FIFTY FIVE

INSURGENT

Talia Odair was awoken by the sound of gunshots. She jumped up, as did everyone else that had been sleeping. Everyone grabbed their weapons immediately.

"Stay calm and quiet," Rover instructed quietly. He held his semi-automatic rifle weapon in his hand, he crouch walks towards the glassless window holes, looking out onto the street. Just as he does so, the two people on watch- Alana and Carmen rush into the room from the stairwell.

"Its at the end of the street, a Peacekeeper squadron, there is another rebel squad approaching from the cultural sector, heading back out of the city," Carmen quickly informs everyone.

"We have to help them," Talia insists. Rover regards her for a minute, his eyes meeting hers. There was an untamed fire within Talia that would never go out, he could see it in those fierce green eyes.

"She's right," Rover says. Hanson steps forward to protest but Rover sends him a glare.

"Get your weapons ready," Rover says. Talia takes one of her guns into her hand, following Rover down the stairs and onto the street. Dawn was breaking across the sky. They travel as a group upwards towards the gunfire. Hanson splits off to gain high ground to use his sniper rifle and Rover orders Henry and Jada to go with him as cover. Talia crouches down behind fallen debris. The remaining group members gather.

Rover looks out towards the fighting, bodies were littered across the established no-mans land. It looked like the Peacekeepers were winning. He turns back to Squad 589. "The Peacekeepers have the upper hand, we need to go around and come up behind them,"

"They won't suspect it," Carmen nods, agreeing with the idea.

"Talia, Jamie, and Alana, fall in behind me, Finnick, Jim, Bobby and Carmen, you remain here. Wait for my signal," Rover says. Talia and Finnick share no more than a glance before she follows behind Rover. Her mind was racing, was this how the enemy within their ranks would do it? This time of separation? Would they blame her murder on a Peacekeeper?

She kept her eyes forward, trying to push those thoughts aside- they were entering battle, she had to keep her focus. They jogged down a back alley that was full of bins and debris until they reached the end that joined onto the road the Peacekeepers were stationed. They fanned out along the street, hiding behind various pieces of blown apart cinderblock.

Rover raises his hand in the air, his eyes were darting between the Peacekeepers. His hand closes into a fist and thats when the 4 of them stand and fire. Talia's first bullet meets the chest of a Peackeeper, sending him stumbling to the ground. From the other side of the blockade, bullets and yells can be heard from the rest of Squad 589. Hanson was also shooting his sniper from the roof of a building along the same street.

Talia jumps over a fallen lamppost and shoots another Peacekeeper in the leg. He drops back behind cover and fires blindly over the top. She ducks out the way, pressing her back against an alleyway wall. She pulls a kukri from her back, holding it firm in her left hand.

Jamie, who was pressing a foot to a Peacekeepers chest before putting a bullet in his skull, looks up and sees her, running forward, gun in one hand, firing at the Peackeepers who were trying to cover. Her other hand held her kukri, which she was using to slice through the nearby Peacekeepers. As he watched her, he truly believed that she could have killed this entire Peacekeeper squad alone.

When Talia is done with her slaughter, she jumps the blockade set up by the Peacekeepers and heads straight for the rebels on the opposite side. The rebel squad that was heading back towards the base camp was made up mostly of injured soldiers and medics.

Only 8 remain, before this fight, there had been 30. Talia fights back the tears as she helps a man stand up, he was covered in dust and blood that was not his own, but his comrades. The group of 8, 5 of which are injured, thank them for their rescue.

"Take their truck, gather as many of the bodies as you can and take them back to the base," Talia tells them. Rover steps forward to speak but the rebels are already nodding their heads.

They each in turn press their lips to their three fingers and lift it towards her, "Long live the Pearl,"

Her heart stammers, the words her father had muttered while he was burned at the stake. She gulps back the lump in her throat and goes to speak, but before she can she's distracted by Alana running past her. She turns to look and sees Finnick holding up Jim who was bleeding out from his abdomen.

She rushes towards them, as Finnick lowers Jim to the ground. She looks past him, looking for Bobby and Carmen.

"Where are Bobby and Carmen?" She asks, looking down at her husband who was covered in blood that belonged to someone else.

"They're okay, they're with Hanson," Finnick breathes, looking down at Jim. Talia breathes a sigh of relief before crouching down beside Jim. His one eye was staring up at her, smiling softly. He presses his hand to the Pearl's cheek, a tear slides down his own cheek.

"May you find peace one day, Talia Odair, Pearl of Panem, Rebel Leader, Victor of the 71st Hunger Games," He splutters, "Keep holding on, never let your fire burn out...Remember who the real enemy is,"

His eye rolls up then, and his hand slips from her cheek to rest at his side. He was gone. Jim was gone. She lifts her hand and closes his eye. Talia stands and looks to the rebels they'd rescued.

"Please take him too, make sure he is returned to his home," Talia looks down at her dead friend.

"Where is his home?" One of the rebels asks. Talia knew Jim had come from District 10 where he had once been a livestock butcher. He'd told stories of how he'd been whipped and bludgeoned by those in charge, of how he had scars across his entire body, how his wife and daughter had been murdered- accused of conspiring against the Capitol because Jim had been involved with rebels. Talia gulps back the tears forming in her eyes as she looks at Finnick. He met her eyes and nodded to her, as if reading her mind.

"District 4. Have him sent to District 4, send a message to Joyce that he is to be sent out to sea like the fishermen of District 4, and then he is to have a headstone built beside my parents," Talia says. "And his stone is to be engraved as follows, "Jim Parker, Leader of the Pearl Warriors, who gave his life to save Panem,"

No one says anything as Talia presses her lips to her fingers and lifts her hand into the air, everyone follows suit, and she calls out to those surrounding her, "For Panem,"

____________________

RIP Jim💔

this was super hard for me to write because I really liked Jim even though he was a bit of an asshole sometimes.
But we need some ✨angst✨

Anyway, thank you for reading!

~cupidlies
❤️