𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝑹𝒆𝒅 || 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔

𝟓𝟔 || 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒏𝒅

Evelyn didn't have to hesitate as long as she did before. She understood what he was saying, and she decided that he was right. If she died here, it would mean everything that had happened to her and everything that everyone around her did for her would be useless. Pointless. With one more glance towards the entrance, silently hoping that Sasha would be standing there but seeing nothing, she slowly pushed herself off the ground and helped Apollo up. He grimaced with every step they took, even with the support of his arm around her shoulder, but he never protested or told her to stop.

Despite their delay and Apollo's injured leg, they managed to catch up with the group pretty easily. There were gunshots all around them, some sort of bean was coming from the lights, and they learned the hard way that stepping into the beams would vaporize a person. Evelyn's heart was pounding in her chest as they ran, and she tried not to show her obvious discomfort with the way Apollo was weighing her down.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on. Let's go." Someone yelled at the squad, it was either Hawthorne or Finnick, with all of the screaming and bangs going on around them, Evelyn couldn't tell the difference between the two.

She made the mistake of looking back and saw that the floor behind them was starting to fall apart, threatening to catch up to them and make them trip over their own feet. Evelyn could barely think with everything going on around her, and for a moment, she thought about sitting down and letting nature take its course, but that would risk Apollo's safety, and they didn't need any more deaths. As the group made it to "safety," they were quickly interrupted by Peeta, who was kneeling on the ground with his head in between his hands as he rocked back and forth. Everdeen ran towards him, kneeling next to him and trying to get him to lift his head, and looked at her.

"Peeta, we have to keep going," The girl told him. Peeta tried to push her away, repeating I'm a mutt, and talking about how he couldn't keep control over and over and over again. "Yes, you can," Katniss tried convincing him, but nothing seemed to be working.

"Leave me! I'm a mutt!" He told her, and she tried to grab hold of his face and make eye contact with him.

"Look at me, look at me!" Katniss said as she finally got a hold of Peeta's face, and then before he could say anything else or pull away, she kissed him.

For a moment, everyone else in the squad just stood there, and Evelyn felt like she was intruding on some sort of private moment. It started to get awkward for her, but Apollo, ever the comedian, turned to Evelyn with a dazed look. "Maybe I should've done that with you earlier; it would've gotten you out of there faster."

Evelyn stared at him, blinking a couple of times as she tried to process what he said. Sure, he could say things at the wrong time, but flirting – if that was what you could call his horrible attempt at a joke – during this time was a bit far, even for him. "Yeah, I think you've lost a bit too much blood."

He frowned, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you should stop talking."

Once Everdeen and Mellark were done, the squad took off running again. "I know where we are," Cressida announced to the group, although it offered little comfort. The Capitol also knew where they were. "I know a place. Up those stairs."

They followed the woman through the streets of the Capitol, the only light being the light from their wanted posters as they were broadcast all over the city. Finally, they reached something that looked like a house or a store, and Cressida stopped, knocking on the door of the house.

Everything was silent for a moment, and Evelyn rubbed the back of her house as Peeta spoke up. "Someone's coming."

"Shut the door! Shut the door!" Cressida ordered as they all filed into the room. Evelyn felt like she could breathe as she leaned against the wall, and Apollo managed to support himself without her help.

Katniss wasn't as relieved, aiming her bow at the woman who had let them in as she glared at her. Finnick seemed a little on edge as well as he looked around, trying to figure out what was going on. Cressida put her hand on Katniss's shoulder, gently urging the girl to put the bow down. "No, Katniss, it's okay, it's okay. It's okay." Once Everdeen put her weapon down, Cressida took a step towards the woman, "Tigris, do you remember me? I'm with Plutarch's underground. We need your help."

The woman – Tigris – led them towards a secret passage, and Evelyn could finally get a good look at her. She had eyes and skin like a cat, and she moved silently and gracefully. She looked familiar to the former victor, and it only took Evelyn a couple of seconds to remember where she knew her from. Tigris had been a stylist years ago, but she had suddenly stopped designing for the Games. Most people assumed it was because Snow no longer liked how she looked after the surgeries.

As they all sat down in the small space underground, Evelyn had time to process everything. Sasha was dead, truly, truly dead, and for now, Apollo was all she had left. Her mind also drifted to an earlier conversation they had when they were walking through the tunnels. Cassius Snow. Cassius. The boy she had worked with in the Capitol. She didn't know why she was so shocked, now that she thought about it had been extremely obvious that everyone kept messing up his last name. It wasn't a real last name. It was a lie. He had lied to her for the entire time, and for some reason, that bothered her.

But it also meant that they would have another person to take care of because if Cassius Snow lied to her like that to get her on his side, then she doubted he would give up his father's presidency very easily.