It's a somber night. She and Peeta lay awake, shoulder to shoulder, like sardines, staring up into nothingness. There will be no sleep.
In the morning she rushes the group into more walking, needing to put distance between herself and the place where she saw the hovercrafts, despite the irrationality of the thought, no one objects.
She's walking with a stoic expression. She insisted that Prim, her mother, and the Mellarks walk with her. It's her responsibility to protect them. She needs to keep them within her sight and reach at all times. Once again, no one denies her.
No one speaks, and no one dares touch her. She's on high alert, her bow at the ready.
Then, it's no surprise really, that she ends up shooting first.
"Wait!" her arrow flies before she even visually assesses her opponent. Peeta yanks her little sister away from the stranger's line of sight. She's already loaded another arrow, her fingers prepared to release it, when she pauses.
"Who are you?" she shouts. Before them, stand two women one in her twenties, the other much older, elderly. Her original arrow is buried in a bag at their feet, something that looks like grain slowly leaks out into a small pile. They pose no obvious threat. Katniss keeps her bow at the ready.
"We wish you no harm!" The youngest one exclaims, her hands up. "Please, don't shoot."
"Answer me," she demands. "Who are you?"
"I am Anna," the younger one answers, she motions towards the elderly woman. "This is my mother-in-law, Josephine."
"What business do you have in the woods?" Katniss demands, her aim still trained at the youngest one's heart.
"We live here," she insists and slowly lowers her hands. "We've always lived here."
Katniss pauses, "In the woods of District Twelve?"
"No," Anna shakes her head. "In Canada. You left Panem some time ago."
Katniss lowers her bow.
Peeta steps forward from her side, "I'm sorry, where did you say we were?"
"This is Canadian soil," Anna insists and points towards a gentle hill behind them, "that is the border."
"We were told the border were those mountains," Katniss insists, distrustfully.
Anna turns to look at them. "Well, no. But in a way you're right. Beyond the mountains is the city. We don't live there; we live closer to the camps."
Josephine steps forward, "before we go any further, is your group fleeing from Panem? Do you seek refuge here?"
Peeta glances at her, she nods. "Yes," he says.
Anna smiles, "come with us."
[]
Anna and Josephine were townsfolk, like their group, they'd spent their entire lives in a small community. As they walked with them, they explained that the 'camps' were a group of temporary homes for the people who had successfully escaped District Twelve through the woods.
"We don't get many," Anna says sadly. "But the one's that come have suffered."
Anna explained that 'Canada' had been a country for a long time. Its shape and size had fluctuated, like Panems did, during what she called 'the change,' a time when the seas reshaped the land and forced people to move.
"Panem went through the same thing," Josephine informs her. "Of course, it wasn't called Panem then. I remember watching it on the projector. Things were different there. It fell apart slowly then all at once. There were wars between your people, long ones. They were on the news a lot. Until one day we just stopped hearing from you."
"What do you mean?" Peeta asks curiously.
Josephine shrugs, "for years, both our countries were friendly and then one day yours was suddenly different, called themselves Panem. When that happened, your country closed itself off. Stopped interacting with the rest of the world. Nobody came in or out. Radio silence."
"And then years later," Anna continues. "People started appearing along the borders. The stories were horrific. Children murdered for entertainment, starvation, beatings, public humiliations."
Peeta reaches for her hand, she takes it. "What happened to them? Once they arrived?"
"It caused quite a commotion, at first." Josephine admits, "the government argued with itself for months. They would have done it for years, but we just didn't have the time for that. People were showing up, more and more in some parts. They needed somewhere to go, food, jobs. Some people were distrustful, a lot of the refugees had seen direct combat and could be violent. It caused a lot of divides here."
"So, they built the camps," Anna says. "And they worked for a while. Helped people settle in. But they couldn't stay in them forever, so after a while, we figured out schools and tried to use existing skills to get them into the workforce. It's still a work in progress. But it's the best we've got so far."
"Are there others?" Katniss asked, "like this country, are there others, or is it just the two of us?"
Anna laughed, "every single one of you asks that. Yes, there are others. There are hundreds."
[]
The camps, once they got there, weren't that bad. Of course, her points of reference were extreme, one being the Seam and the other the Victors Village. She would say they were a step down from Victors Village, yet, in no way were they like the Seam.
