Panem Dawn: Mockingjay Reimagined

Chapter Twenty-Two: Aftermath Letters

When I am beside Noah, I can see that he is bleeding so much that I am horrified. And I don't know what to do, there is so much blood, it is now covering one of my hands, and I can't believe that he's already slipping away---he can't leave me. Not now, not after everything we've been through and survived, including two Hunger Games. I can't lose him. Even though I know I am, I still can't bring myself to accept it.

"Noah? Noah! Please, please just hold on." I plead, and I barely hear him say, "Hey...Alyssa? Are you okay?" He barely manages to get this out through God knows what pain but he does. And all I can say is, "I'm okay. You saved me. You saved me again." My eyes are beginning to get so blurry that I can barely see through the tears that are threatening to fall. "Noah...why did you do that?" I ask him so sadly.

"Stupid question. You know why." He barely manages to say in his dying agony. "You---you have to live. You...ghh...deserve to live free." And the last thing he says to me, before the end closes in on him is, "I...love you." And then, the light leaves from his eyes forever. And I know all too well from watching others die in the Hunger Games what that means.

And still, I refuse to believe, or accept it. " Noah? Noah! No. No, please don't...dont..." But no matter how much I try, completely in vain to keep him from leaving me and this life behind, it is useless. Useless and I know it. The worst had just happened, this was never the way it was supposed to be. And then, that is when I begin screaming, for help, out of anguish, desperation, I don't know.

But eventually, someone comes for us. A team of District Thirteen medics, with Haymitch following, and Sterling Linwood as well. "MY SON!" He cries as soon as he recognizes the body and they pronounce him dead. "OUR FUTURE! I knew something like this would happen! YOU DID THIS! IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!" He roars at me. "Take her out of my sight!" He then snaps to the medics.

Haymitch however, defends me. "Now you listen to me and listen good, Linwood. In no fucking way was this Alyssa's fault. I saw Noah sacrifice himself by taking those bullets. Your son chose this, to save Alyssa's life. This is what happens in a war. Whatever you may choose to think of her, it's clear Noah loved her to the end, she's a goddamn hero, and she's been through a terrible ordeal." Sterling doesn't dare say another word after that. In fact, Sterling has already dissapeared again. Partly because he has long been repulsed by Haymitch, but mainly to find his wife to tell her about this tragedy, most likely.

And now Haymitch is trying to support me up off the ground and move me away from Noah so that his body can be collected and sent to a morgue somewhere like so many others. "Alyssa, I'm very sorry. But we have to go. Noah's not coming back because he's---"

"No! Don't say it! Don't you dare! I won't leave here! Not without Noah!" I am screaming, hysterical in all my pain. "I AM NOT LEAVING! YOU'RE LYING! I WON'T LEAVE WITHOUT NOAH!" And now Haymitch is yelling at me, "Alyssa, calm yourself down!" But it does no good. Now there are District Thirteen medics pulling me away from the scene. And as much as I keep screaming and trying to fight them off, my efforts are completely futile as there are so many more of them than there are of me. Then, at some point I feel a slight prick as though one of them have injected a needle into me, and everything goes black.

***

When I wake up again, I realize I am in a bed in what must be a room in a Capitol hospital. Especially because of the sterile medicinal smell in the area and I can hear so much commotion going on from just outside in the hallway. I also must have been kept sedated for a while, I don't really know for sure how long. But I see that Henrietta is in a chair nearby, resting. But not for much longer.

"Alyssa! Oh, you poor girl." She says as she gets up and moves closer to talk to me. "I don't want or need any pity, Henrietta". I tell her numbly. To this, Henrietta simply says, "but you do need somebody. You need your friends, now more than ever." And I ask her, "What happened? How long have I even been in here? What's going on?" Suddenly needing all the answers that Henrietta can give.