They came in the night. Hundreds of soldiers, marching in unison, hovercrafts filled with armed men and women, against the bunch of unprepared citizens of District 13. I was on watch, and sounded a whistle, alerting everyone. All the children had left the night before with a handful of people, including Eddie, who stayed with Karissa and Elliot. Raven, however, was the face of the rebellion. She wasn’t going anywhere. She was the first to emerge from the building, followed by Pandora and Antonia. Pandora took my hand. Antonia glared at me.

  Raven stood beside me, her face hardened as she watched them approach. In her hand, she held a knife, complete with a button which she’d told me set off an explosion when pressed. She had others attached to her belt, along with an array of guns. She also held a grenade gun. She turned to look at me, nodding once as the troops began to file outside.

 “Good luck,” I said to her. She nodded again. Then she raised her grenade gun to the sky and fired.

 The first ship exploded in the sky, catching fire and crashing to the ground, crushing several hundred of the Capitol soldiers. It was a good start. But it wasn’t long before the Capitol began their retaliation. Bullets began to fly and several of our own were shot down. Silently, Raven raised her arm, the signal to charge. Though it was a poor tactic, we didn’t have a choice. They were better equipped, better prepared….better everything. I kissed Pandora one last time and began to run. It surprised the soldiers, at least. We had some element of surprise.

  But as I ran, gun in hand and searching for a target, I began to panic. I couldn’t see the faces of the soldiers; they all wore white helmets with black visors. They looked strangely robotic, especially marching together in a line. But I knew, if you took away their helmets, their hardened shell exterior, inside was a human. A human that might have children, or a family. A kid like Riley, or a lover like Pandora. A friend like Antonia. A personal hero like Raven. A new hope like Karissa and Elliott. Ones already lost like my mother and father, and the woman who died in the fire before the Games. That seems a lifetime ago now. But I found myself stopping in the middle of the field. And I saw one of those robotic people lift their gun and aim for my chest. Did they know I was a Victor of their precious Games? Did they want to be the one to claim they’d killed Arrian Rider? I don’t know. All I know is that I stood there foolishly as the bullet left the gun. I awaited the blow, awaited my death. It didn’t come. A body slammed into me from the side and knocked me over. When I opened my eyes, my saviour stared down on me with teary eyes. Antonia. I felt tears sting my own eyes, and I caressed her cheek.

 “I’m sorry,” I told her.

 “Me too. We shouldn’t ever have ended like that,” Antonia said “So if we live long enough to see one another again, we’ll work this out. But you’ve got to shoot now, Ari. I can’t save you every time.”

 I nodded. I had woken up to reality. I knew what I had to do. Antonia rolled off me and helped me to my feet. Then, closing my eyes for a moment, I let my first bullet fly. I didn’t stick around to see where it hit. Launching myself back into action, I stumbled forwards, gun at the ready. I couldn’t see anyone I knew. Antonia was already gone. Someone near to me let out a choked cry and fell to the ground. I kept moving. There was nothing I could do for them.

 We reached the front line of the Capitol soldiers, marching over a pile of their own dead. I shot bullet after bullet, screaming wildly, unable to hold my tongue. I wished for Pandora and Raven’s silence, the inability to scream and show weakness, but I was weak. I’ve always been weak. I tried to convince myself otherwise as I removed a knife from my belt and plunged it into the soft exposed neck of a Capitol soldier, ripping it away as quickly as possible and watching their body crumple like a paper doll. Savagely, I slashed at the next soldier whilst shooting another wildly. I became an animal, driven by instinct, ruthlessly destroying those in my path. My face was speckled with blood and gore. The ground around my feet was black with blood. Others joined me at my side and we created a pathway through the soldiers. More hovercrafts fell to grenades and crushed many soldiers from both sides, but slowly, we were somehow managing to push the Capitol soldiers back. We were winning.

 Or so we thought.

