The girl curled up on the side of the hovercraft cargo hold as the wind tousled her unkempt hair. She had no idea how she managed to sneak onto the hovercraft, just the sullen knowledge that she'd rather be anywhere but there, staring at Gase's broken body. In fact, it killed her to stand around in District 5, where people saluted her while her friend fought for her life, dying from the injuries she caused.
She didn't know where the hovercraft was headed, but when the ramp descended, she staggered off like a drunkard after a night on the bottle. The rattle of gunfire and hollering voices steeled her instincts, and she looked up to see a hangar with a huge "DISTRICT 1" sign spray painted into its side.
"Oh my god," she groaned, pinching her forehead and shaking her head, "of all goddamned places."
The fighting was still going on in full swing; earth-shaking thump of artillery interspersed with hovercraft engines roaring overhead for bombing runs. Wounded men were being carried off to the rear, with fresh troops being trucked off to the front. All of this unfolding in front of the person who caused it all.
Herself.
Like always, her presence went unnoticed for a minute, before Lucius marched over from the command tent, barking at her like she was one of his men. His voice was drowned out by the roar of hovercraft engines, and she had to strain to hear him again.
"What on earth are you doing here?" Lucius yelled, grabbing her by the shoulders, "you're supposed to be safe in District 5!"
"I don't think I planned for you to be here either," she retorted.
Lucius sighed, "the remaining 11 districts are secured, 1 is the only one holding out, so I'd rather move my command to the front."
The sudden detonation of a fuel depot sent men scampering for cover, but neither of them flinched.
"Well, if that's the case," she lamented, "maybe I could be of some use here too."
"You're not authorised to-" he shouted, before softening his voice, "well, fuck it, since you're here anyway."
She gritted her teeth, unwilling to tell him her real reasons for being here.
As a distraction from everything she's caused.
And some vestigial hope that a shell would hit her and blow her to pieces.
A District 13 armoured humvee pulled up next to them.
"I'm heading off to the center," Lucius said, more a statement than an invitation to join him. Without another word, she got into the vehicle, and strapped herself in while it drove off. Despite the slow speed, the memory of being in one of these vehicles made her sick with nausea, since she nearly got roasted alive the last time. Every bump the vehicle went over churned her insides, and she found herself retching into her hands a minute into the drive.
Desperate for a distraction, she looked outside the windows, at the towering buildings and tiled streets of District 1. It was like a miniature version of the Capitol, albeit with austerely-dressed citizens instead of gaudy, made-up Capitolites. Still, the carnage from the invasion was ubiquitous. Every suburb they passed had destruction pounded into the streets: smouldering craters and flaming wrecks littered the asphalt. Wounded civilians and soldiers alike were being evacuated to the rear, while every street corner had a truck holding captured and disarmed peacekeepers. A scuffle broke out amongst the prisoners they passed, and she jerked in her seat as an orange-scarfed soldier summarily executed one of them with a gunshot to the head.
"They aren't giving up without a fight," Lucius muttered, sensing her horror, "there are no reinforcements, no air support, I've no idea why they don't just surrender."
She kept silent, and tried to hold her insides in until the vehicle ground to a halt. They entered a bakery converted into a makeshift radio room. Soldiers were launching mortars out of the smashed windows, and wounded men languished on shelves meant for bread, waiting for aid. In the corner, a District mother fed her children with whatever bread was left in the bakery, their faces betraying utter terror at the war unfolding around them.
She stared at their little faces, caked with ash and dread, and remembered Snow's words.
The war you unleashed.
"They're defending a transmission building," Lucius shouted over the din of gunfire, pointing at an antenna towering above the other city blocks, "surrounded on all sides by garrisoned buildings, impossible to get near, but we need it intact so we can't bomb the shit out of this place."
She peered at a map laid out on the countertop, with red markings surrounding a green X in the centre. Questions flew from her at once
"They're holed up on all sides?"
"Yes-"
"Who's communicating with them?"
"Amongst themselves, they're cut off but have enough ammunition to go for days, and no shortage of men since they're on the defensive."
"And no signs of surrendering?"
"Yes-"
"Do they even know the Capitol has fallen?"
"We've severed all communications to District 1, so they're in the dark, that's what the captured ones told us, at least."
Ignoring the fighting going on around her, she tapped on her chin, and reached into her satchel for the radio. She raised Beetee on the Rebel frequency, and calmly asked him to look for District 1 encryption codes from the security ministry, repeating her instructions several times over the noise of gunfire.
"What on earth are you doing?" Lucius asked.
"No one's telling them what to do, of course they're going to fight to the last man," she commented, picking up a stick of orange chalk and drawing some lines through the city blocks, "get ready for a counter attack here, I'll try something."
Lucius stared down at the girl, almost two feet shorter than him. Everything she'd planned worked out to the letter so far, except for District 1, which was going to be a toss-up anyway. Despite his decades of military experience telling him otherwise, something about her confident gaze and flawless track record made him a believer.
"Worth a shot," he muttered, before turning to bark orders at the remaining men.
Drumming her fingers on the counter, she waited for Beetee to find and enter the encryption codes, keeping an eye on Lucius as he readied troops over the radio for an offensive.
