Chapter 20 Chapter 20 Bord Attack

In an instant, it was as if a stained glass had been shattered, revealing the ugly world behind.Laughter turned to screams, blood stained the colored stones, and real smoke overshadowed artificial smoke created for television. The sound of the second explosion, which seemed to split the air, made my ears ring.But I couldn't tell where the explosion was coming from. I was the first to run to Boggs, stunned by his torn flesh and blown limbs.I want to find something to stop the gurgling blood.Holmes pushed me away and opened the first aid kit.Boggs gripped my wrist tightly, his face was ashen, and he seemed to be walking away from us.He slowly spit out two words, which is an order, "Holo."

holo.I fumbled around, searching among the blood-stained piles of broken tiles.My hand touched a pile of hot meat, and I couldn't help shaking.Finally, I found it crowded with one of Boggs' boots in the stairwell.I picked it up, wiped the screen clean with my hands, and handed it to my commander. Holmes was wrapping a hemostatic bandage around the base of Boggs' left leg, but the bandage was soaked in blood as soon as it wrapped around his leg.He had a tourniquet attached to the other leg just above the knee.The rest of the team surrounded us and the film crew for protection.Finnick was shaking Maisara, who was thrown against the wall by the bomb's blast and passed out.Jackson called the base to send medical personnel into the walkie-talkie, but they were not connected.I know it's too late.Since I was a child, I watched my mother bandage the injured patients. I know that once a person is bleeding profusely, he will be exhausted.

I knelt down beside Boggs, he was dying, I thought of Lulu and the crackheads in District 6, and I was going to do what I did to them again, to give Boggs his last as the light of his life faded A little consolation.But Boggs operated Holo with both hands. He pressed buttons, entered commands, and then pressed his thumbs on the display screen to confirm his identity, and at the same time spoke a series of letters and numbers in a weak voice as a prompt.The display then glowed green, illuminating his face."I'm out of command, handing over Level 1 security clearance to Squad 451 soldier Katniss Everdeen," he said, aiming Holo in my face with all his might. "Say your name."

"Katniss Everdeen," I said to the green screen.Suddenly, I was seized by this green light, I couldn't move, I couldn't even blink, and the images on the screen flashed before my eyes.Is it scanning me?Or record me?Or are you going to blind me?The light faded, and I shook my head, trying to wake myself up. "What did you do?" "Get ready to retreat!" Jackson yelled. Finnick pointed at the block entrance and yelled something.Everyone saw that a black oil-like thing rushed over like a spring, and immediately, the black object was like billowing waves, rushing in the middle of the buildings on both sides, like a black wall blocking our way when we came.It looks neither liquid nor gas, neither artificial nor natural.It is certainly lethal.It seemed impossible to go back.

Then there was a loud explosion, and Gale and Rigg detonated a bomb on the stone pavement at the end of the block.At first I didn't understand what they were doing, but then there was another explosion about ten yards away, blowing a huge hole in the street.Then I realized it was for clearing mines.Holmes and I took Boggs's arm and dragged him behind Gale.Boggs screamed in pain.I wanted to stop and find a better way, but the black matter had already climbed over the roof, rolling like a huge wave, and seemed to engulf us. Someone from behind yanked me, and I let go of Boggs and fell to the stone floor.Peeta is looking down at me now, maddened, thrown back into the dark world of hijacking, holding his gun above my head, trying to smash my head with the butt of it.I roll quickly, and then I hear the butt of the gun hit the ground, and I see a bunch of people coming up, and then Mitchell overpowers Peeta and pins him to the ground.But usually Peeta is very strong, now under the effect of killer bee venom, he is even more crazy.He kicked Mitchell in the stomach and kicked him in the middle of the street.

With a click, a pod was triggered.Four steel cables connected to the track of the building pierced through the stone pavement and popped out, trapping Mitchell inside.It was impossible—he bled profusely at once—and it was only later that we could see the splinters on the net.I recognize this thing, there is this thing on the quarantine network in District 12.I yelled loudly at him not to move.At this time, the thick, tar-like stench from the black substance choked me. It had already reached the highest point, formed a crest, and was about to fall down. Gale and Rieger shot through the lock of a building on the corner, then fired at the netting that encircled Mitchell.The others overpower Peeta.I went back to Boggs and together with Holmes dragged him into the house.We walked through the family's pink and white velvet living room, through the hallway hung with family photos, into the marble-floored kitchen, and we all fell to the ground.Castor and Poros walked in with Peeta between them, Peeta was still struggling desperately.Jackson had managed to handcuff him, but it only made him more insane, and they were forced to lock him up in the storage room.

