A/N: Whoo-hoo! New chapter! I need some help from you guys though. I'm not creative at all with names, so i'd love if some of you have an idea for the name i need in this chapter for the mutts. Just PM, review, whatever. Also, i'd love to know which outcomes you would like to be put in the next chapter! Please and thank you :)

Chapter 20
As the days wear on, Rory is thankful that Gale and Katniss taught he and Prim everything they knew about the woods. The game is good, and he knows exactly how to cook it all, and Prim know what herbs are good to eat and fill you up, so the party of eleven eats very well for the trip. Rory knows better than to waste all the water they have saved, so they immediately find a stream Haymitch marked on the map. Rory doesn't use a single water bottle, just in fear of what they might encounter.

For everything he does in the woods, Rory can hear Gale's voice at the back of his mind. "Make sure you pull the loop tight on the snare," or "Don't forget to tightly secure the top of the tent so it doesn't fly away." Katniss appears in his thoughts too, but mostly about killing the animals through the eye. He misses the eyes a few times, but he remembers her pregnant self telling him that it takes time.

Prim spends most of her time worrying. She knows she should trust Haymitch because he hasn't been wrong yet, but she's worried about Katniss and Peeta and Gale and Keegan.

She worries about Gale because he's basically been her older brother for her entire life, they only father figure she really had from age 10 to the present. Gale taught her many important lessons throughout her childhood: how to milk her goat, how to keep the boys from picking on her at school, how to get a boy to like you. But the most important lesson was the one he'd taught her during Katniss's games: how to be strong for those she loved.

She worries about Peeta because he saved Katniss when she and Gale could not. He gave her all the strategies in the arena, he sent her the sponsor gifts, and he got her the sponsor money. She'd never stop owing him for that, even if he was the distraction that let her escape with those she loved.

She worries about Keegan probably more than Gale and Peeta put together. She's so scared that it is a trap and someone will take her beloved niece to Snow. Her family has gone through such great lengths to protect the beautiful little girl that Prim herself would probably kill someone over her.

And Katniss… as Prim was starting to grow up, she was starting to understand the sacrifices her sister had made just to keep her well fed. Katniss had never been very good at hiding her emotions from Prim, but Prim was beginning to understand what her sister had really been through to protect her. And not just from the games or starvation, either. Katniss had often sacrificed her lunch so Prim wouldn't be made fun of for going to school without something to eat. Katniss would give Prim every nice piece of clothing she had so Prim wouldn't get made fun of. Katniss wore herself ragged and worked her fingers to the bone in the woods so Prim could go to bed warm and with a full tummy.

Katniss was basically her mother whenever Mrs. Everdeen tuned the world out. She had also volunteered herself when she had a baby waiting at home. Prim didn't know if she could ever be the kind of courageous person Katniss was.

After the first night, the walkie talkie buzzes and Prim hears her sister's voice and her brother-in-law's laugh. She looks to her mother and Hazelle hugging and crying with joy at the news. Rory grabs her hand and she looks up at him to smile. She doesn't know what love is yet, or if she'd even be very good at it, but she's seen the way Gale looks at her sister, and she can see that look copied into Rory's face, so she smiles back.

They set up for camp and sleep soundly through the night. In the morning, they feast off of Rory's excellent snares and some herbs and berries she collected. The mayor nearly jumps out of his bed when she announces she found some strawberries. Madge just laughs and hugs Prim, glad to have something to celebrate.

Although Prim and Katniss look nothing alike, Madge can see the many similarities. Not so much in the way they walk or carry themselves, but just in their courage. Prim probably doesn't realize it yet, Madge thinks to herself, but she's just like Katniss. She'll find her courage when the time comes.

Rory leads them along the line of the map, pretty confident in the direction he's heading. It's partially confusing, because the map he's holding isn't a map of Panem. In fact, he wasn't really sure what it was at all until he handed it to Vick. The eyes behind the glasses went as wide as saucers, "Rory. Don't you know what this is?"

Rory shook his head, "That's why I asked you, four-eyes." He smiles and playfully punches his brother.

"This," Vick goes on, "Is a map of the United States. The country that was here before Panem. It's probably worth a lot of money. Enough that we'd never have to work again," Vick kept going on about how Haymitch had defiled it by marking on it, but Rory tuned him out and led the company on.

