Our Anthem

The Siege Begins

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PEETA POV

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I can't say what I was expecting would meet us in the Capitol. It could have been anything, from mutts to explosives to fire to bullets, it could have been anything. Katniss was ahead of the group with the Holo scanning for unseen Pods, while I wasn't too far behind. I mostly feared that the Holo wouldn't detect a Pod and she would walk straight into it, being ripped away from me in an instant. The Holo beeped, signalling that there was indeed a Pod just up ahead, and I held up a hand to stop the unit behind me. My heart rate increased as my wife turned back to look at me. "What do you suggest we do, Commander?" she asked me with a wink.

"Uh..." I said. It wasn't my first decision to make as a commander, but it was my first with Gale in my unit under me. Part of me felt he was judging me, but then I remembered that I shouldn't care, considering I was the one married to Katniss and not him, and I was also above him. "Set it off?" I heard a snort behind me and I turned around to narrow my eyes at Gale, who looked highly amused. "Got any better ideas, Soldier?"

"No," he said, losing his amused smile, and I turned back to face Katniss. She bent down to pick up a rock, then turned back to where the Pod was located and tossed it. Out of the ground came three very large buzzsaws that would have chopped us into hundreds of pieces had we walked straight through it, and after a minute, it stopped, and the three buzzsaws went limp. Thankfully, once the Pods were activated, they couldn't be reactivated - a one time use.

"One down," said Katniss, turning back to face us, "several hundred more to go." So that became protocol. As we walked through the streets of the Capitol, we used the Holo to detect unseen Pods and set them off using rocks or other things that were throwable, and then we moved on. For each Pod that went off, Katniss marked it in the Holo so that we knew which ones were inactive. I could see on the map other marked off Pods from the other commanders at different parts of the city. After a couple of hours of setting off Pods and marking them off, Katniss stopped and took note of the street before us. "Might be a good place to rest."

"But we just started," said Gale, and Katniss turned to face him.

"If you want to continue without the Holo, then be my guest, but the rest of the unit is tired. We hardly had a break between arriving here and setting off, so we'll take a break. Two hours, then continue on," she said with confidence, and I smiled watching her shut Gale down with her leadership.

"I'll scope out this shop here. It looks empty," I said.

"Take Gale with you, he's not tired," Katniss said, and reluctantly, Gale followed me into the shop, both of our weapons poised and ready to attack if we had to.

"You should stop trying to undermine me," I said to him. "I'm your commander. If you're not happy about that, take it up with the Senate because they're who decided this."

"I voted against you and Katniss taking command of this unit," Gale reminded me.

"Look, I know you hate my guts and want me dead because of her, but you need to get over your distaste of me or I'll send you packing. I'm serious, Gale," I said to him firmly. "I will not have you poisoning this unit with your bad attitude."

"I'm sure Katniss would be upset with you. She wanted me on this unit."

"Because you're a good fighter, but you heard the attitude she gave you. You know damn well she'd have no problem with removing you from the unit if you don't quit acting like you're in control."