The door of the living room slammed, and with the sound of exclamations and footsteps, other people also ran to the corridor, and then the big black wave roared past the door.In the kitchen we could hear the creaking of doors and windows.The stench of tar filled the air.Finnick helps Maisara into the room.Li Geyi and Cressida staggered in after them, coughing and coughing. "Gal!" I screamed. He came in, slammed the kitchen door behind him, coughed, and said, "That stink!" Custer and Pollux quickly grabbed towels and aprons to block the door gap, but Gale was facing a fresh The yellow sink spat up.

"Mitchell?" Holmes asked.Li Geyi just shook his head. Boggs held Hollow in my hand, moving his lips.I couldn't hear what he was saying.So I put my ear to his mouth, and he said weakly, "Don't trust them, don't go back, kill Peeta, and do what you came here to do." I looked up and looked into his face. "What? Boggs? Boggs?" His eyes were still open, but dead.The Holo he pushed into my hand was stained with his blood. Peeta kicks the door loudly over everyone's rapid breathing.Everyone listened, the sound of his kicking the door became weaker and weaker, and then there was no sound.I wonder if he, too, is dead.

"He's dead?" Finnick asked, looking down at Boggs.I nod. "We gotta get out of here. Right now. We activated all the pods in the block. They must be watching us on monitors now." "That's right. There are monitors all over the street, and I bet they saw us manually triggering the black wave while we were shooting a TV show," Castor said. "Our radio went down almost immediately just now. Maybe they have an electromagnetic interference device. But I will try to get everyone back to the camp. Give me Holo." After Jackson finished speaking, he reached for Holo, but I held it tightly. Hold on to your chest.

"No, Boggs gave it to me," I said. "Don't be silly," she said impatiently.Of course she would think it was hers since she was second in command. "It's true. He handed over Level 1 security clearance to her before he died. I saw it with my own eyes," Holmes said. "Why would he do that?" Jackson asked. yeah, why?My mind was spinning, thinking about all the horrible things that had happened in the last five minutes—Boggs was wounded, dying, dead, Peeta went crazy and murdered, Mitchell was covered in blood and caught in a net, and then Swallowed by the black waves, I want to turn to Boggs, how I need him alive.Suddenly, he, and maybe he alone, was completely on my side.I'm thinking about his last order...

