Surviving the Same War

Chapter 21

GALE POV

I opened my eyes hazily, staring into the blurriness of the room. Fuzzy figures sat near a corner of the room, and as I sat up they all jerked their heads towards me like meerkats.

"Thank god you're awake!" One of them said, pulling me into a tight hug. "It's been days, everyone has been getting really worried." My vision started to focus a little and I saw Christina pull away from me. Peeta, Uriah, Zeke, Tris, and Four were all waiting behind Christina.

"Where are we?" I ask, looking around the room. It's huge with plenty of space. Some mattresses are stacked up in another corner of the white walls. A black door with a small window opens from a flap at the bottom and a tray of food is punched into the room. Four walks over to retrieve it as Christina answers my question.

"After Jeanine had ordered the Dauntless to capture us from the train car, we were drugged and carried here. I remember because I woke up sick and nearly threw up." She says, making a grossed-out face. "I was the first awake, but then the rest woke, you were the only one that didn't. It has been 3 days, I was really worried about you." I give her a smirk and she turns bright red.

Four came back before I could say anything else and handed everybody their share of food. "I think they already know you're up, they sent an extra meal this time." I nod and take a bite of the horrific food they had sent.

"That means that they are watching us," I say after gobbling down my meal, "They probably have some cameras or maybe the mirror over there," I gesture over to the huge mirror that acts as one of the walls of this room, "is a one-way mirror." As if on cue, the latch to the door opens and a slim lady with blonde hair steps in.

"Gale, I presume?" She asks, and I assume to me, so I nod. "You have keen senses, being here for only a minute and already knowing where I study you from." I give her a questioning look.

Study? As in we are her guinea pigs or lab rats? That's preposterous, why would she want to learn about us, we are all just people.

"You aren't just any person Gale," she began, as if reading my mind. "You come from outside of the gates. All three of you, you're different, and I just want to know what you know."

I glance over to Christina and she gives me a look saying Don't tell her anything. I nod and turn back to the lady in front of me.

"I can tell you plan on not telling me anything," she says, already knowing my strategy. "No matter, there are ways to get you to talk." Soldiers came busting into the room at her last word and in a split second, everyone was on the ground and I was being forced out the room. "Take him to T-2, then get the girl to T-1, got it?" The lady said to my captivators. They grunted and dragged me along a brightly lit hallway and threw me into another room.

"Stay here." One of the soldiers hissed, as if I had anywhere else to go.

The room was just like the other one, only it was double it's size with 2 doors and the mirror was gone. A girl was at the other side of the room, crouched in a corner.

"Hello?" I speak, hoping to get the girl's attention. She seemed to hear me, or somehow notice my presence, because her head jolted around and she look me in the eye. "Katniss! You're okay!" I shouted. I tried running to her, to help her but she ran up and signaled me to stop moving.

She pointed upward and I saw what she wanted me to see. In the middle of the wall, a small patch glistened, stretching outward like a wall separating me from her. "Force field." I muttered underneath my breath. Back when I was in 13, Beetee showed me how to recognize a force field. "How long have you been here?" I asked her.

She signaled to her ear then sighed and shook her head. She can't hear me. I try acting out what I want to tell her, drawing a question mark in the air and pointing to myself. "How did you know I was here?" I shout while trying to act out the words, forgetting the part where she can't hear me. In answer, she stomps her foot onto the ground and it shakes wearily. She must have felt the vibrations.

Just as I was about to say something else, the lady came into my half of the room and shut the door. "How could you tell?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." I reply to her question.

"How in the world can you tell of the force field? Rain or whatever his name was said it was impossible." She stated, but then continued without waiting for an answer. "No matter anyways. I'm just here to ask how you found this place." I eye Katniss and she shakes her head.

"I don't know, I just came here." I lie plainly to her face, but she knows I'm lying.

A guard sneaks into Katniss's side of the room and grabs a hold of her, wrapping his arm around her neck. She struggles to pull out of his grip, but her attempt result in only being strangled harder.

"Now, tell me, where are you from?"

"A city called Panem!" I cry out, hoping the answer is good enough. The guard lets Katniss fall to the ground, struggling for air, but alive.

"Good, now will you answer all of my questions I have for you? Or will you allow your little girlfriend here to be strangled once again?" The lady says, smiling cunningly to my face as if she has already won.

"No."

Her face is flushed with anger, but she calms herself down and makes one last order.

"Kill her."