The Runaways

the end?

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."