"Poor doll looks so peaceful."
"Everyone looks peaceful when they sleep."
"It's almost a shame to wake her."
"I'm sure she will forgive us when she sees who is here."
"You are probably right."
"They must be treating her well here. She must be eating well with a stomach that round."
"Well, who wouldn't stuff her as tight as possible? She was half-starved in that blasted arena."
"I don't think it's fullness that made her stomach fat. She is just the same Katniss everywhere else. She would have gained weight in other places if it was food. No, I think it is something else."
"You have a point, but she looks fit as a fiddle besides—" someone gasped.
"What? What is it, Octavia?"
"Oh, my lord! Katniss!" Someone shrieks in my ear the next morning. "KatnissKatniss KatnissKatnissKatnissKatniss!"
I groaned and rolled over. At first, my fuzzy head was only vaguely aware of three things: One, Peeta is no longer next to me; Two, my head no longer felt like someone was squeezing it with a giant pair of pliers; Three, there were two somewhat familiar voices shrieking my name over and over in my ear.
"Katniss! Please wake up we have to talk to you!" one of the loud voices yelled again.
"But I'm tired…" I mumbled, opening my eyes unwillingly.
After a few seconds of adjusting my vision, two women were bent over me, their faces enthusiastic and easily recognized. One woman was very skinny, with brilliant aqua hair and spiraling gold tattoos above her eyebrows. The second was a plump, shorter lady who's smooth skin was dyed an interesting shade of pea green.
"Venia! Octavia!" I said, greeted my old friends. They made up two of the three people on my prep team in the capitol.
"Oh, please forgive us, Katniss." Said the shorter lady, Octavia. "You must hate us for working for Snow. Please, oh, please forgive us! We were forced! Venia and I had no—"
"Where's Flavius?" I asked, realizing what was missing in the odd group.
Octavia's face fell. "Poor dear died in the explosion."
"What explosion?" I hadn't heard anything about any explosion. In fact, District 13 specifically in the dark about any new whatsoever about the outside world.
"The Capitol, of course." Venia rolled her eyes as if it were the most obvious thing ever.
"Let us explain." Octavia saw my horribly confused face and came to the rescue.
The two ladies sat on the end of my bed and began their story.
"The Capitol people, including the President, did not know anything about district 13 an. So when the survivors of the Quell got picked up by their hovercrafts, the Capitol went insane. People of the Capitol thought that the President knew all about the supposed dead district and started a giant riot. Well, you can imagine what happened once eighty percent of the Capitol attempted to burn the mansion belonging to Snow." Venia smirked at Octavia, who giggled. "Katniss, if it makes you feel any better, half of the Peacekeepers were on your side. Imagine this: So, the Capitols population was about one million. Eight hundred thousand of those people were 100% on your side and tried to burn the Capitol building. There was 200,000 left. 120,000 of those were Peacekeepers on your side. 920,000 people were rioting and trying to burn the Capitol against the tiny army of 80,000 for the President. During the battle that only lasted about half an hour, your side killed all but eleven Peacekeepers and President Snow was trampled to death. The people that lived, left the Capitol and went *poof*. They disappeared and no one has heard from any one of them since."
"Now, at the time, me, Venia, Flavius, Cinna, and everyone else who associated with your allies, were locked in the secret underground torture prison. It was just as high-tech as the capitol itself. The dungeon was sort of like a very modern-day medieval dungeon. The giant room was a mile long and a mile wide, with no separate rooms or anything. We were chained to the ten-foot-high ceiling by evil electric chains that electrocuted you every time you struggle." Octavia sadly held up both of her wrists, and Venia did the same. Thick white scars roped around them like grotesque bracelets.
Venia shook her sleeves back down and continued from where Octavia left off. "Now, from the never-ending chain of gossip that passes throughout the prison, we heard that a group of vandals visit the abandoned city from time to time. None of us actually believed it, but the words gave us a little smidge of hope to be rescued." She paused, her forehead wrinkled.
"Tell her about the power surge." Octavia suggested to her friend kindly.
"Yes, the power surge." Venia cleared her throat daintily. "See, the Capitol hadn't had a living person in it for a while, and every electric thing was still up and running. All of that power was linked to the control panel in a secret room. That control panel was directly linked to the biggest power plant in Panem, which, of course, was in district three. Power was slowly leaking from the plant at three. At the very end of the plants' energy, a slight twinge was set. So, when the last bit of power was drained from the power plant to the over-worked control panel, it set off a major power surge. Every single thing in the capitol, from coffeemakers to irons to stoves, blew up. Yes, the worst thing about that were the chains we were hung from."
Octavia looked close to tears as she took off from Venia's spot. "It knocked all of us unconscious until just three days ago. When we woke up, lights were off and the hum of electricity was gone. The chains had broken off. Bodies littered the prison floor. Most were dead, some crawling around, some pounding on the door that use to be electrified. Out of the dead, our dear Flavius was lying ten feet away."
My old prep team hung their heads for their lost friend. When they were done, Venia recovered her usual eager face. "So we got out and made our escape out of the prison. The second we walked out of the prison doors, funnily enough we ran smack into the vandals. Only they weren't vandals. They were district 13's Scavengers. And-"she spread her skinny arms wide to emphasis her point, "-here we are!"
Octavia beamed. "But the best part is—"
Venia clapped her hand over her friends' mouth. "No, no, Octavia! It's a surprise!" both women giggled and fluttered out of the room.