In the comments for Chapter 36 of this story on AO3, Gadge 'shippers rebuked me for not giving enough story to Gale and Madge. As a result, I've tried to put some Gadge stuff into this, the story's next-to-last chapter. However, at the risk of making the Gadge 'shippers unhappy with me again—

In canon, after Snow ordered hovercraft to bomb Twelve (which killed Madge, among thousands of others), Gale led the evacuation of hundreds of Twelve people into the woods. Eventually Thirteen hovercraft found the Twelve refugees and rescued them. Gale's actions impressed Coin, and Gale became Coin's favorite Twelve refugee. We all know how this turned out.

But in my AU, none of this has happened—Twelve is not bombed, and so Madge is still alive. But, seven months into the Rebellion, Gale is merely one more Rebel corporal.

I've been planning the "Prim walks into the Nut, under truce" plot point since the end of Chapter 9.

Chapter 37
Armed with Only a Pillowcase

Meanwhile, in the Capitol

While the Rebel generals were trying to figure out how to capture the Mount AEterna Defensive Complex in District Two, Coriolanus Snow was feeling unhappy with his world.

Since District Five had been taken by the Rebels, the Capitol was without electricity now, except for the hours of 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Perhaps not coincidentally, these same hours of electricity off-electricity on were what the Capitol had imposed on "electrical loads not in the national interest" (meaning, private homes) in the districts until a few months ago. Now in the Capitol, after 10 p.m., only the Presidential Mansion, Victor Health Hospital, and other government buildings were lit. For decades, Snow had pulled this stunt on district people to make clear how helpless they were; now it was Capitol citizens feeling demoralized as they sat in the dark.

Another reason Snow was unhappy: The Capitol was starving, almost. Trains headed from Districts Four, Nine, Ten, and Eleven toward the Capitol were stopped by the Rebels and were looted in an orderly fashion. The only food that Major General Oleery allowed to enter the Capitol? Tesserae grain.

Snow recalled that during the Dark Days—what the Rebels now insisted on calling "the First Rebellion"—the Capitol forces had enjoyed air superiority, especially after District Thirteen had been nuked. The last "battle" of the Dark Days had been the desperate rebels trying to attack the Capitol by coming overland over the surrounding mountains. For the Capitol hovercraft of seventy-five years ago, the "battle" had been like shooting fish in a barrel; rebel casualties had been 95 percent.

But now the air-superiority shoe was on the other foot. The Rebels could move their troops around at will, while Peacekeeper forces were pinned in place. The Capitol's four remaining hovercraft had one task only: to protect the Capitol from Rebel paratroopers and from Rebel hovercraft that intended to drop bombs.

Snow yearned with every cell of his body to drop bombs on District Twelve, home district of insolent Haymitch Abernathy and of the Three Mockingjays; and Snow especially yearned to bomb Twelve's Victors' Village into splinters (hopefully with everyone at home at the time)—but Snow did not have the hovercraft to spare for such a mission. Now Snow almost pounded the desk with his fist in frustration.

The worse part was, Snow had only himself to blame. Twenty-three years ago, Snow had guessed wrong about the future; and because of this misprediction, Snow had made three bad decisions—which were now making his life hell.

In HG 52, District Thirteen had been hit by a Pox that had killed many Thirteens and had sterilized many more. When the one Capitol spy in Thirteen had himself died of the Pox, Snow had predicted that District Thirteen would never be a threat to the Capitol again.

Snow's first bad decision, back then: He had not recruited another spy in Thirteen. Oh, at the time, he could have listed three or four reasons why recruiting another spy in Thirteen was an "impossible task"; but in fact, Snow had felt he did not need a spy in Thirteen, so why bother?

Snow's second bad decision in HG 52: He had let Peacekeeper-training standards slip. Henceforth, Peacekeepers were trained to be goons, not soldiers.

