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Prologue
The sound of Coriolanus's screams echoed through the woods with the sound of the Mockingjay's carrying his pleas in between the towering trees. He sounded different to her, almost insane. He had lost his mind. Lucy Gray weaved her ruffled skirt through the forest. She remembered his face after he murdered Mayfair, the fear and contentment that had flowed through his trembling body that dark afternoon. The way he had never been the same after Sejanus's hanging. She heard loud gunfire ring out from behind her as she stumbled over moss-covered rocks and almost twisted her ankles in small holes in the ground. Lucy Gray didn't stop running nor bother to turn her head. Even if Coriolanus was nowhere near her, she wouldn't allow him to catch up. Would he kill her? She had not a clue.
She found hot tears running down her flushed cheeks. She had never felt so confused and betrayed in her whole life. Not even the madness of the Hunger Games could compare to the mixed emotions that flooded her mind. She was on her own now, with no cameras to keep her company, no drones carrying gifts that could crash by her out here... nothing could save her. She found a tall tree with sturdy branches to keep her out of sight as she hoisted her body to the first limb and swung her legs to the side. The pine needles were prodding her from every direction while the tacky sap from the branches coated her callused palms. She was about thirty feet above the ground when she found a sturdy branch to sit on and prop her feet up. She leaned back against the tree trunk and sighed, catching her breath from the long climb to her perch. The sun was beginning to set, and the wind blew through the branches of the trees. Lucy Gray remembered when she was little how she climbed trees when her friend's played hide-and-seek; she would always win. She was at once snapped back to reality when she heard a crunch coming from a couple of branches below where she was sitting. It was a small bird with a rounded belly and blue stripes down its back. She leaned over to get a better look. She carefully pulled her arm across her chest and lowered it toward the creature, slowly extending her pointer finger. The diminutive bird examined her finger and hopped on when it suspected she wasn't a threat. She lifted her arm with the bird perched on her finger and held it about a foot from her face. Back in the covey, they would sing songs with the patterns of bird calls. She hummed a tune to the creature before it flew to a neighboring tree, gone as quickly as it had arrived. She pondered into the distance. She could see trees for miles on her left and the small District 12 town to her right.
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Coriolanus was the most outgoing person Lucy Gray had ever met. How he had come to the train station the day she arrived at the Capital, greeting her with a rose and a kind smile. When he held her hand as they entered the arena on the day of the bombing. The way he believed in her when no one else would. But now, she was thirty feet in a pine tree, hiding from that very man. Lucy Gray pinned her body precariously between two branches to ensure she wouldn't fall to her death as she tried to get some sleep. Her eyes blinked open and closed for about an hour before she finally drifted off.
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Awoken by the bright rays of sunlight beaming through the branches of the trees, her eyes blinked open right before she made a sudden jerk. Her top half was dangling off the side of the tree, and her foot was lodged under a loose piece of bark. She tried to pull her body up using her abdominals alone but quickly discovered she was at such an angle that she exhausted herself before she got close. She heard a creak come from the bark that held her in place. She tried pulling herself up again when her foot slipped free- leaving her tumbling down a few branches before catching herself. Her arms wrapped around a sturdy but sharp branch. She peered down to see a branch about a foot from her boots. If she made it, she could climb down, but if her boot slipped... she'd be history. Lucy Gray loosened her grip on the tree and suddenly let go. She landed on the branch successfully but stumbled slightly, catching herself on the trunk. Her hands dusted off the once rainbow ruffles of her skirt that were now stained and dull, with pine needles glued with sap. She descended the tree carefully, ensuring herself that she wouldn't fall. Only three feet from the ground, she misstepped on the last branch and tumbled into the ground. Coriolanus couldn't still be looking for her; he must have thought she escaped... or died. Either choice must have been enough to make him leave... the feeling was mutual. Lucy Gray didn't want to see his face again, especially after what happened! She headed off toward the town. It was the only town for miles; Lucy Gray would die before reaching anywhere else. She made her hazardous trek to the district 12 town, where she saw a Capital train leaving the wooden station. The engine was the newest technology money could buy, with silver cogs and polished caps on the train wheels. The head of the engine was glossy and clean, not a speck of dirt or a single scratch from robbers. The district trains at the station carried coal and paled compared to the locomotive pulling out of the station beside it. It occurred to Lucy Gray that Coriolanus was likely on that train. She overheard him talking to himself about leaving to go back to the capital. She walked the dirt roads with her head down and headed toward Coriolanus's chambers. The Peacekeeper building was on a cul-de-sac with three facilities lining the street. She spotted the building where Coriolanus lived. She climbed behind a row of hedges crawled under a window grabbed the sill and gently pulled herself up enough to see into the room. The bed and chest where Coriolanus left his things were empty, the bed was made, and his nametag sticker had been yanked from the headboard. Satin sheets lined the beds, only the finest purchased and shipped directly from the Capital. Nothing like the rough scrap-fabric quilt her mother stitched together, using pieces of ripped dresses, carpets, and curtains. The sun was directly above her now, the hot rays on her skin trying to warm the darkness looming inside her for the past few days. She had been surrounded by suffering and death, nothing she was accustomed to being in the Covey.
