AUTHOR'S NOTES: better late than never amirite? *gets shot*
The mystery of District 1 and District 6, and this "Red Gold" comes to light. After a slightly jovial stop in District 6, we brace ourselves for the inevitable intrigue that will come from Amy's stops in District 11 and District 12. The two locales have a very distinct pattern of behavior that kind of toes the lines the Capitol has drawn without actually crossing them (yet). Amy, coming from the most loyal district to the Capitol, will see quite the contrast over these next few chapters.
Happy reading!
CHAPTER 35: The Red Gold Mystery
Given that the tributes from District 4 had died in the bloodbath, Amy had not really gotten to know them very well, for better or for worse. Thus, she called upon Delun to help write a fairly pacifying and generic speech. She did the same thing for District 5 as well, even if Spark Tracey survived the bloodbath. Marcus had killed the boy after all, and Amy definitely liked Marcus more than Spark. It was nothing personal—Amy and Marcus had been good friends.
One thing that Amy did note about Panem's most mysterious district was that they put on a dazzling light show during the festivities that happened that evening. Amy figured that they must be decently loyal to the Capitol, for if they were rebellious, they might have been able to sabotage them by cutting off their power supply. Since no such thing had happened in the Capitol yet, Amy was simply accepting what she had already assumed.
The speech Amy gave in District 6 was similarly generic, although Amy's memory was such that she did not forget about her stop in District 1, and, per Clove's instruction, brought the bottles of "Red Gold" with her. During the festivities that night, Clove led her to a trio of people that she recognized: all of them were middle-aged, and two of them looked like twins.
"Amy," Clove smirked, pointing to the pink-eyed figures, "this is Dezna and Arza Meraxa, and this is Zerviah Hawke. They will tell you all you need to know about Red Gold."
These individuals, like many in District 6, had pinkish eyes, which was an aftereffect from the district's drug endemic. Unlike other districts, this was not limited just to victors. Clove explained that of these, the male twin, Dezna, was a victor of a past Hunger Games, and so was Zerviah. They seemed fine with welcoming the new victor to District 6, and seemed to have no qualms with her being from such a loyal district. After all the introductions were done though, Amy had to pop the question.
"This is all leading somewhere, right?" she asked, "What's this have to do with Red Gold?"
"Red Gold is the greatest drink ever concocted," Zerviah explained, "if you mix it with Substance 21, it will give you the hallucinatory high of a lifetime. Think tracker-jacker stings without the pain or the boils, and then add rainbows and the ability to fly to the mix, and you will understand."
Amy gave Clove a look that basically all but said 'are you serious'.
"But seriously," the tiny girl continued, "what even is Substance 21?"
"It's a drug of course; what did you think it was?" Clove laughed, sitting down and pulling out a few bottles of Red Gold of her own. Amy remained silent, knowing that the woman had a point.
"So is this what Miriam Luxio was talking about back in District 1?"
"Aye, that's exactly what it is!" Zerviah beamed, "Miriam and I were and are the best of friends. When I won the Hunger Games, she was 15 at the time. She showed me the magic of Red Gold, combined with Substance 21. Did you know that the Meraxa twins here invented it when they were 7?"
Amy raised her eyebrows. "I… never thought I would be impressed with making a drug at the age of 7… but that's a rather impressive feat." She admitted, before snapping back to Clove. "first you're convincing me, a kid, to drink alcohol, and now you're convincing me to do drugs? You really are a terrible influence on me, Clove Kazera."
Oh, but you know you love it," Clove quipped, not oblivious to Amy's smirk. The conversation continued and Amy learned a few things as Zerviah told the story. She had won the 37th Hunger Games, and met Miriam on her tour. 3 years later, Miriam had volunteered for the 40th Hunger Games and emerged the victor. She did not forget about her friend in District 6, and they revisited each other again when they both produced victors during their times as mentors. Amy was surprised that a victor from District 6 got along so well with a victor from District 1, although apparently a lot of victors were friends with other victors regardless of district. Amy wished she could feel that sort of mirth. She still felt rather emotionless, and so when the time came to mix the Red Gold and the Substance 21, she decided to give it a shot, hoping that it would release her from the emotional numbness that had been haunting her pretty much since the last night of the Hunger Games.
