InsaneJournal

Who: Peeta and Gale
What: Being attacked by monkey mutts
Where: Outside of Mellarky
When: Today (2/19), early evening
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete



Between the appearance of a tidal wave that had no right to be here and defy nature, with the way it smacked against some invisible barrier before drenching the whole county (and that was something to be grateful for), the blood rain, and the fucking cornucopia, Gale trusted just about nothing these days. It was obvious that the OC was slowly morphing into a cracked mirror image of the Quarter Quell arena, and it made him more than a little on edge - in fact, it was why he walked around armed, carrying his sidearm with him at all times, along with a few knives Leli had raided from the cornucopia; the sword he’d helped himself to was at home, and maybe one day he’d take a proper fencing lesson, when his worst nightmares disappeared.


But somehow, life had a way of carrying on - not like everything could shut down because of a little gory storm (the news reports on global warming made him roll his eyes - nice lie, guys), so on Friday he was at Mellarky with Peeta as part bodyguard, part assistant baker to help get the orders done as he always did. Some orders he could handle on his own if they weren’t too complicated, like simple cookies or cupcakes - he was getting better at decorating the cakes too. Mostly the lettering, which took awhile to master, though his designs were improving also - they looked less like a kindergartener’s hot mess and more like something cohesive.


He’d taken off the flour-dusted apron and waited for Peeta to finish locking up, standing tense by the door and watching the world outside. “So no one’s actually seen that beastly thing, right?” he asked. There had been reports of that as well, some mysterious lurking presence - but Gale didn’t quite want to know what exactly it was.


The sight of the cornucopia in front of him and watching Annie completely break down due to it may be one of the worst things he had ever seen. And he had seen far too much during his time in the Army, but this felt so much worse. Almost like a perverse invasion into his real world that he hadn’t been expecting and he absolutely hated it. It was also causing a bit of a strain on his real life because he was barely able to sleep anymore and he felt awful that he continued to wake Caroline up due to his nightmares. He had gone out the other day and taken some of the weapons out of the cornucopia, but mostly knives because he felt strange bringing home anything else, but at least he saw things for Katniss and Finnick inside of there if they wanted to go. But, it made him feel a little safer that he wouldn’t be caught completely off guard.


The bakery was open for business, but no one was really coming in, but that gave him time to finish up some of the cake orders that he needed to get to. He had given everyone else time off, but accepted Gale coming with him because at least Gale understood what was going on. He couldn’t even imagine trying to explain it to his brothers if they showed up. It helped him take his mind off things to be working and he was pleased with how well Gale had picked up on some of the things in the bakery. They worked well together and soon enough he was dusting his hands off on his apron and closing up the shop for the day.


The question took him by surprise and he had to think about that for a moment before shaking his head, “I don’t believe so. I never saw the beast in the Arena, so I’m not entirely sure what we’re looking for either. I just hope it doesn’t actually murder anyone because I could only imagine what kind of monster the Capitol managed to cook up.” Lord help him if it was a mashup of all the mutts from the first arena, which made his stomach turn at the idea.


“Something from their hellish animal labs,” Gale shuddered. He remembered the monster he had encountered during the recent fog, a mish-mosh pulled from his own psyche, a mash-up of both reptile and mammal with teeth, claws, matted fur. It was heinous, much like the other mutts created to be weapons of war.


He set the alarm by the door, glancing back over his shoulder, making sure everything was all set for them to leave for the night. For some reason, he just had the shittiest feeling but the objective was to get home safely - and he felt better in a pair, rather than being alone. The buddy system was preferred, during times of weird dream bleedover.


“Ready to go? If you wanted to stop at a bar on the way...” Well. He wouldn’t say no.


Being alone when something like this was happening was never ideal. It was something you learned quickly in the Games and in the military, so you always made sure to have someone. His mind was consumed with the possibility of what strange animals the Capitol could come up with that might possible spread over into this word that he only caught the tail end of what Gale asked him. He had to blink away his thoughts before his mind managed to catch the end and then worked its way around to what had been asked.


It was a good idea and Peeta let out a chuckle, “that actually sounds fantastic. I feel like if dreaming of this didn’t drive me to drink already then living it again certainly will.” He clapped Gale on the shoulder lightly as they turned down the street towards the nearest bar. As they walked he thought he heard something in the wind and he lifted his head to look around, “Do you hear anything?”


“I’m surprised more people didn’t turn to white liquor there, no one could blamed - but I guess Haymitch set kind of a bad example with that,” Gale said, huffing a bitter laugh. Amazing the man still had a functioning liver too, what with his alcohol abuse, but he still managed to mentor Peeta and Katniss and help plan a rebellion over the course of years. Props where it was due, though Gale liked having his wits - and control - about him too much to ever fully lose himself in the bottom of a bottle.


