Mockingjay: Prim [Completed]

Chapter 20: 2 Deaths 1 Lie (Prim)

Laughter turns to screams as we watch our Commander explode. The smoke darkens the special effect stuff for the television. There are two more explosions and Messalla is thrown into a wall from the force. Finnick rushes to his aid.

Blood gushes out from Bogg's legs and my instincts kick in as I rush to his side.

"The Holo," he says. I know he's dying. The size of the pool of blood tells me so. I know what's best now is to give him his dying wish. Homes ties the stump of his left thigh as we talk. The others gather around him. Jackson is barking into her communicator but from the looks of it, isn't getting much of a response. Boggs on the other hand is working hard on the Holo.

[He's typing in a command, pressing his thumb to the screen for print recognition, speaking a string of letters and numbers in response to a prompt. A green shaft of light bursts out of the Holo and illuminates his face. He says, "Unfit for command. Transfer of prime security clearance to Squad Four-Five-One Soldier [Primrose] Everdeen." It's all he can do to turn the Holo toward my face.] (Pave 278 lines 10 through 18)

"Say your name."

"Primrose Everdeen."

I'm trapped in the light and can't move. Whether it's scanning me, recording me or blinding me, I have no idea.

"Prepare for retreat!" Jackson suddenly shouts. I turn my head and see a black wave coming in, creating a impenetrable wall of darkness. I have a feeling the wave was set off manually by Snow and his minions. One thing's for sure. We can't go back the way we came. Not now.

Gale and Katniss shoot ahead to set off pods. Homes and I drag Boggs along as he cries in pain. After hustling for almost ten full yards, I drop. I can't do it. This seems to get Rory all confused again. He tries to attack me with the butt of his gun. I roll away just before I hear it smash into the street. I yelp and Mitchell pins him down.

"He's not stable!" I tell him. He doesn't care. He tries putting him in cuffs.

"Get off of me," Rory cries. When he doesn't, Rory kicks him square in the stomach, launching him further down the street into a pod. He's pulled up in a net and blood starts dripping at an abnormal pace. I squint to see that his body is covered in the stuff on the fence back in Twelve. Barb wire.

More people start to restrain Rory who's crying now. We drag both him and Boggs into a house. Rory is cuffed and put in a closet. Speckles, aka Leeg 1, and Cressida stumble into the room, coughing.

"Fumes!" Speckles wheezes and Homes starts to stuff rags in the cracks of the door.

"Mitchell?" I ask. Homes shakes his head. Dead.

Homes forces the Holo in my hand and whispers harshly to me. I have to lean in to hear him. "Don't trust them, and don't go back! Kill Rory and do what you have to do!"

"What?! Boggs...Boggs? Boggs!" I shout for him but he's already lost. The Holo lays in my hand, glued with his blood.

There's slamming in the closet and I shudder. Rory doesn't like small spaces. It was a terrible idea, but we do need to restrain him. The thumping slows down and get's smaller until it completely fades out.

"The Capitol has probably filmed us. All those pods we set off would have alerted them, and there are surveillance cameras everywhere."

"I inspect there is an electromagnetic pulse device as well, as our radio communicators aren't working," Jackson adds. She reaches for the Holo, probably thinking it's for her.

"No, Boggs gave it to me," I say.

"Stop lying, give it to me!" she demands.

"It's true, I saw it," Homes backs me up.

"Why would he do that?"

Why would he do that? The events of the last five minutes reruns in my head and I wish I knew what he meant. Don't trust them, and don't go back! Kill Rory and do what you have to do!

"Because I'm on a special mission from Coin," I lie, an idea forming in my head. "Boggs was the only one who knew about it."

"To do what."

"Kill Snow. Before there are too many casualties in the war. So the population doesn't become unstable."

"I don't believe you. Transfer the prime security clearance to me."

"That would be violating Coin's orders."

There's an unnerving silence as half the squad points their guns at me, the rest at Jackson.

"It's true, that's why we're here," Cressida says. "Plutarch wants it televised."

I don't know why she's backing up my made-up mission.

"Why's Rory here then," Jackson demands.

"He knows his way around the Capitol building. He's been there. Twice," Cressida improvises. I'm impressed by her skills. Jackson shuts up.

"We gotta go now. If any of you don't want to, you can head back for camp but we're moving."

"Ready," Homes says with a nod, gunstrap over his shoulder

"Boggs?" Speckles asks.

"He'll understand," Finnick says with a nod. "Lead on, Soldier Everdeen."

I stand at the front to lead the group but there's just one little problem. I don't know how to work the Holo.

"Jackson?"

She scowls, takes the Holo, and shows me our position and the streets we could take.

I ignore her and tell everyone, "Put on your masks. We're going the way we came."

"No way," Jackson argues.

"The wave probably set off all the pods," I insist. People seem to take that into contemplation. It's quiet for a moment before Castor steps up.

"That's true. I think we should go that way. The wave should have covered the surveillance camera lenses, and this stuff-" he touches it with his foot "-isn't corrosive either."

Everyone puts their masks on. Finnick helps Rory into one, as he is unconscious. I take the lead as we leave, and note how the goo is like gel. It comes up but goes back down, doesn't stick to our shoes, leaves no footprints, and is sturdy enough for us to get across. It's got some pretty interesting properties. Halfway through, we spot a large teardrop with a gun and a hand protruding out of it. Mitchell. I remember his nostril flaring and teeth gritting as we pass by without a word.

"If anyone wants to go now, no questions, no hard feelings," I say. No one goes. I love this group already. Only if it were Boggs instead of Jackson...I chide myself for the thought. I'm becoming a monster.

Sure enough, all the pods were set off. Tracker jackers decorate the tar in one area, a building collapsed in another. The tar may have actually been a good thing if Boggs and Mitchell didn't die.

After wading out way out, we get into a new house. It's similar to the first which we took refuge in. This one is a little bit better though, with plush couches in the living room. We convene there. I'm just about to tell Cressida that we should make some We Remember propos for Boggs and Mitchell when the television blinks on. People start to panic. Cressida calms us all down.

"Don't worry! This is totally normal. Capitol televisions turn on automatically for emergency broadcasts.

We're on screen all of a sudden. They show us going through the streets, setting off pods and running from the tar. It's chaos until the wave blots out the camera. The reporter names Gale, Finnick, Boggs, Rory, Katniss, Cressida and I, but doesn't know the rest of us.

"Well, on the bright side, there's no aerial footage. Boggs was right about there being no hovercrafts," Castor points out. I never noticed. Must be a camera guy thing. On the screen, we're proclaimed to be dead.

Finally some luck.

"What's our next move?" I ask.

"It should be obvious," Rory chimes in. "Kill me."

~A/N~ A mirror chapter for 2 Peacekeepers 1 Lie in CF Prim...hope you liked it!

-Monica