"Hey, who are you and what are you doing!" Lucy Gray stumbled backward into the bush but quickly recovered herself. It was a peacekeeper; he wore a white suit and a helmet with a chin guard.
"I'm Lucy Gray Baird," She stood up slowly and kept her hands in the air. She had never been in trouble with the law, but she knew what happened to people who did. She remembered Sejanus's limp body swaying back and forth; the Mockingjay's echoing his final screams. "I was looking for an... old friend." Saying that made her quiver; they would know she was lying, she knew she was lying.
"Yeah right, I'm going to have to take you in for trespassing on Capital-owned property." Just as he finished saying this, Lucy Gray bolted through the bushes. The peacekeeper grabbed his pistol from his belt buckle and fired into the bushes where Lucy Gray was crawling. One bullet nearly missed her right hand. She stood up and ran into the building where she'd previously been snooping. The peacekeeper wasn't nearly as fast as she had been and was about twenty feet behind her when she swung the door shut and locked it.
"You can't hide in their little girl!" He yelled. "I happen to have the key to this door!" She heard the jangles from the keys on the ring. Lucy Gray pivoted around to see a large chest full of heavy uniforms and keepsakes. She ran over to it and wedged her back between the chest and the wall, using all her strength to push it in front of the door. The chest wouldn't hold forever but would at least buy her some time. She peered around to find a way to escape, but there was only a window on the roof, the kind that let the sunlight in. If she pushed a bed under a beam, she could climb the rest of the way out. She jogged over to Coriolanus's old bed -the closest to a beam- and pressed her hands into the mattress to test the stability. Right before she could step onto the bed, the door swung open with three Peacekeepers behind it.
"Final chance girl!" The first Peacekeeper yelled. Lucy Gray ran across the room to a table lamp on a small table. It was porcelain with gold embellishments on it. She went ahead to grab the lamp and throw it at one of their heads. It crashed right on target, sending the man off balance and onto the floor. He yelled in pain as he held the back of his head. The other two men ran right past the injured Peacekeeper and bolted towards her. What would they do if they caught her? Trespassing was bad enough, and now assaulting an officer. It wasn't looking too good for her, but she wasn't about to find out. She ran around the building, jumping over beds and chests, throwing anything she could get her hands on. The guards were catching up when Lucy Gray found a metal broom resting against the wall. As soon as she wrapped her hands around the broomstick, one of the guards caught up to her. He had a Capital-grade club in his hand, the kind used to beat rioters with. It was about a year into the war, the Capital started broadcasting to Panem. They videoed live executions and beatings from drone projectors. She was young but remembered crying at the sight of her people being punished for standing up for the Capital's injustice. She held her broomstick and took a swing at the officer's side. The guard seemed unphased as he started to raise the club. Lucy Gray was about to run when she realized she was surrounded by the second guard.
