#thg treech

Bobbin tries to escape when they’re brought from the train to the cattle cart in hopes of getting Wovey out later and escaping. It takes two peacekeepers to violently rip him off the fence and drag him back to the group. Huh, they’re a lot more comfortable being rough when they’ve got their buddies as backup.

Dill gets shoved to the ground as they’re led into the circular room where they’ll be chained to the tables. When Reaper attacks to defend her from further abuse, four others jump her. By the time they’re back in the zoo Reaper’s got some bruises, but also the insight that it takes the power of five peacekeepers to give enough confidence for them to keep punching when he’s down.

After the bombs go off, Treech saves Vipsania but is dragged away before he can find Lamina. One peacekeeper can’t contain him, but a whole group sure can. Not even his mentor’s demands for them to stop hurting him prevent him from needing bandages later on. Coral’s successfully staved off several in her quest to get to Mizzen, and it nets her some nastily bruised ribs.

Maybe it’s Coral’s angry muttering or Mizzen’s concern for her that opens the can of worms. Maybe it’s Wovey asking Bobbin a question that sparks it. Perhaps it’s Lamina worrying about Treech. Maybe it’s another tribute. Either way, they realize their captors cannot take them alone. They use their gun or they use numbers every single time. And they don’t expect any of the other tributes to step in. Isn’t that interesting information?

The day of the games come, and all the tributes have their plan set. All of Panem is watching them be lead into the arena. They don’t get to see the bombs go off outside the stadium, not before it’s too late. Marcus didn’t get along with Sejanus, but he could see his mentor was trying to help. If that helped these kids survive, it was worth putting aside his feelings for a little. Half the peacekeepers go to check it out, because surely whoever set off those bombs is more dangerous then a bunch of dumb animals. They’re not even inside the arena when the tributes act. They grab the guns so they can’t be shot. Kick shins and punch faces so their tormentors will let go and then the tides have turned. They have the guns now. They hold the power. They can do whatever they want.

They run

They’re never seen against

Brandy and Tanner are the first out of the arena, Treech and Lamina behind them. Marcus isn’t far behind. Gunshots ring out behind them and Treech cries out, but he isn’t faltering for a second so it can wait. In seconds they’ve passed the gates. They go diagonally to the side so they can’t be shot through the gate and soon enough they get through the trees and into the city. Now what? If they get caught, they’re dead, but they’re four kids in a massive city. They can stay hidden if they’re careful. Treech suggests they find a decent hiding spot first and then start planning, since it won’t matter if they’re caught now. After a minute of sneaking around they find a small alleyway that’s easy to miss if you’re not looking carefully, and they crouch down to figure out where to go from here. They decide that trying to escape the city now is a terrible idea, even if it would make them feel the safest to get out pronto. By now, everyone’s likely on high alert. If they can stay hidden long enough for people to lower their guards, they have higher odds to get out. And so they do that.

Tanner brings up that anyone looking for them will likely be on the ground, so the higher up they are the better. They find a relatively low roof and climb on top of it, Lamina and Treech first because they can get off easily if it’s unsafe. Once they’re on there it doesn’t take long to find a spot in a relatively crowded area that has hiding spots for if any helicopters or drones pass by. One of the most important parts about running away is doing the unexpected. If you stay somewhere no one would think to look, they’ll never find you. The roof they climbed onto was in a less secure area, and they haven’t been in view of any cameras, so the Capitol genuinely has no idea where they’ve gone. The roof they’re on is in a more secure area, so no one would think to check the roofs of all places in that area for a bunch of kids. Especially because they perceive those kids to be dumb animals.

Everything that happens to the other tributes is televised, so the four watch what happened to Facet, Velvereen, and Sabyn. What could’ve happened to them if they’d been just a little slower. They see the interviews and wonder just how horrible it must feel for the others to have to perform like that just to survive. They’re still in the city when the games happen and see how Marcus was put on display. It’s meant as a threat to them, but when Reaper climbs onto the beams to check on him, the speakers pick up their conversation. Marcus asks if “the others” were found, and Reaper reassures him that Brandy, Tanner, Lamina, and Treech are still unfound. Marcus seems relieved, before begging Reaper to end his suffering. And it’s no longer a threat to the tributes. It’s a threat to the Capitol. You caught some of us, but you can’t catch us all.

