A Dangerous Game (A Hunger Games Fan Fiction)

3. Operation Free the Mockingjay

3. Operation Free the Mockingjay

       I went pale. Gale had to be lying.

            “No.” I looked to the fence. “No!”

            “Listen for yourself,” Gale muttered.

            In disbelief for the time being, I inched to the district fence. Gale had good hearing, he was right. The fence was humming up a storm like a nasty nest of tracker jackers. I whimpered.

The odds weren’t in our favor today. First, Katniss gets caught by Peacekeepers, and now Gale and I were trapped here on the other side of the district boundary. We could try and go through the fence, but that was a death wish. I personally didn’t want to get fried, and I was sure Gale felt the same way.

            “What do we do?” I whined. My shoulders slumped in defeat.

            “We have to wait it out, that’s the only thing we can do,” Gale suggested.

            “Who knows how long that’ll be? They might turn the fence off until tomorrow morning.” I turned to Gale, eyes watering. “I don’t want to be like Katniss, I don’t want to be taken like she was.”

            “We won’t be,” he said gently. I shook. Gale grabbed my arms. “We’ll wait it out. We’ve got the bow and arrows, so we’ll just stay up in a tree until the fence gets turned off. When it does, we run for it.”

            “What if your mom asks where we were when we get back—if we get back?” I asked. 

            “There’s no ‘if’ about it, we are getting back. We’ll deal with that later. Right now, let’s find a good tree to hide in.”

            I took Katniss’s things while Gale sought out a good tree for us both to perch and hide in. I was glad Gale knew what he was doing. If it was just me out here, I would be taken by wild dogs by the time night came along. I would never think in a million years to climb a tree to keep myself safe.

            “This one looks good enough,” Gale said.

I craned my neck up, it was quite a climb. “If it weren’t for the fact that there could be animals waiting to kill me later tonight, I would prefer to stay on the ground,” I squeaked.

            “Don’t tell me you have a fear of heights.”

            “Partially,” I admitted. “I’ve never climbed a tree before.”

            “You’ve got to be joking.”

            “I had a lot more to think about than climb trees, like staying alive in a starving district. Besides, there aren’t many stable-looking trees in Twelve.”

            “I’ll give you a leg up. Just grab the branch nearest you and start climbing.” I eyed him nervously. “Don’t worry; I’ll be right behind you the whole way. You decide how far up we go. Sound fair?”

            “I guess so.”

            “It won’t be so bad.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “You might like it once you try it.”

            “I don’t know about that.” I laughed nervously.

            “You got to have some faith in yourself, Kat. You trust me, right?”