"All done!" Beetee's voice echoed over the radio.
Lucius flashed her the thumbs-up, "They're ready to attack-"
She picked up the radio again, and spoke as clearly as she could to Beetee, since the lives of two platoons were now in her hands, "Great, now switch to the encrypted frequency and tell the peacekeepers in these two Sectors to withdraw, tell them the Capitol is coming to bomb the shit out of them-"
Beetee's voice crackled with fury, "What?"
"Just do it!" she screamed into the radio, "They'll think you're from Capitol Command giving them orders and withdraw, Lucius can exploit the gap once they do-"
Lucius's eyes widened.
A pause on the radio, before it cut off as Beetee switched over to the encrypted channel. .
"You...you're fucking crazy," Lucius said, pointing at a screen showing aerial reconnaissance footage from an overflying hovercraft. She bit on her nails as the hovercraft circled over the blocks, and her hands began to shake when peacekeepers stopped firing from the windows.
"It's...working?" Lucius pondered aloud.
"Wait for it-"
Their jaws dropped in a moment of disbelief as peacekeepers poured out of the building and into the alleyways, leaving a gap in the perimeter. At once, Lucius barked into the radio for the attack to commence, and armoured vehicles stormed the opening. Above the frantic chatter on the radio, and gunfire reverberating down the street, Lucius turned to the girl, and muttered.
"We'd all be fucked if you were born in the Capitol-"
With the gap exploited, the rebel attack swept through the center like a tidal wave. The sun was still up when the firing stopped, signifying they now had complete control over the rest of District 1. As Lucius and the girl left, columns of peacekeepers were being led out of the center, hands fastened behind their heads in surrender.
"I still can't believe this worked," Lucius muttered, as a soldier approached him with the casualty count. Six rebels and thirteen peacekeepers died during the assault. He turned and saw the girl shaking her head.
"It would've been worse," Lucius said, sensing her apprehension, "Coin would rather we wait them out and there'd be no surrendering until everyone was dead."
The revelation did nothing to alleviate the guilt hanging upon her chest like lead, and she climbed into a humvee without protest as it sped off towards the outskirts. This time, instead of the nausea, she cupped her chin and stared out the window at the wanton destruction this District had endured.
"You know, given how much District 1 has suffered," Lucius said, "it might be worthwhile making some concessions to them when the new government is formed."
A new government, already? She'd always imagined herself as someone who planned several steps ahead, but they were barely nine hours into the war, and still no end in sight. Winding down the windows, she allowed the breeze to unravel her red tresses, but cringed at a familiar smell in the air.
Blood.
"Slow down," she requested, sniffing for the source of the smell. They were in a gated community of sorts, with mansions and gravel driveways. If this was what a normal neighbourhood in District 1 looked like, the Victor's village must've been palatial.
The stench grew stronger as the humvee crawled through the village, until she spotted a flock of crows circling over a house. Dread gnawed at her insides, and when the odor changed from blood to death, she was ready to throw up.
"Stop there," Lucius ordered, as they rounded the bend. She screwed her eyes shut, afraid that the next sight would finally unravel her for good and send her down the path of no return. The sudden groan of disbelief from the other men in the vehicle confirmed her fears, and she gingerly opened her eyes to be confronted by dozens of dead bodies littering a lawn.
Blood drained from her face as she stepped outside to the sight of men, women, and children, all with heads blown open by gunfire. The blood had stained the lawn a hideous maroon shade as their bodies festered in the sun. Already, crows were pecking at their eyeballs. She tried to register disgust, horror, or some sort of emotion at the sight before her, but found only the same lingering numbness she felt after the games.
"Rebels advanced through this village three hours ago," Lucius commented, "they don't take kindly to Loyalist districts, and probably took some liberties with their cruelty."
Her gaze settled upon a dead teenage girl with lifeless eyes staring at nothing, clothes torn from her body and throat slit, still dripping blood into the soil. She could've been her age. Even the dogs and housepets were gunned down.
War never makes sense.
"They didn't even bother to bury the bodies," Lucius continued, shaking his head, "I'll get to the bottom of this. Whoever did this should be held accountable."
She slumped against the humvee's tire while the men checked for survivors. The nausea departed, but instead she found herself covering her face and fighting off a sob while imagining their souls still hovering over her like ghosts. Her heart grew heavy with the realisation there'd now be no shortage of faces to torment her at night. She shut her eyes, trying to forget their empty, lifeless eyes, but like every memory she's had so far, only served to burn them further into her consciousness.
"No survivors," Lucius muttered, waving at a circling District 13 hovercraft, "we'd better get reinforcements to bury them before the maggots come."
The hovercraft paused its circling, and lowered altitude. Impatient with its descent, and desperate to get away from the pile of bodies, the girl pulled out her radio and dialed in the Air-Ground Task Force frequency.
"Fox-1, Fox-1, to Delta-Hotel-7," she raised them on the radio, "request a team to assist with the burial of civilians, over."
The hovercraft swung around in response. Her eyes widened as its autocannons began spinning up, right before they unleashed a withering barrage of fire on them.