27.
Haymitch quickly crossed the small distance from their campsite near the lake to the place slightly hidden by trees they had been using to wash up earlier, in an attempt at preserving the last remnants of dignity they all had. The camp was busy and a little louder than he would have liked but it was the first time in days that they'd stopped and he didn't want to damper anyone's relief and joy at finally being out of the cars.
After what had happened to Prim, the general mood had been difficult. Not only did they all have to deal with their own grief but, on top of that, there had been the Katniss problem. The girl was withdrawn, always curled up in a place or another, they needed to force her to eat and drink, getting a word out of her was a herculean task… She seemed to live in her own little bubble of despair. The only one who could usually coax her out was Peeta and even then it was tenuous at best. She didn't want to look at Gale, she glared at Coin, she tolerated Effie, Johanna and Haymitch but she didn't engage with them, Annie was still dealing with her own pain over Finnick, and Plutarch had always been nice with her but they weren't friends. The Katniss situation had only added tension to an already unstable mix.
He ducked under a low branch and immediately spotted Effie, standing alone with her back turned to him, wearing nothing but her blue jeans and a pink bra. Shaking his head at her recklessness, he wrapped an arm around her middle from behind. She startled and then relaxed against his chest.
"If I was a zombie, you would be dead, sweetheart." he chided her, dropping a kiss on her shoulder. His hand was spread on her ribcage, he could feel every single bone. She needed to eat more. They all did.
"And yet I would still be less dead than this shirt." she sighed, showing the blue blouse she had been so focused on. It was badly stained in parts and he didn't think she would manage to get it back to its original color. "I loved it." she lamented before dropping it on a pile on the right. There was another in front of her and one to her left. Apparently, she was very busy sorting and washing all of their clothes. He saw one of his shirts and spied some of Katniss' in there too.
"You should have taken someone with you to do that." he grumbled. "I don't want you alone. Anything could happen." And by anything he meant she could have disappeared mysteriously without anyone being the wiser. He and Johanna had been watching the rebels like hawks ever since Prim's death, keeping a watchful eye on the rest of their group too. He didn't think Plutarch was or had been involved in anything – or he was an exceptional actor.
Coin was growing more and more restless and agitated every day. She wasn't right in the head anymore, everyone could see it, even her right hand. If Plutarch had called her out on it… But there was no use going down that road. Plutarch was very much a power lover but he wasn't a leader, not in the traditional sense, he was a man behind the scenes, not the guy outright calling the shots.
Haymitch snatched a sweater from the pile on the left and forced it over Effie's head. She let him but rolled her eyes.
"You do realize I can dress by myself, yes?" she taunted.
"And yet, here you are, strutting around the woods in nothing but a bra." he snorted, smoothing the sweater over her body if only to cup a feel.
"You love that bra." she reminded him with a grin, clasping her hands behind his neck.
"All the more reason not to flaunt it at me when we don't have time to do anything." he replied, still very willingly giving her the kiss she was so obviously requesting. As often with them, the kiss turned into two and then three and he had to put a stop to it before he forgot where they were and he started something they wouldn't be able to finish. He was also surprised at the lack of "eeew" and "you're too old for that" but given the state the girl was in, maybe she didn't even care about what he and Effie did anymore. "Where's Katniss?"
Effie's brow immediately furrowed in a frown. "What do you mean? She's with Johanna and Peeta."
"No." He let go of her to take another proper look around the clearing but there was no brooding teenager sitting on a rock. "Peeta said she went after you."
"She didn't." she denied, looking around with a frantic expression. It was odd how little it took to shatter a peaceful moment nowadays, he mused. "Do you think she went deeper into the woods? Do you think…"
She didn't finish her sentence but she didn't need to, they only had to exchange a glance. They had never discussed it but Effie just like Haymitch had been very careful not to leave the girl alone with knives or guns or anything she could use to hurt herself.
"Go get the others." he told her. "We need to find her."
