Y 184-09-02 T 03:27:59
Day 3
Banks of camera operators outside of the Gamemaker's Pit sifted through heat-damaged feeds, trying to locate seven tributes that had disappeared from view. The Gamemakers stood in tense silence as Seneca attempted to direct Ronan tracking the other two non-rebels while not pointing any cameras towards the fire. Lexus Valerian, brushing back his silver-dyed hair, his piercing blue contacts absent, silently reviewed feeds, pushing and pulling holograms as he attempted to put together a rudimentary map of live and broken cameras.
Josiah entered the room, his face ashen. The room turned to the Communications Director expectantly, and silence fell as Josiah spoke.
"We have until seven this morning. If we haven't found them by then, Snow's sending in the Capitol Guard."
Sharp inhalations could be heard across the room. The Peacekeepers were brutal, but the Capitol Guard was Anamaria Dimitri's; the President's personal guard were picked from their number.
If the Capitol Guard were coming, it meant that no trace of them would be left behind.
Seneca looked up at Lexus' post anxiously- Lexus glanced up from his work, shook his head hurriedly and went back to it. Mapping the arena's cameras, looking for incriminating dark areas where the rebels may be hiding behind destroyed cameras- it was harder than it seemed. So many in the area were heat damaged, it was nigh-impossible to discern which was deliberately destroyed and which were just damaged from fire. Searching for patterns in a system he was simultaneously trying to code and map- it was taxing even his abilities.
And if he couldn't find them soon, they were all going to die.
Between the six of them, they had partially cleared two buildings of cameras- one close to the fire, one not. It had been an idea of both Theon's and Glace's- one building, far away, situated in an alleyway, the perfect hideout, stripped of cameras- and left empty, as a lightning rod for the Gamemaker's attention. And one closer to the fire, in plain sight and still hazy with smoke, that could plausibly have already lost its cameras to heat damage, where seven of them now rested away from the windows.
Cesal was not comfortable being here. He and Emil had saved the two tributes on a whim and a promise of escape; now, they were in the crosshairs of the Capitol, rebels all.
Not to mention, the guy who had stabbed him only hours ago now lay unconscious on the ground only metres from him.
Cesal toyed with the holstered dagger Emil had gifted him, eyes never leaving Quint's limp body on the ground. He wasn't sure what to think of the District 6 tribute, especially not after having watched his spear impale his body. Emil had mentioned that Quint had given them the medicine that had likely prevented him from bleeding out and dying; but on the other hand, he had stabbed him.
Cesal wondered if Quint thought one balanced out the other- that somewhere, someone stood with scales, weighing his fate on both stabbing and saving a life.
Personally, Cesal was happy to weigh it all out- he was fairly certain what he'd stake Quint's life to be worth.
Emil had been sitting next to him on a couch in the smoke-hazy apartment building, and had been focused upon Cesal's knife, not Quint's body.
"If he's the key out of this place..." Emil murmured to Cesal. Cesal sighed and replaced his dagger in its holster.
"Yeah, yeah, but a girl can dream," he said, relaxing back on the couch next to Emil. He raised his voice to address the room as a whole now. "So how long are we hanging around this dump? 'Til the Gamemakers catch up with us?"
"Yell a little louder, I don't think the whole arena heard you," came a voice from the door. Theon and Elizabeth had returned, and brought with them what was likely the last of the cameras and microphones stripped from the building. Theon dumped them in a pile in the corner. "We're here until we all know what the hell this escape plan is."
Eyes now turned to Glace, who had mostly been sitting apart from the group, periodically checking Quint's pulse. She hadn't said a word since they had first entered the room.
"I found a-" Glace's voice cracked, likely from the amount of smoke she had inhaled in the past few hours. She cleared her throat and continued. "I found the roof of the Training Center. Except it wasn't a roof so much as a number of Capitol computers in a camera-free room, and a hatch on the ceiling."
The room, which had been filled with murmurs and quiet conversations, fell deathly silent. Cesal and Emil shared glances of surprise.
"What would that be there for?" Emma frowned. "How do we know that's not a trap? Why would they put an escape route on top of the arena? That cannot be for real."
"Why else would the Gamemakers try to set Quint and I alight?" Glace said evenly.
An awkward cough came from Elizabeth. Theon gave her a warning glance.
"What?" Emil said, clearly sensing something was wrong.
"I, uh- it wasn't the Gamemakers that, ah-" Elizabeth tailed off, and Theon jumped into the conversation desperately.
"Look, I said that I wanted to watch the Capitol burn, and then a few seconds later we get some matches and a note that tells us to burn it- what were we supposed to think?"
