A/N I promised! And for once I kept that promise! I wrote this chapter straight after the chapter before so I won't have had any feedback from you lot. I don't even know if anyone is still reading this... Hopefully you are! Anyway, here is the second and final of the Tribute Train Rides!
Tribute Train Rides
Thistle Kellik
I watch Sander from across the room. He's just sitting there, his head in his hands. Nothing has changed since we first got on the train; no one has made a sound. I don't know what went on when he said goodbye to his family, but whatever it was has shaken him up.
"Hey" I call over softly. All the anger I felt earlier has left my body. Now all I feel is numb. "Sander?" He looks up at me. His green eyes are glassy with tears. "I'm sorry about your hand." He looks confused, unaware of what I'm talking about. "You know, with the fingernail marks and everything." His eyesight drifts down to his right hand where there are still slight indentations where my nails dug in earlier. A slight chuckle leaves his lips.
"Don't worry about it." His voice is quiet, barely audible from across the room.
"You know, I'm not really a nasty person. You don't have to be wary of me." He looks up at me but doesn't say a word. I decide to continue explaining. "I have bipolar but my bad side only comes out under extreme situations. Normally I can control it. I just gave in to it at the reapings..."
"Oh, okay then." He looks back down at his hands.
"Not much of a talker, are you?" I'm normally quite a shy person, but Sander seems like he could use a friend and I'm not about to turn down a chance to have someone nice to talk to through this.
"Sorry, I don't normally talk to many people outside of my family..."
"It's fine, I get it. I mean, I'm a total stranger. Who knows what I could be hiding?!" Sander chuckles again. "I'm not actually hiding anything by the way, just to be clear!"
"Well if you're not hiding anything, I won't hide anything either." He pushes himself off of the chair and walks towards me. Once he reaches my chair he drops down to sit next to me. "Deal?"
"Deal," I reply while shaking his hand. "No fingernails this time," I grin at him. This time, he lets out a proper laugh. "Now that's much better!"
"Oh look at you two!" Harlan exclaims at he strides into the room. The way he walks makes his long violet hair bounce up and down around his shoulders. It's all I can do not to snigger at how ridiculous he looks. "I'm glad to see you making friends! That's enough chin-wagging though for the moment, your mentors have requested a meeting with the both of you, it's ever so exiting!"
"Where are they?" I enquire. The train is so large that it's easy to get lost.
"Over in the dining carriage, there's plenty of food available if you're hungry!"
"Okay, thanks Harlan." We both get up and make our way along the train, passing room after room as we go along. It's only once we've reached the other end of the train that we find the dining carriage.
"There you are! Now, have a seat." Gerard Finch - who will be Sander's mentor - calls us both over. Sitting next to him is my mentor Caroline Butler. She won the games last year so this is her first year mentoring. It's obvious that she's watching Gerard to work out what to do.
Once both Sander and I have sat down opposite them, Gerard starts talking. "We called you over here to make sure that we're all properly acquainted with each other. We'll be spending lots of time together over the next week after all. As you have probably worked out, I will be mentoring Sander while Caroline will be mentoring Thistle. Depending on how you feel, we can work together or separately. What are your thoughts on this?" Gerard looks expectantly at us, waiting for a response.
"Erm... I'm fine working together I guess?" Sander answers first, looking at me to confirm.
"Yeah! That sounds good!" I agree.
"Well, that makes things much easier for us then." Caroline takes over and goes on to explain the processes that we'll have to go through. She makes it very clear where we will be on each day and what we will be expected to do. After all, she did all of this only a year ago.
"Okay then, any questions from you two?" Gerard speaks up as soon as Caroline is finished. Both Sander and I remain silent, overloaded with information. "Well, since there seems to be no urgent questions, let's get onto the food!"
Suddenly swarms of waiters file into the carriage carrying various different meals and drinks. The smell makes my mouth water almost instantly. I look over to Sander who seems to be in a similar situation to me. Numerous different smells waft towards me: pizza, oranges, chocolate, burgers to name but a few. The food is placed along the middle of the long wooden table and the waiters all leave the room. Sander and I eye the food up, waiting for the queue to start.
"What are you waiting for then?" Caroline asks while chuckling to herself. We dive in and start gorging ourselves on all the different dishes. I've always had enough food to keep me going at home but none of it was as delicious as this. There's so much food on the table that I don't stop till my stomach is completely full. Beside me, Sander is still enjoying a gooey toffee tart covered in some sort of vanilla cream.
"Now that was satisfying..." I say to no one in particular.
"Well there's plenty more where that came from!" Caroline assures me.
"I'm so stuffed, I don't think I could eat anything again..." I say while rubbing my stomach. "You know what, I think I'll just go and lie down for a bit."
"Your room is just down the hallway on the left Thistle," I'm told by Gerard as I leave the room. Sure enough, once I've walked far enough down the corridor, I spot my name stuck onto one of the doors. Inside the room sits a large, white double bed with soft looking sheets and lots of pillows. I collapse onto it and take a deep breath. If I push all thoughts of the games out of my head I'm able to enjoy the feeling of security and comfort. This feeling won't last long so I make the most of it while I can.
