A/N: Here's your first one POV chapter. ;) From Cato.
So it's just the six of us now. Me, Finnick, Johanna, Carissa, Vince, and Myron. Okay. No Peeta. Breathe.
While we're being transported to District Four, Finnick, who is next to me, begins talking to me. He says, "Hey."
"Hi..." I sigh.
"I have something I need to ask you." I look to him. "Don't freak out."
I raise an eyebrow. "You're not gonna tell me you love me, are you?"
"No!" He laughs. "Actually, when we get back, Annie and I are getting married. And following traditions from back home...I need a best man."
"You're asking me?" Of all people? Now?
"Will you?"
"Of course."
It must be...maybe midnight when we land in District Four. And it's cold because it's late. We were armed with guns and various weapons of choice that we can fit in our personal packs, but I'm shivering so much that I drop my bag. Or maybe I'm just nervous and I was shaking too much.
"Get your shit together." Finnick says, taking something out of his pack and throwing it at my face. "He said to remind you of him."
"What?" I grab at my face and take the mystery item off. It's his...my? Our District Twelve jacket. "Thanks..." I say, slipping the jacket on over my uniform. Peeta...
We're near some warehouse, which I follow the other five into. Maybe we'll eat. Or sleep.
But no. We go over game plan for the early morning at sunrise. We will go straight to the Justice Building to force surrender on the Peacekeepers. Prepare to fight.
Then, they pass me a dish of somewhat warm chicken. Happy dinner for me.
We talked while we ate. About our lives. Why we're here. Obviously Finnick and Johanna are here because their victors who are fed up with the Capitol's antics. Then, Carissa is here to avenge the death of her brother, who died in the Games from an earthquake triggered by the Gamemakers. She's from District Six. Myron has been in District Thirteen since he was three. He can't remember where he was born. And Vince came from District Five before his sixth Reaping. And as he says, he was born a rebel and "would sacrifice himself for this cause." His life for everyone else's.
And then there's me.
For Peeta. For me and Peeta.
Most of the night, I spend my time staying quiet or writing a letter to Peeta. If anything, I talk to Finnick for a while after everyone else goes to sleep. I don't dislike everyone else or anything, but I just don't like people in general. I'm alright with Finnick, though.
And then we sleep.
As always, I'm the last one to wake up. I exchange the usual "Not now, Mom," and, "This isn't your mother, Cato." So I say, "Oh. Five more minutes, Peeta."
"This isn't Peeta," a voice says. When I open my eyes, I see that everyone is ready to go. Myron is kneeling down beside me, shaking me awake. "It's time to go. Hurry."
I miss Peeta. But I can keep myself sane by remembering he's finally safe. Even if he's without me for the time being, he's safe. Although, I'd imagine he's sad about not having to wake me up in the morning.
I sit up, stretching, and look behind me to find my pack and gun. The gun is kinda large, but I've seen bigger. These must've been designed specifically to be able to be concealed inside our uniforms.
Once I get everything together, I head towards the door where everyone is waiting for me. "Ready."
"Do you remember your assignments, everybody?" Myron asks. "Finnick and I will scout District Four for anything useful. After all, he knows the area best."
"Me and Johanna, right?" Carissa says. "What are we doing? Left wing of the Justice Building?"
"Yeah. Cato and I get the right," Vince chimes in. And as a reminder, I raise my right hand. I'll remember because it's the one that last touched Peeta.
We're all rebel-victor pairs, for good measure. Okay, I can handle this. We're all strong. And confident in our abilities. And it's not like this is my first time outrunning Peacekeepers. It's not a first for any of us.
The sun is just barely up so there's almost no one out on the streets. Regardless, we have to stay on the down low, so we spend forever weaving in and out of alleys, hiding behind buildings, and occasionally hiding in dumpsters. Fun. But after a while, Finnick and Myron leave to go "take care of business" elsewhere.
The four of us—me, Vince, Johanna, and Carissa—reach the Justice Building finally, but we all stay at one side. I carefully look past the bush in the direction of the huge double doors. There are no Peacekeepers guarding the outside, but there's almost no doubt in my mind that they'll be right inside. I whisper, "Okay…there's no one outside. But what do we do?"
"We go in," Johanna remarks sarcastically.
I sigh, crossing my arms. "I mean how are we going to get past anyone inside?"
"Worst comes to worst, we fight." Carissa shrugs, readjusting her backpack.
