Saskia Storm, 22
Day 7 of the games - outside of the arena - midnight
Dim, orange lights flicker inside the former presidential palace.
The calm and pleasant voices of the party-going Capitolites simmer in the hollow room.
Yet, little do they know, soon this will be my home for the foreseeable future. President Saskia Storm. It's got a ring to it.
I run my fingers gently across the various old furniture, paintings, and grand ornaments of the room, before taking my place in the center of the party.
My nail taps gently but sharply against my champagne glass to gather everybody's attention.
My entire life has led to this moment. Hunted and pursued because of my name and who I am - to the dingiest, darkest corners of Panem.
My family were Capitolites eons ago, destined to rule… before Snow took over and I was cast out, left to hide at the edge of Districts. That's when they found me and I became their new mascot. Their true agenda never bothered me, as long as I got to take my rightful place as President of Panem.
Now… I'm stood here, facing them all - as a capitolite. The day has finally come. Long have I rehearsed this moment in my head. Never did I expect to feel butterflies in my stomach.
They are before me, with their ridiculous hair and shining teeth and bright clothes - dressed for the party.
The four members of the committee all fade out into view from the party crowd. They are arrogantly clasping sleek, thin glasses of champagne between their fingers. How dare they. Their weakness has almost brought the downfall of the entire country - so much so that we've been able to infiltrate every level of its infrastructure… to finish what we started.
The most arrogant man on the committee, with a wig that makes me want to burst out laughing, raises his glass to speak. "I assume there's a reason you've gathered us all here, Sevilla," he smirks, whilst uttering my false name.
My eyes shoot over to a young man in the shadows - leaning against the wall behind the crowd of people. He has long, dark curly hair and a deep scar over his left eye. He's short, but don't let that fool you; he's known as our little assassin - or simply the asset, my most trusted fighter.
I send him a nod and he returns one with a slight grin. Then, he takes two other men, one tall and bulky with a long dark beard and the other bald, and they secretly seal the room doors together.
Turning back to the committee members, I raise my glass in return.
"Ah yes…"
A circle in the crowd has now formed around me as every eye in the room is trained on me.
"I've gathered you all here today… to tell you that we have the building surrounded, " I answer casually, taking a sip of my champagne.
Panic begins to build up in the room amongst confused chatter. The condescending smirks disappear off the faces of the committee members.
At first, there is disbelief but that soon turns to a realization when the people rattle against the bolted doors.
Members of my organization, clad in black, begin shoving the partygoers into the center of the room - with the help of their assault rifles.
The committee members turn back to me, wide-eyed and perplexed, but before they can open their mouths, I flip my pen into my hand.
"My name is Saskia Storm… rightful president of Panem," I announce, raising my eyebrows.
Thus, with the flick of my finger on the end of the pen, the committee members' chests erupt into flames and they flop to the floor at my feet, groaning in agony. Save for one - Valentina.
My hand moves my pen towards her chest causing her to jump back, pale with fear, her hands up. My pen which also happens to be a super-heated lazer.
However, wearing a playful smirk, my thumb slides off the bottom of the pen.
"Y-you're not gonna kill me?" She stammers as my soldiers seize her by the arms.
My hand twirls the pen around before slipping it back into my pocket.
"No… you have a much more important role to play in all this," I smile, shaking my head.
My soldiers drag her over to the desk at the corner of the room. Sitting on it are a long paper form and a pen at the ready. All we need now is her signature - handing over all executive, legislative, and judicial powers to me.
And just like that - with the swish of a pen - I've done it. My heart is racing in my chest but I make sure it doesn't show on my face. I planned every moment of this in my head and executed it with perfection. Yet… somehow, I still have no idea what's to come.
"So… what happens now?" Valentina gulps.
"I did what you asked… so will you let me go?"
My mouth mutters something simple. A tut.
"That's not how it works," I respond, turning back to her and waving my finger. "I'm an eye for an eye kinda leader and, unless you forgot, I've spent my entire life running from you…"
With that, my finger activates my pen one last time - burning a deep hole in her chest and leaving her tumbling onto the dusty carpet, lifeless.
