Chapter 15

Katniss

The entire way down the stairs, I can't stop thinking about my mother. I shouldn't have come here. She's dead. There isn't a doubt about that. I didn't even get to say goodbye.

Peeta leads me down the staircase. I think he says something, but I don't hear it. Over and over, the fact that I have no family left hits me in waves. Everyone is dead. There are no other Everdeens left besides me. I guess Peeta felt the same way when his family died. There aren't any Mellarks left either, besides him.

I slip on the last step but Peeta catches me before I hit the ground. "Are you ok?" he asks. That's a ridiculous question. I've been through two Hunger Games, and a war. A minor slip wouldn't even begin to make a difference. 

The staircase opens up to a big room. There are a few torches hanging from the walls, and a messy bed in the corner.

How does my mother think we were supposed to survive here? With no food or water, it would be impossible. We'd last about three days.

"Look. . ." Peeta whispers. He's looking towards a gap in the wall. It isn't very obvious. Just a small opening in the corner, covered with a silver sheet of metal.

Peeta and I kneel down to the tunnel. I crawl in first. The metal walls seem to close in. I feel Peeta crawl in behind me. The tunnel goes dark when he puts the cover back on.

It seems like forever, crawling in that tunnel. It's freezing in here, so it doesn't help anything.

"Katniss," I hear Peeta whisper behind me.

"Peeta, I can't really talk right now," I retort, craning my neck so I don't hit my head on the top of the shaft. 

"Katniss," his voice is slow and weak. I look back just to see his blue eyes begin to cloud up.

"Peeta!" I say, trying to turn and face him. He is clenching the end of his shirt. I know it hurts him when this happens. "This isn't real. What's real is that last year, you gave me a pearl in the Quarter Quell. You bake me cheese buns, my favorite, all of the time. That's real too. This is not real."

I was trying a different technique. Usually I run away and try to hide until it's over. I don't have the option to do that here. Peeta's fingernails make red marks on his skin. His face is clenched up. He is fighting himself. 

"Peeta, listen. . ." I whisper. He doesn't look at me but I know he can hear me. "This is not real."

I can see his grip loosen on the edge of his shirt. He exhales and leans against the side of this duct.

Words slip from my mouth. I don't know why. They just do. I can't say I don't mean what I say, but I definitely don't mean to say it. Not here. "I love you. That's what's real..." I say. My mind begins to process the words just as Peeta looks up into my eyes.

He doesn't say anything for a while. We just stay there, in the metal tunnel, our necks cramping from the low ceiling.

After a while, we begin moving again. I can see light towards the end of the passageway. "Peeta, look," I say. He doesn't reply but I know he realizes what I'm talking about.

I can hear a strange noise coming from up ahead. It could be a way out of here. I quicken my pace and crawl forward. "Katniss, wait!" Peeta says behind me.

Now I understand why. It's not a way out at all, but a pool of rushing water feet below us. I can't tell if the water is deep enough, or too deep for that matter, to jump.

On the other side, is a tall ladder and a wider hallway. We have to get to the other side. "We have to jump," Peeta says, as if reading my mind. I never thought he'd be the one to go with the crazy idea. That's something that I tend to do.

The tunnel does widen at the end, so we sit next to eachother, looking down at the murky water.

I take Peeta's hand and he looks into my eyes. I know that there is a chance we could die, but there is another chance that we might live. "On three," he says. It brings me back to the first Hunger Games when we were about to eat the berries. 

I nod and squeeze his hand. "One. . ." I say. My voice is small. I sound almost exactly like Prim, when she was younger. She used to be so afraid of storms. She hated the thunder. As she got older though, she grew to love it. We used to sit outside on a sheet in front of our house to watch the lightning. 

"Two," Peeta says. His voice doesn't have fear in it at all. Just like his facial expression didn't when we got reaped the first time. It makes me think of Prim. Of how I saw her duck tail while she walked up to the stage and how I saw the same thing just before she was killed.

"Three," this time my voice sounds confident and fairly angry. What is racing through my mind as we jump off the ledge and fell down to the icy water is,

Prim PrimDo it for PrimPrimPrim

My body hits the ice cold water and my hand reluctantly lets go of Peeta's.

The surface of the water gets farther away, as I plummet down through the dark. When I come out of the shock from the cold water, I move my limbs and push my way back up to air. I survived.

The water is too dark to see anything around me, but I can't find Peeta. Maybe he is already waiting for me at the surface.

I'm almost there. My hands reach up in the air, followed by my head. I gasp, inhaling and exhaling the precious oxygen. Peeta hasn't come up yet.

My heart pounds in my chest as I frantically spin around, looking for him. I dive back under the water, but it's too dark. "Peeta!" I scream when I came back up to the surface again. "Peeta!"

I call his name, hoping he would hear and float back up. My breathing is fast and unsteady.

I know it probably won't do me any good but I push myself under the water again. I kick my legs, hoping to brush against Peeta. Maybe he is swimming back to the surface.

"Peeta," I say underwater. Bubbles dance around me and tickle my nose. I swear I hear my name.

I feel arms enclose around my waist and pull me back up. I kick and try screaming. What if it's one of the masked soldiers?

When I take another breath of air at the top I spin around. Peeta is floating, looking at me with a surprised expression.

I take a deep breath. "You didn't come back up and I was-" I'm too out of breath to talk. He wraps his arms around me. I guess I may have shocked him due to my reaction.

"Shhh," he says. I am shaking from the cold and fear. "It's okay. I'm here. I came back up."

I sigh and take a deep breath. We swim side by side to a platform with a tall ladder connected to the wall.

I climb up first again. The tunnel is big enough for me to stand and walk down. I step onto it, making sure it can hold a person.

I feel Peeta push himself up to the floor behind me. We walk down the hall in silence. I guess neither of us know what to say.

I didn't really know how to end that. Hope you liked it! Be sure to vote!! :)