After Mockingjay

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The week had gone way too fast. Soon, I was boarding the Hovercraft, and greeting Cinna as he escorted my to a seat. I stair awkwardly out the window, watching District 12 shrink below us.
I should be thinking about Peeta and the kids, but my mind is on Gale. The he was, right there, so close I could walk up and touch him. Five feet away. I was tempted to, just walk up and hug him and cry on his shoulders telling him how much I missed him. But I stayed put.
His jaw was clenched, and his face was red and splotchy. He had been crying. The silence was killing me. Eating at my insides. It occurred to me that Gale was already gone, just like Peeta was. He's been gone.
How could you be so physically close to someone who was so distant?
Cinna breaks the silence.
"I know there is a brick wall in between you two, but you guys are working together do get used to seeing each other's faces again." He sits in a metal chair across from me, blocking my view of the outside world. His hand curls around the armchair, until his knuckles turn white. He has sweat dotted along his forehead, keeps looking over his shoulder. He's nervous.
I turn my head to look at Gale. His hair has grown out, it's longer and darker than I remember. It makes him look younger. Younger than what he did when we were at war with the Capitol. His hair was shaved off, then.
The only way I could tell that he was twenty three was his face. It was aged by many years of loss and pain. The kind of pain no one should go through, especially a twenty year-old. I can tell that it's hurting him even more by being here.
"I'm sorry," I tell Gale. He glances back, but only for a split second. He seems puzzled by my question.
"For... What?" He still sounds like Gale. His voice is a little deeper, but he is still himself. Other than the fact that he has changed. I exhale.
"I'm sorry for leaving you," I hesitate, but keep going. He deserves an apology. "I'm sorry that you left, I'm sorry I let you down. I'm sorry that I ruined our friendship. I'm sorry that it hurts you to see me, and I wish you were still here, I'm sorry-"
"No," he cuts me off. "No, don't be sorry. It was hardly your fault. I'm the one who left. I am regretting it even more each day." He's not going to cry. Gale doesn't cry in front of anyone.
We were silent the rest of the way to the Capitol. I didn't know what to expect when I got there, but it takes me aback to see the Capitol, once such a beautiful place, booming with Capitol people, now just a heap of bricks. There are a few standing buildings, but mostly broken marble tables, and old rotten cans of open food that litter the ground.
There are bones everywhere. No one bothered to dispose of the bodies after the war, I guess, because the smell is horrid.
I wonder how Gale could stand it here. One, because of the smell, two, because Gale was popular. He had a lot of friends in District 12. All of the ones who made it to the Capitol never made it out.
I see a spot on the ground near a building where a pile of bodies lay.
they are not decayed, they were still intact. They were killed a week ago, at the most.
"Who are they?" I asked, pointing out the bodies.
"No one, they came from the woods. They were weaponed, and we took them down." I turn back to where the Hovercraft landed. Gale is just now getting out. I watch him drop down out of the door and run to where we are.
"Just setting the security system."
I wondered why they needed so much security.

----thanks for reading! I will update the story when I get done writing it :)----