A hand suddenly falls lightly on my shoulder. The bearded soldier.
"There's been a break-in at your office," he whispers.
My fists clench tight.
"Kate Wakai…" I seeth, grinding my teeth together.
"Should we send the asset?" he murmurs.
I shake my head.
"No… I'll deal with this myself," I mutter back, taking one last sip from my champagne before tossing it aside…
Kate Wakai, 18
Day 11 of the games - outside of the arena.
My head is burning with pain. My vision is clouded and blurry, only just fading into view.
Two people seem to be in front of me… I'm… I'm tied to a chair in a small, dark room. So dark that I can make nothing out other than a white screen, burning into my eyes.
The two people finally become more than just a few blurry pixels. Their faces are finally clear…
Estaban…
He is grinning victoriously into my heart. He pulls his sleeve up to reveal a lightning bolt on his wrist…
It was him all along! He set us up! That moron! Does he know what he's done? I'm going to rip him to pieces!
But I don't have the strength to even shout.
"You… you're one of them…" I muster, my head still spinning.
He nods with an enigmatic smile.
"Now… we never found Chiron and Amber - which is the only reason you're still alive." He snaps his fingers in front of my face.
"Their locations, now,"
I say nothing, only swallowing back the largest ball of saliva from the back of my throat and ejecting it into his face.
His eyes squint shut, my spit dripping down from them.
"You will tell us - willingly or not," he explains, wiping the saliva from his face and gesturing to the other man in the room.
The other man is middle-aged with a slim face, a pointed nose, and goggles over his eyes.
"Over to you, Dr. Silver," he says, exiting the room.
The burning screen in front of my eyes suddenly switches to that of a swirling spiral.
"If you won't tell us - then we'll extract the information from your mind," he says, his voice sounding very Capitolite - or some kind of mockery of it.
"Breathe… Empty your thoughts and your mind and you will know peace.Do not resist, surrendereverything and you will be rewarded," he mutters in a monotone voice.
He repeats it endlessly, peering under his goggles with the spiral screen whirling my eyes around. The hypnotize seems to be working steadily. My thoughts are becoming more and more disconnected.
Yet, little does he know that the entire time I've been awake - I've been filing my bindings with my nails like a saw on wood. Rubbing it faster and faster until my nails are about to snap off. It's working! My thoughts are suddenly clear, once more. An eagle about to strike!
Intentionally, I mumble something under my breath but not loud enough so that he can hear. Thus, he leans in.
Another mutter escapes my mouth shortly before I plant my head directly on the roof of his nose!
Not a second later, in a flash, I'm upon him! The chair is in pieces and I have impaled one of the broken legs straight through his eye and he is still, laying motionlessly in a puddle of his gore.
Breathing heavily above his corpse, I speed over to the table in the room and collect my things - including my comms which I hastily attach to my ear, and a few shurikens. Clearly, they thought nothing of the bladed stars, other than confusion.
Nothing from my comms. Just static noise. It makes sense. If Grey is still alive, then he would have switched his off when I got captured.
Gunfire in the distance no… all around. This building has erupted into chaos. Obviously, some peacekeepers are resisting the new president.
Boots echo through the hallway. They are coming. My heart jumps in my chest and with each beat - my eyes dart around the room.
The ventilation shaft! That's it!
Without a moment to lose - I have already ripped the gratings off and scrambled inside. I'm only just able to fit in and it feels as though it could squeeze me in from all directions at any time however it leads onwards - my escape route.
Hours and hours of crawling in this dark, cold tunnel go by. Yet, they haven't found me. Every time I heard their footsteps underneath, I'd fall as still as a rock until I'm sure they'd moved off. Constant gunfire can be heard throughout the building. I guess their attention has been averted elsewhere.
Suddenly static!
Voices are coming from my comms!
"No! Give it back!" It's Grey's voice! Yelling at someone else.
"Grey?" I mutter through my end of the comms.
"Kate… is that you? We thought you were dead."
I roll my eyes.
"Why would you ever think that?" ... "Where are you? What time is it?" I continue to press, my whispered voice echoing through the hollow metal shaft.
He sighs deeply down the comms.
"How do we know you're not captured and setting a trap?"
