Kindling the Spark

Escape Plans

21: Escape Plans

Gale POV

All of the careers dead. That's a relief. They are the last risks to Katniss, aren't they? After all, the other victors are in the rebellion, they're for Katniss. From what I've seen so far, they're willing to risk their lives, give up their lives to save her. If it wasn't for Finnick and Mags, Katniss would almost certainly be dead now.

But why are they waiting? If they were willing to go to those lengths to save her, why aren't they just killing themselves now? There's no way that they can all get out alive now. I look at the screen displaying the tribute list. A few moments ago it listed ten tributes, but only five are left now- Katniss, Haymitch, Finnick, Johanna and Beetee.

I feel somebody poke my shoulder and turn around. It's one of the rebellion mentors. I can't remember her name. She has dark red hair and blue eyes, I think that's District Seven. Johanna's mentor. "What do you want? A mentors alliance?" Haymitch told me about mentors allying, I guess I've sort of had it with Annie so far, but neither of us have exploited it.

"Come with me," she says.

She walks out of the room, not waiting to see if I follow. I hurry after her. If it can't be discussed in the mentor room, it's probably to do with the rebellion. Good news or bad news though? Why isn't she talking to any of the other mentors about this? Maybe it looks too conspicuous for us all to go at once.

"Who are you?" I blurt out.

"You've been in the same room with me for around a week and I'm risking my life for your uprising, I would think that you would know my name," the woman says pointedly. "It's Harriet Ranger. District Seven mentor and one of the coordinators for the revolution."

"And you need to tell me something about the rebellion? Is it about Katniss? Will she get out alive now? The other victors aren't committing suicide like I thought they would. Because they kept risking their lives for her, you know. Was that all wrong?" I ramble. Finally, a chance to get some information on what's happening.

"You were partly right. Katniss is our priority in the arena and she will get out, but the other tributes won't need to die. We're taking them out of the Games in our hovercrafts."

"What about the force field? It goes all the way around the arena and.."

"Beetee will break it," she interrupts me. "Don't worry. It's all taken care of. That doesn't matter to you. What matters is our own escape."

"Escape?" I ask. "Why are we escaping?"

"Idiot. Once your girlfriend and her allies break out of the Games, do you think that Snow is just going to say well-played and let us all go back to our Districts to stir up rebellion? Are you really that naive? Or do you think that he's going to take us all to his torture chambers and have his interrogators get as much information out of us as possible before executing us?"

"The second one," I admit. That was stupid. These aren't more Games that I'm playing now, this is a real war. Snow is allowed to keep me here and execute me if he thinks that it will benefit him. There's nothing that I can do about it. "So how are we going to escape? There are peacekeepers all over the place and none of us are armed."

"That's why we're here." Harriet pulls out a dusty cardboard box that I hadn't noticed from under one of the shelves with brooms. It looked like it might have contained cleaning equipment, but now I know better. "I have a contact who's provided us with weapons, one each, and ammo."

"Who is the contact? Is he trustworthy? How do you know that he isn't working with Snow?" I demand. "Do you even know who he is? Where is he from?"