In the end, they left Plutarch and Annie at the campsite and started searching their surroundings. Haymitch wasn't sure Johanna and Peeta would cover a lot of ground because of his leg but Coin and Gale took off in the opposite direction he and Effie did. He'd rather have Gale with Coin. The boy wouldn't let anything happen to Katniss.
He and Effie didn't talk much between their frantic calling for the teenager that would probably attract zombies rather than her. Haymitch didn't even care. He couldn't lose that girl – not so shortly after Prim; not ever.
Effie was efficient, focused and very obviously fighting hard to keep collected but he saw the tiny cracks in the reassuring mask she was wearing for the others' sake. If Katniss died, he wouldn't be the only one to be destroyed.
Haymitch wasn't a great tracker but he knew enough to get by and it didn't take him long to conclude Katniss had never been in the area they were searching.
"We need to double back." he told Effie.
She simply nodded and folded her arms over her chest. She had forgotten to grab her coat and she must have been cold but there was no time to offer his or to suggest she went back to camp to get it.
"We will find her." she whispered several times, low enough that he knew she was talking to herself rather than to him. "We will find her." It was almost a prayer. He didn't dare promise anything to her. He had promised nothing would ever happen to the kids and they had already lost one. She didn't blame him for that, he knew, she blamed herself like the stupid person she was, but he, on the other hand, did think it was his fault. If he had rushed to the pick-up when he had first smelled the gas… If he had identified the danger earlier… If…
If ifs and ands were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers' hands, his mother used to say.
"Come on." he bristled, quickening his steps to the point Effie had troubles following. Even after all those months of living in the wild, she was still unsteady in the woods.
He had been so afraid of finding Katniss swinging from a tree like in that awful song she kept humming from time to time, he didn't see Gale before he tripped on his unconscious body. He managed not to fall by grabbing a nearby trunk but not in time to prevent Effie from flying past him with a scream of anguish.
It all happened in seconds, by the time he was back on his own two feet, Effie had torn the small bottle of sleeping pills away from Katniss and had thrown it as far as she could before gathering the girl against her chest in a tight hug, not caring about the teenager's weak struggling. In the end, Katniss gave up and let the woman rock her slowly back and forth as if she was an infant.
The rest of the scene, Haymitch had difficulties believing in: Coin was laying on her back, an arrow jutting from her chest – in the heart, perfect shoot – very obviously dead. The quiver full of arrows and the bow forgotten near Katniss were evidence enough of what had just taken place.
"Why?" he simply asked. He needed to know. If there was a reason behind her actions, there was hope. If it had been random…
Katniss lifted her grey eyes from the forest ground all the way to his face with deliberate slowness. There was sorrow in there, sorrow and hatred and guilt.
"You said she killed my sister." the girl hissed.
"Oh, Katniss…" Effie's voice was pained.
"And him?" Haymitch insisted, nodding to the still unconscious form of Gale. He should have gone and checked his pulse but he couldn't quite resolve himself to do that yet.
She averted her eyes this time and buried her face in Effie's shoulder. "I just knocked him out from behind. I couldn't… I…"
"Good." Haymitch breathed a little more easily. He crouched next to Gale and indeed found a steady pulse. "Did he see you?" Katniss didn't give a verbal answer but shook her head. He ignored Effie's reproachful glare. There was no time for sugar coddling. "Sweetheart, take her back to camp while I deal with this mess. Take the quiver and the bow but hide them in the bushes near the lake, don't take them back with her."
"But…" Effie started and then fell silent without any prompting on his part, probably working out why telling the truth was simply out of the question. She nodded, forced Katniss to her feet and led her away. He hoped the teenager had enough sense left to make sure they were going in the right direction.
He made a quick job of disposing of the evidence, relying on skills he hadn't used in years. The arrow was thrown away, the body dragged a few feet off the path and any trace of the girl's passage obliterated. Just as Gale was starting to stir, he hauled the boy up and forced him to walk quickly, almost to the point of running, repeating again and again that a mutt was after them.
