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

Page Thirty-Nine

Gale

District Thirteen hasn't changed at all, internally. Externally, all that could be seen for miles was debris and rubble, a wasteland that looked as if it contained no life at all. It was completely off the radar, just another city reduced to a pile of rocks after the Rebellion.

The disguise is ingenious.

Inside is nothing like I have ever seen before, which gave it a good reason to remain undetected, especially by the New Capitol. Technology from the post-Rebellion times had been salvaged from the wreckage and has become more advanced. The city has been completely rebuilt underground, with over nine thousand residents, I am told. I was completely in awe of this place.

A bittersweet feeling enters my mind as I think of my old workplace, the Nut, and how it used to contain a mere fraction of the technology here. There are gadgets I have never seen, prototypes that never worked before, liquids and chemicals and machines and robots and stimulations and hovercrafts and everything I can imagine and more, all in one District.

It makes me wish I had the power to help, but I am still weak from blood loss and have a major concussion. But I know the key to saving Peeta Mellark is here. Though now, deep down, it is not just Peeta I am saving. It is sweet little Oeno, the girl who was fascinated in the ArchivePlayer, the girl whose secret love for history and the Hunger Games could never fully blossom because of her parents' involvement in the past. And it is all of Panem, because now the Capitol is back in full force, worse than before, with no remorse and no restraint, and the worse is to come.

President Coin Junior gives us accomodation in one of the rebuilt bunks, bringing back memories as fresh as the day they occured. She tells us about the reformation of the District after the bombings, the times it seemed impossible, the endless hours and days of work put in by survivors to  make the city whole again, but I am only half listening to her.

I find myself in the basement, searching for remains or clues of the past laboratory that was once here, the one Beetee and I worked in tirelessly day after day, combining my snares with his knowledge of science to create wonderful things. And some not so wonderful things.

A sharp migraine hits my head and I wince, leaning against the wall of the basement which is now but a half-built room of dust. No one knows I am down here - this was something I had to do alone. I had to face my past, without the aid of medication to dim the reality of it all. So when I hear a scuttle behind me and turn to see those big eyes looking at me, my heart stops.

"Gale?" Kuwai asks, looking young and concerned again for the first time in days. I have heard from Katniss that while I was out cold, Ku led the way, keeping his mother strong as she aided me, coming up with a plan to return home and then eventually to come here. It must have taken days, and I don't know how he did it, but I can tell he is scarred and tired. He's just a kid. A kid without a sister. I know how he feels, because when Katniss was taken away on that train that day towards her first Hunger Games, I felt like I was losing a sister. Except she was so much more than a sibling to me. "Are you ok?" Kuwai asks again, and I shake off the stupor, standing up straight. His voice, he had sounded so young, so familiar, a voice I haven't heard in...

"Is it your head? Should I get Mommy?" he asks again, moving toward me. 

"No, no, Ku. Thank you, but I'm fine," I sigh, sounding the furthest thing away from fine. Ku knits his brows, a habit he has picked up from his mother, and raps his fingers on his knee, a gesture he has inherited from his father. "I just wish I could find a way to help your sister and your Dad," I say, and I don't know why. I would never have said anything on those lines to this boy a few days ago, but now I know he is strong enough to handle it. But still, the vulnerability I heard in his voice moments ago, it reminded me of something, someone...

It hits me.

I have the key to save Panem.

We will not need a Mockingjay.