Walking to the bar though - that prickly feeling began to wash over him in a cold wave instead. Soldiers had well-defined instincts; he knew the both of them were always attuned to their surroundings. So it wasn’t just nothing. “I think, yeah - “ He listened, stopping, automatically reaching for his gun in its holster. Because he swore he saw a pair of eyes glittering out at him, peeking around a trashcan.


Then, in true ‘what the fuck’ fashion, shit hit the fan kind of quickly.


Furry creatures leapt out from their hiding spaces, agile, deadly, their claws protracting like razor blades as they screeched. They came from everywhere - atop light poles, from behind fire hydrants, beneath parked cars. “Mutts!” Gale acted on those instincts, gun seized, trigger pulled - the monkey leaping at him took a bullet between the eyes, splattering bits of brain and blood, but that wasn’t the only one coming at them.


Watching Haymitch be almost a slave to alcohol had certainly turned him off from finding salvation in the bottom of a bottle. When Haymitch managed to kick the habit he had been quite pleased there was a real turn around, but damn, this place really drove you to drink sometimes. He had happy things to focus on that helped him stay out of the path of falling down that rabbit hole. If Gale ever voiced his favor of wits and control then Peeta would most likely echo his sentiment.


A gun. That’s what Peeta needed to bring along with him next time, but he didn’t even think about that before he came to work. However, he knew he was skilled enough with his knives and something was about to happen. He almost wanted to crack a joke about his spidey sense tingling, but had to let the opportunity pass him by when he heard the screeching coming at them from all angles.


Seriously? The monkeys managed to appear? This truly was the Quarter Quell.


“God damn it,” Peeta swore under his breath as he grabbed a few knives as the monkeys began to form a circle around them and keep them trapped. If only he had a trident like Finnick and could taken them out quickly, but he was prepared. The monkey leaping at Gale and subsequently being blown to pieces set off a chain reaction of events. The level of the screeching reached a new level as the monkeys bared their teeth and began to come at them and all Peeta could do was hope that his skills weren’t rusty any longer. He reached out with his knife and slashed the first one that came towards him and he felt the warmth of blood splash onto his face.


From what Gale remembered, just by watching the 75th Hunger Games on television and the big screen in the middle of District 12, those monkeys were fanged harbingers of death. They were small, but quick and dangerous - in fact, one had even killed a Tribute, the morphling from District 6 who sacrificed her life. Those fangs didn’t look like much, but they could puncture deep enough to cause internal bleeding.


“What is wrong with this place?!” he snarled, angrily kicking another corpse that had been shot in the face. Peeta had his knives, and Gale had his gun - he also had extra ammo, so he was just going to keep shooting and shooting until these things were as good as dead, no matter how many times he had to reload.


It was like one of those old-fashioned arcade cowboy games - he was trying to keep up, reflexes tested, bang bang bang. “On your left!” he warned, nearly slipping in a pool of blood. Fuck. Only in Orange County would two grown men fighting monkeys just be a normal everyday occurrence, and not attract other attention.


A wave of panic started to swell up inside of Peeta and he knew his PTSD from the Dreams of the Games could surface at any time, but he was hell bent on making sure that they made it out of this alive. He was not going to end up like that morphling from 6 that looked so utterly horrible when they caught sight of her body after everything was said and done. These things were deadly, the Gamemakers knew what they were doing, and he wasn’t going to underestimate them.


“I really hope this doesn’t mean the Capitol is an actual thing and coming for us,” Peeta commented because that was his worst fear. This wasn’t what he wanted to happen, but he was putting up with it as best as he could. He slashed as many times as he could and felt the sting of the claws from the monkeys on his arm before he brutally stepped forward to end the life of what one decided to hurt him.


At Gale’s alert he turned quickly to his left and fell back once the monkey landed on him. He rolled as quickly as he could and scrambled to get it off of him and slid a knife through the monkey’s stomach and swore, “We need to get out of here. We can’t just stand here and keep fighting. What if this never lets up?”


By now, Gale was stained with blood and gore, a tall and imposing figure who just looked like he had emerged from the bowels of a warzone, and he knew that Peeta was right. They’d run out of ammo eventually, they’d get tired, they’d open themselves up to injury or worse. He could tell his friend was scratched, and Gale was too - his shirt was partly shredded from claws, and he had gashes on his abdomen.


Too bad they didn’t have grenades on them.


“We make a break for it,” he agreed. “Double back, my car’s parked around the corner behind the bakery.” Looks like they wouldn’t be getting their drinks tonight - the bottle of booze would have to wait. “Here - “ He tossed Peeta the keys. “I’ll hold them off here, go and get the car and bring it around, I’ll jump in.”


Thankfully no random civilians had stumbled onto the street since the attack began because they both looked horrific. His clothing looked like it was just black now thanks to the mixture of the blood and gore and there were scratches everywhere. The minute he got home he was going to burn his clothing, take a long shower, and debate if he wanted to ask Caroline to give him some of her blood in order to heal himself and maybe Gale if he approved of it and Caroline did as well. He looked over at his friend with a weary expression as he tried to back up from a couple of the monkeys.


