"Look! We're here! District Seven!" Eustacia screeched around lunchtime. Beetee and Wiress looked up from their notebooks scattered all over the dining room table. Eustacia smirked at them. "Now you have something more to do than look over those notebooks all day!" Wiress scowled.
"We like inventing!" She snapped. "It's useful and productive and actually benefits the citizens of Panem. What have you done for the past three hours? Your hair?" Beetee reached across the table and took Wiress' hand. Eustacia looked at their grasped hands and raised her eyebrows.
"Well, luckily you have Beetee to cool you down, little hot wire."
"She insulted you, Beetee." Wiress said, tears welling up in her eyes. Beetee smiled gently at her.
"And you don't like people teasing you about inventing either, do you, squirt?" Beetee asked chuckling as he squeezed Wiress' hand.
"Standing up for your mentor, are we?" Eustacia asked slyly. "At any rate, we're nearly to the station." She glanced once more at their clasped hands on the table before yelling for Mrs. Williams to bring lunch. Wiress followed Beetee out the door and onto the platform at the train station, her notebook clutched tightly to her chest. A good foot of snow was on the ground. Wiress's knee-high boots and long thick jacket kept her dry. She wrapped her mittened hand around Beetee's large gloved hand as they walked through the forest. Instead of seeing the snow-covered pine-trees, she saw the tall trees and green hills of the arena.
"Wiress, are you ok?" Beetee asked concerned noticing Wiress' shivering. Wiress gulped and nodded. She took a few deep breaths and continued trudging through the snow.
"Yeah." Wiress whispered softly. Beetee paused and felt Wiress wrap her arms around his middle. He held her close guessing she was reliving the time in her arena.
"You're in District Seven. You're safe." Beetee whispered in Wiress' ear as she buried her face into his jacket. They walked to the mill near the center of the town where paper and other wood products were made. Wiress' eyes lit up as she saw the machines used to chop wood or spin large rolls of paper. She was soon excitedly talking to the managers at the mill and writing down her ideas.
"Well, I think if you could upgrade your parts, you could make production much faster." Wiress pointed out. Just then the assembly line used for assembling furniture skidded to a halt. "Is something wrong?" Wiress asked worriedly.
"Wiress - we should leave." Beetee said quietly grabbing the small inventor's hand.
"Beetee - if it's a mechanical failure - The mechanical engineering instructor told me about those before I left -" Wiress broke away from Beetee's grasp and made her way to a group of workers huddled near a portion of the line.
"I'm sorry, sir, it won't happen again." One of the workers said shakily. Wiress followed his gaze to where a table leg had wedged itself in between two gears of the conveyor belt.
"I told you to place at least five at a time on!" A supervisor snarled at the worker who's uniform hung on his slight frame.
"I have - they're so heavy -" He gasped. Wiress looked at the stacks of table legs that would be placed on the conveyor belt.
"It's designed to process ten." Wiress said looking at the slots.
"See, even this little girl knows!"
"But - that's not - if he can't lift it, it's not safe." Wiress pointed out hastily.
"Well, the Capitol needs us to ship 1000 tables a week, missy. Do you have any ideas?" The supervisor growled at Wiress. She gulped and clutched her notebook.
"Y - Yes - I'm - I'm an inventor from District Three." Wiress said hoping her voice didn't betray the fear she felt staring into the supervisor's glare.
"She's our Victor." Beetee said coming up behind her. "We need to be going."
"No! Wait! What will happen to the worker?" Wiress asked concern filling her large eyes. She looked into the worker's terror filled face. "It's not his fault." She said quietly. "It's not his fault! It's a design error! Let him go!" She yelled. "LET HIM GO!" She screamed as a Peacekeeper marched into the room and grabbed the worker by the collar of his work-shirt.
"I shall let him go after this!" A Peacekeeper sneered stomping over to the worker. Pulling his handcuffs from his belt, he grasped the worker's wrists and shackled him to the machine. "Kneel down!"
"NO!" Wiress screamed before Beetee slapped a hand over her mouth. To his horror, another Peacekeeper walked up to him and waved his baton menacingly at him and Wiress. The Peacekeeper managing the worker uncoiled a whip that was also on his belt along with his baton, gun, and flashlight. The overhead lights of the mill glinted off the Peacekeeper's badge as he swung the whip at the worker's back. Wiress wailed with every cry of pain that escaped the worker's mouth.
"Seen enough, little missy?" The Peacekeeper watching Beetee and Wiress asked. Wiress choked back a sob before she and Beetee were dragged from the mill. Beetee hastily pulled her behind a shed so she could sob into his jacket.
"I tried to stop it - I tried -" Wiress wailed. "I know how to fix the machine - it's not his fault!"
"Ssssh - Wiress -" Beetee whispered.
"It isn't fair!" Wiress wailed.
