Real or not real? (everlark)

23

These characters as well as their original story belong completely to Suzzane Collins.
Maybe if it wasn't for the cold, biting wind, they wouldn't be in this mess.
Or maybe if I hadn't insisted on leaving the hospital through the fierce ice storm. Or if it wasn't for the careless truck driver, or the millions of snowflakes falling at once.
Needless to say, if a lot of things hadn't happened they wouldn't be where they are now.
"Katniss, we'll be alright. everything is going to be okay, I promise." Peeta kept whispering to her, but he knew it was hopeless as well.
It had been almost an hour ago when the disaster started.
They were driving through the icy storm on the half hour ride back home, and Peeta was finding it almost impossible to see two feet ahead of them. Crashes were everywhere, and the talking between the two of them had long since stopped. I was anxiously scanning the weather report on Peeta's phone- mine was in the trunk with my bag from the hospital.
Then the battery died.
Scared, I set down the phone and gripped the edge of the seats, and squinted out the window, trying to think of a way to help.
I didn't see it soon enough, but I yelled out anyway.
"PEETA!CAR!"
He swerves to the right, and he manages to miss the car that appeared in front of us. But they tumbled off of the side of the road into the ditch, where they landed sideways in the ditch. Peeta fell on top of me, sandwiching me to the ground. The broken window beneath me cut into my arm and part of my back, and I cried out in pain.
Peeta struggled to sit up, to release his wait from me, but he couldn't since we were stuck sideways. I shuffled over enough to roll of of me and next to me. Then I quickly assessed the situation out loud.
"Okay, so we are stuck sideways, in our car, in a snowstorm, only halfway home. Our only phone is dead, and we're only slightly injured. The road is completely deserted, so no one else can call for help for us, and soon we're going to turn to icicles." I look up and see the driver's side door smashed and bent.
"Way to stay positive, Katniss," Peeta rolls his eyes from beside me. If I didn't have my elbow through the passenger window and onto the cold snow, I would have elbowed him in the side.
It seemed hopeless at the time, but now, after lots of heavy, calming breaths, I think I know how to get us out. I look in the ignition and see the keys there, just barely in. If I could make them fall, they'd land either on my face or shoulders.
I wrench my foot out from whatever it was stuck into, which was painful for only a second, and then start kicking at the airbag. It bumps the keys, which fall right onto my face. I grab them and start pushing buttons, before I realise that this is completely stupid. Why would unlocking the door or popping the trunk be of any use right now?
Then I remember my phone sitting in the trunk with my bag. I click the trunk button and hear the soft pop of it opening. Now I just have to figure out how to get out of the car.
If I can shatter the glass of the drivers side window, maybe I could crawl out...
I sit up and start to take my jacket off. Peeta grabs my arm.
"Kat, what're you doing? You'll freeze." I ignore him and toss the jacket onto his stomach. Since we're still sideways, I grab onto the steering wheel and pull myself up. Now I'm on my knees in the car, and I can only half stand up once I try.
"Kat..."
"Peeta, I'm going to smash the glass on this window. Cover your face with the jacket." I respond.
"But what about your face? You'll get scratched by the glass too."
"Oh well." I say. "Cover your face."
Once I'm sure that he does, I start to bang on the window. A few pounds in, I notice a small crack. But at this rate, I'll be pounding all day. I take the car keys from my pocket and drive them through the window with as much force as possible. They make a hole in the glass, and the rest around it it cracked and shatters wit one final smash.
The glass shards rain down onto the jacket, and I cover my face, but still feel a few scratches on my skin.
I grip the edges of the window and pull myself up and out of the car, where I fall into the snow. I lay there, the cold snow biting at my exposed skin, panting from all of the effort that just took. I look over at the snow and see that part of it is bright red, and I recognize it as blood stained snow.
Panting, I stand and help Peeta crawl out. The two of us test all of our limbs, and happily find that we're just cut and bruised, no broken bones. I run to the trunk and I'm about to call 911 when I stop. I turn to face Peeta.
"Peeta- I don't want to go to that hospital. I'm tired of them. They bring back so many bad memories, and we're not even that badly hurt and-"
"Katniss! Calm down. We don't have to go to the hospital. Let's just call a tow truck and go home. Okay? We don't need a hospital, you're right." He says and puts an arm around my shoulder as he calls the tow truck company.
We sit in the snow, waiting, talking about how we could be dead now. And, as I tack this day on my 'Near death experiences' list, I think about how grateful I am that we're both alive.
"Peeta," I mumble, almost asleep now. "Don't ever listen to me about driving through the snow again."
His chuckle is the last sound I hear before I fall asleep.