Hello! Welcome back to another chapter of 'Unlikeliest of Victors'. If you've made it to here at this point, you have my sincerest thanks for sticking with this so far.
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5
I had two thoughts as I fell.
The first was that this was a stupid plan that deserved a lot more thought. The second thought was that this was going to hurt.
I only fell a total of eight feet but I landed awkwardly on one of the rebels backs on the way down bruising myself. I fell off and rolled to the side as the man yelped flailed for balance under before falling forwards. I tried rolling out of the way but I was a moment too soon as my leg was suddenly pinned underneath. The captured Peacekeepers saw an opportunity and sprang into action within a second. One grabbed the fallen man's rifle and started firing forcing the others to run for cover farther back, the others sprang up and neutralized their stunned attackers with well-aimed kicks and punches and retrieved weapons.
The speed with which the Peacekeepers regained control of the situation was staggering and further routed the rebels back.
The other hostages reacted in a variety of different ways. Some screamed, others jumped to their feet and began subduing their captors, most of them ducked for cover and ran for the other door.
Harry ordered his men back, even shooting a screaming rebel as he ran for it. This was enough to drive the rest of the rebels back into the fight. Harry opened fire on his side and sent the Peacekeepers scrambling for the limited cover provided by occasional desks and filing cabinets.
I managed to free my leg from beneath the guard, now knocked unconscious by a Peacekeeper and I sprang for the PA system while a firefight erupted in the corridor. Consoles sparked, ceiling tiles collapsed, and lights exploded in bright flashes. I got to the PA system at the same time as another man who tried to seize me. In desperation I yanked the flashlight out of my pocket with my free arm and flicked it on, blinding him for a moment before chucking it at his head. The thick heavy tube connected with his face and he went down clutching his face.
A filing cabinet pinged a few times as bullets ricocheted off it and I ducked for a moment and blindly smacked buttons on the console hoping I hit something right.
Instead an alarm joined the sound of gunfire.
"Warning. Flood alleviation protocol activated. All spillways at 100% capacity. All crew members on the walkways should use caution." An automated message said with mild concern.
Nope. That wasn't it.
"Someone stop her!" I heard Harry yell.
There wasn't a lot of gunfire coming from either side. Had they all expended their ammunition?
I frantically pushed more buttons. I had little time to react as two men were brave enough to charge forward in an attempt to seize me. They staggered though as the slackening gunfire shifted to them. They collided into each other behind me and fell to the floor dead.
One of them fell forwards and slumped across the console and a red light winked on.
"The bombs are off line!" I said desperately. "The codes have been changed and they're disarmed! Please help!" I shouted.
I hoped that my message was heard by the Peacekeepers outside because a second later a hail of bullets ripped through the console sending sparks flying. I was only saved by leaping backwards. I turned towards the source and saw Harry running forward with pistol in hand.
He pulled the trigger and the gun clicked. He looked wide-eyed at it before one of the Peacekeepers launched himself at him. He hit the floor so hard that two more detonators fell out of his pockets and rolled towards me and I grabbed them. The gunfire on the other end stopped and the other rebels charged forward while the more cowardly portion made another break for it.
"Get the others out of here!" The Peacekeeper who tackled Harry shouted.
I nodded and the last thing I saw was a dozen others converging on the other men who were all wielding drawn knives. Without a glance back, I bolted through the doors on the other side which was filled with the hostages, all taking cover.
"All of you come on!" I shouted at the other hostages who were cowering in the corners.
"Is it safe?" someone called out.
"Come on. Now's our chance!" another called out.
Emboldened by this, they sprang to their feet and I barged through the doors to the rec room and found more hostages hiding.
"Come on!" I shouted as I entered. "Now's our chance to get out of here!"
I catch sight of my grandpa and run over to him and seize him in a hug. He returns it.
"Katherine! What are you doing here?" My grandpa's firm voice reprimands me. "You could have been killed!"
