A/N: Another chapter in just two days. Please read, review and enjoy!
(25)
My immediate reaction is one of horror and disbelief. Mayor Bauer is in fact lying dead upon the ground and not a single noise is heard except the heavy breathing of Gale and me.
"What the hell?" Gale says under his breath, standing up to have a look at what I've seen. He puts a hand to his mouth and bites down on one of his fingers to keep himself from screaming. Gale turns around and takes me with him in the opposite direction from Bauer's body. "Oh my God," he repeats over and over again in an undertone.
I can't breathe the normal way. My breath comes in short gasps of air and I feel like the pit of my stomach has just dropped. "What's going on?" I get out after a few moments of shock.
Gale recovers soon after me and answers, "I have no idea, but we need to get out of here." He looks past the Mayor's body and out at the houses. How is it possible that there is not a peep from any one of the thousands of people in District 13? Slowly, we walk towards a house that appears empty from the outside. Gale grabs my hand and I can feel our pulses beating wildly as he cracks open the door. A shot rings out and an exclamation of extreme pain breaks the sickening silence. I look to Gale and his eyes are wide with fear, his face completely ashen.
From the inside of the house calls a voice, "Put your weapons down now and come over here or another one gets slaughtered!"
My mouth opens in terror. I realize that someone inside the house has just been shot dead. On impulse, I check my patch. All but the tenth dot are still bright red. Gale releases my hand and places his gun on the ground. I follow his lead and put my quiver and bow beside it.
"Good," I hear the voice say. "Now put your hands on your head and walk back here. No funny business, got it?" the voices says malevolently.
"Can it see— " I begin.
"—Shh! No talking!" it cuts me off.
Gale and I place our hands upon our heads and walk at a snail's pace down the narrow entranceway of the house. Floorboards creek. We come to a door that leads to the kitchen. Gale touches the handle, but finds it locked, so we continue down the hallway until we come to the living room. We turn to face the voice.
It's just a common soldier. His boots are polished. His gray uniform appears ironed. He must be straight out of the Capitol. This man has never known harm, has never experienced serious pain, hurt or hunger. I look to the ground and see the misshapen figure of a man covered in blood. My jaw drops and remains in a fixed position as I examine him with my eyes.
"You just killed a man," I say to the solider. "You just KILLED someone!" I say louder to get my point across.
"Only orders!" he answers stiffly.
I look around to the other people in the room. There is a woman, tied and bound to a chair with a gag in her mouth. Huddled in the corner are two small boys, both no older than ten. They are dressed in torn rags, eyes irritated and red, feet bare and bloody. Gale eyes them and shudders. I remember the horrible deaths of his younger brothers. Seeing these children is more than I can handle.
"Are you going to kill them too?" I say, gesturing with my head towards the boys in the corner. They look up into the soldiers eyes. For a brief moment I watch their eyes meet and I can almost hear the soldier's heartbeat.
"I'll tell you what," Gale murmurs. He runs forward and kicks the soldier in the jaw. He punches him repeatedly in the face until he finally falls to the ground, unconscious. "No," Gale says with finality. He runs over to untie the gag from the woman's mouth. She goes for her children as soon as he gets the knots out. They are crying. I would too if my tears hadn't already run dry.
"What happened?" Gale asks the woman quietly.
She chokes back her sobs and answers, "We surrendered."
"Surrendered?" I repeat, stunned.
"Yes. They put a gun to the Mayor's head and everybody was running. Oh, it was terrible. They were running and then the soldiers… the soldiers were shooting their guns. Many people were killed. They carried them off to a house and tossed them into a pile, leaving the Mayor's body. Then they got everyone into our homes and tied us up, I guess. Well, at least, we were tied up. I'm not sure about the others. Are you going to help us?" the woman finishes. She stares me in the eyes as she wraps her arms around her boys.
"Where is President Snow?" I ask, going towards the front of the house.
"I think I saw him go into the town hall," she says, hanging her head down.
"I'm going to find him," I say through clenched teeth, picking up my weapon, "and kill him."
I hear steps coming after me. "I'm with her," Gale says, taking his gun. I look to him and smile. I can hardly believe I'm smiling with everything that is occurring simultaneously, but I think that just having the support of Gale is enough to carry me through the most difficult of times. I try to remember every other instance of danger I've been in since I was reaped for the 74th Hunger Games. Gale was never there behind me until now and with him I feel like I can accomplish anything. It's almost as if President Snow has become our game.
We step out of the house and head straight for the town hall. I have an arrow ready as Gale cautiously opens the door to the front. We carefully walk in together and I hear shouts from the level above. They aren't just any shouts though. I know exactly who they belong to. Madge.
