A few days later I find Katniss coming into Victor's Village. She looks up and forces a smile onto her face. I can tell she has been in the woods, probably with Gale since it is Sunday. Something about the look on her face makes me think she didn't have a good visit with her best friend.
"Been hunting?" I ask. I really wish she would stop since we are all being watched. I fear that one day she will disappear into the woods and never come back.
"Not really. Going to town?" She looks back toward town. She seems like she wants to say something.
"Yes. I am supposed to eat dinner with my family," I answer. Luckily I decided to leave early, since I know Katniss wants to talk about something. I will wait until she brings it up, though.
"Well, I can at least walk you in," she says. This is wise because if she really does want to talk to me about something chances are it is something no one really needs to hear and the road that goes into town does not get used very often. We walk in silence for most of the way. I keep running through things that she would be having trouble telling her. Well, since it is Katniss and she doesn't like to ask for help or express her feelings, I imagine it could be a number of things she is having trouble saying.
Once we see the square in the distance she suddenly blurts out, "Peeta, if I asked you to run away from the district with me, would you?" I stop, take her arm to make her to stop and look at her face. Of course, I really do not need to see her face to know she is serious.
"Depends on why you're asking," I say.
"President Snow wasn't convinced by me. There's an uprising in District Eight. We have to get out," she says quickly. My mind is reeling, there's really an uprising the one of the districts?
"By 'we' do you mean just you and me? No. Who else would be going?" Her family will be on this list, but will her 'cousins'?
"My family. Yours, if they want to come. Haymitch, maybe," she rattles off. Yeah, like my family would leave what little security they have. But she didn't say a key person on that list.
"What about Gale?"
"I don't know," she shifts nervously. I know she has already talked to him and he obviously did not give her the answer she wanted. "He might have other plans." Of course he does. He is a fighter, he seems like he would be one who would lead an uprising. I smile at her, shaking my head.
"I bet he does. Sure, Katniss, I'll go." No need to add that I would follow her anywhere, gladly.
Her lips lift upward a bit, "You will?" I can see a small glimmer of hope in her eyes.
I sigh and have to explain myself a bit more. "Yeah. But I don't think for a minute you will," I say. She is also a fighter. She would never save a few of us and leave others behind to face the wrath of the Capitol if we were to turn up missing. Her face turns red and she jerks her arm free from my grip.
"Then you don't know me," she snaps. "Be ready. It could be any time." She starts walking toward town. Immediately I feel bad for upsetting her. I do not want her to think I am making fun or her, or even that she doesn't have the guts to do it.
"Katniss," I say, trying to catch up with her. I still have trouble with my artificial leg and the slippery snow that surrounds us. "Katniss, hold up," I say, a bit more firmly, but still gentle. She pauses and lets me catch up with her. She matches her pace to mine and I say, "I really will go, if you want me to. I just think we better talk it through with Haymitch. Make sure we won't be making things worse for everyone." I hear a whistling sound, then some sort of impact and a reaction from a crowd. What is going on? "What's that?" I ask. I suddenly have a really bad feeling about this noise, sounds almost like the sound I heard while getting belt whippings from my mother.
"Come one," I say, walking as fast as I can towards the sound. We can only make it as far as the candy shop because of the people surrounding the square. I step on a helpful crate to see over the heads of the crowd. As I scan the scene I put my hand down to help Katniss up as well. Then I really see what is going on. There is a Peacekeeper with a whip, blood dripping from it. He is no one I have ever seen, but is clearly our new Head Peacekeeper because of the uniform he wears. I look at the person tied up in front of him, a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Of course, it is Gale Hawthorne, a wild turkey nailed above him, shows his crime. I pull my hand back and shift so Katniss cannot climb the rest of the way up. She needs to get away from here, fast. She does not need to see what is happening. I cannot take my eyes away from Gale's unconscious figure.
"Get down," I whisper urgently. "Get out of here!" I can only pray she will listen.
"What?" she says, trying to push me over.
"Go home, Katniss! I'll be there in a minute." I look down at her. "I swear!"
Instead of listening she yanks her hand out of mine and pushes her way through the crowd. I try to follow, but people are not willing to move for me after they just moved for her.
"No!" I hear her cry. I cannot see what is happening, but I know she will be trying to put herself between Gale and the whip. When I finally push my way to the front of the crowd all I can see is Katniss standing protectively in front of Gale, arms out to protect him, not herself and then the whip hits her square in the left side of her face. I am stunned that this man would ever hit a woman, especially a famous victor. She falls to her knees and I hear her yell, "Stop it! You'll kill him!" She reaches up next to her shoulder, like she would if she had her quiver and bow. I see this new man begin to raise the whip again and I am begin to run in between them when I hear a voice yell, "Hold it!"