Since HG 52, and until the Second Rebellion began, Peacekeepers filled their days terrorizing sullen unarmed district residents, and the Peacekeepers had become experts at torture and other methods for questioning arrested district people. Peacekeeper riot-control training for the past twenty-three years presumed that when Peacekeepers had to fight against district people, the district fighters were desperate, poorly armed, and poorly trained. But could the Peacekeepers now fight as a professional army, against District Thirteen's professional army? Not even slightly.

Snow was forced to admit that Johanna Mason was right about one thing: Many Peacekeepers were potbellied.

The Capitol's only good luck right now was that district residents with firearms were almost inept as soldiers. Except for the accursed Katniss Mellark!

Snow's third bad decision in HG 52: He had allowed Loyalists to become sloppy at hiding the secret of hovercraft stealth. Nor had Snow ever demanded that District Three cook up countermeasures for stealth technology, because Snow had never expected to worry about stealthed enemy hovercraft.

The Capitol being loose-lipped about stealth technology, and Snow's own overconfidence, had led directly to thirty District Thirteen hovercraft being able to fly undetected to Hovercraft Base Alpha, last August 15th, then to destroy every Peacekeeper hovercraft on the ground.

So now the Capitol was on a tesserae-only diet, the Capitol had electricity only when the Capitol's enemies allowed current to flow, the skies over most of Panem were a District Thirteen pilot's playpen, and Snow knew he was on borrowed time as president.

Snow idly wondered what form his execution would take.

It was a good thing that Snow had foreseen to send his granddaughter Minerva to District Two. The same mountain that protected the Capitol's nuclear missiles from Rebel attack surely would protect one fifteen-year-old girl.

Meanwhile
In the tent of Brigadier General Distaff Paylor
Somewhere in District Two

Gale Hawthorne walked into the tent, stopped, came to attention, and saluted. "Corporal Gale Hawthorne, reporting as ordered, ma'am."

General Paylor returned the salute, then spent several seconds quietly looking Gale over. What she saw looked like a tall coal miner in overalls, except that on each collar-tip of Gale's shirt were double chevrons, hand-drawn with a laundry pen; with this same laundry pen, Gale had hand-written "HAWTHORNE" on his overalls.

"At ease, Corporal Hawthorne," General Paylor said in a kind voice. "As you were."

Now Gale looked at General Paylor. What he saw was a dark-skinned factory foreperson in her thirties—but one who had a silver star embroidered on each collar-tip of her workshirt, and whose name was embroidered above the pocket of her workshirt.

General Paylor picked up a clipboard, leafed through its pages, and looked at Gale. "Everyone between you and me in the chain of command thinks the world of you, Gale. You're brave almost to reckless, you show initiative, and you're resourceful in a crisis. If the districts win this—and now it looks like we will—Panem's army will need people like you, much more than any coal mine will. Please consider staying in the army after the war ends. I'm told you've got what it takes to eventually become a command sergeant major—that is, if you haven't been offered a commission first."

Gale said, "I was just doing the job I signed up to do, ma'am. To free district people and kill Peacekeepers."

General Paylor said, "I'm also told"—she pointed to Gale with a corner of the clipboard—"that you aren't a whiner or complainer. So why have you requested a transfer to General Coin's Thirteen Brigade?"

"Permission to speak freely, ma'am?"

"Granted."

"If it were up to me, if I somehow could do it, I'd defeat all the Peacekeepers still fighting—then I would kill every captured Peacekeeper, just like Johanna Mason does. Thousands of captured Peacekeepers—boom, all dead by me. Then, when the Capitol had no defenders, I'd walk into the Capitol and I'd yell, 'Surrender today, or die today.' Then I'd do it. It wouldn't matter to me if a Capitol person was a twelve-year-old girl or an old man—if I had to hunt for them, if they hid, when I found them, I'd kill them without mercy. Boom, thousands of rainbows, all dead by me."

Paylor looked horrified. "How does ... what you feel, tie in to your request for transfer?"

