Chapter 3 - Ah, hadn't thought of that...

Settling into his seat the guard glances at the screen. There is a bright dot in the foreground, with a huddle of slightly duller shapes moving around it. The flare, still hot, and three guards, clustered around a fourth body on the ground. In night vision mode the picture is less than crystal clear, shapes are blurred and fuzzy. At the top of the screen another dot is moving rapidly upwards, towards the edge of the screen, out of the camera's field of view. The guard studies it for a second. A fox? Hard to judge the size but bigger than a fox. A wolf? Not been seen around for almost 10 years.

Taking hold of the control joystick the guard moves the camera, repositioning the dot in the centre of the screen, and zooms in. The camera should auto focus but it is slow, it hasn't been focused to that range for several years and the threads are gritty, it usually just pans endlessly back and forth across its designated arc. After a brief hesitation the picture leapt suddenly into sharp focus and for a split second, before the dot disappears into the trees, it resolves into a shape, an upright, running shape with legs and arms. Then it is gone.

'That's crazy, it was a fox, dammit!' The guard Commander was not in the mood for confusion or conflicting reports. With some fool letting off a flare and a clumsy guard falling into the rubble, firing his rifle and putting a neat groove in the upper thigh of one of his companions, the last thing he needed was another hysterical report about someone seen running away from the fence. 'There's no one outside the fence and no one tries to leave District 13, for God's sake! Why would they do that, man? No, it was a prank by one of those reprobates in GAU. I'll find out who, there'll be hell to pay when I do.'

Kendra is back in the dorm. The bag and the wire are hidden behind a cupboard in the GAU Principle's office. Hopefully the least likely place to be searched. Kendra is in bed and covered just seconds before the commotion starts to wake her room mates. Across the room people are sitting up, looking at the door and at each other. 'What's going on?' 'Dunno.' 'Are we being attacked?' A constant fear, always there. One day...

Footsteps and the door flies open. A soldier, not a night guard, but a real soldier, equipped for serious work, with an assault rifle and night vision goggles. 'Everyone ok here?', then gone, on to the next room.

Kendra is now daring to hope that they may have got away with it. Not because they were that well planned but because the expectation is that people will try to break in, not break out. So far no one has even considered that idea. No bed checks, no perimeter searches. Just routine room checks for intruders. Even that not with too much enthusiasm.

The excitement and chatter began to fade and people started to settle. Kendra laid back and began to relax. Had Coro got away? Had they actually got away with it?

'Where's Coro?' A voice from the back of the room. 'Not in her bed', 'Haven't seen her', 'Was she here when the soldier came in?' Muttering then quiet. Then, 'Kendra! Kendra! Where's Coro?' Kendra pretended to rouse herself, coming slowly and sleepily upright in bed. 'She said she couldn't sleep, went to see med staff for a sleeper. Probably kept her down there.' As it is not uncommon for residents of GAU to have trouble sleeping, and Coro had been restless since her arrival, worrying about her father, the suggestion is accepted and gradually peace returns to the dorm.

In the woods it is less restful. Not usually a fearful person the full enormity of her predicament dawns on Coro. Pausing a few feet into the tree line she looked back towards the fence and District 13. As the moon clears the clouds she can see shapes moving between buildings. Some venture as far as the edge of the ruins but none go further, across the open space and towards the fence. 'They just aren't expecting this. Everything is prepared for an attack from the Capitol, they aren't even considering an escape! But when they do, when she is discovered missing...'

Coro turned and headed into the trees, keen to put some distance between herself and the fence. It is clear to her now that once she is discovered missing there will be a search and a pursuit. She had been taught that the other Districts believed District 13 to be destroyed, a nuclear wasteland, devastated by the Capitol as punishment for their rebellion. All the time the Districts believe that, District 13 is safe. There was no point trying to destroy District 13, as well defended as it is, if it is believed already destroyed. But if it should become known that District 13 still exists, actually prospers and thrives without the control of the Capitol, then the risk to District 13 increases, the Capitol could not allow it to go unpunished and still maintain control of the other Districts.

Coro began to run, faster and faster as the extent of her situation hits her. They wont be too fussy how she is caught, she is a threat to District 13 and all that it has achieved, they can not let her escape. At any cost.