Peeta
"This isn't over until it's over." Haymitch informs me, sounding far too happy for someone who should be crushed.
"Seems pretty over to me." I comment with a frown, feeling down and utterly useless. Not only is the girl I love dead as well as her best friend because Snow killed them to prevent the rebellion from becoming a full scale war, now it's the next Hunger Games. And three of the four tributes are their siblings, all young and if Snow has any say, dead in a week.
And of course the other tribute is my age, a friend of Katniss's. Madge. Who certainly doesn't deserve this, whose only crime was being close to Katniss and giving her that Mockingjay pin. None of this is fair, but it's the way it is in this world. Snow has won and I don't see any way to change that.
"Don't be so sure, boy." Haymitch warns me as he takes another sip of his drink before tossing the now empty bottle in the grass before we enter the train to wait for the tributes, probably knowing that he's at least going to get some decent alcohol now. It's sickening that I'm even thinking this way but I might actually join him for a drink. I'm beginning to see the benefits that it could give me, because sleeping has only become worse. I'm lucky to get an hour or two these days.
He stops me before we get on the train by placing a hand on my shoulder and I glance up to him, finding him practically begging me with his eyes to understand. But I can't. I'm no Katniss, I still have no clue how they communicated through those parachutes in either arena. "It may look bad now but we're not done."
We're not done? How are we not done? I've lost everything I ever wanted, and it had nothing to do with losing in the ancient battle of getting the girl I had with Gale. Or at least directly, anyway. It had everything to do with Snow destroying the rebellion and killing the girl I love. What do I have left to fight for?
"How so? There's no District 13 anymore, remember?" I remind him, leaving out the obvious. We don't have any leaders for a rebellion. We don't have any of the crucial spies in the Capitol anymore. We don't have a symbol to use to get everyone together and fighting again like they tried last time. Why would anyone listen to us right now anyway, when everyone is so thoroughly defeated?
"No there's not. But we have hope and we have our Victors." Haymitch mumbles as one of the people from the train stares at as because we haven't gotten on yet, and both of us board the train just so he'll stop staring. "We're not done until we're all dead." He tells me in a whisper. "And right now…all the new players are very much alive."
He grins like he's won the lottery and not for the first time as he stumbles away I question if Haymitch is quite sane. But he doesn't seem beaten like the rest of us. Actually, he looks like a man with a plan. Like always.
Maybe I should stop questioning him and figure out what this drunk is getting at already.