It's Haymitch, he trips over an unconscious Peacekeeper, from the looks of the hair it is Darius, but makes his way to the scene. I slowly walk forward, knowing I need to try to make it better, not worse. Haymitch ignores the new Peacekeeper and pulls Katniss up. "Oh, excellent." He grabs her under the chin and turns her face as if to get a better look at the damage. "She's got a photo shoot next week modeling wedding dresses. What am I supposed to tell her stylist?" The man puts the whip down and says, "She interrupted the punishment of a confessed criminal." He has an accent and I can tell he is one of the worse kinds of Peacekeepers.
"I don't care if she blew up the Justice Building! Look at her cheek! Think that will be camera ready in a week?" Haymitch is so good at this.
"That's not my problem," the man says, but a bit of uncertainly leaks in. Haymitch turns on him, looking him square in the eye.
"No? Well, it's about to be, my friend. The first call I make when I get home is to the Capitol. I need to find out who authorized you to mess up my victor's pretty little face!"
"He was poaching. What business is it of hers anyway?"
I walk up and take Katniss by the arm. "He's her cousin,'' I say gently. "And she's my fiancée." I take a breath and look him in the eye like Haymitch did. I hope he can hear the hate in my voice. "So if you want to get to him, expect to go through both of us." The man looks over his shoulder at the guard behind him. I glance and notice that they are the normal Peacekeepers we are used to. The looks on their faces range from sadness to outrage at the scene before them. One of them, a women who I believe is named Purnia, steps forward. She is clearly nervous, but says is a steady voice, "I believe, for a first offense, the required number of lashes has been dispensed, sir. Unless your sentence is death, which we would carry out by firing squad."
"Is that the standard protocol here?"
"Yes, sir," she answers, others nodding in agreement.
"Very well. Get your cousin out of here, then, girl. And if he comes to, remind him that the next time he poaches off the capitol's land, I'll assemble that firing squad personally." The new Head Peacekeeper then wipes the wipe with his hand, splattering us with Gale's blood. He rolls the whip up and walks away. The other peacekeepers fall into line behind him, but a few take the arms and legs of Darius and carries him along.
"Gale," Katniss says. She turns and starts trying to unknot the ropes. Haymitch passes me his knife and I cut him free. "Better get him to your mother," Haymitch says to Katniss as I pass the knife back to him.
I am able to buy the countertop from the old lady who sells clothing. "Just don't tell where you got it," she says fearfully. She quickly gathers her items and walks away. In fact, the square is almost deserted now that the whipping is over. Everyone is probably too scared to be associated with us. We lay Gale face down on the board and the four men that are left lift him and begin carrying him to the Village. I hear Katniss talking to someone behind us, but I do not concentrate on the words.
"Leevy!" I hear her yell. "Don't let her bring the kids." Of course, someone is off to get Gale's mother. I do not hear the response, but it is just moments that Katniss has caught up with us.
"Get some snow on that," Haymitch says to Katniss over his shoulder. I am sure she did what he said, but I do not try to look. Even with the strength of the two other men and Haymitch, Gale is stocking and pretty heavy and I am unsteady on my leg. But no one grows impatient and we keep a steady pace towards Katniss's house.
As we walk I hear the two men, who I gather are on the same mining crew with Gale, tell what happened. Gale apparently went to see Cray, our old Head Peacekeeper, because he pays well for wild turkey. But Cray was not who answered the door, it was this new man, Romulus Thread, I think I heard on of them call him. Gale was put under arrest and brought to the square. He was forced to plead guilty and was sentenced to the whipping. People heard about it pretty quickly and most were so surprised they had to see that it was true.
"When you stepped in he had been whipped at least forty times," one of them, who I think is called Bristel, says to Katniss. "He passed out around thirty," he adds quietly. "Lucky he only had the turkey on him. If he'd had his usual haul, would've been much worse."
"He told Thread he found it wandering around the Seam," the other man says. "Said it got over the fence and he'd stabbed it with a stick. Still a crime. But if they'd known he'd been in the woods with weapons, they'd killed him for sure."
"What about Darius?" I ask. How did he end up knocked out?
"After about 20 lashes, he stepped in, saying that was enough." Yes, I could see him doing that, he was one of the nicest Peacekeepers in town. "Only he didn't do it smart and official like Purnia did. He grabbed Thread's arm and Thread hit him in the head with the butt of the whip. Nothing good waiting for him," Bristel says.