Andrea "Andi" Thomas
"Why did you do it, Mitch?" I say the second the train doors close.
"Why did I do it?! Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?!" He shouts back at me.
"No!" I reply, my voice louder this time. "I have a perfectly good reason! Unlike you!"
"What's your perfectly good reason then? You're no career; you have no chance of coming back alive; what could possibly be a good reason to die, Andi? Tell me that!"
"I had it all sorted out! I was finally going to be happy!" Tears start flooding down my face.
"Happy!? What's so happy about going into the bloody Huger Games?!"
"Oh, don't worry about it. It's not like you'd understand..." I start to turn away and walk to my room. I don't want to argue with Mitch anymore but he grabs my arm, pulling me back towards him.
"Of course I'd understand, Andi." His voice is softer now.
"I said don't worry about it!" But he still persists.
"But I do worry about it, Andi! I worry about you all the time!" I'm not the only one crying now; tears are flooding down his tanned cheeks. "Why won't you just tell me what's so wrong?"
"I... My..." I start to say but I can't manage to get the words out. "I can't, Mitch... Not right now. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Andi." He pulls me into a hug, my face pressed into his chest. I breathe in his smell, it's strangely calming. After a few minute of staying locked in our embrace, he pulls away and locks his crystal blue eyes on mine. "You know you can trust me, right?"
"Uhuh," I nod back.
"And you know that I'm not going to give up until you return back home alive." I nod again, not having the heart to tell him that I'm not planning on going home. I won't stop fighting until Mitch is safe back in District 3.
"That's good then." A sad smile spreads across his face. "Come on," he says as he takes my hand in his, "let's go find somewhere to sit down." And so we choose a random direction and walk until we find a room right at the back of the train with windows covering the whole back wall and part of the ceiling. A single, long sofa runs parallel to the back of the room.
We sit there for hours, not talking, just watching the world go by. Gradually, the amount of factories reduces and they are replaced by the tall oak and pine trees that surround our district. As we get closer to the Capitol, the light begins to die down. I'm just beginning to doze off with my head on Mitch's lap when Nitty prances into the room.
"Okay! Okay!" I jolt up, surprised by her sudden entrance. "Enough dossing about, it's time to get down to business!" She stands there for a moment, possibly waiting for us to do something. We just sit there, expecting her to continue talking. "You know, the two last year were much more talkative... Anyway! I would like you both to follow me!" We heave ourselves up from the softness of the sofa and begin to follow Nitty. She continues to talk, making up for our silence. I tune her out after only ten seconds.
As I walk along, my arm swinging beside me, I feel something brush against my hand. I look down to see Mitch's hand just millimetres from mine. Without thinking, I breached that small distance and grasped it. Our fingers intertwined.
We quickly let our hands drop as we are led into another room. Sitting across the room in front of a large television screen sat our mentor- Jenny Smith. She was the first winner of the games and, for the meantime, district 3's only victor. Ever since she lost her first two tributes in the second games, she tried all she could to train up the tributes in the short week between when they were reaped and when they entered the games. She was never very successful. After she'd lost another six tributes, she gave up on trying to train them.
"Took your time." She says as we walk up to where she's sitting. "I was expecting you an hour ago." We just look at her, not knowing how to respond. Her face suddenly cracks into a smile. "I'm only kidding with you my darlings!" We both let out an awkward laugh. "Okay, enough with the joking around now. You two, come and take a seat by me." She pats the sofa next to her and we sit down. "You've been watching the games for how many years now? Four? Five? You may have noticed that there's starting to become a pattern in who wins. Those from districts 1, 2 and 4 have started training from a young age. You have to look out for them. Don't trust them. I've seen tributes try to get in their pack over the past few years and it never ends well. Take my word for it." I nod, letting her know that I'm taking in what she's saying. "If you're looking for allies, go for the outlying districts like 10 and 11. They may not be as strong as the others but they're normally much more trust worthy."
She goes on to explain more about what we should expect and what districts to trust. Then the reaping recaps come on. I watch as burly brutes volunteer in 1 and 2. I watch how people scream when their friends are reaped, yet don't volunteer. I watch how I break down on stage when I hear the words "I volunteer" flow out of Mitch's mouth.
By the time we've seen the reapings from 12, I can't take anymore. I stand up and rush out of the room, trying to find any room that's empty. I end up back in the room at the end of the train. The door swings open as I run through it and bashes against the wall. I ignore and fall straight onto the floor. Suddenly all the energy has drained out of my body and I just lay there. For the first time since I said goodbye to Zeke at the reapings, I let myself realise what it happening. I'm going into the games, and I'm not coming back.
And we're done for the train rides! Up next we'll be meeting Shimmer Shine from District 1, Demetrios Mercury from District 7, Pepper Yarrow from District 8 and Suzie Andes from District 9 again in the Chariot Rides. I'm going to do the same as the train rides and split it up into two chapters with two POVs in each one. I really hope that you're still reading this and enjoying it! It'll make my day to discover that even through my rubbish uploading I still have people dedicated to reading it. Thanks in advance! May the odds be ever in your favour! -Elena