Fallout by Futureheads

You put me down with your thumb,
I can see clearly that you point towards sorrow,


Reapings


Hollis Bale, 17, District One


"Keep walking."

"What are you doing, don't touch me!" The girl struggles beside me with her hands held behind her in handcuffs. A white clad Peacekeeper hustles her forward with one hand on her shoulder and the other on the top of her back. As anyone could tell, she is none too pleased about any of it.

I shrink back when I too feel a hand on my back, and try to only focus on my footfalls. I don't have time to think about any of what just happened right now, and even if I did I don't think I would want to. I don't even know what's going on right now. I don't even know where we are being taken to.

"How much farther?" I ask, my voice barely above a whisper. It's strange to hear the fear in my own voice when I address the men escorting us. I can't even bring myself to look up at them.

"We're here," one of them says a moment later and I finally allow myself to look up again. I know where we are, though I haven't been here myself in ages it feels like. It's the train station in all of its dusty and dirty glory. I remember playing here with my friends when I was much younger. Those memories are quickly overwhelmed by the crushing realization of what is about to happen.

"Y-you're taking us away," I hiccup, my eyes wide as I stare at the approaching train. "W-where are we going?"

"You'll see when you get there," he replies. I feel his grip tighten on my shoulder as my body tenses, and that only makes me more anxious. Can someone at least explain to us what's going on? Where are we going? Why are they taking us away?

The wind from the train forces me to take a step backward and the Peacekeeper's grip tightens even further. The train is only a few cars long, not like the ones I remember seeing as a child. Or maybe I just remember them wrong, who knows it has been a while. It stops in front of us and as soon as I see the Capitol seal I almost immediately feel more calm. My mother promised me that the Capitol wouldn't ever hurt me, so at least I know that I will be safe wherever it is that I am going.

"Get on," the Peacekeeper holding Vera nods towards the open door. Vera hesitates to even make a move towards the train, but I step in quickly. As soon as I do, I am released from one set of hands straight into another. This time it is a woman, just as tall and built as her male colleagues, who grabs hold of me and leads me towards a nearby chair.

As soon as I am pushed down into it, the woman releases my handcuffs and straps my wrists and chest down in the chair. I am too stunned about all the security to do anything but let her.

Vera is shuffled in a moment later and seated in the same fashion about a foot to my right. I expect her to say something, as she had done most of the way here, but she remains silent.

"Don't try anything funny, tributes," the woman spits at us and then disappears around into another car. I don't know what she is expecting us to do with our hands and chests strapped down so tightly.

I feel the train begin to move again. It's almost impossible to notice the train's movement with the Capitol's technology, but it helps me to have something else to concentrate on for a while. We must have been moving for nearly ten minutes before Vera breaks the silence.

"What is even happening?" I look over at her and see her staring up at the ceiling, her eyes glistening with fresh tears.

I am about to reply when the woman's voice comes over the loud speaker, making both of us flinch in our seats. "No talking, tributes."

I notice the train slowing down a few minutes later, and I look out the window to see that we are in another train station. I am even more confused than ever- I had spent time convincing myself that we were going to the Capitol. The woman comes back out from the other cart and opens the door.

A girl with dark skin and a long braid is pushed through the door and the woman catches her by the chain between her handcuffs. The girl flinches, no doubt that didn't feel good, and calls out at the woman to take her hands off of her. Of course, the woman doesn't even bother answering. She pushes the thin girl into a chair about three feet away from Vera's chair, strapping her in in the same way she did to us.

I catch the girl's eye for a moment when the woman is going to retrieve a tall, well built boy with a blank expression on his face. The girl looks away a second later and shrinks into the side of her chair as the boy is strapped in beside her. As the woman heads back to wherever she stays when the train is moving, I watch the girl glare at her until she disappears.

The train station disappears from the windows and once again it is a blur of sky, grass, and grey buildings as we move through the district. I have no idea who these three people are that are sitting around me, nor where we are going. All I can think of as I try once again to focus on the train's movement is that I, Hollis Bale have just brought the Hunger Games upon myself and I have not one clue what that means.


Melita Crescent, 15, District Six


I don't think about it when I hear them call Radimir up to the stage. Suddenly, my feet are moving and I am standing right in front of the stage, looking up at my friend as Peacekeepers surround and handcuff him. His eyes are wide and terrified, and I am confident that mine look the same. I see Radimir grimace in pain as they pull him around to face the crowds.

