Rose on Fire

Chapter 59

(Katniss POV)
I go to the cafeteria in thirteen, Peeta follows, we get mashed potatoes, and frozen chicken. I watch Peeta take his first bite of chicken and cringe at the awful taste, I let out a loud laugh and he smiles because he knew he made an awful face. I look behind Peeta to see the televisions around the room flicker on, I see a familiar figure being circled by a camera in a hovercraft, I almost scream when The camera zooms in on the figure and I identify him as Gale. A harpoon through his stomach pulling him up to another hovercraft, I immediately jump up from my seat, I take down a guard by the elevator as I enter it, I grab a pistol out of his holster, and check if it's loaded, which it is. I grab keys out of his pocket, run into the elevator, I unlock access to the top floor and press the button, I position myself so when the doors open it will appear as though the elevator is empty. I hold the gun fumbling trying to find the best way to grip it, then I hear the doors open to my right, I count to three, then spin myself the door entryway. I aim up and shoot the circling hovercraft where the propellers are inside the wing, the engine catches fire from the the wings malfunction, then it explodes into a fiery mass. I then aim for the rope pulling Gale up but I relies at the angle he's going, and the height he's at now, he'd die on impact with the ground, I race around the side of the hovercraft pulling him up. Because this hovercraft weighs more the main propeller is located on the back of the craft, and a smaller propeller located under the craft towards the center to allow the craft to stay upright, I shoot at the main propeller, as soon as the bullet hits the craft starts moving backwards over the cliff behind it, the rope holding Gale slowly moves down with the massive hovercraft, if I hit the cabin of the craft just right I can mess up the air pressure inside and make it fall side ways saving Gale, I aim at the cabin of the craft I shoot at it once, I miss the cabin and hit the wing doing nothing. I shoot again hitting the wing again and I feel like I'm wasting bullets. Gale gets closer to the ground but the angle is still off. I shoot again missing. I take one last shot, I hit the cabin making the hovercraft head sideways, but now the speed is increasing, I run to Gale, he hits the ground at just the right angle not to kill him, but now he's being dragged by the hovercraft toward the forest and over the cliff. As I get closer it looks like he got hit with the harpoon, cut himself free from the rope, and then got tied to another rope, I see leftover parts of rope surrounding his wounds, and bits of rope still in the harpoon while the rope actually dragging him is perfectly fine. I race in front of him, and grab the rope pulling him towards me while he gets dragged also by the hovercraft I grabbed enough rope to sit for about 10 seconds before the hovercraft pulls it away. I wrap the rope around a rock, then I stand on the end Gale is on to give it extra weight and friction, the rope tightens then tears in two releasing Gale. I look at the elevator to see paramedics racing this way, I lean down and put my ear to his chest to see if his heart is still beating, I hear a very slow beat, but I can barely hear it over my own racing heart, the medics get to Gale, I try to count how many there are, but they're moving to fast. I sit push away the few medics that try to care for me, I watch the the hovercraft slip over the cliff, drop a couple feet, then explode into a million pieces, surprisingly it didn't have much fire to it as the smaller one, but it was still cool to watch. I look down over the cliff past the hovercraft that just crashed, I see another hovercraft still burning in the distance, then it clicks, Gale wasn't supposed to die today, I look over the field where thirteen is located I see Gale's crossbow, he must have come out her to hunt, the hovercrafts looking for all the entrances to thirteen saw their opportunity with Gale to televise him and lure people out to save him and reveal entrances and exits. I run back into 13, I run straight to Paylor's office to discuss what I figured out, I hear people talking inside and decide to eavesdrop. I hear Peeta inside, "She was once the mockingjay before, we need everyone's help to win this war for good." "Yes, Peeta, but it's up to you to convince her to do it again, I know your the only one she'll listen to," Paylor says. I feel that I've heard enough, and barge in ready to spill my news, Peeta jumps out of his seat, clearly startled by my quick and unexpected entrance. I'm about to tell them my theory on what district 2's plans are, but both Peeta, and Paylor have a disturbed look on their faces as they look me up and down, I look down at my legs to see about a hundreds of small wounds dripping blood, I see a few around my rib cage and some down my arms. I see a metallic glimmer in one of them and bite my cheek to not whimper from the pain, I take out a piece of shrapnel that I must have picked up from the first hovercraft explosion. "Never mind it can wait," I say with an annoyed tone. I slump my shoulders in disappointment, I was excited to finally be able to help during the war, but I'd rather wait, and get the shrapnel taken out before it small pieces can reach my blood stream. Peeta follows me to the hospital before going to get food for me. Now I feel like district 2 is vulnerable, all we might have to do is bomb them.