It was strange, they were divided by family, assigned a small home, given a bundle of new clothes, a box filled with non-perishable foods, and informed that they would be given an allowance by the government once per month. After that they were left to their own devices, but they were told to report to the 'city hall' sometime tomorrow to receive further information and be put 'on record.'
The homes were assigned based on a family's size. Katniss her sister and mother were assigned a three-bedroom home. Peeta and Rye were assigned to a two-bedroom, and the Hawthornes' were assigned the largest one available, a four-bedroom. They were told that if there were any children under the age of 18 in any of their households, they were eligible for a larger monthly allowance, which they could apply to once they went to 'city hall.'
The 'camps' themselves did not look like camps. Anna assured them it was merely slang. Instead, the camps were a collection of what Anna called 'pre-built' homes, placed along cement paved roads which were interspersed by trees and yards. Katniss had never seen a place like it.
Still awed of having found another country, she stands gazing around the simple living space of her assigned house when Peeta walks in the door. He looks just as shocked as she is.
"Hey," he smiles, leaning against the closed front door. "How are you feeling?"
"How do you think?" she challenges dropping her arms from where they'd been crossed over her chest. "This is so much more than I had hoped for. I thought we would have to build our own houses, try to survive on hunting and foraging for the rest of our lives. I never thought we'd find other people."
"I know," he whispers a smile playing on his lips. "Katniss, do you know what this means?"
"What?" she asks, trepidation building in her stomach.
"Katniss, we're free." He walks towards her and grasps her shoulder. "Katniss, President Snow can't find us here. He can't take us out of another country, he'd have to challenge them, or go to war, and why would be bother?"
Honestly, his words surprise her. The thought hadn't crossed her mind yet.
"We're free?"
"We're free," he laughs and hugs her. "My god, I can't believe it."
She laughs, she's so shocked. She laughs and laughs and laughs, until the laughter turns to sobs, and she sobs ugly loud and terrible sobs. She grasps Peeta hard across the shoulders. They're alive, they're free and alive.
"Oh," she gasps against his chest. "Oh god, I wish we'd brought Haymitch."
"He wouldn't have believed it," Peeta says, and she notices he's sobbing too. "He would have loved it. And my parents would have loved it, and Bannock, oh my god, Bannock. And poor Angela and their baby."
Their sobs are loud, coming out of some deep painful place. Katniss turns her head enough to be able to see the rest of the room and catches sight of her mother, her face stricken, her body appearing frozen in mid-step, as if she were unsure of how to soothe them.
"Mom?" she asks, "mom?"
That pushes the woman into action. She strides towards them and pulls them into an embrace. Suddenly she's standing in a strange living room, hugging Peeta and her mother who hasn't hugged her in years and the tears are worse. Everything is intensified and she starts seeing the faces of all the people they left behind, all the people who, if she'd pushed hard enough, would be here with them right now.
"It's okay, shh, it's okay." Her mother murmurs against the top of her head and the gesture is at once so familiar and so foreign it twists her insides. "It's over, it's over now."
But is it? Is it ever?
[]
When Peeta doesn't leave by nightfall, Rye comes looking for him instead. He walks through the still unlocked front door and joins her and her family where they sit gathered around the projector. His face also looks as if he'd been crying before. He sees Peeta sitting close to her and strides towards him yanking him up into a hug before he shoves him back into his seat. He turns around and settles down on another couch, next to Prim.
She smiles at him weakly; he nods at her. All eyes return to the program.
It's almost bizarre to watch it, news from another country, one she doesn't know anything about. No one is dressed bizarrely, like in the Capitol, but sometimes she sees images of people with brightly colored hair, or tattoos, or obvious facial surgery. Occasionally they see images of cities, towns, neighborhoods, and she's never seen places like it. They're like the Capitol, but they're not always lavish. Nothing looks as bad as District Twelve.
Perhaps most confusing is the tone of the news. She gets the sense that they were not meant to be entertaining, but informative. The presenters rarely speak in a manner to imply conversing to the audience, instead they present their information in a non-personal manner. Occasionally, the presenters make a joke amongst themselves, or make a mistake, but it always appears to be done spontaneously, not a pre-prepared spectacle like what she'd grown used to from home.
They start watching another program once the news ends, and it's just as strange. In it, people introduce themselves to the camera like they would do in a Capitol program, but it isn't a news program, or a governmental message. Instead, every single person who introduces themselves is different, a lawyer, a mother, a taxi driver. The only thing they have in common is a love of baking. A presenter appears and explains that the purpose of the show is to compete by baking and most importantly frosting the best cake.