Snow is beginning to fall and Haymitch says, "Doesn't sound like much good for any of us." We are finally reaching Katniss's house. Her mother opens to door, no doubt thinking we are Katniss, and steps back to let us in.
"New Head," Haymitch explains as she takes in the lifeless form of Gale. She nods. Prim and her cleans the kitchen table off in record time and when we finally lay Gale down there is a clean, white sheet spread across the table.
I step back along with Haymitch and watch as Katniss's mother gets to work. She pours water into a tub as she is instructing Prim as to what to pull out of various cabinets. I have never seen her at work like this. I have always thought of her to be kind of a weak person, especially when she withdrew from everything after the loss of her husband. I know Katniss tried her best to make sure no one knew about that, and probably would deny it if she was asked, but when you paid attention to someone as much as I paid attention to Katniss you pick up on things.
"Did it cut your eye?" she asks Katniss. This is the first time I really look at Katniss since getting hit by the whip. Her face takes me breath and it is all I can do not to cry out for the pain she must be in. The part of her face that I can see, that is not covered by the dripping snow and her hand, is swollen and a nasty red color.
"No, it's just swelled shut," Katniss responds, clearly not worried about herself at all. Her mother nods and says, "Get more snow on it." She turns her full attention back to what used to be Gale's back. Since Katniss has not started out to get more snow I figure I could grab some for her real quick. I am not doing much of anything just staring at her face and Gale's back.
"Can you save him?" I hear Katniss ask as I grab a rag from a stack on the counter and close the back door. She is so worried about him. Well, I am worried about him to, but I can hear the pain in her voice. The thought of Katniss in pain makes me want to march right to that new Head's house and whip him with that crude whip. I sigh and scoop up snow in the rag. I imagine my family saw the whole thing from their window at the bakery, so they probably know what I didn't show up for dinner.
I walk back into the kitchen and see Katniss's mother gently cleaning and arrangement the flesh on Gale's back. Prim is mixing things together in a big bowl and Katniss is still just standing in the same spot. I go over to her and gently guide her to a nearby chair and put the new snow on her face. She's is right about the eye being swollen shut, but at least it doesn't seem to have giving her a deep cut. She might end up with a small scar.
Haymitch is with Bristel and the other man at the back door. He tells them they should probably get home and I see him press some coins into each of their hands. They at first try to give the money back, but Haymitch says, "Don't know what will happen to your crew." They both finally nod, give one last glance at Gale and go out the door.
It is just moments later that Gale's mother arrives. The snow must have picked up because there is a good amount in her hair when she walks in the door. She on a stool next to the table and holds onto Gale's hand.
We all sit in silence as we watch Katniss's mom work over Gale's body. Cleaning, arranging the flesh back to where it needs to be, putting an ointment on each slash and a bandaging. I can hear Katniss's mother and Prim discussing the pain medication that they have in stock. Gale is beginning coming to as she finishes the final bandage. Katniss stirs a bit under my hand. I look at her and see her good eye is narrowed at her mother. I wonder what is going through her mind right now, if she wishes she could be over there holding his hand, stroking his hair and whispering encouraging words, like his mother is doing right now.
Kantiss's mother and Prim have decided to give Gale some kind of drink with herbs in it for the pain.
"That won't be enough," Katniss says softly. Her mother and Prim turn and look at her. "That won't be enough, I know how it feels. That will barely knock out a headache," she explains, he voice a bit louder.
"We'll combine it with sleep syrup, Katniss," her mother explains. "He'll manage it. The herbs are more for the inflammation…" Katniss suddenly jumps up, knocking me off the small stool I was sitting on, holding the snow on her face.
She starts toward her mother, yelling. "Just give him the medicine! Give it to him! Who are you, anyway, to decide how much pain he can stand?" I am shocked. I would never speak to my mother like that.
We all turn toward Gale, who is still semi-unconscious, since he is trying to stir at the sound of Katniss's voice. He is clearly trying to get her. This causes blood to saturate the bandage and a small maon escape out of Gale's mouth.
"Take her out," her mother says calmly. Haymitch and I immediately grab her by the arms and take her down the hall to an extra bedroom. We pin her down on the bed while she screams horrible things toward her mother. It doesn't take a terribly long time for her to quiet down. Haymitch sits up once she stop screaming and kicking. I sit up as well, taking her by the hand and rubbing small circles on the back of it.
