Crossing Paths

Chapter 16

                  Katniss

                  When the train comes to a halt and the doors slide open I help Peeta and Haymitch get our luggage. Once we get past the giant crowd and to the parking lot I begin to search for Gale. He told me where he’d wait so it’d be easy to find one another but he’s not here. “Where is he?” I ask in a frustrated tone to no one in particular.

                  “I’m sure he’s just running a little late,” Peeta says calmly. At that moment a black car pulls up in front of us. The driver’s window slides down to reveal not Gale but Johanna Mason.

                  “Hey it’s the drunk and arena lovers. Long time no see!” Her almost black hair is piled up in a messy bun and her dark eyes are overflowing with years of unmade sarcastic remarks.

                  “Where…where’s Gale?” I stutter. She pulls her head back as if she’s been slapped in the face.

                  “Ouch! You don’t want me?” She laughs and jabs her thumb towards the back seat. “Put your bags in the trunk and get in.” We’ve barely buckled in when she speeds away from the station. “Gale’s back at headquarters. He told me to tell y’all that he would have gotten you but things came up. Some idiot set off a bomb and blew up a room! Luckily the room wasn’t that important.” She shakes her head in disgust. “Amateur.”

                  “So I guess that means you all have an army,” Haymitch says from the front seat.

                  “Yeah I guess so. I wouldn’t call them an army though. Not yet at least. A lot of them haven’t fought a day in their life, much less touched a weapon of any kind! I tried to tell Fyron not to recruit them. But did he listen? No. Now we have to work extra hard to whip them into shape.” She turns onto a dirt road and pretty soon we’re pulling up to what I presume to be headquarters. To be honest it’s not that impressive. There are a bunch of little cottages surrounding a grassy parade ground with places to park around the rim of everything. But somehow I get the feeling that there’s more to it than meets the eye. Johanna parks and leads us to the red brick cottage, the least conspicuous of the ten. I assume that it must be the main building because it has that sort of official lobby feeling to it.

                  “Leave your bags there and someone will take them to your room.” Johanna tells us before marching over to the elevator.  Once we’re in she presses a button labeled six and within ten seconds of her doing so the doors are opening again. She leads us down another hallway. We pass a line of young men and women in crisp white uniforms and polished black shoes. Each one of them salutes her as if they’d die if they didn’t. She salutes back and continues walking. Before I can ask her why they looked so terrified we’re entering another room. In the center of the room there’s a long rectangular table are a group of four men and four women. All of them stand when we enter but only two come over to greet us, one of which is Gale. Unlike the young soldiers we saw in the hallway he’s dressed in a grey uniform with matching combat boots. On each of his shoulders are epaulets with a mockingjay pin hooked onto each of them. Great, more mockingjays! Guess everyone still thinks it’s a sign of luck and rebellion. Before even taking a glance towards me the man standing next to Gale in a matching uniform confronts Johanna.

                 “Mason, you’re dismissed long enough to change. I won’t tolerate one of my crew being out of uniform. You’re on the clock starting now!” No emotion crosses her stone hard face as she whips around and leaves the room. Peeta and I glance at each other in surprise. The only difference in the clothes she was in to the ones the other two were wearing was that hers were a lighter grey. I thought she looked fine.