"I'm trying to save our lives!" I respond and break away from the hug.
"But this is suicide! You could be hurt!"
"And more could be hurt if I don't do something!" I counter. I shake my head. "We can't waste any more time waiting."
"She's right!" a burly maintenance man said. "I can get us out near the back."
"Do you know the way out of here?" my grandfather asked.
"Sure do. Let's get out of here."
He takes charge and orders a couple people to grab some weapons left behind by the rebels. Nobody's trained to use them but it's better than nothing.
He gestures to the stairs and we all follow. I hear crying on the circular stairwell and see Electra clutching to the railing with Benjamin and Cassandra trying to reason with her. The rest of the hostages storm down the stairs in a massive herd.
"Come on! Now's our chance!" Benjamin yells.
Electra shakes her head emphatically.
"Katie!" Cassandra calls out noticing my presence.
"Come on! We don't want to be left behind!" I come up next to them.
Cassie instead seizes me in a hug.
"That was stupid Katie!" Benjamin says behind her trying to move Electra as she embraces. I push her away after a second and I beckon them down the staircase.
"Well you can thank me and my stupidity later! Come on we need to move now!" I emphasize the last word.
"I'd love to but she won't budge!" Benjamin says frustrated.
I sigh and ball my fists. I don't have time to be doing this. "Ben, take Cassie and rejoin the others."
"You su— "
"Just do it."
He complies and takes her arm and they run after the others.
"Electra." I say getting down close. "We need to go now. If you don't move they're going to come back and they will kill you."
She refuses to budge.
I sigh and cast my gaze back. There's the sound of a scuffle going on beyond the other doors. "Look, can you trust me?"
She looks up with tear filled vision.
"We're all going to die!" she says before breaking down in fresh sobs.
"No we won't!" I hiss. "I've disabled the bombs and the Peacekeepers are coming to rescue us right now! Calm down for a second. Please."
She catches her breath.
"Can you trust me for a moment?" I repeat.
"Yes." She hiccups.
"Good. I promise you that you're not going to get hurt okay? We're Messengers. Remember? We're the fastest people in this District. We can do this."
She nods and stands up.
"Can you show me how fast you can run."
She nods her head and in a moment we're catching up to the rest of the hostages descending the stairs rapidly.
"Hey! Wait up!" I call out.
The two others look behind and the worry drops off their faces.
"Oh good. You got her out."
"Yeah, we'll be okay." I say holding her hand as we come to another landing and another set of stairs. "How were you guys captured?" I asked.
"We all happened to be at HQ when the track workers stormed in with guns and took everyone in the lounge hostage. They didn't bother searching the rest of the building." Benjamin said.
"I hope the Peacekeepers are okay." Cassandra nods her head from where we came from upstairs.
"They'll be fine. The other people weren't using their guns so it's more of a fair fight." I say but I'm worried myself. Four Peacekeepers against a numerically superior foe? I estimate they've bought us a few minutes at most.
"This way and through this door!" I hear the maintenance worker call out.
My heart stops for a moment when I realize where we are going. We're heading for the lower levels with the bombs.
"Wait! That's where the bombs are! Stop!"
The group stops and I push my way forward through them to the worker.
"What do you mean?"
"There are two bombs located down here on this floor! Assuming they're still there the guards are most likely going to be there as well."
"How many is that?"
"Four. Armed with guns. I don't know if the other two are conscious but there's likely more down here now."
From far above a door crashes open and we can here people brawling on the stairs. Some of the others panic and I see Cassandra put an arm around Electra.
"Is there anywhere else we can go?" I ask. The stairs continue down further.
"The corridors won't fit all of us and I don't have the keys to unlock them." He grunts.
The voices are starting to get closer and the stairs start shaking.
"The floor above, does it connect with this room?"
"Should be connected. It just goes past the generators and there's a walkway that connects to the floor."
The maintenance walkway I was on earlier comes to mind. That must be where he's referring to.
