I have to find her.

It's was only coherent thought in my head, the only thing that mattered. I barely felt the marble beneath my feet as I sprinted through the deserted hallways, looking for somebody, anybody who could tell me where everyone went, because I knew that she has to be with them.

If I don't find her in time….

Under any normal set of circumstances I would have taken time to marvel at just how empty the mansion seems. In all of my fifteen years, I have seen these halls packed with important government officials, or entire fleets of avoxes preparing for a meal but I have never seen them empty like this. Now when I ran down the halls, the only sound I heard are my footsteps echoing off of the cavernous ceiling and the panting of my own breath and it was almost eerie. Disconcerting.

Right, left down this hall, right again, down the stairs. Faster. I have to go faster.

As I ran past one room I hear a television that must have been left on in the hurry to evacuate. I didn't stop to watch but it's hard to ignore the report that's echoing down the halls. In fact I knew it by heart now, because it's been the only thing playing on every screen in the Capitol for the past five hours.

"Alert! Alert! The rebels have reached the inner capitol. All Capitol citizens to the city circle. All children to the Presidential Mansion. This is for your own protection"

That's where she will be. She has to be, because if she's not, I don't know where else to look and I don't want to think about what happens if I don't find her in time. I thought of her, how she would have reacted, sitting in school when she heard the alert playing over the intercom. I know her well enough to know that she wouldn't have hesitated to follow all the other kids and teachers in her class to the mansion. After all, she had no reason to be suspicious, no reason to wonder why children were being directed to the one place that the rebels were sure to target. She didn't know anything about Panem's politics or just how low a president would stoop to save his own skin. The image of her penned in the foyer of the mansion, a human shield only made me run faster.

You can do this, Tallie! You have to do this! Think of her, all alone. You have to get there before they do.

I'm nearing the end of the corridor, so focused on getting to the foyer that I don't even notice the dark shape who's running past until I run straight into it. I slam into the shadowy figure at full speed and get thrown back against the opposite wall, and I feel the mahogany walls connect with the back of my head. I was so caught off guard that for a moment I just sat against the wall, seeing stars and wondering how I ended up there. That's when I heard a familiar voice.

"Tallie? What are you doing here?"

I froze for a moment , realizing who it was but no quite willing to believe it. My vision was still blurry from the blow from the wall so I asked to make sure. "Cass?" I tentatively ask.

"Yeah. But what are you doing here?" is the answer. I feel him grab my arm and pull me up from the ground. For a second, I swayed, trying to get my bearings before looking at him. His face was coming in and out of focus but I still recognized him. I squinted and tried to force my head to stop spinning and for a second I see him clearly, looking at me with a mixture of surprise and concern. And all at once, I remembeedr where I was going in the first place.

"It's her. They made an announcement. They told all the kids to go to the foyer. She's with them she doesn't know…" I said in a rush and then trailed off as I was hit with another wave of dizziness. For a moment he just looked at me with curiosity. Then I saw understanding wash over his face and then confusion as he understood who I was talking about.

"Junia? But she's supposed to be in the foyer, Tal. It's kind of the point of an evacuation," he said.

"Not foyer…I mean, not safe…they're shields," I tried to explain through the haze of confusion clouding my thoughts. I looked back up at him but he clearly didn't understand so I focused my thoughts for one more attempt. "The rebels are coming to the mansion," I explained slowly, "Snow's using the kids..as shields. He think that…he thinks that the rebels won't attack the mansion if there's kids involved," This time, Cass clearly understood as his expression of confusion changed to anger and dread. "I'm going to go get her and then…I'll try to make it back before they get here," I said.

"I'm coming with," he said immediately. I started to objet but he cut me off. "We don't have time to argue so you might as well get used to it," I look at him with frustration and impatience, knowing every second that we were talking, the seconds that we have left are ticking away. Fast.

"Fine," I snapped at him, "the foyer's this way,". I gestured down one of the mazelike hallways and he nodded. For about five minutes we ran side by side, down three flights of stairs and dozens more doorways. I knew we were getting close when I could hear the voices of what must have been hundreds penetrating the empty silence. Just as I saw a light at the end of one of the hallways, my vision blurred again and I stumbled and then fell flat on my face. I quickly pulled myself back up but my vision was still blurred and when I tried to walk, I only stumbled again. "Dammit" I whispered, punching the ground. I took a deep breath and stood up again. This time I swayed but didn't fall.

"Tallie…you can't keep going," said Cass, "I can get her and I'll come back here and we'll help you," God I hated it when someone told me I couldn't do something. I especially hated it when I knew they were right.

"No" I muttered, more to myself than him. "We're going to finish this. Together," I said.

"Tallie, you can't be seriou-," he started but I cut him off.

"We don't have time to argue so you might as well just get used to it," I said. I knew that under the circumstances this probably wasn't the smartest thing to say but it seemed to be working. I watched as he looked at me with frustration and annoyance but I could see his resolve crumbling. "I'm coming with," I said and he looked at me in defeat and shook his head. He grabbed my arm and we took off together, both of us stumbling down the final stretch of hallway toward the light. We both crashed through the threshold together and I was immediately blinded by the bright light coming from the eight gigantic chandeliers that lit the foyer. I rubbed my eyes and looked across the hall.