Glace blinked. "You could have thought, don't burn it down?"
"We didn't know you were in there or we wouldn't have done it!" Elizabeth interjected.
"You didn't exactly give an eviction notice," Emma noted. Elizabeth and Theon simultaneously rounded on Emma, who raised her hands slightly in surrender.
"We're being played," Emil murmured. The group didn't seem to hear him over the distant crackle of flames, so Cesal spoke up.
"Hey, guys, come on, eyes forward," he snapped, before turning to Emil. "What was that?"
Emil at first was uncertain of his own voice, but Cesal could hear a cadence entering his speech as he got into it. "We're being played. All of us. You get the matches, you're told to burn the Capitol. The obvious sender is someone who won't have heard that message muted- the obvious choice of Capitol landmarks to burn is the President's mansion. And you get that message just as Glace and Quint are in the mansion, plotting escape."
Glace's face was ashen. "We stripped every camera out of the room."
"Think they won't have noticed that?" Emil stood and looked around the room. "That fire was a beacon, and it brought all of us together. Someone planned this. Someone wanted us to stand together in a room. The only question is if they wanted to kill us or help us rebel."
"Don't say that word," Emma winced.
"What, rebel?" Elizabeth said. "In case it hasn't escaped your notice, Career, that's exactly what we all are."
Emma raised an eyebrow. "In case it's escaped your notice, revo, half of the 'rebels' in this room are Careers."
"Not anymore," Theon said, his voice brittle and snapping with stress.
"What, three days in the Games and you're a revo, Veux?" Emma seemed, to Cesal's eye, to be masking fear with aggression- given her training, it made sense. "Do you really think this is even vaguely a good idea? Even if it isn't a trap, even if we get out of the arena- what then? What do we do then? Hide in god-knows-where-we-are until the Capitol tracks us down and kills us?"
The uncomfortable truth had been spoken and it seemed to make Theon more hostile, more defensive. "Better than killing each other," he responded sharply. "But if you want to, go ahead! Run off back to Ronan and Anna, have fun."
"Anna's dead," Cesal said casually. The hostile group, all standing and all facing off against one another, turned eyes on him. He rolled his eyes and stood.
"Oh, hi! I'm Cesal," he said, waving for emphasis. "I'm a gang member and District Eight tribute, and that guy-" he pointed to the unconscious Quint- "-Stabbed me today. Like, literally, with a spear, stabbed me. And I'm less hostile than you assholes are. Now, Milly-" Here he pointed at Emil.
Emil screwed up his face in disgust. "Milly?"
"Let it happen. Milly, you're right- we've probably all been played, by forces unknown, for reasons unknown. And sure- even if we do escape, we're probably all gonna die anyway. But we're all here now, and from here we have a choice. We can sit here in this building and wait for the Gamemakers to find us, or we can go out there and get killed doing something. How many people watched what we did, what we're doing? I mean, there's only about three other tributes on the board right now; even if they somehow didn't play everything we just did, the Districts and the Capitol are going to notice something's up. So why not? Why not go out swinging and make our lives count for something?" Cesal's voice was cracking from the smoke and fatigue, but there was a natural rhythm to it that caught the attention of every person in the room. "Why don't we show the Capitol, and the Districts, and Snow and Panem and all of it, what happens when the tributes don't want to play their game?"
There was silence across the room.
"...Milly?" Emil repeated with the same tone of disgust. Cesal threw up his hands in despair.
"That was probably the best, most important speech I have and ever will make, and all you can ask about is the damn nickname?"
"It's dumber than your usual ones is all."
"Forget the nickname! Is anyone with me?"
A soft cough came from the side of the apartment room, on a plush couch. The room turned as Quint slowly sat up.
"I'm in," Quint croaked, before his eyes slid shut and he rested his head back against the couch, coughing softly.
Cesal blinked.
"Well, uh, strategically that's great and all," he mumbled, trying not to think about having watched a blade slide through his chest with Quint's frenzied eyes behind it.
"I'm in too," Elizabeth said decisively. "I started this mess back at the chariots- I'm damned if I'm not going to see it through."
Theon glanced over at Emma and Glace, before resting his gaze on Elizabeth and setting his jaw. "I'm not a rebel," he said with a soft tone that belied his Career-typical appearance. "But I'm not a Career anymore either. And if I can't win this, I'm not going to let the Capitol win it either. I'm in."
Glace looked across the room at Quint, before carefully surveying the group. "If we die," she said decisively, "Let's make sure that Panem sees us die for something more than some bleak victory. I'm in with you all."
