The next morning I go out to get some more snow for Gale when I see the little girl with a mini blonde plait standing at the end of the path.

"Prim," I say, my voice hollow. "Rory's inside."

"I didn't come to see Rory," Prim says, sitting down beside me as I shovel snow into a bowl. "Well, I did, but I also came to check up on Gale... and you."

"I don't need checking up on," I insist.

"But your eye," Prim says.

"It's not my eye that's bothering me," I confess. "How can I live like this, how can anybody live like this? I'm in a big, posh, rich house and you're slaving away in the Seam, trying to make a living!"

"It's not living," Prim admits. "Neither of us are living. We're just... surviving. But... since the last games, something's different. I can see it."

I turn, interested and confused. "What can you see?"

Prim looks at me and answers. "Hope."

"You understand that you can come and stay any time, right?" I check. "You, your mother and Katniss, I promise."

"We're fine," Prim says in a prideful way. "But, thanks."

I lean forward and hug her tightly, clinging onto her jumper. She does the same to me, holding me and making me feel safe.

Well, that's a lie. I could never feel safe. Not now, not after what Snow's done to me and (more terrifyingly) what he's threatened to do.

Prim heads back inside with the bowl of snow that I give her, and so do I, soon enough.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

The next day, I wake to a quiet house. I don't have a clock, but a good guess is that it's at least four in the morning. Despite this, I rise out of bed and dress quickly.

I know where I'm going. I'm headed for the woods. However, with the new head peacekeeper (Thread, someone has told me his name is) I can't afford to let anyone know where I am. The District security has tightened a lot more since Gale's whipping, and I can't afford to become victim to it.

I quietly pack a bag of food (mainly just rolls and bread made by Austin) that I'm 'giving out'. This has become custom since the whipping. Anyway, carrying the food bag in my hand, I silently slip out the house into the quiet morning and walk towards the fence. Luckily, there's no peacekeepers guarding it. I slip through it and head right in.

Years ago, when I was about five and Gale was in a bad mood, my father and I went out into the woods alone. He was going to teach me how to swim.

And years before this, just by chance and a lot of walking, my father had found a brilliant lake about an hour's walk away from Twelve. He took me there that day, and that was the day I learned to swim.

After my father's death, I told no body about the lake. Not even Gale or Katniss. It'd been ages since I'd been there, years. Perhaps it was because it reminded me of him. Or that I was too busy feeding my family. Or that it hurt too much to go back there because good memories of a loved one lay deep below.

But now I'm rich and I have too much spare time to fill, so I decided to go today. I hike and hike for an hour and, at long last, I finally arrive.

I sit down on the rocks and pull some food out the bag.

That's when I hear a twig snap behind me.

I turn, raising my axe in the air. Then I see two women, both in long cloaks, standing behind me. From the Capitol, I think, they've come to torture me.

"Stop!" The woman cries, but I have a strong urge to just throw anyway.

Suddenly, however, I see she's holding something out to me in her hand. I look down at it and see the unthinkable.

It's a small strip of bread, really a cracker, but I'm not worried about that. I'm looking at what's stamped into it in red ink.

It's my mockingjay.

"It means we're on your side," the smaller of the two women says.

I'm still not compelled to believe them. "Come round where I can see you."

"She can't, she's-" the older one starts.

"Come round!" I shout. If they're 'on my side', they'll do it.

And so they do. I hear a struggle as I see them properly now. The younger one's about my age or so, and the older one's around thirty-five.

"Who are you?" I ask. But slowly, I am coming round to the idea that these people won't kill me.

"My name's Twill," says the older one. "And this is Bonnie. We've ran away from District Eight."

District Eight! I practically scream and shout in joy. They can tell me about the uprising!

"Where'd you get the uniforms?" I refer to the peacekeepers uniforms that I now see they're wearing underneath their cloaks.

"I stole them from the factory we work at," Twill answers. "I thought Bonnie's would be for... someone else."

"And where is that from?" I gesture to the gun that Twill has hidden inside her cloak.

"It's from a dead peacekeeper," she answers.

"And the cracker? What's that about?" I asked.

"Don't you know, Willow?" Bonnie asks wearily.

I furrow my eyebrows and look at her closely. "I know it was the pin I wore in the arena."

"She doesn't know," Bonnie talks to Twill. "Not about any of-"

"I know about the uprising," I say. It's better to just clear it with them.

"Well, that's why we had to get out," Bonnie says.

"Well, you're out now," I nod. "So what are you doing?"

Bonnie answers without skipping a beat. "We're headed for District Thirteen."

My eyes widen and I have to register my shock. "Thirteen? It got blown off the map. There is no Thirteen."