The second day was largely uneventful except for the dozen or so fish that Rory caught using another of his father's snares that Gale had taught him. A lot of miles covered, a call from Haymitch, Gale, and Katniss later, the group had settled down for the night, eager to be in 13 by tomorrow. Rory was excited, they were making excellent time.

The next morning, Rory and Prim rose before the rest of the group to check the snares and gather breakfast. He held her hand as they walked, encouraged that she let him and squeezed his hand back.

As they reached a berry patch, she pulled the basket she had brought to put them in. He started to go check snares, but he realized this would probably be his only chance to say something to her without anyone else hearing. He turned around and faced her, extending a hand, "You know, Prim. There's, uh, there's something I would like to talk to you about…" He paused, "If-if that's okay."

Prim smiled, remembering all the lessons Gale had given her about boys. Rule #1, as he had told her, nervousness equaled feelings.

"Sure, Rory. What's up?" She asked.

He couldn't hold her polite gaze, so he looked at his boots instead. "Prim, I… I kinda…" He looked back into her eyes and stepped forward to grab her hand, "Recently I've kind of developed… uh…"

Prim smiled, "I like you too, Rory."

What did she just say? He felt as if his hear was going to swell till it exploded. He thought back to his brother's advice on women. When he was so nervous he realized he couldn't remember anything, he did what felt natural. He leaned down and tenderly kissed her.

It wasn't long, it wasn't overly romantic, but it was sweet, in Prim's opinion. As he leaned away, she put her arms around his neck for a hug. The clearing they were in opened to the sky, so she noted how brightly the sun shone for her and Rory. As she opened her mouth to speak, she noticed a weird black cloud. But it wasn't any type of cloud…because it was… moving towards them.

Rory sensed her tense up and turned around, "What in the hell is that?" He asked her.

"I don't know. But I think we should run," she'd seen enough of the games to know that whatever this was, probably wasn't man made. They took off towards where the rest of the group was, and they ran.

…

"Sir, we have sent in the mutts," the secretary said.

Snow felt his smile widen, "The ones that were just developed?"

The secretary nodded and he excused her. Since the Mellark boy had been taken captive, he'd been trying to get them to work on some type of animal or venom that could paralyze certain parts of the body permanently. His scientists were very creative, because they had mutated a grasshopper that could permanently paralyze small parts of the body, depending on where it bit. Their mouths were genetically enhanced with bigger teeth, wider opening.

Firstly, he thought he would use the grasshoppers, which oddly enough, hadn't been named yet, on the Mellark boy. First with his toes, working his way up to the spinal cord and eventually to the brain. It would be interesting to see how he reacted.

But this situation had arisen, and it was just so damn tempting to the president. He had known the families would take off after the woman, her husband, and the girl were dead. What reason did they have to stay? So he had expected something like this. But he had expected Katniss and Gale to go as well. Something must have gone wrong, he had decided. But he couldn't shake his uneasy feeling about the whole explosion.

It was okay. He would just eliminate their little party in the woods, and then this whole rebellion problem would go away. He asked the secretary to turn on a camera that was on one of the bugs so he could see the action take place.

…

Gale was so proud of Beetee. The little man with huge glasses had found a way to break into the Capitol's cameras. Whatever Snow saw on his screen, they could see on theirs.

And apparently something big was happening today, because Beetee was tracking a signal that was coming from some unknown location in Panem, directly to the President's screen.

As Beetee put it up, Gale swore at the scene in front of him. Whatever was moving, and from the sight of whatever was around it, it was a grasshopper, was headed straight for Rory's camp. He saw Rory yell for Prim to run and he would follow her. She took Posy and Vick and ran like hell into the trees before the bugs could find her.

Rory took to swinging and trying to kill as many of them as he could. But every time he was bitten, it seemed like he could no longer use whatever part of his body that had been affected.

He called it out to the other adults, and Madge called for him to run before it became too late. Gale yelled for him to run too, but it made no difference. Rory was too much like Gale, and he would fight to the bitter end.

One by one, Gale and the others in the control room watched their friends fall. Gale didn't know who was dead and who was alive as he looked into the faces of these paralyzed people.

"Who comes up with this shit?" He growled at no one. He'd kill whoever hurt his family this way.

After 30 minutes, whatever had brought the bugs to their camp called them back. As Gale looked at the blank screen, he felt his wife put her hand on his shoulder, but he couldn't make himself grab it, he was too full of rage. He didn't know if his little brother was dead or not, but it didn't matter, he'd seek revenge no matter what.

Snow was going to die.