"How dare you! Do you not know me at all?"
What the hell is he playing at?
"Get the boss on the line," I order.
"Cornelius is dead, Kate. He was poisoned."
My jaw clenches.
"It was Estaban. He was a double agent," I say.
I pause for a moment, as he continues to whisper through the comms. There's a voice. A voice coming from below me.
My index finger flicks my comms off briefly. Grey's voice is still muttering something in the distance. He must be close!
Then, more deep heavy boots thud below me. Grey! I need to save him!
Judging by the rate of their footsteps - there must be five… maybe six of them. I can take them! As long as I wait for the opportune moment.
The last boot pounds on the floor underneath.
3…2…1
Now!
Using all the momentum I can muster, I slam my entire body through the mental plate of the ventilation shaft, pouncing onto the first Storm soldier and simultaneously impaling a shuriken into his neck! His jugular is then sliced wide open!
A fountain of blood replaces his faint groans!
Already, the two in front of us are turning, their assault rifles locking with my body. However, their bullets only hit the body of their dead comrade as I use him as a shield. The blasts from their guns still rip through my ears!
Using the gun of the dead soldier, I then rapidly blast two shots into my two assailants' chests!
THUD
THUD
They hit the floor almost in unison.
Three dead. Two to go. My adrenaline takes over!
The next one is quick to be dispatched with an assault rifle that I snatched from the last but when I turn it on my final victim - it is suddenly jammed.
My heart stops! His eyes narrow in for the kill…
BOOM
My hands dart to my body for the bullet wounds riddled inside but… nothing.
Instead, the man in front of me crumbles to the corridor floor in a bloody heap.
Grey! Along with several rough, dirty-looking fighters. They're carrying old, scrappy firearms, ammo, some made-up explosives, and claymore mines under their brown jackets.
"Thank you…" I pant.
Grey's eyes dart to the multitude of bodies at my feet.
"Yeah… what would you have done without me?" He muses with a smirk.
"This building's getting too hot," I say, rushing past him to the end of the corridor.
"You got that right… while you were out, the Capitol has erupted into fighting between The Storm, people still loyal to the old regime, and us - the new resistance, I guess. They're saying it's gonna spread to the Districts over the next few days."
But he, along with our soldiers, remain still.
"Please tell me you've gotta way outta here?" I exclaim.
An explosion suddenly rattles the entire building, and the lights begin flickering on and off. Alarms echo all around us. My body is flung into the corridor wall, but my eyes remain fixed on Grey.
He's twiddling his hands awkwardly and tracing his foot across the floor in the most Grey way possible.
"C-Chiron and Amber have a hovercraft waiting below…" he stutters.
I dart over to him, seizing him by his grey, leather coat.
"Then what are we waiting for!" I shout, shaking him erratically.
But his eyes go inwards like a child searching for answers. All while gunfire and explosions rip through the air around us.
"Remember when you told me that there are things greater than us… greater than our personal interests?"
"I'm not hearing a point here!" I press, hastily.
He takes a deep breath and looks directly into my soul.
"We're heading to the control room…"
He isn't thinking what I think he is. Is he?
"They're a lost cause," I blurt, rolling my eyes.
However, his face is suddenly firm with purpose.
"It was Cornelius's last wish… before he choked to death in my arms…" he mutters.
Then, he shoves my hands off him and gathers the rest of our people to head in the opposite direction… leading up the stairs to the control room.
"We're going… you come with us if you want. Or stay here, sulking…it's up to you," he says with a cheeky grin.
And with that, they are gone - to the end of the corridor.
My eyes roll again to the back of my skull. I don't like his new attitude.
"Wish you'd have just stayed in your stupid little internship," I murmur under my breath.
It's a terrible, terrible plan… that's why I like it and I can't help but follow him now.
Sighing deeply, my legs take off after them - almost against my will at this point. The air in my lungs carries me through the building… nothing more.
Grey, 18
Yeah, this is reckless. This is foolhardy. But it was just something that old man said to me before he passed away in my arms. The child of his prophecy is still alive. Like Kate, I don't really believe all that crap. I'm a rational thinker. But as we storm through the shaking building together, enemies falling to our guns, I can't help but think that there has to be a point to all this death and suffering. They may be our enemies, but they are willing to die for their cause - same as us. There must be something that separates us. That has to mean something.
