A Game Of Justice ✭ Cato Hadley

Eighteen - Take Me To District Two

15th September 75PD

Brutus and Enobaria quietly close the door to the secret room with the Academy behind them making sure that the flag doesn't get caught in the hinges. Inside, Lyme and the many guards involved in the rebellion are waiting for them around the table.

"What's going on?" Brutus asks.

"It's time." Lyme states simply.

"As in time to get everyone evacuated?" Enobaria clarifies.

"Yes." The older victor nods. She directs their attention to the camera pointing at different areas of the district. They can see that the rebels have moved the fighting to the outskirts of the principal city; and there's a small horde of armed soldiers, dressed in protective bulletproof armour, crawling slowly at the bottom of the city. They look confused as they stick to the cobblestone pathways, looking around as if trying to recall instructions.

"Is that Finnick Odair?" One of the guards asks.

Lyme nods. "Yes. I'm due to intercept them in the Nut this afternoon to look over their plans. I'll then be leading them through the tunnels to their camp in the basement. Enobaria, Brutus, you have until ten a.m. tomorrow to make sure everyone you wish to help is in that safe zone. Brutus bring Cato here for nine; Enobaria, I'll meet you inside by the back entrance at ten. We will join you with our guests. It's possible there will be loyalist fire."

Both victors nod, spending some time to note the facial features of the guards as they commit Lyme's orders to memory; because if the rebels are in the principal city then everything has become much more serious. Every small choice is now a matter of life or death.

"And the code word?' Enobaria questions.

The older victor's lip curls into a smile. "Anything you can think of. Something that on its own doesn't make sense."

Enobaria thinks. She thinks of all the things that Cato's family, and the families of his friends, would talk about in the however long they're stuck underground for. She thinks of Clio. The idea comes to her instantly. "Cinnamon."

"Cinnamon?" Lyme is confused but doesn't dare ask Enobaria to change it, understanding that it must have some kind of meeting. She looks at the guards in the room, all twelve of them, each of whose only job is to stay alive in the upcoming warfare. "Alright then. Whichever of you goes to collect them when this is all done, ask them if they have any cinnamon."

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Finnick has never been more nervous as he helps several District Thirteen soldiers sneak onto a slow moving cargo truck in one of the agricultural import bases in the south of District Two. It was hard enough to sneak a large group of armed soldiers into a fenced area filled with meat imported across the border Ten, let alone onto a truck packed with plastic wrapped wince filling it to the brim.

He breathes a sigh of relief as he hides behind a tall stack without knocking it over, and the worker tasked with driving the truck to the next city doesn't bother to check the back.

One of the soldiers looks at him for direction, despite the fact that he's not leading the operation. "What now?" He asks.

Finnick shrugs. "We wait. We'll have to change at the next city to avoid a shootout, so we need to keep to our watch schedule."

As the others nod and when they begin to organise the watches, Finnick zones out. He didn't expect District Two to be this tough; despite being well aware of the culture and habits. The group have been walking for nearly five days, taking rest breaks overnight to recharge but maintaining a strict watch schedule in case they're discovered, and it's taken everything out of them.