"Can you hold this branch, please?" Theodosius asked, one hand on the branch and another on the saw. Donna reached up and grabbed it with both hands, though she had to stand on tiptoe to do so. "Thanks." He began to saw through the thin branch.
"How far along are you in the report?" Donna asked. She had just finished reading a recently released report on the state of the country. According to it, everything was very slowly getting better.
With a final motion of the saw, the branch broke off, dangling from Donna's hands. Theodosius picked at the bark. "Actually, I finished it," he said, breathing heavily. "Good to finally know something about what's going on out there. I can't believe that many people are in favour of renaming the country, though."
That had also struck Donna as odd. "I get that they want a break with the past, but I don't see how changing the country's name would help. It doesn't even make sense! Panem used to be three different countries."
Theodosius sank down under the tree among the pruned branches and twigs scattered everywhere. Donna sat down next to him. "Exactly!" Theodosius said. "And why would you want call a country 'the united states' when it's made up of districts? Unless they're planning to rename that, too." He fanned himself with his cap and ran his hand through his hair. "You know, this almost makes me feel sorry for everyone being released soon. They won't even know what country they're in."
Donna cracked a small smile. "It's important for you, too. How will you know where you are?"
"That's already an issue," Theodosius complained. "All those towns and villages are being given actual names, so when I thought I was in Settlement Fifty-Nine, I was actually in Huchsduwachsdu. And the names keep on changing constantly, so I can't just beg a new atlas from them or something."
"Where's that?" she asked. "What's it like?"
Theodosius suddenly looked much calmer. "It's a coastal town at the base of the mountains in northern Seven, or whatever Seven is going to be called now if the reformers win. Five thousand people. They mostly fish. I'm walking down the coast now, and it's chilly and damp. Good thing I have my new boots!" He glanced down at his feet. His old shoes had been completely worn apart, and the administration had given him a nice pair of hiking boots instead of the prison footwear he had worn before. "A while back as we were walking, I saw a ship pass by. They were bringing in the catch. Right now, it's already being processed. Who knows, maybe if there's fish in our food next week, it will be from there."
"Huh." The absent look on Theodosius' face made Donna wish she could escape as he did. "Did you see any people?" she asked, not wanting to snap him back to the present.
"No, not today. It's a pretty sparsely populated place I'm walking through. Once I get further south, though, I should pass through populated areas every day."
"And do the people of the Wilds frequent the coast?" Who was even pretending for whose benefit here? Dr. Chu always delighted in discussing those walks.
Theodosius picked at a small branch, tearing off the bark. "Not on District territory. North of it, though, there are many coastal towns and villages, even a city or two. They trade a lot with Asian countries. Nomadic groups do go to Seven to trade, though. I saw an official meeting between the leaders of Seven and the people of the Wilds. They're worried that now that the barrier is gone, Seven will encroach on their territory."
"That seems like a reasonable fear."
"Yeah. I'm reading about the history of the North Pacific right now," Theodosius said, snapping back to the present and looking slightly sad. "Way back when, the people living there were really badly treated by the invaders who came to colonize. Many were killed, and their land was stolen. It's not exactly the same people this time around, but I guess the fear is the same. They don't want to be forced to live on someone else's terms." While many of the people of the Wilds in the far north had been living in the area for thousands of years, the areas in Panem proper had also been home to defectors who would not or could not get to Thirteen or leave the continent.
"Now that you've explained it, maybe I'll be able to help my kids with their history assignments," Donna joked.
Theodosius chuckled as he continued to strip the twig of its bark. "How are they doing?" he asked.
"Same as always," she said, sounding resigned. It was hard to believe that her eldest was going to be turning sixteen soon, and it was even harder to believe that she was averaging a low C. "At this rate, Donna is never going to get anywhere."
"She's finishing up, uh, grade ten?" Theodosius asked. Donna nodded, though she herself often struggled to remember. "Huh. I guess she doesn't have a fitting name then, not at all."
