"Katniss Everdeen, 18, District 12, black hair, gray eyes, 5' 7"."
"Peeta Mellark, 18, District 12, blonde hair, blue eyes, 5' 11"."
"Good. And just for the hell of it, Reilly Stark, 17, District 4, brown hair, green eyes, 5' 5"." She grins, showing off her perfect white teeth.
I don't know how someone who's born to be a model can live out in the wilderness, but as she'd explained to us already, Reilly was born and raised in this small beach-side town as an orphan, along with her older brother, Eli.
The rough looking town looked like heaven when we'd first arrived, the smell of cooking fish sending my stomach growling. Now it just looks like a normal cluster of well-kept buildings, even though it's so much more than that.
The metal contraption that we'd just spoken into flashes erratically for a moment, and I almost suggest that Reilly have someone put up a warning to epileptics when the gate swings open with a few clicks.
"Follow me." She bats her eyes towards Peeta, and my grip tightens on his hand. He looks down at me with a knowing smile on his face.
We follow Reilly down what seems like five-hundred flights of steps. I'm beginning to worry that the ocean is above us, when I realize that I'm right. The dark, underground tunnel opens up into a large glass tube.
"Oh. My. Goodness." Peeta's hand nearly crushes mine, but I can't blame him.
Directly outside of the glass is the ocean floor, blue water stretching a quarter mile above us through the transparent shield. A large fish darts through the water to my left, and I flinch away from it instinctively.
"Isn't it beautiful? I would spend half of my life down here if I could." Reilly smiles, placing her hand against the glass where a stingray glides past.
"It's beautiful in a horrifying way." I feel like I'm being crushed under the weight of the ocean, "Please keep walking."
She lets out a laugh, and turns back to her trek down the tube, loading our brains with more information as we walk, "We call ourselves the Marines, which is a name we adopted from the army way-back-when. They were the toughest of the tough. We've been building this place since we learned of you, Katniss." She turns to look over her shoulder, giving me an icy glare that I really don't deserve, "And we knew we'd done the right thing when the Capitol fell ten months ago."
"Why would you start to create an underground system when you heard of a scrawny girl from an unimportant district?" I inquire, gritting my teeth.
"Give yourself some credit." Peeta whispers in my ear, giving me a squeeze.
"We knew that you were special." She begins to walk backwards, facing us as she talks, "Everyone did but yourself."
"That's not true." I snap.
"What? It's not true that you didn't know?"
"Not everyone thought I was different."
"Katniss, you got an 11." Reilly refers to the Gamemakers' score.
"Because they wanted me dead!"
"Which is exactly what makes you special." Reilly grins victoriously.
She turns to walk forward again, and we all fall silent for the remainder of the walk.
Finally, the physics-defying tunnel comes to an end, leaving us to stare at a large metal door. Reilly leans forward and presses a button next to a speaker.
"Reilly, Peeta, and Katniss." She says into it, releasing the button when the last name leaves her mouth.
I flinch as a booming, static-filled voice surrounds us, from a speaker in the roof. "It's open, Ry."
"That's Eli." Reilly mouths, then presses the button again, "Thanks."
Sliding an ID card through a slot on the door, Reilly gains entrance, the doors swinging open. I have to literally jump out of the way to keep from getting crushed.
"Geez! You could've warned me!" I gape at Reilly, who's giggling.
"Sorry." She says, insincerity littering her voice.
"Ry, be nice to our guests." I look up to see a gorgeous boy standing in the doorway, grinning down at me. He looks a lot like his sister, beautiful in every way, but he doesn't have the bitterness that Reilly contains. Instead there's a kind of emptiness in his eyes.
"Hey. I'm so glad you guys finally made it. I'm Eli Stark." He holds his hand out to me, eyes never once looking at Peeta. Before I can reach up to shake his hand Peeta has gripped it, from an awkward angle.
"Peeta Mellark." He grits his teeth in a threatening smile.
Eli is much taller than Peeta, about 6' 4", and Reilly told us that he's twenty years old.
Still, Peeta looks like he's ready to beat him up if he flirts with me. I can't help but smirk at his jealousy.
"Nice to meet you." Eli laughs at Peeta, causing my fiancée to flush with anger.