"Ma'am, Peeta Mellark, in his shortwave messages, talks about 'Some things I will never do.' He says 'I'm better than the Capitol.' I think that you, and General Sahad, and General Oleery, think the same way—that we should be nice to Capitols. But General Coin, I am sure, does not think like Peeta, I think she thinks like me. Plus, General Coin's army"—he gestured down at his miner's coveralls—"looks like an army."

General Paylor looked at Gale, as several expressions played over her face. "Transfer granted," she finally said, as she wrote on the first page of the clipboard. "Be here in front of my tent in twenty minutes with your gear. I'll have my driver take you directly to General Coin."

Meanwhile
In the train-station warehouse, District Twelve

Acting Mayor Madge Undersee walked into the huge room where all but two Capitol civilians were held as prisoners of war. The Capitols were guarded by coughing old miners and by one hateful teenage girl.

(Who was not being held in the huge coal-storage room? Dr. Josephus Picardo had the free run of District Twelve, treating both injured Rebels and injured Peacekeepers; while Urbania Patterson had joined the Rebellion. District Twelve Peacekeepers, whether they had been captured or had surrendered, were being kept in their own jail, guarded by Rebel Peacekeepers Darius MacGregor and Purnia Wainwright. Paulus Cray was very dead.)

Now Madge announced to the civilian prisoners of war, "People of the Capitol, I thought you'd like to know: District Eleven's Peacekeepers surrendered yesterday. Now all we need to do is to take District Two, and the Capitol is helpless. The war will be over soon."

"The Capitol won't go down without a fight!" said former Capitol Liaison Domiducus Jones. Several voices agreed: "Yeah!"

Madge looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Hm, well-fed Rebels fighting against Capitols who have been eating nothing but tesserae for months and months. Think back to the Hunger Games—when well-fed Careers met up with skinny Twelve tributes, what usually happened?"

It was Gamma Churchill who answered Madge's question: "The tesserae-eaters usually died. Slowly and painfully." She grinned at the Capitols.

Domiducus Jones coughed. When his coughing fit subsided, he said to Madge, "This air is dusty. It's a health hazard. You are abusing us prisoners."

Madge turned to a gray-bearded ex-miner. "Willyim, what do you say to this?"

The old man laughed at the Capitol Liaison. "Sure is funny how coal dust in the air didn't worry you rainbows when we was breathing it."

Madge said, "Finally, a personal note. My fiancé Gale, right about now"—Madge glanced at her watch—"is meeting with General Paylor, requesting a transfer to General Coin. Gale thinks that if he's with Coin, he'll get a chance to kill more Capitols."

Madge walked up to Antonia Wilson who, alone of all the civilian Capitol prisoners of war, was in restraints: fetters prevented Antonia from running. Madge said to Antonia, "After Gale kills all the Capitols that our army will let him kill, he wants to come back here for your murder trial. And when it comes time for you and your Peacekeeper boyfriend to die for the murder of my father, Gale's would-be father-in-law, Gale wants to be the executioner."

Antonia said, "Mayor Undersee was supposed to support the Capitol, but he was meeting with Rebels. He was a traitor, so I shot him!"

Madge rolled her eyes. "For the one-thousandth time: My father, the elected mayor, was meeting with the Rebel leaders, and also with Head Peacekeeper Baxter, to negotiate a cease-fire. A cease-fire that one Capitol nurse with a borrowed gun managed to ruin any chance for."

Madge looked at the Capitols. "From the day my father Chonn Undersee became mayor, years before I was born, he had to grovel in front of you rainbows. It ate at him. It wore him down. But I'm mayor now, and I tell you that the days when Twelve's mayor was the Capitol's lapdog, those days are over."

Now Madge looked at the former Capitol Liaison. "So Domiducus—do you mind if I call you Domiducus? Silly me, it doesn't matter whether you mind or not, does it?—anyway, Domiducus, it takes years of exposure to coal dust to get black lung. But if you do get black lung, from sitting in this warehouse for several months? Tough. Shit."

