HEART OF GOLD | CORIOLANUS SNOW

𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 31

The culprit was District 11's most recent victor, Bud. Seated on the other side of Cyprus, he had been reticent. His sharing was forgettable; his physique unexceptional. Amongst those up front, he was an unlikely source of violence. In retrospect, that was precisely what made him so dangerous—the ability to hide in plain sight.

Coriolanus recognized the change at once—the surge of emotion that overtook seemingly nothing. He'd witnessed it before; he knew what was coming. He reacted, but it was too late.

It all happened in an instant: a strangled scream, a heavy thud, an ominous crack—in that order. Coriolanus had dived, but it was a pair of Peacekeepers that reached Lilith first and wrestled her assailant off. Arriving to the girl gasping and coughing as she struggled to put distance between herself and the attack, he automatically moved to help. At his touch, however, she flinched and jerked back in fright.

"It's okay, Lilith," he whispered. "It's me. It's Coriolanus."

He couldn't be sure he had been understood, or even heard. But as her tear-filled eyes angled towards him, he wasted no time in assuming acknowledgment and seized the chance to sit her up. Relief, unbidden, swept through him when the floor beneath her came up bloodless.

Chaos was reigning behind him. Part of their guard had swarmed to the front of the room, their rifles held lengthwise and head-to-head to their neighbour's, forming a sort of human barricade between the Capitol and district citizens. Others barked commands at the unruly victors, employing brute force to keep them in line.

One of them appeared beside him in a hurry. "Sir, we need to get you out of here."

Like Coriolanus had to be told.

Ignoring the imbecile, he turned back to Lilith and asked, "Can you stand?"

"Think so," she said weakly.

So, Coriolanus hoisted her onto her feet and they were hustled through the exit. Once they were in the safety of the corridor, the door slammed shut behind them and its locks rebolted into place. Receiving them was the sergeant major, who indicated the direction of the station's clinic. They followed him to retrace their steps but did not complete two paces before Lilith narrowly crashed into a wall.

For someone who had seemed adequately alert and mobile during their evacuation just a second ago, her swaying came out of the blue, as did the apparent loss of faculties to break her fall. Coriolanus, who had not quite been holding onto his apprentice anymore, his hands merely hovering about her frame, stretched out quickly and instinctively, and wound up tugging her towards himself to prevent the otherwise inevitable collision. She stumbled instead into his chest with a start and a yelp. In his arms, she felt limp but not totally insensible, her screwed up face affirming that she was at least partly conscious.

"Call an ambulance," ordered Coriolanus, as he maneuvered Lilith into a nearby chair. "She needs the hospital."

Their escort, who remained frozen staring in dismay, spluttered, "But, sir—"

"Do it, and do it now." When the major continued to hesitate, Coriolanus added, "If I have to do it myself..."

The unspoken but assuredly understood threat set the Peacekeeper to work. Suppressing an eye roll, Coriolanus refocused his attention to Lilith, who was dozing off.

"Lilith!" he blurted out, shaking her rather more aggressively than he should someone in her condition.

She jumped in her seat and gazed around wildly, yet not quite managing to focus on anything. Even though Coriolanus was barely a foot away—he'd settled in the adjacent seat—it was like he was made of air. He cupped her face, noting its clamminess, and angled it slowly towards himself.