The Hunger Games: Book Four - How it Might Have Been ... Gale.

Page Twenty

Gale

"We need to run," I say to Katniss, though my voice should hold more urgency than it does. I'm staring out the window at my hopes and dreams crumbling before me. The Nut has been standing for years, millienia, and now it is gone. All because of the Capitol.

Katniss, though shocked, composes herself quickly and turns to the kids. "Pack your stuff - we're leaving." The kids don't understand the gravity of what is happening, but they do as told. Oeno has that steely look in her eye that her mother had as a child as she packs what little of her stuff she has left. Kuwai, I notice, packs the tape of the 74th Hunger Games.

"Gale," Katniss says, but her voice sounds far away. She grabs my arm, shaking me a little, but my eyes are glued to the destruction beyond the pane of glass. Suddenly, the glass begins to tremble beneath my outspread palm. I stare at it for a moment, wondering if I'm losing my mind, if this has all been some sort of dream and nightmare combined into one. "Gale," Katniss says again, but this time she's not looking for a reply. She grabs my face between her hands and kisses me, harshly, as if to wake me up from the dream. I'm dazed for a moment, staring into her eyes.

Then the light fixture crashes from the roof.

"Run!" I shout, propelling into action. I scoop a frightened Kuwai into my arms and grab Katniss's hand, who in turn grabs Oeno's skinny fingers. Holding the door of my trembling apartment open for them to escape, I see something at the side of my bed. The pills, that gave me escape for so long. Fear shoots through me at the thought of leaving them behind. Who knows where we'll end up eventually? What if I can never get these pills again? 

"Gale," Katniss breathes, standing in the doorframe. Her eyes are frantic, locked on mine. "We need to go." She curls her fingers around my arm, and I swallow hard. Maybe I'll never need to be released from the pain I felt from her leaving me. Maybe this was it forever.

As I look back one more time at my shaking home, a picture falls from the wall above my bed, smashing into the bedside locker and shattering the pill case. Glass and little white tablets scatter everywhere, and Katniss pulls my arm just in time.

We're running down the staircase, dodging chunks of the wall that are coming loose. I hear Kuwai scream, but it is just out of fear; he's not hurt. There is a loud creaking noise as Oeno shoves the door open onto the street. Dust and daylight seep through the door, and I go first.

What I see horrifies me in ways I never knew.