Captured || Book 1

Chapter 10 | The Bombs

"You'll be dead by morning!"

Her words ring in my head. The last words I may ever hear from her. The questions ring along with words too.

Was she trying to warn us? Is someone coming? How does she know this?

Her blood, splattering across the floor. Is she dead? Are we too late to save her? Or was I too late? All I've ever done was try to protect her and I failed. From the moment her blood hit those tiles I knew I was either too late or almost too late. And that hurts me more than anything.

I am suddenly pulled out of my thoughts by loud sirens booming through the hollows of District 13. I'm not sure what to think of the sirens, so I follow the crowd of people all running in the same direction.

There are loud murmurs coming from every direction as we race down long, narrow stairs that lead to unknown place.

After many minutes of running down these stairs we come upon two big metal doors; a bomb shelter I presume.

As soon as I enter those big doors I wonder about Prim. Did she make it down here?

"All citizens please go to your numbered bunks. There you will be provided food and water," President Coin's voice booms through the speakers.

Instead of going to my assigned bunker; which is numbered with our compartment numbers, I go to Prim and Mrs. Everdeen's bunker. I have to make sure they both got there okay. They are all I have left to protect now; until I get Katniss back.

"Mrs. Everdeen, where is Prim?" I ask, looking around the small bunked area for a little blonde haired girl, who is no where in sight.

"I thought she was with you!" She says worryingly. "She was heading to your bunker when the sirens went off,"

"I'll find her," I inform her. "Don't worry,"

I go off asking anyone if they've seen Prim around. I describe what she looks like to them, though most people would know the face of a Victors' sister. No one has, which worries me.

I then leave the bomb shelter, running past the guards as they try and stop me.

"Prim!" I shout. "Prim!"

I see her and Gale running down the stairs, Prim holding a cat in her hand.

"You went back for the cat?" I ask, trying as hard as I can to remain calm.

"I couldn't leave him," she whines.

"Just come on," I say, pushing her forwards into the bomb shelter; where she was supposed to be this whole time.

"Thanks for going back for her," I thank Gale.

"I couldn't leave her behind," he says, smiling. "Just like she couldn't leave the cat behind."

I laugh at this; for the first time in weeks. Gale and I have started talking more and more, getting to know each other a little better with each small exchange. I appreciate what Gale has done; getting those thousands of people out of District 12 just in the nick of time. But I can never bring myself to thank him. Even if he didn't get to my family in time I don't hold that against him for all the people's lives he did save.

"Do you miss her?" I ask Gale.

"Of course I do," he says. "She's my best friend,"

"I miss her too,"

A lot of the time Gale and I talk about Katniss. But nothing about our love towards her, just Katniss as a person. It comforts me to have another person to talk to who knew Katniss so well.

For days the bombs rain, some coming close to us but never touching. Every few minutes we would hear explosions and rustling. It frightened everybody, you could see it in their faces. It reminded me so much of when I went to visit District 12. All the things left behind from the bombs; the ash, the bones, the sorrow. Nothing was left then, how different will it be this time?

"It's safe now," I hear President Coin say. "You may all return back to your compartments."

I start heading up the stairs, Prim holding my hand. She's still terrified from the bombs that just so recently hit.

"You okay?" I ask her shaking body.

"Yeah," she answers in a low shaky voice. "You?"

"Yes," I say back.

I drop Prim and her mother off at their compartment, giving them both a hug before heading down to my own living quarters.

"Soldier Mellark," Commander Boggs addresses me as I draw closer to my door. "Your presence is requested in Command,"

"Okay," I say simply, dreading the thought of stepping another foot into the wretched room I have been forced into more times then I can count.

After taking a joy-less ride to the Command room I am faced with President Coin, the camera crew and Plutarch.

"Hello, Mr. Mellark," Coin greets me.

"Hi," I say quietly. "What did you call me here for?"

"We want to take you above ground to shoot some Propos of you in the destruction," she informs me.

"Okay," I say, not really wanting to do it but I have to if I want to rescue Katniss.

"Finnick should be coming too," Plutarch says.

"He'll meet us up there," Coin says as we all make our way to the destruction of District 13. It looks a lot like how we saw it on the television when the Capitol would show us pictures of the destruction caused before the dark days. Turns out we've been seeing the same footage for years.

"Hey, Finnick," I say when I see him among all the ruble, kneeling down to get a closer perspective of the destruction.

Without looking up he says, "Hey,"

I go up next to him to see what he is so content on staring at. I see nothing at first, but then I look closer and see a cloud of white roses covering the ground; barely visible among all the gray destruction around us.

"Oh my God," I mumble, barely audible. I slowly walk over to the roses, the stench of blood and artificial flowers filling my nose. I slowly kneel down to pick one up. They're perfect, all of them. As if they had never been touched. But they're not real roses. They're fake ones; a fraud, just like the Capitol.

I look over and see Cressida filming my every move.

"Peeta, would you like to say anything to Panem?" She asks me.

I look straight into the camera, trying to think of what I can say. But nothing comes to mind.

"Words cannot describe how evil the Capitol has been to all of us," I start out, winging everything I say because for the first time I am speechless. "They have ripped us apart, killed our loved ones, but above all destroyed our homes. We did nothing about it for 75 years, but now we step forward as one to bring down the Capitol, for the terrible things they have done to us and our families. I say to you and every person in Panem, join us as we can end our hunger for justice!" I end on a high note, proud of myself, hoping people will hear my message and take it to heart.

................................

Wow, that chapter was... interesting? Boring? Lame? Let me know! I really need to hear some feedback from you guys. It will help me improve my writing. That's why I'm here y'all, to improve my writing so I'm prepared to be a author when I grow up or maybe in a few years. I don't know maybe I could be a teen author, but I won't get ahead of myself.

Check out my other stories, Much Worse Games to Play and Finding Love Again. I think there both on hold as of right now, because this is my main story but I occasionally update Much Worse Games to Play. :)

Have a great day people! And may the odds be ever in your favor!!!!