Note: Next chapter will hopefully be posted soon. I have exams but I can't stop writing this!
I took a deep breath and held it. My heart pounded in my chest. I could almost hear my blood pulsing. I watched Jacobs fist, poised in the air. I counted the seconds until his hand opened, giving us the signal to charge into seven. Fear and anticipation made my throat close. This was it. All of my training had led up to moments just like this. Ten…eleven…twelve…thirteen…fourteen. Then it happened.
His hand opened up and he pointed forward. I raised my gun into the air as Furman pressed a button, setting off a series of charges, which blasted open the gates of district seven, and it began.
We charged through in a V formation. Jacobs led on point. Furman was on his immediate right with Craig on his left. Finnick and Johanna were behind them, leaving Gale and I in the rear. We entered the city square, and I immediately realized that our plan of confusion had worked. There were two people on a platform directly north of us. I tried to make out their faces, but I could only see that one was a woman and the other was a small child. They were surrounded by Capitol guards, who had their weapons raised as they tried to peer through the smoke to try and make out the source of confusion. We had been ordered to target them first.
I heard the first set of bullets fire from my right. It was most likely Finnick, but I couldn't tell. I pulled the trigger of my own gun and fired a series of short blasts into the guard right behind the child hostage. He went down immediately, and, once I realized my team had taken down the rest of the guards on the stage, I turned my attention to the crowd.
It was mass panic, which I guess was good because it meant that district seven had gotten our message. The hostages were all running towards the stage because the paths behind it led to the storage house where they would wait to be freed. We knew that the Capitol wouldn't have many guards here in the district center. They would all be guarding the gate and various areas on the outskirts of the district. They would attempt to stop us before we could even enter, rather than try to fight us inside the cramped quarters of the district center.
They had clearly failed, so I knew the guards from the outside would soon be heading straight for our position. I fired a few shots and took down some of the Capitol soldier's who remained in the crowd when I heard a shot from above.
I quickly ran behind a building and took cover with my gun raised, trying to find out where the shot had come from. Then I noticed the towers. They had snipers set up in guard towers around the district center, and they were firing into the crowd of hostages. I saw Gale hiding behind a building adjacent to mine, and I pointed at the towers, signaling for us to try to take them down. He nodded at me and loaded a sniper attachment to his rifle. I did the same, attaching a scope and loading in a new set of bullets.
I aimed at the first tower, taking down the guard with a single shot to the chest. I turned my attention to the one next to that, but the guard quickly hid himself when he noticed his neighbor go down. I fired and missed a few times, then realized I was wasting ammo. I looked at Gale. He held up two fingers, signifying that he had taken down two guards. I had counted six towers, so we still had three left to eliminate. They were going to hide from our sniper fire now, but they were still in a position to kill hostages. I grunted in frustration, and then I came up with a plan.
I ran back out into the square and weaved between buildings until I was directly below the fourth tower. I stopped for a second to catch my breath and looked for a small hole in the base of the tower. I felt around, touching each brick until I found one that was loose. I used my knife to pry it out, and it left behind a perfect hole.
I pulled a grenade from my belt and took another deep breath. The timing would have to be perfect, and I would have to run for my life. If I tripped or fell, I would be blown away. I exhaled and pulled the pin on the grenade, dropping it into the hole.
I turned and sprinted away from the tower. I counted the seconds down in my head. I figured I had about five to run away and find shelter. Four. I needed to get farther away. There was no way I would survive the falling rubble if I was this close. Three. I could feel my legs giving out. I looked over my shoulder and saw the guard turned the other direction, so at least there was no chance of getting shot. Two. He would have no idea what hit him. He probably wouldn't live long enough to realize what was happening. One. I didn't know why this bothered me so much, but I didn't have that much time to think about it. I dove behind the nearest building and crouched, covering my ears with my hands.
I could feel the tremble of the explosion. The grenade wasn't powerful enough to create the kind of heat filled mega-explosion like the blast in the mountain had, but the rumbling wasn't from that. It was from the tower imploding on itself. Pieces of rubble rained down around me. I heard a couple hit the roof covering right above my head. I stayed there for a while, but I realized I had to get moving. I slowly uncovered my ears. They were ringing, but the sounds of the world were slowly coming back into focus.
I ran back out into the square, taking down Capitol soldiers as I went. I eventually found Gale, crouched behind a building, picking off guards as they ran by.
"Was that you?" He shouted between bursts of bullets.
"Yeah! I knew I had to take down those towers, and I figured we could use more confusion as cover, so I think this worked." I heard him laugh back at me. I looked out into the square and realized it had done more than I expected. Guards were confused and unstable. Not only had I gotten rid of one tower, but it had been close enough to the next one to cause it to fall too. The rubble had served better than all of the bullets in the world, taking down dozens of guards. I guess helmets didn't really help against giant pieces of stone and brick.
"How much time is left?" I shouted to him.
