Here's the next chapter! Enjoy! I do not Mockingjay.

Ch. 42

We wake up to the news of new strategies. Beetee had taken over the television waves. It almost felt as if the Capitol were surrendering. Beetee had been able to break in multiple times with ease; they had done absolutely nothing. Either they trusted that the Capitol citizens would never sway or they just didn't care. I had no times to count on my hands when the Capitol just didn't care. They were giving up; we just had to get them to understand that.

The new strategy was to roll an empty car down the streets to activate the pods that if people were in the way of could be a danger. But once everything was detonated the rebels could move on with ease. At this rate they could be to the heart of the Capitol by midday.

A shiver runs down my back as I realize I was wrong in thinking that the Capitol was giving up. They turned the triggering of pods to manually. We all watched as our own died on the television screen. I wonder why Beetee left it up.

The screen goes back to the Capitol broadcast where the reporter no longer looks happy. Not even her surgically puffed up face, or her high eyebrows could hide the fact that she felt sick to her stomach. Something was different about this whole war. For once the rebels actually had a chance. For once the people in the districts, the ones they rooted for to die, would be in power above them. The Capitol people were scared out of their wits and it could not be hidden any longer.

They're told to evacuate. One line stuck to me, which Capitol people don't do to me often. It was somewhat compassionate, some sort of a camaraderie. "In times like these we must be together. We are under attack, we must strive even in these hard times." I honestly could not believe that those words had come from that woman, probably written by a person that had been to the districts, had felt what it felt like to be under attack, knew that sticking together was the best way of fighting back.

I guess what hit me the most about all of it was that I always had looked at the Capitol as the enemy, there was no other way. I had never turned to see it in their eyes. They only acted the way they did because they were told to. After all I was only the way I was because of my parents, my friends, they sculpted me. We shouldn't look at the Capitol people as the enemy. Only Snow, and his close followers, and all those people that caused us pain with out a second thought, but not the people, definitely not the people.

All of us turn to look out the window, crowds of people making their way towards the President's mansion. Tigris offers to go out and find out what everyone is saying and if anything can help us. We all go down stairs, she locks us in and we all listen as her stealth like footsteps leave the shop upstairs.

It's a long time before she returns and while we wait we all come to the worst scenarios. Right before she enters I'm convinced that she's been captured and she's told our location and that the Peacekeepers were coming for us right that very moment. It scared me; I did not want to be in their hands any longer. They all had pills to off themselves with. Me, I had nothing, only my evil insanity to take me away from whatever they do to me.

A sigh of relief as I realize the footsteps that come are light and not heavy. Peaceful, not hateful.

She got us food that she actually cooks. When the aromas hit us we all realize how badly we needed good nutrition. We eat and listen as she tells us about her day. She isn't a woman of many words, but she does get her point across. People might have to stay here. I say it out loud and let it sink in. This might not be a safe haven for long.

The television shows how intense things really have been. A young man was killed, only because he looked like me. The man in the picture really doesn't look like me, his hair is blonde, but that is all. He didn't even have my waves.

My stomach drops. Innocent people can't be dying anymore. Especially not because they look like me. I feel at fault for that death. Not because he looked like me, but because me being out on the run-trying to defeat the Capitol-put so much hate in people that they would kill someone for having the same hair color as me.

Katniss and Gale leave after that news report. They come back shortly after. She sits down across from me and he stays standing. "Look Peeta, we have to go out there, we can't stay here forever. We're leaving tomorrow, but the thing is you're too unpredictable. You've said so yourself. It'd be best if you stayed here until this is all over and done with."

I understand what she is saying, I don't want to be a cause of harm for them, but at the same time I don't want to be a sitting duck. I want to help defeat the Capitol. They had harmed me more than they had most. I couldn't just sit here and not fight, I had to fight.

"Sound good." I say, letting the silence fill the room and the long sighs of relief enter into the atmosphere before saying, "I'm going out on my own."

The breaths are sucked back in.

First of all May the Fourth be with you.

Second of all go read my friend's fanfic The Hoping Games, THG in Prim's perspective! Link below!

Third of all, it didn't take me a week to update!

Don't forget to REVIEW on the way out! Thanks! ~boywithbreadlover

Here it is, seriously read it: s/9258058/1/The-Hoping-Games