16: Strike Two

Haymitch POV

The careers haven't come back yet. It's nightfall now, they should be back. Unless they know we are here and are too afraid to attack. That said, they could be planning an ambush. It's a decision of the bigger risk- staying here, where we are generally safe from mutts and unusual weather, but open to attacks from the careers are moving into the more covered forest area to hide. The careers would probably go after Katniss and Finnick, knowing that they are the greatest threats in terms of sponsors and weapons. We can't afford for them to die.

Johanna, perhaps we could. It's bad that I'm analysing my friends like this, I know, but there isn't room for sentimentality in planning a rebellion. I look across at Johanna. She is scowling at Katniss. I thought they might get along well because they are both rebellious and strong, but apparently not. Much as I respect her, I have to pin this one on Johanna. All Katniss did was try to help with Johanna's scratches.

Johanna is terrible at getting people to like her. Not that Katniss is much better at that though. Her acting was terrible, though it is improving. The baby act was done well. It can only be expected though, now that practically her whole life is acting for a different audience. The Capitol, the rebellion, I can see that Katniss could care less about both of them. She wants to help people, but not as much as she wants to keep her family safe and sound and live in peace.

Johanna is too rebellious, too emotional. In mind's eye, I see her at the interviews, swearing at the Capitolites. It was brilliant to watch and probably even better to do, but Johanna can't see the big picture. Swearing at the Capitolites won't bring them down, unfortunately. Johanna could have done a lot more damage if she had acted the part and made people love her, like Finnick. That was what we had planned and agreed, but she had to blow things up.

If she had done her job properly, I think, we would have had our spy in the careers. She's even better with the axe than I am, they would have accepted her. She could have poisoned their food while the rest were hunting, her mentor had agreed to send her the poison. Idiot. I don't want her to die, but it'll probably be her own fault if she does. Across from me, she stabs into her meat. I wonder who she's imagining. Most likely Snow, but it could be the game maker that made her Games, or her stylist or someone like that.

"The careers should be here now," Katniss says. "In my Games they were always back before nightfall so they could find their way back easily and so tributes couldn't ambush them easily. Do you think that they know we're here? Could they be planning an ambush, do you think?"

"Maybe," I respond. "They are always back before nightfall in every Games I've seen. They could be planning an ambush or they could be too afraid to attack us. There are eight of us after all."

"I doubt Nuts and Volts will be any use in a battle though," Johanna butts in. "Or Mags. There are only five of us who can fight, if you count Electra."

Electra glares at Johanna. "Just because I didn't go axe-crazy in my Games doesn't mean I can't fight. And Beetee can harness electricity to kill six tributes at once, so I think it's in our best interests to keep him alive. And unlike you, all the rest of us can use our brains and not just our weapons."

Johanna stands up, rage in her eyes. That was a bad idea, I think. "Without me, you would be dead now! I saved you from the mutts, you would have all died if it wasn't for me," she shouts. "Using your brain, that was very useful when there were ten gorillas chasing you through the forest."

"I killed gorillas too," Electra points out. She draws one of her short-swords. "See the blood? You're not the only one here who can fight, Johanna, so don't act like it. You make it sound like Katniss is so inexperienced, but at least she can get sponsors, and she scored higher in training than you did."

"Katniss is inexperienced! Just last year she was an unknown girl from District 12, who hadn't killed anyone, who hadn't had anyone they love die. She still hasn't, has she?" I know what Johanna is saying here. We have all had to experience loss. Snow killed mine and Johanna's families, Finnick had to watch his girlfriend fall into madness. Katniss got to retire after the Games to Victor's Village with her boyfriend and come out every so often for interviews and photo shoots. See the odd rebellion person get killed. No one close to her.

"I had to watch Aravis die," Katniss protests. "I had to go through the Games not sure if my family would still be alive when I got back. I was relying on the baker boy to give them food, if his mother would let him. My family can't get tesserae while I'm in the Games, they could have starved."