"Keep them here for a second. I'll see whether there's anybody up ahead. If there is, I'll lead them away."
"Lady are you nuts? First you sneak into this dam, disarm the bombs, and now you want to lead them on a wild coyote chase?
"I've got a plan." I say urgently. That part's a lie. In reality I've been thinking on my feet through this entire thing but if I can get going again they can meet up with friendly forces.
"Thank you so much." A woman tearfully says.
"You're not out of this yet." I say. "Someone needs to keep a lookout on the stairs. As soon as the last person is gone you all need to get moving." I turn my head and look for the other Messengers.
"Benjamin! Cassandra!" I call out as I spy them. "Can you act like scouts for a moment?"
"Sure." They say in unison.
"Make it fast." The man grunts.
I poke my head through the door and I gesture for my friends to move up. The crowd follows a moment later.
"You have no idea what you're doing do you." Benjamin whispered after a second.
"Nope." I agreed.
"Darn it Finch." He said calling me by nickname. "I swear if we make it out of this alive, I'll cover for all of your shifts for a month and give you the money for free."
"And a daily sweet from the bakery off Voltage Street?" I add poking my head around the corner. The bombs were still there.
"If you insist."
"Deal."
I poked my head around again. I saw a group of six men. Four of which were the guards. Two more were clustered around the bomb and swearing. They were having no luck in changing the code. I really hoped they didn't prematurely detonate it.
I gulped nervously.
Without warning Benjamin spun me around and kissed my cheek. My face instantly started burning from the spot where his lips met.
"For luck." He explained awkwardly after a second, his face equally as red.
Cassandra cleared her throat and gestured with her eyes to the guys.
"Get going Finch." Benjamin said after a moment.
The two stood back and I stepped forward. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath.
"Hey! Looking for someone?" I said putting as much fire into my voice as possible. If I'm honest, the kiss certainly helped.
They all spun around.
"That's her! That's the one!" one of the rebels yelled.
"Catch me and I'll give you the code!"
That did the trick. They dropped what they were doing and they came running after me. I felt a spike of fear but I pushed it away and commanded myself to move.
I ran forwards and climbed up the ladder yanking myself up the rungs. I jumped up on the walkway and began running right. They all clattered behind me shouting and cursing as I began running to the right. I did the best I could to goad them even more. They made so much noise pursuing me that they didn't notice Benjamin give a wave and the rest of the hostages rushed through the corridor as fast as they could. Several of them saluted me as I kept taunting them after me even more and I swear I saw my grandfather break into tears.
I sighed as they ran past the insurgent's without being detected. They were almost there. Now I needed to do my part. I found another staircase going up and pushed my way through a door. If I could double back and get the other pursuers to follow me I could throw all of them off our tail.
I felt my body beginning to tire out as I ascended a short flight of stairs and ran into a tunnel that lead directly to the spiral staircase. It was a miracle it hadn't done so before but it wasn't a convenient time to start now. I still had a lot of running to be doing and I really needed some water. Up ahead there was a room with several pipes creating barriers I could hide from. The track workers were almost upon my flight of staircases. I gulped again. If I didn't pull this off right, I'd be trapped.
I waited in front of the door for as long as I dared.
"Come on! You guys have guns don't you? Take your best shot!"
I saw one of them take out a gun. At the same second I threw open the door as hard as I could and dove away.
The gunshots echoed throughout the room and there was a cry of alarm outside.
"Enemies on the stairs!" One of the rebels called. There was no sound of fighting Peacekeepers. I didn't want to think about what that meant.
There was a second before I saw a few men out of the corner of my eye come into range and open fire at the other side.
"It's a trap!" one of my pursuers called out and they began trading fire with my attackers unaware they were firing at their own men. Someone in the stairwell was hit and fell screaming from the staircase into the darkness below.
I winced. Not the way I would want to go.
