Kindling the Spark

Shooting

24: Shooting

Gale POV

I glance at the screen for one last second. After a flash of light filled it a few minutes ago, nothing else has been seen. It isn't coming back on. I place my hand on the gun at my waist. Harriet should give the signal soon. My hand clenches around the handle. Once the peacekeepers are dead, I'll be on my way back to see Katniss.

"Go!" Harriet whispers.

Faster than my eye can track, her gun is out of its holster and pointed upwards- so is Boson's. I pull mine out and creep towards the door. Six peacekeepers outside the door, her words come back to me. Twelve bullets. Shoot in the face, shoot to kill. Don't make enough noise for someone else to come.

Harriet fires the first shot. The peacekeeper didn't even have time to draw his gun. The second one has his hand on his, but I rush in front of him and shoot less than a foot from his face. The plastic breaks cleanly and there is a single red hole next to his nose, barely bleeding. He falls backwards and slumps on the ground.

First kill done. Harriet gets another in the face and Boson kills another. There is a loud gunshot- louder than we have because of the suppressors. Last peacekeeper. My vision swims around me. I have to kill him. My finger twitches near the trigger. It's either him or me. He has more bullets.

And then he slumps to the floor, dead. Harriet and Boson are both close to him. I stare down at his corpse. This one has a lot more blood. Oh yes, that's a hole in his wrist as well. One of the must have shot him in the wrist to get him to drop the gun and another in the head. Good aim.

I glance over to Harriet, Boson and Annie. Annie has a look of horror on her face, her eyes wide and filled with tears. I hope it isn't another one of her fits. We can't afford this now. We need to get out, the others might have heard the gunshot. We can't fight against many peacekeepers, even if we had more ammo.

I grab Annie's arm and pull her after Harriet and Boson. Damn. Why did Annie have to be Finnick's mentor? I'm pretty sure there are many more capable victors in District Four who would have actually been decent mentors and not had mental breakdowns every time there was a kill or a cannon or mutts.

By the time I catch up, the peacekeeper at the top of the stairs is already dead. I let go of Annie's arm. We proceed slowly down the stairs. My finger is just outside the trigger guard. The next peacekeeper will be my kill. I'm in front of the others- it's Harriet's turn to drag Annie.

How many bullets do I have left? Five in right now? Or is it four? Enough, probably. The peacekeeper downstairs hasn't heard I don't think. I hope not. I make my steps as fast as I can whilst still keeping them quiet. Still too slow. I want out of here. I need to get to the hovercraft and get back to Katniss and see if she's OK after getting her arm torn apart. She won't easily forgive Finnick for that.

Ah, now I see the peacekeeper. He's still here; I don't think that he's called for help. If he had, he wouldn't be standing so still, with his back to us- almost asking me to put a bullet through his head. He's a Capitolite, I remind myself. He deserves this. He's probably made avoxes and whipped people to death.

My finger tightens around the trigger. He seems to sense that there's someone behind him and turns around. Just as he sees me, the trigger clicks and send a bullet propelling through the mask into his eye. Left eye. Some goo mixes with the blood oozing out. He stands balanced for a moment, then falls forward into me.

I catch him with my arms under his armpits and lower him slowly to the ground. He hits with a small thump and I step around the still figure. Boson, Harriet and Annie wait for me at the top of the stairs. How many floors are left now? How many other peacekeepers have to die?