Chapter 8

We make our way back to the cafeteria, and there are still a few people finishing their meals, so we walk in. I slip a couple of rolls into my pocket for later and Gale wraps a hunk of cheese in a napkin. I jokingly suggest that we should have brought our game bag with us to stuff full. The food here is good. Not as rich as what the Capitol had, but definitely better than anything that was available to us in District 12. Which makes me start to wonder why District 13, who seems to have an abundance of food available to them, never came to our rescue? "It seems like they have enough food to feed an army here. Too bad they never felt like sharing with their neighbors." There is some bitterness in my voice, especially when I think back to all the times I struggled to keep our little family fed. I see a few blueberries left in a bowl and I reach for them.

"I've wondered the same thing. Boggs told me that they couldn't risk it, they had to wait for the right time to disclose themselves to the other Districts. You know, they were afraid that the Capitol might decide to make good on their promise to totally destroy them."

"Oh." I guess that makes some sense. You would try to protect your own before helping anyone else. Plus, we were all lead to believe that District 13 didn't even exist anymore, that it was just a barren landscape. So, I suppose that it's just as much our fault for believing the story of the Capitol as it was District 13 ignoring our need . Just one lie tangled in the web of many that the Capitol spun for us to believe. "Well, I'm glad they took in our people at least. And, that they had enough space for everyone." The living quarters here seemed to be enormous.

"Yeah. They arrived pretty quickly. The whole District was still burning pretty good when they got there. They had some type of fire retardant that helped put out the big blazes." I see the image in my mind, orange tongues of fire licking up the remains of buildings. "They brought in some hovercraft, for those who were hurt badly, but most of us traveled in vans back to District 13. You were here already by the time I finally boarded the last car to leave District 12." So much of that I have no memory of. My desire to ever wake up again after I found out that Peeta had been captured was little to none. I never imagined that Peeta would actually be able to escape the grasp of President Snow.

"Boggs told me that they had made preparations, years ago, to take more people into their population. They were just waiting for a spark to ignite in the Districts." Gale isn't looking at me now, but I know that his words were directed at me. He wants me to believe that I'm some bright spark to the rebellion. But, in reality, I'm just a young girl who was used by the Capitol in their games, and then later used by the Rebellion for their justification of blowing up the Capitol, when they do it. Obviously, I'll be glad to see Snow dead and the brutality of the Capitol gone. But, I'm not quite sure of what President Coin has in store for the future of Panem either.

"This Boggs guy, the one with superhuman muscles, you and him are friends?" I'm a little wary of it, because he didn't seem to be overly friendly to me earlier in the Command Room.

"He's a good guy. You'll like him once you get a chance to meet him, apart from President Coin. She is in charge around here, you know. So, people do have to follow her orders." I can tell Gale is ribbing me, and I want to remind him just how good he used to be at following orders back in District 12, but the lights are being turned off and the kitchen staff chases us out of the cafeteria so they can finish cleaning up.

"I guess it's time for the grand tour. I already know where the apartments are, so what else is there?" I'm anxious to take my mind off the impending meeting with Haymitch in a few hours, plus I feel like I need to be able to find my own way around here and not have to rely on Gale to chaperone me.

"Let me get out this piece of paper, and I'll start to draw you a map." I'm glad that Gale decided to pacify my request from earlier of a map. "This place is laid out like a clock face, but also like a wheel, with spokes going in each direction. The cafeteria is in the middle. From here you can access every branch." Gale has drawn a small circle in the middle of the paper and labeled it cafeteria. Then he draws 12 lines, equally spaced apart from each other, and starts to label each line appropriately. Straight up from the cafeteria, where the 12 would be on a watch face, is labeled "Living Quarters." Clockwise from there is "Exercise Facility", "Library/School", "Gardens", "Waste/Water Management", "Hospital Ward", "Command Room", "Weapons Development", "Mine". My eyes stop at the word mine. I knew they built this place in old mine shafts, but I didn't think they actually did any mining here still. The thought of that makes my head dizzy. "Electrical", "Ventilation", "Laundry". District 13 is much bigger than I had expected. Now Gale is drawing lines, in between the lines he's already labeled, and telling me those are the elevators that connect the sections. The only section that isn't connected with elevators is the one labeled "Mine." He's also adding some squiggly lines that seem to jut out, here are there, and labels them "Tunnels." I think of how useless that information is on my map. You won't ever catch me climbing through those things. Finally there are circles connected to the end of the lines labeled "Living Quarters", "Gardens", "Weapons Development" and "Ventilation". Gale explains to me that those are access points to the outside, but that they are heavily guarded. The only one that most people can use is through where the apartments are located.

