Gale's Window

Chapter 3: Fall

The next morning we watched as the allies got ready for their big plan that night. They rested and feasted on seafood. Their interactions were so relaxed that they almost looked like a group of friends enjoying a day out at the beach.

Looking at Katniss as she stared into Peeta's eyes when he gave her the pearl stung like lemon drops on an open wound, but Peeta's annoyance at her reaction made me chuckle. Good luck getting Katniss Everdeen to follow along with your plans I thought. The fact that his plan was to exchange his life for Katniss's sobered me up immediately.

I'll never fully understand what happened in the arena that night. The images on my TV screen kept jumping from one group of tributes to the next.

Several fights broke out simultaneously. Brutus, Chaff, and Peeta were engaged in battle behind a line of palm trees while Finnick, Johanna, and Enobaria moved through the jungle as they tried to regroup with their allies.

Katniss stood by Beetee's lifeless form and attempted to figure out what his plan had been, and why he'd tried to stab the force field using a pointy stick wrapped in wire. Suddenly, without any warning, she turned around, pointed her arrow towards the force field and let it fly.

The screen went black.

"What's happened, Gale?" Rory's eyes were wide with surprise, "did she shoot at a camera?"

"Hmm, I don't know. I don't think so, though. If she'd just shot at a camera, we'd still have images from the others, right?" I tried to reason.

"Weren't you paying attention?" Vick's impatient tone took me by surprise. "She was clearly trying to replicate Beetee's attempt to fry the force field by using the lightning's electricity against it." We must have looked very confused because he went on to explain, "She wrapped the wire around her arrow before shooting it, and she waited for the lightning to strike. That's why everything's gone black! The TV's still turned on, but the transmission has been interrupted. She blew up the arena. She might not have destroyed it completely, but there's no electricity flowing through it. There's no power to feed the cameras."

"So, what happens now?" Just as the question was leaving Rory's mouth, our tiny house was engulfed in darkness.

I rushed over to the window. The surrounding houses seemed to be just as dark as ours. I opened the window and leaned out. The Seam had never been very well lit but even the lonely lamppost by the end of the street was out. It was eerily quiet outside, and the silence made me uneasy. It was late at night, but the games had been on, and my neighbors had been watching them. Where were they now?

I thought about Katniss, was she still alive? They probably wouldn't allow her to stay that way for long. Up until now she'd played along with the Capitol's requests. But there was no way they were going to forgive her for what she'd just done. They were going to make her pay. They were going to make all of us pay.

The thought chilled me. But, what could we do? We were weak and disorganized and we were trapped, trapped inside that damn fence! The fence!

I turned around and looked at my siblings and my mom, they were all standing in front of me, waiting expectantly.

"Rory, put on your shoes," I instructed. "You need to run over to the Victor's Village as fast as you can. Get Prim and Mrs. Everdeen and take them to the fence. Go to the spot right behind the Hob, it's the weakest point along the district's perimeter. Understood?"

Rory wasted no time following my instructions. He was already by the door when he stopped and turned around to face me. "But Gale, what good will that do? The fence is always turned on now."