Catch Me Now -- Coriolanus Snow

Five

When she woke in the morning, she said her final goodbyes to Coriolanus. It was televised, so the tears were placed in her eyes again, her makeup done up red like she'd been crying all night. She kissed him, and he kissed her back. He whispered something in her ear, and then, it was time.

They put her in a special suit, nothing like how they'd kept previous Tributes in their Reaping clothes.

She stood in front of the door, all alone in the hall by herself. Her hair was neatly brushed back and tied into a bun, no makeup on her face. Peacekeepers had shoved her into the hallway, the door slamming shut behind her. She'd long given up on trying to escape, standing in front of the next door. She could hear beeping from outside, the timer counting down to the beginning of the Games.

"Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen..."

Her heart beat along to the timer, the seconds ticking by too slow and too fast. Her brain was fuzzy. She'd received clear instructions from Coriolanus to skip the Cornucopia entirely, to just run in whatever direction she could. She had a different plan, however.

"Five, four, three, two, one... let the Games begin!"

A buzzer sounded, and the door dropped into the floor with a crash. She froze for a moment, the light blinding, before jumping over the gap in the floor and stumbling into the Arena. Her head whipped around, gaze wildly searching.

"Jude!" she screamed, and again. There were people everywhere, twenty-three other Tributes all running at once. Someone came flying at her, and she ducked out of the way, watching as Pleur Copperwood from Three went careening down into the pit the door left behind. Bee stared after her, until she heard a shout.

She flinched back as a knife whizzed past her head, watching as a figure tackled the person who threw it, snapping their neck in seconds.

"Jude," she cried out in relief, and he stood, running towards her. He grasped at her face, checking over her for injuries, before taking her hand.

"We have to go, right now," he whispered. She looked out over the scene again, the half-moon where all the Tributes came from, and the wide berth of wooded land beyond it. She counted six bodies laying scattered about, not including Pleur. Seven down, fifteen to go, her and Jude excluded.

Together, they took off, staggering through the forest. Jude yanked her forward, slicing at underbrush with some sort of machete he'd picked up from the Cornucopia. He held her hand tightly, not once letting her slip out of grasp, out of sight.

They ran for what felt like hours, not seeing another soul as they did so. When they finally slowed, Bee sunk to the ground, chest heaving, lungs burning. Jude dropped down beside her, wrapping an arm around her form and pulling her close.

"We made it," he whispered. "There should be some place we can hide near here, something we can do."

Carefully, he helped her up, letting her catch her breath for a moment longer. She took stock of the weapons he had on him; a knife, a machete, and some round things she thought looked something like bombs.

"Can you get up in that tree while I go look for shelter?" he asked softly, rubbing her back. She looked to where he was pointing, frowning. The bottom branch was too high for her, though the upper ones were closer together.

"I don't think so," she told him. Without another word, he moved them closer, and began to lift her off the ground. She took the help, scrabbling to get into the tree. When she made it up onto the bottom branch, she looked back down at Jude. Pressing a knife into her hand, he stepped back. He gave the signal for her to climb further, but she paused.