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Today’s Gender

[nobody-nobody-nobody]

Boy On Fire

This scene takes place during Chapter 24 of Mockingjay, after Katniss, Gale, Cressida, Pollux, and Peeta leave Tigris’ shop and make their way to Snow’s mansion.

Part 1 | Part 2 

                                                             ***

Everything around me is on fire. Prim. Katniss. And me. I am burning. I try desperately to put myself out, rolling frantically in the snow as I feel the flames lick at my face. The scarf. I rip it off and stomp it on the ground. Assess the damage to my body. A fireball caught the side of my uniform and singed the better part of it off. Underneath, the skin is hot and blistering red. My forehead aches where the flames leapt a little higher. I’m hurt but still able to walk. I search hopelessly for Katniss in the crowd of people trying desperately to put out the flames that consume them. The wails and smell of burning flesh pervade through the air. I take a step towards the barricade and realize it’s useless to go looking for survivors. The fire blazes on fiercely.  

 I can’t see Katniss, and it doesn’t matter anyway. I feel myself sinking into unconsciousness. I sink to my knees and let exhaustion overcome me. In the end, I couldn’t protect Katniss or her sister. What a lousy excuse for a partner.

                                                          *** 

When I come to, the first thing I’m aware of is someone sitting at my side. There’s only one person left on Earth who would come to my sickbed.

 “Katniss!”

 I sit up with a start and freeze when my eyes land on him. I guess there’s two people left in the world.

 “Haymitch?”

 “Hey kid,” he says. I take in the sight of him. He looks awful. Smells worse. Whatever attempt at sobriety he managed during his stay at District 13 has long since been abandoned. I can’t say I blame him.

 “Katniss?” I ask. My voice comes out in a croak. I try to cough to clear my throat and end up coughing for several minutes. “Easy there,” Haymitch says, gently pushing me back down onto the bed. “You inhaled a good bit of smoke when you were passed out in the circle. Doctors say you’ll be fine but you have to take it easy for a while. Give your lungs time to heal.”

 “Haymitch where’s Katniss?” He drops his eyes and my heart immediately sinks. I bury my face in my hands. For some reason I don’t want him to see the emotions playing out on my face. It’s confusing enough for me, trying to sort out how much of this is out of guilt for failing to keep the promise we made to each other, how much is the love for her that I wrote off but somehow still finds its way to the surface. 

 “She’s alive, Peeta. But barely. She was too close when it happened, and there was no one there to put her out. They’re doing all sorts of treatments for the burns but…she hasn’t spoken in weeks. We’re not sure what’s left of her sanity. If there’s anything left.” He takes a swig from the bottle of wine at his side and lets it hang there. Weeks? How long have I been out? 

We sit in silence for a while until finally I manage, “Gale?”

“He’s alive. Took a bad beating to the head but he’ll be ok. Surprised you asked.”

“He’s half her family now. I need to know she won’t be alone.”

 He doesn’t respond. I’m glad. I’d rather his silence than him try to say something stupid like, There’s still us! Or There’s still you. Or Don’t do anything you’ll regret.

 Finally, he breaks the silence. “Coin needs us for a meeting in a few hours. I guess now that you’re awake you can make it. I’ll tell someone to come get you when it’s time.” Then he gets up and leaves.

 I sit up again and this time there’s no urge to cough. There’s a simple outfit folded up on the bedside table, shoes beside my bed. I get up and get dressed then realize I have nothing to do but wait to be collected.

 Exactly three hours later, I hear footsteps nearing my room. I stand up and ready myself to greet a stranger when I realize I know the person who’s come to collect me.

 “Johanna,” I whisper.

 “Hey partner. Almost feels like old times doesn’t it? Except this time, we’re on the other side of the cell. Ready to kill this bastard?”

 For the first time in what feels like forever, I feel myself grin.

 “I’ve never been more ready.”

                                                               ***

The meeting seems to be composed of the remaining victors. It’s painful enough to be in a room with them. The last time we were all together, we were gunning for each other’s lives.  So I thought.

 Katniss sits across from me and I feel a stab of pain in my chest. Yes, the flames got her bad, but it’s the careful way she holds herself, and the dead look in her eyes that hurts the most. I try to catch her eye but find myself unable to hold her gaze. What has become of us, star-crossed lovers from District 12? Just another pair of broken children unable to protect each other from evils of the capitol.