"Don't trust them, don't go back, kill Peeta, do what you came here to do." What exactly does he mean?Don't trust anyone?rebel?Cohen?Or these people who are looking at me right now?I don't have to go back, but he knows I can't shoot Peeta in the head.can ishould i?Boggs has already guessed that I will leave the team and go to assassinate Snow alone? I couldn't figure it out at once.So I decided to carry out the first two directives: trust no one, and continue deep into the heart of the Capitol.But how can I prove to others that I should hold Holo? "Because I'm on President Cohen's special mission. I think Boggs is the only one who knows." That doesn't convince Jackson at all. "What task do you perform?" Why not tell them the truth?It makes as much sense as any reason I can think of.But I'm going to make it seem like a real mission, not a personal vendetta. "War will cause more deaths, so that our population will be greatly reduced and unsustainable. Before this becomes a reality, we will assassinate President Snow." "I don't trust you. As your current commanding officer, I order you to turn over Level 1 security clearance to me," Jackson said. "No, it's a direct violation of President Cohen's order," I said. The guns were raised.Half of the guns were aimed at Jackson and half at me.Then Cressida spoke. "It's true. That's what we're here for. Plutarch wanted to film it. He thought if he could get video of Mockingjay killing Snow, it would end the war." Hearing this, Jackson also hesitated.Then she pointed the gun at the storage cabinet, "Then why is he here?" She hit the nail on the head.I can't think of a single convincing reason why Cohen sent someone who was mentally unstable and bent on killing me with him on such an important mission.My reasoning does seem far-fetched.Cressida helped me out again. "Since the two of them were interviewed by Cesar Frickman at Snow's private mansion after the Hunger Games victory, Plutarch thought Peeta might be able to help us find that place." I really want to ask Cressida why she lied for me, why she defended me, so we could go about my own mission.But now is not the time. "We have to go! I'll follow Katniss. If you don't want to go, go back to camp. Go!" Gale said. Holmes opens the storage room and lifts the unconscious Peeta on his shoulders. "Ready." "Boggs?" Li Ge said. "We can't take him, he'll understand," Finnick said.He took Boggs' gun off his shoulder and slung it over his own. "You take the lead, Soldier Everdeen." I don't know how to take the lead.I'm looking for directions on Holo.Holo is still active, but it doesn't matter if it isn't, because it won't help me either.There's no time to fiddle with those buttons and figure out how they work. "I don't know how to use this, Boggs said I could rely on you to help me," I said to Jackson. Jackson glared at me, pulled Holo out of my hand, and typed.A crossroads appears on the display. "If we go out through the kitchen door, we enter a small courtyard, opposite the courtyard is the back door of another building. What we see now is the intersection of four roads." I looked at the map, trying to get a sense of direction, and there were bods in every direction at the intersection.And these pods are only known to Plutarch. Holo did not show that the streets we just passed were mines, black waves would appear, or nets with steel thorns.Plus, now that the enemy knows where we are, there's a possibility of sending out vigilantes.I bit my lip, feeling every eye on me. "Put on the mask, and we'll go out the way we came." There was an immediate objection.I raised my voice, "If the black wave is so powerful, it should also trigger and absorb the energy of all the pods along the way." People fell silent, thinking about it.Polros made a few quick gestures to his brother, and Castor explained to us, "It probably destroyed the monitor as well. The camera was blurred." Gail lifted his foot, propped the boot on the table, and examined the black spots on it.He scraped off a little with a kitchen knife. "It's not corrosive, and I think this stuff is going to suffocate us or poison us." "This may be our best solution at present." Li Geyi said. Everyone put on a mask.Finnick puts the mask over Peeta's lifeless face.Cressida and Rigg are holding the weak Maisara together. I was waiting for someone to take the leadership position, but I realized right away that it was my job.I pushed open the kitchen door and found it wasn't blocked.Then I saw a half-inch thick sticky substance that had spread from the direction of the living room, occupying three-quarters of the corridor.Cautiously, I probed it with my toe and found that it had solidified.I lifted my foot and the thing stuck to my boot, stretched and then bounced back.I took three steps forward, and when I looked back, I found that there were no footprints left.This is the first good thing that happened today.The jelly got a little thicker as I walked through the living room.I opened the front door easily, expecting gallons of black stuff to pour in, but no. Outside, the pink and orange blocks appear to have been given a coat of glossy black paint, waiting to dry.Flagstone walkways, buildings, and even roofs are covered in a gel.Above the center of the street, there is a large teardrop-shaped gel from which two objects protrude, a gun barrel and a hand.It's Mitchell.I stood on the sidewalk, staring at him while I waited for the rest of the team. "For whatever reason, if anyone wants to go back, they can go now. I won't ask questions, and I won't blame you." No one seems to want to leave.So I started heading towards downtown Capitol knowing we didn't have much time.The farther you go, the gel gets thicker, about four to six inches thick, and it sticks to the boot and snaps every time you lift your foot, but it leaves no marks. The power of the black wave just now must have been very strong, it passed through several blocks.Even though I'm walking very carefully, my guess about it triggering other pods seems to be correct.One of the blocks was littered with the golden carcasses of killer bees.These killer