The Runaway Victor | Book II

Chapter Ten | Edge of the Devil's Backbone

The round table in the control room hadn't been busy for maybe a week. Most of the meetings had come and gone already and everyone continued on with their lives. The only excitement for Thirteen had been a drill they had to perfect the coarse of action that would be taken if they were to be attacked.

But today, it was the day they had been waiting for. The Capitol cameras had caught sight of one of the Radicals that were on their way to District Thirteen in District Four. But not just any Radical, Orion Snow to be exact. From what Alma Coin had collected, as of now he was possibly their best weapon to recruit people. He had a good personality, good looks, and a rebellious goal that certain people would be drawn to.

Coin had requested that he take a group to Four, in attempt to not only maybe recruit a few more people. But to get an even better weapon that could help get a rebellion started, or at least weaken the Capitol by making people think that they aren't as powerful as they say. Quinn Maverick had done a good job at that already. She had made a fool out of Snow, whether that was intended or not. But she wasn't a person that people would follow, she would be a motivator. She and Orion would both be good motivators, inspiration for the rebels. Quinn had been an orphan and she shook Snow's regime to its core. If she could do that, anyone could destroy him if they had the right resources. Orion was Snow's own flesh and blood and he escaped the Capitol. He got Radicals from the Capitol to District Three. He got Radicals to Four, and he's gotten Quinn Maverick.

"It's remarkable, don't you think?" Boggs asked from one of the nearby seats. "The Capitol couldn't have been easy to get out of." he said looking towards Arkon, a man in his early thirties from the first group of Radicals that had arrived.

He shook his head, "The Capitol is like an arena." he replied, as one of the techs froze the video and zoomed in on the faces of Quinn Maverick and Orion Snow getting out of the District. It wasn't great quality. "Orion Snow is its Victor."

Boggs and Arkon both chuckled, "Runaway Victor." Boggs added.

"It takes skill to survive the games like Maverick, you have to be from the edge of the devils backbone to survive escaping the Capitol and everything else in Panem against you." an older gentleman from District Ten who had arrived a year earlier, stated. Coin felt a bit of a smile flicker across her face.

She then looked down at Arkon, "Did you bring your map? Can you see if they made it out safely?"

Arkon looked at her for a moment, and nodded as he dug out his map from his pocket. Usually anything like that would have been confiscated until it could be checked, but some of the Radicals from the first group were a bit...out of it. They weren't very stable. So she didn't force them to give up everything to be checked.

Arkon took it out and clicked it on so the map opened. There was a yellow dot between District Four and Seven.

They had made it out of Four.

* * * * * *

The fog was still dense. Quinn could almost taste it. She had gotten acquainted with Marcus, Wade, and Jules. The three of them were welcoming of her and all, but Jules seemed a lot more wary of Quinn even being there. Ciruss took the time to explain everything, more than Orion had. And as he explained that they had run into a few problems, and even lost a man who had been in the group...Quinn knew that this had been the only thing for her to do.

She couldn't stay locked up in Victor's Village.

She couldn't be a mentor when the next games rolled around.

But she also knew she couldn't last too long with only fifteen pieces of morphling paper, and a half empty bottle of seaweed whiskey.