Gale was disoriented enough that he swallowed his explanation bait, hook and sinker. Effie and Katniss were already back when they stumbled into camp with their mutt story. Nobody appeared saddened by the news of Coin's tragic death under the teeth of a genetic monster although he wasn't sure anyone truly believed it either. Plutarch certainly didn't, he did the math pretty quickly, glancing from Katniss to Haymitch and then giving a short nod to the other man.
Haymitch didn't trust him but, then again, nobody had been trusting Coin for a while – not even Plutarch, her disappearance wasn't of great importance to the group. If anything, it was good news.
"We're still going to Thirteen?" Johanna asked, as they were quickly getting ready to leave the campsite in case "the mutt" wandered their way.
"Yes." Plutarch replied before Haymitch could suggest anything. "I can guide you there. It will probably be quicker in any case." Because he was less paranoid and would take less detours. "We're not that far now."
"Good. Thirteen it is." Haymitch agreed. He forced Katniss in the truck but stepped in Peeta's way when he tried to follow. "You're going in the SUV for now."
"Why?" Peeta frowned.
"Because I'm telling you to do so." he growled, pushing the boy in Johanna's direction. Jo didn't look any more convinced by the story than Plutarch. She grabbed the boy's shoulder and guided him to the rebels' car without a word.
"Her weapon is back in the trunk. Nobody saw me." Effie whispered before climbing behind the truck's wheel.
He sat on the passenger side and waited for Effie to start the engine and for the car to be back on the road before turning to look at Katniss. The girl was curled up against the right door, her knees held tight against her chest.
"So, who's next?" he sneered. "Effie because she wanted to look for her friend? Me because I was too slow to stop it? Johanna because she was too far away? Gale because it could also have been him? Peeta because his leg is good for nothing? Annie because she's pregnant? Plutarch because he's pompous as hell? Who's next, sweetheart?"
"Haymitch!" Effie hissed, startled and obviously uncomfortable.
"Just drive." He waved her off. "I'm having a chat with Katniss."
Katniss, however, wasn't in a chatty mood. She rested her cheek on the top of her knees and watched the landscape through the window.
"Answer me." he snapped.
"Haymitch, enough." Effie retorted, slamming her hand against the wheel to make her point. She was usually so controlled, it also tended to show she was at the end of her tether. "Don't you think she's been through enough horrors? Don't you think…"
"I need to know if she's a killer." he interrupted her. "Because if she is, then we have a problem. Do we have a problem, girl?"
Finally, Katniss looked at him. "We're all killers, aren't we?"
"Are we?" he insisted.
"She killed Prim, you said so. You said she would kill Annie and Peeta." Katniss growled. "I did what you didn't have the balls to do."
"In cold blood." he pointed out.
"She was protecting the group." Effie cut in, in a tone that wouldn't leave any place for argument. "Her intentions were good. Let's just… Let's just forget about it, the whole thing. Let's just…" She shook her head as if she knew her own request was absurd. "Please. Katniss won't do anything this rash again, will you, Katniss?"
"She's a survivor. She will do what she has to do." Haymitch shrugged. "That's the difference between predators and preys. She's very much a hunter." He chuckled bitterly. How alike they were… What a shame it was.
"Please." Effie said again, clearly upset.
"Alright." he gave up. Nothing good would come out of that discussion anyway. He placed a hand on Effie's thigh and squeezed gently but the muscles never relaxed under his fingers, she remained tensed and anxious for the next following hours until he claimed the wheel back from her.
Peeta wandered back to the truck at some point and seemed very unsettled by the unusual silence. Effie attempted to chat it away sometimes, inducing enough fake cheer to her voice that they could forget for a while where they were and what was happening around them, but it never worked. They were all exhausted in all the possible ways and most of them were ready to give up.
When Effie snuggled up to him at night, her clinging grew more and more desperate with each passing day. It was a new sort of hell, a desperate waiting for something to happen.
Something did happen.
One day, they found their way closed by a barbwire fence that ran in the middle of the road and continued its merry way in the surrounding landscape. They all got out of the truck to find a smile plastered on Plutarch's face.
"Welcome to District Thirteen!"
Somehow, it didn't make Haymitch feel any better.
Only two chapters left. Please tell me what you thought about it =)