Oh, yes," she says, releasing me. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" She raises her arms in the air and twirls around. The last time I was outside, rainclouds were blocking out the sun and were threatening an imminent shower. If anything, I'd say it was a depressing day. I hear her sigh deeply and my brain sends off an alarm that questions: What in the world?

"Yeah, beautiful day, right. Just have to get these dangerous weapons ready so that we can fight the blood-thirsty Capitol. But other than that…" I trail off.

Annie looks at my father and grumbles, "Haymitch wants you now."

My father sighs and says, "Is he in a good mood today?"

"How the hell should I know?" Annie shoots back. Annie and Madge make a comical couple of friends. There's Annie who is a miserable, cynical, and sadistic human being and then there's Madge who is all flowers and sunshine. I risk a snicker.

My father does not reply. He leads us back to the elevator and we go down a flight, back to Level Nine. I step off the elevator and Haymitch ushers all of us into the room with the pedestals. Everyone who is important to me in District 12 is here, even Leanore and Prim. When I see Leanore, my eyebrows raise and I feel a rush of panic, but then I look over at my sister and all my troubles wash away. I want to give her a hug. The walls fog up.

Haymitch whispers, "We're now going to implant the tracking devices."

Haymitch goes over to Plutarch and sticks a needle up his arm. He carefully places the tracker and removes the needle. "Now these," he says, as he reaches for another needle, "are special tracking devices. We will not essentially be using them to track you, but rather to keep track of you. I'm placing them where it can feel your pulse. If the tracker no longer feels a pulse, you are dead. We'll all be notified. Any questions?"

"So if one of us dies, everyone else will find out? How?" Cinna says as Haymitch sticks the needle up his arm.

"These patches," he says. "Here, hand them out." Haymitch tosses a bag to Leanore and she removes these little strips.

She gives me a strip and I whisper to her, "Where's Revelyn?"

"Safe," she says, giving me a gaze that says, "Don't you trust me?" I know Leanore would never leave my baby anyplace harm could come to her, so I feel much better immediately.

I nod and look at the strip. On it are seventeen little dots. Right now, all the dots are black with exception to the third, seventh and sixteenth dots, which are illuminated in red.

"Just stick these on your arms. Peel the back off and place it carefully. They won't come off for a while. Each dot represents one of us. They are in alphabetical order with Annie being number one," he says as he implants Annie's tracker, "and Prim being number seventeen." I see the first dot turn red. "The most important thing to do," he continues, "is make sure the ninth dot is always red."

"Why is that?" I ask, foolishly.

"Why that's your dot, you silly girl!" Madge says, with a laugh. Gale, who is standing next to the bubbly Madge, smiles and grabs her hand.

I watch as Haymitch implants all of our trackers. He finally comes around to me and all but the ninth dot and the sixth dot are illuminated in red. I note that Gale is the sixth dot. Haymitch implants the tracker and I breathe in slowly. It isn't painful, but it reminds me of the two times I had trackers in my arm before the Games. It reminds me of how Johanna, that brightly shining eighth dot, ripped apart my arm to "save my life."

I watch the strip and the ninth dot turns red. It's impressive how these things work. When Haymitch is finished placing Gale's tracker and the seventeen dots are blazing red, I dare to walk over to Prim and put my arm around her.

"How's it going, sister?" I ask her, kissing her forehead. Haymitch gives me a look of disapproval, but I ignore him, telling myself it is more important to catch up with Prim then listen to Haymitch blab on about some gun. I know what weapon I'm using. There's no need for me to acquaint myself with any of the others.

"I guess it's alright," Prim says, giving me a hug. "I mean, I lose one parent, than find another. I just can't lose a sister and get another one."

I nod and say, "I'm so sorry… about what happened with mom."

"Oh. Did they show that on television? Did they show me crying?" she whispers, her voice choking at the end of her sentences.

"Yeah, they did. But Peeta's right! You were so brave to carry on like you did. You didn't fall apart," I say, rubbing her back.

"Katniss," she says quietly.

"Mmmm?" I mumble, looking down on her.

"We're going to win this war, right?" she asks.

How am I supposed to answer that question? How can I flatly tell my fourteen-year-old sister that the chances of us winning against the Capitol are so small and that we could be crushed by them in a matter of hours? I don't want to lie to her. I don't want to tell her, "Yes, Prim, it will all be alright," but when I was first reaped for the 74th Hunger Games, she asked me to try hard to win and I did. So I'll give this as my reply.

