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Coming from the television, the beeping began suddenly. The seal of Panem was shown and remained on the screen as the anthem played. Then, images of the supposed dead soldier squad appeared. It started with those from the television crew, but soon it was followed by Boggs, Gale, Finnick, Dove, Melo, Johanna, Peeta, and Katniss. They didn't even bother to show any of the other District Thirteen soldiers.
President Snow, seated peacefully at his desk, as if a war wasn't happening right in font of his eyes, and congratulated the Peacekeepers on a masterful job. He honoured them for freeing the country of the menaces called Mockingjay and Rebels' Songbird.
With their deaths, he affirmed there would be a turning of the tide in the war. The rebels were demoralised. They had no one to follow. And what were the two rebel symbols, really?
The Mockingjay was only a poor, unstable girl with a small talent with a bow and arrow. The Rebels' Songbird was merely a girl with a charming voice that, just as a siren, drove whoever heard it to insanity, following the voice even until their death.
However, despite all this, they weren't great thinkers, not the masterminds of the rebellion. Purely two faces plucked from the masses because they had somewhat caught the nation's attention. One with her antics in the Games, the other with her songs. Still, they were necessary, because the rebels had no real leader among them.
Before he could continue on explaining anything else, the image changed from him to President Coin, not too affected by the news of the squad's death. She introduced herself to Panem, determining herself as the head of the rebellion.
"I have interrupted a broadcast from your President in which he attempted to defame two brave young women. 'Two faces picked from the masses', he called them. As if a leader, a true leader, could be anything else. I had the privilege of knowing a small-town girl from the Seam in District Twelve and a caring young woman from District Four, who both survived the Hunger Games and the Quarter Quell. Rose up and turned a nation of slaves into an army! Dead or alive, Katniss Everdeen and Dove Ogilvy will remain the faces of this rebellion. If ever you waver in your resolve, think of them, and in them, you will find the strength you need to rid Panem of its oppressors." Coin declared.
"I had no idea how much I meant to her," Katniss said, causing Gale to laugh.
"She's smart. She sent us to die, she thinks we did, and now she's using the situation to make herself known. Now everyone trusts her. Now everyone looks up to her. Now everyone thinks she'll be the perfect president once all of this is over," Dove said towards Katniss, although she didn't care if everyone else listened. She held Finnick's hand as she saw two altered images appear on television. Katniss and her looking beautiful. No scars, no marks, no signs of starvation. Nothing remotely like that. "Puppet here. Puppet there. We're puppets everywhere." She singed softly.
"Tomorrow morning, when we pull Katniss Everdeen's and Dove Ogilvy's body from the ashes, we will see exactly who the Mockingjay and Songbird are. Two dead girls who could save no one, not even themselves." President Snow announced immediately after the image was back at him. And then, nothing. Seal, anthem, and the television was off.
"Except that you won't find them," said Finnick towards the screen. It was true, once they found fifteen bodies missing, they would realise they weren't dead. And the hunt for their heads would be back again on track.
"We can get a head start on them at least," Katniss said, pulling out the Holo and insisting that Jackson talked to her through the most basic commands.
"Coin acted quite emotional right there. I wonder how many suckers believed her little act," Johanna commented, facing her friends, as some from Thirteen gave her unsure looks.
"I bet lots of them did. I just hope Angel won't do something stupid. Everyone thinks we're dead, even them." Melo pointed out, voicing Dove's worries, which all of them had been thinking for a while.
"Melo, Finnick, Johanna, Peeta, Katniss, and me. Six loses in one day. They're going to do something stupid. Ron, Angel, and mum for sure will. We can just pray they don't go into actual battle," Dove muttered, tightening her grip on Finnick's hand.
"Why don't we start by ruling out possibilities," Finnick proposed, looking at Katniss and Jackson. He seemed to be the only one to be paying attention to what was happening outside their little group. "The street is not a possibility."
"The rooftops are just as bad as the street," said Leeg 1.
"We still might have a chance to withdraw, go back the way we came," added Holmes. "But that would mean a failed mission."
"It was never intended for all of us to go forward. You just had the misfortune to be with me." Katniss told them, although that made Johanna chuckle.
"Please, you really are brainless. You know, wherever you go, we go with you. This is a family, brainless. Get used to it." Johanna declared, pointing to the four of them, and eventually adding Peeta, who moved slightly closer to Dove on the sofa. She gave him a comforting smile, which he reciprocated.
"And that's a moot point. We're with you now," added Jackson. "So, we can't stay put. We can't move up. We can't move laterally. I think that just leaves one option."
"Underground," Gale pointed out, knowing what she would say perfectly.
The Holo could also show the subterranean just as street-level pods. Just as the map showed the underground, the street plan got changed with an absolute mess of tunnels. Although there seemed not to be as many pods as outside.
