The Hunger Games: Uprising!

Chapter 16

I look to Paylors security guard. I know her. She smiles at me and I know we've met before.

"Hello Katniss" she says

"Lyme?"

A former victor of the games from district 2. We worked together on the battle for the nut. It was Gale's idea that she followed. To bomb the mountain and bring down the avalanches and land slides.

We shake hands. Gale walks over and gives her a warm hug. I frown, a little surprised at this.

"Let's get going, we can do the whole reunion thing when we get back to the ship" says Gibbs.

We make our way along the train tracks and back through the tunnel. Paylor and Lyme in the middle of the column of soldiers with Gale and me either side, for the cameras.

We make good progress with no resistance. This is making me feel a little uneasy, apart from a couple of mutts and a few security cameras we've had no problems. It all seems a little too easy.

Suddenly there's a loud explosion from further down the tunnel, we all turn and run back in the direction we came from. The lights go out and all you can breathe is dust. The squad activate their rifle mounted flash lights but even with these the choking brown dust enables you to see only a few yards in front of you. All of a sudden I feel the oppressive weight of the ground above me, of being buried alive or blown to bits in a mine explosion. My fathers face comes into my mind reaching out to me.

I try to calm down, feel myself regaining my focus. I look down at my hands and see the pearl in my palm. Peeta. I wish I was with him now, safely wrapped in his arms without a care in the world. Haymitch's words suddenly come back to me, "remember who you are, try not to return to the dark place you came from. Remember Peeta"

I put the pearl back in my pocket and try to get a grip on my senses.

Gibbs comes on the intercom bringing my mind back on track.

"It looks like they've blown the tunnel further on. Fall back to the side room to regroup"

We make our way back to the side room and take stock of our situation. No one is injured although we're all caked in dust. Gibbs makes her way over to Gale and me.

"Do you two know of any other way out. Our route we used coming in is blocked so we need to try something else"

"The only other possible way out is the transfer. If we could hijack a truck we could drive our way out" says Gale

"How far to the nearest transfer tunnel?" she asks.

"We'd need to go up probably, find a ladder somewhere" I answer

Gibbs nods and walks over to Paylor and Joel.

"What do you think?" I ask Gale

"We need to move, they've blown the tunnel for a reason. They know we're here and they'll be hunting us down. You know this as well as I do"

"Movement" Joel announces

We look round to see Joel staring at the motion sensor.

"From where" asks Gibbs

"They're coming from behind us, multiple targets"

Trapped. That's what we are, like rats in a barrel. An army of mutts behind us with a blocked tunnel ahead of us.

"We need to move now" Gale says to the group.

"Any ideas?" asks Lyme

"We make our way toward the blockage, hopefully we'll find a way up. If we don't we've got a fight on our hands" Gale says smiling

Lyme nods smiling back at him.

"Okay, let's go, no caution, they know we're here so let's move as fast as we can" says Gibbs

We file out onto the catwalk and make our way toward the blocked end of the tunnel. Visibility is better but you can still only see about 20 metres. We continue on until the catwalk lists at an angle from the damage from the cave in.

There it is. An opening in the wall to a side door. The problem is it's half buried in rubble. Without a word being spoken four soldiers start moving rubble by hand. Throwing it to one side. The rest of us take up defensive positions, aiming along the catwalk and down to the tunnel floor.

Then we hear them. A haunting hissing sound which sends shivers down my spine. I pull an explosive arrow and arm it. Gun fire erupts from the squad. But their not firing at the ground, it's the tunnel ceiling their aiming for. I look up and see the mutts climbing along the ceiling toward us, their massive powerful hands and feet digging into the masonry.

I release the string and the arrow flies the short distance before hitting the first mutt in the back. In the deafening blast I see it has taken out most of the mutts hanging from the ceiling. We've gained some time but we need to get this door open.

I turn to the soldiers. The door is clear and one of them is setting an explosive charge on the door.

"Stand clear!"

There's a loud thud as the lock is blown and the door swings open. We all file through with Gale and I guarding Paylor with Lyme.

We make our way through another short tunnel toward a rusty old ladder. Everyone starts to climb up to the next level. We emerge onto another catwalk which leads onto another ladder that continues to go up. As Gale and I reach the catwalk we hear gunfire and agonised screams from the soldiers bringing up the rear, they must of been caught before they could climb up. I look at Gale and we both know that the soldiers below have no chance. I pull an explosive arrow from my sheath and arm it. I then reach out across the ladder opening and drop the arrow like a grenade. There's a loud thump from below followed by the sound of falling rubble. Then, silence.