"So, what exactly do you need from me again?" I ask.
"Just a few quick lines that show you're alive and still fighting," says Cressida.
"Okay." I take my position and then I'm staring into the red light. Staring. Staring. "I'm sorry, I've got nothing."
Cressida walks up to me. "You feeling okay?" I nod. She pulls a small cloth from her pocket and blots my face. "How about we do the old Q-and-A thing?"
"Yeah. That would help, I think." I cross my arms to hide the shaking. Glance at Finnick, who gives me a thumbs-up. But he's looking pretty shaky himself.
Cressida's back in position now. "So, Katniss. You've survived the Capitol bombing of Thirteen. How did it compare with what you experienced on the ground in Eight?"
"We were so far underground this time, there was no real danger. Thirteen's alive and well and so am - " My voice cuts off in a dry, squeaking sound.
"Try the line again," says Cressida. "'Thirteen's alive and well and so am I.'"
I take a breath, trying to force air down into my diaphragm. "Thirteen's alive and so - " No, that's wrong.
I swear I can still smell those roses.
"Katniss, just this one line and you're done today. I promise," says Cressida. "'Thirteen's alive and well and so am I.'"
I swing my arms to loosen myself up. Place my fists on my hips. Then drop them to my sides. Saliva's filling my mouth at a ridiculous rate and I feel vomit at the back of my throat. I swallow hard and open my lips so I can get the stupid line out and go hide in the woods and - that's when I start crying.
It's impossible to be the Mockingjay. Impossible to complete even this one sentence. Because now I know that everything I say will be directly taken out on Peeta. Result in his torture. But not his death, no, nothing so merciful as that. Snow will ensure that his life is much worse than death.
"Cut," I hear Cressida say quietly.
"What's wrong with her?" Plutarch says under his breath.
"She's figured out how Snow's using Peeta," says Finnick.
There's something like a collective sigh of regret from the semicircle of people spread out before me. Because I know this now. Because there will never be a way for me to not know this again. Because, beyond the military disadvantage losing a Mockingjay entails, I am broken.
Several sets of arms would embrace me. But in the end, the only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta, too. I reach out for him and say something like his name and he's there, holding me and patting my back. "It's okay. It'll be okay, sweetheart." He sits me on a length of broken marble pillar and keeps an arm around me while I sob.
"I can't do this anymore," I say.
"I know," he says.
"All I can think of is - what he's going to do to Peeta - because I'm the Mockingjay!" I get out.
"I know." Haymitch's arm tightens around me.
"Did you see? How weird he acted? What are they - doing to him?" I'm gasping for air between sobs, but I manage one last phrase. "It's my fault!" And then I cross some line into hysteria and there's a needle in my arm and the world slips away.
It must be strong, whatever they shot into me, because it's a full day before I come to. My sleep wasn't peaceful, though. I have the sense of emerging from a world of dark, haunted places where I traveled alone. Haymitch sits in the chair by my bed, his skin waxen, his eyes bloodshot. I remember about Peeta and start to tremble again.
Haymitch reaches out and squeezes my shoulder. "It's all right. We're going to try to get Peeta out."
"What?" That makes no sense.
"Plutarch's sending in a rescue team. He has people on the inside. He thinks we can get Peeta back alive," he says.
"Why didn't we before?" I say.
"Because it's costly. But everyone agrees this is the thing to do. It's the same choice we made in the arena. To do whatever it takes to keep you going. We can't lose the Mockingjay now. And you can't perform unless you know Snow can't take it out on Peeta." Haymitch offers me a cup. "Here, drink something."
I slowly sit up and take a sip of water. "What do you mean, costly?"
He shrugs. "Covers will be blown. People may die. But keep in mind that they're dying every day. And it's not just Peeta; we're getting Annie out for Finnick, too."
"Where is he?" I ask.
"Behind that screen, sleeping his sedative off. He lost it right after we knocked you out," says Haymitch. I smile a little, feel a bit less weak. "Yeah, it was a really excellent shoot. You two cracked up and Boggs left to arrange the mission to get Peeta. We're officially in reruns."
"Well, if Boggs is leading it, that's a plus," I say.
"Oh, he's on top of it. It was volunteer only, but he pretended not to notice me waving my hand in the air," says Haymitch. "See? He's already demonstrated good judgment."
Something's wrong. Haymitch's trying a little too hard to cheer me up. It's not really his style. "So who else volunteered?"
"I think there were seven altogether," he says evasively.
I get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Who else, Haymitch?" I insist.
Haymitch finally drops the good-natured act. "You know who else, Katniss. You know who stepped up first."
Of course I do.
Gale.
12
Today I might lose both of them.
I try to imagine a world where both Gale's and Peeta's voices have ceased. Hands stilled. Eyes unblinking. I'm standing over their bodies, having a last look, leaving the room where they lie. But when I open the door to step out into the world, there's only a tremendous void. A pale gray nothingness that is all my future holds.
"Do you want me to have them sedate you until it's over?" asks Haymitch. He's not joking. This is a man who spent his adult life at the bottom of a bottle, trying to anesthetize himself against the Capitol's crimes. The sixteen-year-old boy who won the second Quarter Quell must have had people he loved - family, friends, a sweetheart maybe - that he fought to get back to. Where are they now? How is it that until Peeta and I were thrust upon him, there was no one at all in his life? What did Snow do to them?
"No," I say. "I want to go to the Capitol. I want to be part of the rescue mission."
"They're gone," says Haymitch.
"How long ago did they leave? I could catch up. I could - " What? What could I do?
Haymitch shakes his head. "It'll never happen. You're too valuable and too vulnerable. There was talk of sending you to another district to divert the Capitol's attention while the rescue takes place. But no one felt you could handle it."