"We gotta be fast, in and out!" Boggs shouts in warning to me, and Katniss, Gale and I stand up and go out.

Gale and Boggs have got a gun each, Katniss has her bow and arrows, and I have my axes. Apart from this, we're virtually unarmed.

We meet a woman with a cloth on her head like a turban, a muddy, washed out looking purple outfit, and a bag swinging off her shoulder. "You're alive then, we weren't sure," she looks to me.

"Willow this is Commander Paylor, District Eight," Boggs says. He turns to Paylor. "Willow's been recovering but she insisted on coming out to see some of your wounded.

"Well, we've got plenty of those," Paylor says, ushering us inside.

I look around in horror as we enter this makeshift hospital. Before we even get to the wounded, the walls are lined with those who couldn't make it.

"We have a mass grave a few blocks north, but I can't spare the manpower to move them yet," Paylor says grimly. "Hospital's past that curtain. Any hope you can give them, it's worth it. Capitol's done everything they can to break us."

"Aren't you worried about having all your wounded in one place?" Gale speaks up.

"Well, I think it's better than leaving them to die," Paylor bites back.

"That's not what I meant," Gale bites his lip, defeated. I resist the urge to smirk.

"Well, that's my only other option, if you can come up with another, I'm all ears!" Paylor shouts calmly back, pulling back the curtain the hospital lies behind. "It's right through here."

She lets us in.

Wounded lie all around the place, crying, screaming, shouting, whilst their families try to heal them. People lie on wooden pallets, they have all kinds of wounds, and I honestly don't see how I can help a mass of people like this.

"Don't film me in there," I say desperately to Cressida. "I can't help them."

"Just let them see your face," she whispers to me.

I walk further into the hospital.

I can't do this. All the wounded I see, I can't help, but I want to more than ever. Then the room around me goes silent.

"Willow? Hawthorne?" A small young girl with dark skin and wrecked clothes asks me. "What are you doing here?"

"I came- I came to see you," I say, fighting to keep my trembling lip under control.

"What about the baby?" An older woman, maybe in her forties or fifties, asks.

I use the story that we've decided to put about. Miscarriage after the explosion. "I lost it," I say, clenching my jaw.

"Are you fighting Willow?" I turn to see a boy. A boy that reminds me too much of Austin. "Are you here to fight with us?"

"I am," I instantly say. "I will."

And then something mystical happens. The boy puts his three fingers to his lips, then into the air. Then everyone copies him. Everyone around me.

I've given them all hope.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

We've walked away from the hospital and are going back to our hovercraft when Boggs stops. "There's a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Gale instantly asks.

"Incoming bombers from the north," Boggs says briskly. "We need to find cover. Now."

"There's a bunker in there," Paylor immediately says, jumping to life and opening a door. We all run in quickly as the sirens start.

"Straight ahead and down the stairs," I hear Paylor instruct, but I don't follow orders. I run to the left, ignoring my brother's calls of my name.

"Willow! Willow!"

Boggs is also roaring. "Hawthorne! HAWTHORNE!"

But I ignore both of them.

Suddenly, the first bomber swoops in. Gale and Katniss join me, weapons in hand, as the section of Eight in front of us gets bombed. We fly back a few metres, landing all together.

My ears ring for a second as Boggs starts yelling at me. It's only when the ringing stops that I hear it. "MOVE!"

And I do. Gale grabs me and the two of us (Katniss ran the other way) sprint along, just as a tower in Eight falls and smashes into this building, shattering glass and making rubble.

Gale and I peek round the wall as we see the bombers circling back. They're not targeting us.

"They're going towards something in the south," Gale says, looking at them.

"There's nothing back there except the-"

That's when it hits me. They're not targeting us. They don't even have us on their minds.

They're going towards the hospital.

"They're aiming for the fucking- come on!" I shout to Gale.

We run through the rubble, but we're too late. The hospital's already up in flames.

But the bombers aren't finished, everyone inside it must not be dead yet. I instantly know this is our time to disable them.

I take out a red axe as we wait for the bombers to circle back to us. They do. They fly right above us, and this is when I let my axe fly. It catches the wing of the plane, making it fly off course and ultimately crash land.

Then we run to the hospital as quick as possible. What I see destroys me.

Smoke clings to the air, not letting anyone see past it. The fire is with the remains of the hospital, which is ruined and gone. "Help them!" I shout helplessly, running towards it where Cressida, Messala, Castor, Pollux and Katniss are. They must've got word the attacks were stopping. "Get them
out?"

Gale grabs me by the waist as he anticipates me running through the flames. I cry in absolute shock.

"Willow? Willow can you tell everyone what you're seeing right now?" Cressida prompts me, turning her camera on me. "Willow? What do you want to say? What do you want to say to Snow?"

She points to the camera on Pollux's helmet and I face it, anger replacing the shock.

"I want the rebels to know that I'm alive, that I'm right here in District Eight, where the Capitol has just bombed a hospital full of unarmed men, women and children. There will be no survivors.

"If you think, for one second, that the Capitol is ever going to treat us fairly then you are lying to yourself! Because we know who they are and what they do! This is what they do! And we must fight back!"

I point to the hospital remnants. I'm too shocked and angry to feel the grief at the moment.

"I have a message for President Snow," I say, my voice filling the air. "You can torture us, and bomb us, and burn our districts to the ground, but do you see that?" I point to where the Capitol seal is burning on the wing of the bomber plane. "Fire is catching! And if we burn... you burn with us!"

I pant heavily at them end of my speech, sinking to the ground as I allow the feeling of grief and guilt to consume me.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

"Because we know who they are, and what they do! This is what they do! And we must fight back!"

My voice plays on the screen in Thirteen as everyone around in the assembly watches. I stand next to Coin, who is going to do a big speech after the showing is finished. She turns to me.

"Plutarch's faith in you wasn't misplaced," she smiles.

"Thank you," I reply. I still don't trust her, though.

"Come up with me for the beginning," she says, as the propo ends with a picture of a mockingjay that says JOIN THE FIGHT on it.

I walk with Coin up to the platform as the crowd goes wild. She leans close to the microphone. "There is no progress, without compromise. No victory, without sacrifice. But I stand here with the Mockingjay to announce that our moment has arrived!"

She takes my hand and raises our joined ones in the air. When the crowd finally stops, she nods to me, and I leave the platform, joining Finnick, Plutarch and Effie who are all standing behind Coin as well.

"Beetee has increased our use of the airwaves tenfold!" She exclaims to more clapping. I see Beetee, Gale and Katniss standing below in the crowd. "We will broadcast this message to the districts tonight. The Mockingjay's words inspiring everyone to join the rebellion! Together, we will become an alliance to be reckoned with!"

She puts her fist in the air and for Thirteen, this is a cue to do their war song.

Finnick's voice in my ear makes me jump. "Don't like hearing a fight song at a funeral, huh?" I turn to look at him. "The more people on our side the closer we are to Austin and Annie."

"Yeah," is my feeble reply.

But I know in my heart he's right. And I need Austin back.