The body of Katniss and Primrose's mother lay still on the cold ground, her eyes wide and staring skyward, her hair completely burned, her body and clothes also burned.

"Mom! Mommy, please!" Primrose's voice, desperately trying to shake you by the shoulders, blended with the screams of the victims' loved ones and the groans of the wounded, and Katniss remained with her eyes fixed straight ahead, she saw the scene but her brain refused to recognize it, to accept it. Her mother... The only person who, after her father's death, had been there for her always, who hugged her, who understood her, the only person she went to talk to, to vent, to open her heart and confide... Now she lay like a sprawled doll in front of her daughters, while her younger sister tried everything to wake her up...

Was this really what she wanted? She knew the rebellion would be hard, that she would risk losing friends and, possibly, family, but now that she's faced with the harsh reality... She doesn't want to accept it. She can't. Her mother... Anything but her mother and her sister.

Katniss moves without her mind's control; she knows it's dangerous to go into bombed-out territory without protection, but she can't leave her younger sister or her mother behind. She doesn't even realize how quickly she's moved, but she's right there beside her sister. "Mama..." Katniss whispers, touching her mother's forehead, a light and loving gesture, the way her mother would do with her when Katniss was afraid, or when she wanted to express to her daughter the love she felt and still feels for her and her sister.

Katniss bends down and picks up her mother, with little Primrose in tow. Katniss entrusts her mother to the care of the remaining doctors, hoping for a miracle.

The journey back to District 13 was... Silent, without any celebrations or anything like that... Her mother... The woman who was both a doctor and a fighter, the woman who saved them both, who cared for them, who helped everyone... She can't be dead, it can't be...