In Order to Survive
Chapter 8

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to Suzanne Collins.


Inside the Justice Building, Evan looked around with some trepidation as he took in things he hadn't really noticed the last time.

A large chandelier hung down from the high ceiling, and he saw some offices to his left. The elevator was directly ahead, and to his right, he could see a secretary sitting at a desk, balefully eyeing him and Trevor as if hoping for something to do. Evan dimly recalled the last time he'd been dragged into the office on the right, which meant he wasn't that far away from the Head Peacekeeper's office.

A shiver went up his spine as he wondered if she was in her office at that very moment.

Trevor tugged his sleeve, and they walked to the left, ending up at an office with a door that was already ajar. The plate on the door read "TESSERAE AND REAPINGS REGISTRATION". The Peacekeeper inside the room sat at a desk with a small potted plant at one corner. The man had very pale skin (Evan judged he might be a Capitol-born Peacekeeper, then), looked extremely bored, and was tapping keys on the keyboard of the first computer Evan had seen yet in Panem.

The boxy machine looked like it might have been an IBM from the 1980s, and Evan fleetingly wondered if the screen showed greenish-white letters like he'd seen in a couple of videos about old computers. Evan looked at the wall behind the Peacekeeper and noticed a painting of an extremely ornate and outsized Justice Building, which he thought might be the Capitol's version of the one he was in right now.

Trevor and Evan stood in front of the man's desk as the red-haired man glanced at each of them. "Bit of an unusual time for a registration, boys."

His accent was different from Rossberg's, with more of an upward lilt at the end of his sentences which he spoke through lips that barely moved. This, thought Evan, might make it easier. Given his accent, he almost had to be from the Capitol; likely a debtor marking time until his tenure was up and he could get back home.

Evan stepped forward and said, as earnestly as he could manage, "I'm here to register for tesserae. I got kicked out of my house."

The man looked at Trevor and lifted his eyebrows. Trevor replied, "I'm here from the Community Home. Mrs. Drewson couldn't come."

The Peacekeeper rolled his eyes and muttered something rude about Mrs. Drewson, then said, "All right, kid. You're the witness for him – what're your names?"

"Trevor." "Evan."

"Okay. You. Evan, sign the book here. Got any proof of age?"

Evan hoped he didn't look as unnerved as he felt at the sudden probing nature of the questions he was getting. "Just my registration records at the Home. My parents didn't really keep birth certificates."

The big man sighed. "All right. Lemme just get the book." He brought out from his desk a large spiral-bound book with lined pages, showing the current year's reaping and tesserae amounts. He said, "How old are you?"

Evan replied, "Fourteen."

The man flipped over to the section for people aged fourteen and pointed to a blank line. In a monotone, he rattled off his instructions. "Name, address – that'll be the Home, won't it? – signature, check the box if you want to take out tesserae, and if you're taking them out for someone else, write down their names below yours and check the box. Remember, each time you take out tesserae it's your name that gets on more slips."

Evan saw that just a couple of lines above his, he saw that "Trevor Duncan" had signed up for himself, and taken one tessera for himself as well, which meant he was entered three times based on his age, and then another three due to his tesserae.

He wrote his own name down and took out tesserae for himself. He didn't want to, but he needed that bread and the oil for heating would be needed at the Home.

Curiosity got the better of Evan and as he handed the book back, he said, "Sir? Do you use that computer to make the slips for the Reapings?"

As the Peacekeeper looked at Evan in surprise, Trevor quickly grabbed Evan and pulled him back, saying, "Look, I'm sorry, we'll just—"

The man, whose expression seemed to soften, chuckled and waved Trevor off. Evan breathed a sigh of relief at not having screwed it all up for the two of them. "Don't worry about it, kids. This job's boring enough as it is. It's not like it's a huge secret. Can you imagine writing out names by hand for thousands of kids, as many times as their tesserae? Sure, I use this machine here. When I'm not registering people like you, I do recordkeeping." He closed the registration book and tossed it negligently onto his desk.

Evan tried to look contrite as he said, "Thank you. But I'm sorry for speaking out of turn. I won't do it again, sir."

The Peacekeeper shrugged. "Hmpf. Your bread and oil'll be delivered to the Community Home tomorrow with the rest of the tesserae for kids who live there. You get your allotment spread out through the year in weekly deliveries. Understand?"

Evan nodded, keeping his eyes cast down.

"Okay. Get outta here."

Evan and Trevor rushed out the large double doors and walked southward. As soon as they were at the south end of the town square, Trevor grabbed Evan and slammed him against the wall of a store. "You stupid shithead! You don't ask questions like that! Snow, but you deserve that job you're doing, 'cause a girl would blabber like that."

Desperately, Evan said, "I'm sorry, okay? I just... sometimes talk before my brain stops me, you know?"

Trevor glared at him darkly and said, "You're just lucky. Remember what I said about goin' against the grain? You seem to be doin' a lot of that lately. And in the Home especially, doin' that's not a good idea! You're either really smart or really stupid, and I can't figure out which, 'cause I don't think anyone else in the Home would have even tried guessing what that box was on the guy's desk."