With those words, Madge walked out.

Thirty minutes later
In the tent of Brigadier General Alma Coin
Somewhere else in District Two

As General Coin read through the papers that General Paylor had sent, Gale stood at attention and felt very self-conscious. In this entire camp, everyone else was dressed smartly in matching gray uniforms—the officers, the sergeants, even the privates. Gale, on the other hand, looked like a coal miner. "Coal-grubber," I bet they're thinking.

General Coin laid General Paylor's papers down on her field desk, walked over to the holoprojector, and turned it on. A small version of the Mount AEterna Defensive Complex appeared. "Corporal Hawthorne, come here. Two of your former superiors think you are officer material, so I will ask you an officer question."

When Gale was standing by the holo-image, General Coin began to point. "The coverings for the missile silos are here. Five silos means five missiles—probably to destroy Districts Nine, Ten, and Eleven; and Thirteen rates two missiles. Two radar dishes on top—one rotates, one is aimed at District Thirteen's missile silos at all times. We presume that if we try to destroy this place with a nuclear missile, they will launch all five of their own missiles before the mountain is hit; so a nuclear attack on the complex is foolish. At ground level, you have a door that is just big enough for a train to enter or leave. Here, here, and here are entrances to tunnels that are only tall enough and wide enough for two men side-by-side to walk through. A tank can't enter any of the walk-in tunnels, so these tunnels are easy to defend. Four Rebel generals have been trying to figure out how to capture this place, plus Thirteen's own Colonel Boggs, who currently is detached as General Oleery's chief of staff. We're all stumped."

Gale was silent for only three seconds before he said, "Why do you need to capture it at all? Remove it instead. As a threat." Pointing as he talked, Gale explained his idea.

General Coin looked at Gale with wide eyes. "Hovercraft-created avalanches? This would work. It would work, and it would not waste resources." General Coin rushed back to her field desk and rang a handbell. An aide appeared.

General Coin said to the aide, "Soldier Hawthorne is transferred to our brigade and is commissioned, effective immediately. Issue Second Lieutenant Hawthorne everything he needs."

Then General Coin looked at Gale. "Attention to orders, Lieutenant. After you have put up your tent and have been issued uniforms with proper rank, weapons, ammunition, and a sleeping bag, report back to me at once. I intend to ask for a meeting with General Oleery where you will star."

General Coin almost smiled then.

As Gale saluted, then left the general's tent, he thought, Madge will be so proud of me.

Two hours later
In the tent of Major General Hammerhead Oleery

Present were all four generals, their respective chiefs of staff, the Three Mockingjays—and brand-new Second Lieutenant Gale Hawthorne in gray uniform. Gale was surprised to recognize gray-uniformed Col. Boggs as the silent dark-skinned man who had attended Katniss's and Peeta's wedding day.

Now Gale gave the presentation. It did not take long, because Gale's idea was simple—once all plans for mercy were trashcanned.

After Gale gave his presentation, the inside of the tent was silent. General Coin looked smug; the other three generals looked sick. Peeta looked horrified, Prim was glaring at General Coin, and Katniss—

Katniss said, "Gale, your plan would kill everyone inside! There are civilians in there!"

Gale replied coolly, "So? Civilians in there aren't shooting at us, but they're helping the people who are shooting at us."

Prim said, "Gale, do you hear what you're saying? This is the same evil logic Snow uses to keep the Games going!"

General Oleery held up a hand, stopping Gale and the Everdeen sisters from further argument. "Col. Boggs, Generals Paylor and Sahad, your comments?"

Col. Boggs paused to stare at General Coin. Then he said, "If we are going to set morality and ethics aside, we should bomb the railroad tracks just outside the mountain, so that no train can arrive or leave. Setting morality and ethics aside, Lt. Hawthorne's idea is brilliant."