I am already at the base of the steps that he was led up just seconds ago. I don't have time to think, I just have to get to him. To do what, I don't know exactly. I can figure that out later. I just need to rip those handcuffs off of my friend and get him home. Why are they treating him like a criminal when he has done nothing to hurt anyone?

It's not until I am halfway up the steps that I feel hands grab at me. I thrash against them, running up two more steps before I am taken around the stomach and dragged back down to the ground.

"No!" I screech. "Don't touch me, no!"

The crowd is silent, and it appears the ceremony has all but stopped. I catch Radimir's eye on stage, and I think that is what brings me back to reality. They're going to take away my friend. Whatever the Hunger Games are, they're going to happen to Radimir.

"Me! I'm the other tribute!" I try to yell with conviction, but it comes out broken. The Peacekeeper that had grabbed hold of me loosens his grip on me, as if he too is shocked by what I just said. No one seems to understand what is going on, to be perfectly honest I don't either. I just can't let them take my friend away from me. I can't sit by and let him suffer if there is anything I can do about it.

"It, well it looks like we have a volunteer," Mayor Hopkins says, very unsure of his wording. I expect that he was given a very strict script to follow, and now I have just ruined that. I don't even care. The relief floods over me when I am led to stand beside Radimir, so much so that I don't even struggle when they snap on the handcuffs.

"Are you out of your mind?" Radimir hisses. His face instantly contorts in pain as the Peacekeeper behind him pulls at his handcuffs, whispering something that makes any possibility of me answering the question obsolete.

It's impossible to ignore his eyes boring into me. Even when we are led off the stage and towards the dead end of District Six I can still feel his eyes on me. I have no idea what I have gotten myself into, but I know that there was no chance of me doing anything else. Whatever he is about to face, there is no way he is going to face it alone. We take on everything together, it's been a sort of pack since he spared me that time ago.

Besides, what would I do without him? Go back to a life of pick pocketing and sleeping with one eye open next to a trash bin? Nothing could be worse than that.

My breath catches in my throat as we are led into the ruins of what used to be the train station. Countless bombings targeted at it and the surrounding buildings have left the station in shambles. As we walk through the only standing part of the building, a thick arch, I see that there is already a train pulled up.

I swallow hard and the air around me goes even more silent as the understanding dawns on me. They're taking us away? Where are we going? I hardly have time to process the whirl of questions that tornado in my brain before the Peacekeeper behind me gives me a solid push and I unwillingly step into the car.

Instantly I get the feeling of eyes on me, and I turn to my left to see about ten other people around my age already seated in the car. Upon closer inspection, I notice the restraints on their wrists and chests along with the fact that every one of them is silent. If it didn't feel as though my breaths were suffocating me I might have said something just to break the crushing silence.

Another tough grip takes me and marches me down the aisle between the others, pushing me down into the nearest free seat. As soon as I hit the seat, the woman goes to work with the restraints. I am too stunned by the quick, mechanical nature of her movements to do anything but watch.

Radimir comes into the train as soon as the woman has left me and gone to stand at the door again. She leads him in in the same fashion, harshly and quickly, and within minutes he is sitting right beside me. Strangely enough, even in this bizarre situation it is enough of a comfort to me to have him here.

Just as I am about to say something to him, the woman pipes up like she had read my mind. "No talking."

I try and cast an apologetic look over at Radimir, but he doesn't allow me to catch his eye. I can understand that he wants to keep to himself right now. It was a huge shock for me to hear his name being called out in front of all those people, so I can't even imagine how traumatic it was for him. I'll leave him to his own for however long this trip will be, but as soon as we get where we are headed I need to talk to him. Until them I have time to consider all the questions swirling around my mind; like where are we going, who are these people, and what exactly have I just gotten myself into?


Flint Calloway, 14, District Twelve


This entire day has felt like nothing more than a terrible, terrible nightmare.

Waking up to the sound of my mother furiously knocking on my door, telling me that I am supposed to be at the ceremony in an hour. Standing in the crowd of kids and teenagers, staring up at the mayor as he delivered a very vague explanation of what the Hunger Games are. Everyone had their own theories about what they were, but none could be proved or disproved by the information that we have been provided with so far.

Well I guess that doesn't matter, I am going to get an up close look at what they are for myself as soon as I get... wherever I'm going.

