KATNISS:
"They ran that way!" I yelled. I pointed to the entrance to the Victor's Village. I could see their silhouettes running farther and farther from us. I started to run in that direction when Gale pulled my arm back from the front door.
"No," Gale looked shocked and surprisingly, scared. "The peacekeepers are patrolling the Hob. Let them take care of Tris and her friend."
I swirled, crushing glass under my feet. "What? No! We have to find out what's going on. Something's happening, Gale. Something big."
"It's not our business Katniss!" Gale spitted at me. I glared at him. He never holds me back. When did I get so reckless and he got so careful?
"Fine, then let me go," I yanked my arm back from him and headed back into my kitchen. "Prim? Mom?" I shouted. "In here!"
I rounded the corner and saw what a mess Tris has made. There was the guest room door, hanging off of two hinges. A butter knife skewed on the table and bullet holes on the walls. I walked around, to see my mom and Prim crouched behind the guest room door.
"Are you alright?" Prim asked immediately. I touched her face and let go a breath of relief. "Yes."
My mom stood up, a pale face against her dirty blond hair. "What happened? Katniss, the peacekeepers could have heard the big noise coming from here. Just because you won last year, doesn't mean they won't hesitate to kill us." I stared at her. "And you, of course." She added quickly.
I looked away from her and turned my face towards Prim. "Her friend from the woods arrived, unexpectedly. We should have saw it coming. He shot a bullet at Gale but it bounced off the wall next to him instead. He looked like an excellent marksman," I moved away. "Apparently not."
"What are we going to do now?" Prim asked, "The peacekeepers surely heard us from the Hob. They'll come. And you know it." I looked at her and saw not the face of the terrified girl from a year ago, afraid of the mere thought of the Hunger Games, but the determined face of a girl who knew that being weak was not an option anymore. How funny that we switched places.
"Clean up. While you do that, I'm going to run to Peeta's. I have to tell him about Tris."
What I didn't tell them was that I needed Peeta now, more than anything. He would make sense of this. He always does.
They proceeded to sweep up the broken glass and fix the door. I turned around to see Gale standing there with his arms crossed. "You know, you could thank me." Gale said. "For what? For not letting me go after Tris because, yeah, I'm really grateful." I rolled my eyes. He knew how big this was. Two kids running loosely in the woods of District 12 who were neither Capitol or District was something unheard of.
"No. For saving your life back there." I raised an eyebrow. "In the woods. You never thanked me. Let's not mention that knife Tris was going to stab you with."
I replied back, "Thank you, I guess." I walked around him, leaving him standing there before he could see my anger on my face. I was already too mad at him for holding me back.
"Wait, Katniss." I stopped, picking up my bow and arrow that I dropped, midfight with Tris. "Yes?"
"Why? Why do you care about them so much?" He asked. I turned to look back at him. We stood almost two feet away from each other, each of our presences hard and cold in the hallway. "Would you not want to know? I thought you were all for curiosity." I asked.
He looked hurt, almost betrayed. "But they're from the Capitol! What would you want anything to do with the Capitol? They took everything away from us. They took you away from me." I shook my head.
"But I'm still here."
I stepped through, what was supposed to be my front door, and ran across the outcropping of houses. It was placed in a classic U formation and many of the houses were empty, except for three. It seemed kind of lonely, but I had gotten used to the emptiness in the Victor's Village. Peeta's house was directly across from mine, its roof slanting dangerously. I ran across the space between our houses, knocking on his door.
"Peeta! Peeta! Open the door! Open th-," I yelled, until the door creaked open by itself. I stepped through, my feet echoing on the wooden floors, to find Peeta's family sitting at the dinner table, cutting up loaves of bread. They all looked up at me, with haunted eyes.
"Where's Peeta?" I whispered. I could sense the apprehension. They never liked me, not then. Not now. I remember, starving and desperate for food. Only Peeta had the compassion to throw me a loaf of bread. And I didn't even realize he had a crush on me.
Peeta's mom narrowed her eyes and marched up to me.
"He's at Haymitch's. You ought to never come here again, girl. He's never home. He's always there for you!" She yells, causing me to stumble back on my feet. "My boy. Oh my poor boy."
She had tears brimming in her eyes and I could see her pain, written in the fine wrinkles of her face. I thought she didn't love him. Strange ways people show love a now these days. "I'm sorry," I said and I turned back around. Even through my heavy steps, I hear Peeta's mom murmur. "What did Peeta ever see in her? She's a waste of his time. He should be at home, helping me..." The farther I walk away from the house, the less I could hear.
I quickly jog to Haymitch's house, running up his front steps. I feel something wet on my cheeks; when I touch my face, I realize it was tears. I hadn't even noticed how much his mom's words impacted me, let alone what Gale had said earlier. By the time I turned the door knob and walked into the house, my hands were shaking. It's okay. It's going to be okay.
