9

A Train Ride Through Panem


Bitte Vertigan stood in the shower inside her compartment, letting the water cascade gently over her pale blonde hair. Earlier, a tannoy had announced that they were arriving in the Capitol in around two hours. Bitte had spent nearly one of those hours in the shower now, and contemplated spending the remainder of her time in the hot water. But the last thing she wanted was to be dragged out of the shower by an army of Peacekeepers, and be presented to the Capitol without any clothes on. Besides, the trains' water tanks would empty if she took much longer. Reluctantly, Bitte stepped out of the shower and began drying off.

Bitte wrapped a towel around her body and walked into her tiny room to get dressed, only to find her District partner sitting on her bed. She threw herself backwards in shock, "What are you doing here? Get out!"

"Relax Vertigan," Garret smirked, "Reyna wants us all to meet in the dining car in about ten minutes, and I was coming to tell you. I only half-expected you to be naked."

"Half-expected?" Bitte spat back.

"Come on Vertigan, we both know it was only a matter of time before you started throwing your clothes off to get my attention." Whatever Garret was planning to say next was cut off by a sharp slap across the face.

"Shut up!" Garret shrank back for a moment as Bitte screamed at him. "I don't want to be here! I had a nice, quiet life, a house by the river. I was happy. Now we're being sent here to die, the least you could do is show me some respect! Don't you think I have enough to worry about without you trying to make me another notch on your bedpost?"

"I'm sorry Bitte," Garret rested a hand on her bare shoulder, "I want to go home too." He wrapped her into an uncomfortable hug and promised her everything would be fine. It was an empty promise, but Bitte tried to find a little comfort in his words.

"Only one of us can go home," Bitte said quietly, "if it comes down to just us, one of us has to kill the other."

"I hope it doesn't come to that," Garret replied solemnly. Bitte was hoping he'd provide words of comfort, assure her that everything would be ok. But it wouldn't be ok, and there was little point in sugarcoating it. Garret was prepared to kill her if he had to. The Hunger Games was a fight to the death, with only one winner. Was Bitte really ready for that? Was she ready to kill someone? Garret stroked her cheek before backing away. He was halfway out the door before he stuck his head back in, winked and said, "Oh, by the way, your towel's slipped Vertigan."


"Why did you do it?" Dylan asked his District partner, "What made you volunteer?"

"Personal reasons," Calliope replied.

"Come on," Dylan pressed, "we might both be going to our deaths right now."

"Then why bother getting to know each other anyway?" The girl countered. She looked cruel, very cruel. Despite the innocent face, a spattering of freckles. Calliope Mayfonte was a mystery. Dylan could see hurt behind those brown eyes, something had drastically changed her, drastically changed her indeed.

"My Mum's sick," Dylan tried a different approach, "She can only be cured if I win, and use the Victors Prize Money to pay for her treatment."

"Then try not to die." Calliope retorted. Dylan let out a sigh. She wasn't going to be easy to get along with, but he was determined to try.


"Put your clothes on," Judith instructed while struggling to squeeze herself into a T-shirt of her own.

"You have a rather different attitude this morning," Jack replied from between the sheets, "I thought last night was…"

"Last night was selfish lust, nothing else." Judith cut him off bluntly. She finished getting dressed, and told him to be out in 10 minutes. Jack flopped back on to the bed. They would be in the Capitol soon, and the fun would be over. Once they got off this train, everything would change. They would no longer be at ease with each other; there would be a much thicker tension in the air. Not just between himself and Judith either, but between himself and the twenty-two other Tributes he was supposed to kill. It also meant, most unfortunately, that there would be very few nights like the one he had on the train.

But if Jack was totally honest, even if he wasn't going into the Hunger Games, there would be very few nights like the one he had just spent with Judith. Reluctantly he crawled out of bed and got dressed. He arrived just as the train caught sight of the Capitol. Their Escort, Flavius, was incredibly worked up. "Honestly Jack, what kind of time is this? You've missed breakfast, we haven't been able to have a team discussion, and last night!"

"Relax Flavius, Judith and I spent hours going over our strategy last night. I think we have it worked out."

"That's not even remotely funny!" Flavius fumed.

"Good," Jack replied, "Cause' I was being deadly serious. We're going to do just fine, trust me." Flavius clearly didn't trust him, but he didn't make the mistake of saying any more. Jack gazed out of the window and gnawed on a muffin he'd grabbed from the snack table. Their destination wasn't far away, ten minutes or so. He took in the Capitol, pillars of white limestone held up older buildings on the outskirts of the city, while the area in the middle was dominated by glass structures that touched the sky. Off to the left of the City Circle, where they would be brought this evening, was a building Jack knew as the President's Mansion. It was absolutely ghastly, but Jack made a mental note to keep that thought to himself. Throwing his muffin wrapper into a bin at the other side of the room, he began to come up with a strategy for the Games.


Celia watched from the shadows as the train arrived. As was usual on arrival day, thousands of people stood on the platform to get the first glimpse of the emerging Tributes before they were rushed off to a prep team to be poked and prodded and plucked and waxed and washed countless times. The Capitol had already picked their favourite; unsurprisingly it was the prettiest female Career with the largest chest that had grabbed their attention. As the train slid into the station and the carriage doors hissed open, incredible noise rang out in the air. There was a lot of cheering from the Capitolites, but it didn't mask the underlying chants of 'Judith! Judith! Judith!'

The girl played on it well. Waving and cheering, she even posed for photos with a group of girls who had jumped the barrier separating the crowd and the Tributes. She knew how to handle herself. This was why Celia had come down to the station, to observe. How the Tributes handled themselves here, decided who Celia would leave to their own devices, who she would help in the Arena, and who would be executed. She enjoyed the calm that hiding in the shadows provided. Putting on a show for the public was all well and good, but running things behind the scenes, manipulating the outcome of events and disappearing while others pointed fingers and whispered names, that was where real power lay. Nobody knew she was there, nobody except Jack Banastre. He had only glanced over for a second, but he had stared directly into her eyes.

It didn't surprise her in the least. Jack possessed skills other Tributes would never learn in a Career Academy, and that was why he would always know when someone was watching him. Jack didn't seem to mind however; Celia wouldn't bring any harm to him. He would either win or lose the Games on his own. He smiled and waved to the crowd, and slowly made his way to the awaiting prep team. He flashed a wink at her. It was barely noticeable, only she would have seen it, she was sure of that. For the first time since the day she had been promoted, Celia smiled a genuine smile. Jack Banastre, the Master Assassin.


'She wasn't going to be easy to get along with, but he was determined to try.'


A/n:

Heyy guys, I'm back with an all new chapter!

So, I hope you've enjoyed reading this chapter. I'd really appreciate it if you left a review and tell me what you think about my writing. As I always say, I'd rather know if people don't like my stuff cos' then I'm not wasting everyone's time writing things nobody likes.

Mentors, your challenge this week is to select the shape and colours of your Tribute's marker for TribuTrack®. This will earn you 2 points. The shapes available to choose from are listed on a previous chapter and any colour you can think of can be used for the shape and border, though please don't make it too hard. I was disappointed that Jalen Kun was the only person to select markers for his Tributes. I thought people were excited for TribuTrack®.

The poll is now closed, and I will post the results on the website later. Thanks to the 8 people who voted.

I hope you guys are still enjoying reading,

Iron Man.