"Brilliantly evil," Katniss muttered, glaring at Gale.

General Distaff Paylor had been staring at Gale, from the moment he had begun his presentation, as if he had grown two heads. Now she said only, "This is exactly the plan that the Capitol would invent, if our situations were reversed. The Capitol never limits its cruelty."

General Lyme Sahad said, "I must reluctantly agree with Col. Boggs. I see no other plan that will work."

She added, "Which is an awful shame. Rumor has it that Minerva Snow is stashed somewhere inside the mountain, so be sure that General Marcus will not just let us walk in and take the place over."

Gale was looking at Katniss then, not at Prim. But in Gale's peripheral vision, he saw yellow-armored Prim startle.

General Oleery said sadly, "I will adjourn this meeting till [slightly over an hour later], so that somebody can come up with another plan. A plan that also will work, and that spares the innocents. When we meet again, we will begin implementing either this new humane plan, or Lt. Hawthorne's plan as amended by Col. Boggs. Dismissed."

A half-minute later

Prim said to Peeta and Katniss, "I have an idea. It's either the smartest idea I've ever had, or the stupidest." Prim briefly described her idea.

Katniss, who had not been a part of Prim's and Peeta's Victory Tour, asked, "Can we trust this Peacekeeper General Marcus?"

"Yes," Prim and Peeta said together.

Katniss said, "Then let's talk to General Oleery. If he says yes, where are Cressida and her crew? If I die, let's get it on film."

Five minutes later

Gale, who was walking near to General Oleery's tent, saw the Three Mockingjays walk out of that tent.

"Gale, please stop for a moment," Katniss said softly.

Gale frowned. "Catnip, you've already told me what you think about my attack plan. Why do I want to hear it again?"

Then Gale noticed—

Gale noticed the expression on the faces of Katniss, Prim, and Peeta: all three looked like Reaped tributes in the Justice Building.

Gale noticed that Katniss's bow and quiver, which had been on her back in the meeting of minutes ago, was now gone. The knives that Prim and Peeta wore on their forearms—the knives were gone too. Katniss, Prim, and Peeta carried no weapons at all, either in their hands or within reach.

Gale noticed that Prim was holding a walkie-talkie, while Peeta was holding a folded-up pillowcase. Gale was puzzled, till he realized he was looking at a folded-up white pillowcase—and what this meant the Three Mockingjays were planning.

"Catnip," Gale choked, "what are you doing?"

Katniss quietly said, "Trying to end the war without any more bunches of people dying. Be good to Madge, Gale, she deserves it."

Then Katniss reached up, pulled Gale's head down, and kissed him on the cheek. This is Katniss saying goodbye, Gale thought.

Gale had barely noticed as the Three Mockingjays' camera crew had climbed into an open army truck, but had not driven off. The truck that the camera crew had chosen was only for use within the camp: It had no gun mount, no armor, and no roof.

Now Gale watched as the Three Mockingjays and a radio operator climbed into another open and defenseless army truck. Then the two trucks drove straight for Mount AEterna.

Gale wanted to weep then, to cry and to sob as he had not cried since the day of the mine disaster. He was sure he would never see his best friend again.

Gale wanted to weep. Instead, dry-eyed, Gale walked into General Coin's tent and reported—

"I think the Three Mockingjays are entering the mountain under flag of truce, to try to persuade the Peacekeepers inside to surrender."

General Coin's reply was strange: "I sure would like to know whether Minerva Snow is in there."

Meanwhile

The two Rebel trucks had stopped within sight of one of the mountain tunnels, but hopefully far enough away that the Peacekeepers at the tunnel entrance would not shoot at the trucks.

Orange-armored Peeta stepped out of the truck first, waving the white pillowcase. Forest-green-armored Katniss and yellow-armored Prim stepped out of the truck and stood on either side of Peeta. Prim had the walkie-talkie down at her side.

The radio operator, who was looking through binoculars from the back of the truck, reported, "One of the Peacekeepers is talking on a telephone. He seems calm."