So we look around the street for any signs of life. There have been a few people who walked by, but it's still pretty early, so people are probably just waking up now or are eating breakfast. Even then, we don't have much time, so we make a run for the front of the building, concluding with me kicking one of the doors open. The other three are prepared, with their guns raised toward the doors, but no one attacks us. There's something wrong here.
As if reading my mind, Vince says, "There could've been a Finnick Odair sighting, you know."
"Because he needs all the bodyguards he can get to protect him from all the crazy girls, right?" I laugh. It's entirely possible that's why there's no one by the door. They could've created some distraction, by accident or on purpose, that would require Peacekeepers to go check out the problem. "Let's go then. Right." I think for a moment before pointing in the correct direction. Good.
The girls run off to the left, but Vince and I take our time walking down our path. This place is a labyrinth; the hallways split and turn and just generally go in every direction, with a million doors all over the place. We're looking for some meeting area or another room that would hold enough Peacekeepers for us to force them to surrender. But we can't do that unless we find them!
I look through the windows of some of the doors. Most of the rooms are identical and have cameras attached to the corners of the ceilings.
Cameras.
"They know we're here," I say deadpan.
"How do you know that?"
"They have cameras in those rooms. Probably the hallways, too." I look around, pointing the gun everywhere. "The Capitol can see everything. They're probably communicating with the Peacekeepers right now."
And the moment we hear a thousand footsteps of the enemy force trailing behind us, we break into a run.
"Where are we going?!" I scream, hearing gunshots behind us.
"We have to meet up with the girls!" He grabs my arm and pulls me along the hallway, narrowly avoiding a bullet. "We'll figure out what to do then!"
We sprint through the winding hallway as fast as we possibly can. Then, at the end of one hallway, it splits into two very different looking paths. It looks like one might lead back to where we started, and the other going somewhere completely different. I just don't know which one goes where.
As we continue running, I yell, "Which way?! Left or right?!"
They had just rounded the corner when I said that. Oh god. Don't shoot me down.
"Left! Left!"
I try to turn left with him, but with my mind thinking on instinct instead of actually thinking, I tug in the opposite direction.
"Damn it, Cato!" I hear him stumble a little bit behind me as he follows me into…a dead end with one room. As I'm opening the door, he says, "I said left!" Too late for that.
I pull him inside the room, slam the door shut, lock it, and barricade it with a large desk.
I can hear their footsteps pounding just a little ways away, so we both run over to a counter and hide behind it, ducking so that they can't see us through the window. They know we're here, but if they can't see us, they can't shoot us. Simple as that.
I notice a window behind us, too. Maybe we can go out that way.
They start pounding on the door, trying to get in. I'm afraid to peek over the counter in case they shoot through the window. Oh god. This is where I'm going to die, unless we can get out the window. Just let me out. I want to see Peeta again. Just once more. One more time would make me happy. I never even really said a goodbye to him. I just waved. No, I need to see him again. I promised I would go back for him. I can't die here. That would be breaking a promise.
Then, I realize that they could just shoot through the window and climb through that way. Then they'd definitely get us. Oh my god. What are they doing back there? Just kill me already. I'm begging now. If you're all going to kill us, just do it.
"Why aren't they shooting?" I wonder aloud from behind the protection of the counter.
"They're saving their bullets. Whoever does you in gets a large sum of money, so they'd like to get a clear shot at you." Yeah, because people in the Capitol need more money. "You'll get yourself killed out here, you know," Vince says. "With that jacket, I mean." He tugs on the rolled-up sleeve of my jacket.
"Why?" I ask, carefully peeking over the counter to see how things are going behind the barricaded doors.
He lifts his arms and blindly fires the gun over the counter in the general direction of the door window, unfortunately hitting the wall instead of the enemy. "You know their first priority, if anything, is to kill you."
This is true. Of course they'd want to kill me; I'm one of the main leaders of the rebellion. Not to mention I've done enough shit that would have gotten me killed long before District Thirteen came into my life, but that's a totally different story. "So?"
"So," he fires another shot at nothing, "the second they see that jacket, they'll shoot you down. No hesitation."
"I'm not getting rid of it," I scoff.
"Yes, I know, you won the Hunger Games in it, but that doesn't mean it's lucky—"
"But it's Peeta's jacket. He gave it to me before we left. I can't just toss it away like that!"
A/N: Uh-oh spaghettios. That's the end of that. Peeta's chapter is next. Review?
