87th Games: The Aftermath

Hell Hounds

Recap~

I heard the distant rumblings of a hovercraft before Lumen did.

“No we can’t” I told her, biting my tongue to fight back tears. We were about to get caught and now I knew there was no way to save Arrow.

“What do you mean?” Lumen questioned. But before I could explain any further all we heard was the crackling of a loudspeaker.

“Scarlett Aspen and accomplice, stay where you are! We are peacekeepers of the capitol and hereby present you with a warrant for your imprisonment”.

The headlights were blinding, almost searing into my skull. I thought for a split second I was going to pass out.

Then everything went black.

I thought for a moment that I had passed out, but quickly realised the peacekeepers had shut down the spot lights.

~

“Run!” I had already started running and was shouting back to Lumen who seemed to be frozen, almost like a dear in the head lights.

The momentary black out gave us a 10 second window and I was going to utilise it. If I didn’t just die from a snake bite it was either going to be because of Lumens stupidity or simply getting caught and sentenced to capital punishment. I wasn’t sure about Lumen, but I would take the snake bite any day then be hung, shot or lethally injected in front of the whole of Panem. But then again, it wasn’t too far away from the theory behind the hunger games.

Lumen was now running along the field of grass behind me trying to catch up.

“Wait up!” She was complaining, her chest absolutely heaving as she sprinted after me.

I couldn’t stop. I needed to set apart whatever distance I could from us and the peacekeepers hover craft. I tried to run faster but quickly realised I couldn’t see anything; the night was pitch black.

“Lumen, I need the map!” I screamed. I had to stop leaving her with the brief case; she was a loose and unreliable end.

“I can’t” she yelled back. Before I could reply I heard the sound at least three ravaging dogs.

I whipped around and saw the dogs, but they were far from regular ‘dogs’. They looked like the kind of dogs that could drag me to hell. I briefly remember the people of the Capitol using these animals at pets but the dogs were too feisty and violent. They were prone to spontaneous attacks and would literally rip out the throat of their adversary.

“Hell hounds!” I screamed, my feet feeling glued to the ground. We had made great ground by running but would inevitably be no match for the deathly dogs. It was so incredibly dark but I could just make out Lumen’s white hair in front of me. I heard her drop the brief case, probably in terror.

I braced myself for a quick death but it never came.

“Down” Lumen yelled loudly, using a type of authority I have never heard come from her mouth. Her strong capitol accent shone through surprising me, probably the hell hounds too. These kind of ravaging dogs are only sent after lowly district people who disobey the law, not high capitol members learned in the ability to control them.

I walked forward so I could see what was going on. I could just make it out.

“Down!” she ordered again, holding her hands out to them. Her voice was calm and collected but held the kind of daggers that could easily shut someone down.

The hell hounds started to whimper and howl as they sat to obey her.

“What the hell are you doing?” I questioned, closing the distance between me, her and the dogs.