"Katniss, I don't like this," Peeta says, trying to convince me that this idea isn't good. It was probably far from it in his eyes. But there are no other options.
"What choice do we have?" I ask. "They're looking for us as we speak. If they find us, we're as good as dead."
"You think I don't know that?" Peeta asks. "We saw what happened to half our District."
"And we know what's going to happen to the other half," I say. "Hell, we saw the news. We only have 72 hours to get to the Capitol before President Snow closes the walls. We need to get moving. If only Gale would hurry up."
"How do you even know he's coming?" Prim asks.
"He knows better," I reply quickly. Gale knows this is the only exit from District 12, and he knows that if they don't leave, his family will die along with him.
"But he has his own family to worry about," Prim says quietly. I mumble some words to myself before standing up. "How do you know he isn't going to take his chances and risk camping out? Posy's too young to survive in the woods…" I nod. I knew this already, I just wish it didn't have to be that way.
"Then let's go," I say. "Gale can take care of himself. Every second we waste waiting is costly."
I stand up and stretch. Who knows how deep these tunnels are. We could be in here for a couple minutes, or a couple hours. I'm worried about Prim, my mother, and Haymitch for the most part. Peeta and I are victors, I have no doubt we can handle ourselves, but Prim is only twelve. Haymitch hasn't been in shape for twenty five years. This isn't going to be good. "Ready?" I ask my group. They all nod and stand up.
"Ready enough," Peeta says. "This should be nothing compared to the Games… I hope." I hope so too Peeta…
I readjust my bow and quiver over my shoulder and lead the way, entering the dark tunnel leading outside of the District. The abandoned train station is the only way out. The fence was reinforced a few years ago when wolves found a way to get into the District, and ended up destroying barrels of tesserae in the Justice Building. For some, that was their only source of food, so the shortages led to starvation at increasing rates. Citizens of District 12 almost went extinct due to the amount of death caused by those wolves. Haymitch, Peeta and I helped by donating some food and clothes to many families, but most wouldn't accept it. They aren't interested in charity, even if we have more money than we know what to do with after winning our Games.
The fence was turned to a wall, where nothing could get in or out. The train tunnels built into the side of the mountain surrounding half of District 12 became the only entrance or exit. These tunnels were old and outdated, so the Capitol built new ones. It wouldn't look good for television if the Capitolites saw the victors arrive at a busted up train station. Could they have just renovated the tunnels? Probably. But this is the Capitol we're talking about.
"There will be some in these tunnels still…" I say to my group as we walk. "They had to have come from the tunnels. We just have to hope that we can get out before the rest of the mutts come back in."
The dimly lit tunnels don't make it easy on us. Peeta's metal leg clanks against the train tracks, and Prim's footsteps aren't much quieter.
It's beginning to annoy me, but I keep my mouth shut. I didn't lose my leg in our Games, he did. What right do I have to complain about it?
Peeta grabs my arm and stops me from taking another step. He holds his arm out to stop Prim. Haymitch and my mother get the message and stop too. "Shh, listen…" After a few seconds, I hear what Peeta hears. It sounds like the snakes Gale and I find in the woods occasionally. "Hug the wall and don't make a sound," Peeta whispers as he moves his body so he's standing against the wall. We all follow his lead.
The hissing is getting closer. Peeta starts slowly sliding his way away from the last light, which is illuminating the tunnel around it. The second all of us are out of the light, he stops. The hissing mutts are feet away.
We all hold our breath as a small group of mutts walks by, making noise and scraping their long nails against the walls. My heart is hammering in my chest. If they find us, we can't kill them. It would be nearly impossible. I squeeze my eyes shut for a second and bite my lip to keep from making any noises. I open them and look over at Peeta, who looks a lot calmer than I do. We watch as they walk by where we just were, into the glowing light of the tunnel. Their slimy skin looks disgusting. Their long heads and skinny arms give them a distinctive look. No doubt in my mind that they're the mutts we saw in District 12. I just want to know where they came from.
We don't get a chance to look at them for long, because seconds after we see them, they disappear. The hissing is slowly getting further away, so once Peeta decides it's safe to move, we start walking again.
