There's no such thing as impossible. The word itself says I'm Possible. – Audrey Hepburn
Jesse fumes as she takes the lead of the pack. They begin to descend the mountain, entering the valley before she finally lashes out and throws her knife into a nearby tree. "Jess." Marcus sighs. "Calm down."
She turns on him, eyes blazing with fury. "Calm down? How would you feel if your dad told you that he knew your mom was going to die? How would you feel hearing that and seeing that he did nothing? Nothing!" Another knife sinks into the tree. "He's a traitor to the rebellion!" she screams.
"Jesse, you're going to give us away." Tyler warns nonchalantly.
"Then let her find us! She deserves to die a painful death." She answers.
Marcus, Tyler and Julie look at each other sadly before Marcus walks toward Jesse. "Stay away from me." She mumbles but he ignores her, wrapping her in his arms. She begins to sob.
"Maybe we should set up camp for the night." Julie suggests. Tyler nods in agreement and sets his backpack down, getting a small ax out to chop firewood. "Do you need help with that?" she asks him as he swings the ax into a nearby tree.
He throws most of his weight into the swing of the ax. "Nope. I just…I need to sort through my anger a bit." He looks over to where his sister is still sobbing but hasn't let go of another one of the knives she packed. "But not like that." He says, smiling grimly.
"Something isn't right about this." Julie whispers. Tyler looks over her shoulder at Jesse and Marcus before looking back at her.
Then he says loudly, "This tree is no good. Let's go find another." They walk so they are out of ear-shot of Marcus and Jesse.
Julie says, "Something wasn't right about your dad."
"I know." He nods.
"We should go back." She proposes.
"What?" he demands. "Look, I'll agree that something was off about my dad but we have to keep going."
She grabs him by the shoulders. "Tyler, do you really believe that your dad would be okay with your mom dying? You've seen all of those replays of the three years they were in the games; he nearly died on multiple occasions for her. Why would he just let her go now? And then he is perfectly okay with his two children – the last reminders of his love for Katniss – go on a suicide mission?"
He shakes his head. "But we can't abort it now."
"I don't think that was your dad." She says suddenly. "You said Jesse gave him two tablespoons of sleep syrup?"
"Yes." He says, starting to get impatient.
"That's more than enough." She looks over her shoulder in the direction of Jesse and Marcus. "What if that was a clone of your dad or something and he's driving you into a trap?"
He snorts. "Right, and what if my mom really isn't dead?"
"We all thought Gale was dead. We've seen him die." She points out. "Did you ever actually see your mom's body?"
"No, but my dad did." He says.
"And he hallucinated, didn't he?"
He furrows his brow. "What are you getting at?"
"Someone's been messing with all of you. Big time. I think it'd be best if we got you home, ASAP." She tells him.
He stands quietly, looking blankly at the woods around them for several minutes. He finally says, "Okay, but how are we supposed to convince my sister of that?"
"First, we have to get rid of the Holo. I don't like the idea of us being tracked." She admits.
"How are we supposed to get back?"
She shakes her head. "We can't go back right away." She sighs as if she has just thought of something else. "We have to find a way to prove that your dad wasn't himself. Hard core evidence that it was a clone."
"And where can we find that?"
"Where does the Capitol keep all of their prisoners?" she asks him.
He sighs and tilts his head back. "Forget it. It's impossible."
"We at least have to try."
"It's a torture chamber. We'd be putting our own lives at risk going in there." He says, brushing past her and stomping back toward his sister but her voice calls him back. "I heard its right outside District Eleven. Probably right around here. No sense in going back when we're so close."
He turns and looks her up and down. "Why are you so adamant about all of this?"
"I told you." She says, walking up to him. "I like a good adventure."
They rejoin Marcus and Jesse who have separated and are unpacking their bags. "Julie has an idea." Tyler announces to the two of them.
"I think we can all agree that something was not right about Peeta back there. I'm convinced that the Capitol has replaced him with a clone or something. So we should go back and watch him, see if there's anything else seemingly wrong with him. Before that though, we need to go to the Capitol Prison to see if your original parents are in there, being held captive." She explains.
"The Capitol Prison?" Jesse repeats. "That's in the Capitol."
"Jesse, I think you'd be surprised to hear that I know the Capitol's big dark secret that apparently only victors know." She says smartly.
"You blabbed?" Jesse asks Tyler, who smiles.
"Please, like Marcus didn't hear from you." He says easily. Marcus nods and shrugs.
"I think she could be right Jess." Marcus says. "I mean, what if your mom really isn't dead? What if it's some stunt Johanna and Gale tried to pull?"