"Don't!" she yells. Gale bounds up the stairs as soon as he hears her voice. "Please. NO!" she screams in horror. I am tempted to stop him, realizing that he might make a foolish move and bound into the room unprepared. Then I look up and regret that I didn't because he has gone and done just that. I run up the stairs and follow after him, stopping at the door to have a peek inside.
"Put the knife down!" I hear Gale shout. Looking through the space in the door, I can only see his back and his gun, aimed at some person in the room.
"Look at her beautiful face, Hawthorne. Such a pity there will be a scar from here to here," a raspy male voice says with a snarl.
"You wouldn't!" Gale says, dropping his gun slightly.
"Oh, I promise you," the voice says with so much malice it makes me sick, "I will."
I can't take it anymore. I bolt inside, see the figure with the knife, and shoot an arrow through its heart. He falls to the ground. I step into the light to get a better look at him. Years of killing game and surviving two Hunger Games has hardened my heart to death. I see just another Capitol man, nothing more.
Madge hops up from her chair and wrap her arms around me. "Thank you," she says in my ear. "Katniss, you need to listen to me. They killed Bauer, they've taken Peeta hostage, and now they're looking for you. I don't know what happened to the others. Finnick disappeared and your father… oh, I don't know what really happened. Johanna was whispering to me, but then they took her to another room. You can't stay in here. Once they get you, they get what they came for."
"I know," I respond. My head is whirling with thoughts. Peeta, my father, Johanna… where are they?
Madge releases me and runs over to Gale, who embraces her. She appears unharmed, so I count my blessings for that. I knock another arrow and step out of the room, walking down the hallway. Madge comes after me and places a hand on my shoulder. "You can't be in this building!" she says fiercely.
"Is this where Peeta is?" I say back.
"Most likely," she answers quietly.
"Then I need to be here," I tell her, and just like that, I dash down the hall, leaving Gale and Madge behind. I immediately go for the double doors at the end of the hallway. It seems like it would be the best place to keep an important hostage. How I determined this, I have no idea. I press my ear against the door and find that I cannot hear anything from inside. I turn the handle and creep inside.
The lights are off, but I hear noises. The room is quite large and there is another one attached on the left side. A shining light comes from that direction and I hear voices there as well. I step as quietly as I can towards the other room. The door to it is open just a crack, so I'm sure they won't see me coming. I still try to walk silently.
"Hello, Katniss."
My heart skips a beat as a turn around. There he is; not Peeta, but President Snow. I should have known by his smell. Today, the blood is more prominent than the roses. He is sitting on a couch in the middle of the room, his feet kicked up on the glass coffee table.
"So happy you could join us," he continues. "Peeta was missing you."
I bite my lip and turn around to point my arrow towards his heart.
"No, no, no…" Snow says as if talking to a child. "We wouldn't want that now, would we?" There is a slight pause before he says, "Bring him in."
Peeta walks in the room and the lights are switched on. I connect eyes with him. I watch his blue eyes adjust to the light. He frowns, looking at me. "Kat— " he starts, but cannot finish. Some kind of invisible force stops him from speaking. A soldier walks in carrying two syringes.
"You see," President Snow sneers, "the two of you denied us a good fight for Victor in the 74th Games."
Peeta breaks into a coughing fit and I turn to him in surprise. I almost want to go over to him and pat him on the back to stop his coughing, but I'm sure I would be stopped by someone or something. "Yes?" I encourage Snow to go on.
"Now is the time," he says mysteriously.
"For what?" I ask getting annoyed as Peeta finally stops coughing. I'm startled to see he's coughed some blood into his hands.
"A Victor showdown," says Snow with contempt.
"You want us to fight each other?" I ask, eyebrows rising.
"Indeed," he answers.
"And you think we'll do that willingly?" I continue.
"Oh heavens no!" Snow laughs. "That's why we have these." President Snow calls the soldier forward and he takes the syringes, one in each hand. "This should do the trick. It will be interesting to see which of you kills the other first."
"Kill?" I ask, feeling hysterical. My heart rate rises.
"Of course," Snow says. He picks up something from the table and I see a blade glint. He hands Peeta a knife. "What you are about to experience is exactly what we've been giving some of the tributes of the Hunger Games all along. Even Mr. Mellark here has had a dose of this before. You will feel… different," he says. He hands the syringes back to the soldier and walks towards the door to the attached room.
"Almost forgot," he calls back as the soldier sticks the syringe into my arm. "Happy Hunger Games!" I feel the drug go into my body and this uncontrollable rage begins. I forget who I am. I forget where I am. I forget who this boy across from me is. The soldier sticks a needle up his arm and then runs away into another room. I look down at the ground, breathe in heavily, then flit my eyes back up to the boy. My eyes meet his. They are charcoal black. Sixty seconds pass and then we raise our weapons. I hear the gong sound.