She swirled the liquids in her glass before draining it. To her surprise, it was actually tasty. She supposed it would have to be if it was so popu—whoa.
The three folks in front of her had just exploded into a colorful array of rainbows. Gasping, Amy turned towards Clove, and realized that her hair was on fire.
"Whoa…" she sighed dreamily, her eyes glazing over. While this might have seemed weird, such were the psychedelic effects of Substance 21 mixed with Red Gold. The latter of these inhibited mental functions a bit, and the former made the brain go haywire, especially with what the eyes thought they saw. Essentially, Amy had the hallucinations of a lifetime.
Similarly, she was not the only one. Dezna, Arza, Zerviah, and Clove were all in on this, and were frankly, rather enjoying it. Amy wasn't sure how long it lasted, but the next thing she knew, she found herself in a bed in a dark room. She groaned, crawling up and peering out the window, to see the moon shining down on a desolate landscape. They were back on the train.
Amy's head hurt, and so she laid back down. Maybe in a few hours she would ask where they were and what happened. Were they on the way to District 7 now, or did she sleep through that and move onto District 8?
For a moment, Amy laid there in silence, hearing the train fly down the tracks. It was oddly serene, and for a moment Amy imagined Marcus, sleeping a room over as they flew towards the Capitol 6½ months ago for the 92nd Annual Hunger Games. Amy had visited the academies a few times between her victory and the tour, and saw plenty of aspiring career tributes, as well as a slight influx of younger boys and girls, probably due to the feats of District 12's Ava Togisala, and definitely also in part because of her, a 14-year-old volunteer who won the games. Similarly, she saw some light-hearted tributes that had the pleasant aura about them that made Amy feel like they were trying to fill the voids left by Marcus Romero and Chel Colorado.
Amy woke up the next morning to Delun promptings, causing the tiny girl to ask where they were.
"We're on the way to District 7 of course," he laughed, "you were quite the handful last night. We had to have the team carry you back to the train… you were listening to Clove again, weren't you?"
"guilty," Amy quipped, "Whatcha gonna do about it?"
"Nothing at this point since you're alive," the escort man retorted, "so let's get you ready…"
District 7 was fairly uneventful as well since Amy didn't know the two tributes (they were bloodbath fodder this year), and so it went fairly well and without event, much like District 4. District 8 was a bit different, because while there was certainly enmity of some sort between what Amy had heard was the most rebellious district seeing a victor from the most loyal district, they seemed to be pacified a little by Amy's somewhat sincere and respectful words towards Talon and Azure. Amy did feel a little awkward that evening (but her dress was colorful and very beautiful; District 8 certainly had a sense of fashion that Misaha and Zakuya tried to have her outfit symbolize—they succeeded grandly), but all in all, nothing too eventful happened, and the Peacekeepers didn't need to get involved.
District 9 was as generic as its bloodbath fodder tributes, and '10 was no different. District 11, however, was going to be a treat. Amy was not sure how she felt about it, or especially how she felt about District 12. Peacekeepers had always said that '11 was one of the most rebellious districts, although most of them said that even more rebellious than District 8 or District 11, was District 12. However, the population was small and it was in such a far corner of the country that most of the citizenry were fairly complacent given that the Peacekeepers had an easy job there of not really caring. Time would tell, and Amy was certainly curious to see what it was actually like.
Clove also had interesting thoughts about Districts 11 and 12, given that they had been significant players in her own games. There were still a few more hours till they would reach the borders of District 11, but Amy could tell already that these were probably going to be the wildest and most intriguing chapters of her entire victory tour…