Emil shrugged as the room's gaze turned to him. "I do what he does," he said, pointing over at Cesal. Cesal was both surprised and touched by the strange note of loyalty and friendship to Emil's usually impassive tone. "So yeah; I'm in."
With an air of finality, the room turned towards Emma, the only one in the room with any true Career tendencies. She looked at the floor, to the sword tied to her belt, to the room's inhabitants individually. Her gaze rested on Cesal for a long, tense moment.
And then she smiled.
"Ah, what the hell," she said. "I've rebelled enough tonight- what's escaping from the Capitol's greatest symbol of power between friends, anyway." She dropped her hand from her sword and stepped forward slightly. "I'm in."
For a time, a slightly awkward pause rested across the group.
"So here we are," Cesal said awkwardly, "Seven tributes, standing up."
"Sitting," The ash-streaked Quint coughed out from the couch.
"I meant, like, standing against the Capitol, not literally sta- you know what? Sure. Here we are, seven tributes, standing and/or sitting up against the Capitol."
Emil shook his head in exasperation. "If we somehow survive this lunacy, Cesal, you're the one I'm killing first."
"Love you too, Milly."
"Okay," Elizabeth said, clapping her hands decisively. "That's enough dramatics for one night. Let's talk plans."
The group, almost as one, clustered around the couch Quint was sitting on.
And they began.
Lexus had almost put together something on the map that looked hopeful- a building far away from the fire, where all of the cameras had been stripped.
But it would be at this moment that Josiah and his communications team would come into the Gamemaker's pit with ashen faces and shadowed eyes.
Seneca frowned. "What is it?"
Josiah bit his lip. "We got a tip-off from the Capitol Communications Department."
"And?"
Josiah looked around the room of stressed, rapt Gamemakers with an expression that was nothing less than fear.
"And Snow lied. He wasn't giving us an ultimatum till seven this morning- he was trying to distract us, because the Capitol Guard is going to arrive at seven."
The Gamemakers had been through a lot in the past three days; Lexus had been too. But their fears had been inconsequential to this, their most potent fear, the fear that haunted each and every one of the Gamemakers until they left the arenas for good- that one day, their best wouldn't be good enough, and the President would send in the Capitol Guard, and then-
The Re-Education Bureau.
Silence hung in the Gamemaker's Pit. Seneca's mouth had dropped open in an 'o'.
"What are we going to do?" Lexus asked, and he was horrified to hear his own voice shaking with fear. He was Lexus Valerian, the darling playboy of the Capitol, the head of the Technological Innovation Committee, the cleverest man in Panem-
And he was scared. God, he was so, so, scared.
Seneca was not a politician. His lack of composure as the Gamemakers waited for his response demonstrated this.
But what Seneca was, as Lexus had learned after years in the Capitol's Technological Commission as his second in command, was a leader.
And he moved decisively.
"Lexus, put down the holograph," he ordered. "Open up my microphone to Administration. All of it. Now."
Lexus blinked, then tapped open the feed. He nodded hastily to Seneca.
"Attention, staff and security," Seneca announced, trying to keep his voice as even-toned as possible. "Drop whatever you are doing now. Engineering department, ensure the electricity feed will continue to supply the arena and administration department for the next eight hours, then also abandon your posts. Everyone is to immediately report to the hovercrafts. This is an evacuation. This is not a drill. Return to the Capitol. If the Capitol Guard perform a flyby and hail you over the radio, do not respond unless threatened. This is to be carried out safely, calmly, and immediately. This is Seneca Crane, signing out. Begin the evacuation now."
Seneca made a quick motion to Lexus, and Lexus turned off the mic.
Seneca took a deep breath.
"That applies to all of you as well," he said sharply. "Make sure the staff are calm- tell them there's a, uh, minor problem with the electricity generator. But don't respond to the Capitol Guard unless they threaten to attack, and-" Seneca swallowed. "If they ask why, it was on my orders and my orders alone that you carried out these demands. All blame for what has passed in the past few days is to fall to me. I don't care if it's Snow that's giving you the questions-" Seneca broke off, then, flexing his swollen hand and wincing. "-I'm asking you, both as your superior and your colleague for five years, to not blame anyone but me. And go. Go now."
The Gamemakers, thirty strong in the room, stood in shocked silence. Seneca's face hardened.
"That's an order."
The room's inhabitants stood as one- Lexus stood in dumb shock as they all filed out, silent and fearful, one by one. Eventually, the only people left in the room were Officer Fitzgerald, the Games Head of Security, Josiah Lyman, Seneca Crane and Lexus. Fitzgerald stared down Seneca.