Beside her Peeta laughs incredulously, "wow."
Her mother stands, and Katniss turns to look at her. She goes towards the kitchen, where their box of food is, and brings it back to where everyone is sitting.
"We might as well eat now," her mother says softly. She agrees.
There's a can opener and a collection of cans. She also sees a box of crackers and a few tins of preserved sardines. She pulls out a few cans of tomato soup, handing one to Prim and Peeta each before taking one for herself. Her mother hands her the can opener and they pass it around until everyone has an open can.
They spend the rest of the night trying to learn about the strange new world they're in, taking slow sips from their cans of soup.
[]
When her mother and Prim get up to go to bed, her mother doesn't say anything about the fact that Peeta and Rye are obviously not leaving. Instead, she rummages around one of their bags until she finds some blankets. She leaves them on the coffee table and goes to bed herself.
She's still glued to Peeta's side; she's feeling unsure and suspicious about their new situation, and in the past, when that happened it was best to stick by him. Rye stands up and starts shaking out a blanket, looking for one long enough for his long legs. He settles for a scratchy-looking green one and turns his head to stare at them, head tilted.
"Well?"
"What?" Peeta asks, sounding dazed.
"That's the longest couch. I'm going to sleep there, don't you have a bedroom, Katniss? You two can go there."
"Right," she stands up, pulling Peeta along. "Come on, let's go."
She has a small thin bed. They've never shared a bed this small, but they manage not to fall out. She presses her back against the wall and Peeta throws the blanket over her shoulders.
"Peeta," she whispers into the dark, and he's close enough to her that she can almost see his eyes clearly when they meet hers. "Do you really think it's over?"
He sighs, his tomato soup breath fanning over her face and she almost laughs at how strange that is, even though it's truly not. "No, I don't think so."
[]
The next morning, she gets dressed in her own clothes because she isn't comfortable in wearing the new ones yet. Not because they're any particularly repulsive style, they're actually quite plain, but they're strange. They're not from Panem; they weren't made from cotton grown in district eleven nor made in the textile factories in district eight. She has no idea where they came from.
Peeta and Rye leave to have a shower and get dressed and she's almost unwilling to let them go, scared they'll disappear during the short walk down the street to where they live. She stands by the front door, watching them walk away with concern.
"Katniss," her mother calls from inside the house, she turns around to meet her blue eyes. "Come eat with us."
She walks to the kitchen where her mother and sister are, and they make breakfast out of the crackers and some strawberry jam they found in the box. By the time they're done eating, there's a knock on the door and Katniss goes to open it, half expecting the Mellarks, even though they just left a moment ago.
But it isn't them. It's the Hawthorne's. She takes a step back to let them all into the house and they come in single file. At the end of the procession is Gale, also dressed in his other set of Panem clothes.
"Hey," he greets her, hands in his pockets.
She smiles somewhat, "Hey, Gale."
They still haven't cleared the air between them from the hovercraft incident, and it sits awkwardly between them as they gather with the rest of their families around the small kitchen island.
"We'll head out together, right?" Prim asks no one in particular. Katniss nods.
"Yeah, just wait for Peeta and Rye to come back, then we can go." She answers absentmindedly, her hands playing with the end of her long braid.
Her mother and Hazelle strike up a conversation about the programs they watched last night. Katniss jiggles her leg impatiently, her eyes on the plain white clock above the white fridge.
A few moments later the door opens and Rye and Peeta have returned. She doesn't really think about it before she goes off to give Peeta a welcome back hug.
"Okay," she turns towards the kitchen where the rest of them are, "let's go."
[]
It's a small enough town that they don't actually have to ask for directions. All they have to do is walk towards the main square where all the businesses are and the 'city hall' is there, at the center of it all.
They spend most of the day there. They end up having to speak to a lot of people. A social worker, a census worker, a poverty reduction agent, a development consultant and more. They must get their picture taken, for their identification cards, they're told. Prim smiles for her picture, Katniss stares at the camera with wide eyes.
They're told that as part of the refugee deal, they need to take a re-education course. Katniss is wary of it because it sounds dangerous, but they're told that past refugees have explained that Panem's education system is useless. In order to get a job here, they'll need to have some sort of educational credentials, and the re-education course should be enough at the beginning.