It was packed with kids, some of whom looked to be about my age and some who couldn't be much older than 2 or 3. The hall was packed with warm bodies and I immediately began to feel claustrophobic. "Find her and let's get out of here," I murmured to Cass who was still holding onto my arm to give me support. I scanned the sea of moving bodies, looking for her two braids which would distinguish her but I couldn't pick her out. I began pushing through the crowd, yelling her name, Cass doing the same. Just when I was sure that there were just too many kids that we would never find her in time, Cass nudged my arm and nodded to the right corner, where I saw Junia pushed against the wall, looking scared but determined.

Together we pushed our way through the crowd towards her and when we were only a few feet away, she saw me and smiled. When we got to her, I looked her up and down, from her lank curls which had come out of their braids to her huge gray eyes and hugged her hard.

"The rebels are coming," I yelled into her ear but she shook her head, not able to hear me over the immense noise in the hall. "We have to go," I yelled, gesturing towards the exit. She still looked confused but nodded so I grabbed her wrist and let Cass pull us through the crowd to the exit. When we passed through the threshold, I let out a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding.

"Tallie! You're here! But why did we leave?" she said all in a rush.

"The rebels are coming. Snow is using the…Never mind, I'll explain it later" I said. I looked over at Cass who looked down the hallway with raised eyebrows. I nodded and we started off in the direction me and Cass had come from, Junea's hand in mine. I glanced back at the foyer, glad to have escaped the pandemonium but what I saw made my heart drop.

Out of one of the windows, a formation of hovercrafts was coming straight towards the mansion. Towards the front of it, where the foyer was, where hundreds of kids were packed so tightly they couldn't move. I dropped Junia's hand and looked over at Cass. He saw it too and his look of horror matched mine. I looked back at all the kids, all oblivious to the fact that they were about to be blown to smithereens. Being the president's granddaughter, I was a lot of things, but I couldn't let hundreds of kids, some of whom I knew, to die like cattle for slaughter. Could I? I knew that this was when I should grab Cass and Junea and look for cover, and thank all of my lucky stars that I wasn't in that room when the hovercraft passed over but instead I found myself dropping Junea's hand and taking off at a sprint in the direction of the foyer. I heard Cass calling after me but I didn't stop until I reached the entry way. I yelled to get everyone's attention but not even the ones closest to me turned to listen. Getting desperate, I started grabbing kids, trying to shove them through the door but none of them would follow. I started to panic, scanning the room looking for something, anything, to save them but couldn't see a way out. Trying to tamp down my panic, I felt steely determination rising up inside of me. No matter what happened next, I would not leave them to die in this room, even if it meant dying here with them.

"I thought you could use some help," a voice in my ear said. Cass. "On the count of three we yell together as loud as we can. One..two…three."

"QUIET!" we bellowed together. Immediately, half of the room fell silent and the other half quieted enough for us to talk. I glanced out the window. The hovercrafts were alarmingly close.

"We don't want to cause any mass panic," Cass whispered to me.

"Listen up," I yelled, "We have to clear this room NOW. The rebels have sent hovercraft to the mansion, they'll be here in minutes," If we didn't have every single person in the room's attention before, we did now.

"But the hovercraft are from us," a girl about Junia's age said.

"Yeah, our seals are on them," said a boy who was probably only a year or two younger than me. This did sound odd, but no Capitol hovercraft had any reason to be here and I could tell from the profile of them against the darkening sky that they were armed.

"It doesn't matter what the seals say, anyone left in this room will be dead within five minutes," yelled Cass. Oh, always so delicate and tactful, I thought as I saw terror spread across the masses faces.

"What was that you'd said about not causing mass panic?" I hissed at him. He glanced at me with a crooked smile and shrugged before turning back to the crowd.

"You all need to leave, now!" he bellowed pointing back towards the entry. Apparently that was all the convincing they needed. Immediately hordes of kids began scrambling for the exit, pushing against each other to get there. We worked through the kids trying to keep some semblance of order but as the shapes of the hovercraft got closer and closer, I started grabbing kids at random and pushing them towards the exit.

The room was only half empty when the first bombs hit. Fire bombs, I remembered from my military training. Like fire catching, the panicked yells of the fleeing children transformed into terrified shrieks of pain and despair. In any direction I looked, all I saw was fire. I could still feel bodies moving around me and I pushed the ones closest in what I hoped was the right direction. Then from all the chaos Cass emerged by my side. Desperate I turned to him. We wouldn't make it out of this. After everything, this was it. We would die surrounded by screaming kids in an inferno of heat and explosions. But when I looked at him he was smiling.

"Is Junia-?" I started to ask.

"Safe," he mouthed at me. I felt myself relax a bit. If I died here and now, at least I would be able to suffer it knowing that one of the only two people I cared about in the world was safe. I couldn't feel any kids moving past anymore and the heat had creshendoed into a wall of searing hot air. I felt him grab my hands but this time, it wasn't like any of the other times he had when we were running or playing as kids. I saw him leaning in closer to me, still with a sad smile on his face. This time when he spoke, I could hear it loud and clear over everything.

"Tallie, you have to know, I-"

And that's when the air around us exploded.