The MATRIX: The One

14 - Peeta takes a chance

Peeta POV

I lift my face from between Katniss' shoulder blades, shaking my head and scattering glass fragments. "Are you okay?" I croak, supporting her arms as she carefully sits up.

"Yes. Jo?"

"Still in one piece," she reports from the front seat. "Can't say the same for Finnick." She smacks him hard on the arm. He twitches. "But he's alive. Hey, fearless leader, you're bleeding all over the leather. Knock it off already."

As if the order alone will help anything.

But then I remember Finnick telling me that we are as strong and as fast as we believe we are. Hell, maybe bossing him around will actually staunch the blood flow.

"Fuck. He's out cold."

Katniss shoves at my arm. "Go. Out the door."

I heave it open – was it this heavy five minutes ago when we'd climbed in? I don't think so. Katniss fights with her seatbelt as I stumble out onto the asphalt and scramble for the handle on Johanna's door. By the time I wrench it open, she's got Finnick's seat lowered and shoved back. She tosses the seat belt aside and hauls Finnick toward her side of the car. It's a tight fit, but I reach in and grab his collar to assist. A growl followed by a triumphant grunt from the backseat announces Katniss' victory over her own buckle and then her hands are curling around Finnick's waistband as she tries to wrestle his lower half free of the footwell.

Just as his rear lands on the parking brake between the seats, Finnick snorts, groans, and complains, "Whatever that is, get it the hell away from my ass."

"Working on it," I mutter.

Jo cackles. "Oh shut up and take it like a man, Finn."

"You take it like a man."

"Shut up and move!" Katniss snarls, "Before the cops show up!"

Finnick finally figures out how to work his arms and legs. We pull and he kicks and wiggles and shoves. Jo objects vocally as she rolls out of her seat and onto the road. I keep a hold on Finnick's shoulders so he doesn't end up piling on top of her. Katniss helps her up and I work on getting Finnick to stand on his own two feet.

"Hey, snap out of it," I grumble.

"Easy for you to say."

"A wise man once said, work the code, don't let the code work you."

"Peeta?"

"Yeah?"

"Fuck off."

"We're not far from the exit," Katniss interrupts. "Let's get him into that alley and then it's just three and a half blocks to the building—"

"Agents are coming."

"What?"

We all freeze at Johanna's dispassionate remark. She gestures toward the crowd forming across the street. "We're not on the grid and this is causing a holdup of massive proportions. Only a matter of time before they clue the fuck in, guys."

"Shit," Katniss spits, reaching for a gun holstered on her thigh.

I scan the gathered spectators but don't see anyone particularly intimidating.

A hard shove pulls me back to the task at hand. "Get Finn back to the exit," she orders me. "Jo, go with him. I'll lead them off."

"No!" She can't do that! I lurch for her arm.

She evades my grasp. "Go, Peeta!"

"You need a partner!" I scramble after her. Finnick's hands push me in her direction, tacitly agreeing with my assessment.

"Lead them on a merry chase. Call Gale. We'll have another exit ready for you," Jo says, already hauling Finnick toward the alley. I don't look back as I take off after Katniss' swinging braid. I don't waste my breath calling out after her. Instead, I remind myself that I am fast. Faster. The fastest. I'm moving quicker than I ever have in my life and yet I only just keep her in sight.

Shit. Finn was right about her being exceptional.

When she suddenly turns on a dime and races back toward me, I gape even as I reach out a hand for her to grab in passing. "You were totally playing with me in Lisbon," I accuse as she spins me around and ducks down a stairwell. Just before I have to pay attention to where we're going, I glimpse a man – suit, tie, sunglasses, neatly combed short hair – running with inhuman efficiency toward us.

An agent.

Fuck.

And double fuck when I realize where we're going.

"The subway?" I hiss, doing my best not to fall ass over tea kettle down to the station thoroughfare.

"They're herding us," she grits out.

"What're we gonna do?"

"Stay alive."

She doesn't bother with the ticket machines or token booths. Katniss ignores the shouts as she vaults over the bank of turnstiles. With her fingers curled around my wrist, I can't exactly ask for a timeout, so I suck it up and leap over the neighboring barrier.

Damn. I've never cleared a hurdle in my life. If not for that Jump Program, I'm pretty sure Katniss would have plowed me right into the thing.

"Subway cops," I rasp.

"Unavoidable," she agrees.

I desperately wish for the sound of a train, but the tunnels are silent. Damn it. How the hell are we going to get out of this?

I shouldn't have come. I can see that, now. I should have trusted her to handle herself. I'm only slowing her down.

"I'm gonna owe you one hell of a foot rub when this is all over with," I predict as we blow past a janitorial closet that had looked like a promising place to lie low until the coast clears.

"A footr—what?"

"Back rub? Shiatsu?" Another service entrance. I scan the platform – echoingly empty. Where the hell are the passengers? It's the middle of the Goddamn day for Christ's sake!

"You know shiatsu?"

"Hell no, but Rory can hook me up, right?"

She grunts out a laugh and dashes toward the entrance of the tunnel. I wonder what the hell she thinks she's doing – there's no avoiding the fact that we are trapped down here and, I'll be honest, it's starting to creep me out how much this is reminding me of the last time I'd been in the subway with Katniss. But I go with it.

I'm impressed with myself when she pulls me over the side of the platform and onto the tracks and I don't even hesitate to jump down there with her.

Holy shit.

We're just a short scoot away from the tunnel entrance when I hear the click of hard-soled, handcrafted Italian leather men's business shoes tapping down the steps. Every crisp step echoes against the tiled walls and concrete floor. Katniss throws out an arm and pushes me back, pressing us both flush against the wall of the platform. There's no overhang to speak of. If an agent pokes his head over the edge, he'll see us.

Thank God he's got plenty of columns and closets to check out before he gets to this end of the platform. Still, we can't hang out here indefinitely.

My fingers find Katniss'. I hang on. I close my eyes. I pray.

And that's when I hear it.

A train is coming. My entire body breaks out into a cold sweat but Katniss doesn't let go of my hand. I try not to stare down the tracks, past the platform and into the opposite tunnel opening at the oncoming headlights. I'm shaking… remembering the snarling roar and screech and blaring horn and Katniss' warm body curled up and trembling beneath mine.

"I'm not letting go!"

A tug on my hand snaps me back to the present. Katniss nods her head, gesturing me deeper into the shadows of the tunnel. The sound of the train covers my clumsy footsteps. It makes no sense for us to run into the tunnel – there isn't enough clearance for us to survive the passing of the train – but Katniss merely presses her index finger to my lips and leans around me, watching.

The train rolls to a stop. The conductor turns his attention to the switches and dials on the control panel. In that instant when his attention is not focused on the murk just beyond the range of the headlights, Katniss makes her move, hauling me back toward the platform, almost moving too fast for me to keep up with.

At the edge, she backs up a step, scans the seemingly-empty arrivals hall, leaps up and offers a hand back to help me. I scramble up next to her. She moves to shove me through the first set of doors just as the chime sounds but I maneuver her ahead of me.

And it's a good thing I do, too, because that's when gunshots ring out.

NOTES: Evil cliffhanger is evil. I know. Leave me a note when you're ready for the next chapter, yeah?