Only Arachne seems concerned with the prize when interviewed about her tribute’s disappearance. Pup, Domitia, and Vipsania only seem worried about their wellbeing. They (aside from Brandy) want to reassure them, but when the cheating scandal comes out they know it’s the time to leave. Everyone’s attention is on Snow and his “dishonorable actions”, so if there was ever a time to escape the city this is it. By this point they have a proper exit strategy. Maps Treech stole while out getting them food helped them plot out an escape route and within a day they’ve left the city, never to be found again by anyone they didn’t want to fine them. Truly, the Capitol couldn’t catch them all.

And boy is there a lot to explore, even when we know barely anything about either of these characters. Because what little we do know has so much to theorize about. One of the few things we know about Vipsania is that her aunt works at the academy as gymnasium mistress and they’re both very competitive. Already a lot we can do with that given that the tributes are mostly seen as tools by the mentors. I already told you I think Vipsania mostly tried to win by sabotaging others rather than helping Treech, and the first part comes from the guitar thing. The second part? It comes from the fact that Treech repeatedly does things for himself that are her responsibility. He performs in the zoo, which means at the very least he isn’t given enough food by Vipsania. During the games, he chooses to steal food multiple times, which means he doesn’t trust her to send him any.

So first of all in the books they’re explicitly thrown in a monkey enclosure. Since they are handed food there’s no body of water to keep the monkeys in, meaning there’s either a roof or a net. The movie is just weird about this, but it could still work! If we assume there’s a net they can cut through it with a sharp piece of rock or their teeth if they’re desperate (and they’re gonna die, so they probably are). The next problem they’ll run into is the peacekeepers that are stationed around the enclosure. They’re gonna be there at night too, but since the tributes are in a cage we can assume they aren’t paying too much attention. Since some of the tributes are very sneaky I can fully accept they’d manage to not get caught cutting the net loose enough to climb through. In this version they can just use the net as a rope by cutting strategically.

If we go with the movie zoo, that’s not possible, but it’s kind of a needless risk to sneak around with the peacekeepers there. Maybe someone like Treech could get past them (since in the books he’s the sneakiest tribute, which is why he’s my favorite. Because of this I hope you don’t mind me having him be the one who’s let out first) and I’ll accept Sheaf too, but all three of them as a group is incredibly risky. They could split up, but that’s also a big risk. If even one peacekeeper spots them they’re all fucked, and there’s no way they can sneak a whole ladder with them. As for a rope, I have no idea how they’d effectively use a rope since it would slip off of the top of the bars. Aside from that, none of them have ever been in the zoo. They don’t know the layout and while they might find maps those don’t usually highlight where equipment can be found. They only have until the sun goes back up to do this, once it’s light out they can’t come back and if the mentors come then the tributes are in deep shit because one might be theirs. Urban was canonically a massive ick (considering Teslee “his”), Vipsania was probably a shit mentor since Treech didn’t trust her to feed him (no idea if you would be interested in me posting about it but I have a theory for that) and we don’t know anything about how Androcles was. Pup did care about Lamina and would probably notice she isn’t with Treech like she was the day before and maybe he’d try to spot him and realize he’s not there. So yeah the odds of their little “scheme” remaining hidden for a while day aren’t great, especially since three tributes need to remain unfound in a crowded zoo that entire time.

Instead, I suggest that the three of them knock out the peacekeepers close to the entrance of the zoo discreetly and take their keys. Then they just open the zoo. Have one person hide behind a tree or trashcan or something and have another make rustling noises in the bushes so one peacekeeper comes over, then ambush them. Or have the tributes instead sneak around to find a weapon, which is a far easier thing to find than a ladder or rope because literally anything can be a weapon if you’re determined enough. If you can bash someone over the head with it, congratulations! It’s a weapon. Once the enclosure is open they have the exact same issue as they would have if they got out any other way, which is sneaking a huge group out of the zoo. But since I assume the peacekeepers are only around the enclosure that’s a relatively easy fix. Just go to the side where they knocked out the guards. That’s safe for now. From there it’s just walking away from the enclosure until they come across one of those big boards with a map and a “you are here” arrow. Then get out.

I think the argument trick is a very dangerous gamble, because the peacekeepers are more likely to shoot at them if the don’t listen. But if the tributes all make sure they’re all in spots where they can’t be hit they could pull this off. They’ll need to do it at night and be careful to not notify the other peacekeepers, but they could do it. All their bad luck was used to get them reaped so they’ve probably got a lot of points in their favor. And the peacekeepers suck so lets just say karma came for her dues.