After Mockingjay

Chapter 5

District 12. It's my home. It's where I grew up. It's where Peeta grew up. And it's where our children will grow up. Only Finnick and Annie will have a better experience than we did. On our way to the meadow, I look around District 12. It looks pretty much the same as it did before the explosions. Except now, there are more colors. There are no peacekeepers. The kids don't even know what those are. And Peeta and I can only hope that they never will. There is no electric fence surrounding the district anymore, so we can go the meadow whenever we wish.

We get to the meadow and we all sit down in a circle and begin to eat our picnic. "I know something that will make this picnic even better!" I say as run into the woods looking for a berry bush. Then I remembered there is one around the place where Gale and I always used to sit. I see the berry bush and run to it. But I also see something else. The back of a person's head. It's Gale.

He quickly turns around as soon as he heard me. "Katniss? What are you doing here?" he asks with happiness in his voice. "Picking berries for my kids." I say quietly, Gale gets up and moves closer to me. "You know Catnip, I wan't lying before. I never stopped loving you." Gale says still walking closer to me. I ignore him and continue picking berries. "That's great for you Gale. But I really don't care at all." I say once I finished picking the berries.

He comes closer and closer. He is now about 10 centimeters away. "I'm not lying to you Katniss. You're beautiful and funny and I want to spend the rest of life with you." he says in a quiet almost whisper. As if somebody was listening to what he was saying. Gale is within kissing distance from me. I talk a wild guess and assume this is what he wanted. Right as he is about to kiss my lips, I kick him in the knee and take off. 

I run faster than I think I had run in the longest time. I suddenly have a memory of the arena flash through my mind. The gong has just gone off. I see Cato, Clove, Glimmer, Marvel, Thresh and a bunch of the other tributes running towards the Cornecopia. I see Foxface, Rue, and Peeta disapear into the woods. I run quickly as grab the backpack and run into the woods. Except instead of running into the woods, I run out of them. Now I'm back in the meadow. 

I run back to Peeta and the kids as fast as I can. I vaguily hear Gale screaming after me. "You'll be back! They always come back." Not me. I never looked back. Not once until I could see my husband and two children.