After the supposed dead tributes showed up in a dog pile (with Cato groaning in pain at the bottom of course) it was quite obvious something was going on.
They didn't even have to talk to decide they all needed to stay low and try and figure out if the loop had been broken. None of them wanted to die permanently after all.
Needless to say, after appearing not only alive but perfectly alive in the middle of the victors village, one of the most monitored places in the whole district.
Well none of them should have even believed they'd be able to get away with it.
Two days later only four of them were still alive.
Six months, that was how long they lasted until only Katniss was left.
Of the four who had managed to live more than forty eight hours, Cato had died two months in, after saving the rest of them as they fled. Rue died next, a week or two later.
After that it was just her and Peeta.
At least until he died mere hours ago to a missile bombardment. Really it said something that just the four of them had not only set the districts into open rebellion within a week of reappearing, but also had what amounted to small armies sent after them.
Really it was kind of entertaining just four teenagers obliterating hundreds of highly trained military personnel. At some point they had stopped sending men and had just started sending out air strikes.
Not that it had been a winning strategy really, shooting down a jet quickly became childsplay and soon enough they returned to the regular meat grinder. Amusingly enough most of the Capital itself joined the rebellion, not because they believed the districts deserved freedom but because they didn't enjoy having their relatives getting killed rather pointlessly.
Regardless, it all led to this moment. She, the gir on fire, Katniss Everdeen, the only surviving tribute, against an armada of peacekeepers marching in line of tanks as they prepared to bombard her position with everything from mortars to tank shells, and she could even see a few jets in the distance.
She felt the grief and anger reignite in her chest as she slung her bow off her shoulder pulling out one last arrow from her quiver. A steadying breath drawn in with confidence only an eternity of practice could give as drew the arrow back.
Then she let the rage ignite as she burst into an inferno, the flames a tower spire of heat as the ground beneath her feet turned cherry red in only seconds. Cinders lit in her eye sand as sparks flew off her as everything burned. Even herself.
An amused thought crossed her mind as she let the arrow loose, the cry of a mockingjay screeching through the air as the arrow trailed fire and ash.
She always would be the Girl On Fire.
She snapped awake confused as she found herself standing in a very familiar position, the electronic tone of the clock counting down once again ringing in her ear as she fell to her knees.
Katniss Everdeen smiled, tears trailing her face as she met similarly stunned faces as they all realized they were still alive!
As alway,s they had way too much time on their hands.
Something knew they found out about the loop, if any of them managed to last six months after the game they would all respawn so to speak.
It was still very confusing, and none of them were really sure why. Amusingly enough they found that some of them served as better anchors than others.
For example if she, Katniss that is, lasted six months then they would all just spawn in a pile a couple of feet in front of her.
If Rue managed it they would find themselves scattered across district 11. If Peeta did it than they would find themselves in random Bakeries all across Panem.
Honestly Peeta was kind of her favorite, mostly because she consistently found herself face deep in a cake of random flavor. It was a spectacular way to wake up, even if it did usually end with her being chased by an army of peacekeepers while her face was covered in frosting.
It did make for some quite amusing headlines though.
Clove, well if clove did they tended to find themselves in what some might consider amusing places they really shouldn't be.
For example waking up under a rather expensive looking desk. Katniss didn't even bother wondering what was going on as she crawled out from the cramped space. Stretching she took a minute to look around, it was, well it was definitely in the capital.
White walls, weird looking architecture, nice expensive leather couch ect.
Really the couch probably cost enough to fee district twelve for at least a year, Maybe two.
It did look vaguely familiar but she couldn't bring herself to try and figure out why, Instead she did the normal thing and started looking through the desk drawers.
Paperwork, Paperwork, Pictures, pictures, More Paperwork, Ooh wine.
Pulling the bottle out from the hidden cubby in the desk Katniss pulled an arrow out from her quiver. A quick jab and it was lodged in the cork firmly enough to safely pull it out. A swift yank later and she threw the now useless arrow to the side and took a swig from the bottle.
Hmm that's pretty good, it had an almost sweet after taste as she all but chugged alcoholic drink straight from the bottle.
She wasn't really sure how long she'd been there, only that the bottle was completely empty when the door opened. She had the bottle up to her eye as she looked into the bottle sadly wondering where it had all gone when the door slipped open.
Through her one open eye she could just barely make out the face of Director Snow through the distortion in the glass. Instinct took hold and before she realized it she'd already sent an arrow right into the director's heart. She could only stared stunned at the man's dead body before shrugging.
She flipped off the corpse as she walked out the door, stumbling and drunk as she decided to see just how long she'd last before they managed to set off an alarm.
Sadly she only made it three hours before someone finally noticed her trail of corpses, admittedly dying of a stomach wound really sucked.
Director Snow's face when he stumbled upon her, very much drunk off her ass, in his office made it worth it though.
Killing Each other was, well it was still just as fun as sixteenth loop when they all just let loose assured they wouldn't stay dead. Finding new ways to kill each other on the other hand was getting pretty hard by what had to be at least the three hundredth loop.
So they made a plan, and now all of Panem was in a tuff trying to figure out where the hell all the tributes had gone.
None of them thought to check the Ice cream shop in the middle of the capital.
The eighty or so loops it took to do it without a hitch were very much worth it. Especially for whatever type of ice cream this was with the capital's very strange naming sense.
Honestly she would do it all again just to see Rue's stunned smile when the absolute tower of Ice cream she ordered came out. It was made even better when they all decided to play hide and seek with the Peacekeepers sent after them.
Sure it took almost a week to figure out they were in the capital, but that just made it all the more fun really. Rue had taken and almost cruel amusement in setting some of the most embarrassing traps she could.
Katniss still wasn't sure how that one peacekeeper had been glued to the ceiling. Fun stuff though and she was pretty sure the guy had been traumatized for life after Clove took the time to give the guy a seminar on her preferred weapon, she hadn't hit him once not that he seemed to notice.
Unfortunately that loop came to end when Cato did something to Director Snow and suddenly District Thirteen came out of nowhere. With a very, very big nuke.
The mushroom cloud was very pretty for the twelve second she'd seen before the blast wave struck.