PART TWO - THE ASSAULT

CHAPTER TEN

Grey, groggy. My limbs are heavier than lead.

Slowly, my eyes open, but it takes me a long time of staring into a grey wall to remember that I'm no longer in my Capitol jail cell. That the rebels, all dressed in black, broke me free. Or at least, I assume they did. It almost looks like I'm in another cell, if it weren't for the fact that my limbs are completely free of restraints.

As the realisation dawns on me that I'm not tied down, for the first time in, what must be weeks, I am upright. I fondle the bare skin of my wrists, massaging the veins and the tendons underneath before moving onto my ankles. My skin feels raw, new, yet somehow still kind of smooth. I choke a small sob down.

No matter what happens, what the rebels do or say, they cannot be as bad as the Capitol. They numbed me with morphling and sleep syrup, they freed me of restraints. And I'm not being awoken by strange doctors giving me horrible injections.

I'm calm. I actually feel calm. And maybe safe. Safe, in the hands of the rebels. It almost makes me laugh.

I only get a few moments of piece before a trio of doctors come in the room, the sight of them making my heart rate spike. I panic for a second, terrifed that I'm still in the Capitol after all, that seeing Gale and the rest of the rebels was all a strange, strange dream. That they've just given me a different jail cell and they're going to inject me again and again and again...

Little visions begin to flower underneath my closed eyelids, shut in panic. Rushing images of Katniss, bombs, snake eyes...

A doctor touches my shoulder and it brings me out. I'm ready to squirm away, to hit this doctor who is touching me now I'm unrestrained, but I realise he is just touching me. He isn't hurting me. Holding me back. Trying to get me to move somewhere. This doctor is just touching me, letting me know that whatever is going on beneath my eyelids will stay there. That I'm not alone.

I open my eyes, look up at this doctor. He places his hand away from me, but my eyes thank him. Thank him for the first piece of kindness in so, so long.

"Hi, Peeta," says one of the other doctors, a woman this time, with dark orange hair. "I'm Dr. Harddgonne, this is Dr. Lipp-" Dr. Harddgonne nods to the doctor who put his hands on me, "-and this is Nurse Gill. We're going to be doing some checks on you."

"Checks?" I ask. I scan the three of them, crowded round me like the birds would when I split apart stale bread and scattered it in our back garden. "Where am I? Is this... Are you the rebels?"

Dr. Lipp smiles at me. When he speaks, his voice is incredibly soft and soothing. I wonder if he's a doctor of the mind. "First: checks, as in we want to see if any of these bruises on your body have caused concussion or any bleeding," he starts. "Second: you're in District 13. And that third question is a little harder to explain, but yes. Let's settle on yes for now."

I had my suspicions, that 13 existed. From everything I'd heard in the Capitol, all the tiny bits of information I could glean. From the images of Katniss burning down 12 in my mind. But knowing it, truly having it confirmed, and being in it, felt different.

District 13 is real. It never was blown up. It's been here, all these years. Waiting.

"Why... why did you never help?" is the next question I ask. It barely comes out against the thoughts that are all fighting for control.

Dr. Lipp's brow furrows, in pity or concentration, I can't tell. "We were weakened from the war," he explains. "We barely had food to feed our people. We didn't even know if we were going to live out the year after the war ended."

"But you're so good now. I mean... this room..." I trail off, looking around. All this medical equipment. The way they all look so well-fed, so brightly faced. There are no bags under either of the doctors or nurses eyes. They look happy.

"Yes," Dr. Harddgonne chips in. "But be comforted, Peeta, in knowing that it has taken us a long time to get to this place. To become so self sufficient and stable. When Katniss handed out those berries to you in the arena, of the 74th Hunger Games, we... we thanked our stars. Every one of us in 13 knew it meant something. We knew, finally, we could help. And here we are. Helping."

Dr. Harddgonne continues talking about the hardships of 13, but my brain has caught onto the word 'Katniss'. There is a sudden rage filling my blood, boiling it up so much so that I can feel it bubbling in my veins. I see her, turning into a mutt, like always. The wild dog, plaits as ears. The snake-eyed evil cretin, blowing up 12, killing my family.

I feel spittle leave my mouth. I am beyond angry. I am enraged. I am red, I am blood, I am fire.

The doctors have stopped talking, noticing that something has gone wrong. That I'm not with them anymore. Dr. Lipp is focusing on me, I can feel his eyes, but I can't look at him. Even if I did look at him, I wouldn't see him. I'd only see the mutt, Katniss.

Then, there's a slamming noise. A creak. The doors behind the doctors are opening. Someone's coming in. Fear begins to flow through me: who is it? The Capitol? They've come to take me back, they're here...

But it's worse than that. I push past the doctors, who are crowding me, trying to look into my eyes with a small light to see if I'm reacting to anything other than the images in my head.

They move out of the way of me easily, letting me go by them and turn in time. They see her at the same time as me.

Katniss.

She's here.

The... mutt. The mutt that killed my family, destroyed my district... I think I can see her becoming a snake in my eyes, right now. She's there, holding out her arms, her lips forming my name, "Peeta," as she walks toward me. But she's becoming a snake. No... no, now she's a wild dog. A jabberjay. A beast, a monster. All teeth and eyes.

Then, before I know it, my hands are wrapping around her throat and I'm trying to kill her.