The four men began bunching closer trying to get a clearer shot. Their attention was completely diverted from me to trying to survive and eliminate another group of hostiles. I heard one of them give a shout before his weapon stopped firing. This was my chance to sneak out. Once they realized who they would be shooting they would immediately regroup on me.
I dashed out of my cover behind a pipe and began retracing my steps.
"She's getting away!" one of them called out angrily.
"We got bigger problems!" another pointed out. "Reloading!"
I bolted back down the tunnel. One of them shot back at me to make his frustration known but the shot missed entirely. With another burst of fear, I leaped down the short staircase and onto the maintenance walkway past a couple of the generators. I was descending down the stairs when I heard a shot from somewhere behind and below me. I suddenly lost all the strength in my left arm and I crashed to the ground with a cry. I keeled over in agony as my shoulder suddenly stung and burned, like someone had poured in coal and set it ablaze. Realizing that I was vulnerable I rolled over and staggered to my feet.
"I wouldn't take another step if I were you."
My feet froze and I turned with my vision blurring through tears.
Harry was walking towards me with utter fury on his face.
"You!" he said as he recognized my face. "You…you…you…" he repeated unable to find words.
"Me." I coughed and stood up. I tenderly put my right hand to my shoulder and it came away bloody. The sight made me dizzy but I forced myself to stay conscious and met his gaze equally.
"Do you have any idea what you've done!?" he shouted at me.
I stopped. To my right was one of the doorways in the side of the dam that allowed access to the front. Ahead of me a long concrete bridge stretched for a good distance down before it connected to another bridge spanning the length of the Sweetwater as it exited the dam. If I was crazy enough (not that today proved I wasn't already) I could try and run for my luck one last time.
"It's a long way away." My brain whispered and I knew it was right. There was no way I could make it far enough. I could go for the water, but with the spillways operating at full capacity, jumping into that water was asking for a different kind of death.
"Stopped your plan to kill innocent people?" I suggested before giving an involuntary hiss and squinting my eyes. I opened them again and looked at this man who was quickly succumbing to insanity as his world fell apart from before him. I felt anger, I felt pain, but most surprising of all, I felt pity.
"They would have died for a noble cause!" he said pronouncing every syllable sending spittle flying. "The cause of toppling the Capitol!"
"Do you think I love the Capitol?" I asked taking a step closer to him and the walkway. "It's not perfect! I hate it and I hate the Hunger Games too!" I yelled before wincing and holding pressing down upon my wound harder. "But you crossed the line when you swore to kill my friends and neighbors-people who had no quarrel with you or your movement. Now look at you! You've been outfoxed!" I spat back. "Outfoxed by a 15-year-old girl."
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the other detonator.
"Keep it. It's useless now. I changed the codes on the bombs myself and I have no idea what they are."
He screamed as I tossed it on the floor. I guess people really do tear out their hair when they're mad. I edged closer to the doorway and brought out the other device.
"YOU. STUPID. FOX FACED. GIRL!" he heaved as he picked it up and tapped all the buttons. It remained inactive and useless. He gave another scream of rage. I heard more gunfire erupt from somewhere else. If I was correct, I guessed that would be the Peacekeepers.
I brought the other object and froze. What I had thought was a detonator before was actually in reality much different. This looked like a miniaturized bomb. The warnings Incendiary! and Keep away from open flame and heat!
Even Harry took notice and he froze.
"You-" he stopped. "I'd be careful with that." His eyes narrowed and for the first time I saw fear.
"How come?" I asked, genuinely confused.
"Because that has a countdown timer of sixty seconds! During that time, it you can throw it anything and it an adhesive will bond it to the target. Upon activation it will shoot out an airborne chemical that will turn the air flammable before ignition. Once it ignites, it burns anything in the vicinity!" his eyes darted nervously from the bomb to me.
The pieces to one final plan clicked in place.
"Then you better start running." I said before flipping the cap open, hitting the red button and throwing it as hard as I could one-handed.
"Catch." I said in my most commanding voice.
