Deep in the Meadow

|22| "hurt is good"

The next morning I wake up to the sound of Johanna's gasping. I sit up excited to see her, when I find that Selena is outside of her cell holding a baby. Johanna's baby.

"You have one day according to West." Selena is saying.

"Ok." Johanna answers kind of disappointed.

Selena opens the cell door and looks at the training room. I follow the gaze and I see that West is watching her. She nervously looks away.

"Here he is." She tells Johanna placing the sleeping baby in her arms. He's so tiny.
Johanna smiles and a tear trickles down her cheek.

Before Selena steps out of her cell, taking careful notice of West, she leans down as to fix Asher's blanket but instead whispers something to Johanna. I stand up off my table and walk over to the bars separating me and Johanna's cells to listen.

"After tomorrow, we are putting the plan in action. The hover will be ready for take off so we have to act fast, very early in the morning." Selena whispers to her, then finally walks out of the cell and locks the door.
I realize West has disappeared again.

Johanna is staring at her baby through adoring eyes.
"Johanna! I'm so proud of you!" I express looking at Asher.

"Thank you." She whispers trying not to wake the baby. She gently sits down in front of the bars separating us. I do the same.

"Did you hear what Selena told me before leaving?" She asks.

"Yea. About the escape plan after tomorrow. They are still going through with it." I answer.

"Yea. I'm just excited to get out of their prison. And West.
Hopefully when we leave the Capitol alliance will be able to eliminate him." Johanna tells me still talking quietly.

"I guess we can only hope." I say and look back down at Ash. His eyes are closed an he is asleep.

The only way to get our children to safety, is to kill West and get the mutation army back to their human form. I remember West saying that the mutts weren't happy to be the mutations they are now, so if we somehow turned them back to their human selves, that would help everyone.
Save the districts from an army, and save the people that were turned to mutts from a life of brutality.

•

For the rest of the day we are left alone. Just as West promised, we weren't tortured today. I can only guess that we will be tomorrow. Then the next day. But we won't be here the next day because of our escape. I think that the closer it comes, the more nervous about it I get. So many things could go wrong.
Selena won't escort us to the roof in time. West will catch us. The Capitol Alliance won't be able to kill West.
So many options of things that could go wrong. Too many.

I find myself watching Johanna bottle feed Asher while sitting on her table. It brings back so many happy memories of Willow. Then the few I have of Rye. There are still so many more years to make memories with my kids and Peeta, an I don't want to waste a day. But if we don't get out of here there won't be anymore days to make memories. West will kill us in two weeks if we fail. We have to escape. It's our only chance of survival.

"Your still hungry?" Johanna coos to Asher while still feeding him the bottle.
"West didn't feed me enough food while I was here. That probably why your as hungry as I feel." She whispers to him. He just lays in her arms drinking the mink.
I'm hungry too. It seems as if West as cut our food intake a day, down to a quarter of what it was since my first day here. It went from a slice of bread with apple sauce, to a cracker and a cheese cube.