The cold night air rushed through the shattered double doors of the west exit, carrying the scent of damp soil and ozone.
Beyond the silver perimeter line, the ruined streets of District Four lay cloaked in thick crimson fog and shifting shadows.
Liam stood between two armed student sentries, his hands stripped of weapons and his school uniform splattered with dust.
"You are really going to push me out there?" the exiled student asked, his voice shaking with desperate disbelief.
"There are prowlers roaming the alleyways... I won't survive thirty minutes in the dark!"
"You should have considered that reality before pointing a blade at Theo's throat," the dark-haired striker replied, her hand resting firmly on the grip of her cutter.
"You gambled the lives of your classmates for monster scraps, and now you pay the price of that wager."
"I was terrified!" Liam yelled, tears cutting clean streaks through the grime on his pale face.