As the boys kept walking, keeping an eye out for the bus which would take them back to the Home, Evan said, "You mean they don't teach anything about computers in school, or...?"

"What I know 'bout a computer is they're supposed to be really fancy smart electrics that can do math for you. But if there are any at the school I sure ain't seen 'em."

Trevor ran his hand through his hair and looked back up the street. He waved at the bus, which wheezed to a stop to pick them up. As the boys seated themselves in the bus, Trevor put his hand on Evan's shoulder and looked him in the eye.

He sighed and said, "Look, I ain't that mad. I mean, now that we're outta there, it doesn't seem like it was so dangerous. But you gotta realize, you're one of us now. Knot kids. We got reasons not to trust Peacekeepers. Not getting noticed is the smart thing."

/\/\

Back at the Home, Evan was put back to work boiling potatoes. He found his old clothes had been left untouched in the kitchen where he'd left them bundled up on a table. That table now had a pile of potatoes which the girl, Amber, was peeling and putting into a pot. The girl seemed marginally less cold to him than before, but still somewhat nervous, as she said, "Put these pots on your fires, keep the fires high, and tell me when the water's boiling."

Evan nodded, then remembered a question. "Uh, Amber?"

She stared at him warily, as if expecting him to try to hit her.

"Do these fires ever get put out?"

Amber shook her head and replied, her quiet voice difficult to hear over the fires, "Not till after dishwashing's done. You see the bowls and spoons from this morning stacked up on that table over where I was boiling water earlier today? Those'll be joined by the plates and I'll have to get some hot water up for dishwashing. You'll be helping with that, too."

Evan nodded and turned to his pots, morosely poking one of the potatoes floating in the water, watching it bob up and down. He thought he recognized a few from the ends that had been cut off, a byproduct of his and Trevor's mold removal. Three other girls came in shortly after, helping Amber with the potato peeling, as well as cutting thin slices of bread and putting them on large plates for serving later.

Dinner preparation was uneventful. Once the potatoes had boiled sufficiently, Evan was instructed to first carefully pour off the hot water into the drain underneath the tap he had used that morning to get cold water, then carefully set the pots on the tiled part of the table that had recently held a mountain of unpeeled potatoes. His job was to pluck the hot potatoes out and put them next to Amber, who would cut them into pieces with a sharp little knife and put them in a large ceramic serving bowl.

He watched with interest as the level in his pot shrank and the mound in Amber's bowl grew. She was an expert with the knife, paying no mind to her fingers as she rapidly sliced the potatoes into more manageable chunks.

Needless to say, by the end of it, Evan was happy the pots had cooled off enough when he needed to start reaching into the bottom of the first one to pluck out the last few potatoes before moving on to the next one. His fingers would not be thanking him for this job, that was for sure.

His mouth watered at seeing the food almost ready to eat, but Eliza had other ideas. She marched into the kitchen and grabbed Evan's shoulder, shoving him sharply to the door that went into the dining area. "You don't get to eat with us first. Get out and wait with the others. You're lucky we're back up to normal supper rations, or you'd be one of the first to go without food tonight."

Eliza scowled as she flung the door open and pointed him into the dining room, which, luckily, didn't have anyone in it yet. Evan, his mood sinking as he wondered how much longer he'd have to wait until he could eat, walked out and unlocked the dining room door, then went upstairs to where the "Brain Gang"'s bedroom was.

Cobie looked up as Evan entered, and in mock surprise, he said, "Hey! You didn't fall off the end of the world after all! Where've you been, newbie?"

Evan, by now fed up with being in a hot kitchen, nearly misstepping with a Peacekeeper, and hungry to boot, snapped, "Fuck you, Cobie!", punctuating that with his middle finger and a withering glare.

The room, which had been filled with murmurs of conversation, abruptly went quiet at Evan's outburst. After a couple of moments, Fir said, a bit sharply, "What's got you all riled up?"

Cobie, for his part, looked stunned.

Evan laughed mirthlessly. "Oh, what's got me riled up? I'll tell you. This jackass here thought it'd be funny to send me downstairs to go ask for clean clothes from the laundry girls before they'd opened up. So that bitch Eliza grabs me, pulls me inside, nearly strangles me, and tells me and tells Jim Saxon I'm gonna work for her, boiling water all day for laundry and food!"

Cobie guffawed, breaking the silence after Evan's tirade. "You're doin' girl work? Oh, man!"

He sat on one of the beds, shaking in laughter as he clutched his stomach. The other boys in the room seemed amused, too. Chip said darkly, "You ain't gonna get any sympathy, if that's what you're looking for. Y'didn't have to listen to this idiot."

Evan wearily sat on Trevor's bed next to the other boy, and growled, "Oh, fuck you all, again."

Trevor rolled his eyes, adding, "He didn't tell you all the other thing he did that nearly got him and me in deep shit when we went to get him signed up for tesserae, y'know."

Evan scowled. "Oh, go snow yourself, Trevor. The Peacekeeper didn't seem to care that I know what a computer is. And I notice you're not spitting nails about it anymore, anyway."

