Return of the Mockingjay

Chapter 26

Katniss POV

We touch down on top of the wall on the border of district 11. Peeta and I saw this before while on our victory tour but we just passed through on the train. I never truly realised how vast it is. Over 300 feet high and almost a 1/4 mile thick it's a formidable defence against Wolfe and his mutts. It's late afternoon and wet and overcast, the top of the wall, which seems to of been made of soil with thick concrete outer walls has turned into a muddy quagmire that's difficult to walk on. A makeshift barrier has been made across the edge of the wall so no one falls over the edge and a large village of tents has been erected equally distant between the walls. We get shown to our allocated squad tent which sits alongside the main command tent then get out of the rain, claim a camp bed and dump down our things.

"Well, what a fantastic place this is" states Johanna sarcastically as she sits on the edge of her bed.

"At least we've got a bed, it's better than what we had in the games" I say back as I sit on my bunk across from her.

"How's your arm?" she asks

"It still aches, but I'll be fine" I say while rubbing it.

I feel someone come from behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. "Katniss, we're needed in the command tent" says Lyndon. I get up and follow him back through the rain to the tent next door. As we walk in I see a large chart table set out in the centre of the room and Remus and Gibbs are in deep conversation and pointing at different areas of the map. Around the outside edge of the tent are a number of radio operators sat with headsets on, no doubt in contact with different zones of the wall. I stand over the table and look at the map, the entire wall which stretches along the border between districts 10 and 11 is highlighted in red. It looks like it stretches for some distance but some sections are impenetrable because of swamps or mountainous terrain. Because we know the location of Wolfe's army we've focused on defending the centre section. The general comes to the table to start the briefing while Gibbs places a holo on the table and switches it on. A three dimensional image of the wall and the surrounding area appears above the map table. On the district 10 side are just rolling hills stretching off into the distance, but on the district 11 side of the wall lies rows and rows of olive and fruit trees. Remus begins....

"Okay, our hovercraft have tracked Wolfe's army to within 5 miles of the wall and we have a better idea of what his strengths are. He's got a sizeable army of mutts and soldiers with a few dozen tanks which he must of got from district 6, he's also got this new weapon that he's built"
Remus presses a button on the holo and the image changes to that of Wolfe's new weapon. A shortish stubby cylindrical device maybe a hundred feet in length with a cone shaped section at the front. The whole contraption moves on caterpillar tracks that allows it to be driven to different locations. Escorting it are two land transports brisling with missiles that can shoot down any aircraft that try to attack. The cone section is exactly the same as the holographic image that Beetee showed us at the briefing after the train attack. The parts we found, the diamonds, are all parts of this new machine.

"As you can see it's well defended so it must be important to the militants war effort"

"How long before they get here?" asks Lyndon.

"They've slowed their advance with the rain but I'd still expect them to attack at first light"

Remus pauses and looks at the faces around the table.

"Listen, you've all seen the wall, it's height, it's size. I think we'd all agree that it's a formidable barrier to get through and I feel this is where Wolfe's march on the districts ends. The wall is strong, solid and indestructible and in a few days Wolfe will be leaving here to lick his wounds"