1 Week Later

"Fern, hurry up!"

"Coming!" I call out to Nyla who's waiting with Axel out in the snow for me to begin our walk with them.

When I pull the door shut behind, I jump down the steps and out to the. Mother and Pine are down at the Bakery Area of town looking for some flour and eggs.

Lumber Production stops today, since the snow came Early.

After a few minutes of silence with just the howling bitter wind for company, I decide to talk.

"So how do you guys feel about Six?" I ask curiously. Four days ago District Six rebelled and burned most of the thin sheet metal used for the Hovercrafts and Trains or cut the wires in most of the motors.

"Relieved," Nyla sighs. I think most of the Victors are for more reason than one. For one thing the rebellion is still going on in some districts and for the fact that Capitol V. haven't been able to visit the Districts and request us lately.

"Have you heard anything from Finnick lately?" Nyla asks quickly.

I shake my head. "No but I doubt they could have kept anything going this long."

"Well I guess if they-" Axel begins, stopping short.

I glance up him for a moment before he stops walking, his gaze focused on town.

Nyla notices too, her eyes flickering over to the roves and buildings near the town center. "What?"

"Listen," Axel murmurs. I pause for a moment and try to focus on the noise above the snow crunching below our boots. But then I hear it. The low roar coming from the Justice Building.

"What do suppose it is?" Nyla whispers carefully.

The minute a fire ignites in one of the lumber carts my heart jolts. A rebellion.

Before either one of them can guess at it, I tear off down the slippery slope of dark stones covered in ice while fresh flakes begin to fall rom the sky.

"Fern! Wait!" I can hear Nyla calling for me but I don't look back- I just listen to the yelling of the people and the beating of my heart.

Rounding the corner of a building it's straight shot to the center of town but from here I can see the flood of lumber workers storming the Justice Building in anger.

Glancing back over my shoulder I see Axel pulling Nyla through the snow towards me, both of them staring intently at the sea of people.

Peacekeepers are falling back on the stage of the Justice Building at the people swarm forward brandishing axes and regular cutting knives.

Pushing my way deeper through the crowd, I duck under swinging fists lobbing rocks and the screams of people demanding freedom from the Capitol.

I can see it for a moment, the stage, just as people are beginning to climb up the stage even further. Or that is until a giant stone hits my head.

The thing must have been bigger than my fist because my vision blurs before I slip to the ground, my head knocking against the road of the Town Center.

The crowds yelling becomes some distant sound behind my shallow breathing. I'm aware of the pain in my head from the large rock and Axel's terrified eyes as he rushes through the crowd towards me, Nyla shrieking in terror.

I look up at the sky, focusing on the grey clouds for a moment before snowflakes stick to my eyelashes, making it impossible to keep them open. I squeeze them shut waiting for the snow to melt at for a moment I'm weightless before gravity returns and my arm is dangling beside me, brushing against sides and arms.

I let my eyes flutter open for a moment, and see the stomachs of the people around me, Nyla's back as she shoves people aside and realize that Axel's carrying me.

I close my eyes, gritting my teeth until I hear a door shut and feel something soft under me beside the new warmth in the air.

"Fern!" Nyla calls. Again I open my eye and take in Axel's living room for a moment before my breath gets knocked out of me.

My hair is sticky with blood just like at the Cornucopia. Suddenly Lexi's scream echoes in my ears, the sound of Shimmer's mace against Hendrix's skin.

I cover my ears,hoping the noise will stop but it doesn't. Lexi is still shrieking but then it sounds different. I slowly realize it's me shrieking but I don't stop because I can feel it again. The hot, thick air and the feeling of sand in your throat. Feeling like at any moment someone is going to attack you. The smell of iron and something bitter that is quite familiar with me now.

"Stop!" I scream. "Stop!" Lexi doesn't but she screams louder and I can see her blue eyes looking at me through the net.

Someone's shaking me and I open my eyes to find Tide looking down at me. I lash out, crying. I close my eyes and curl up for a moment and I feel someone hug me and I can barely see Nyla's black hair near me. For a moment I can feel Mags hugging me, and Seeders soothing words above the screaming even though I know they aren't there.

It takes me a moment to realize that I am not in the Arena but back home in Seven. I can hear sobbing and realize that it's Lexi; the crying I never heard in the Arena. My little ally had only cried silently, refusing to wail. Maybe it was her own silent rebellion, though I doubt it. She was only twelve- it's not like she knew any different from our country.

Only Nyla's voice breaks through as I regain my composure.

"It's okay, Red. We won't let anything hurt you."

1 Week Later

"The little rebellion here didn't last long," I tell Mags over the phone.

"What did Seeder say?" she asks flatly.

I sigh, messing with the blanket on our couch.

"She said the one in Eleven didn't go over too well there either," I answer.

Ever since then we've all been under house arrest which means no pay for the workers out there.

"Nyla says I relapsed after I got hit in the head," I mutter.

"Oh yes, how are you? Seeder called me and said that. Finnick was worried. Are you feeling better?"

I reflexively touch the gauze wrap that's taped to the back of my head from some Capitol adhesive. I refused to have them wrap a bandage around my head because I said it would remind me too of the beginning of my Games. "I've been better."

"I'm sure you'll heal up soon," Mags responds kindly."Well Mother has been trying to heal me up with some of her home remedies since the doctors can't take a look because of the District lock-down. Johanna hasn't been caring. She's been walking around the Victors Village this whole time," I say quietly.

Mags laughs softly, that wonderful way she does that just makes you smile. "I can imagine that. Tell her hello from me."

"I will," I respond, my lips curling up at the sides.

She says goodbye and I hang up the phone.

I can't even stay in my own District without the Capitol invading my mind.

4/10/15: Hello! So, I changed a bit in this chapter because I'd taken an idea from another story. But, I got rid of it so I wouldn't be copying them. So, yep. The story I got it from is a Finnick & Annie story. Really great one, too. I won't type the title right now, though, but... yeah. So, credit to them. Not me for that old part I changed. I think their story might have inspired this chapter. In a way. At least the old part.