"But they didn't, did they? You came home to District Twelve with your precious boyfriend and had your happily ever after. And Aravis? You watched a girl you knew for a few days die, such loss." Johanna says this with a surprising amount of venom. Katniss and Gale hardly had a fairy tale ending, but Johanna is right about Aravis. It's not nice to lose an ally, that's true, but it's hardly a true loss like Finnick, Johanna or I have had. Katniss losing Gale would be a true loss.

"You wouldn't care if an ally died?" Katniss demands. "That makes me feel good about trusting you. You just hate them more than me, don't you?" she asks. We all know who them are, but for the Capitol audience they probably think that she means the careers. Katniss can trust Johanna because of that though. Johanna would never betray her chance to get revenge.

"I would care, I wouldn't call it proper loss," Johanna says. "And I don't hate you, I just don't think that you're as good as you think you are. As everyone thinks you are."

Katniss opens her mouth to reply and I zone her out. I wish I had a drink right now. I wish I had allies that could just get along and make a decision without having a huge argument. Can't they see that there are bigger problems right now than whether Johanna would properly grieve if an ally died. Problems like careers that might at this moment be planning to ambush us.

"Shut up," I yell. "Shut up both of you. Now we have a simple decision to make. Two options. One, we stay here and risk ambush from the careers, but stay near a water source and away from most of the mutts. Two, we leave, take the career supplies and go into the forest where we will be safer from the careers. Choose. Don't argue, just say one or two."

"Two," Katniss says.

"One," says Johanna.

"I think two. Finnick?"

"Two is better," Finnick says. "We can't afford to put Katniss in danger."

Electra votes one. Mags votes two. Wiress says one. Beetee says two. I count up the votes in my head. "We go to the forest. Johanna, don't argue, just do what I say for once." We collect up the career supplies and weapons and head across to the forest. Johanna stays silent, but it's a reluctant silence.

I think about District 13 and what it will be like. If I will even make it there. Our plan is good, but not foolproof. If the Capitol get to us before District 13 do, or if Beetee fails to break the force field, or if Katniss or I die before then, the plan will all fall apart. And then there's Gale's part to think about too. The other mentors will hopefully manage to get him out easier than we can get Katniss our because there is no force field around the Capitol, but it's still risky.

The District 13 representative made it sound so simple and methodical. Have Beetee destroy the force field. He designed it after all. One of you needs to knock out Katniss and take the tracker. We'll pick you up and take you to the rest of the rebellion, where you will meet the mentor victors. Yeah right. Real life doesn't go like that, I know from experience. They made it sound that way the first time they tried to recruit me and look how that turned out.

I grimace, thinking of my mother and father and older sister. All dead. I remember their faces, pale and sick. Some sort of Capitol virus, I'm sure. District 13 hadn't warned me that they wouldn't just go after me, but also after my loved ones. They had made it sound so heroic back then, about stirring the people to do what is right. Ha.

I wonder what Katniss thinks war will be like. Does she know that it won't be as cut-and-dry as us-good, them-evil? Know about the innocent, unknowing Capitol civilians that walk the streets everyday not even knowing that in the outer Districts, people starve regularly. Will she be able to kill them with that knowledge? Knowing that they are just people who want the best for themselves and their families.

Or what about the peacekeepers? They will actually be fighting for the Capitol, they will be actively opposing her. She knows that there were good peacekeepers in District 12. I remember she used to sell game to the head peacekeeper- what was his name again? Darius, I think. Probably dead now, after Thread had him hauled out of the main square in Twelve with a sack over his head. The only people I've seen get that treatment are people headed for firing squads.

Darius would probably have fought for the Capitol, because they were paying his wages and because he wants to provide for his family. He was probably from District Two, most peacekeepers are. Not all of them are murderously insane like the careers are, and the innocents won't be spared when it comes to war.

Perhaps I should have told her. But what good would it have done? At best she would walk out of that conversation discouraged and sad, realising the full extent of her actions in the Games- which wouldn't help our cause at all and probably make her less convincing when she advertises for it. At worst she would call off the rebellion altogether, and Snow and the Capitol will rule for at least another fifty years. No, I was right to keep it hidden.

