Return of the Mockingjay

Chapter 15

That night neither of us sleep particuarly well. Peeta is still haunted by his attack and my nightmares have returned in the form of Peeta the mutt chasing me through the forest back in district 5. Each time it catches me it tries to grab my head and break my neck. There's a struggle but I lose the fight and always wake just as my neck is breaking in its grasp. It's a relief for both of us when morning finally breaks and as usual Rue is awake before the two of us and I rise, take her through to the kitchen and feed her at the table.

Peeta finally ambles through about 30 minutes later already showered, dressed and ready to head off to command.

"You stopping for breakfast babe" I ask him as I rise from the table and kiss him gently on the lips. I look into his eyes to see them bloodshot from lack of sleep. He sits at the table across from Rue and watches as she sucks on the ear of one of her favourite toys. A small bear that Megan had given her as a gift when she was born.

I pour Peeta some tea and hand him his mug, he takes it in both hands and places it on the table in front of him.

"I'm so sorry about last night Kat, I really don't know what happened to me"

"Peeta, stop punishing yourself over what happened. I'm used to it and I know exactly how to handle it. Let's go to medical this morning and see what the doctors have to say. Maybe they'll run some tests?" I say trying to reassure him.

"Yeah, maybe" he says while trying to gulp down the rest of his tea.

Peeta heads off to command but I need to talk to my career tributes that are on my squad. Both Alek and Steph have been through some pretty unique training and I need to ask them about teaching the rest of the squad the skills they learned while they were in the academy. I head to the hanger to find Alek supervising a maintenance crew carrying out repairs on our dropship. As I walk round the craft I can see a lot of damage from small arms fire from the shoot out at the river bank yesterday. I slowly wander round lost in the sight of all these technicians repairing our drop ship when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I jump slightly and swing around to see Alek smiling down at me.
"You checking up on us now Katniss?" he says chuckling.

"No, of course not, I came to see you actually" I say smiling while giving him a playful punch on the arm for startling me.

"Uh oh, that's sounds serious, let's go to my office and talk" he says leading me across the hanger to the admin block in the corner of the building.

As I walk in I'm greeted by Jasper who climbs from his bed and trots over to see me with his tail wagging.
"Hey boy" I say while rubbing him behind the ears. Alek clicks his fingers and points to his bed and Jasper obediently turns and walks back to his bed in the corner of Alek's office.
"So, what can I do for you?" says Alek as he pulls open a desk side drawer and rests his leg on it.
"Well, I was thinking about how Steph killed that mutt back on the mission. You guys clearly have an advanced level of training that no one else in 13 has. And so, I was wondering if it would be possible for you to teach the rest of the squad what you learned when you were at the academy.

"Katniss, we were there for years, enrolled into the academy at the age of 11 and trained every day until we turned 18" he says leaning forward in his chair.

"I know that Alek, it's just that you and Steph have an extra weapon that the rest of us don't possess. If you could just give us something, anything that could help us" I plead

"Katniss, let me tell you what life in the District 1 Hunger Games academy was like. You can't possibly imagine what it's like to be selected, on one hand your elated because your're going to be given the best possible training available. But on the other hand you know how brutal the training regime is. Everyday your subjected to beatings to toughen you up. Hours spent out in the rain tied to a post with nothing on but a night shirt, and then there's sleep deprivation. Hand to hand combat where the winner is only crowned when you've maimed your opponent by breaking a leg or an arm. Since the day you start they identify your strengths and weaknesses and teach you different ways of killing. But the toughest part is when you have your first kill in the last year, teaching you to detach yourself from all emotions. In that final year you get given the drop outs to train against, the poor kids who haven't reached the exacting standards set by their instructors. These poor souls are the ones we have to kill to condition ourselves, to remove all emotion and guilt. The very same kids we've grown up with, become friends with. And then, when the time comes you'll be ordered to break their neck and end their lives. How do you expect us to replicate that here in 13 Katniss?"