Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
The Capitol,
Iridescence Sterling, 17
BANG.
The shot echoed in her ears, ringing around her skull as though it was all that mattered. Ares fell back, clutching his arm as red blood spewed across the floor, but so too did the doctor (not a doctor, couldn't be a doctor), his feet skittering across the floor. Iridescence glanced around for something heavy, anything, but the only thing that came to hand was the jug of water on the nightstand. She grabbed it as she sprang to her feet, slamming it into the fake doctor's face. Blood exploded from his nose. He toppled to the floor.
Iridescence rushed past him and grabbed at Ares, rushing him for the door. He was screaming too, but it was all incomprehensible. And her head was still filled with stars, the floor sticky beneath her bare feet.
Luminita caught her as she fell, taking her weight against her shoulder and helping her out.
"Ares–" gasped Iridescence, reaching for him. "Oh god– Ares– No–"
"We can't stay here. We need to get out of here," said Phoenix.
"This is a hospital; we can't just leave–"
"The doctor just tried to shoot you!" snapped Luminita.
"He can't have been an actual doctor–"
"Come on!" Phoenix pulled on her arm.
"What about Ares?"
"We'll– I don't know. We'll think of something. Come on!"
The door clattered open behind them, and that spurred Iridescence into action, stumbling after her sister down the hallway. Bulletshots echoed in the enclosed space. The screams of panicked patients filled the hospital.
"Hurry up!" called Vivaldi.
"I'm going as fast as I can!"
He ducked under her arm to allow her to lean on him, pulling her behind a wall as another shot came too close for comfort.
"Zephyr!" Luminita shouted, clamping her hands over her ears. "You stopped guns before! Can't you do something?"
"Celeste did the gun thing!"
"Then make her try!"
"It doesn't work like that!"
Another bang, another shot, blazing pain in her leg. She screamed and fell against Vivaldi.
Zephyr fumbled with his blindfold. "Celeste– Celeste, the gun–" He flung his hand out, as though he thought he might stop bullets–
And the lights went out.
Emeria Delilah Echavoque, 15
It took them a half hour to clean up Calpurnia's grave. Emeria hadn't known her well, though she had known she was never the nicest person. Marcellina mostly seemed to follow along. Still, it was only right to keep this clean.
She rocked back on her heels as Marcellina cleared the last of the mud. Her phone buzzed. She pulled it out. The latest message floated above the screen.
Visiting now.
"What?" Emeria muttered, tapping in her passcode and pulling up the prior messages. Her heart sank. "Fuck."
"What is it?"
"Come on, we gotta go. Iridescence is in hospital."
"What?"
"Luminita said she had a seizure. Like she was having during the simulation."
"Oh no!"
"They're in Palbrooke. We better get there."
Marcellina's dad quickly agreed to drive them, and they hurried to the car. Emeria twisted her hands together, typing out questions in the group chat and then deleting them. The street shot past them outside.
As they approached the hospital, it descended into darkness, the lights winking in the windows flicking out all at once.
Zephyr.
Emeria's thumb hovered over the message button, and then she changed her mind. Zephyr having knocked out all the lights couldn't be a good sign.
"What's going on?" whispered Marcellina.
On the third floor of the hospital, something exploded.
"I'm hazarding a guess at Zephyr."
Though she'd never seen him explode anything before.
That was quite impressive.
Vivaldi Perlman, 16
He managed only a short way down the hall, tripping and stumbling after Phoenix, before he realised he was getting wet. Rain indoors? No. The sprinklers had come on. Alarms blared from up and down the corridor.
"What did you do?" shouted Phoenix.
"I don't know! I thought– the gun–" Zephyr yelled back. The lights flickered on and off above them.
"Just keep going!" snapped Luminita.
Vivaldi risked a glance over his shoulder. He couldn't see the fake doctor, but that didn't mean he wasn't just around the corner.
"What did I miss and why are we being shot at?" asked Iridescence.
They spilled out into a staircase much plainer than the rest of the building. Probably for staff. They should paint it green, it would look much more appealing–
The lights flared back to life, overly bright, sharp and glaring. Vivaldi lost his footing in his surprise and crashed to the floor, rolling down the stairs.
"Vivaldi!" shrieked Phoenix, hurrying to pull him to his feet.
Gunshots cracked above them. Vivaldi caught a glimpse of the shooter as he rolled to his feet. Not the doctor, this was a woman.
"Shit!" he yelled, grabbing Phoenix and throwing her down the stairs ahead of him. Something hard hit him in the hip, followed by sharp pain. He screamed, his knee buckling.
Zephyr flung his hands out. "ENOUGH!"
For a moment there was silence, still and suffocating. It felt as though the entire world was holding its breath, like everything was frozen and waiting for the next instruction.
"Throw the gun down the stairwell," said Zephyr.
The woman's stance wavered. The gun shook in her hands.
"Throw it."
She threw it.
"Go away," said Zephyr.
The woman turned and left.
One by one, the striplights returned to normal.
"Zephyr," Vivaldi said, pressing his hand to his hip, where he was weeping blood from the bullet wound, "Has anyone ever told you how creepy you are?"