"But why would they do that?" she asks, crossing her arms.
Tyler looks at her seriously. "The same reason Mom and Dad almost killed themselves in their first Games, the same reason she was the symbol of the rebellion; to stand up against the Capitol!" he exclaims. "So they grab all of the most prominent Capitol workers and throw them in the arena that only they knew about because only they knew that not all of them were destroyed! And who was at the top of their list? Mom and Dad."
Jesse looks between Tyler, Julie and Marcus. "And why would they leave us alone?"
"Because the Capitol hardly knows we exist. They've never really acknowledged our existence." He explains.
"Is that what you want Ty? For the Capitol to recognize you as the boy who broke into the arena?" she asks him.
He shakes his head. "No. I just want Mom and Dad back."
She sighs and takes out the Holo, looking at it for a long time. "Then I guess I have to destroy this." She says.
"No. Just leave it there. Let them come find us." Tyler challenges.
Jesse bends down and reaches into her backpack, pulling out the Holo she stole from her parents' safe in the art studio.
"You knew all along." Marcus says.
"I would've said something eventually." She smiles at him deviously. "Now let's go find this arena." She pulls the map up on the Holo and studies it. "We'll know we're there when the instruments start to go crazy."
"Um…how do we even get in?" Tyler asks.
"We'll have to find the chinks in the force field." Jesse answers.
Julie gasps. "That could take days!" she exclaims.
"We don't really have that luxury though, so we're gonna have to split up." Marcus says for Jesse. "I'll be with Jesse, you and Tyler will be together." He tells Julie. "Hey Jess, do you think if you climbed a tree high enough you would be able to see the dome?"
She pauses next to a particularly tall tree and looks up into the branches. "Keep a close eye. I'm not real comfortable with our proximity to the old Holo." She says, tightening the strap for her sheath of arrows. "If I shoot an arrow into the air I could find the force field by the electric shock it gives off." She says to the group as she begins to climb. "Just get ready to run because they we won't have much time after I give away our position to get there."
Once she is up in the tallest branches she looks out into the valley. She slides an arrow out of the sheath, a fire arrow, and aims into the sky. She releases the bow string and is startled when a fire starts in the air not thirty yards in front of her. The fire spreads down to the ground about twenty feet in front of the tree she is in. "Run, now!" she yells down to them. "Directly in front twenty feet." She tells them as she slides down the tree.
As soon as her feet touch solid earth she pulls out an explosive arrow and aims at the spot where the fire is spreading and eating the force field. "Heads!" he warns, but the arrow merely burns a large hole in the force field. "Come on!" Tyler yells, waving Julie and Marcus in. Jesse slips in with Marcus on her heels when the force field behind them seals up.
The sun is shining brightly overhead, making it difficult for them to see at first. The muggy air instantly overwhelms them with sweat. "Good thing we brought water." Marcus says, his eyes being the first to adjust. "Which arena is this one?" he asks.
Jesse walks toward a tree, walks around it for a bit and then looks around at the rest of the woods, which resemble the woods they were just standing in. "This is the arena from Mom and Dad's first year." She observes. She pulls out her Holo to double check. "Yep, the river and lake, the open fields, the mountains. I would recognize it anywhere."
"Great, then we know where they should be hiding." Tyler says, setting off toward the river.
"Wait, what if we come across an insane prisoner?" Julie asks.
Jesse turns to her and hands her a knife. "Hope you hit your target." She says simply before brushing past and catching up with Tyler. "We have to find that cave." She says quietly. "And then see if there's anyone else we may know in here."
Tyler whispers back to her, "And what if they're not there? Getting in was the easy part compared to what is left for us to do now. And we don't even know what is waiting for us in these woods."
"We'll find out eventually."
"There aren't any parachutes either. We're totally on our own." He reminds her.
She stops him by grabbing his elbow. "Ty, I know. We can do this though." She is looking at him seriously and doesn't even notice the darkening sky.
"Uh, guys, I think we have to run." Marcus says loudly. They both turn to see he's pointing up to a large orange glow.
"Oh no." Jesse whispers.
"This is…it's the exact same arena." Tyler says.
"Run!" Julie screams, grabbing both of them by the arm and pushing them forward as the fire bares down on them.
Okay, so three quick things:
Finally saw the Hunger Games yesterday, it was AMAZING!
Another movie I watched is Midnight in Paris and I recommend it for anyone that likes classical authors like Fitzgerald or Hemmingway.
I just got a new computer and it has Microsoft 2010 on it and I have no idea how it works. I know how 2007 works but if you have 2010 I would really appreciate some pointers/tips.
Thanks for reading and please review!
~PennStateGRL4eva~