Surviving the Same War

Chapter 7

KATNISS POV

I followed Gale down the ladder and waited for Peeta to come down. In the distance, I heard a faint train whistle and almost shouted at the group that was so close to the tracks.

"Katniss! They're going to get hit! We have to warn them, maybe they don't hear the train!" Peeta shouts as he sprints ahead of me. I follow him and nearly trip onto the tracks before Zeke catches me.

"Woah! Be careful." He says pulling me up. "You don't want to get hit by the train."

"Ya, about that. It's coming!" I wait for the surprised looks that are supposed to show on their faces, but nobody seems to react to this.

"Ya, of course it is." I turn and did Tris reaching out to grab the handle of the oncoming train. "How else do you think we get to the compound?"

The train whizzes past her and, with her out stretched hand, she grabs on pulling herself into its cart. Immediately the others start running with the train hopping on one by one. Somehow Gale manages to get on with them, but Uriah has to reach out his hand to help me up. I look out the cart and find Peeta having trouble keeping up with the train.

"You have to help him!" I shout to the group, "He has a bad leg and can't run very fast! Four leaps out of the train and runs to Peeta pushing him forward. Zeke, Uriah, and Christina are all reach themselves out trying grab a hold of his arm. Once Zeke grabbed him, Four jumped on to help pull Peeta up.

"Peeta!" I half cry, half shout, "Are you okay!"

"I'm... fine," he says in between breaths. "I've... Just... Never.... Jumped... Into... A moving... Train... Before..."

Uriah turns to Four. "Four," he asks, "How is he going to be able to jump OUT?" My eyes widen in shock and I hear Peeta gasping.

"You mean he has to jump OUT of this thing?!" I say in disbelief.

"Ya, but don't worry, it's only a 5 foot leap onto the building. Plus, you still have 10 minutes to recover." I don't know about this Uriah guy, but there's no way it's possible for me to do that.

"Fine, whatever." I groan and lay back on the ground. "I think this might be a bit worse than the Hunger Games." I whisper into his ear before completely dozing off.

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FOUR POV

The girl, Katniss I think, whispered something to Peeta about "The Hunger Games" before she fell asleep. The Hunger Games. I wonder if that is maybe a part of their city of Panem. I guess I'll have to ask one of them, but later.

"Wake them up." I tell Christina, "The ledges are coming." We all decided that these new people would have to jump through the initiates way just to test them. I don't know what we are testing them for, but I didn't object when Tris brought it up. Although, later I would like to give them a faction test, just to see who they really are.

"Get up!" I hear Christina say to Peeta and Katniss. "We're about to jump!"

"Watch the others jump!" I shout to the new trio. "And make sure that when you do, get a running start and don't land on your feet, it'll break your ankles." Tris jumps off first, doing a perfect tuck-and-roll onto the building, followed by Uriah, Zeke, and Christina.

"I'll go." Another one of the boys- I think his name is Gale- says. He jumps pretty far, but I guess he forgot about the sudden wind change and he almost falls over when he rolls.

"I'll try," Katniss says after watching Gale, "But help Peeta!" She takes her leap and does a tuck-and-roll almost exactly like Tris.

"Peeta, right?" I ask the remaining boy. "Just run and jump, it'll be fine." He nods and does okay when he lands on the roof. I follow the kid out the door just before the train moves past the rest of the building. Even so, I barely make it onto the building, holding on with just my arms when the gang comes and pulls me up.

"At least all the crazy stuff is over," I hear Katniss say. I almost laugh at the comment, but somehow manage to keep a straight face.

"That's what they think." Zeke whispers to me. I walked over to the people on the ground to help them up and stretch out a little.

"So who's going first?" Tris asks. She still hasn't apologized to Katniss, that girl can be stubborn.

"I say we let one of them go first," Uriah said.

"It's not a bad idea, but who would catch them? Let's have Four go first and then they follow."

"Ya, I guess that can work." I say. It's funny watching Katniss' face right now. Her and her friends' faces are flooded with terror at the imagination of what they will have to do next.

"I guess I'm up to that." I say in agreement. "Here goes nothing."

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PEETA

I stared in shock as Four threw himself off of the building like it was nothing. Though he looks tough as nails, that scream he let out was so high pitched, but I couldn't even laugh. My eyes were wide open, as if they were not processing what they were seeing. Did he really just jump off the building? Where did he land? Katniss is already looking over the edge in shock.

"Gale! Peeta! Come look!" She calls, "I think it is the hole we saw earlier, the one from in the sky."

"Ya, it looks just like it." I say. "Hey, umm, Tris, right?" She nods. "Where exactly are we?"

"None of us will tell you until you all jump." She says with a completely straight face. She can't be serious!

"At least tell us if he's alive!" Katniss shouts.

"Yes, Four is alive. Now, which of you three is going to jump after him?"

To my fear, Katniss steps onto the ledge and sways. "Me." Her hair pulls back in the wind and her body tips over the side. I ran as fast as I could to the edge and see a faint glimpse of her body just before it is swallowed by complete darkness.

Gale steps up to where she was and stares off into the sky. He takes a deep breath and falls over just as Katniss did. Do these people have no fear?!

Suddenly I feel a breeze against my face and find that I am standing over the ledge. I don't even remember climbing up here, but I don't care. I take in a deep breath to calm my self down and jump.

The world seemed to be going in slow motion as I fell downwards. I saw the building rise above the ground and the hole push towards me. A net appears at the bottom and I extend my feet in front. I hit the net and a rush moved up throughout my body and sent my nerves screaming. I managed to crawl to the side and Katniss pulled me over.

"How did it feel?" She asked.

I took a few seconds to catch my breath before answering her. "Let's just say, I won't be doing that again anytime soon." She just laughs and helps me keep my balance. One by one, the others jump down and off like nothing.

"Are you ready to walk now?" Katniss asked me.

"Ya, I think so." She helped me up and I heard a sharp crack and fell to the ground. Four came rushing over and helped Katniss get me up.

"What happened?" He asked.

"It's my false leg. I lost my original in the Hunger Games so I just use this one, but now it's broken." I sigh.

Four seems to study my leg and then shrugs. "You know, we have some medicine that can help you regroup your leg back."

"Really!" Katniss shrieks. "Can he use some?"

"Of course! Just let's get him a wheel chair to move him over to the hospital." He calls for a chair from Zeke and in no time I'm being moved over to the hospital.

"Peeta!" Katniss is crying, tears of joy I think, "They're going to heal you!"

I take her hand and rub her knuckles in a circle. "I know. I'll be normal again."

Four comes back with a syringe and a damp cloth. "He'll have to take this so we can give him the medicine. Don't worry, he won't feel a thing." Katniss nods and leaves the room just as he sticks the needle into my neck. The room begins to grow dark, eventually fading away.