Return of the Mockingjay

Chapter 54

He chuckles slightly "it was always what I wanted, to get you out safe so you could go home"

"I know. So, now you're free to do whatever you want, where'd you think you wanna go?"

"I don't know, I've only ever lived in the arena. I've never seen anything else"

I turn to look at Peeta who's still stood leaning against the door frame watching me and Cato.

"Can I take him outside Peeta, to show him the forest?"

Peeta smiles "I can't see why not, I'll get his medical team to get a wheelchair for him" he walks up to me and gives me a gentle kiss. "I'm gonna head off to command for a meeting, take your time Kat. I'll make up some excuse for why you're not there" he shakes Cato's hand and heads off out the door and up the corridor.

"He's a good man that husband of yours"

"Yeah I now, I'm a lucky girl considering how I treated him after our first games"

"He's really looked after me Katniss. From the moment they rescued me he's always been there, checking up on my progress and making sure I'm okay"

"Yeah I know, that's the sort of guy he is" I say smiling with pride.

A nurse enters the room pushing a wheelchair in front of her. Cato shuffles his body round so he's sitting on the edge of the bed. Only now do I see the plaster cast which covers his lower right leg that Peeta the Mutt stamped on. The nurse and I help him into the wheelchair and the nurse drapes a blanket over him to protect him from the cool Spring air outside. The nurse leaves the room and I start to wheel him down the corridor to the elevator by the nurses station.
I punch in the code for the training ground and he looks around the elevator in confusion.

"What's this thing?" he asks.

For a moment I'm not sure what he's talking about but then it dawns on me, he knows nothing about the outside world, his whole short life has been all about the Hunger Games. His upbringing and training, everything.

"This is an elevator Cato, we use it to travel between floors here in 13"

"Don't you have stairs?"

"Yeah there's stairs but this is quicker and for someone in your condition, and it's a lot easier"

He says nothing but nods thoughtfully.
The doors open and bright crisp sunshine enters the elevator. I push Cato out onto the training area and he looks around at the surrounding trees, I feel him shiver slightly at the fresh breeze as it blows around us and his head twists from side to side as the birds flutter past.

"What do you think, pretty different to the arena huh?"

"Yeah you could say that" he turns his head to the cacophony if sound which surrounds the forest, birds singing, other animals calling from the woods. His mouth opens in shock at everything that's going on around him.

"What's above us?" He suddenly says while looking up at the sky.

"Nothing, just the sky"

"There's nothing else up there?"

I crouch down beside his wheelchair to talk with him. "Cato this isn't the arena, this is the real world that people live in. It's not controlled by a group of gamemakers in a room somewhere, this is all real"

"You mean all these birds aren't mutts like me?"

"No Cato, they're not mutts. They're living creatures just like humans, just like me.....and....just like you"

He slight grin creeps across his face as he gives me a sideways glance.
"Katniss we both know that's not true, I'm a copy of a guy who died years ago in the 74th Hunger Games. I'm a mutt Katniss, and I always will be" he says looking down sadly.

I wheel him over to the makeshift memorial to the recruits that perished in the training ground attack.

"This is a memorial to the hundreds who died in an attack on the training ground. Wolfe managed to sabotage our defences and he attacked our people who were here training to be our new army. Loved ones come here to remember those who died"

Cato turns his head and looks up at me.

"I don't understand?"

"What, that you don't understand the attack or-"

"I don't understand why people would worry about the dead, when Clove died in the arena I felt nothing, I knew that she'd be wanting to end it"

"It's not like that Cato, not for real people. These poor recruits had families, parents and loved ones that they'd lived with all their lives. To then have them torn away leaves a massive hole in their lives"

Cato frowns and looks back at the flowers, the small notes and poems that have been left by the families.

"I don't understand Katniss, it just doesn't make any sense to me"

I give up trying to make him understand. It's clear he's gonna have many issues if he wants to fit in to life away from the arena.
We turn to see a group of around twenty young cadets run out from the forest. Most appear to be in their mid teens and all are running side by side in two rows, their platoon leader jogs alongside barking orders and encouragement at them as they run.
A young blond haired girl in the first row glances over and immediately recognises us. She stops in her tracks and stares while the others all shout and curse at her as they take avoiding action but when they all follow her gaze and look on they all have that same shocked look on their faces.

The blond haired girl runs across to us ignoring the yelling from her platoon commander but when she reaches us it's not me who she's in awe of, it's Cato.

"Oh my god it's true, you're alive" she says as she drops to her knees in front of him. He looks up at me confused to what's going on. In seconds the whole group has surrounded us, babbling about how grateful and proud they are for how Cato saved the Mockingjay and brought her home. The young men say nothing as they seem shy to be around him, they just shake his hand and pat him on the back but the girls are completely different. They all bicker and giggle and I remember what Peeta said about Cato and the arena. How our adventures fuelled a hero worship for my ally and this scene right here is proof of that.
Their platoon leader comes over and orders them all back into line but the young blond haired girl quickly reaches forward and wraps her arms around him. Cato smiles and embraces her back before she pulls back and kisses him on the lips. She giggles turns and runs back to the others.

"Thank you Cato, we love you!" She yells over her shoulder as she runs away

I look down at his stunned face, he's not quite sure what to make of all this attention.

"Do you understand now?" I say as I turn him round and head back to the elevator.