The Story Of An Allie And Cat - Journies In Panem

Chapter 3: Rescue

Disclaimer: I own my OCs and plot. Nothing else.

"In, in, in!"

Allie follows her friend, giggling quietly. They're carrying several broken billboard copies of the old President's face into a badly burnt old house, outside which stands a small group, all of them Snow's loyalists. "This is gonna be fun," Allie giggles. "Did you bring the markers?"

"Did I- Of course I did!"

"You're brilliant. Here, Cat, want some Mountain Dew?" Allie offers, taking a marker from her friend.

"Yeah, thanks," Cat smiles, taking the neon green bottle.

They put slogans on the broken pieces of Snow's billboards and stand at the windows, then grin at each other. Allie yells "Hey, Snow-pporters! Look here!"

Cat yells "Taste the revolution!"

They start to throw their signs to the ground. The group of loyalists start to throw rocks at the pair, shouting cruel things at them. Cat screams as a bit of rock flies past her, cutting her cheek. "You're gonna pay for that, you back-stabbing trashcans!" she yells, grabbing a match and lighting it, throwing it out of the building.

The gang laugh and throw more rocks at the girls. "What's going on here?" asks a posher voice, a more affected accent, definitely a woman.

"Two of the radicals, ma'am," one of the gang members say. "They're chuckin' stuff at us."

"It looks to me like you're throwing rocks at them. Now, kindly leave, I'll deal with the radicals," the woman says.

"No. You're that Escort! The one that sided with Everdeen and her gang!" another one shouts.

"And I am currently surrounded by thirty five snipers and a hovercraft containing sixteen officials and Haymitch Abernathy, the same man who led the Revolution, all of whom are ready to attack you all at the first sign of trouble. Leave now," the woman says, much to the two girls' relief.

The gang shuffle, and only seconds later, their running stomps are echoing. "Get out, she's crazy!"

The shout bounces off the walls and the woman's soft laughter sounds after them. She calls out "If there are any such rebels here, please step out and make yourselves known, as you are quite safe now."

Allie and Cat share a look before they step out into the open, spotting the woman in a bright pink suit. "Hi," Allie smiles, though her dark eyes are distrustful. She brushes a rebellious strand of her hair out of her eyes.

"Hello, girls. What are you both doing out around here, it's not a good place to be," the woman says, looking at them curiously.

"Our block of flats was bombed while we were out, where do you want us to be?" Cat asks, annoyed again. To calm herself and to bring her away from the thought of killing her to get some frustration out, she takes a large mouthful of Mountain Dew.

The woman looks at the girls and sighs. "Well, since you two are homeless, can you verify your status in the revolution and your loyalty to the Mockingjay?"

Both girls instantly pull their sleeves up. The symbol of the mockingjay is tattooed on their inner wrists. "We had it done when Eleven started their uprisings. We knew there'd be a war and neither of us want to stay out of a fight. That and Snow kept cutting our budget and upping our rent," Cat states.

"And he legalised our cats getting poisoned because that twit of a social worker he had planted in our building," adds Allie, looking irritated at the memory.

"Okay. I believe you both. Stay still for a minute," she says, then taps an order into a bracelet and as if on cue, three rope ladders drop from seemingly nowhere. "Grab on, girls, we're getting out of here."

Obediently, Allie and Cat grab rope ladders and feel themselves being pulled up. "Uh, no offence to you, but heights are not my thing," Cat says, looking down at the shrinking rubble of the Capitol.

"It's okay, you're perfectly safe," the woman smiles.

"That's what they said when the power went out," Allie mutters.

"Thanks, Allie, I needed that," Cat quips, looking sick.

The ladders come to abrupt stop and the woman leads them to some stairs. The girls follow and find themselves on board a hovercraft with Plutarch Heavensbee and the man they immediately recognise as Haymitch Abernathy, who happens to be looking at them with some degree of wariness. "Trinket, who are these girls?" Haymitch asks, looking at the woman in pink with less wariness.

"Oh! Um... Actually, I have no idea. Girls?" she asks.

Allie smiles and says "I'm Allie, this is Cat."

"Effie, you've picked up two Capitol strays?! You realise that they may be Snow's loyalists, right?" Haymitch asks.

"Not likely!" Cat exclaims. "That man's caused us more trouble than he's worth and his loyalists were just chucking stones at us! Look at this! I swear, I am gonna kill them all."

Haymitch looks at the cut on Cat's face and nods. "That'll need medical attention before you start getting all deadly with them. How did she know you're on the loyalist side?"

The girls show him their tattoos. "When the uprisings started. We may be Capitol girls, but we got the sharp end of the stick," Allie says. "Right up our a-"

"Allie, not the time to be talking about our metaphorical sticks!" Cat snaps, then blushes.

Plutarch scans the girls' wrists and says "They aren't lying."

"What would we have to gain by lying?" Cat asks, getting really annoyed by them.

Allie throws a bottle of Mountain Dew at her. "Drink that, Cat, you're getting cranky again."

"I was born cranky, Allie," Cat replies, then unscrews the lid, ready to drink it all.

"What's in those bottles?" Effie asks, looking to Allie.

"This really nice fizzy drink. It calms Cat and me down when we're angry and tired. Sort of."

"What do you mean by sort of?" Effie asks, concerned and curious.

Cat, swallowing her drink, says "Sort of means it does nothing but send us loopy for a few hours and makes us nicer to other human beings."

"As opposed to chucking Snow's loyalists off bridges," Allie deadpans.

"Exactly," Cat agrees, pointing to her friend.

"You two seem like a real bundle of laughs," Haymitch tells them, looking annoyed as they both finish bottles of Mountain Dew. "How many of those have you had?"

"Not enough," Allie tells him.

Effie asks "How come you were throwing his loyalists off bridges?"

Cat sighs. "Your turn to explain, Allie," she sighs.

"Well, we were in the store and one of his followers saw my tattoo and claimed we were rebels, so to keep her quiet, Cat taped her mouth and wrists and we took her out back, where we told her she had a choice, keep her mouth shut or have us kill her. She started screaming and we had no choice. Anyway, we'll spare you the details. She's not alive now and nor are her family. The others were all because they were trying to kill us, it was kill or be killed. Cat enjoyed it a little too much, though."

"Hey, so did you! Anyway, who wouldn't enjoy it? I've been waiting my whole life to finally strangle some of those trashbags," Cat tells them, a dark tone to her voice.

"Okay. Honey, what's in those drinks?" Effie asks, looking at the bottle.

Plutarch sighs "They're old-fashioned energy drinks, they're filled with caffeine. This is going to be the longest twenty minutes of your lives."