 Then Coin comes in and she’s laying out her plan for a final Hunger Games. It’s all I can do keep from shouting as I try to convince Haymitch of its futility, its cruelty. But he’s not even listening. He’s watching her. Like he always has.

 “I vote yes...for Prim.”

“I’m with the Mockingjay.”

 And then we’re swept out of the room as people swarm around Katniss, readying her for the execution. 

Outside, Johanna and the rest of us victors are herded towards a special section near the spot where Katniss takes her place. She takes the single arrow out and strings the bow in one fluid motion, aiming straight for Snow’s heart. She pulls the arrow back and… hesitates.

 “What is she doing?” Johanna hisses.

 I turn to Haymitch and find him looking at her intently, with the same look in his eye he had in the meeting.

 “No,” I whisper.

 She raises her bow higher and lets the arrow fly. Straight into Coin’s heart.

Coin’s body plummets to the ground. There’s no need to check for a heartbeat. Already soldiers are swarming towards Katniss, who is tossing her bow to the side, turning her head to her shoulder. Aiming for the nightlock.

 Suddenly, I hear her voice in my voice in my head as my hands clench and spasm beside me.

 Stay with me.

 I break out into a run. After all these months of confusion and terror, of not being sure of what I felt for the girl with the grey eyes and voice that made the birds stop to listen, I am sure of at least one thing. She asked me to stay with her. And I promised I would.  

 I clamp my hand over her sleeve just as she bites down hard enough to cause the blood to run immediately. She looks at me with wild eyes and snarls,

 “Let me go!”

 The soldiers are almost on her. There’s no telling what awaits her after this grave act of treason, what this new administration is capable of. But I am selfish enough to not care what happens. I need her to live.

 “I can’t.”

 Then the soldiers come and take her away.

[nobody-nobody-nobody]

Boy On Fire

This scene takes place during Chapter 24 of Mockingjay, after Katniss, Gale, Cressida, Pollux, and Peeta leave Tigris’ shop and make their way to Snow’s mansion.

Part 1 | Part 3 

                                                              ***

The brief burst of energy I felt is waning and I’m already panting as I weave between bodies on the streets and gunfire from the rooftops. It’s all I can do to keep the scarf over my face and I almost trip and fall into the giant hole in the ground where the street has split, leaving nothing but hundreds of writhing creatures and putrid fumes coming from its depths. I sprint towards the edge of the street and carefully make my way across, using door knobs to swing from one section to the next. I’m almost at the edge of the hole when I hear a distinctly familiar yell.

“GO!”

 It’s Gale, I’m sure of it. But I can’t make out where the yell came from. Suddenly, I spot him across the way. He’s struggling hard against the grip of two peacekeepers who are trying to disarm him and drag him into the depths of a house. We may eye contact for a brief moment before I remember I’m armed now too.

 I swing onto the stoop of the house next-door, barely able to keep my balance on the tiny front step as I kick the front door open. Thankfully, there’s no one inside. I take my position and aim at the peacekeepers, who have succeeded in knocking Gale out and are now poised to take him out. I shoot once and miss but manage to knock the weapon out of one of the peacekeeper’s hands. His partner searches for the source of the shot and spots me, bringing his gun up and gently squeezing on the trigger-

 BANG.

 My hands shake as I realize I got him square in the forehead. The other peacekeeper tries desperately to aim with one hand, but he’s out before he can even raise his weapon. There’s nothing I can do to hide Gale from the rest, but I’m hoping that any passing rebel or peacekeeper will see the blood and bodies and assume they’re all dead anyway.

 I make it to the next intersection and break into a full-on sprint. If Gale got captured that means Katniss is either dead or barely escaped. I can’t bear to think it’s the former. The crowd is thinner here and I search frantically for a trace of her braid, the rebel uniform. I hear people yell “The rebels, the rebels!” and find myself pushed back as they come in and attempt to herd the crowd away from the mansion. Then I spot her.

 Same solemn face and big, blue eyes. Prim.

 What is she doing here? Surely Coin wouldn’t sign off on sending her to the frontlines. No matter how many years of training she’s accumulated helping her mother.

