Flames to Embers

45- Underground

I'm doing so well with updates! Be proud of me! Aaaaand I made it to finals so this is my study break! I'll be home on Tuesday night!

Shout outs:

@Blakey1014 @unicornpeachgamer345 @13Oboe @Casels @theperson012 for commenting!! You guys rock!! And welcome to the new readers because there's a couple of you!

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Prim.

"Prim!" I called up the stairs. People poured down, the metal rattling loudly over my voice. "Prim!"

The flow of people slowed to a trickle. Prim wasn't on the stairs. I felt my heart sink as I realized exactly where she was.

She went back for the cat.

Buttercup was ten. She only had a handful of years left, but Prim insisted on saving the ugly thing. As this realization hit me, I heard loud footsteps, pounding harder than the others had, running down the steps.

"Gale!" My eyes made out his familiar form, saving Prim yet again when I couldn't. These men... when would I stop owing them?

"Katniss!" I heard Prim's voice over the thundering noise in the bunker. A mechanical voice told us there were only thirty seconds remaining before the doors closed.

I ran to the entrance. "Hold the doors!" I cried. My throat screamed right back at me. "Hold the doors!"

The two guards on the inside looked at me with wide eyes but did nothing. They didn't move or respond. I put my body in the doorway.

The voice reminded me they had fifteen seconds.

"Prim!" I called.

As the voice counted down from ten, the doors slowly inched closed.

Eight.

Cinna's face slammed against the glass.

Six.

Finnick's palm pressed against mine, separated only by the tube.

Four.

Three.

I sucked in a breath, waiting for the pressure of the doors to hit me. I muttered a quick prayer under my breath, hoping desperately the doors would pause when they sensed my presence, like the elevator doors in the Capitol.

Gale shoved Prim in the back. She crashed, face first into the cold metal floor, her feet an inch past me. Gale dove in after her and I after him. Buttercup let out a whine.

I stood up and pulled Prim to her feet. Blood trickled from her nose.

"What were you thinking?" I demanded, pulling a handkerchief from my pocket and pressing it roughly against her nose.

"I couldn't leave him," she protested, the hideous creature squirming in her arms.

I looked between the two of them. The cat had survived a bombing once before. I wasn't sure what her worry was, but I should have predicted it. I pulled her against me tightly. "I know."

...

I sat on my bunk, playing with the flashlight from our kit. Buttercup pounced on the light, trying to catch it under his paws as if it were actually something he could hold. Prim laughed with me at the dumb cat. I saw other friends of mine scattered throughout the bunker. Gale and his family weren't far off, taking up two bunks. Cashmere and Zahra shared a bunk, as did Caspian and Peeta. As I pulled the light out of the cat's reach once again, my stomach dropped sharply.