bees must have been released and suffocated to death by the thick smoke.Going a little further, the entire building collapsed and turned into a pile of rubble lying under the black gel.I ran quickly across the intersection, raised my hand to signal everyone to wait, and at the same time I watched for danger.Black Wave seems to have triggered all the pods more cleanly than any Rebel squad. By the fifth block, I saw that the strength of the black wave here had weakened.The gel was only an inch thick, and at the next intersection the pale blue roof was already looming.Now that it's almost dusk, we need to find a place to hide and make a plan for what to do next.I found an apartment two-thirds of the way down the block.Holmes picked the lock, and I ordered the others inside.But I stayed outside for a while, until I saw the last of our several footprints disappear, and then went into the house and closed the door. We turned on the torches mounted on the barrels, and it was a big living room with mirrors on all sides so we could always see our faces.Gail inspected the windows and found nothing damaged.So he took off his mask. "It's okay, I can smell it, and the smell is not so strong anymore." The layout of the house was exactly the same as the one we had been to earlier.The black gel blotted out any natural light outside, but somehow a bright light shone in through the kitchen shutters.There are two bedrooms with bathrooms along the corridor, and the spiral staircase in the living room leads to an open space, which should be the second floor.Upstairs there were no windows, but the lights were still on, perhaps they had been left to turn off in the haste to evacuate.A giant TV screen takes up an entire wall.At this time, there was no program on the TV, but it was turned on, emitting fluorescence.Plush chairs and sofas are scattered throughout the room.This is where we gather, sink into our comfy chairs or couches, and let ourselves catch our breath. Holmes places Peeta on a dark blue sofa.Despite being handcuffed and still unconscious, Jackson pointed the gun at him.God, what am I supposed to do with him?What to do with these players?To be honest, besides Gale and Finnick, I really don't know what to do with others?I'd rather track down Snow with both of them, and no one else.Even if I had Holo, I couldn't take ten people on missions that didn't exist.Had I just had the chance, should I have sent them back, could I have sent them back?Is it too dangerous for them personally or for my mission?Maybe I shouldn't have listened to Boggs at all, maybe he was dying and confused.Maybe I shouldn't have gotten into it, and Jackson would have taken over the squad, and we'd all go back to camp, and then we'd have to face Cohn again. I was now in the midst of the confusion and complication I had thrown everyone into, and just as I was feeling down about it, a series of explosions sounded from afar, shaking the room. "The sound is quite far away, it should be four to five blocks away." Jackson reassured me. "It's where we left Boggs." Li Geyi said. Just then, the TV suddenly beeped sharply on its own, and half of us stood up. "It's okay! It's just an emergency broadcast. Every TV in the Capitol will automatically turn on at this time and play the program." Cressida said. Then our image came on the screen, from when Boggs got hit by the bomb.How we regrouped, how we avoided the black waves rushing down the street, and how we were caught off guard, a voice-over continued to explain.There was chaos on the screen until a black wave covered the monitor.The last shot we see is of Gale standing alone on the street, shooting at the barbed wire fence that holds Mitchell aloft. They had clearly identified Gale, Finnick, Boggs, Peeta, Cressida, and me in the TV reports, and the people and names were perfectly matched. "Without aerial shots, it appears that Boggs was right about their aerial power," Castor said.I didn't notice this, it seems that the cameraman still has a discerning eye. The camera pans to the backyard of the apartment where we're hiding.A row of vigilantes stood on the roof opposite the apartment building.The bombs rained down on the row of apartments, causing a series of explosions, the ones we just heard, with buildings collapsing and clouds of dust kicking up. The camera switched to the live broadcast again.A reporter stood on the roof with the security police.Behind her, the apartment building burst into flames.Firefighters were spraying water on the flames in an effort to contain the flames.We are declared dead. "A little bit of luck at last," Holmes said. I think he's right.It is certainly a good thing that the Capitol is no longer chasing us.But what kind of reaction will the TV program cause when it is broadcast in the thirteenth district?Mom, Prim, Hazel and the kids, Annie, Haymitch, and everyone in District 13 will think they've just seen us die. "My dad, he just lost my sister, and now..." Li Geyi said. The footage was played over and over, and the people on TV reveled in the victory, especially in eliminating me.The next show showed how I became a Mockingjay and how I became part of the Rebels - I think they already made it because it looked perfectly edited - and then it was live , by a few reporters to talk about how I got what I deserved.Then the announcer announced that Snow was going to make an official statement.After that, the TV screen went blank. While the TV was showing the above, the Rebels didn't show anything else, which makes me think they've believed the Capitol news.If so, then we are on our own. "So, now that we're dead, what's the next plan of action?" Gail asked. "Isn't that obvious?" Nobody noticed that Peeta had woken up.I don't know how long he has been watching, but judging from the painful expression on his face, he should have been watching for a long time and know everything that happened on the street.How he went crazy, how he tried to smash my head off, how he kicked Mitchell out into the street and triggered Pod.He forced himself to sit up and said to Gale: "Our next mission is to... kill me."