The Black Widow- A Hunger Games Fanfic

The attack on thirteen

"They've got to let me leave eventually," I complained to Finnick as a doctor took another sample of my blood, "They already know what's wrong with me. Why do they need to do a blood test?"
"For safety?" he shrugged, "I don't know, at least you get extra food when you're in hospital."
"That's not true."
"You get more than me," he pointed out.
"That's just because they like me more," I smirked.
"No they don't."
"Oh well," I said, offering him some of the food from my untouched plate. I wasn't going to finish it anyway: it tasted like cardboard. I wasn't being snobby, it was just... ew.
"I'm bored," I complained ten minutes later when the food was pretty much all done and Finnick was getting up to leave, "Don't leave."
"Just put on the TV," he said, pushing on the power button on the remote to switch on the TV opposite my bed. It was on the news- a capitol channel judging by Caesar Flickerman's face on the screen. Then the angle switched and Peeta was talking,
"The attack on the dam was a callous and inhuman act of destruction." Then static buzzed and Katniss appeared on screen accompanied by her singing. Peeta again,
"Think about it... how... will this end? What will be left? No-one can survive this. No-one is safe now: not here in the Capitol, not in any of the districts..." He leaned in closer to the camera, "They're coming Katniss. They're going to kill everyone in District 13; you'll be dead by morning!" Then he was pulled from view and the screen cut to the Capitol sigil.
"What was that?!" I exclaimed, "Does he know where we are?!"
"He can't," Finnick panicked, going unnaturally still, "We... we were supposed to be safe here."
And then the alarms began to blare.
"Everyone come with me!" A doctor shouted, entering the room, "We're going down to the bomb shelter."
With alarms blaring, we followed the doctor down, like, like a thousand flights of stairs into the bunker. Once we were down there, the doctor handed us each some bedding and showed us over to our bunks. They were carved into the stone walls with not enough headroom to sit so we just dumped out packs and sat on the floor. That wasn't much better.
We sat in silence for a while and I just stared off into the distance, whilst Finnick knotted his rope.
"How do you think this will all end?" I asked, thinking about what Peeta had said in the propo, about all the death. It had been orchestrated by the Capitol, sure, but he wasn't wrong. How many people would have to die before this all ended?
"I don't know," Finnick admitted, "I'd never thought about it much. I always thought that I'd accidentally say it out loud if I did and then things would just get worse. Annie did though, she didn't seem to understand what happened when you defied the Capitol. After her games, she was... well, some people say she went mad. But in some ways, all of us are. The games just break something in you."
"And... what did Annie think?" I asked. Finnick smiled,
"She always thought things would work out in the end. She was... better at hoping than I was."
"That any of us were, really," I agreed, "It sounds like you guys are close." He nodded,
"She's my best friend. After my parents... after Snow... she and Mags were the only family I had. She's like my sister." And now she was in the Capitol. I wondered if he hoped she was dead like Katniss had for Peeta.

The night wore on and eventually, even Finnick gave into his exhaustion and went to sleep. Now alone, I wandered amongst the bunks filled with sleeping people.
"Can't sleep?" Katniss asked me quietly from her bunk,
"The dead sleep," I said, "We victors live in a constant waking state, unable to discern dreams from reality."
"You chose this," Katniss said,
"So did you," I contradicted. I knew it wasn't the same.
"I talked to Coin. She said you wanted to die in the arena." I nodded. "But you didn't. And now Peeta's in the Capitol."
"That's not my fault," I said coldly, bringing up a wall of ice between me and her.
"Peeta deserved to get out. You didn't."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just that you weren't good like he is before the games, and after, you just got worse."
"I..."
"How many people have you slept with over the years? One hundred? More?" I stared at her with fury,
"This is what this is about?! You have no idea what's really going on, do you? You have no right to judge me." I stormed off, back to the bunk after that. Katniss didn't try to follow. Why would she?

Finnick woke up when the missiles started to strike.
"Do you think they'll get through?" I asked, deciding not to mention the conversation with Katniss. Usually Finnick would respond with some sort of reassuring comment, but he just reached over and held my hand,
"I don't know."
We sheltered together for the rest of the night. I felt much safer with him. We sheltered as the ceiling above us cracked and crumbled.
It was only when the shaking stopped and the lights returned that I realised how close we were.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So what do you need us to say, again?" I asked Cressida. She had brought Finnick and I up to the surface just minutes ago to shoot a propo after Katniss had bailed. Something about the roses on the floor.
"Just that District 13 has survived a direct attack from the Capitol with no casualties," she repeated.
"You say it," I hissed to Finnick.
"Did you say something?" Effie Trinket asked in her Capitol accent, she seemed to find it rude when I deliberately spoke too quietly so she couldn't hear. These Capitol people and their manners. Didn't they know that pretty manners wouldn't hide an ugly soul?
"Just that I don't know why you need me," I replied, "No-one will recognise me."
"That's not the point," Cressida said, "We need to start exposing your new appearance to people in case we need to use you in a propo later. They'll respond better if they recognise you."
"Fine," I muttered.
I stood behind Finnick's right shoulder as he read the line. The cameras' lights were on for only a few seconds before they cut out and the recording ceased. It was so easy I almost wondered why Katniss was so afraid to do it.
There was something they weren't letting on. But it was done now, so there was no point asking.