"We can try our best," I say.

She looks down at the ground. "Promise?" she says.

My eyes dash to that seventeenth dot on my patch. This dot represents my sister's life. I take a deep breath and say, "I promise."

"And that's all you need to know!" I hear Haymitch say. "Now, get to work, people!"

Everyone begins to line up and I look over at Peeta. He catches my gaze and mouths, "putting them together." I nod at him and stand in line with Prim. My mind wanders off from where I am. I imagine what life would have been like if nothing ever happened. I go back to before the Hunger Games. For one, my mother would still be alive and my father would still be "dead." Peeta and I probably would have never spoken. Gale and I would have ended up together and Prim…

"Don't just stand there!" Haymitch says cutting my thoughts off.

I look at him and realize he wants me to pick up this gun. I take it in my hands and feel its heavy weight sink in. I turn around and tap Peeta's shoulder. "What do you we do?" I whisper.

"Seriously? Don't you ever listen?" he says almost too loudly. Several heads turn. I see Haymitch flit his eyes up at us.

"Yes!" I reply, slightly angered.

"Here," he says, taking my gun. "You just click this button right here and pull this out and just put these in here." He places bullets inside of my gun.

"We're loading them?" I ask, feeling stupid.

Peeta rolls his eyes and says, "Genius, Katniss."

"Ok," I say, taking the gun back from him.

"WHOA. Be careful! Put the safety on!"

Peeta takes the gun carefully out of my hands. He does something with it and hands it back to me.

"You need to be more careful. These are really weapons," he says, reprimanding me like a child.

"Thanks. I figured that out for myself, though," I say, furrowing my brow and frowning at him.

"Listen, I'm just trying to help," he says.

"Fine," I say, grabbing the gun back again and bringing it over to Haymitch. He shows me where to put it and I take another gun to load.

"You need to work faster, Everdeen," Haymitch calls out to me. "We need to get as many loaded as possible."

I get angry when he calls me "Everdeen." I turn around at him and say, "Look! I don't have to do this!"

Haymitch sighs and says, "Alright, don't get upset. I'm just saying!"

I open the gun the way Peeta showed me but struggle at putting the bullets in. Peeta obviously sees my frustration. I'm not upset right now, just frustrated, mostly at Peeta. But why? I really have no reason to be.

He comes up behind and says, "Need some help with that?"

I take a deep breath and exhale, saying, "Yes."

He shows me how to load it and suddenly it becomes easier.

"I'm sorry," I say, "for getting upset with you."

"What?" he says, raising his eyebrows. "Oh, well, it's okay."

The rest of the day consists of loading all these different types of guns. I take a break to go back to Revelyn who appears so peaceful in her sleep. Leanore had left her with a local woman, Java. I wasn't quite happy with this at first, but I got to talking with her and apparently she knows two people I came across before the Quell.

Soon, I'm in this woman's living room and in walk Bonnie and Twill.

"Katniss!" Bonnie exclaims when she seems me. She gives me her crooked-tooth smile. I'm relieved that her foot is much better.

Then Twill comes up to me and smiles. Her hair is streaked with gray and she is wearing green-rimmed glasses. "What did I tell you?" she says triumphantly.

It takes me a minute to realize that she means she was right about District 13. "You were right," I say simply.

"It's so good to see you!" Bonnie motions for me to sit down and says, "Do you have some time?"

I glance over at Revelyn who is asleep in Java's arms. "Well, I really should be going back. I have some things to do," I say, feeling slightly guilty.

"Oooo… like what?" Bonnie says, her eyes lighting up.

"Preparation for the war," I say.

"Wow!" Bonnie says, giving Twill a look of amazement.

"Then you should go," Twill says. "They probably need you."

"I like to think that myself," I say with a small laugh.

"Aww… well, we'll be waiting here. When you're done, just come by and we can talk! Ok?" Bonnie says excitedly.

"Alright," I say as I awkwardly walk out the door. "See you soon!"

I reach one of the entrances to the underground. Then I hear this noise behind me, the noise of whooshing air, rapid, fast and menacing in a way. I turn around and look up at the sky to see the Capitol hovercraft descend upon District 13.