"Katniss?" Peeta whispers. My eyelids feel heavy and opening them requires as much effort as it would to lift a horse. It's dark in the room now, except for a sliver of moonlight through the window. Peeta's eyes glint in the darkness. "Katniss, are you awake? Do you know where we are?"
I'm able to lift my head up and look at him. He's still lying on the table, surely his ribs hurt too much to sit up at all. He's looking at me with fear in his eyes. He must think the same thing I did an hour ago, that we're in some Capitol holding cell.
"We're in a hovercraft on our way to District Thirteen." I say, barely able to believe the words myself. He stares at me and I think I see his mouth open in surprise. I can't help it, I start laughing, and for some insane reason I start crying again. I wonder if Johanna's hit to the back of my head addled my brain. Peeta reaches up and touches my cheek. His hand is as soft and warm as ever. My stomach does a little somersault when he does this but I try to ignore it. Probably just nausea from my blinding concussion. Between sobbing and laughing I manage to choke out what Haymitch told me. That there was a rebellion, that they got us out. My eyes are starting to adjust to the darkness and I see him a little clearer. His eyes are wide with shock before he frowns.
"Did you know?" He asks me, confusion etched into his face. I shake my head. "Finnick knew. Johanna and Beetee too. Plutarch Heavensbee, if you'd believe it. I don't know who else." I say. A memory swims to the surface. Plutarch showing me his pocket watch engraved with my Mockingjay at the ball. Had he been trying to tell me? To let me know what side he was on? I had thought it silly at the time, nothing more than a fashion accessory. But it was a code that I had missed. "Do you want to talk to them?" I ask, now desperate for information about the rebellion. The gravity situation and all its myriad implications is starting to hit me. Peeta nods and makes a move to sit up but gasps in pain.
"Your ribs are broken," I say and put his arm over my shoulder to help him up. "You don't say," Peeta says with a grin. "They feel fine to me." I snort because he winces visibly as he says this. Once he's up it seems to be a little less painful so we slide him off the table to stand on the ground. Suddenly I feel very exposed in my thin hospital gown. His arm is still over my shoulder and mine is around his waist. Well, nothing to be done about it so I just hope my face isn't too red when we get out into the hallway. I'll have to try and channel Johanna's lack of modesty until I can find some proper clothes.
"Katniss." Peeta says softly. I look up at him but can't make out his exact expression but all at once I'm very aware how miraculous it is that we both made it out of the arena alive. "I know you had similar plans, but I, well, I was ready to die in there." He says and shakes his head. I nod slowly. "I never thought I was coming out. I always planned on it being you." I say honestly. It's not as if it's a secret. He knew Haymitch and I had made an agreement. If anyone understands how absurd it feels to be standing here right now, it's Peeta. He's looking at me curiously, like he's trying to figure something out. It's not dissimilar to how he looks when he's trying to figure out the right way to draw something. I find myself thinking about the last day in the Capitol. The day on the roof, Peeta sketching me, then tying knots in my hair. I was so sure that I would never see another day outside of the arena and here I was, facing a rebellion with Peeta safe and alive, standing by my side.
The ringing starts up again and I press my hands over my ears. Peeta steps away from me, looking concerned. "Haymitch said Johanna got me pretty good, but not as good as I got myself." I mumble, squeezing my eyes shut. I tell Peeta how I knocked myself out when I thought we were in the Capitol, but I leave out the business with the syringe. There's no reason for him to find out how ready I was to kill him, even if it was to save him from the Capitol. Wouldn't want him to take it take it the wrong way. He looks upset when I tell him how I knocked myself out, and maybe a little worried about my current mental state after so much head trauma. My fuzzy vision tells me it's probably warranted.
When we get to the room where Plutarch, Haymitch, and Finnick were, we see that Finnick is gone. "He's extremely distressed," Plutarch says airily after shaking Peeta's hand and finding us a couple of shabby blankets that we wrap around our shoulders. We're seated at the table with two bottles of water that we're both sipping slowly. "They've kidnapped Annie Cresta, the mad girl from Four and are holding her at the Capitol." Peeta and I share horrified looks. Annie Cresta, the one person in the world that Finnick loves. "Of course, they have Johanna as well. Annie knows nothing of the rebellion but Johanna…Well, it won't be pleasant." Plutarch says sadly. This is news to me. I had assumed that Johanna had been rescued along with the rest of us. If she's been taken into custody by the Capitol it's because she risked her life to get me out of the arena. She removed my tracker. She ran off to get the Careers away from me.
"We have to go back for her." Peeta says and I take his hand in mine. We do, of course we do. "We have to get her out." Haymitch grunts. "She knew the risks." He says briskly, but I know better. I hear the emptiness behind the bravado. He's known Johanna for years. She's his friend. "Besides, they'll have deep underground somewhere by now. Locked up, under guard." Haymitch says, and takes a sip from a flask. .