Me, Kate, and the remaining fighters swivel another corridor! A final corridor.
There they are! The doors to the control room! Two more Storm soldiers stand on guard however our own fighters rapidly raise their guns to fire multiple rounds into their heads! Blood splatters all over the door!
A sight I'm starting to get used to…
I turn my eyes to the exhausted Kate. Of course, she glares daggers in return. She looks like she's ready to rip my throat out. Understandable. I'm the one that led us on this suicide mission.
"Well, why stop now?" She quips with a disgruntled sigh.
We press our hands against the double doors to the control room, nudging it open and allowing the bodies of the two Storm soldiers to flop down inside.
Inside is a large, oval room, filled with various buttons on stations, holograms, and maps of the arena. All of the original game makers are dead or tied up, with Orion looking particularly sheepish, his mouth taped.
Members of the Storm hover over them, their assault rifles pointed to the back of their heads. The ringleader seems to be a bulky, tall, bearded man.
His eyes are particularly wild and vicious as he turns his assault rifle on us. Kate is one step ahead as always.
BOOM
She blasts a hole directly through his forehead and his body flops down immediately like a ragdoll.
"I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you're fired!" Kate exclaims.
Abruptly, a gunfight ensues in the control room between our fighters and the Storm! So I duck down and begin crawling between the panels. My face winces in pain as my palms touch the shattered glass. My body tumbles into a roll to the center of the room whilst bodies drop down all around me and bullets fly through the room.
I spent a semester studying this exact thing, game-making. So, I need to dig deep to the bottom of my brain to salvage anything I can.
Having said that, I never had any classes in the middle of a gunfight!
WHOOSH
A foot almost strikes my head!
Kate darts over and begins ripping wires out of one of the control panels.
"I hope that wasn't important!" She yells.
My throat swallows a gulp. "Kate!"
She spins round to face me, her eyes ablaze with a sudden ferocity.
"Leave it to me…" I whisper.
Seeing an opening, my legs pick me back up to face the hologram of the map. My hands rub together… time to go to work.
Kate Wakai, 18
Only four of us made it out after Grey did his little trick.
The bottom of the tower is in sight, but the Storm are now encircling us from all directions!
The final glass door smashes to pieces in front of us - the hovercraft is in sight! Our way out!
Chiron is pinned down behind some crates near the hovercraft with only a few fighters left at his side, bobbing under the oncoming fire.
And Amber… She's on the concrete - nursing a gushing gunshot wound to the gut.
"Argh!"
Something stabs into my shoulder! Metal and cold. A bullet, no doubt. I can't stop to inspect the damage but my arm is already dripping with blood!
My vision begins to fade while our feet carry us past Chiron who is still firing on past us!
But suddenly we're inside! Alive! My body collapses down to the floor whilst my hand fumbles to my aching shoulder!
That was the second narrow miss of my life that I'd rather have avoided but then again - getting myself into trouble has always been my game plan. Otherwise, why would I have ever volunteered for the hunger games at age 13?
Grey hops over me into the cockpit and plonks down. Immediately the engines fire up!
My eyes travel back to Chiron - he's outside, the hovercraft still open, firing! Amber is now motionless… lifeless in a puddle of blood.
"Chiron…" I groan, stretching my hand out.
My eyes fall back to Grey. "Wait! Wait for Chiron!" I croak with all my might.
"For God's sake Wakai… just go! Get out of here!" Chiron yells from below, Storm soldiers now closing in around him.
The last image that sticks in my mind is the sight of Chiron fighting to the end as the Hovercraft lifts us away…
But Grey guides the hovercraft off. Smoke engulfs the inside of the vehicle from above the burning buildings.
"Looks like it's just us now," he murmurs, his voice now softer than I've ever heard.
Here we go! Subplot chapter! I hope you enjoyed, next time we're returning to the arena to conclude the arena arc of this story before we go onto the epilogues. Big thank you to Goldie for beta-reading this chapter!