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

Page Twenty-Two

*AN* I know I've been gone for so long - vacation and I had a lot of trouble with flights! Please forgive me! But I hope you're prepared to find out what happened to Peeta....

Katniss

District Two is rubble.  Buildings that once reigned high are now rocks and pebbles littering the street. Hovercrafts have crashed and burst into flames, leaving more casualties and carnage. Streetlights are bent, asphalt is cracked, and boulders from the Nut are still rolling, crushing everyhing they hit.

I cannot pause. I've seen destruction like this before. I've seen District 12 reduced to mere ashes, streets littered with charred skeletons. People here are fleeing and are still alive, not like those who suffered a terrible fate in my old home. Now I must flee too, and save my childrens' lives, my husband's life, my best friends life, and of course, my own.

"No," I hear Gale whisper beside me as he takes in the chaos. He's seen destruction like this too, but of course it's harder for him to cope. He escaped to this District so he would never have to relive his past. And now, with my arrival, I have brought a flood of past memories to him. Our past friendship, our past love, our past survival. I am adamant to get him out alive. I know Gale. He's a fighter. But now he's shocked into immobility.

"Gale," I grab his face, tenderly, yet keep my voice urgent. "We have to run."

"But this is my home," he says aloofly, not looking at me, but at the screaming civilians he has lived amongst for years now. "District Two is my home."

I do not know how to answer him. I have fought battles and led rebellions, raised children and ran away more times than I can count, all while moving through a sea of grief and loss - so why can't I comfort Gale in a way as to inspire him to move?

Then I get a flashback. I won't use my words to get through to him - I'll use his.

"Gale," I say more intently. His eyes find mine. "There is no District Two."

My children watch on silently as Gale and I mentally relive a chapter of our past we both can never forget. And I'm right - it inspires him, drags him back to the present. He kisses me quickly and I am caught off guard. Then, grabbing my hand, he swings Kuwai into his other arm and instructs Oeno to hold onto me. From there he leads on, being the Gale I know and love.

We rush through the destroyed streets and I wonder what Gale's plan of action is. The Capitol have just destroyed the Nut, so surely they are here? Surely they're watching us from afar, or maybe from near? What do they look like now? Are they in disguise? Do they want us dead, or alive? And most importantly, is my husband safe and alive in their claws?

Gale rushes onward. I pray he knows the answers to my unspoken questions - then again, I've never been very faithful.