She winced and covered her head with her arms. Right before the officer could swing the club, three rounds of gunfire were shot, but not from either of the officers. Lucy Gray looked up to see three smoking bullet holes piercing the chest of the club-wielding man. The Peacekeeper looked down at his chest just before falling to his knees and the ground. The second officer turned around to see where the shots originated. Not knowing what to do, Lucy Gray kicked the officer to the ground and ran around him. She was about 50 feet from the building when she suddenly heard a large explosion coming from the building, knocking Lucy Gray to the ground. Ever since the bombing at the amphitheater, she became familiar with sudden bursts of heat bombarding her. Her hands were scraped from her falling to the ground, and her knees were bruised and bloodied. The moment seemed to last for hours as she turned to see the building engulfed in flames.
As she began to stand up, she heard sirens coming from another building. They would think she was the one at fault for this and would hang by nightfall. Just as Lucy Gray regained awareness, a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her into an ally between the bakery and the tavern. A couple dozen peacekeepers ran toward the burning remains of the building.
"Come on," said a voice from behind her. "We can't get caught. The voice belonged to a young girl, no more than fourteen. Lucy Gray spun around to see the girl. Her hair was reddish brown and long with waves. It was full of dirt and pieces of rubble from the explosion. Her eyes were green with yellow around the iris. She wore a tattered blue layered skirt. The girl crouched down, pulled up a grate from the floor then jumped down. Inevitably, Lucy Gray followed. The lights on the brick walls flickered. It wasn't until the girl tapped on Lucy Gray's shoulder that she broke her gaze into the buzzing lights.
"It's you, the girl from the games." She spoke with such fulfillment. "I'm good with faces like that."
Lucy Gray smiled. "It sure is, Lucy Grays' the name. And who might you be?"
"Rosette Benner and this is my home. We were forced down here a few years ago when our parents died in a mining accident." Rosette led her to a large hollow opening in the wall covered in a tarp. Behind it was a room with a wooden table, two chairs, and an old mattress covered in potato sacks stitched together.
"Sorry, you said we?"
"Yeah, me and my older brother Malice." A tall boy, probably around sixteen years old appeared from behind the tarp. He had a large build but was noticeably underweight, they both were. Lucy Gray stuck her hand out to shake his hand, but he just walked around her. "We don't really talk to other people much." Lucy Gray gave her a smile. "We believe that actions speak louder than words." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a stick of dynamite.
"It was you. The gunshots, the explosion, everything. You saved my life! How do I repay you?"
"No need. You already showed the Capital the power of twelve. But we thrive on keeping the Capital where it belongs. As far away from us as possible. That little explosion you speak of is the Malice special. " The teenage boy choked on a snicker and his face seemed proud. He was actually quite handsome with his shaggy black curls and sunburnt skin. Rosette turned around and pulled up a loose board on the floor. She reached her hands onto the floor and pulled out a box of ammo. She popped open a compartment of her revolver that slipped sneakily in her left boot. "I'm a pretty good shot, but Malice is more of a pyrotechnics guy." Lucy Gray glanced over to see the boy slouched on the mattress heaping gunpowder into a makeshift bomb made from a soup can with a rope sticking out of the top. He proceeded to rip a piece of duct tape off a roll and tape the can shut. "Pretty clever wouldn't you say."
"Quite, but why?" Lucy Gray looked concerned and amused at the same time.
Rosette looked at the ground unsteadily. As if she was dwelling on the past. "The Capital killed one of my friends. Hung her for conspiring against the games. They thought she was responsible for a Capital train bombing that was carrying set pieces for the arena. I knew she didn't do it." She sniffled and wiped her eyes with her skirt. The room felt dense with painful emotions. Lucy Gray gently grabbed Rosette's cold hand and held it tight.
"They killed my parents too," Lucy Gray spoke. "But my momma wouldn't want me to reminisce on her death, she would want me to do something about it."
Rosette looked deeply into Lucy Grays's eyes. "That's why I am going to avenge my friend," She turned to face Malice who was already intrigued by the conversation. "Will you join me?"
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