I'm thoroughly amused at the thought of Peeta truly not liking someone.
"Katniss Everdeen. Soon to be Mellark." I nod at Eli and purposefully ignoring his outstretched hand to humor Peeta.
"Nice to meet you as well." Eli grins, bright green eyes sparkling. "Well, might as well show you around and explain some stuff." He motions for us to follow him, and we enter the door, emerging in what reminds me of District 13's Control room.
Screens litter the walls, everyone one of them displaying a different picture. People dressed in lab coats flick images on and off the screens, not bothering to turn and greet who came in. The room is circular, the mid-section sitting lower than the outer ring. Everything from the floor to the ceiling is either silver or white. One wall off to my right has an outstanding display of weapons, from electrifying swords to a bow and arrow that catches my eye.
"Welcome to the Marines headquarters." Eli spreads his hands proudly, and my mouth drops open as I look up. We seem to be on the bottom floor of another tube, this one vertical. There's a hollow middle through each of the floors, allowing me to look straight up at the open sky thirty stories above us.
"How…?" I trail off, at a loss for words.
"Isn't it awesome?" Eli grins, his pride for the place evident.
"It's pretty cool, I guess." Peeta grunts next to me, but I can see the awe on his face as well.
"How did you build this in two years?" My eyes are so wide I feel like they're as big as mouth O-shaped mouth.
"Very carefully." Eli gives me a subtle wink, one that Peeta doesn't catch. I roll my eyes. "So, have a seat, and I'll explain what our operation is all about."
We make our way into the sunken in part of the first floor, taking seats. Peeta doesn't let go of my hand once.
"I hear you guys have been attacked?" Eli begins.
"Three times, actually." Peeta answers sharply.
"Well, that's why we're here. After the rebellion, and everything you two did, we came to the conclusion that there would be some… er… differences in opinions about the Capitol being changed. So, after this place was built, we finally had a purpose for it. We've kept tabs on every single Capitol-born since the Rebels won the war." He pauses for a moment, and I find myself staring at one of the screens on the wall, displaying a green grid with red and yellow dots slowly moving around it. It takes me a minute to realize that the screen is tracking one red dot, that seems to stay in the middle. A Capitol-born. "There are approximately thirty-three of these people who have shown signs of anger at the changing in their city. There were thirty-six, but you two seem to have annihilated three of them."
"So every one of the bombers got away?" I say, horrified at the thought of the murderers running around freely. Then I remember that I'm a murderer as well.
"No. Four are in custody." Reilly pipes up, and Eli jabs her in the gut with his elbow, cussing under his breath.
"There were five." I whisper, the picture of them surrounded by soldiers still fresh in my mind.
Eli runs his hands over his face, and then drops them to his sides, "One got away."
My stomach flips, and I find myself gripping Peeta's hand tighter. "Who?"
When neither of the siblings answer, I swallow and repeat louder, "Who?"
Reilly slinks back apologetically as Eli pulls up a screen in front of us, flipping through pictures of Capitol people.
He stops on a face that I instantly recognize as Lina.
"How did she get away?" Peeta chews on his inner cheek, rubbing circles on the back of my hand with his thumb.
"She killed seven people with a crow bar."
My eyes close, and I find myself spinning through a black void as I try to straighten out my thoughts.
"Where is she now?" Peeta asks, his voice tight.
There's silence for a few seconds, and then Eli mutters, "We can't locate her."
My heart stops, my eyes flutter open, and I find myself standing and marching out of the room furiously.
Right as I reach the metal doors they swing shut in my face, and a blaring alarm surrounds me. The entire control room is bathed in swirling red lights, the hole to the sky slamming shut abruptly, leaving us in an eerie blackness permeated every few seconds by a flash of red.
"Katniss!" I hear Peeta scream, and I use the few seconds of light to make my way into his arms.
"You two! Follow me!" I hear Reilly scream, and we begin to make out way towards her voice. Less than two seconds later, I'm hit in the back of the head with something hard, and fall flat on my face.
The last thing I feel before blacking out is a sharp crack as my nose hits the cold metal floor.
((A/N I decided that a cliffy was allowed, considering I've given you two chapters in two hours :) What do you all think is happening? :O))