DISCLAIMER: If I owned the Hunger Games, Team Nerds would be really epic!
A/N: This is Team Nerds like you've never seen them before!
The streets of District Three were dark and a light rain was falling. Most people were in their apartment buildings asleep or wrapping up their days. The factories were being maintained by small night crews. A small figure ran in the shadows of the factories. Suddenly the crackle of gunshots filled the air. Four peacekeepers ran down the street fully dressed in SWAT gear, assault rifles loaded.
"Where is she?" The lead officer asked. "She's on this street!"
"Sir, should we take her into custody?" One of the other peacekeepers asked.
"We'll see if she resists. Don't tell me you're afraid of a fourteen year old, James!"
"No, sir."
"Good." The peacekeeper shot at a shadow which turned out to be a rather unlucky stray cat foraging for food in a dumpster. "Let's move."
Under the wooden steps of a balcony, a small fourteen year old girl huddled holding a cloth bag which contained several meters of high quality wire. She smiled wryly. Wiress, the courier of the wire. The steps of the Peacekeepers stopped. "Officer James, any visual?"
"No sir."
"She can't just have dissapeared." The third officer said. Wiress crawled out of her hiding place and pressed herself against the brick wall. The drizzle was turning into a steady rain.
"Hey, Harrington, you think the secretary will put a fresh pot on for us when we get back?" One of the peacekeepers joked. "It's mighty rainy!"
"That's the least of my worries, now FOCUS!" The lead officer said obviously irritated with his crew. "This little brat has evaded us several times before! And her parents have a record with us! Little missy should go home after her summer job if she knows what's best for her." He sneered loudly in case the object of their chase was listening.
Wiress counted to three and ran to the next building. The shadow was long, so she sprinted down its length. She gasped as the crackle of gunfire broke the night silence. She felt a searing pain in her left ankle and began zig-zagging as she ran. She hurried around the corner and crawled under some trash cans scaring a family of rats. The peacekeepers ran down the street. "Here little girl! Come out!" The lead officer taunted. He nodded at Officer James who pulled a grenade out and rolled it under a trash bin where he thought he saw movement.
Wiress plugged her ears seconds before the trash bin on the other side of the alley exploded. The officers stood around and laughed as the citizens living in the apartment building near the blast screamed.
"Wait -" One of them said. "What's that?"
"Blood." Wiress bit her lip to keep from crying. How could she forget about her ankle wound that was throbbing. She gasped as a flashlight beam hit her eyes. "What's a little girl doing under the trash bin?" The officer asked. Wiress gulped. She gripped her bag tighter and rolled out from under the metal container.
Bullets whizzed by her as she ran erratically through the streets of District Three. She knew she had to find a safe house, but first she had to evade the Peacekeepers. She climbed an access ladder on one of the buildings and lay on the roof. She heard one of the officers climb it. Standing on the concrete and tar roof, she looked around. She would have to hop to another building. She ran across the surface and jumped not daring to look at the alley three stories below her. She landed on the roof of the adjacent building and rolled behind an air-conditioning unit sticking up from the flat surface of the concrete. She grasped her ankle which was still bleeding profusely. "Get down, Wiress. Get down." She whispered. Finding another access ladder, she climbed down until she reached the first floor. Then she jumped willing herself not to black out as pain coursed up her left leg and threatened to split her head open. She could hear the Peacekeepers combing the area, their voices distant but not completely gone. Hurrying down streets she made her way to a row of large houses. She looked at the middle one. A bare bulb was flickering in the basement. Wiress found a flat piece of metal and hurried over to the window. Sliding the metal between the window and the frame, she was able to pry the screen out. She opened the window and climbed through.
The dim light bulb illuminated a typical work room of an engineer. Wiress knew this house was safe. After landing on a broad shelf, she placed the cloth bag with the precious wire in the bottom of a toolbox. She replaced the shelves of the box and closed it. Taking a deep breath, she was aware of how dizzy she was a second before closing the window and loosing her footing on the shelf in the same motion. She felt her hand connect with a chair a second before her head hit he tile floor and everything went black.