Donna wasn't so sure about that. "At this point, I'm convinced she's doing it on purpose. With my example being dangled in her face constantly, it's no wonder she's reluctant to achieve anything." That idea had been suggested by Dr. Chu. It was a very unpleasant thought, and Donna had refused to discuss it further, though it simmered in her mind. Had she destroyed her own daughter's chance at a good life? "You said your kids weren't doing so well, either."
"They're not doing too bad, either," Theodosius said. "And they're still quite small, so it's not that big of a deal." He smiled slightly at her. "I'm very glad I have your mistakes to learn from. Cynthia's going to be shocked when I start giving her good advice."
"You forget that they're practically living on top of each other."
"She'll still be shocked that I know anything," Theodosius insisted.
Donna began to lay out the clippings in a nice pattern. "So, how are they doing in school?" she asked.
"Nothing to complain about. Cassius and Marcus are constantly asking after me, though." They were four years old.
Donna wondered if Octavius had figured it out yet. Her youngest son was just a year older than Theodosius' twin boys. "Do you know what's happening there?" she asked.
"One of them asked Cynthia where I was. She didn't want to give them false hope, so she said I won't be back for another twenty-two years." Theodosius looked utterly miserable. "Now they're constantly pestering her, asking over and over, as if they think the answer will change. I don't think they miss me, though. I left too early."
Looking around the yard, Donna tried to think of something to distract him. "We really should pick up these clippings," she said, standing up. "Let's go get rakes." Theodosius slowly climbed to his feet, holding the saw and rocking back and forth on his heels.
"I love these boots," he said, not for the first time. As they began walking towards the shed, he continued talking about his kids. "Primus is going to visit soon, so I'll be able to wish him a happy birthday." His eldest son was turning thirteen in a week or so.
"Well, tell him to tell everyone I say hi."
"Of course."
They slowly walked down the path, enjoying the nice, cool weather. The soft breeze was borderline chilly but still pleasant, and the sun was shining brightly. While the soles of their boots were covered with mud, the grass under the trees had prevented that from happening to their clothes. Donna was reminded of how plants could be used to prevent soil erosion. She kicked at the ground, trying to shake off the mud, and only got more mud on her shoe. They regularly covered the path with gravel, but it disappeared somewhere just as fast. There were several patches of bare mud that one could slip on if they didn't have good balance.
Up ahead of them, Rodriguez had solved the problem of the muddy path differently. He walked slowly, leaning carefully on his cane, and had Li at his side just in case. As Donna and Theodosius caught up to them, they could hear what the older man was saying.
"They're having fights over what to do with me, can you believe it?" he asked. Li made a vague gesture that could have been either a nod or a shake of the head. "According to them, though, there's been some movement." Now that was interesting. Donna and Theodosius sped up slightly to catch up to them and show that they wanted to join the conversation.
"Good day, Mr. Rodriguez, Mr. Li," Theodosius said, nodding slightly to both of them. "What kind of movement?"
Rodriguez stopped, both hands on his cane. He didn't look like a dying man, unless the clear signs of old age counted. He stood straight and his dark eyes were alert. "They're pressuring to have me released for humanitarian reasons. After all, they don't want to send the sort of message that keeping a sick old man in prison sends."
What Donna actually wanted to know was the identity of the mysterious 'they'. His answer, however, invited the logical counterargument of "But people tried to have Townsend released, too, and that didn't work. I'm worried that now that they've established precedent, they'll stick to it."
"Once can be seen as a one-off thing. It just needs to be prevented from turning into a pattern." While Donna agreed that Rodriguez needed to be released, she wasn't as optimistic as him. She had requested Livia and Dancer to get her old colleagues to do some gentle nudging on behalf of her, to no avail. While Rodriguez had the advantage of ill health, which would sway more people to his side, whether the administration would care was still up in the air.
"I assume your wife told you about this?" Theodosius asked. They resumed walking, though slowly, keeping pace with Rodriguez. He glanced around before answering.
"More or less," he said. "There are still people out there who haven't forgotten us."