I take a look at Peeta, and compare it to the scared little boy I saw on Reaping day just a few months back. He's changed so much. The Games changed him so much. He looks so much older now. I'm sure I do too…
I hear the hissing sound of the mutts from behind us. We stop and hide along the wall like we did earlier as we listen. It's getting closer and closer, but these mutts are moving faster than the ones we saw earlier. These mutts are running. They're chasing something…
"Run!" Peeta yells as he grabs Prim and my arm and starts running. It takes me a few seconds to regain my composure and run alongside him. Even with his metal leg, he's fast. It takes Prim a little longer to start running, but eventually she does too, allowing Peeta to focus on where it is we're going. My mother and Haymitch fall behind, but not by much.
The mutts are getting closer, but I can't turn around to see how close. Prim and the rest of our group can barely keep up, so Peeta and I slow down just a bit. It's hard to remember that Peeta and I were just in the Games three months ago, so we're trained for running. We're used to it.
"Peeta, we need to think of something!" I yell at him. "They're faster than us!"
"I know!" Peeta yells. "I just don't know what!"
We keep running, but as we run, my legs are starting to burn. I can't imagine what Prim's feeling. I look over at Peeta and see he's starting to feel it too. Peeta starts running faster than us, leading us towards wherever it is we're supposed to be going.
He starts running too fast for Prim to keep up, and I'm not leaving Prim, so I stick with her. He runs ahead about twenty feet on us all before he stops. He starts climbing a ladder on the wall. Once he reaches the top, he pushes on the ceiling until it finally pops. He climbs through and looks back down.
"Climb!" he yells. I stand under the rungs and help Prim climb up as fast as possible. The mutts are here. I push her up the ladder where Peeta grabs her and pulls her through. Haymitch helps me push my mother up, then jumps through quickly. Peeta reaches down and grabs my hand, pulling me up just as the mutts reach me.
"Close it!" I yell as he drops me and grabs the door, slamming it closed. We sit around the closed door in the ground and listen as the mutts bang on the door.
All of us try to get some air into our lungs. I don't know how long we were running, but I'm out of breath, and so is the rest of my group.
I look around the weird room we're in. It's lit up a little more than the train tunnel we were in, but not by much. There's a few doors that I'm sure we'll explore in a second. A large tank sits on the wall across from us. But other than that, this room is empty.
"Peeta," I say quietly. He looks over at me. "Good thinking back there. You really saved us." He nods and smiles slightly.
"Are you guys ready to go?" he asks as he stands up. "We have to keep moving."
"Okay," I say as I stand. I hold my hand out and pull Prim up. "How are you feeling?"
"Good, I'm just a little tired," she says.
"We'll sleep soon," Peeta says. "I think we should get out of these tunnels first though… Sleeping here seems like we'd be asking to die."
"Who knew that I'd be doing this again," Haymitch says. "Running from things trying to kill you. Seems like us victors know how to have fun." He pulls a flask out of his gray jacket and takes a sip.
"Seems like you only know one way to have fun," I say sarcastically. "Come on, let's see if we can find a way out."
"Yes ma'am," Haymitch says with just as much sarcasm.
I open the door closest to us and walk through. It's dark in the room so I pull the flashlight out of Peeta's backpack and turn it on. I shine it around the room and see that it's a control room of some sorts.
The lights come on above us, causing us to turn around. Haymitch is standing with his finger on a switch on the wall. "Light switch," he says. Prim and my mother go over to the buttons on the far wall, while Peeta, Haymitch and I look around for anything useful.
Nothing appears to be of any use, at least not to us. A thirty second sweep is all it takes to realize none of this will aid us at all. We look for a few seconds more before I hear Prim gasp.
I turn around to see the rest of the room and see that a computer on the wall turned on too, revealing a map.
"It's the tunnels," Prim says. "Look, this is where we are now," she points at the screen. "This is where we need to be," she says, pointing again.
"Prim!" Peeta says excitedly. "Does anyone have a pen or anything? I can draw this map on my arm so we can remember it."
"I have one," my mother says. She pulls it out of her pocket and hands it to Peeta. "Maybe you should draw the map on all of our arms in case we get split up for whatever reason."