I sneak a glance at the girl sitting beside me, Ariella Saville. Just like every other time, she doesn't even turn her head to acknowledge that she sees me. Also like every other time, I am glad that she doesn't. Ariella is a pretty girl, and I am certain I have tear stains on my cheeks. There is no one I can think of that I would like to see me this way, especially not a pretty stranger.

I study her out of the corner of my eye, knowing that I have nothing better to do during this trip. She has been staring straight ahead for the entire time so far, her lips pressed into a very narrow line. I half-wish that we would be allowed to talk, seeing as she doesn't look particularly antisocial and it would likely make the time go by faster.

I guess I will have to be content with simply looking around me. That is what everyone else seems to be discretely doing, but being the last person to get on the train and therefore having the very back seat I definitely have the best view. For some of them I can see nothing but the back of a blonde head or half of a face, and others I can see pretty much all of them.

Especially easy to view without looking like I'm trying to are the pair to my left and the pair directly in front of me. Beside me there is a boy that looks to be a few years younger than me with tan skin and dark hair. He stares down at his feet intensely, as if caught in deep conversation with the dirty laces of his shoes. I feel terrible for him because if I can go just based on looks I'd bet that he is the youngest one on the train so far.

Beside him is a pretty girl with blonde hair and pale skin. She looks to be at least a year or two older than me, and she looks around without seeming to care who notices. When she sees me looking at her, she turns and raises one eyebrow at me. I turn my attention to the pair in front of me, unable to force myself to meet her eyes for another second.

The one sitting right in front of me, also at a seat beside the window, is an older boy with bright blonde hair and blue eyes that I have seen a couple times when he tried to turn around against his restraints. The way his eyes search around like a lost animal makes me feel worse for him than the little boy staring at his shoes.

The girl beside him is easier to see without her having to turn around. She looks more or less to be the same age as me, with blonde hair and almond eyes. She hasn't really looked around much, but I have caught her sneaking a look up at the blonde boy and the others around her every once in a while when she manages to tear her eyes away from her hands.

The others are more difficult for me to see. I note a few in less detail than the four around me. The blonde girl in the second row whose hiccupping sobs have become the only noise I am able to hear other than the breathing of twenty-four closely packed people. The boy with the blue bowtie and dress shoes who has tried at least twice to get the attention of the woman who seems to be in charge here.

Suddenly I can feel the mood in the train begin to rile up again and I find myself wondering what is happening. My question is answered when the scene in the window comes back into focus, no longer a blur of grey, green, and blue. Instead I look outside and see a big slate of all light grey in front of me.

I hear a door open behind me and a stream of Peacekeepers files in from behind me, another coming in from the front of the train car. One of them rushes to free Ariella from the restraints, hustling her off of the car seconds later. Another unlocks my wrists and chest, and pulls me to my feet. My legs wobble under my weight as he slaps on a pair of handcuffs, no longer used to standing after the long time sitting. That doesn't seem to matter, as I am half dragged off of the train behind the blonde haired boy.

My head spins as I am led through brick hallways and into a tiny room. We stand there for a moment, and then leave- suddenly on a brighter floor with windows and natural light. I have just about found my voice to be able to ask where I am being taken, when the Peacekeeper opens a door and pushes me inside.

I am met with total darkness as the door closes behind me. I feel so vulnerable, unable to feel my way around the area with my hands tied behind my back. I sink to my knees and press myself up against the door, the bright light forcing my eyes closed when the darkness is finally filled.


Song: Fallout by Futureheads.


A/N: What did I say? It's definitely not the Reapings y'all were likely expecting. I hope it was good though, I am a bit nervous about how different I made this chapter. I also really like it and it makes me excited for the rest of the Capitol, when you will all get to see what my mind can come up with given such freedom.

Good luck.

So yeah, there will be one POV per tribute in the Capitol and then the Games will begin. Hopefully you are all still reading and liking the story, I'm working hard to get updates in (even updating when I am supposed to be studying for my two midterms tomorrow).

Reviews are always appreciated if you have the time to leave me one. I'd love to hear your answers to the following questions as well as a general idea of how my writing is coming out. Thanks!

Has your opinions of Hollis, Melita, or Flint changed?

What did you think of each part of the chapter?


Don't know when the next update will be, hopefully not too long from now. To those of you waiting for Iridescence, I expect there will be an update tomorrow or the next day. We hit a bit of an issue but it shouldn't take too long to fix it.