Mockingjay: The New Story

Chapter Fifteen

Katniss's POV

Boggs has my arm the second after Cressida says cut. But I don't dare think about running now, not while I watch as the hospital roof collapses in a heap of rubble and dust. All those lives wasted. I couldn't save them, I lead them to their deaths and they greeted with welcoming arms. I crash to my knees, Boggs telling me to stand. It is Gale who rips me off the ground and starts me in a run. I wince almost instantly and tumble to the ground again. Boggs groans, but picks me up. He carries me to the air strip, he is out of breath by the time we reach it. The weight I have gained with the pregnancy has surprised me with a punch in lack of energy.

Boggs lifts me up into the main hovercraft where Haymitch and Plutarch await for my arrival back. Haymitch gets one good look at me and is screaming for the medics'. Four people come running towards me as we take off. I get dizzy and am put onto a bed. I stand out from the pitch white bed. I am rushed to a different and private room. Gale and Haymitch follow behind me and into the room. A nurse helps me up and change out of my uniform and into a hospital gown behind a curtain.

I ask for Haymitch and Gale, who come immediately to my aid. They grab onto my hands while someone tends to my leg and another takes my vitals.

Gale begs me not to fall asleep, but I am so tired. The whole trip to eight has exhausted me. My eyes droop, Gale asks me to stay awake one more time while Haymitch tells me to sleep it off. And I do.

-

I recall so many things before I wake. Nights shared with Peeta, snuggled on his bed, hiding under the sheets and whispering secrets. Of course, these events took place after we discovered the pregnancy, when it became that living together was not optional anymore. I was no longer a teenager, neither was Peeta, and my mother understood that. We had to grow on our own from then on. Even with the nightmares and the missed roads, we had to fend for ourselves, occasionally go running to my mother for help because we will always need her. It was more of Haymitch's problem to deal with us. But, without their help, we seemed to hold from experience. I always have, being without my mother for months at a time, it was easy to live off of myself. Peeta on the other hand has always had two parents and two siblings that took care of him, and now, I wish to be that beautiful wife he imagines, the lover he dreams of and the friend he needs. I wish to care for him, letting him be the man of the house obviously, but having my own stand beside him. With all the thoughts coursing through my head, I give all my well-being to Peeta who is thousands- which feels like millions- of miles from me.

I pray Peeta is alright, along with the others, but mostly Peeta. I can't say I couldn't live without Finnick's hysterical sarcasm and beautiful smile, or his sugar cubes I want to have at some times. Or without Johanna's venom, that makes me both greedy with hatred and tall with strength. But just thinking about not having Peeta living, having him die while far from my arms, makes my head spin.

To live without Peeta. It is like being lost in my worst nightmare with no way out, knowing no matter what I do I will never wake. Coming to losing Peeta after such effort, I do my best to wake as fast as I can, my thoughts ramming nightmares behind my eyes one after another. Peeta's death accompanies me while I scream and cry for him.

When I finally wake, I am in my hospital bed, hooked up to all sorts of machines taking my vitals and another connected to my child. The little heartbeat filled the quiet room, besides that was the slight hum of machines working, but the rest was taken over by the little heartbeat, fast and hard. My child is alive, so is Peeta. I have to believe that, they are both alive.

"Thank the heavens you're awake."

I turn to the door to watch as Gale enters my room. He rushes to my side, reaching for my hand and caressing my face. I stare at his face, the one that is so alike mine, yet with stronger, boyish features.