They're also given a lot of papers with more information about other services. One of the government workers that spoke to her that day explains that they will be expected to complete a full medical check-up by the end of the month. If they fail to do so, there will be a phone call to remind her to do it. When Katniss asks what the punishment for noncompliance is she's told there's no punishment, but how are they supposed to treat any problem she may have if she doesn't take the checkup?
Once they're finally done, Katniss hangs back from the rest of the group, walking slowly as they return to their assigned houses. Peeta's by her side, looking as thoughtful as she is. When they make it back to her house they don't go inside. Instead, she sits down on the front step, and he joins her.
They're staring at the street. They've seen other people in the houses around them, most of them have the District Twelve look but they don't recognize any of them. Across the street a group of young children run out of the open fence of the house across the way, a big black and white ball clutched in one of the kid's hands. Katniss watches with an astonished smile as they begin to play a ball game right there in the middle of the street.
"Is this how they grow up?" Peeta whispers to her, also watching the kids. "Do they play games and go to the doctor and go to school?"
"I think so," she glances at him, but he isn't looking at her. She turns back towards the street. "I wonder what it's like."
He's quiet for some time and she enjoys sitting in silence together. She's resting her head on his shoulder, watching the game and the setting sun. She feels strangely relaxed.
"Hey Katniss,"
"Hm?" She looks in his direction without moving her head. He isn't looking at her yet.
"Can I try something?"
"What?" she watches him turn towards her and she already knows what's coming because she closes her eyes.
It's a very soft kiss, like a whisper. He pulls away very quickly. She opens her eyes to look at him and he's looking at her with a small smile.
"What was that for?" she asks with a weird happy smile on her face.
"Thank you, for bringing me with you." He turns back to look at the street, "we almost didn't do it. But I think we made the right decision."
"I wouldn't have come without you," she confesses in an offhand manner, as if it isn't a monumental thing to say.
"Thank you then, for wanting to leave." He's very serious, his tone like a vow.
"Peeta?" she whispers, and he glances down at her.
"Yeah?"
This time when she kisses him it lasts a lot longer.
[]
The months go by, and it's nice, but the adjustment is hard. They all grow bizarrely homesick despite knowing that they're in a better place. She spends many afternoons loitering in the nearby woods, looking in the direction of home, wondering what happened.
She also spends a lot of time with Peeta in his house. They don't really do much of anything, other than live their lives in close proximity to each other. It's strange and nice not to have a specific purpose driving their interactions in any particular direction. It makes her feel young for perhaps the first time in her life.
One day she's in the woods, teaching Peeta to shoot again. They're very sneaky about her bow and arrow, although she's certain there probably isn't a need to hide it. She doubts they'll punish her in the way they would have back home, but she doubts its legal, even here, to have a deadly weapon.
He's become somewhat of a reliable shot, but he doesn't believe her when she says he's actually pretty good. He's never going to be as good as she is, but truly, she thinks he's doing great. She's leaning against a tree, smiling at him like an idiot, when they hear it.
Or rather don't hear it.
Peeta gasps, turning his head away from her to look up into the sky. Her fingers dig into the skin of his shoulder, where she'd been gently resting her hand before. The fear is chilling and immediate at the sight.
The hovercraft hovers midair, about two yards away. The hatch at the bottom opens, and the all too familiar ladder begins to drop down. They watch as someone descends, hands gripping the ladder, standing perfectly still due to the freezing current.
She scrambles to pick up her bow off the ground. She gets ready to shoot, trying to step in front of Peeta to protect him when the stranger begins to speak.
"That's how you greet your old mentor, sweetheart?"
"Haymitch?" she gasps and Peeta basically shouts the name in surprise.
"You're alive," he says with so much wonder, striding forward to hug their mentor. "How are you here?"
She walks towards them slowly, reaching out to touch Haymitch's arm with shaking hands. But he's solid, a real living thing, not a sign of a mental breakdown.
"Did you miss me?" the older man grins at them and it's meant as a joke, but they really did.
She gasps and covers her mouth with her hands because she's crying. Haymitch takes pity on her and pulls her into a hug. She lifts her head enough to stare at Peeta over Haymitch's shoulder, her face the picture of shock.
"What happened? How are you on a hovercraft?" Peeta asks in amazement.
Haymitch smiles somewhat ruefully. "You're going to want to sit down for this."