 We’d lost a lot, but they’d lost more, mostly to the falling of their hovercrafts. The occasional group of soldiers were dotted about, but not enough. Something told me that the Capitol, despite their extravagant costumes and impressive battleships, were not well prepared for war, just like the citizens of thirteen. Perhaps Snow never thought another rebellion would happen. Perhaps he’d let himself get too cocky, too confident in his ability to weave fear into the hearts of all. But clearly not, and it was costing him dearly. Whereas all the Capitol soldiers had just guns, my people were trained in their own special weapons. I could see Raven fighting someone with her knives, ripping their helmet from their head and ruthlessly lodging a knife in their skull. Somewhere else, there was a man with a bow and arrow set, taking down hovercrafts with arrows that burst into flames upon contact. For us, it was not a problem of skill. It was an issue of numbers. We didn’t have enough manpower. And what we didn’t expect was for more Capitol soldiers to emerge from our left, marching through the trees and straight for us.

 I panicked. My knife was slick with blood, and I’d fought hard, but my arms were tired, and there were a lot more soldiers on their way. I saw Raven raise her arm and beckon us towards her. She was telling us to retreat. In a sense, I was relieved, and I made to go after her. But that was when someone slammed into me, knocking me to the ground. The soldier above me appeared to have lost their weapon, because their hands tightened around my neck and squeezed. Struggling for breath I fumbled on my belt for a knife and made a stab at my assailant’s neck. It missed and hit their helmet, my aim off as I became light headed, deprived of air. The second time I struck, I buried the blade deep into their neck and the hands on my neck loosened, their body becoming limp on top of me. Gasping for air, I attempted to push off the body, my arms weakened by the lack of oxygen I’d received. When the body finally tumbled aside, I crawled to my knees, only to find that Raven was well gone, and the soldiers were marching ever closer.

 “Arrian!”

 I whipped my head around to see Venus approaching me at a jog. Her face was grave.

 “There’s no time for you to escape,” she said softly “So I’m sorry I’m doing this…”

 I was about to ask her what she was doing when she swung her arm, batting me around the head with her gun. My head swam and I collapsed. I could hear the blood pumping in my ears. Venus bent beside me, her face swimming in my vision.

 “The Capitol knew I was here,” she whispered quickly “But I’m on your side, I swear. I had to do that, to pretend you’re dead. They won’t question it, they won’t check. When you wake up, get to the safety place. That’s all I can do for you. I’m sorry.”

 Her voice trailed off as I sunk further into unconsciousness. Black fuzz surrounded me, and then nothingness. When my eyes opened once more, all was quiet. My head was thudding with pain and I attempted to sit up slowly. Morning was approaching, so I suspected it had been a few hours since the others had escaped. I heard the shuffling of feet and turned around, too quickly, and I fell to the ground in a heap. Then soft hands were caressing my swollen face. I opened my eyes, blinking through tears of agony.

 “Pandora. Pandora…” I whispered. She nodded, smiling as her tears dripped onto my face.

 “You’re hurt,” I said, tracing a long cut on her face. She shook her head, and gestured with her hands. I’m fine, darling. Let’s leave this place. Quickly.

 She helped me to my feet, and I slung an arm over her shoulder for support and trying to ignore the carnage around me. I pressed my lip to Pandora’s and she kissed me back hard, desperately, though we had hope. We’d found each other.

 But it was no sooner than had we stumbled a few feet than I heard a gunshot. Moments later, I was screaming in agony, the bullet punching through the skin and bone of my leg. I collapsed to the ground and I could hear Pandora screaming in her way, a horrific choking noise that I couldn’t bear alongside the pain. Forcing my eyes open, I saw that a soldier had grabbed Pandora, covering her mouth with his hand, pointing a gun at her temple.

 “No,” I whispered “Don’t hurt her. She means you no harm.”

 That’s when I heard the laugh. The chilling laugh of President Snow.

 “My, my. How the mighty victors have fallen. Raven, Drew, Antonia…” Snow’s face appeared above me. He lifted his foot and pressed it into my gun wound, making me scream and writhe.

 “But I guess you were never all that mighty…were you Arrian? You never were made to win the Games. But I guess we can call it game over for you and your little girlfriend.” His boot left my leg and travelled to my face, kicking it somewhat gently so my head lolled to the side humiliatingly. I could feel my own blood on my face, sticky and hot. “This should be an interesting few days, Mr Rider. Providing you last that long. Get them in the hovercraft. And take them to The Chamber.”

Dun dun dunnnnn! Sorry it's been so long since I updated, and this is unedited, and most people have given up....but hope this is OK! I have three more chapters planned before the end. Please stick with me! It should be done by Christmas, then I can start working on Battleborn!