Author's Note:

Not so proud with this story. If this isn't a filler chapter, I don't know what is. But it's key to going to the next chapter, where more significant things will happen.

So read on. Feel free to flame or give concrit on this chappie. Actually I hated it. :P

I brace myself for blood.

Wait, there's always blood.

Why would I even need to brace for it?

I've had more fights out of Panem than I did in the training mat with Smilodon.

Quite a couple of them, I've won.

I've won others by dumb luck.

The ones I've lost didn't kill me.

What makes this one diferent?

Oh wait.

There's a bullet in my best friend.

Well, that's unfortunate.

My eyes are squeezed closed so tightly together that not even a sledgehammer can open them. After the initial gunshot, it becomes eerily quiet. Suddenly, I hear the 'bangs' and the 'zooms' of multiple bullets being shot.

We're stuck in a crossfire.

I instinctively hit the ground for cover, and judging by the other thuds, my friends have done the same.

Or maybe its just their lifeless bodies falling.

I open my eyelids to just a crack and see Marlin blinking rapidly. Thankfully, the bullets aren't headed for us. I reach out to squeeze Marlin's hand and craned my neck towards the Thirteen soldiers.

Some are on the ground, wirthing like snakes. Others take cover behind dumpsters, trashcans and anything they can find. They are shooting above us.

Clutching my bullet-proof vest as tightly as I can I roll to my back.

I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I can't help myself.

I mean, who else is trying to kill us?

It's Hijacked Horus and his band.

Talk about persistence.

I feel my sleeve getting wetter and wetter. Forcing myself to look beyond, I see Zee with a swollen cheek and Mercury doing the army crawl.

LOL.

Woah. Did I actually just think that?

So anyway, Mercury is moving forward, practically hidden beneath a rain of bullets.

I drag Marlin and Zee after Mercury. So while the two opposing parties were shooting each other, we're making an effective getaway

When Mercury's in reach of an old wooden door, he jumps out, kicks it open and rolled in like a Thirteen soldier. Where he stood is a small hole in the door. Hm. Bullet.

Soon, all of us are inside. It won't be long until the winning side- be it Thirteen or Flying Colors- smash their way inside like savages and kill us.

"Stairs!" Marlin calls out. He races upstairs. Honestly, I have never seen the little boy run so fast. Not to Flyer, not to the prospect of a new prank.

"We've gotta split up," Mercury said, almost tumbling over his own words. "I'll go with Marlin upstairs. You two hide in the kitchen." He points to the darkest room. "Got it?" He looks in both of our faces, as though trying to memorize our faces. His eyes linger on Zee's longer and he opens his mouth to say something, but abandoning it and instead rushing upstairs, yelling behind his back, "Be careful."

I know this is a nicer way of saying, "Don't die."

And well, just to get this out, he's just a kid like us. He shouldn't need to care if we die or not. If he was a normal boy, he'd have abandoned us back in the forest.

Scratch that. He should've abandoned us back in the vents.

But of course he's gone and become a big hero. Bring him a prize! Put it in his gravestone!

Heh. See what I just implied there?

As you might've noticed, I'm a bit of a pessimist. I have yet to decide if its bad or not. It's gotten me out of some detentions.

I'm rambling now. We're going to play hide and seek.

The kitchen's dirty, so the first order of business should be to barricade the door.

The keyword here is should. If we did, they'd know we were here. We cross out that option. We need to stay hidden.

The first thing that comes to my mind is the fridge or any of the shelves. We quickly eliminate that too because there were rotten things in the fridge and we wouldn't fit it or the shelves if we tried.

The table does not provide any cover at all. There are no doors or windows.

I swear softly to the ceiling when I notice a string coming out from the tiles above us. More out of desperation than of curiosity, I pull on it.

And then a set of stairs fell out.

It almost crushes Zee but we start climbing it. The room above was a dark space with lots of dusted things. There was a broken umbrella in one corner an a suspicious-looking suitcase.

Pulling the stairs back up, we find hiding places. One can't be too careful. I choose a big green trunk hiding behind a pile of old toys and squeeze myself in. Before I sink into the darkness, I see Zee squeeze into a coffin-like container.