Peeta said, "No problem. Telephones don't shoot bullets."

Katniss looked at Cressida in the other truck. "Start filming now."

Two minutes later
Just outside the east-side tunnel
Mount AEterna Defensive Complex

The Three Mockingjays, unarmed, stood five meters away from two Peacekeepers who were armed—but at the moment, were not acting hostile. Peeta took the opportunity to fold up the pillowcase.

Prim spoke into the walkie-talkie: "Last radio check. I'm at the tunnel entrance."

The voice of the radio operator came back: "We see you. I read you loud and clear. You have thirty-seven minutes to get in and get out. May the odds be in your favor."

"Understood. Primrose Everdeen out." Prim turned off the walkie-talkie.

Peeta said to the two Peacekeepers, "We are here under flag of truce to talk to Peacekeeper General Marcus about surrender."

"Your surrender?" one of the Peacekeepers said in surprise.

"No, yours," Katniss said. "And if you're smart, you'll do it."

One minute later
Inside the complex

A Peacekeeper Lieutenant was leading the Three Mockingjays to this Peacekeeper General Marcus whom Prim and Peeta had so much faith in. Katniss's own faith in her sister and her husband was now being tested.

From the day that Katniss had walked onto the Reaping stage, wearing her first-date green dress and her father's bronze medal, she had been stared at. As a tribute, Katniss had been stared at; and as a Victor, she had been stared at. As one of the Three Mockingjays, the Rebels stared at Katniss as if she were a goddess of the bow and arrow.

But now inside the mountain, the stares that Katniss (and Prim, and Peeta) got were hateful. Right now a green-wigged young civilian woman, who was carrying file folders, was glaring at Katniss.

The many, many Peacekeepers inside the mountain were looking hatefully at Katniss too, and all of them had pistols on their hips. Katniss thought, It takes only one showoff with a pistol, who wants to go down in history.

But Katniss did not let her fear show. She lifted her chin a little higher, and looked into the eyes of everyone who was looking at her.

Two minutes later
In an MAEDC conference room

Katniss was feeling left out. Prim and Peeta, and Peacekeeper General Marcus, all acted like old friends. Minerva Snow—whom Katniss had met once, and had talked-to for two minutes total—was likewise chummy with Prim and Peeta.

Besides the Three Mockingjays, General Marcus, some Peacekeeper lackeys of General Marcus, and fifteen-year-old Minerva Snow, one other person was in the conference room: Two's furious Capitol Liaison. If looks could kill, all three Mockingjays would be blackened bones by now.

Now General Marcus laid his hands flat on the table. He looked at the Three Mockingjays and said, "You told the sentries that you're here to discuss our surrender. Why would we do this?"

Prim said, "In a little over thirty minutes, the Rebels will murder this mountain. They will not allow escape. They will not allow surrender. Everyone inside will die."

"Preposterous! Ridiculous!" the Capitol man yelled. 'This mountain is designed to laugh off attacks from coal-grubbers and dirt farmers."

General Marcus said mildly, "Mr. Pendergast, please be quiet. Miss Everdeen, any plan that would guarantee we can't get out, means that the Rebels can't get in. We have five valuable nuclear missiles in here—I'm sure your people want control of them."

Peeta said, "General Oleery would write them off. Because after all, District Thirteen has missiles of its own; we don't need yours."

"General Marcus," the Capitol man said, "I order you to take these three traitors prisoner. The Rebels won't kill everyone in here, even if such a thing were possible, when the"—he sneered—"Three Mockingjays are in here too."

Peeta laughed. "You, Mr. Pendergast, have never been a Victor. The way I figure it, I've been dead for almost two years, since Reaping Day—I just haven't stopped breathing yet. I'm not scared of being held in a jail here when General Oleery starts getting playful—and General Oleery won't change his plans just because he thinks you're holding us prisoner."