"Surely District Thirteen will have the manpower to tackle a rescue mission once we arrive," Plutarch says confidently. "But for now, we're sticking to the plan. Everyone was ready and willing to risk their lives to get you out, Katniss." Me? Just me? That doesn't make any sense. I would have assumed that Peeta would have been the target. After all, he was the one everyone was always saving. I think about Finnick, jumping into the water at the beginning of the Quell to save Peeta, starting Peeta's heart again, risking his life over and over again for Peeta, not me. My ears start to ring and Peeta squeezes my hand. I realize that I'm hunched over, my head nearly touching my knees. Everyone is looking at me with concern. "Why me?" I ask, trying to pretend that I feel just fine. My voice sounds sore, cracked.
"She still has no idea," Peeta says to Haymitch, shaking his head in mock disbelief. "The effect she has." I swear Haymitch almost smiles. Plutarch chuckles and sits down across from me. "Miss Everdeen." Plutarch says, looking me straight in the eye. He smiles almost sadly. "You are the rebellion. There would be no fire if it hadn't been for the spark. You lit a fire across the nation when you held up those berries. You were willing to die so that they wouldn't win. Do you have any idea what that meant? For all of us?" He looks so sincere that I start to feel a little uncomfortable. "He's right," croaks a voice from the doorway. I look up to see Finnick standing there, clutching a blanket around his shoulders. His eyes are red and puffy but he has a hardness behind his eyes. I look at Haymitch, who gives me the smallest of nods. I can't understand it, not really. I never meant for any of this to happen. It seems impossible that one act could lead to anything of this magnitude. A real rebellion? Had I even wanted to defy the Capitol?
Yes, a small voice in my head says. You didn't want to be a piece in their games. I turn to Peeta, who is grinning broadly. "Katniss, think about what you did tonight," He says. "You took down the arena on live tv and you escaped to talk about it."
I don't know what to say. I stare around at the group, speechless. I try to stutter something out when I get lucky. I feel my stomach drop a little. The hovercraft has started to make its descent. I go to the window to get a glimpse of Thirteen. But there's nothing there. Some old ruins amongst the trees, the occasional empty field, but no city. No smoking, radioactive rubble, but definitely no city. I turn back to Haymitch. "Keep watching." He says and motions for me to look back out of the window. When we get close to the ground, I watch as it opens before us. Like an enormous monster hiding just under the dirt, the hovercraft dock door opens skyward and we fly in and land. Peeta and I exchange a look. For the first time since being told of its existence, I fully take in the existence of this new district. And suddenly I'm thinking of District Twelve, of my mother and sister, of Gale. Surely, they will all be punished, tortured, killed. When I meet Peeta's eyes I know that he's thinking the same thing. What have we done?
My chest is tight, my stomach in knots. I don't let go of Peeta's hand as we're escorted off the hovercraft. "Wait," I try to say but my breath catches in my throat as I see the cavernous hovercraft dock. Hundreds of aircrafts line the underground dock, row after row stretch out before us. Waiting to greet us are several armed guards and a woman with pin-straight grey hair. They seem to have a uniform, all of them, different variations of dark grey jumpsuits, the only difference being that the guards seem a little more combat ready. The party walks towards us, the woman leading.
"Plutarch," she says and holds out her hand. They shake and she does the same with Haymitch and Finnick before turning to Peeta and I. "Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, I am President Alma Coin. Welcome to District Thirteen." She doesn't smile but does shake our hands and starts to lead us down the lines of hovercraft toward a large metal door. Medical personnel wheel Beetee along ahead of us, since he still seems to be in critical condition. I want to scream, yell, beg to know if anything has happened to my mother and sister, to Gale and his family. I need to know what repercussions my actions have had on those that I love. I stop walking, and Haymitch walks right into me. "Let's go, sweetheart." He says and tries to give me a little push but I'm not going anywhere.
"Our families." I say, louder than I meant to. President Coin stops and turns around slowly. "They're in Twelve and they're in danger, we have to go back for them, we have to make sure they're safe—I…I have to make sure…" I start breathing too fast, Prim's face flashes before my eyes. The only reason I'm here is because I wanted to protect her. I needed to protect her and now she's in more danger than ever because of me. "Please, I need to get to Twelve." I'm gasping for air now and my chest feels too tight.
President Coin looks to Plutarch, then to one of her guards. She looks like she's trying to decide something. What does she know? "Miss Everdeen." She starts, and I know immediately that something is wrong. "Communication in Twelve is down but we have reason to suspect it's been attacked by the Capitol." No. No. It can't be happening. I really can't breathe now, try as I might, I'm not getting any air in my lungs. My vision starts to go, darkness creeping into the sides of my vision like fog. Peeta says something frantic to President Coin but I don't know what. She shakes her head. I feel my knees buckling and suddenly I'm on the ground. Then I'm nowhere.