"Gale, what do they mine here? I'm guessing it's not graphite, right?" That was what the Capitol had led people to believe, that it was a graphite mine. Until District 13 revolted and word got out that they were developing nuclear weapons here.

"They mine Uranium, but I also heard that quite a few other rare earth metals were discovered here too. And, one of the guys I was talking with told me something about diamonds. But, he didn't go into detail. I don't think he was supposed to tell me that." Hmmm...this District 13 just continues to get more and more complicated.

"I don't want to see the mines. And, nothing else looks too interesting to me, other than the Weapons Development and the Gardens. Maybe the Library." At that suggestion, Gale grabs my hand and says, "I've never been one for books. How about we head over to the Weapons Development. I have clearance, so I should be able to show you around a little bit." Sounds good to me. If that department is anything like the rest of District 13, I surely won't be disappointed.

When the metal door slides open, Gale ushers me out into a little hallway. There's nothing here, except for a large mirror that hangs directly in front of us. I watch as Gale walks up to it and presses his face and hands against it. Suddenly, I see a red laser beam scan across his face and hands. Once, twice, three times before it shuts off. A door out of nowhere opens up to the side of the mirror. We walk in, only to find ourselves in another tiny hallway. This time, Gale lifts up his arms and spreads his legs, like a giant x. He tells me to do the same, and although I feel foolish to posture myself this way, I do as I am told. Sure enough, a few seconds later, another red laser beam is scanning our bodies. Once, twice, three times. Then, another door that was invisible to my eye before, opens up and we walk into a huge concrete room. One of the guards hands us both a plastic card and tells us to clip it on. Again, I do as I am told. Never before have I been so good at following directions.

Gale walks me around in a giant circle, pointing out various things. "Down this corridor is where they keep the nuclear reactor. That supplies most of their power here. Over here is where they manufacture gunpowder and assault weapons, like guns. This is a section devoted entirely to computers and satellites, supposedly some of them are left from before the Dark Days." We keep going and going and going. There are more corridors and locked doors than I can keep count of. We stop outside of a door marked "Harvesting"and the word sends chills up my spine. Gale doesn't seem to know what lies behind that door, and I don't really care to find out, so we keep moving. When I think my mind has processed enough information about the tons of different weapons that are being manufactured here, I spot another corridor marked "Development and Research" and a man slowly walking towards us that seems familiar to me. "Beetee!" I exclaim. A big smile is spread across his face. He looks so much better without those glasses. "You look good. I tried to find you earlier, in the hospital ward, but you weren't there anymore."

"Yes. They released me as soon as possible. I requested a job down here, because I'm an inventor, you know. I thought I could be of some use instead of having a nurse spoon feed me my meals every day." I laugh. That's what I saw the nurse who was with him this morning doing. "What are you two kids doing here?"

Gale answers before me, "I was just giving her a quick tour of the place. Here first, and then off to see the gardens." Beetee's eyebrows go up and he says, in a quiet voice, "I think I'll join you, if you don't mind an old man tagging around with you."Gale shakes his head no, although neither one of us has any idea why Beetee is so interested in seeing the gardens with us. I guess we're going to find out soon enough. We exit through the same security that we came in through and are back on the shiny metal elevator, on our way to meet Haymitch. I suddenly have a sinking feeling in my stomach. Whatever is going on, I don't think it's going to be good.

Author's Note: This is the end of Part I. Now the action/adventure is about to begin!