Chapter Six Escape
I walked as quietly as possible. My guards were at my sides at all times. Maybe they were terrified. It is almost impossible to tell for me; I cut off all sense of empathy for them.
Then death arrives, invisible, and cuts a person down. Herald and I are walking through a narrow trench leading up to the pyramid. We are en route to a rendezvous with a patrol. (I am surprised there are any left considering what is lurking in the shadows.) Of course, there are plenty of reinforcements to be found on the surface, but those reinforcements are in a mad scramble after being attacked.
Herald is told that a couple has been captured; A man and woman. I remember Katniss, and how we were dragged before the Capitol. Who could be so stupid as to go down into the hole? Not even the Girl on Fire would dare to do something so idiotic.
The prisoners are familiar; Johanna and Finnick. It takes me a second to think clearly. They are thrown in the trench with us. When they look up, the look of shock makes all the trouble of coming home worth it. A champion, lost to an unknowable fate, is back and working for them. They are surprised by their hope.
"Kill them," Herald has no time for surprises. He is about to ascend the steps and into the open when I stop him.
"Wait, let me talk to them!"
He looks at me suspiciously, so I explain, "right now, you are stuck in an underground cave with a predator/xenomorph hybrid running around, as well as a hunting party, and now it looks like the rebellion is making its presence known. We can use them as bait…"
Herald thinks for a moment, and then comes back down the steps, "Good thinking. You two, into the pyramid, everyone else, get ready to fire."
There is no point in trying to save them now. The best chance they have is to try and survive inside. Weapons abound in there. No doubt the two would be able to survive. I felt uneasy though.
Something is off here. They have the same attitude that I had when I was captured. Then again, I had three predators- who could they possibly expect to equal the force of that?
I got a feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was the kind that said that this was going to be a 'big bad hunt.'
Johanna and Finnick entered the pyramid.
Katniss
Johanna and Finnick entered the pyramid without me or Gale getting a clear shot. The male growled out his annoyance.
"What are they doing down there?"
Something was wrong. Gale felt it too. We exchanged glances. I blinked. For a hunter, that was all the affirmation needed.
"Gale- uh…"
"Yeah, I know."
The soft crunching of gravel was barely there, but we both heard it. On some level, we knew that something had been behind following us for several minutes. I debated our options. Only one would actually work out for either of us, "Split up."
We headed towards separate dooms.