"OK, then. Let's make it look like we've never been here," Katniss said. They did all they could to erase their trace, except the front door, which had no fixing. At least they could lock a second bolt, so it wouldn't open immediately on contact.
When there was nothing left to do, Peeta refused to move, planting himself on the sofa. "I'm not going. I'll either disclose your position or hurt someone."
"Snow's people will find you," Finnick tried to reason with him.
"Then leave me a pill. I'll only take it if I have to," replied Peeta.
"That's not an option. Come along," Jackson ordered.
"Or you'll what? Shoot me?" asked Peeta, which caused Johanna to snicker.
"This is like 'you'll kill me if I kill myself?'. It's too funny." She muttered, which made Melo look at her, amused.
"We'll knock you out and drag you with us," intervened Holmes, trying to ignore Johanna's comment. "Which will both slow us down and endanger us."
"Stop being noble! I don't care if I die!" Peeta turned to Katniss, with a voice that was almost pleading. "Katniss, please. Don't you see, I want to be out of this?"
"We're wasting time. Are you coming voluntarily or do we knock you out?" Katniss answered after a few seconds of thinking.
Peeta sighed, burying his face in his hands. "Peeta. Let's make a promise, shall we?" Dove said softly, crouching down in front of him. "When Snow's dead, and only when he's dead, if you still want to die, I'll kill you myself. Berries, trident, sword, bow, knife . . . You name it. But if you don't want to die, or you don't even know exactly what to do, promise to keep living. You can trust me. I tried to kill myself, and weeks later I lived the best day of my life. That can happen to you, too. What we're going through right now sucks. It's horrible. And, sometimes, I also think about ending it all. But you have to remember this is just a prolonged bad moment in your life. Once this shitty chapter of our lives is over, better things will come."
He stood still for a minute before rising from his seat, taking Dove's hand as she guided him to the rest. "Should we free his hands?" asked Leeg 1.
"No!" He growled, taking the cuffs closer to his body.
"No," Katniss muttered. "But I want the key." Jackson complied, passing her the keys without a word.
When Homes opened a small metal door to the maintenance shaft, they realised there was a slight problem with Pollux's and Castor's camera-shells. There was no way they could fit with those. However, they seemed prepared as they took out two show-box-sized cameras and left the camera-shells in the closet.
They walked through the narrow passage, arriving at a second one that had a bedroom called utility, where the entrance to the tube that led underground was. Messalla frowned at the entrance, wondering something for a bit before speaking up.
"It's why no one ever wants the centre unit. Workmen coming and going whenever and no second bath. But the rent's considerably cheaper." He immediately noticed Finnick's and Melo's amused looks and added, "Never mind."
The cover was easy to remove, letting them descend a wide ladder. They waited at the foot of the ladder until their eyes adjusted to the dim lights. They could smell a mixture of chemicals in the air.
Pollux, who was abnormally pale, reached out to Castor's wrist. "My brother worked down here after he became an Avox," Castor explained simply. "Took five years before we were able to buy his way up to ground level. Didn't see the sun once."
No one knew what to reply to such horror. No one but Peeta, who turned to face Pollux. "Well, then you just became our most valuable asset." His comment made Castor laugh while Pollux smiled.
After a few minutes walking through the tunnels, Peeta resulted to be right. Pollux was definitely their best asset. As he explained, there was a series of tunnels, called Transfer, that led above ground, filled with pods that during the day were deactivated, but not at night, causing it to become a minefield. However, there were many other passages they could take to avoid them.
After six hours of prolonged walking, Katniss suggested to rest. It was three in the morning, so they still had a few hours until their bodies would be found to be missing.
Pollux guided them to a room with many machines humming and held his fingers to make them know they had to be gone in four hours. Jackson created another guard schedule.
Melo and Johanna were on the first shift, while Finnick was scheduled with Katniss at six o'clock. "If anything happens, wake me up." Dove made all of them promise before going to a corner to sleep next to Finnick, who didn't have to try for too long as the exhaustion took over.
Hours passed like seconds and by six o'clock, Dove was awakened by the sudden movement of Finnick being lightly shaken awake, which startled him. She tried her best to go back to sleep, resting her head again on his shoulder, but she couldn't. There was just one hour left until they had to be gone, so she didn't care.
With her eyes closed, she involuntarily overheard Katniss' and Peeta's conversation about his torture. He was able to differentiate between real memories and the venom somewhat better now.
"You're still trying to protect me. Real or not real," Peeta whispered, which Dove barely heard if it weren't for the dead silence all around.
"Real," Katniss assured. "Because that's what you and I do. Protect each other."