While it appeared that the Supermax was no longer the focus of attention, that would not last long. Donna had realized that once the releases started, the way everyone viewed the prison would change. Even having someone be released after serving their sentence would appear as if the inmates were leaking through the fingers of the administration. "You might need to hurry, then," she said. "There are two years until the first releases, and who knows how the people making decisions will react when they see people walking out of those gates." Donna glanced in the direction of Westfield, Groat, and Kim, three of the five who would be the first to leave the Supermax if the administration clamped down.
Li nodded. "I hope that one won't get in the way of the other," he said. "They already said that time served won't be counted." Sentences officially had begun the day they were pronounced, and not a second earlier.
"I don't think anyone was seriously counting on that," Theodosius pointed out.
"I was hoping they might use it as an easier way to get me released sooner," Rodriguez said with a slight shrug. "But at the end of the day, I don't think one year less will solve anything. I doubt I'll still be around to potentially walk out with the Gamemaker assistants." He seemed completely at ease with the fact, but Donna still felt awkward. Unsure of what to say, she said nothing.
Theodosius picked a different approach. "Could you tell us more about the people who might be willing to demand your release?" he asked.
"Not much," he said. "My wife isn't able to say much in her letters." He sounded completely sincere, but Donna was convinced that he was lying. Otherwise, he would have been more forthcoming with who the 'they' were. His family? Former coworkers? A particularly influential individual? "Reading between the lines, though, I think they're moderately successful so far."
If only they were able to speak without the fear of being overheard. Close by, two guards were leaning against the wall, noses in books. Were they eavesdropping? That much was obvious. The real question was how much they would be willing to overlook. "I'm glad for you," she said. "Are there no other details, though?" She wanted to know, if only to see if there was anything she herself could use.
"No."
On the other hand, she could probably just ask Livia and Dancer to do some investigating on their own and see what sort of methods were the most successful. While they didn't reply to her actual questions three-quarters of the time, Donna was certain that they read all of her messages. "Well, at least you know there's hope," she said.
"It might even be less stressful to not have to know about minor setbacks," Theodosius pointed out.
Li lightly patted Rodriguez on the back. "Exactly. Anyway, the nation is apparently in better shape than it ever was. They're not going to care about vengeance when they have an economic miracle to enjoy." They came to a stop outside the shed.
"Oh, have you also finished reading the report?" Theodosius asked.
"Not quite," Li said. "I have read the sections on health and the economy, though. I am very concerned about how international trade might affect the country."
Donna's knowledge of foreign trade came exclusively from books about the twentieth century and was extremely scant. "You mean potentially having people from other countries own businesses and whatnot here?" In a few history books, she had read about how outsourcing and globalization had ended up backfiring on the people who had been the most vulnerable. "I think it heavily depends on the government."
"That much is obvious," Li said. "I understand that self-sufficiency was an unsustainable myth-" now that was a pleasant surprise "-but I'm worried about the ramifications of letting foreign business interests into the country."
Rodriguez looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to disagree with the first part or agree with the second more. He stood silently for a few seconds, tapping his fingers on his cane. "I wouldn't go so far as to call it a myth," he said. "If Snow hadn't gone down the path of de-diversification, there wouldn't have been all those bottlenecks and vulnerable areas."
"Even before Snow, it was already as un-diverse as anything," Theodosius argued. "Remember the famine of 31-32?"
Donna was fairly sure that the question was supposed to have been rhetorical, but Rodriguez took it literally. "I didn't know about it," he said. "I was, what, forty back then? I wasn't very high ranked, though. All I knew was that there was a rash of firings and arrests in the ministries of agriculture and resources." It was always a shock to realize that a few of her fellow inmates were old enough to remember the First Rebellion. "McCollum tried to keep the panic down, suppressed all knowledge. I only found out about it decades later, when I started spinning in the right circles."
"Wow," Li said. "That's fascinating."
"That's one way to put it, I suppose," Rodriguez said. "Shame they're not telling us much about the Ministers' Trial. I'm sure they've talked about all of that in great detail." That trial had begun while theirs was something like halfway through, and the final statements would be given any day now.
