Prisoner of the Capitol

Chapter 8

KATNISS'S POV:

"Claudia can we make a quick stop in District 2?" I say.

Claudia grabs her microphone and says,

"Pilot, we need to stop in District 2."

"Alright, we'll be there in about 5 minutes, Miss Snow," the pilot says over the loudspeaker.

I look out the window of the hovercraft until we start to drop without warning, then I smell smoke and Claudia starts screaming. I see the flames on the left wing, so I grab Claudia's wrist and drag her towards the right side of the hovercraft. I look out the window and see people aiming guns at us

CRASH

We slam onto the floor of the hovercraft but it doesn't take me long to recover, pick Claudia up and get out before we are caught in the flames. As soon as we're out of danger I fall to the ground and throw up. When I look up I see I am surrounded by men and women pointing guns at me.

"Hey," a tall blonde haired man says, "aren't you Katniss Everdeen?"

"Actually," I say standing up. "It's Katniss Mellark now."

"Hunter," a dark haired lady says, "Go get your father!"

"Yes mum," says a short dark haired boy who looks about 5 years old. He then runs off to get his father, I wonder who his father is and why he is getting him. Have I done something to upset him? Does he want to kill me?

"Everyone, leave us," the dark haired lady orders.

Everyone lowers their guns and then leaves.

The lady reaches her hand out toward me but I just push on the ground to stand up. I run towards our hovercraft which has been completely destroyed by the flames and as I look to see if there is anything that I can salvage, I see the pilot's burnt body, his flesh has been burnt badly and his hair is smoking. Claudia comes up behind me and leads me over to a chair that the dark haired lady has gotten for me.

"Hello Katniss," the lady says, "I've heard a lot about you. My name is Lara."

"Hello Lara, I came here to find someone," I say.

"Yes, of course," she says, "you came to see Gale, right?"

"Uh y-yeah, do you know where I could find him?"

"I just sent Hunter to get him!" She tells me.

"Oh, Hunter is Gale's son?" I ask.

"Yes," she says, "he's also my-"

"KATNISS"

I turn around and see Gale and Hunter running towards me, I stand up to run towards him but my legs fail me and I fall to the ground. Claudia quickly helps me back into the chair and then Gale is next to me and he leans down and gives me the best hug he can while I'm sitting down.

"What are you doing here, Catnip?" He asks.

"I'm going to England to save Cinna." I say. "There's a chance that he's still alive over there, I came here first to see if you would come with me to help."

What I don't say is that I also came to get him to come so Peeta couldn't come and get him to try and convince me not to go.

"Are you crazy, Katniss?," he says "it's way too dangerous."

"Please Gale, I'll need help and you're the only person I would want to face such difficult situations with because even though it's been 10 years, you're still my best friend." I tell him.

"Alright, I'll come but only if Hunter and Lara can come too!" He says. "Lara trained her whole life for the games and when you stopped the games, she continued training for the military and even though Hunter is only 5 he knows how to use a sword properly so he can protect himself."

"You trained your son to use a weapon before he's even started school?" I say shocked.

"He actually started school last year, Katniss." Gale tells me, "and he's wants to train to become a peacekeeper like his uncle, Lara's brother Dram."

"Ok, we can talk about this later. Right now we need to figure out how we're going to go anywhere since our hovercraft was gunned down." I say pointing to the burnt pile of what used to be our hovercraft.

"Follow me," Lara says, "I can get us an airship. Nothing as fancy as the hovercraft you two came in but it's good enough to get us where we need to go."

Then she runs off without another word. We all have to sprint to catch up with her, which really isn't good for my unborn baby. When we all stop Lara signals for us all to be quiet, then she goes around the corner of the building that were standing next to and disappears into a doorway. About 10 minutes later she comes out with a man who looks like he would be in his late 50s.

"Sir, I promise you I'm telling the truth. My son is sick, we called my brother who is a peacekeeper in the Capitol and he sorted out an appointment for us with a professional doctor in the Capitol and now Claudia Snow and Katniss Mellark have come to take us to the Capitol for his appointment. They came in a hovercraft but we gunned it down thinking that it was an enemy ship. Katniss and Claudia got out but their pilot was not so lucky, he was burnt to death. Now we need one of the airships to get to the Capitol." Lara tells the man.

"Hunter," Gale whispers, "pretend you're coughing really bad and fake cry."

"I don't know how to fake cry, dad."

"Just do this," I tell him, "hold your eyes wide open and don't blink for a minute then close and rub your eyes as hard as you can without hurting yourself, now hold them open again until your vision goes funny. Then let go and think of something really sad."

He does it and then he is crying and then he starts hiccuping and coughing. We lead him around to where Lara and the man are talking.

"So tell me, Mrs Hawthorne, why exactly is Katniss Everdeen here?"

"Katniss is good friends with my husband, Gale," Lara tells the man.

Then they both notice us coming around the corner with Hunter looking really sick. Gale scoops him up and carries him the rest of the way.

"Please Mason," Gale says "we need to get Hunter to the Capitol. We don't know what's wrong with him."

We all stand in silence until Mason finally says,

"Fine, take The Winger. The keys are under the pilot's seat. I hope your son gets better."

"Thank you sir," Lara says before she turns away and leads us toward a big plane at the very end.

Claudia is first in, then Hunter then me then Gale and then Lara. She sits down in the pilots seat, reaches underneath and pulls out a key ring with 3 keys on it. She puts the biggest key into the ignition hole and leaves me wondering what the other 2 are for.

Just as we are about to start down the runway of the mini airport of District 2, someone calls out,

"WAIT. STOP. DONT GO!"

I turn around and see Peeta running up to our plane. I turn to Lara and say,

"Go, start the plane. He's going to try and stop me from going."

"But Katniss-"

"JUST GO!"

We start picking up speed almost instantly and in seconds we are off the ground and Peeta is quickly turning into a tiny black speck in the distance...