Just minutes before seven o'clock, Katniss, Finnick and Pollux awoke everyone else. Dove, who was still awake since six o'clock, got up immediately. However, the rest who had slept peacefully during the last hours took a bit more to fully wake them up.
"What's that?" Dove asked. She had just heard a sound, similar to a hiss, far away in the tunnels. "Did anybody else hear that? It was like a hiss."
"Me too," Katniss whispered, motioning everyone to keep quiet as they listened carefully to the sound. It was definitely a hiss, but a more horrifying realisation hit Dove as it got closer.
"Katniss. Dove," Dove whispered, causing everyone to look at her. "It's a voice. Or more like voices. Mutts. They're looking for us. We've got to go. Let's leave this place."
"If it's after us, it might be a good time to split up." Katniss proposed, receiving immediate rejections from Finnick and Melo.
"Who says they won't kill them too, Katniss? Whatever those are, they're meant to kill. There's no time to chitchat our way out of this shit. Let's go! Pollux, show us the fastest way up, please." Dove urged, taking her trident from the ground as Peeta seemed eager to get Katniss out of danger.
"OK, but first. Finnick give the second gun to Castor. And let's change Peeta's gun cartridge for a real one and give it to Pollux. They're far. We can invest this much time on safety," Katniss proposed, watching as Finnick did as she said and gave his extra gun to Castor.
Dove glanced at her gun and looked confused at Katniss. "Why am I still carrying a useless gun?" She questioned, taking it off her back.
"We might need it later. Who knows? If you think it's slowing you down, just throw it," Katniss said before making sure everyone was ready to go. Pollux and she decided quickly on a plan to move on, although they still moved underground instead of going to up as Dove had suggested.
The distinct sounds of Avoxes' screams surprised everyone. Dove tried to make out where they were coming from as the others had a discussion about what she had already said before. The mutts would kill anyone in their way. Would they stop after killing her and Katniss? No one could know.
"We're wasting time!" Johanna and Finnick said loudly, although that wasn't what worried Peeta, nor Dove.
"Listen," both of them said, letting everyone notice how the voices were much closer now.
With a nudge from Katniss to Pollux, everyone started to run. They reached a ladder they were supposed to climb down, but not anymore as they could hear the mutts there.
Katniss urged everyone into the Transfer. She swung her bow and exploded the first pod in their way with an explosive arrow. Then, they all sprint to the next intersection, where only a one false step would cause the ground beneath their feet to evaporate, letting them fall into a pod called MEAT GRINDER.
However, an unnamed pod was triggered by Messalla. If it hadn't been for Finnick, Katniss would have been in that position with him as well. Engulfed by a ray of light, his mouth open with no sound, the flesh melted off his body.
"Can't help him!" Peeta began shoving people forward. "Can't!" He repeated, pushing Katniss by her shoulder while they ran. Dove was right behind them with Finnick, who was making sure she didn't fall behind.
At the next intersection, a squad of Peacekeepers pounded down the Transfer towards them. In front of them was the Meat Grinder, which didn't let them have any other option but to fight back. Finnick pushed Dove behind him as they shot the Peacekeepers.
A pod in their way took the vast majority of the Peacekeepers squad. However, between the smell and the sudden addition of creatures from the side of the tunnel, they realised. Those arriving weren't Peacekeepers.
They were mutts. White, four-limbed mutts the size of a full-grown human. Completely naked, with long reptilian tails, arched backs, and heads that just forward. They swam over the Peacekeepers, taking a few seconds to kill those alive or dead. Decapitated. They decapitated the Peacekeepers in a matter of seconds.
"This way!" Katniss shouted, hugging the wall and making sure everyone was next to her before shooting the Meat Grinder pod, which chewed the tile to dust. That should complicate things for the mutts. "Forget the mission. What's the quickest way above ground?" She asked Pollux, who guides them immediately through the Transfer.
They ended up walking through the sewers. A metre below them, a poisonous brew of human waste was enough to let them know if they fell in, there wouldn't be any possibility of getting out. They continued walking as fast as they could on the slippery ledge until they arrived in an alcove. Pollux smacked a ladder and pointed up. That was it. Their way out.
"Wait! Where are Jackson and Leeg One?" Katniss asked after looking back at the squad to see them missing.
"They stayed at the Grinder to hold the mutts back," said Holmes.
"What?" She said, motioning as if she was about to go back to the bridge they had just crossed to get there. However, before she could do anything, Holmes yanked her back.
"Don't waste their lives, Katniss. It's too late for them. Look!" He pointed to the pipe, where the mutts were slithering on to the ledge.
"Don't waste ours either and go up. Now! We don't have all day." Johanna said, urging Katniss to climb up.
"Stand back!" Gale shouted. With his bow, he exploded the bridge, causing most to sink into the bubbles. Everyone shot those mutts that, despite the chemicals, got closer to them. It was hard to kill them, taking at least a dozen bullets before they died.
