The stairwell is within sight, but there are still foes to face down. When they reach a minor stairwell, there is about forty five soldiers stationed around it. All of them seem on alert, so they probably learned about the body the communicuff the Staff Sergeant currently has around his arm.
Indeed, it is true that he received word to be on the lookout, as Lieutenant Boggs had "gone rogue" and killed a corporal. Despite this fact, the Staff Sergeant
This means that the five escapers will be shot on sight. Fortunately, the escapers already planned what they would do about this. It helped that they saw the guards before the guards saw them.
Katniss fired one burst of ammunition from her machine gun, and Cato and Boggs provided firing support to keep the other guards from shooting her. Katniss hit her target; the enemy Staff Sergeant (as well as a soldier next to him) was hit through the chest. He fell back, and collapsed on the ground.
The force of the bullets caused his field cap to flip backwards and fall off and onto the floor, exposing his bald head. Blood was gushing from his chest, and his heart had been torn open.
"O God! O God! Please deliver me!"
He had kept his theism secret his whole life, often looking over his shoulders. But he was dying and he knew it; no reason to hide now. It was not like they could execute kill him again.
He then whispered, though the blood bubbling out of his mouth meant that none of the guards could understand him. He didn't care, as his words were meant for someone else.
"Though I am not worthy that you should enter under your ... roof ... say the word and my soul ... healed ..."
His eyes became dull, he closed them and was dead.
The guards were effectively leaderless.
Though the forty guards tried to fire back at the five escapees, they were taken by surprise and six more were felled. Three more were hit after that, though they were only injured. Once Cato lobbed a grenade at them, they panicked and fled down the hallway.
Boggs's power had not yet been cleared, so he pressed his thumb against the first door unlock and it opened easily enough.
Unfortunately, he could not climb the stairs to freedom just yet.
More guards, about thirty five men who followed them down the hallway, arrived at the hallway and began firing at the doorway. All five escapers rushed inside and Boggs fired back, but the situation did not look good.
In fact, the thirty guards the previously routed heard the gunfire and came to help their comrades out of a sense of revenge.
They could not just close the door; that would allow them to blow it open. While they were deciding what to do, Cato showed just how determined to protect his wife and child he really was.
"Go on ahead without me; I'll meet you at the top."
While Dr. Aurelius headed up with Dragomir in his arms, Katniss and Boggs stayed behind, the former providing covering fire while the latter tried to convince her husband not to stay and fight.
"Cato, you don't have to do this."
Cato answered with a bark. "Yes I do. I'll meet you up ahead, now go."
Katniss saw that there was no changing Cato's mind, and in his eyes she also saw why his mind could not be changed.
"Okey."
She leaned in and kissed Cato in an uncharacteristic display of passion.
He was surprised by this, as in the past they only kissed during copulation. He held her in his arms and kissed her for about a minute, and when they stopped Katniss and Boggs headed up to the top of the stairwell to catch up with Dr. Aurelius.
As the escapers headed up to the top of the stairwell, they listened to the gunfire below and wondered if Cato could really hold his own against seventy soldiers.
Boggs pressed his thumb against the print scanner on the door, and it granted access. They were now on the surface. He left the door open in case Cato made it.
While they were still in a vacant krespot that guarded the stairwell, they could hear the wind blowing outside. They could smell moss and trees and dirt and all the other fragrance of mother nature that could not penetrate into the sixty five floors of District 13.
They were so close to freedom that they could practically taste it in their mouths. It was so close but still separated from them by miles and miles.
From one of the windows, Katniss, Boggs, and Dr. Aurelius could see three trucks full of District 13 soldiers approaching the krespot.
Those would also pose a problem.