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How terrible it is - to love something death can touch
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"Marvel?"
I stared blankly at the person who was standing in front of me. Am I going crazy?
"What did you say?" Roland asks as he appears at my side. I look at Roland and then back at the lean boy. "Do you know him, Kat?" So he see's him too.
"You look just like someone I knew," I tell the brown haired boy. I scratch behind my neck. "It must be a mistake, sorry."
"You knew my brother?"
This is Marvel's brother? I chewed on my lip as I put two and two together. I remember when I visited district one back on the victor's tour, there was a boy standing on the podium where they honored the families.
He could be his damn twin.
"He was an ally of mine," I tell the boy. "From the first games."
"Right, that's right, you were in the games." I nod slowly. I couldn't get over how much they resembled one another.
"You two have killer genes," I say and shake my head. "I thought I saw a ghost."
"My mother calls me Marvel all the time, well she used too. She's in thirteen now."
"We're from thirteen," I tell him and look at Roland. "You should come back with us, what are you doing here?"
"I found my way here to fight of course. We're glad you're finally here." I nod again and I look around at all the children who were staring at Katniss and I in awe.
"What's your name?" I ask.
"Dolan." I nod again it's going to be weird not calling him Marvel. "It took me a second to remember you." He puts a hand on his hip as it looks like he thinks back. "You're the girl with the monstrous blonde boy."
I stiffened as he said this. It didn't exactly bother me that he said this. The monstrous blonde boy. Is that how everyone but me views him?
"I guess you could say that," I say clearly uncomfortable. He doesn't know me well enough to know that though. Cato would be the only one to say something.
"Is he here?"
"No, he got captured by the capital in our most recent games," I tell him. "But that's not why we're here."
"You're here to help us fight I hope?" A voice asks. I look over his shoulder to see a little girl, with a bandage around her head. She had dark skin and curly hair, she couldn't be more then twelve. I nod immediately.
"We're here to win this thing all together."
"Let's go out this way I'll show you more around here," Paylor says.
"You could come, couldn't you Dolan?" I ask as they start walking in a different direction.
For the first time in my life, I found myself liking someone off a first impression. I didn't even know Dolan, but he reminded me of Marvel. And for that I liked him.
"Sure."
"So how'd he get captured?" Dolan asks as we step through the cracks of the broken walls. This whole entire place was just considered ruins now.
"We got separated the last night of the games," I explain as I see the group slowing down up ahead. "My tracker got taken out, his didn't. They swooped in and got me but not him."
"I'm sorry," Dolan says as we catch up fully. "Do you think he's dead?"
"I'm not sure," I tell him. "Peeta's not, and he got taken too."
"We saw him," Dolan says and shakes his head. I look at him, almost with careful eyes.
"He's being abused in there," I explain as I step over something that had to weigh a ton. If this hit someone, they'd be crushed instantly. "He's saying what he can to avoid the punishments."
"I know." I glance at Dolan and he crosses his arms over his chest. "I'm just saying I think what everyone else around here is too scared to."
"You'd fit in back in thirteen," I tell him and push my lips in a thin line. "Everyone thinks they're traitors."
"I wouldn't go that far," he says and pushes his hand onto the gun that slung around his neck. It had a long neck, no idea what kind of gun it was though. "So are you a soldier or something? Is that why you're dressed like this?" I nod. "And who's that behind you?" I turn around to see Roland watching us with eyes like a hawk. "Not a side boyfriend, I'd hope?"
"No," I say almost immediately. I return back to kicking the rocks on the ground. "He's my best friend."
"You know he's in love with you right?" I look up at Dolan to see him shrugging. "I could pick that up the second he spoke a word."
"The feelings aren't there for me," I explain. "I'm in love with Cato."
"Oh I know," he says and purses his lips. "You wouldn't be here if you weren't."
"Hold on," I heard Boggs say. He looked up into the sky as he pressed something further into his ear. "There's bombers coming from the north." My heart rate started to pick up, sirens started immediately just as he had gotten finished saying this. "We need to take cover."
"There's a bunker just this way," Dolan says. A loud explosion breaks our smooth conversation. I jump at the sound, feeling like it was right by my ear.
"Come on!" Roland shouts as he's by my side in seconds. I grab onto Roland's wrist as we run, keeping our heads low. I could hear gun shots in the distance and I felt my lungs start to tighten. Another explosion. I jumped from the sound, I could hear screams and cries.
I can't tell which is worse this or the games themselves.
"Move your feet, soldier!" Boggs shouted at me as I kept looking back to make sure no one was near.
"Come on Kat, move faster!" I held onto my gun tightly as we sprinted through the old building. Katniss and Gale were up ahead.
"Look out!" Someone screamed. I looked up through the ceiling windows to see the tallest pillar falling towards us. I dove just in time, and hit my head hard against the ground. I could feel some of the harsh pavement that was in chunks from the impact hit my cheeks, scraping them immediately.
"Kat? Are you okay?" It was Katniss, but there was a ringing instead. That's all I could hear. I feel her grab my elbow and help me up. She looks at me with concern, and a couple of seconds later I hear the shooting of guns again. We both duck out of instinct, all of these loud noises really aren't good for both of our PTSD's.
"What are they bombing?" I ask as I peer over her shoulder. Capital hovercrafts were in the air, aiming to destroy anything that came in their path.
"They're targeting something up there," Katniss says and points to a building.
"Isn't that the hospital?"
"Come on, we gotta do something."
And there she went, running to play hero. And there I went, running after her not caring that either of us could easily die.
Death is all we're used to, how could we avoid it?
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What do you think of Dolan? You're going to see a lot more of him.
I wanna see something, so, 3+ comments for the next update:)