I lie there in the dark for a while, inhaling the dust and trying hard to slow my heart beat, in case they can hear it. Kind of silly, I know.

A few minutes drag on. Finally, I can't stand the darkness and open the heavy lid a crack. My other hand brushes on a small stick-like item with numbers in it. I slide it over the under the lid so I can use it as a prop. A bar of light streams into my little hiding place.

Now all we have to do is wait.

Wait.

Hum-do-dee.

There isn't enough light to read my book.

Yawn. It's gotta be at least an hour now.

I pull my bag out and search its contents blindly.

I put it back and use it as a pillow.

I fall asleep.

Crazy, since we're playing a deadly game of hide and seek.

The next time I wake up, it's to the sound of someone knocking on my crate. I automatically grab my knife. I erupt from the crate brandishing my knife.

Marlin's there with a trashcan lid. My knife bounces off it.

"Hi Rooba."

"Hey."

I crawl over the lid and almost fall to my knees. My legs are dead. I stretch them for a while.

"Where's Zee?" he asks.

"In the coffin."

I awkwardly walk to the white coffin when Marlin hands me his trashcan lid. "You might want to use this. In case she thinks you're the enemy."

Haha. I use it and hit the coffin with the hilt of my knife. Then I brace myself. It occurs to me fleetingly that I must look like a parody of a warrior, with my trashcan lid shield and half of a sword.

As expected, Zee jumps on me. She buries two of her knives on my shield. I drop it. "Hiya!" I say cheerfully.

"I smell like dead people." She crouches back to the coffin and pulls out a bone. "That's nasty." She flings it away to the other side of the room. "Where's Mercury?"

"Checking outside."

We decend the stairs and check the wreckage in the kitchen. The fridge has been emptied and the contents strewn on the floor. The doors of the shelves were almost ripped of its hinges. The table is overturned.

"How did you find us?" I ask Marlin.

Marin let out a laugh. "It's a long story. Trust me, it wasn't easy."

I giggled. "You know what, Marlin? Running, fighting, hiding, almost dying... it's getting quite old, don't you think?"

"Explain that to Mercury. He's a disaster magnet."

Once we were outside, the small alley looks like its been used as a bunker. A failed bunker, that is.

Surprisingly, the crossfire had generated only five dead bodies. Two on Horus's side and three on Thirteen. But it still looks like it was a close battle. So close, I can't tell who won and searched our little hideout.

Mercury is hunched on the roof, studying a fallen face on Horus's side. I walk up to the Thirteen bodies, hoping to see a certain handsome blonde-haired jerk.

He wasn't there.

I can dream, can I? I can dream horrid nasty dreams.

So I walk up to the nearest body and...

You guessed it. I raid it.

Actually, the skeleton was way more loaded with supplies. The soldiers didn't even have a bag. His jacket was torn and dirty.

So I grab his gun. I take out his magazine and check the bullets. Empty.

Which means his gun is useless.

But it reminds me of something.

I check the bullet in my arm. The blood had stopped, but I can see a small black metal. The first thing that comes to my head is, Amputation!

But no. That will hurt. And it'll be very messy.

Marlin find cuffs (useless), an empty gun magazine (very useless) and a pair of pliers (useful for amputations).

Zee finds nothing but gun holster. She fits it over her belt and slips one of her knives in them. "Cool! I'm like a cowboy!"

I grinned and called over to Mercury who is still hunched over a body. "Hey! Did you find anything?"

No answer.

"Heeey! Earth to Mercury"

Still nothing.

I make a face at Marlin. "Climb the up to him, will you dearie? And kick his little Evacuator butt for me?"

Marlin doesn't comply so I make my way up the one-story building. Climbing the boxes and trashcans ungraciously, I hurl myself up the roof. Walking over Mercury, I look over his shoulder.

"Hello? Did you..." I trail off and nearly bite my tongue as I jump up in shock.

The body Mercury was looking at is Horus.

And his eyes are open.

And blinking.

Author's Note:

So there you have it. The pointless, filler chapter.

Review to give me concrit or flames!