The sound of lightning striking penetrates my eardrums and I wonder if the bloody rain will start again. If the careers were watching us, they've probably taken back the cornucopia by now. The Capitol audiences have probably had their share of blood for today, if they ever fill of it. The average Capitolite may not be evil, but they are blind enough that they can enjoy seeing people, mainly children, kill each other on TV.

Suddenly, I hear a scream. It sounds familiar. It's close enough to us that whatever is putting it in danger will also be a threat for us. Katniss takes out her bow and arrow and I my axe.

"Katniss! Help me! Katniss!" a high pitched voice screams.

"Prim?" Katniss shouts desperately. "Prim, I'm coming!" I grab Katniss's arm and pull her behind me before she does anything stupid. It doesn't make sense. Prim can't be here in the arena, it's one of the rules the gamemakers must abide by. No other humans in the arena other than the tributes.

An arrow flies by my ear and I turn to Katniss angrily. "Did you just try to kill me?" I ask. "Are you an idiot? I'm your ally, running away from me is only going to get you killed." I snatch the bow out of her hands and hold it away from her, grasping her arm tightly with my other hand.

"No.. Look," Katniss says, gesturing with her free arm to the floor a few metres away from me. Lying dead is a black and white bird that looks strangely familiar. I try to place it in my mind. I've seen these before somewhere, now what was it? It must have been in one of the books of mutts that District 13 gave me to study when I was their hope.

"That's a jabberjay," Johanna says. Of course. Looks a bit like a mockingjay. I should have recognised that. "They were used in the first war, they imitated the rebels and brought back plans to the Capitolites."

"Annie!" Finnick screams behind me. "Mags, what do I do, they're hurting Annie. They've recorded her screams, we need to do something."

That sets Katniss off, realising that her little sister might be being tortured. I hear Gale's voice in there too. Johanna and I are standing to the side awkwardly. I still have Katniss's arm held firmly to prevent her from running off. Both of our families and all of our loved one's were killed, I remember. These mutts have no effect on us.

"Hold Finnick," I order Johanna. "Make sure he doesn't run off." She nods and springs after Finnick, catching up to him easily. She kicks him in the back off his legs and he falls to the floor. She sits on him and holds his arms down, preventing him from moving anything but his head. Not what I expected, but effective.

"It's fine," I try to reassure Katniss, making my voice as soothing as it goes. It isn't very. I want to slap her and tell her to start using her brain, tell her that the Capitol would be going crazy if they tortured the little sister of the girl on fire. Prim is pretty popular in the Capitol.

"How is it fine?" Katniss screams at me. "They're hurting Prim, you can hear her screaming. Mockingjays imitate, they could only have gotten that sound from her."

I clamp my hand over her mouth. "Listen to me. They wouldn't hurt Prim. They love her in the Capitol. You don't think that they have the technology to imitate Prim's voice? They've recorded her enough times, at the reaping, at the visits, they've probably had cameras on her at other times as well."

Katniss stops struggling for a second, but I don't relax my grip. "We're staying here. Put your hands over your ears, try to ignore it." I let her arm go and she cover her ears hastily. Her expression looks tortured. I look across at the others. Finnick is still failing to struggle under Johanna. Beetee and Wiress are hugging each other, telling each other comforting words. Electra is squatting by a tree trunk, hands over her ears, shuddering.

There are a few jabberjays screaming for help from me, in the voices of my family. I catch Maysilee Donner's voice in there as well. I doesn't bother me though. I know they are dead. If I can go through seeing Maysilee and my family die in person, I can go through hearing their voices.

The calls of the jabberjays go on for a long time. Finnick gives up his struggling. Electra sits up, Katniss removes her hands from her ears. They're becoming desensitised to it now. Johanna let's Finnick up and he glares at her. The sounds have just become background noise to us now. I smirk to the Capitol cameras. You'll have to do better than that.

xXx-X-xXx

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed a chapter from Haymitch's POV. Please leave a review telling me what you thought, constructive criticism is always welcome. If you liked it and follow or favourite that would also make me a very happy person.

-MoonOfPluto