"That will be the last of the inter-District trials, right?" Donna asked. When everyone nodded, she added "The end of an era!" in a sarcastic tone. The individual Districts would still continue to hold trials, but anyone who had committed crimes in various places would be handed over to the Capitol depuration tribunals if they couldn't decide on who would try them.
Li chuckled. "All I want to know is what everyone thinks of this," he said, turning serious. "I'd sell my soul for a newspaper!"
"I don't even know what I'd do if it got me access to the Web," Donna agreed. The other two nodded.
"We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose," Rodriguez said. "Or rather, you'll have to wait and see!" He laughed, and Donna had no idea how much of his mirth was real. "By the way, so what was in that report?" The library hadn't had enough copies to give one to all of the inmates, who had seized their chance once it had been revealed that it technically did not contain any forbidden information. Dry numbers on average birthweight and how many people were occupied in what industry were apparently allowed.
"The way the authors phrased it, you'd have thought that the country's climbing out of the abyss millimetre by millimetre with its teeth, but the numbers are insane." Donna shook her head slightly.
"That's what I thought, too," Li said. "It's not anything like the annual reports from before, though. No offense, Mr. Coll, but even I could tell there was something off there."
"None taken," Theodosius said. "You, after all, had lived in Two. Unlike Snow." The figures had mostly been falsified as part of the never-ending attempts to curry favour with the president.
"Very true," said Li, nodding. "They compared us, then and now, with the world average, and also compared individual Districts to the world and each other. Made a huge deal about the destruction of the nukes, too. In any case, if you look at just the comparison with the world, we look like total trash. Even now, our progress looks pretty weak when compared to how everyone else is doing. I'm certain that if Mr. Coll here had ever written something similar in a report, Stonesmith would have been notified immediately." Donna chuckled slightly at the rather unfunny joke.
Rodriguez looked taken aback. "And they just published that?" he asked. "Aren't they worried it'll make them look bad?"
Donna had also thought about that. While the improvement since 74 looked extremely impressive, it wasn't all economic miracles, and in some places the country was actually doing worse than before even with the several years of reconstruction and humanitarian aid. "I think that everyone's more interested in honesty than in nice numbers," Theodosius pointed out. "When you're used to everyone saying that everything is good when you can see that it is terrible, it is probably a great relief to have an authority figure admit there is a problem."
"Plus, identifying problem areas means it will be easier to tackle them," Li added. "It's like an indirect promise. 'This, this, and this is terrible, and we will fix it.'"
"That makes sense," Rodriguez said. "I look forward to reading the report. Finally, someone will explain to me what's going on out there!"
It wasn't actually that useful. "It's not really meant for that," Donna explained. "It's nice to find out all those things, but mortality rates won't tell you much about what sort of moods are circulating in society. That's an entirely different report, and we're not going to get our hands on it." She had already asked Livia and Dancer to forward any opinion polls to her. So far, nothing except a little article that stated that opinions on the trials were becoming more negative. Donna had absolutely no idea why that was the case all of a sudden (fatigue? Desire to see it over and done with? Revanchism?), and not being able to discuss it with anyone just irritated her further.
"Still, at least it will be something."
"That it is," Li agreed. "Why are we even here?" he asked, looking at the open door of the shed.
"We need to get rakes and the wheelbarrow," Theodosius said.
"We won't hold you up, then," Rodriguez said. He nodded to them and continued walking, Li by his side.
Donna and Theodosius walked into the shed. First, they dragged out the small wheelbarrow, which was always an ordeal. It only fit through the door in one specific way. They got the rakes out next. Thus armed, they made their way towards the trees they had just been working on and began to pick up larger branches and toss them into the wheelbarrow. Here and there on the trees, the absence of a particularly large branch could be seen from the green liquid they had smeared on the wood to protect it.
"Hopefully this will improve the yields," Theodosius muttered as he bent down to pick up a branch. "You, tree, give us some nuts already, alright? You've got as much use as the saplings, and at least they have potential!" The walnut tree did not respond to the demand, though its branches did sway slightly in the breeze.