"Five minutes! We're almost there." He grinned at me. I nodded back and turned my rifle on the square, firing at guards heading towards the hostage bunker. I tried to count down the time, but it all blurred together in my mind. I kept thinking about that guard in the tower. Sure he was a Capitol soldier, but he was caught totally unaware. I had killed so many people, and for what? I hated this rebellion. I hated the Capitol for what they turned us into. Craig had told me to not let them change me, but I had obviously failed at that. Ever since the first games I had become a killing machine. Sure I felt remorse, but that hadn't stopped me from doing it. I had done it to survive, but isn't that what they were doing? Fighting for their cause and to defend their Capitol?
A loud whirring sound pulled me out of my thoughts. I heard another explosion, this time in the direction of the storage facility, then hundreds of screams tore through the air, and I knew that backup had arrived. I saw them rush past and start picking off the Capitol guards. They were confused and dazed, but they realized that they were outnumbered. They started to run, but that only made it easier for thirteen soldiers to pick them off. One by one by one I watched them fall. Those must have been the orders. Show no mercy. Kill them all. I could practically hear Coin saying the words.
"Time for extraction!" Gale said hitting me on the shoulder. "Our job here is done!" I followed him out from behind the building as we ran to our extraction point. We got away from city center and the fighting for the most part, now it was just a few Capitol guards who we either avoided or took out easily.
As I ran down the road I noticed something in an alley that made me stop. "What are you doing?" Gale shouted at me. I waved him off and told him to just keep going and I would meet him there. It wasn't dangerous here. All of the fighting was behind us.
There was a thirteen soldier, who had someone pinned up against the wall, gun pointed at his face. It looked like a kid who couldn't be older than fifteen. I ran down the alley and shouted at the thirteen soldier. "Hey!" I yelled. "What are you doing?" I pulled him away from the kid. He was wearing the all white uniform of a Capitol guard. "He's unarmed! Let him go." I stood between the thirteen soldier and the Capitol guard, baffled as to why one of the "good guys" would murder this unarmed kid.
"We can take him as a captive. Maybe we'll even get information out of him." I said firmly.
"Orders are orders. Coin said, leave none alive. She's the boss," he said, taking a step towards me. "Not you." He pushed me out of the way and raised his gun. I stepped between them.
"Then you'll have to shoot me too I guess." I wasn't going to move. This was murder. I wouldn't have thirteen be known for this. This was no better than the Capitol. I expected him to lower his weapon, but instead he just laughed. He tried to push me aside again, but I was ready. I grabbed his arm and pushed the gun off to the side, twisting his elbow and locking it behind his back.
"I have seniority over you." I was a second lieutenant after all. I guess that's one of the perks of being the Mockingjay. "And I said stand down." I felt my feet lift off the ground as he got himself away and flipped me onto the ground.
"And she said not to listen to anyone else, especially you. So I'll do as I please!" When I hit the ground, all of the air went out of my lungs. He kicked me in the side and I groaned. I rolled onto my knees, clutching my ribs. Every time I took a breath there was unbelievable pain. I was sure at least one of my ribs was broken. I saw stars, but managed a couple small breaths. I looked back towards the soldier as he raised his gun.
"NO!" I shouted, jumping towards them. I tried to grab his back, and when he turned towards me, I heard the gun discharge right before I felt the bullet rip through my stomach.
It was hard to identify just how much pain I was in. I fell to the ground and clutched my stomach. When I pulled my hand away, it was coated in blood. I tried to cry out but I couldn't. I heard a second gun shot. I knew it was the Capitol soldier being executed, but it all felt so far away. I tried to look up, but I couldn't move. I heard the thirteen soldier run away, not even bothering to help me. No one could now. Gale and the rest of my team were probably already on the hovercraft, waiting for me to come back. I told him to go ahead. He wouldn't come back for me. It was up to me now. I tried to remember what Craig had said about the will to survive.
I thought about Peeta. I saw his smiling face. I heard his voice calling out to me. I couldn't die now. I couldn't die without making sure he was ok. I couldn't leave Prim with my mother. I had to come back, just like I had come back from the games. I had survived so much. I couldn't die now. I couldn't let Coin win. That was the thought that got me to stand up. I took one step, and thought about Gale. What she had done to him. How she had manipulated him. Step.
How she had pulled me down. How she tried to control me. She was evil. Step. She had to be destroyed. I couldn't let her hurt the people I love. Step. I thought about Snow. How he had tried to kill me. How he had forced me to murder other children. Step. I thought about Rue. How it was his fault she had died. It was his fault all of them had died. Step. That's how I moved. Each step was a reason I hated them and a reason I had to live. I stumbled back to the main road and kept going. I had to make it to the extraction point. I had to keep going.