The keys were caught one handed and he raised his eyebrow at Gale, “Are you sure, man? I don’t want to leave you behind unless you’re absolutely sure.” He just had to hope that his leg would hold out as he ran for his life. This prosthesis wasn’t the one he would would pick for something like that, but he was going to have to deal with it because he was not going to die because of his damn leg. He slashed out at a couple of monkeys that moved in and quickly calculated if he could make it without too much of an incident.


“I’m sure,” Gale promised, the gun going off again but now it was empty - however, he had a window of opportunity, so he began to reload with quick, expert hands, retrieving the extra ammo from where it was stashed on his belt. There was no telling how many more monkeys would pop out, so he wanted to be ready to shoot them down as they leapt from their hiding places.


He was positive that Peeta could make it - and he had already fought these fucking things once, no way in hell was Gale going to leave him to deal with godawful muttations again. “Go, go now - I’ll be here, you won’t even need to slow down very much.” Just make sure to have the door unlocked and open, clearly, or else it’d be like something from a slapstick comedy.


They would not end up like the Three Stooges. Peeta gave him a nod and almost felt like this was a moment in an action romance movie where he should passionately embrace his friend and promise that he will be back for him. Bromances for the win, right? Instead he shot him a long look, “Alright, I’m going. Cover me and I’ll be back in a jiffy.” After speaking he rushed forward with a knife in each hand to slash out at any monkeys that attempted to follow him.


His leg managed to hold up as he ran back to the bakery and around the corner towards Gale car. Gale had managed to draw attention off of Peeta and he was pleased to see that only one stupid monkey decided to come after him and he was able to kill it before he could get in the car. The car took a moment to catch before starting up and Peeta leaned over to throw open the passenger door. As he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street that Gale was on he put his foot down hard with the intention of running some of these damn beasts over and slow down enough for Gale to get in the car.


If only they had cars to use as weapons in the arena - would have been a lot easier, but no, it was mostly primitive weapons and devising electrical traps from wire if you were a clever tricky bastard from District 3. Gale heard the sound of an engine accelerating, his car, what was surely Peeta tearing around the corner - and it was now or never, basically. He’d really hate for his fellow soldier to have to circle the block to come back to get him because he wasn’t agile enough to dive in correctly the first time.


More monkey mutts met their demise as a hard, metallic object that weighed a couple of tons slammed into their furry grotesque bodies - the sounds of crunching beneath the tires was disgusting, but yet morbidly satisfying. Bastards. “Fuck off,” Gale shook another monkey free, flinging it onto the hood of the car - and then he was gone.


Sure, he was the size of an ox, tall and built sturdily, but he didn’t suffer with the agility either. Timing the distance, he jumped into the passenger side, rolling into the seat, immediately reaching for the lever and pushing it back all of the way to give himself some room. Then he twisted around to grab at the seatbelt and buckle up - because, you know, safety first.


“Good job,” he congratulated Peeta. “Now that we’re covered in monkey guts.”


Speaking of, that dead one was still on the hood. What a nice ornament. He just considered it a giant middle finger to the county’s bullshit.


It amazed Peeta that Gale managed to get himself inside of the car because he really didn’t think it would work out. You had to have a little bit of disbelief in your life if you intended to get out with your sanity. Better to be pleasantly surprised than constantly let down, right? Peeta laughed because that was truly all he could emotionally do in this moment. “Holy shit, Gale, that just happened. Fucking monkey mutts in Orange County and we managed to make it out alive,” he hit the steering wheel in excitement and swerved slightly in an attempt to get the monkey off of the hood of the car.


“Okay, I need to tell you something and you can’t freak out,” Peeta glanced over at his friend. He doubted Gale would freak out, but it was still an unexpected thing,” Caroline is a vampire. One of her vampire powers is that her blood can heal people. We’re both covered in shit and we may be infected, so I want to ask you if you want to be healed by drinking her blood. It may will be faster than going to a hospital.”


At this point, Gale was past the point of freaking out about anything, besides the possibility of being infected by...whatever those monkey assholes really were. It wasn’t something he was willing to risk, however, and in general? He just wanted the stench and stink of their guts off of him.


“If I can potentially use her shower? I’m down for most anything,” he said, not even considering the ‘catch’ for being healed by vampire blood. Nope. Clearly there had to be a catch, but he wasn’t really in the mood to wait in hospital emergency room and explain this ‘wild animal attack’ either. “So sure, why not. If she’s okay with it. Obviously you’re first priority.”


Whatever happened next, he’d handle it, they’d handle it - just as long as they got away from the scene of this nightmarish episode. Gale had enough of Panem for today - for the rest of his life, really.