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SONG PREFERENCE:The Hanging Tree by James Newton Howard
District 12 was in no better shape then Four. Greyson had stepped off of the hovercraft with heavy feet as she stood with the team to watch them shoot footage of Katniss walking around her district. Gale stood beside her in silence, watching them with a cast face.
"So I wanna start with you in front of the Justice Building, okay?" Cressida asked Katniss. She turned to Messalla and said, "bang, first shot."
He nodded.
Katniss walked to where Cressida had asked her, and even to Greyson it was obvious that the girl didn't know what to do. "Katniss, tell us what happened here," Cressida asked.
Katniss looked like a lost animal, unsure of what to say. Greyson felt like stepping in and helping her out, but this wasn't her district, she was just there for 'moral support' as Plutarch had put it.
"We were all standing right here watching the Games when you fired that arrow," Gale suddenly said in a distant voice. "The screens just went dark. Nobody had any idea what happened. Peacekeepers forced us back into our homes. For maybe an hour, the town was just dead quiet. Little past nine we heard their trucks pulling out. All of them, every single Peacekeeper. And I knew what that meant. Me and a couple of guys from the mines, we started pulling people from their houses and tried to get 'em to the fence line but a lot of people were scared of the forest. So they headed up onto the road. Make a break for it that way."
Greyson bit the inside of her cheek as she listened to Gale. She couldn't imagine being in a situation like that, not knowing what was going on or that the people that were assigned to keep the order were leaving. She would have died, no doubt.
"Stay with Gale," Cressida whispered to Pollux, who was filming the whole thing with his Capitol-grade headgear.
Gale started to walk deeper into Twelve, following the path even if it was covered by blocks and debris. "Nine hundred and fifteen of us made it to the fence. Then we watched as bombers circled back towards the road. They firebombed them as they ran away." Greyson sucked in a sharp breath as Katniss appeared next to her, her own eyes empty as she didn't pull away from Gale. He stopped in front of a pile of dead corpses. "Nine hundred and fifteen out of ten thousand. I should've grabbed people, I should've dragged them with me. Some of the kids I could've carried." His voice resounded with regret.
Greyson looked down to see Katniss' hand shaking. Without much thought she put her hand on her shoulder and gave her a knowing smile. Katniss didn't move.