General Marcus said, "Mr. Pendergast, you are speaking outside of your authority. You may give orders only to Two's mayor; you are here only in an advisory role. And since you have no clue what is at stake here, I reject your 'order.' "

One of the Peacekeeper advisors said, "General Marcus, I think these three are bluffing. If there were some can't-miss way to kill us all, the Rebels would have already used it. After all, district people don't believe in right and wrong like we do."

General Marcus shook his head. "If the Rebels are willing to write off our missiles, I can think of one tactic guaranteed to kill all of us."

He smiled at the Mockingjays. "You'll pardon me if I don't spell out this tactic in front of you."

General Marcus again spoke to the "They're bluffing" Peacekeeper: "If we all make it out of here alive, watch holos of these three again in their Games. Each of them had a moment where they killed someone and regretted it. Primrose here was in agony after she killed my granddaughter. So I believe that these three believe that we here all are doomed unless we walk out in surrender, and they're here now because they don't want us on their consciences."

Peeta nodded. "It is exactly as you say, General Marcus. If you stay here, you will die. All of you. We three don't want this."

"I believe you," General Marcus said. "Will the Rebels guarantee the safety of Minerva Snow?"

Prim said, "General Oleery will guarantee her safety, and Peeta and I will guarantee her safety. After all, Minerva is our only friend in the Capitol."

Minerva Snow's smile lit up the room.

General Marcus said, "Well, then, we surrender. I'll make the announcement now."

Katniss nearly fell out of her chair. She had to work to put an "I knew it all along" expression on her face.

Mr. Pendergast spoke words, but General Marcus and the Three Mockingjays both ignored those words.

Minutes later
Outside the east-side tunnel

The Three Mockingjays walked out first, as Prim talked into her walkie-talkie. Then Peacekeepers walked out next, beginning with General Marcus. (Marcus was unarmed, but he was holding a radio of his own.) The Peacekeepers' hands were in the air, and no Peacekeeper carried or wore any firearm. In orderly rows, the Peacekeepers knelt and put their hands behind their heads.

Then the civilians walked out. The first civilian to walk out of the Mount AEterna Defensive Complex was Minerva Snow (who smiled bravely at Prim and Peeta).

The last civilian out, Prim recognized, was Pontius Pendergast. He glared at the Three Mockingjays.

Peacekeeper General Marcus spoke into his radio. "FUBAR. I say again, FUBAR."

About ten seconds later, eight unarmed Peacekeepers ran out of the tunnel. As soon as each of them was out of the tunnel, he immediately ran to his left.

Seconds after this—WHUMP.

Prim heard a loud explosion inside the mountain—an explosion that she felt through her shoes, and that made every standing person stagger. Debris shot out of the tunnel as if the tunnel were a giant shotgun.

Katniss blurted, "Fuck, it's another mine explosion!"

Puzzled Prim looked at Peacekeeper General Marcus. He explained, "I said I'd surrender us. I never said I'd surrender the missiles. The controls to fire the missiles are now so much twisted junk."

The surrendered Peacekeepers and civilians cheered and clapped. Pontius Pendergast grinned savagely at the Three Mockingjays.

Prim shrugged. "I can live with that."

Actually, it was all Prim could do not to grin. She had cooked up a very risky plan, but it had worked. Her plan had worked perfec—

Four Rebel-army vehicles raced up to the standing civilians and kneeling Peacekeepers—four gray Rebel-army vehicles. These vehicles were not open and defenseless; they were armored, with gun mounts. Right now, each gun mount was manned, and facing the surrendered Peacekeepers.

As soon as the four gray vehicles stopped, enlisted soldiers from District Thirteen scampered out of them, along with Lt. Jackson. Prim was as confused as Peacekeeper General Marcus about what was happening.

The passenger-side door of the leading gray vehicle opened, and General Coin stepped out. She pointed into the crowd of surrendered civilians and yelled, "That girl is Minerva Snow. Bring her here."