The Hunger Games: Death of the Mockingjay

Chapter 26

It's dusk when I reach the Brotherhood's encampment. It appears to be the ruins of a group of buildings which sit on an island in the swamp. I can understand why they'd choose this location as it's relatively safe from attack by mutt's as the swamp serves as a natural defence. Flaming torches burn brightly from different locations around the camp which illuminate the whole area. I wade in closer trying not to make any noise but it seems as if the camp is deserted.
Looking at the ruins it appears that only the walls remain, the roofs of the buildings seem to of rotted or burned away years ago. I circle round the camp, with only my head above water in an attempt to keep myself concealed. Camp fires burn inside a few of the old buildings, sleeping bags, backpacks and other personal belongings litter the area, more evidence that this is truly the base of the Brotherhood pack. But where are they, are they all out hunting for me?
I pick up movement in one of the buildings to my left. Two men are sat around a large camp fire drinking what appears to be bottles of beer. As I slowly circle my way round I recognise one of them as the tribute who tried to kill me back at the ship. I wade in closer to try to listen in.

"What you gonna do when we get outa here?" asks a purple haired man who must be about my age. The glow of the fire exposes a deep scar across his right cheek.

"Dunno, I guess we see what happens here then follow whatever orders Lucifer has for us"

"What do you think he'll do. I mean after we beat the victors and silence the rebellion that is?"

"I have no idea Scorpio, only the great one knows what lies in store for us"

Scorpio? The purple headed man must be a Director, but what of his friend. He sounds as if he's a leader of some sort, above the level of the Directors but below the Chairman. Could he be an assistant maybe?

"This isn't what I expected, I thought we'd of beaten them by now" says Scorpio.

"No, these people are experienced in the games, they've been here and lived it. This was never gonna be an easy win even with the guns we brought in"

"And we're nearly out of ammo"

"Yep, that was my fault. I thought we could get her when she was stuck on the ship but we failed, or I failed. We waisted a lot of our ammunition on trying to kill her" says the leader while poking at the fire with a stick.

"Don't think of it like that Draven. Like you said they're smart, this is different to any sort of fighting we've done before.

"Yeah I guess. But I know Lucifer would be disappointed with how things have gone so far, he'd of wanted results.

"But we got Hawthorn, and today we got her ally. Slowly we're beating them.

My ally, Who are they talking about? I think to myself.

"That's right, and tomorrow we'll finish em off" replies Draven

"Have you figured it out yet, how we're gonna do it?"

"Yeah I got it figured. When the search parties return I'll brief em. But what we'll do is split into two groups. One will make their way to the beach to the south where there aren't any mines and swim up to the ship. Then they'll get into the tunnel using the path through the mines that Hawthorn and his soldiers cleared"

"Yeah, and what else?" asks Scorpio excitedly.

"Team two will launch a frontal assault on the bunker itself. These will be made up with the remaining Sparrows and our younger, less experienced members"

"So they'll be a sort of diversion?"

"Exactly, the rebels will be so busy defending the bunker from the sparrows that our elite tributes will take the bunker from the beach, it'll be a slaughter"

"And Plutarch can't warn them either" says Scorpio clapping his hands together in glee.

"Yep, I know some of you weren't happy at me giving our comm advantage away to Katniss but it needed to be done. Otherwise he'd of warned them of our attack, I needed them to cut themselves off from Plutarch so they were completely blind to us and our plan"

"When will the search parties get back, it's getting late and you never know. They might of already killed the Mockingjay?"

"Maybe, but I doubt it. Katniss Mellark is smart and cunning, I didn't think we'd be able to kill her quite so easily.

"But this plan of yours, sending out our brothers and sisters to hunt her down, why do it if we were gonna kill em tomorrow anyway?" questions Scorpio with a frown.

Draven stares at the flames in thought "That was a double edged sword of a plan if ya see what I mean. We might of got lucky and ran into her but I also figured that her pack would of been out searching for her and we could get a free kill if you like"

"And we did, we saw it announced across the sky!" shouts Scorpio as he thrusts his fist into the air.

"Yep we got him, Cato is no more" says Draven as he downs the last of his beer.

I struggle to stifle a gasp at the news, Cato dead? It seems almost impossible to me, yes he'd been overconfident since he entered the arena but I never thought the Brotherhood would be good enough to beat a Mutt that was grown to compete in the Games, I thought he was almost invincible. And the fact that he'd gone out into the arena to search for me was something I didn't even think he'd do, but, come to think of it who else is searching for me, the Rapiers, Haymitch, I just hope Peeta isn't wandering around trying to seek me out.

Two young Brotherhood members join Draven and Scorpio at the campfire and report to their leader. I take the opportunity to leave the camp while the conversation continues as I slowly back away into the deep darkness. I continue until the camp is a distant glow in the distance before I circle round and head back toward the dunes. I need to get back to the Bunker and warn the others of tomorrows attack before all is lost.