Her Victory, Their Life| F. Odair

29. Fighting Finally Begins

The next morning everyone got up and was ready to move forward. Boggs took off Peeta's cuffs and held up something, "Listen up. Mag's empty. It's only for the propo." He put the mag in the gun and gave it to Peeta. Emory looked down at her own, was she really to be trusted with it?

"Let's move. We're headed five blocks north." They headed out with Boggs leading the group. Finnick walked with Peeta and helped him practice his speech he was supposed to give.

Emory was walking with Evan and he was keeping an eye on her. He thought she would be fine, but she wasn't sure of it. They walked out of the building and everything looked abandoned.

There was debris everywhere and most of the statues and houses were destroyed. They used most of the back alleys to avoid most of the pods.

"Boggs," one of the camera people/ directors called. "This is a good spot. Through there, in the courtyard."

"Okay, let us clear it," he said, walking down the stairs to check if the courtyard had any pods around. Everyone filed down and he scanned the area until the holo started beeping. "Got a pod. Split. Take cover." Emory took cover with Peeta and Finnick. "Stay back." Boggs threw a rock and giant guns went off. Emory covered her ears and stayed back against the wall. The shooting stopped and Boggs went to check it out. "All clear.Gale, Homes, with me. Leegs, take the wings." Another explosion went off and Boggs was thrown in the air.

Everyone gasped and several ran to him. Emory looked behind her and Peeta looked almost like he was in pain. "Hey, you're okay, everything's okay," she told him. "We're not there, we're not in the games."

One of the Leeg sisters walked past them and stopped as she stepped on something. "Run," Emory whispered and Evan and Finnick looked at her confused. Walls started to close them into the area and she nodded, "Run." Evan and her broke it into a sprint and the others followed them. Somekind of black liquid that was fast moving started chasing them.

"Go, go, go! This way!"

"Keep moving."

"Let's go, soldiers!" Jackson yelled. "Get to higher ground! Move!" Peeta tried grabbing Katniss, but Mitchell grabbed him off. Peeta threw him into the black oil and Finnick grabbed him.

"Finnick!" Emory yelled for him. They were too close to the oil. One of the others shot out a door and they started running in.

"Come on, come on! Come on! Don't stop! Let's go!" They ran up two flights of stairs before they were caught at a dead end, the stairs leading to the next flight were destroyed.

Everyone got to the last level and they put down one of the leeg sisters who was injured and Finnick came in, shoving Peeta into a corner. Evan grabbed a shot and stabbed it into his neck. Emory looked away, she couldn't watch it after they had done it so many times in the past. Peeta slowly stopped and leaned against the wall as everyone looked to the oil.

It had started slowing down just as it made it to the top of the stairs. Then, you could hear a suctioning noise it started receding, leaving everything covered in it.

"Gamemakers are still putting on quite a show."

"Hey, we better move. If Peacekeepers didn't know where we were, they do now," Finnick reminded everyone.

"Those surveillance cameras caught us," Castor announced.

Gale looked out the window, "This is a bad spot. We need to move now." Emory looked annoyed.

"Well, we can't move until it's drained so once it is, I suggest we move quickly and quietly," she remarks with a sarcastic smile.

"451 to base. Come in," Jackson tried again with her walkie. "451 to base. Over. I can't get a signal," she sighed. "But I can get us back to base. Everdeen, give me the Holo." Katniss didn't make a move to do so. "Everdeen, what did I just say? The Holo. Come on, let's go."