ME: Time to get back to the Loyalists. A/N: Interlude. Note: This will be slightly AU.
Laura was sure of one thing: Getting your face burned by an exploding air pump sucked.
She was on one of the two trains that had evacuated Fort Cheyenne. Evacuated, however, put it generously; the District Four native knew there was no way everyone had survived. Countless men, women and children, armed and unarmed, now buried forever.
Former First Sergeant (now Second Lieutenant) Corbulo Carney had come bearing bad news; Lieutenant Colonel Flavius, confined to the hospital due to a mortar fragment that had lodged in his left knee, had perished. Carney couldn't have saved him and had to euthanize him with a 5.7x28mm brain surgery.
Her brother Lawrence brought the worst; Eno, her surrogate sister, had perished as well. Laura's only consolation was that the Captain had sacrificed herself to save Clara and died painlessly.
All but one of the MOEI crew were inside; the absent person being Stephanos. Julia tried and failed to comfort a baby she had in her arms; undoubtedly she had narrowly rescued the newborn. Publius was choking but would live, undoubtedly from having been the last person to board the train car. Marcus and Manius both looked a thousand years old.
What the hell have the rebels done?
At this point, Laura reflected, the only hope the survivors had was to get to the square and pray that the remaining Loyalist troops outside Fort Cheyenne had broken through and retaken the square. The daughter of a late Mayor did not know why the rebels had not blown up the tunnel; why care about whoever had managed to board a train?
The two trains screeched into the square station side-by-side, and the moment the doors opened Laura left with the others. The young woman, grateful to breath fresh air after having evacuated Cheyenne, defiantly moved evasively while gripping her sidearm; she may have lost her rifle, but if the rebels were gonna publicly execute her and the other survivors the sister of a Victor and Peacekeeper herself would go down fighting. A flame began blooming-evidently the other train was on fire because of the damn bombing.
"This is Defense Minister Boggs!" A District Thirteen accent commanded, not that she'd obey. "Drop your weapons! Drop 'em!"
"Why should we?" Laura shouted back. "So you can finish us off?"
"This is Major General Remus Thread, Head Peacekeeper of District Two!" Thread shouted before the communist could respond. "I am in command here, not you!"
"General Thread, let me assure you that I am very sorry for what happened tonight to Fort Cheyenne. I sincerely am." Wait, what? "Second off, if you have any concern for the lives of your charges, you will order your subordinates to safety their firearms and place them on the ground."
"They swore an oath to our Nation, as did I!" Now the Head Peacekeeper glared at the machine gunners; the only thing stopping Laura from chucking a grenade was the presence of her in-laws and other unarmed civilians who would die. "To those of you from this District, you pledged allegiance to our blessed homeland; have you forgotten that? We all have neighbors and loved ones we remember; some of them were shit on and pissed on by the Capitolite elite. But that doesn't give you the right to commit genocide, which you just did by bombing us!"
"Thread, this is Commander Lyme of District Two's rebels. Your remaining troops are covered by trained soldiers armed with machine guns who are stationed on the rooftops surrounding this square. Either surrender or we will be forced to use lethal force; I do not want any more dead kids. Face it; we have the literal high ground, you picked the wrong marsdamn side of this fucking war."
"I AM NOT GONNA GIVE THAT ORDER!" The Head Peacekeeper yelled.
"I AM NOT GONNA REPEAT THAT ORDER!" Lyme snapped, though her voice clearly indicated emotional exhaustion; she at least had a microscopic shred of humanity left.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, MAN?" Boggs added before Thread could retort.
Suddenly Stephanos stepped out from the station. The only protection his attire now offered came from his kneepads; his back, only covered by a scorched shirt, was burned like a coal miner's. With his left hand he pressed a rag to a bloody hole in his cheek, with the right he dragged a rifle.
When the man known to Loyalist audiences as Centurion Panem tripped and fell, Katniss Everdeen did not see an enemy propagandist or soldier; she saw a burn victim from all-too-common mine accidents.
Laura and the other survivors were all shocked to see Katniss run to help a fallen Loyalist.
"Stop!" She yelled at the rebels manning machine guns. "Hold your fire! Stop!"
But Stephanos was feeling only pain and fear; he had seen people die on the battlefield and in Fort Cheyenne. He heard Katniss's voice and feared for his life and those of his friends and family.
Just as Katniss reached down to help the young Capitolite, he dragged himself up to his knees and trained his assault rifle at her.
He uttered a garbled, "Give me one reason why I shouldn't shoot you."
"I can't," was Katniss's reply.
Stephanos remained silent and tried to make sense of her words instead of pulling the trigger. "I can't," she went on. "That's the problem, isn't it?" The bow was lowered. "We blew up your mine. You burned my District to the ground. We've got every reason to kill each other. So do it. Make the Capitol happy. I'm done killing their slaves for them." Katniss dropped her weapon and nudged it towards him with her boot.
"I'm not their slave," Stephanos muttered.
"I am. That's why I killed Cato...and he killed Thresh...and he killed Clove...and she tried to kill me. It just goes around and around, and who wins? Not the Districts. Always the Capitol. But I'm tired of being a piece in their Games."
At Haymitch's insistence, she continued to speak to him. "When I saw that mountain fall tonight, I thought...they've done it again. Got me to kill you-the people in the Districts. But why did I do it? District Twelve and District Two have no fight except for the one the Capitol gave us." Stephanos blinked uncomprehendingly as she kneeled before him. "And why are you fighting with the rebels on the rooftops? With Lyme, who was your Victor? With people who were your neighbors, maybe even your family?"
"I don't know," said the Capitolite, who continued to aim his rifle at Katniss (ableit with his finger outside the trigger guard).
"And you up there!" She yelled to the machine gunners. "I come from a mining town. Since when do miners condemn other miners to that kind of death and then standby to kill whoever manages to crawl from the rubble?"
"Who is the enemy?" Haymitch, unknown to the masses of Panem, whispered via earpiece.
"These people-," Katniss paused to indicate the survivors, "-are not your enemy!" She then turned back to the train station. "The rebels are not your enemy! We all have our enemy, and it's the Capitol! This is our chance to put an end to their power, but we need every District person to do it!"
She reached out her hands to Stephanos, who had lowered his rifle, and the other survivors plus everyone watching on television throughout Panem. "Please! Join us!"
Suddenly there was the report of a gunshot; the bullet flew through the air and struck Katniss, fortunately stopped by her vest.
ME: Cliffhanger, I know.