"Katniss!" I heard a voice yell my name. I couldn't identify it. I might even be imagining it. I didn't know what was real and what was fake. All I could think about was how I had to survive to destroy them. "Katniss!" I heard the voice again, but it was so far away. It wasn't just one voice. It was all of their voices, yelling out for me to help them. "Katniss!" I heard Rue yelling my name while she was trapped in that net. I could see her. She was right in front of me. I walked towards her. I heard her yell. I saw the spear pierce her stomach.
"Katniss!" This time it was Peeta, yelling for me in the woods during the first games. Searching for me. I had to get to him. I had to find him. To make sure he was ok.
"Katniss!" Now it was Prim. Yelling my name at the reaping. Begging me not to leave. Making me promise to win for her. She stood next to Rue, both of them calling out to me. I had to make it to them. I had to save them this time.
"Look behind you. Katniss watch out!" The voice yelled. This time it was more real. I tried to focus back on reality. The images of Rue and Prim disappeared, and I saw the blury outline of the road in front of me. I turned around, and there was a Capitol soldier, dressed in all white, with his gun pointed at me.
I knew I was going to die. Hell part of me even wanted to, but I had fought so hard. I had walked this far. I couldn't die now. I tried to reach for my gun, but I must have dropped it in the alley. The world was so blury. I couldn't make out his face. I could only see his eyes. They were grey. Not the grey of the seam, but pale grey, like the life was sucked out of them. I knew those eyes. They were hers. Coins eyes. This man wasn't Coin, but at the same time, he was. He was doing her job. He was killing me, and destroying all hope of defeating her.
"Katniss!" There was the voice again, only this time it was right on top of me. I heard the gunfire, and expected to feel the same fiery pain as in the alley, but this time I felt something hit me like a boulder. I fell to the ground, rolling to the side. I heard two more shots, but they weren't directed at me. They were directed at the person who had just saved my life. They were directed at Craig.
I saw her get hit once more, then crumple to the ground. The soldier turned towards me again and raised his rifle, but he never got the chance to fire. She shot him twice from the ground, right through the eyes. She always was our best shot.
The world came back to me. I could hear the vague shots and explosions from the city center. I saw the guard fall backwards and become still. Then I looked towards Craig.
It took everything I had, but I crawled over to her. It couldn't really be her. Not Craig. She would never get hit. She was invincible. I turned her over onto her back. Her eyes were still open, and she coughed blood.
"Craig…Craig talk to me. Say you're ok." I croaked, my throat closing. Her eyes fluttered, and she half-laughed/half-coughed. I held her head in my lab, trying to help, but I knew it was useless. I looked at her torso. Four shots. One in the leg, two in the stomach, and the last one, straight through the heart. I felt tears filling my eyes, and I tried to blink them away. "Please Craig. You can't leave me. Not you. I need your help."
"Katniss…" She whispered. Why hadn't I listened to her? Why hadn't I turned around? Not Craig. Not her. Not this woman, who had taught me more about life in two months than my own mother had in seventeen years. "Katniss…don't give…don't…don't give up. Never…never give up." She grabbed my hand. "Promise…promise….me…" she gasped and coughed blood.
"I promise! I promise! Just please don't leave me. I'm gonna get you help. They'll be here. They have to. HELP!" I screamed at everyone and no one. "HELP ME!" I needed someone to come. Gale, Jacobs, Finnick, anyone. Just someone to help her. "HELP!" She gripped my arm harder.
"Katniss… there's…no chance for me." I wouldn't accept that. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I bent over and sobbed. She had to live.
"You won't die for me. Not you too. No one else will die for me."
"It's too…too late. I already did." She laughed again. Even in death she had the strangest humor. "I'm going….I'm going to them Katniss. It's ok because…because I'm going to them. Going…home." She shuddered and coughed again, her breath shallow. "It's…it's up to you…now. It's up to you…to make it right. You have to…to avenge them. Only you can…can make this right. Make…make the right choice."
"I can't! I'm not worth it." I did this to them. I did this to everyone. It was my fault. Rue, Cato, Clove, Mags, Peeta's family, all of district twelve. It was all my fault. "I'm not worth any of it!" I yelled.
"That's what you don't see Katniss." She said softly. This time she didn't waver. This was strong. This was the voice of the Craig I knew. Her last words were a whisper. "You are." She took one last, shuddering breath, and she was still. I lifted my hands shakily and closed her eyelids. She was gone. Craig was gone. Pain gripped my entire body. I could feel the hole the bullet had ripped through my stomach. I could feel the breaks in my ribs every time I moved. I couldn't make it. I was going to die here. I didn't want to give up. I didn't want them all to have died in vain, but I wasn't strong enough.
I turned my face to the sky. There were black clouds swirling in the air, covering the district in shadows. The black clouds parted, and I saw pure, blue sky between them. I thought about Peeta, Prim, my mother, my squad, even Gale. I was leaving them all. I wasn't ready to go, but I had too. I wasn't strong enough to survive this. A final wave of pain washed through my body, and a tear rolled slowly down my cheek. I cried out one last time, and the world went black.