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The hovercraft makes a quick, spiral descent onto a wide road on the outskirts of 8 Almost immediately, the door opens, the stairs slide into place, and we&039;re spit out onto the asphalt The moment the last person disembarks, the equipment retracts Then the craft lifts off and vanishes I&039;s, and two other soldiers The TV crew consists of a pair of burly Capitol ca their bodies like insect shells, a woman director nareen vines, and her assistant, Messalla, a slis On careful observation, I see his tongue has been pierced, too, and he wears a stud with a silver ball the size of a s hustles us off the road toward a roarehouses as a second hovercraft cos crates of medical supplies and a crew of six medics - I can tell by their distinctive white outfits We all follow Boggs down an alley that runs between two dull gray warehouses Only the occasional access ladder to the roof interrupts the scarred e onto the street, it&039;s like we&039;ve entered another world
The wounded froht in On ho across shoulders, and clenched tight in ar, limbless, unconscious Propelled by desperate people to a warehouse with a sloppily paintedH above the doorway It&039;s a scene fro, multiplied by ten, by fifty, by a hundred I had expected bos and instead find myself confronted with broken hu s "This won&039;t work," I say "I won&039;t be good here"
He must see the panic in my eyes, because he stops a moment and places his hands on my shoulders "You will Just let them see you That will do more for them than any doctor in the world could"
A woht of us, does a sort of double take, and then strides over Her dark brown eyes are puffy with fatigue and she se around her throat needed changing about three days ago The strap of the autos into her neck and she shifts her shoulder to reposition it With a jerk of her thumb, she orders the medics into the warehouse They comply without question
"This is Cos "Commander, Soldier Katniss Everdeen"
She looks young to be a commander Early thirties But there&039;s an authoritative tone to her voice that makes you feel her appoint-new outfit, scrubbed and shiny, I feel like a recently hatched chick, untested and only just learning how to navigate the world
"Yeah, I knoho she is," says Paylor "You&039;re alive, then We weren&039;t sure" A or is there a note of accusation in her voice?
"I&039;m still not sure s taps his head "Bad concussion" He lowers his voice aby to see your wounded"
"Well, we&039;ve got plenty of those," says Paylor
"You think this is a good idea?" says Gale, frowning at the hospital "Asse your wounded like this?"
I don&039;t Any sort of contagious disease would spread through this place like wildfire
"I think it&039;s slightly better than leaving them to die," says Paylor
"That&039;s not what I meant," Gale tells her
"Well, currently that&039;s et Coin to back it, I&039;m all ears" Paylor waves jay And by all lance back at the freak show that is my crew, steel myself, and follow her into the hospital Soth of the building, for a sizable corridor Corpses lie side by side, curtain brushing their heads, white cloths concealing their faces "We&039;ve got a rave started a few blocks west of here, but I can&039;t spare the manpower to move them yet," says Paylor She finds a slit in the curtain and opens it wide
My fingers wrap around Gale&039;s wrist "Do not leave ht here," he answers quietly
I step through the curtain and my senses are assaulted My first impulse is to coverflesh, and vo in the heat of the warehouse They&039;ve propped open skylights that crisscross the high et in can&039;t ht provide the only illumination, and as my eyes adjust, I can make out row upon roounded, in cots, on pallets, on the floor because there are soof people in pain, and the sobs of their attending loved ones have co chorus
We have no real hospitals in the districts We die at home, which at the moment seems a far desirable alternative to what lies in front of me Then I remember that s
Sweat begins to run down h my mouth in an attempt to diminish the smell Black spots swim across ood chance I could faint But then I catch sight of Paylor, who&039;s watchingto see what I aht to think they can count on o of Gale and force myself to move deeper into the warehouse, to walk into the narrow strip between ts of beds
"Katniss?" a voice croaks out froeneral din "Katniss?" A hand reaches forto it for support Attached to the hand is a young woh the heavy bandages, which are crawling with flies Her face reflects her pain, but soruous with her situation "Is it really you?"
"Yeah, it&039;s et out
Joy That&039;s the expression on her face At the sound ofmomentarily
"You&039;re alive! We didn&039;t know People said you were, but we didn&039;t know!" she says excitedly
"I got pretty banged up But I got better," I say "Just like you will"
"I&039;ve got to tell les to sit up and calls to someone a few beds down "Eddy! Eddy! She&039;s here! It&039;s Katniss Everdeen!"
A boy, probably about twelve years old, turns to us Bandages obscure half of his face The side of his o to him, push his da He can&039;t speak, but his one good eye fixes onto memorize every detail of h the hot air, spreading out into the hospital "Katniss! Katniss Everdeen!" The sounds of pain and grief begin to recede, to be replaced by words of anticipation Fro the hands extended tothe sound parts of those unable to ood towords of inspiration But it doesn&039;t ht of ers devourto feel my flesh As a stricken man clutches my face between his hands, I send a silent thank-you to Dalton for suggesting I wash off thethat painted Capitol ue, the i to them
Despite his controversial intervieith Caesar,under duress I do my best to sound positive about our future, but people are truly devastated when they learn I&039;ve lost the baby I want to co woae Or in to fully understand the lengths to which people have gone to protect ainst the Capitol, which has so often felt like a solitary journey, has not been undertaken alone I have had thousands upon thousands of people fro before I accepted the role
A new sensation begins to ger on a table, wavingof my name, to define it Power I have a kind of power I never knew I possessed Sno it, as soon as I held out those berries Plutarch knehen he rescued me from the arena And Coin kno So much so that she must publicly remind her people that I aain, I lean against the warehouse, catching s "You did great," he says
Well, I didn&039;t faint or throw up or run out screah the place
"We got some nice stuff in there," says Cressida I look at the insect ca frootten they were even fil me
"I didn&039;t do ive yourself sos
What I&039;ve done in the past? I think of the trail of destruction inposition "That&039;s a "
"Well, you&039;re not perfect by a long shot But tis
Gale squats down besidehis head "I can&039;t believe you let all those people touch you I kept expecting you to make a break for the door"
"Shut up," I say with a laugh
"Your e," he says
"My mother won&039;t even notice me She&039;ll be too appalled by the conditions in there" I turn to Boggs and ask, "Is it like this in every district?"
"Yes Most are under attack We&039;re trying to get in aid wherever we can, but it&039;s not enough" He stops ain his earpiece I realize I haven&039;t heard Hay if it&039;s broken "We&039;re to get to the airstrip I me to my feet with one hand "There&039;s a problem"
"What kind of probles He reaches behind my neck and yanks Cinna&039;s helmet up onto my head "Let&039;son, I take off running along the front of the warehouse, heading for the alley that leads to the airstrip But I don&039;t sense any immediate threat The sky&039;s an empty, cloudless blue The street&039;s clear except for the people hauling the wounded to the hospital There&039;s no enein to wail Within seconds, a low-flying V-shaped formation of Capitol hoverplanes appears above us, and the boin to fall I&039;m blown off my feet, into the front wall of the warehouse There&039;s a searing pain just above the back ofhas struck my back as well, but doesn&039;t sees pushes round ripples under me as bomb after bomb drops from the planes and detonates
It&039;s a horrifying sensation being pinned against the wall as the bombs rain down What was that expressionfish in a barrel We are the fish, the street the barrel
"Katniss!" I&039;m startled by Haymitch&039;s voice in my ear
"What? Yes, what? I&039;m here!" I answer
"Listen to , but it&039;s imperative you&039;re not spotted," he says
"So they don&039;t know I&039;ht on punishence thinks no That this raid was already scheduled," says Haymitch
"Now Plutarch&039;s voice comes up, cal the north corner Can you get there?"