Livia's feet backed up automatically and she blended into the trees.
She covered her mouth with her glove to disperse the white of her breath in the icy air.
Adrenaline coursed through her, wiping all the concerns of the day from her mind as she focused on the immediate threat before her.
What was going on? Had Thread turned on the fence as an additional security precaution? Or did he somehow know she'd escaped his net today? Is he determined to strand her outside District 12 until he can apprehend and arrest her? Drag her to the square to be locked in the stockade or whipped or hanged?
'Calm down', Livia ordered herself.
Her eyes peered through the trees, past the fence, and into the Meadow.
All she could see was the wet snow illuminated here and there by the light from the windows on the edge of the Seam.
No Peacekeepers in sight- no signs she was being hunted.
Whether Thread knew she'd left the district or not, she realized her course of action must be the same: to get back inside the fence unseen and pretend she'd never left.
Any contact with the chain link or the coils of barbed wire that guarded the top would mean instant electrocution.
She didn't think she could burrow under the fence without risking detection, and the ground was frozen hard, anyway.
That left only one choice.
Somehow she was going to have to go over it.
Livia began to skirt along the tree line, searching for a tree with a branch high and long enough to fit her needs.
After about a mile, she came upon an old maple that would do.
The trunk was too wide and icy to shinny up, though, and there were no low branches.
So Livia climbed a neighboring tree and leaped precariously into the maple, almost losing her hold on the slick bark, but she managed to get a grip and slowly inch her way out on a limb that hung above the barbed wire.
As she looked down, she realized avoiding getting fried meant she'd got to be at least twenty feet in the air- and she guessed her branch was twenty-five.
It was a dangerously long drop, even for someone who had years of practice in trees.
But what choice did she have?
She could look for another branch, but it was almost dark now.
The falling snow would obscure any moonlight.
Here, at least, Livia could see she had a snowbank to cushion her landing.
Even if she could find another, which was doubtful, who knows what she'd be jumping into?
She threw her empty bag around her neck and slowly lowered herself until she hung by her hands.
For a moment, she gathered her courage- Then released her fingers.
There was the sensation of falling, then as she hit the ground a jolt went right up her spine.
A second later, her rear end slammed into the ground.
She lied in the snow, trying to assess the damage.
Without standing, she could tell by the pain in her left heel and her tailbone that she was injured.
The only question was how badly. She was hoping for bruises, but when she forced herself onto her feet, she suspected she'd broken something as well.
Livia could walk, though, so she got moving, trying to hide her limp as best she could.