"I'm part of the Capitol Guard myself," she said. "I've served with them for twenty years, and I've worked with you for five."
"Yes, you have," Seneca said. His expression had gone beyond fear to resignation.
"You know what they're going to do to you if the blame passes to you, right?" Fitzgerald seemed honestly scared, despite her uniform.
"I know."
Fitzgerald seemed, for a moment, conflicted. And then, with a sharp an fluid movement, she saluted him and strode from the room.
Josiah stared at Seneca in sheer horror, moving down to Seneca's level at the bottom of the Pit.
"You're insane," he murmured. "You're insane. We could all get out of this."
"No, we can't," Lexus murmured. He still hadn't moved from the top of the room. "If we all escape blameless, none of us do. We've lost the tributes and we know they're going to escape, and we know the Capitol Guard isn't arriving to relieve us of duty. If they're arriving, they're going to-" he shuddered.
Seneca nodded weakly. "All that's left to do is try to save who I can, pass the blame to myself, and try to stop the tributes before the Capitol Guard gets here."
"And stop the explosive bolt detonation that will inevitably occur if the tributes take the hatch," Lexus added in.
Seneca shook his head bitterly. "Let's not forget that."
"What the hell am I-" Josiah was at a loss for words. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this, Lexus? This was-" Josiah was visibly breaking apart under the stress of this all. "This was supposed to be a normal year, goddamnit! This was the year after the Quell! This was when it was all supposed to get better!"
Seneca laughed, and his voice almost choked on the laugh. "Go to the hovercraft, Josiah. Spin something with your comms team. Figure something out. And thank whoever tipped you off, because they may have just saved several hundred lives."
"Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Crane," Josiah said, before hugging him briefly and backing up. "For the record, I still don't like you all that much, but, uh..." Josiah coughed awkwardly. "You weren't bad, as bosses go."
Seneca shook his head, smiling despite a clear and overwhelming fear in his eyes. "Go report to your real boss, and if you liked me so much- lie for me."
Josiah almost smiled through his fear as he left the room.
Only Seneca and Lexus were left. Seneca began climbing the stairs, absently checking abandoned computers left and right. He switched the live feeds to a new camera angle of Ronan entering the building the final two non-revo tributes were hiding in.
"I'll have to find some recap footage after Ronan kills them," Seneca said. "Maybe the moment with Emil and Anna, that'll probably play well with the public."
"Seneca."
"Or maybe Quint and the mutts- a little rebellious, perhaps, what comes later, but no matter-"
"-Seneca. I'm not leaving."
Seneca did not look up from the camera feeds.
"Yes, you are. You're getting on the hovercraft, right now, Valerian. That's an order."
"Yeah, well." Lexus leaned back against the wall. "I was never great at taking orders, especially from you."
"Oh, God." Seneca said. "If you're about to say some bullshit about how you're too loyal to leave your boss-"
"-No, just too loyal to leave my friend to die alone."
"I won't die."
"If those explosive bolts don't bring down the arena on us, the Capitol Guard's going to take us to the Re-Education Bureau and you know it." Lexus crossed his arms. "I'm not leaving you alone in here. I'm going to help you try and stop them, and if that doesn't work I'm going to stand right here and get taken alongside you."
Seneca came up the stairs to Lexus' post. He carded his fingers through his hair.
"Lex," he said, and all authoritative strength was gone from his voice. "You're younger than me- at least five years younger. You're- what is it? Panem's Most Eligible Bachelor, for three years running?" Seneca laughed weakly. "See, I may have been your boss for a while, but I know these things, Lex. You have so much left to do. I can't let you do this."
"It's a good thing I'm not asking your permission, then," Lexus said. He led Seneca back down to the bottom of the pit. "We're in this together. We should have been working the Games together from the start. It's a shame I had to start on the one year everything goes to hell, but hey- the pay package was great." Lexus laughed, despite everything. "So let's take down those tributes. Together."
Seneca and Lexus smiled at one another, through their tear-filled eyes.
And they got to work.
One of the biggest arguments I've been having with myself through this story is what Lexus and Seneca's relationship is. Are they unrequited loves? Dysfunctional colleagues? Personally, I'd maintain that they're the latter, but one time I think they must have had an amazing one night stand that they never talk about but both secretly treasure. Yeah. That's probably it.
In any case. Two chapters left. My AS exams begin on the eleventh of May, so I will certainly have published both of the final chapters before that date.
As ever, thank you for reading this far.