 A hovercraft with the capitol seal appears and drops parachutes into the pen of children, who gleefully reach for them. Yank them down from the sky. And have just enough time to form confusion on their faces before the bombs explode.

 The sky rains blood and body parts. I watch as Prim rushes to the aid of a child desperately holding on to the stump where their shoulder used to be. She’s applying a tourniquet, trying to staunch the flow of blood steadily gushing from her wound and I’m thrown back to another wound, another pair of Everdeen hands…

 “PRIM!”

 Katniss. She’s spotted her. She’s running towards her, pushing through the crowd and screaming her name over and over again.

 But something’s wrong.

 Half the parachutes lie on the ground, unopened. Intact. Ready to go off at any moment.

 “KATNISS!”

 I’m pushing through the line of soldiers and refugees, screaming her name, trying desperately to get to her before something terrible happens.

 “PRIM!”

“KATNISS!”

 But it’s no use. She’s blocked out the rest of the world, unable to register anything but the sight of her sister, penned up with the rest of the capitol children, blood steadily coating her uniform.

 Prim catches sight of her. You can just see her make out her name.

 “Katniss?”

 And then the rest of the parachutes go off.

[nobody-nobody-nobody]

Boy On Fire

This is a Mockingjay fanfic from Peeta’s perspective. This scene takes place during Chapter 24 of Mockingjay, after Katniss, Gale, Cressida, Pollux, and Peeta leave Tigris’ shop and make their way to Snow’s mansion.

                                                        ***

“You’re still trying to protect me. Real or not real?”

“Real.���

 I watch Katniss trudge out the shop with Gale, bracing herself against the biting cold. She looks so slight next to him and my heart does a useless, painful somersault in my chest. Somehow, I always end up here. Risking my life for the girl with the stormy eyes. Then I remember this is the same girl that blocked a whip-lashing with her cheek. No, it’s not the need for survival that will determine who she lays her life down for. It was always love. Just not the kind Gale or I could ever understand.

 “You better get out there before they get too much of a lead on you.” Tigris has her hand ready on the doorknob and I nod and adjust my scarf over my nose and mouth. Just as I take my first step outside she grabs my hand and squeezes it tight. “He hasn’t won. As long as you’re both alive, he hasn’t won.” Then she lets me go and shoves me out without another word.

 I stumble onto the oncoming swarm of capitol refugees and do my best to orient myself. I try desperately to catch a glimpse of her and Gale but it seems there are more and more people spilling in through the side streets, and the cries and moaning that cut through the air threaten to send me over the edge. I already feel myself losing it and duck into an alley, pull my scarf down to my mouth and bite hard on it, fighting the wave of panic I feel coming on.

 Then I hear it. The sharp sound of bullets hitting concrete. And the duller sounds of bullets hitting flesh. I feel my hands drop from my head and the scarf fall from my face as I take in the scene around me. The already frantic crowd has plunged into full-on panic. People trip over bodies and the streets and are immediately trampled by the oncoming crowd running to make it to the capitol. A child wails by the prone body of her mother, tugging at her hand and trying desperately to get her to stand up. Then a spray of bullets hits the streets and the blood blossoms in her yellow coat.

 This is bad. The whole purpose of me trailing behind was to create a disturbance if necessary, and even that has been rendered useless by the rebels who are now shooting indiscriminately into the crowd. I can hear shrieking and the sound of the floor caving in a hundred feet ahead of me and can only guess what horrors line the path to safety. If Katniss wasn’t spotted by the refugees by now, she is sure to be spotted by the rebels and taken before she can make it to Snow’s mansion. Or fall victim to a pod and disappear without a trace, with nothing left for her mother or Prim to mourn.

 “As long as you’re both alive he hasn’t won.”

 Suddenly I’m on my feet, yanking the scarf up over my mouth again and searching frantically for a weapon. The throng of people running is less dense here, though the bodies have begun to pile up. I run out into the street and spy a rebel soldier lying in a pool of his own blood, his gun resting to the side. I grab it and make sure the cartridge is full before taking off towards the mansion, making sure to keep my head down lest I be spotted by either side. I know why Katniss kept me alive despite my constant episodes of hijack-fueled violence, why I chose to hang on instead of throwing myself to the mercy of the pods.

 “Because that’s what you and I do. Protect each other.”

 I’m gonna help her kill Snow.

Part 2 | Part 3