As they climbed up the ladder, Katniss stood still in her place, having to be taken by Holmes. Everyone was already up the ladder, or on a platform midway from the ground that led to another ladder.
However, Melo, Johanna, Finnick and Dove remained downstairs fighting the mutts. "Hey, Johanna." Melo shouted, trying to get her attention while getting rid of a mutt that was about to attack her. "There's something I need to tell you."
"Right now!? Your timing is shit, Melo," Johanna said, shooting behind him to a mutt that was getting dangerously close to him.
"Yes, now. Because I have no idea if we'll make it out of this," Melo answered, helping Dove with a pair of mutts that were overpowering her. "I've liked you for a long time. Ever since I got to know you, I've been head over heels for you."
"How about we survive this, and I'll answer to that stupidly ill-timed confession?" Johanna proposed, shooting down another mutt before making a run for it to the ladder after grabbing Dove's arm.
Finnick was still behind. He was willing to die if that meant letting them survive. They all knew that. But what they did not know was how Dove would react to it. It was sudden. She jerked off Johanna's grasp just as they were climbing the second ladder, taking her friend's gun off her shoulder and falling onto the platform. Dove took a second to regain her sense of orientation before trying to make out Finnick's silhouette through the white dots.
"Finnick, come to the ladder. I'll hold them off!" Dove urged him, shooting the best she could to hit the mutts. He listened to her and ran to the ladder, climbing his way up just as a mutt grabbed onto him. "Oh, no. You're not killing him." Dove commented unknowingly. Using the most precision to shoot the mutt inside the mouth, just as this was about to decapitate Finnick.
Finnick managed to make it to the platform after that near-death experience and was immediately pushed to the second. There wasn't even a second to waste. They were halfway there when a mutt grabbed Dove's leg, almost causing her to let go of her grip on the ladder.
"Dove!" Her family shouted, although Finnick's cries were the loudest. Looking up for a quick second, she saw Gale and Mitchell restraining Melo and him from coming back down. "Dove!"
Even if she made it up, the mutts would follow her, and everyone would be in danger. But how could they get rid of so many mutts quickly? Wait. Didn't someone say something about the Holo being able to blow up? Dove thought, shaking her leg to get the mutt off of her.
"Katniss! The Holo!" She shouted, almost slipping as she took her left hand off the ladder, to deal with the mutt. It didn't exactly have claws, but the few left scabs left in her leg bled again.
Katniss thankfully seemed to understand what she meant right away, but was reluctant to blow the place up when Dove was so close to make it. "Katniss! Now!"
A scream escaped Dove's lips as the mutt crawled up his way up her leg. Others were reaching the platform, getting closer and closer to her. This seemed to make Katniss decide that an explosion would be a more humane way to let Dove die than at the hands of the mutts. Despite Finnick's desperate yells to make her stop, she began to whisper against the Holo, "nightlock, nightlock, nightlock."
Just seconds before Katniss threw the Holo, Dove hit the mutt in his throat with the fake-bullet gun, which caused him to let go, taking all the other mutts with him. Time was ticking away. If she made it up, she would survive. If she didn't, death was the only possible ending. Another mutt tried to grab her leg, but she was faster, kicking his face and continuing climbing despite the pain coming from her bleeding leg.
She reached to the platform where everyone was. Finnick pulled her in for a hug, making sure she was protected from the imminent explosion, which made mutt flesh to end up all over them.
"Why do you always do something stupid!?" He inquired, grabbing her by her shoulders to look at her in the eyes before pulling her in a hug again. "Oh God. For a second . . . for a second I thought I would lose you."
"It was close. I almost lost you too," Dove muttered against his neck, feeling clearly as Melo and Johanna joined in. "We should get moving. Once we're in a safe position, we can continue this. But, for now let's move. I don't want to encounter those things again."
"Just stay by my side and don't leave. Stay where I can protect you," Finnick whispered, catching a glimpse of Katniss kissing Peeta to pull him back to reality. "Stay with me."
"Always." Dove said, letting go of the hug before giving him a quick kiss. "Don't leave my side, either."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Finnick chuckled slightly, caressing her cheek as he stared at her eyes. If they weren't in the Capitol. If they hadn't just barely survived. If they weren't still in danger. Then, they would have shut the world off to go into their own little reality, where all the horrible things had no meaning to them.
But. Again. They were in the Capitol. They had just barely survived. And they were still in danger. So, they kissed lightly and looked back at the rest, who were pretending not to have watched neither Katniss's and Peeta's interaction nor Finnick's and Dove's.
"Alright, let's go above ground." Johanna said rather softly, compared to her usual bitter tone, as they followed Pollux outside.
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