"Good thinking," Peeta says. He gets to work on drawing the map on his own arm while I continue to look around. Nothing here seems useful at all. It's a bunch of buttons and switches, probably for the trains that used to pass through these tunnels, but nothing that we could use.
I look at the map on the wall. We aren't far from the exit we need at all. We need to be quick, but getting out of here shouldn't be too much of a problem at all.
"Katniss, your turn," Peeta says. I turn around and walk towards him. He starts drawing the map on my arm.
"Peeta, what happened to your hand?" I ask. His hand has a cut on the palm, which I normally wouldn't be worried about, but it looks fresh.
"The ladder cut me on my way up," he says as he draws. "I guess the rung I grabbed was sharp or something."
"That ladder was rusty Mom," Prim says. "If he cut himself on it…"
"He could have tetanus," my mother finishes.
"And that is?" I ask.
"Bacterial infection," Prim says. "Muscle spasms are common. He doesn't need to worry yet, if we reach the Capitol, I'm sure they have some kind of medicine he could take to get rid of it."
"The miners used to get tetanus all the time," my mother says. "As they built mine shafts underground after clearing out a layer of coal, there would sometimes be nails and screws left around the ground. The Capitol wouldn't supply District 12 with good screws and nails, just the old rusty ones. Same with our tools. So when a miner stepped on one of these, if it went through the boot, they got tetanus."
"Is he going to be alright?" I ask. Peeta finishes drawing the map on my hand.
"If he weren't a victor, I'd say no," my mother says. "With the money you guys have now, you could buy the medicine yourself if you ever needed to. If he couldn't get the medicine, tetanus is fatal sometimes. Most of the time actually. With how bad our District's air quality is from all of the coal dust and how often we all get sick because of it, I'd say his immune system probably wasn't going to be strong enough to beat it without the medicine."
"He's going to be fine though, right?" I ask, this time with a little more force. She's rambling. She's said more words in this conversation than she has in years.
"Yes Katniss," Prim says. "He'll be fine. Symptoms don't even come for a few days anyway. We'll be in the Capitol by then."
"Okay," I say quietly.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say the boy might not be the only one in love," Haymitch says sarcastically. I shoot him a glare. If looks could kill, he'd be dead.
A loud bang from the room we just came from stops any conversation we might have had. All of us quickly and quietly stand up and look at the closed door.
"What was that?" Prim asks, sounding scared. I don't think I'm any less scared than she is.
"One of the mutts?" Haymitch asks. Peeta slowly walks towards the door and stands next to it, waiting for whatever that was to open it. We all head towards the desk on the far wall and watch.
"Prim, get under the desk," I whisper. "Hurry."
"That smart? If she needs to run, she can't…" Haymitch whispers.
"Better than her having to fight these things," I whisper back as I grab my bow off my back. I pull an arrow and aim it at the door.
The doorknob turns and opens. Someone or something walks in, but I can't see who because Peeta immediately jumps on their back and tackles them to the ground. Peeta gets them in a chokehold before I see who it is. I gasp.
It's Gale.
"Stop!" I yell at Peeta. He instantly lets go of Gale and rolls off him. Gale tries to catch his breath as I run over to him and hug him.
"Kitty!" Posy says. She runs over and joins our hug.
"Posy, I'm so happy you're here!" I say. Only two people can get me to be happy like this: Prim and Posy.
"How'd you find us?" Peeta asks after he helps Gale stand up. Gale holds up an arrow, marked with my father's symbol: KP. It's pretty self explanatory, the K is for Katniss and the P is for Prim. Even after he died, I continued to use his symbol.
"Catnip dropped her arrow on the way up the ladder," Gale says. "Must've fallen out of her quiver."
"Gale told us to climb the second he put two and two together," Hazelle says.
"Good to know you guys are safe," Peeta says. "We were worried. If Prim weren't with us, Katniss wouldn't have left without waiting for you."
"I'm sure I would have done the same thing in her shoes," Gale says.
"We can catch up later, we're wasting too much time," Haymitch says. "Let's get a move on now while we're young…"
"Ha ha," I say. "While we're young," I point at everyone but Haymitch.
