Alright, so Chapter 4! This one focuses a bit more on Haymitch… and he's about to find some stuff so eep!
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Effie watched as Portia fell asleep that night, between the boulders. She decided against telling Portia about what she saw. Despite her being a mutt, Effie truly believed Portia had no idea what she was. She was probably programmed to befriend Effie, and, when the time came, kill her… or at least lead her to another group of tributes accidentally. Or maybe Portia was a flaw in the system, that the Capitol made a mistake with her, like when they accidentally bred mockingjays.
All Effie knew was that she was alone with a group of mutts, and she needed out. And maybe Portia was her way out. Maybe Portia could escape too, and somehow find a way to keep living. She was too much like the Portia Effie had always known, and Effie wasn't going to let her go, not after she saved her life.
Effie eventually drifted off to sleep as well, but was woken up shortly after to the sound of screams.
"EFFIE!" It wasn't Portia- it wasn't even a woman. It was a man. It was Haymitch. "EFFIE HELP ME PLEASE!" Effie climbed from between the boulders and searched for Haymitch. But all she found was a lone jabberjay circling above them.
As Haymitch's screams tore through the silence, Effie curled into a ball, covering her ears with her hands. Portia climbed out from between the boulders, holding their weapons and bags. She spotted the jabberjay, too, then said, "We have to get out of here. With a jabberjay screaming your name, the others will know where to find us. We have to go now."
She tried to move Effie, but Effie was grounded to the boulder, clutching her was, trying to mute the screams. "I can't." she cried.
Portia held her hands over Effie's and looked her in the eyes, "Yes, you know its not real- nothing here is real. We have to go."
Effie shook her head, but got up and followed Portia across the boulders.
POST WAR
Once Haymitch arrived in the Capitol, he wasted no time in getting to the old training center. After a quick call to Paylor, he was granted full access to the building. He had to go down two elevators, climb down 8 flights of stairs, and go down another, smaller elevator shaft with a guard at his side to get to the lowest sub level of the center.
When they got to the entrance of the basement, the guard paused, "I don't believe you'll find anything down here. I searched it myself once the escort was removed. None of the computers turn on, and most of the rooms are empty" Then, he unlocked the door.
Haymitch paused in the doorway, "What was your name?"
"Commander Becks."
"Well, Becks," Haymitch said, a twinge of disgust in his voice, "Let's get a couple of things straight. 1. That escort worked for the rebel cause and she is very important to me so I don't want you talking about her like she's Capitol trash you picked up on the street. 2. Her name is Effie- learn it. and 3. You'll be surprised how much more you'll find if you actually care about the information."
He walked through the doorway, and Becks started to follow. But Haymitch stopped him again, "And one more thing- if I do, in fact, find something that you missed, you better work really hard to keep that Commander title." Haymitch then continued to take the access key from Becks then slam the door in his face.
He walked down the hallway. It was narrow, with no doors on either side for the first 20 feet. Then, there was a door on the right. Haymitch unlocked it, but there was nothing inside. He still left the door open, so he could check it again after. The next three doors he tried also lead to vacant rooms. But the in the fifth, he found a room with a solitary desk and chair in it. The tag at the end of the desk said that the office he was in belonged to someone named Spade.
There was still a computer on top of the desk. There was a padlock on it that prevented Haymitch from even opening it. There were locks, too on the desk, but Haymitch knew that those weren't as fragile, as he promptly tried prying the doors open with his pocket knife. When that didn't work, he slammed the computer against the lock, and it fell right off, not a scratch to either one.
Out of the largest drawer, he took out a stack of rolled up papers. Haymitch unraveled them on the desk and found they were blueprints to the training center.
"What in the…" Haymitch muttered to himself as he looked through them. The prints clearly showed a large, nearly 600 meter gap between this floor and the floor above.
Following the lead, Haymitch took the chair into the empty room with the lowest ceiling, and climbed onto it, lifting a panel from the ceiling. Above it was another panel a couple of feet up. Then above that, concrete. He felt around the concrete, and found a latch. Haymitch pried it open with his knife, and a section of the concrete fell open, like a trap door.
A bright light shone into the dark room from above, nearly blinding Haymitch. He jumped up to the ledge of concrete and pulled himself up, and through the trap door.
He paused for a moment, catching his breath. It took too much of his strength to do much of anything anymore. But this was for Effie. So if it took his last breath, Haymitch would find out what happened. He looked up, and nearly fell backward back through the door- he was staring into the hollow of a giant cornucopia.
FLASHBACK
The jabberjay continued to follow as Portia led a sobbing Effie across the boulders. Effie knew that with Portia leading them, she might unknowingly stumble onto the mutts, but Effie didn't care. Even mutts would be sweet relief from Haymitch's screams.
Effie could barely see, with tears stinging in her eyes. She kept stumbling on the boulders and Portia had to tell her every time to jump, when they reached the end of one.
"Effie, Effie, we have to keep going." Portia willed her to go on, "We're at the end of them, we just need to jump." Effie wiped her eyes for a split second, then covered her ears again to mute the screams. She took a breath then jumped off the boulder, rolling out of it so she didn't twist her ankle. Once they landed on the ground, this one compact dirt, no grass or flowers to soften the blow, the jabberjay stopped. Effie watched as the bird flew back from the edge.
Effie curled into a ball. She basked in the silence, but it scared her nearly as much. It seemed too quiet.
"We should… keep going…" She told the still standing Portia, as Effie brushed herself off.
Portia nodded and pointed toward a forest of tall trees ahead. They started running, peeking around the trees, looking for tributes. Once they could no longer see the boulders behind them, they stopped to catch their breath. Effie looked around, and at the endless forest ahead.
She heard a deep, panting breath and froze. It wasn't coming from between the trees, but from above- in one of the trees. Effie looked up as the Haymitch mutt jumped down from a high branch.
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Alright… so another cliff hanger… let me know what you think! Thank you for reading!