Rebelling Against The Rebellion {Fourth Book to the HG} UNDER MAJOR CONSTRUCTION

Chapter Fifteen: A Golden Life

"Doug" I mumble under my breath with a roll of my eyes. "Fat bastard.." 

Gale lightly chuckles before speaking. "He even got the tazer out... But he was to late.." Gale raises his eyebrows up and down, hoping I'd finish the sentence off with common logic. "Because you killed him..." I retort. Doug is the last person I'd feel bad for. He tazered me, slapped me and brought someone to kill me. He deserved it. "There was a girl with him.. She surrendered and disappeared somewhere.. I had enough time to find you." 

"Sounds like a well thought out plan" I tease, beginning to limp out of the large room filled with monitors. "This people are psychopaths.. I found out a lot of information then we knew before.. They are making auto bots, Gale." 

"Auto what?" he asks, helping me with my walking. 

"Auto bots" I explain. "Upgraded versions of the mutants. They were going to start creating them, but Paylor fired a man who made the eyes." 

"So what?" Gale shrugs. "Why need eyes?" 

"That's the thing.. I don't know. The man who almost tazered you, Doug, was saying without the eyes, the main piece of the bot, then they couldn't make them." 

"Interesting.." Gale murmurs as we reach the pit. From above, I can see three shadows and one cranky voice whining. Johanna. "Guys!" Gale cups his hands over his mouth, echoing his voice. Peeta instantly sticks his head out, his blue eyes having a glint of happiness when he notices me. "Katniss!" he yells, calling the others over. "Took ya long enough.." Johanna grumbles, crossing her arms over her chest. Grayson sticks his head out last, his dark hair getting in the way of his face. He throws down a rope and dangles is before Gale. "She's hurt!" Gale yells in a worried tone. Peeta locks his gaze on me, the concern in his face overwhelming. "What? Where?" Peeta says quickly. "I'm fine" I say, loud enough for Peeta to here. "Just a broken rib or two. Nothing serious." Peeta takes it serious. His eyes widen and he orders Gale to wrap the rope around my waist carefully.. So he does exactly that. 

"You ready?" Gale asks, glancing up from tieing a not around my waist. I nod uncertain, hoping this wouldn't be a rocky trip up. Gale double checks the triple notted rope and pats my shoulder for encouragement. "You can do this.. Catnip" he says with a small smile before giving a sign over to Peeta, Johanna and Grayson to start pulling. The rope suddenly gets tugged with a jolt and before I even know it, I'm being lifted off the ground. I never had a big fear of heights, so this isn't that bad. Gale keeps his gaze locked directly on the knot, making sure if it some how brakes, he's there for my safety.

The three of them hurl me up with a bit of a struggle. I try my best and walk along the pointed rocks as well, helping them along the way. "You're doing good!" Gales voice echos from below. Even though my ribs are in a critical state, I'm doing my greatest. Within minutes, Peeta is picking me up from the waist and setting me down on the grass floor. "Are you okay?" are the first three words asks. Before I could even respond, his lips are tenderly pressed against mine. The world surrounding us completely blanks out.. It's just me and Peeta. From behind, I hear Grayson gag and say, "Get a room, will you?" My breath loses quicker than usual, and I soon find myself breaking away from the loving lips of Peeta. "I'm fine" I say breathlessly, feeling extremely tired. Peeta gives me encouraging words for me to hang in there. He then helps the others to pull Gale up from the pit. 

* * * * * *********************************

"I'm sorry" I say, the moss growing on the large tree I lean on prickling my back. "If I didn't storm off, we could of been hitting the border of eleven." 

"It's not your fault" Peeta protest, placing a hand on my knee. He sinks down next to me and wraps an arm around my shoulder. "All that matters is that your not dead." 

"Peeta's right" Gale interrupts, glancing up from his shoes. He sits stone like on a tree stump, his elbows resting on his knees. "You can get through anything. As long as your alive, nothing else matters." 

"Such sugar coaters" Johanna mumbles with a shake of her head. She angrily pulls out a granola bar from her bang and bites a big chunk of it. 

"Calm down" Gale sighs, his eyes glazing over to Johanna. 

"Katniss is right. If she never made a hissy fit, we would of been farther out. This is her fault." 

"I completely agree" I say, resting my head on Peeta. I have not a doubt in mind. This is my fault and I refuse to say its not. Johanna is right - Peeta and Gale are sugar coating it. 

Johanna darts Gale and Peeta a 'see I told you' look and continues to munch on her granola bar. Grayson nudges her from the floor with a 'shut it before another fight happens' look. 

"We're not sugar coating it" Peeta retorts.

"Looks like it" Johanna mumbles to herself. 

"You are" I indulge in the conversation with a shrug of my shoulders. "You guys should be furious. Instead your acting like my life is golden.." Maybe I shouldn't have said that.Peeta raises his brows and blinks a couple of times before speaking. "Your life isn't golden" he says, "Your life is worth so much more if you haven't already noticed." I can't help but dramatically roll my eyes. "Barley" I snort skeptically. 

"I agree" Grayson says. "Your the damn MockingJay, Katniss. If that's not worth something, then I don't know what does." 

"Whether you are the MockingJay or not, we still would of saved you" Gale adds in. Peeta nods his head and gives me a small nudge. "Your golden to us." A smile breaks through my lips and flashes brightly. Hearing this makes me feel... Warm. Loved. And lets not forget cared for. These are real friends. Johanna I can't really say anything about. But she is a real friend as well. And as for Peeta.. He is a real true love. A perfect fit. 

We make camp after another hour of talking. Me and Gale filled in Peeta, Grayson and Johanna. We then walked about a mile away from the large pit and made camp. I picked out a nice tall tree with flapping leaves that would camouflage me in. Peeta and Johanna helped me up there and made me a type of pillow to keep my head on. They doug me under a sleeping bag and then searched for there own spot to sleep in. Peeta picked a large thick branch covered in dark green leaves. Johanna and Grayson were forced to share a large branch and Gale picked the branch underneath me. Oh, how this reminds me of my first Hunger Games. The sleeping bags.. The sleeping on branches.. And not to forget the paranoid feeling. Peeta assured me that we would be fine and leave right at dawn. We all agreed and said our good nights. A quick thought popped in my head right when I shut my eyes. I never told the group about Annie. How would they respond to that? I should of buried her.. But there was no time. I make a promise to myself that if I ever come back, then I will bury her properly..  There is one good thing about her death...

Annie and Finnick can be together once again.