"Haymitch. We didn't convince President Snow on tour. Katniss saw information about an uprising on the Mayor's TV the day of the Harvest Festival," I whisper. I know he is listening. "She wants us all to run." He nods, but still doesn't say anything either way. We both just sit with Katniss while she weeps. I keep rubbing the circles on the back of her hand until her mother comes in a treats her face. When she is finished she takes the same hand and Haymitch tells her to story we heard about the situation with Gale.
"So it's starting again?" she asks. "Like before?" I have no idea what she is talking about. I can only ever remember old Cray being our Head Peacekeeper.
"Byt the looks of it," Haymitch answers. "Who've have thought we'd ever be sorry to see old Cray go?" I am sure no one who have thought they would be sorry that old man go anywhere since he loved to take young girls, mostly starving girls from the Seam, into his bed in exchange for money. It wasn't something that was talked about, but something I have always thought was the lowest a man in power could go. Taking advantage of starving kids who just wanted to eat. To see their families eat.
The doorbell rings and Katniss jumps off the bed. We must all think the same thing. Noone would be coming to the door this late for a social call. It must be Peacekeepers.
"They can't have him," Katniss says fiercely.
"Might be you they're after," Haymitch reminds her. Well, they can't have her, either.
"Or you," she snaps at him.
"Not my house. But I'll get the door," Haymitch offers.
"No, I'll get it," says Katniss's mother.
We all follow her to the door. Whoever it is, they are persistent, ringing the bell a few more times. When she opens the door I see Madge, the mayor's daughter. She holds a small box out and says, "Use these for your friend." Katniss takes the box and lifts the lid. There are small bottles of clear liquid. "They're my mother's. She said I could take them. Use them, please," she begs. I think about how she really shouldn't be out by herself this late. She turns and runs back into the snow storm before I could offer to walk her home.
"Crazy girl," Haymitch says, closing the door behind her and following Katniss and her mother back to the kitchen.
Katniss was right when she said that the drink given to Gale wasn't going to be enough. He is covered in sweat and his teeth look like they will break, he is gritting them so hard. Katniss's mother fills a syringe with the clear liquid and quickly shoots it into Gale's arm. His face begins to relax and I see Katniss give a small sigh of relief as well.
"What's that stuff?" I ask,
"It's from the Capitol. It's called morphling," she answers.
"I didn't even know Madge knew Gale," I say. I wonder if she is one of those girls who have a crush on him. Katniss's face changes a bit when I say that.
"We used to sell her strawberries," she almost growls.
"She must have a taste for them," Haymitch says, clearing thinking along the same lines I am. Maybe they have a thing together? Who really knows? Katniss must be thinking that too because she looks like she could spit nails.
"She's my friend," she says, maybe trying to convince herself that there is nothing going on between the two. She is really quiet cute when she looks jealous. Then I realize that she is jealous of a possible relationship between Gale and someone else. Ahhhh…..of course. I know they are close, but could she possibly love him with him that way? I know she loves him, they have a great bond, but does she love him the way I love her?
Prim bring each of us some stew and bread. I eat quietly, just hoping that things will work out for us all. How is it going to be around here now that this man is Head. What other changes are in for us all? Prim offers to fix the bedroom on the ground floor for Gale's mother, but she has to get home to the other children. Haymitch offers to walk her home and soon after I decide I should leave as well. I give Prim and Katniss's mother thanks for the stew. I look at Katniss, who look just lost as she looks at Gale. I touch the side of her face, something she doesn't even seem to notice and walk out the door.
As I walk the few feet to my own house I realize that even while Gale is in so much pain I would change places with him if it meant Katniss would not be in the pain that she is clearly in now. How can I wish myself getting whipped? I guess though, when it comes to Katniss, I would literally die if it would mean she would be happy. I would gladly take my last breath at this moment, at any moment if it meant she could live a happy, free life. A life that we will never see under the rule of the Capitol. I am thinking these things as I walk in my back door. I really should get some sleep, but instead I find myself pulling together the items I need to make bread. This is something I do without thinking when I am stressed or have a nightmare at night.
I know that our houses are probably bugged, but thankfully I still have my own thoughts. I find myself wishing for the uprising. Hoping it does happen, hoping that, somehow, so way, we can all find our voices again. Have freedom to live, not just survive, but actually live. I want to give this not only to myself, to Katniss, but to the whole country of Panem that has to suffer while the Capitol lives it up. Bets on the deaths of children every year and celebrates those deaths over and over.
But how could we break free? How could a little place like District 12 ever be able to stand against any kind of force the Capitol has? What could a baker from this district do to help? Really, what could I do to save her so she can marry that man she is so clearly in love with?