"Peeta!" I yell out. No answer. There was a stingy odor in the air, like alcohol. I knew Haymitch was on his usual but I didn't think he would drink this early in the day. I was about to call out for Peeta again, when I felt a pull on my right arm and I was swept aside from the main hallway to a closed off corridor.
It was Peeta. His sun-kissed blond hair was longer and messier. He looked more rugged too with a look of thoughtfulness on his face. "Katniss, quiet down. Haymitch fell asleep drinking."
"Peeta," I said. He stared back with a look-as if he was scanning my face for something, for nightmares. "You too?"
"Yeah," he replied. He knew exactly what I was talking about. The unspeakable truth of the horrors from the Arena. Peeta looked a little off, disheveled; his shirt wrinkled. "What brings you here so early in the day?"
I proceeded to tell him about my altercation in the woods with Tris and her friend. How we both got shoulder-shacked on Gale's shoulders and brought back to my house for healing. I also told him about my interrogation with Tris and how she knew nothing of the Capitol or the Hunger Games. I shifted my feet quite a few times when I mentioned her friend was armed and shot at us.
"What did she look like?" Both me and Peeta jumped. We turned to see Haymitch standing, well sort of, against the wall, clutching a tequila bottle in his hand. He looked worse than usual. His eyes were bloodshot and his breath smelled of expired alcohol. "Well, aren't you two going to answer me or are you going to stand there, waiting for your deaths?" We all flinched. Haymitch realized his mistake and muttered a half-hearted apology, turning back to his living room. We followed him.
"What do you mean our deaths?" Peeta asked.
"Well, according to Katniss here, she made quite the noise this morning. Someone from the Hob surely heard her and sold her out to the peacekeepers." Haymitch answered, taking another swig.
"Then we have no time to waste. I have to find them." I said, putting my hands on the table.
"Tell me what she looks like first." Haymitch said, readying himself for another swallow when I snatched the bottle out of his hands.
"Short, skinny like Prim with choppy blond hair. She was accompanied with a boy. Both bore tattoos and wore black clothes when they first arrived. Nothing significant from the Capitol." I described the tattoos to both of them.
"They can't possibly be from the Capitol. They sound like ordinary people." Peeta exclaimed.
Haymitch laughed a guttural sound. "Ha, I wouldn't cut the Capitol any slack regarding tattoos. They're crazy enough to do anything. What I find interesting is this girl, Tris, you said?" He stretched his arm over for another cup of tequila. I slapped his hand away. "She seems to be heading somewhere if she was in such a rush to get out of there."
"So what do we do?" I asked.
"I don't know cupcake, but I can't go with you. She needs me." He said, nodding to the tequila bottle with a look of affection.
"I say we follow them." Peeta said.
I turned to look at him, hope filling in my chest. "Me and you, yeah?" I asked. I realize how dangerous this would be, but for weeks me and Peeta hadn't talked. Barely a glance at my direction sometimes. This might change that.
"Let's go befo-" I stopped talking. From a distance, I heard shouts and running. Oh no.
I ran to Haymitch's window to see peacekeepers running straight towards the house. Towards us. "Peacekeepers are coming! Go, Peeta! Run!" I yelled. I pushed him out towards the back door, grabbing my bow and arrow, pulling the straps around my shoulders and under my left arm.
"Oh don't worry about me, Katniss. Just here, waiting for them to come shoot me!" Haymitch exclaimed, getting up slowly from his chair, swaying on his legs.
"You can't come with us! You're drunk!" I said.
"Katniss. I got him." I turned to see Peeta already pulling Haymitch out the back door and throwing him up onto his back, almost like giving him a piggy-back ride. We ran as fast as we could. I was mildly aware of heavy steps following us, so I pulled Peeta towards the big hill of the District, picking up our pace.
Prim. Mom, I thought. Gale. They won't be safe. My running faltered for a bit, which was a mistake because then one peacekeeper seized my arm back and pulled me to the ground. I grabbed his taser and snuck it under the fault point in his armor. He shook with the shock of electricity and fell down the hill. I ran back up.
I was panting. I hadn't even realized me going to a state of post traumatic stress resulted in my loss of stamina. Peeta was doing a lot better than me, even with considering he was hauling Haymitch on his back. I guided us to the opening of the electric fence anyways and then stopped. All around the fence laid dead peacekeepers with bullet holes straight through the chest where the heart should have been. Tris and her friend were here. They went to the woods, of course.
I let Peeta go under first, helping him push Haymitch through the wires. Lucky for us, the electric fence hasn't been wired to charge for a long time.
We sped up past the field, melting into the trees with no peacekeepers to tell on us. They all laid out with their dead hearts open to the morning sun.
END OF CHAPTER 4.
Author's note: Super sorry for the extremely late update. I've been stuck with writer's block for a couple of weeks plus my procrastination getting the best of me. I hope you enjoy this chapter, ending with yet another cliffhanger. How exhilarating to know that they are on a sort of a duck and goose chase. Fun times ahead...
Drop a comment and/or thoughts. Would love to know your predictions. (: