It was time they knew about everything.
"Time for you guys to follow me," I say, taking the helm of the group. "Plutarch is preparing something dangerous, something that will cause mass causalities and death if we don't stop him."
"And what's that exactly?" Peeta asks through gasping breaths.
"War machines," I respond, trying to slow down a little for his sake. I bump into Gale instead, who turns to me with a stern frown.
"No slowing down," he says. "If you need it, I'll take the point, and you tell us where to go."
As much as I wanted to disagree with him, for Haymitch's sake, I knew deep down he was right.
"No," I clapped back. "I've got it."
My feet picked up to their original pace, and I could hear Peeta trying to gasp for air through long strides.
"We're almost there," I tell the group behind me. Our footsteps sound like thunderclaps inside the empty hallway, and I can't help but notice just how quiet and deserted the place looks all of a sudden.
Something's definitely going on.
My paranoia hit me hard, making my feet scamper faster. After a while, we headed down the deserted hallway I was familiar with. The big yellow caution sign loomed in the distance, accompanied by the debris of tables and chairs. As we got closer, my eyes caught the ripple effect of the false wall. Just like in the 75th.
"Wait!" Finnick yells out.
We all come to a halt, me just a few feet from the false wall. I turned around in frustration, a scowl on my face, because I knew we were wasting time.
"How are we supposed to get through now?" Finnick says to me, "That will take way too much time to scour through all that!"
"Exactly," I respond back with a snarky grin. "We go through it. Just like this." And with that, I slowly walk through the sign, the warm, fizzling sensation on my skin making my hair stand on edge.
I'm through the wall and am met by the large metal door.
"What the hell?" I hear Gale say this through the false wall. It begins to fizzle as I see Gale reach his hand through, testing the wall and his sanity simultaneously.
"They had something like this in the 75th too," I hear Peeta say to him. "This one just seems like a fake wall. Completely harmless. In the last game, I accidentally hit one with my machete and died. I woke up to Finnick's lips on mine. I would have rather stayed dead than have that image locked into my mind."
"Don't act like you didn't like it, Mr. Mellark," Finnick says to Peeta, teasing him. Peeta owed Finnick his life, and he knew it.
"Can you guys stop bickering and get over here already?" I yell out from behind the fake wall.
Each man takes a turn going through the wall. Finnick looks at the wall full of locks and picks up the heaviest one with the butt of his gun.
"Now, how are we supposed to get through all this?" He yells out in frustration.
I pressed a finger to my lips and hushed him. "All these keys are false," I told him. "All I have to do is press my hand on the door and say his EID."
"EID?" Finnick asked.
I huff in frustration and waive him off. We were losing valuable time, and as far as I knew, Haymitch could be on the line. "You're asking too many questions. Another time."
Following in Haymitch's footsteps, I pressed my hand to the center of the door and said exactly what he said. But nothing happens. No disappearing locks or doors. Anxiety began to lock my chest up, and my breathing started to get heavier.
What the hell?
"You're doing it exactly the way Haymitch did the first time?" Gale asks, stepping next to me and examining the door.
"The same, exact way," I tell him. "Maybe it matches fingerprints?"
"That," Gale agrees. "And also maybe some type of voice recognition."
I hadn't thought of that. Shit!
"Then we're officially screwed," Finnick says from behind us. "Without Haymitch here and no EID from any of us, there's no way to get through this."
Just as Finnick finished his sentence, all the locks on the door fell and began to fade out of existence. Instinctually, we all flattened ourselves to opposite walls and tried to hide as best as possible. There was merely a five-foot space between the false wall and the door, so there were not many places to try and stay hidden. As the door began to sizzle away, complete darkness took over the room. Heavy breaths could be heard as Peeta, Gale, Finnick, and I tried our best to stifle ours. One by one, we could hear the familiar sizzling sound of people stepping through the barrier. The heavy footsteps and slight metallic shine coming from the boots of the people made me think they were soldiers of some kind. After counting around 25 flickers of reality, quiet fills the tiny space again.
"Think they got word of our little scuffle with the other three?" Peeta asks quietly.
"Definitely," I answer back in a hushed tone. "Let's go before the door reappears."
We walk to where the door once was and feel the familiar static sensation.
Two fakes? Maybe that's why Haymitch had me wait here.
Once we get to the other side, light blinds us, and it all takes us a few seconds to familiarize ourselves with our surroundings. The giant machines all stood in the exact same way I had witnessed before, but the metal boxes that I was able to hide behind were gone. It was eerily quiet, as not a single soul was around. No one was at the glass overlook, and no one was on the ground floor either. We were completely out in the open and ripe for the picking. Just as I was going to urge the group to seek cover, a familiar sound hit my eardrums. That of wailing agony. And a wailing agony I recognized.
"Haymitch!?" I bellowed out. "Where are you!?"
Before anyone could say anything, I was running at full force towards where I thought the screaming was coming from. I needed to save him the same way he's saved me in the past. Down a flight of concrete stairs on the far side of where we entered was a trail of blood. I ran down them as quickly as possible, almost falling down a number of times. Finnick, Gale, and Peeta brought up my rear as I launched myself through the wooden door at the bottom of the stairs, with no account for my body. The wooden door stood no match for my adrenaline-induced exertion, as the door exploded from the force of my shoulder. I landed square on my right shoulder, and a flash of pain electrified my nerves. I stood up, ignoring the mind-numbing pain, which almost brought tears to my eyes, and surveyed my surroundings. The room we were in was a tiny box. Standing at around 50 square feet, the only illumination was coming from a swinging ceiling bulb that flickered on and off with each sway. The walls were concrete and gray, with deep grooves caked with crimson. It seemed like this was a torture chamber of sorts.
In the middle stood a chair with a man in it, head down and eyes closed. His hands were bound behind him, and for a second, I thought the man was dead. But then I recognized the bloody man. The only telltale sign it was him was the way his golden locks fell over his face as his head lolled. The same way I had seen it countless times before.
"Haymitch!"
He was battered and bruised almost beyond recognition. His hair was caked with dry blood, his right eye was swollen shut, and one corner of his lip was split open, with blood slowly dribbling down onto the concrete below. His pant legs had been ripped off, exposing his Achilles heels, which had been sliced open horizontally. Possibly to immobilize him. His left arm was bent in an unusual way from the elbow. It was definitely broken. The slight raise in his shoulders from his shallow breathing meant he was still alive, but from the looks of him, he was barely hanging on.
We all ran to his side, and before I could even lay a finger on him, the room exploded in an ear-splitting racket. Around 10 guards, all equipped with rifles, stockpiled into the room, surrounding us. We knew they would not hesitate to pull their triggers on us, so we all raised our hands in surrender, with Finnick, Gale, and Peeta dropping their guns to the ground and kicking them towards the entrance of the room.
"You stupid, insolent children! Can't you get it through your heads that nothing good will come of any of this?"
I recognized that voice instantly.
"Plutarch," I say to the entrance of the room.
His plump figure emerges from the door frame, and I have to stop myself from throwing myself at him in a fit of rage.
"This is what the "revolution" is all about." I ask him as he studies us with arms folded behind his back.
"Silly girl, you think you know everything, but you're so mistaken it's almost laughable!" He says this and lets out a hearty laugh, making his prominent belly bounce at each cackle. "Take everyone to the observation room, including him," he tells the guards, pointing to Haymitch's broken body.
"Touch him again, and I'll..." I start to say it but can't finish as the butt of a weapon sends me to my knees.
"Another word from you, girl, and I send a bullet through his skull!" Plutarch says, pointing to the barely conscious Haymitch. "Now move it!"
We reluctantly oblige, and we make our way up the concrete steps, around the large warehouse of war machines, and up to the observation room. The large flight of stairs into the observation room are metal, winding up precariously to a large metal door. Everyone files into the room, and Haymitch is thrown to the ground, spraying blood on the metal floor. Before I could run to his aid, one of the guards pointed his gun at me and motioned me to the other side of the room. Peeta, Finnick, Gale, and I are dropped to our knees and have our hands bound together with rope.
Plutarch begins to pace in front of us with a vile smile on his face. "If you would've just followed along and not gone poking around in business that doesn't concern you, this could've all been avoided!"
He looks over at Haymitch's barely conscious body and spits on him. It lands on his hair, setting off a burning rage inside me.
I can't wait to get my hands on you!
"There is too much on the line for a few teenagers to get in my way!" He continues. "Soon everything will be clear to you all."
Suddenly, the sound of scraping metal brings everyone's attention to the ceiling of the hangar as it begins to open. A small helicopter begins to lower itself down and eventually lands with a loud thud onto the concrete below. I can barely make out the occupants of the helicopter, as my view is obstructed by the many guards surrounding me.
After about a minute or two, I can hear the tip-tap of shoes on metal as the mysterious occupant makes his way up to us. The sound gradually gets louder and louder, and finally, a knock on the door brings everyone's attention to it.
"You will finally know the truth, once and for all," Plutarch says to me as he makes his way towards the door.
He opens the door, and a familiar scent catches my nose. That one of sweet, scented roses.
"No," I say aloud. "It can't be."
The figure enters the room, and I can't quite believe my eyes as he slowly walks to us, his thick heels tapping along the metal ground. The rose smell quickly fades and is replaced by one that gives me flashbacks to the games and to Gale's scarred back after his whipping at the post: blood. And with that, I immediately began to break out into a cold sweat.
"We meet once more, Ms. Everdeen. What a pleasure it is to see you again."
I look up to meet the snake-like eyes of Coriolanus Snow glaring back at me.
Authors Notes: Happy New Year, everyone! I took a break to spend time with family and friends for the holidays, but I am back now to give the shocking conclusion to this story in a few weeks' time. This chapter was definitely one of my favorites to write, so I hope you enjoy it as well! The story is getting down to the nitty-gritty, and I don't think any of you are ready for the ending I have in mind. As always, feel free to leave a review, and thank you all for everything you do!