Trevor seemed to back down a touch. "I don't think the Peacekeeper's gonna come lookin' for us. He seemed lazy enough, anyway. It's just... you can't get yourself noticed, man. Not by them."

Oak nodded and came over to Evan. "One time, I bumped into a Peacekeeper patrolling down here in the Knot." He shook his head at the memory. "Wasn't watching where I was goin' on account of Fir and me not wanting to get busted pickpocketing. Asshole grabbed me, kicked me in the stomach, then punched me in the gut so hard I barfed up all over the sidewalk."

Fir said, "And when I caught up to Oak, the guy just looked at me, looked at Oak, sneered and walked off. C'mon, man. You've been beaten by a Peacekeeper, you've gotta have some idea of what they can do to us."

Put that way, Evan could see a little more clearly why Trevor had been so rattled at the deviation from what should have been a routine task. He turned and said to Trevor, "Look, I'm sorry again. I didn't have any idea it was that bad. I mean, getting belted in front of you all was kind of a... I dunno, a special case? I've never seen them do anything like that to people."

That last was the literal truth, seeing as all he'd ever done was read about Romulus Thread.

Peter said, "You town kids don't know from snow what it's really like. Now you're learnin'."

Evan sighed. Jeff came up and said, "I'm sure it won't be that bad here for you all the time, Evan."

He chuckled. "Thanks, kid. But I'm not exactly helping myself much around here." He stood up and extended his hand to Cobie. Swallowing his pride, Evan said, "Look, I shouldn't have yelled at you earlier. It's just... everything all at once, you know?"

The bell clanged, and the other boys started leaving the room. Cobie came up to Evan, shook his hand and said, "I'll accept your apology if you tell me one thing." He wiggled his eyebrows and said, "What're the girls doing in there?"

Evan laughed. He said, "Tell you the truth, nothing special. It wasn't like they had a party going on in there or anything, you know?"

Cobie was disappointed. "Damn. You know that girl, Amber?"

Evan nodded. "Yeah, kind of."

They walked down the stairs, trailing behind most of the other people streaming down to the dining room. Cobie nudged him and whispered, "She's got a nice ass."

Evan shook his head in amusement and said, "I stare at those girls even cross-eyed I think Eliza'd bash me over the head with one of those metal pots, you know what I mean?"

Cobie said, "Man, you'll end up wearin' a dress one of these days. You do that, I'm gonna swear I don't know you at all."

"That's not gonna happen. You think I'd look good in one of those outfits? Maybe a matching bonnet?"

It was Cobie's turn to shake his head in amusement as they entered the dining room and seated themselves in the same spots they'd been in the morning.

Eliza stood at the end of the long serving table and sharply whistled to silence everyone. She barked, "All right! We're back to normal food rations, no thanks to the Peacekeepers. Line up, and no fighting or this food goes back into the kitchen. Got it?"

After a beat, she nodded and folded her arms, scowling at everyone as people slowly got up and filtered into a line-up to get food. Evan realized other boys might be less accommodating about his social status, or lack thereof, when a tall teenager behind him shoved him and said, "Hey, look, it's a girl who looks like a guy. Gonna wear an apron and spread your legs for me for some bread?"

Too shocked at the crudity of the suggestion to respond, Evan just clamped his mouth shut and determinedly refused to give in to the provocations. Unfortunately, the guy in front of him in the line-up was also from Jim Saxon's table, and so he got shoved back and forth a couple more times. As they neared the serving table, Eliza's poisonous glare shut them all up and quieted everyone down, letting Evan accept a plate and a fork from Martha, who beamed at him, then scowled at the boy behind him who'd just yanked a plate off the pile in front of her. A few thin potato slices and two bread slices later, Evan was back at his table.

The bread barely deserved to be called it, tasting like whole wheat bread that had been left out for a week and then adulterated heavily with Snow only knew what. Knowing the district he was in, probably sawdust. In fact, it might as well have been carved from a block of wood in the first place.

After Evan swallowed the last piece of bread with some difficulty, leaving his mouth dry, he ate the potatoes, which at least had the advantage of having been cooked in water. They didn't help much, and he ended up still feeling hungry in the end, his dinner forming a lump in the pit of his stomach.

To take his mind off the meager meal, he said to Trevor, "Where do we eat tesserae bread?"

"Oh. That. We keep them in folded-up newspaper and eat them after supper in our rooms; we kinda squirrel the bread away in case the Peacekeepers barge in here and start grabbing food. You ain't got any tonight, but I'll give you a small piece. It tastes a bit better than this crap."

Evan didn't hold out much hope for the taste, and after dinner broke up, he leaned towards Trevor, muttering, "Can you save that for me later? I'm s'posed to wash dishes for the girls too."

Trevor rolled his eyes. "If you didn't seem like a decent guy I'd be swearing up and down I didn't know you from a piece of wood, you know that?"

Evan couldn't figure out a good reply to that.


Author Notes: Thanks go to CrazyNerdyFangirl for nitpicking this and Claratrix LeChatham for her valuable beta work! :)