"I'm the same age as him!" my mother says jokingly, getting us all laughing.
"We need to make groups," I say. "I'll take Prim, and my mother. Peeta will take Vick, Haymitch and Hazelle. And Gale will take Posy and Rory."
"We're splitting up?" My mother asks.
"No, but in case we do, stick with your group," I say. "If there's ever a need to split up, at least we already have this sorted out. Now come on, we need to go."
I start walking, following the map Peeta made me. It's pretty simple for the most part. It's just a straight line, but it's still good to have in case we run into more mutts and need to go somewhere else other than the path we're on.
"I think we're almost out!" Gale says loudly from the back where he's leading his group. "I can see the light outside!"
"I see it too," I say back. We pick up our pace a little, walking quicker than before. I think we all want out of these tunnels. The problem is that Peeta, Haymitch and I know what's beyond the tunnels. The rest of them have no clue.
The second we get outside of the tunnels, I look around and check out my surroundings. Trees surround us.
So, where are we setting up camp for the night?" Gale asks with a smile.
Gale leads the group while I stay behind, this way the front and back of our line has a bow. We don't plan on moving far. Just far enough so we aren't near the tunnels. We walk for about ten minutes before I notice Peeta's limp.
"How's your leg?" I ask him. I should have realized sooner how hard this would be on him. He hasn't been able to take his leg off in almost twelve hours, it has to be in pain. Probably more pain than he's letting up.
"A little sore," he says. "Once we get to camp, I'll sit for a few minutes."
"Did you bring your skin cream?" I ask. His skin cream helps keep the spot where his leg was cut off moisturized, which helps because it's constantly rubbing against his metal leg.
"I didn't have time to grab it," he says. "I don't think the mutts really cared if I had it or not," he laughs. I don't though. His leg has to be in pain and discomfort.
"I'll see if maybe Prim or my mother can make some kind of ointment for it," I say. He looks at me and smiles.
"Thank you, but seriously, it's okay. I think that a dog tearing half of my leg off hurt a lot more than my fake leg rubbing against my real one," he says with a wink. I know he's trying to make me feel better, but I feel even worse now.
"Are you sure?" I ask.
"Yeah, I'll massage it when we set up camp and it'll feel a lot better," he says. It shouldn't be too long now. Gale seems to be slowing down.
"This far enough Catnip?" Gale asks. I nod. He drops his backpack in the grass by a tree and crouches for a second. Peeta drops his backpack and opens it up, grabbing the small tent inside. It's not tiny, but it is definitely not big enough for the ten of us. Maybe eight of us can fit if we squeeze in, but it won't be comfortable. I guess it's better than being outside of the tent.
Peeta begins setting up the tent while I help. We work in silence, but eventually Gale joins. He begins to talk to me, leaving Peeta out of our conversation again. It makes me feel a little guilty.
"Catnip, how are we going to sleep?" Gale asks. "Are we setting up shifts or are we all sleeping and hoping for the best?"
"We need to do shifts. If the mutts find us, our best chance is to have me, you, or Peeta be awake to fight and wake us all up," I say.
"Sounds good," Gale says. We finish setting up the tent in silence, and I can feel the tension between Peeta and me. It's not his fault, and I'm sure he doesn't even mean it, but there's just some kind of weird tension that we both don't speak about. "Who's on watch first?" Gale asks.
"I'll watch," I say. "You guys get some sleep." Gale and Peeta both nod. We cook a small dinner of hotdogs and chat with one another, all laughing quietly. It's nice to be able to joke around while in such a serious situation.
Eventually, everyone but Peeta and I go to sleep. He's sitting across the small fire we made. The second everyone is in the tent, Peeta pulls his pant leg up and unlatches his leg. I can see the sigh of relief he lets out, which makes me feel even worse. I whisper for him to come sit next to me.
He slowly latches his leg back on and comes over to me, making me feel even worse for making him put his leg back on. "Sorry," I say. He shakes his head and smiles.
"What's up?" he asks as he sits next to me.
"You know how bad I felt… feel after what happened to your leg?" I whisper. He starts to deny that I don't need to, but I cut him off. "And then I ignored you when we got back, and there's nothing I can give you to ever make up for it, but I'm sorry."