Bonnie winces as she moves her leg, so I ask what's wrong with it. "I twisted my ankle, my boots are too big."

I hesitate as my instincts tell me they're telling the truth. "Anyone after you?"

"We don't think so. They think we were killed in a factory explosion," Twill answers. "It's only a fluke we weren't."

I sigh. Just by the look of them, I can tell that they aren't very accustomed to living in the woods. "Out of food?"

Bonnie nodded. "We took what we could, but food's always so scarce in the Districts."

"Well..." I take out my bag and give them a roll each. They both look at me in shock. "Take one," I say. They both reach out for one as if this is too good to be true.

"So," I say. "What's your story?"

And they tell me.

Ever since I pulled those berries out, the discontent in Eight had been growing. It always was there, of course, but below the surface, never coming out.

However, this time, it did.

At the factory Bonnie and Twill worked at, an uprising was being organised. Just a whisper, passed on, lips to ear.

Twill taught at a school, Bonnie was her student. After each schoolday, both worked a long shift at the textile factory. They both specialised in peacekeeper uniforms, so that's how Twill got two.

Anyway, the day Austin and I were in Eight, doing our Victory tour, was a practice of sorts. There was one plan. To take over the influential buildings like the Justice Building and mayor's house.

But that was a practice. For the night Austin proposed, the night that he got down on one knee and proclaimed his undying love for me, was the real thing.

So at eight that night, all hell broke loose.

The sheer number of people in Eight had surprised the peacekeepers, and soon, the people had started to win against them.

That is until the lorries started to arrive, filled to the brim with peacekeepers. They started to gun the people down by the hundreds. They forced people back into their homes and it took less than forty eight hours to secure the district once more.

Then the punishment started. The district stayed subdued for at least a week. No food, no tessera, nothing. Finally, when whoever was left in the districts were on the brink of dying from starvation, the peacekeepers got the order from the Capitol to begin as normal.

This meant going back to school for Twill and Bonnie. But the next day (whether it was deliberate or not) an explosion took place in the factory. It wiped out Twill's husband and Bonnie's entire family.

But Twill and Bonnie weren't killed because they were held up in school.

So the two fled back to Twill's. The two uniforms and escape plan was supposed to be for Twill and her husband, but it ended up being for her and Bonnie.

So they got whatever provisions they could, packed up some more and escaped. They've been fleeing in the woods for about a week now. Well, until they were forced to stop because Bonnie twisted her ankle.

But to me, there's still a major flaw in the plan.

"I understand that you're running, but what exactly do you expect to find in Thirteen?"

They look at each other. "We're not sure exactly," Twill says, clenching her jaw.

"It's nothing but rubble," I say. "We've seen the footage."

It's true. Sometimes, they broadcast footage from a reporter, standing in Thirteen. But they always-

"They always show the reporter in front of the Justice Building," Bonnie echoes my thoughts. "And every so often, if you look up in the corner, you'll see it."

"See what?" I ask in impatience.

Twill holds the cracker up. "A mockingjay, just a flash of its wings."

"So they're using old footage because they can't be bothered to go and film more?" I shrug.

"Or, they're using old footage because they can't show us what's there now."

I digest this in shock. "So that's it? You're just going on a whim? And even if they were alive... how would the Capitol be okay with it?"

"Well," Bonnie begins. "We think that the people from Thirteen have moved underground because they can't live on the surface. And that they've managed to survive. And, we think that the Capitol's letting them live because before the dark days, Thirteen's main trade was nuclear development."

"No, they were graphite miners," I say confidently, but then I hesitate. I learned this in school. And all our school courses are controlled by the Capitol.

"Yes, they had a few small mines, but that wasn't their main speciality," Bonnie tries to convince me.

My heart is beating out of my chest. What if it's all true?

"But then..." I hesitate some more. This is too selfish, but I say it anyway. "Why would they just leave us like this? If it is true, why would they let us get treated the way the Capitol treats us?"

"We don't know," Bonnie says. "Right now, we just need to know if they exist."

I want what they're saying to be true, but in my heart I know it isn't. These are delusions. Thirteen was bombed seventy five years ago.

"I have to go now," I say, looking at the sky. It's starting to darken. Have I seriously been here this long?

"I still can't believe we got to meet you, Willow," Bonnie says, smiling. "You're all anybody's talked about since-"

"I know. Since I pulled out those berries."

I take my empty bag and say goodbye, then begin the long walk back to Twelve.

An hour later, I see the fence in the distance. Beyond it, I see the meadow. I'm already dreading getting home, but I don't think about that right now.

I near the fence and put my ear close to it, expecting to hear the usual silence. Instead, I hear a low buzz, indicating the fence is alive with electricity.