Boggs and his companions were in the office of Security Secretary Chen Trotsky, listening to him explain the goings on. They were waiting patiently, pretending to listen as Chen Trotsky droned on with facts concerning the defense of a district they had no intention of ever returning to. They were just waiting for the moment when Trotsky would be interrupted by the blaring of an alarm that would distract everyone enough for there to be an escape.
District 13 soldiers sat in the room that monitored the missile warning systems. Normally, they get nothing at all. These soldiers were specially trained to watch the screens for any warning problem, and to give a warning to take cover.
It is actually possible to introduce a bug into the system without any of these specialists knowing; sometimes it is possible to trick or bribe one of them into doing it.
Occasionally the system might pick up a chunk of falling space debris or a low orbit weather satellite from a more technologically advanced nation. However, it has been seventy five years since a missile of any kind was detected. Today it detected something big coming from the south.
The soldier in front of the monitor became horrified by what he saw; twenty nuclear warheads headed strait for District 13.
His horror changed to panic, as he sounded the alarm. It rang through all the hallways of District 13s sixty five floors. People clambered from workplaces, lunch halls, barracks's, bedrooms, bathrooms; from all over the district people clambered into the halls to try and reach the bomb shelters. The masses crammed into public bomb shelters, and the elite quietly moved into private bomb shelters.
All the people were desperately trying to get as far away from the surface as possible; all except five.
As Lieutenant Boggs lead his companions through the human herd of soldiers (for only a skeletal amount remains, it at first seemed they were also headed for the shelters. But any fear of this that Katniss and Cato may have had was put to rest when they hid under the doorway of a room. There, they waited.
For half an hour they waited, though it felt like thirty hours. A seemingly endless sea of grey uniforms rapidly push and shove their way through the hallways, desperate to reach the bunkers before the nukes hit. The soldiers were panicked, horrified that the would never see their families again. Many others just simply did not want to die in a burst of nuclear radiation, and the survival instincts set them to flight. Thousands of feet stomping along the way.
They waited until the hoard of fleeing soldiers had passed. The hallways were now almost abandoned. There was only a skeletal force guarding the first floor.
Boggs looked behind him at his four companions. He whispered to them, "We must move now. We'll never get another chance."
Katniss nodded, fully aware that her actions in the next few hours will mean either freedom or death.
They walked hastily down the hallway, and as they did so they only attracted a minimal amount of attention from the guards. For the most part they were almost able to reach a minor stairwell unmolested.
Then, as they were about to turn a corner, they ran into a guard. He was a corporal, and he noticed immediately that Dr. Aurelius and Dragomir were civilians on a floor where they were not authorized.
"Hay, you! Only authorized personnel allowed on this floor. Head down now."
Boggs spoke with hidden irritation, "I am a Garrison Lieutenant, I authorized them to accompany me on this floor."
This only raised the corporal's suspicion. "If you're a Lieutenant, you should be in the bunkers now. The first twenty floors are on evacuation."
"I am a Lieutenant, you will do as I say!"
"I'm sorry, but you forced my hand. You are all under arrest."
In hindsight, it was the corporal who forced Boggs's hand.
"Dragomir, look away. Keep your eyes closed until I say its okey to look."
Once Boggs's son had his face buried in Uncle Aurelius's shoulder, Boggs opened fire.
The force of the bullets sent the corporal flying, finally landing on the floor in front of them. The corporal lie on his back, in a pool of his own blood, gasping his life out. In his last seconds, he thought of his wife and his daughter.
Having no time to spend on the dead corporal, the five escapers sprinted down the hallway. They took precaution to slow down at corners and crossroads, and felt their lungs pump in their chests.
They had to move fast if they wanted to escape. Their cover would be blown by the corpse, and they had to be on the surface by then.
They would soon reach the stairwell, and would have to fight their way through.
They could already hear the alarmed shouting of guards behind them; they body was already discovered. The footsteps of guards can be heard, for they are giving chase.
It was now or never. Do or die.