Peeta waits a minute before answering. The longest minute of my life. "It's okay," he says with a smile.
"Why don't you take it off?" I say. "So your leg can get some rest."
"Um, it feels fine," he says as he pulls his pant leg back down. I look at him for a few seconds before answering.
"No it doesn't," I respond accusingly. He looks uncomfortable, and is probably still in pain. "Let me see your leg."
"Katniss, it's fine, really," he says. I just stare at him until he stops arguing and lets me see it. He rolls his pant leg up and shows me his prosthetic leg.
"Is it still in pain?" I ask as I gently try to unlatch his leg from the prosthetic. He nods slightly and nervously. I get the latch off and slide his leg out. It looks red and irritated, but I'm not sure what it normally looks like since this is the first time I've seen it. "Does that feel better?"
"Yeah," he says nervously.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask. He looks scared that I'm going to run away or something.
"My leg isn't… a leg anymore," he says. "It's just an ugly stump…"
"That's why you're acting so weird?" I ask. "Because you lost your leg to the Hunger Games? Giving it up so we could both go home?"
"Do you see it?" he asks. "It's… it's gross."
"No, it's a symbol of how much you gave up. How much you had to fight to be here right now," I say. "It's not gross, it's symbolic. Trust me Peeta, nobody is going to think your leg is gross."
He looks away and closes his eyes. "Thank you," he whispers. I grab his hand and squeeze it, because I have no other words. I'm not even sure how my small speech helped him, to be honest. Maybe he knows I'm not great with words.
"You should get some sleep, your watch is in a few hours," I say. He nods and starts to put his leg back on before I grab his hand. "Um, if you want, you can sleep out here so you can keep your leg off."
"Thank you," he says again. I pat my thigh, signalling for him to put his head there. He lays back and closes his eyes, while I run my fingers through his hair. He finds sleep fast.
It's still my watch, so I keep my bow close by while Peeta sleeps. I hope nothing comes, but just in case, I need to be ready. Being like this with Peeta makes me feel differently. It's been three months since we've even really talked. He's had dinner with us a few times, and brings over baked goods often, but there's been nothing else. It's weird how much I actually missed this.
Looking at Peeta right now, I can see how tired he is. I wonder if it's just the nightmares or if it had anything to do with Mrs. Mellark. I know that Peeta kept in contact with his family after he moved to Victor's Village, even though they didn't come with him. I can't even imagine how painful that must have been. How lonely that probably was. And it makes me feel more guilty too. I could have been there for him while he was alone but I abandoned him in a way.
It was just hard for me. One moment, I'm a poor girl trying to survive and keep her sister alive. The next moment, I'm the Girl on Fire, trying to win the Hunger Games. And then I'm the second half of the Star Crossed Lovers, trying to make it back home to be with Peeta. It's just so fast, how my life was turned upside down.
"If you want to get some rest Catnip, now's the time," Gale says as he walks out of the tent. I didn't even hear him. "Posy finally fell asleep. She isn't used to being out here and she's not really old enough to understand."
"Why don't you go back to sleep? Your watch isn't for a while," I say. He comes over and sits down next to me. I stop running my fingers through Peeta's hair.
"I got a couple hours," he replies. "But I won't be going back to sleep anytime soon. Might as well let you get some rest."
"Okay," I say. I'm about to get up, but remember Peeta is laying on me. I can either wake him up so we can move, or I can gently get him off of me, but that would be selfish. My last option is to stay where I am and hope Gale doesn't get mad.
I take my quiver off of my back and lay it next to my bow. I close my eyes and drift off into sleep.
A/N: Hey guys, JayFF is hopefully back! Got some positive feedback on my last story, "He Saved Us", so thank you for that. It was my first story, so I'm hoping to get better. This is a draft I've had since I finished HSU, I posted it once but didn't like how it turned out, so I'm retrying. I edited some things, I think this chapter comes together nicely.
Review please, I'll post the next chapter if I get some positive feedback, or any feedback at all. I appreciate you all, and I'm sorry for being gone so long. If you want me to, I'll be back to writing! :) - JayFF