"I know, honey." Beetee whispered. "I know. But we mustn't cause a scene. Wiress, we -" Beetee paused. "We will show them. In our own way." Wiress nodded before allowing Beetee to wipe her face. "There there." He whispered before kissing her cheeks. "Let's go. Eustacia will go crazy wondering where we are."
True to Beetee's word, Eustacia screeched and carried on about Wiress and Beetee wandering in the cold before Wiress' speech. Wiress' prep team worked in a bathroom of the Justice Building fussing over the state of Wiress' red eyes and tear-stained cheeks. It was easy to pretend she was tired and that her inventing work was starting to get to her. "Oh, sweetie, you work so hard!" One of the prep-team members squealed as she put up Wiress' hair. "You'll forget all your worries at dinner tonight! I promise!" Wiress nodded.
Wiress gave her speech and added a line about inventing machines to make things faster yet in a safer environment. After her speech, she and Beetee went to the Mayor's house for a dinner of pork, chicken, corn, bread, and large pancakes with maple syrup for dessert. "Her eyes get so large when dinner's served." Beetee chuckled as the Mayor watched Wiress' large eyes widen at the plates of food in front of her.
"It does take some getting used to." Wiress looked up from cutting her chicken and gasped. Blight, the victor from the previous year was sitting across from her. "Wiress?" Blight asked seeing the blood drain from the small girl's face. "Are you ok?"
"W - Wendy -" Wiress squeaked before dropping her fork and burying her face in her hands. Beetee held her as she sobbed at the table.
"I - I'm sorry." Blight said quietly. Wiress raised her tearstained face. "I tried to save her."
"I - I know." Wiress squeaked. "Thank you." She said through her tears. "It still hurts."
"I know." Blight said quietly. Wiress concentrated on eating her food so it wouldn't go to waste. She avoided speaking to Blight not out of hate, but because her tears would threaten to spill over and never stop. Somehow she and Beetee made it through dinner and thanked the mayor. Blight walked them back to the train station.
"Well, wasn't that nice?" Eustacia shrieked. "Oh, we're getting closer to the Career districts!" Wiress felt Beetee's posture stiffen as he held her in his arms in the living room of the main car. "Wiress, darling, aren't you excited for tomorrow?"
"What's tomorrow?" Wiress asked confused.
"District Six, silly girl! You allied with that district in your Games!" Maybe it was because Wiress had seen the worker from the mill punished for no reason, maybe it was because seeing Blight reopened the pain of loosing Wendy, but Wiress lost it. She ran at Eustacia and grabbed at her dress yanking sequence and beads off while screaming and crying.
"YOU - YOU - NEVER - YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE!" Wiress screamed as Eustacia screeched and nearly fainted into a chair. Beetee grabbed Wiress around her waist to prevent her from doing any more damage. "YOU'VE NEVER BEEN IN THE ARENA! YOU'VE NEVER WATCHED YOUR ALLIES DIE! YOU NEVER WATCHED YOUR SISTER DIE! YOU NEVER - YOU THINK IT'S FUN! IT'S NOT FUN, EUSTACIA! IT'S NOT! IT'S NOT!" Wiress screamed. She scratched at Beetee's hands until he released her from his grip. Wiress let out a scream of anger and grief as she ran down the hallway. Beetee cringed as he heard a door slam.
"Well - I - never -" Eustacia gasped.
"Goodnight. Eustacia." Beetee said in a voice of cold fury before hurrying down the hallway. "Wiress?" He called. He opened her room to find it empty. "Wiress?" He checked the tribute rooms thinking she had gone into one of those. Finally he checked his room and was surprised to see her curled up on his bed sobbing into his bathrobe. "Wiress? What are you doing in here?" She latched onto him the moment he sat on the bed.
"Beetee - please - I want to stay with you - please!"
"First," Beetee held up a tube of healing cream.
"I'm - I'm sorry - I just had to get away." Wiress sobbed. She took the tube and gently wiped the medication on Beetee's hands.
"I forgive you, Wiress. I know you were upset." Beetee whispered. "We need to find a better way to channel that, my live-wire." He whispered before handing Wiress a t-shirt that would come to her knees. She washed her face and changed in the bathroom while Beetee changed into his pajamas. Wiress pattered over to one side of the bed and allowed Beetee to tuck her in.
"I - I miss - Lock - and Taylor already -"
"I know, Wiress." Beetee whispered as he crawled into bed on top of a sheet and the blanket. "I'm right here." He whispered as Wiress clung to him and sobbed herself to sleep. Beetee lay in bed holding his small co-inventor and thinking. They both were angry at the Capitol, and the Games had hurt them both. He knew they could use their pain to try to change things. At least for a little while. "We'll figure something out, Wiress. I promise." He whispered as he kissed her forehead. "I promise."
