Finnick and Annie

The Sewers

Watching the Peacekeepers bomb the apartment block from the safety of our shelter is surreal. We're not dead, but the rest of Panem certainly thinks so. It's a good thing. It's the first bit of luck we've had so far, but I can't stop my heart from aching. Annie saw this, and if she didn't then she will soon enough. There's no doubt in my mind that our deaths are going to play on all screens in the country over, and over, and over just like the Games did, until the footage is so familiar it no longer elicits any emotion.

I try not to think of Annie. When she is in pain it is hard to reach her. Nobody in Thirteen knows how to be there for her, and it breaks my heart to imagine how lonely she feels with nothing left but her grief. I'll be back. But even as I say it to myself, I can't quite believe me. It seems like the members of our squad are dropping like flies, and even if the entire country believes us to be dead, I know the rest of our time in the Capitol won't be easy.

Peeta's meltdown is a nice distraction from thinking of Annie. I really feel his pain; he killed a member of our squad. No. The Capitol killed him. But there's no way to convince him it wasn't his fault, especially not after we all watched the whole thing replayed on a screen.

"It's not your fault, Peeta," I say, though I know my words will do nothing to calm him.

He still wants us to kill him before he can hurt anybody else. He's scared we'll leave him somewhere to fend for himself because he might end up back in Snow's prison. He wants a nightlock pill like the rest of us so he can take his own life in case he's taken prisoner. He's my friend. I can't stand the thought of him dead or captured by the Capitol again.

"It's not about you," says Katniss. "We're on a mission. And you're necessary to it." I don't know if that's necessarily true, but Peeta doesn't argue anymore. "Think we might find some food here?"

We're sitting around the screen eating canned food when the screen lights up again with the seal of Panem as the anthem fills the silence. Our faces flash on the screen again, like they did in the arena for the dead tributes, and my mind turns to Annie again. And then Snow's ugly face is on the screen and I can only feel rage.

He rambles on about the Mockingjay and the rebellion; it's nothing I haven't heard before, but then the screen changes and it's Persident Coin who's speaking now. Beetee has turned out to be more helpful than any of us trapped in the Capitol.

"Dead or alive, Katniss Everdeen will remain the face of this rebellion. If ever you waver in your resolve, think of the Mockingjay, and in her you will find the strength you need to rid Panem of its oppressors." She almost feels sincere.

"I had no idea how much I meant to her," says Katniss.

After Coin is done, Snow is back on the screen. He's pissed but he's good at keeping his composure. "Tomorrow morning, when we pull Katniss Everdeen's body from the ashes, we will see exactly who the Mockingjay is. A dead girl who could save no one, not even herself."

"Except that you won't find her," I say. They'll realize we're not dead and then they will be on the hunt again. The only good thing to come out of our fake death will be over tomorrow morning.

Katniss suggests we get a head start and tries to figure out how to work the Holo. There are more traps. So many.

"Why don't we start by ruling out possibilities," I say. "The street is not a possibility."

"The rooftops are just as bad as the street," says LEeg 1.

"We still might have a chance to withdraw, go back the way we came," says Homes. "But that would mean a failed mission."