To my surprise and his horror, he caught it. He looked at it, looked at me, and gave a shriek once he realized what was stuck to his hand. He tried removing his hands but they were sealed to it. He gave one look at me and then ran at me as hard as he could.
I turned and ran for my life.
We both exploded onto the walkway where the air was much cooler than it was inside the dam. I could hear this monster struggling to keep pace with me but he didn't have an open wound nor had he been running all day.
50 seconds. I mentally counted.
I could see Peacekeepers swarming towards the top of the dam from all sides clearing it of any hostile activity. On the riverbanks there was a crowd from the District that had gathered and on the other bank a hovercraft patrolled the forest looking for survivors or hostiles.
40 seconds.
It was hard to move my arm to get extra momentum going. Forgetting about my wound I let my arm dangle and I poured on as much speed as I could. My feet, now aching, were hitting the concrete faster and faster driving me forward and away. I heard a vague shout and saw someone pointing in my direction. I looked over but couldn't see who it was.
30 seconds.
A shot rang out from the other side. Whether it was aimed at Harry or me was unknown. I felt it whizzed by me and I instinctively ducked. With my balance shifted, it only took a few steps before I slipped on the wet concrete suddenly and I felt the fabric of my pants and the skin of my knee tear away. I gave a cry but rolled to my feet when I realized I didn't sustain major damage and began pounding my feet into the concrete again in earnest. I looked behind and saw a bloody swath where my shoulder had touched the concrete.
20 seconds.
I could feel myself slowing down as fatigue and pain began to overcome me. My vision was growing dark around the edges, I felt faint, I was heaving oxygen into my lungs at this point, and the roar of the dam echoed the roar of my heart as it furiously pumped blood as fast as it could to my extremities. How many beats did it have until it wore itself out or it pumped all my blood out? I had 100 meters to go until I reached the other bridge.
Just a little further. My brain repeated.
Ten seconds.
I felt a surge of fear as I realized he was much too close for comfort. I skidded around the corner and pushed myself to the breaking point.
Five.
Harry turned the corner and gave a furious roar.
Four.
My thoughts were turned to my parents and my other siblings. Persephone would never hear my voice again. My thoughts inexplicably turned to Julia for. There was a book I had read once that professed of a life after death. Would I see her again?
Three.
I thought of Benjamin, Henry, and Cassandra. Would they mourn me? Would Electra and the others miss me?
Two.
From behind me I heard the bomb give a cough before I felt a wave of something explode past me.
One.
The walkway rumbled and Harry gave a scream of utter agony and horror before a roar drowned him, the dam, the gunfire, and everything else out in a roar.
An invisible force exploded past me knocking me into the ground.
I suddenly felt pain everywhere over my body and a wave of heat explode past me. I staggered to my feet and looked around. The world on that bridge was turning to fire as it exploded beyond in every direction. The flames rolled over me and licked at the flame retardant material woven into my clothing. Everywhere bare skin was visible I felt searing pain. I screamed but no words could come out. Oxygen had been replaced by fire.
I stumbled a few more steps before the terrible realization hit me.
I would never make it to the land. I doggedly tried running but I couldn't. I was spent and the fire was getting hotter and bigger by the second. In one final and desperate thought I leaped from the bridge falling head over heels towards the water before the world above me exploded again and everything faded into black.
And done.
To summarize, the last three chapters all centered around a rebel cell attack on District 5's power plants at Edison culminating in the disarming of the bombs, the freeing of the hostages, the death of Harry, and Foxface leaping into the river in desperation. Why did I involve Foxface so intimately in the course of events? You'll have to see. This chapter concludes the third part of what would have been all one chapter. In any event, the next chapters won't be fillers. There are specific things upcoming that will become increasingly relevant to the future timeline.
I think I've said enough on that topic.
Again, if you have comments, concerns, suggestions, advice, or predictions, please send them in. I love interacting with my audience and I want to know what you're thinking/feeling.
Yours in writing,
theotherpianist