"Isn't it supposed to start producing right around this year?" Donna asked, using the rake to gather together the smaller twigs she didn't want to have to bend over and pick up. "I'd love to be able to actually eat some nuts." So far, there was only one mature walnut tree, and the guards had raided it so well the previous years, Donna had only gotten to try them once or twice.
Tossing a handful of branches into the wheelbarrow, Theodosius agreed enthusiastically. "I just want to be able to eat food I grew myself. Seriously, there hasn't been rationing for years, what's this obsession with not letting us eat anything?"
Donna glanced to the side, thinking that a guard standing there had said something, but they seemed to be engrossed in their textbook. "Did they say something?" Theodosius whispered.
"No, I think I'm just hearing things," she whispered back.
That afternoon, Rodriguez's chances at release or their lack thereof was the main topic of discussion. As Best argued with Verdant about whose fault it really had been that the Rebellion had succeeded (Donna had no idea how they had managed to get to that topic), Vartha tried to pester Donna into saying something he could take offense to. They sat or crouched near the sinks, ostensibly washing their hands.
"I am telling you for approximately the millionth time, society will be glad to forget us!" Donna exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "The more time passes, the more forgetting. If Rodriguez doesn't get out now, he never will."
"But didn't you just say that releases will increase interest in us?" Vartha asked.
Donna sighed. "That's not what I meant. Yes, people will be regularly reminded of us, but the sight of us walking free will probably encourage a desire to keep the rest of us in here for as long as possible."
"I, for one, think it all depends on what they say when they get out." Rodriguez having returned early to his cell to rest, Li could now hover around and chat. Theodosius was with the old man, leaving Donna alone in the yard. "If they kick up a fuss, it will polarize society – and not in our favour."
"Exactly," Donna said. "It all depends on what the people think, and that can change. For now, though, it appears that we're slowly being forgotten. Maybe Rodriguez's family will be able to kick up a big enough fuss. Maybe once Westfield and Groat and the rest of them get out, they'll say something really out there and draw a lot of attention."
"I suppose we'll have to wait and see, then." Li crouched down, shaking water from his hands. "People are a fickle bunch." He turned around suddenly to face Katz and Fourrer, who were discussing military history. "You know, that made no sense to me. First they're at each other's throats for decades, and then they're best friends all of a sudden? I can't believe such an ideological conflict faded away so quickly."
"They were some of the hardest hit during the Cataclysm," Fourrer pointed out. "If it scared the world into nuclear disarmament, it could have scared them out of the conflict."
"But why not in Western Europe, then?" Li asked. "They're still at each other's throats constantly." Western Europe had been one of the parts of the world most destroyed by the Cataclysm.
Katz nodded. "That's exactly what I was saying. There has to be a more specific reason."
"But that's the thing, Western Europe wasn't embroiled in active conflict at the time! It's like they switched. The Middle East became peaceful, while Western Europe unraveled at the seams." Li leaned against the pipe slightly as he talked.
"So you agree with me, then?" Katz asked. "There was a situation-specific reason at play there." Li nodded.
Fourrer rubbed at his face. "If you dig deep enough, every situation is unique."
"And how do you think foreign influences will affect our position?" Vartha asked quietly. Donna turned away from the arguing former Peacekeepers to face him.
"No idea," she said. "As far as I can tell, we're a completely unprecedented case. I'm sure different countries perceive us differently."
"I'm sure you've got some ideas, though," Vartha insisted. Donna was temporarily saved from having to answer by the fact that it was time for dinner. The two of them went their separate ways. After a perfunctory search that amounted to nothing more than a brief pat-down and a check to see if there was anything in her pockets, Donna stepped inside the corridor, where the temperature was the exact same as outside, though there was no breeze.
Donna took off her boots at the door, not wanting to track mud into her cell. The floor was freezing cold against her socked feet, but there were only a few steps until she could sit down on her cot and pull on her other shoes. Even though the air temperature was quite pleasant, everything felt freezing to the touch. It didn't seem fair that it had to actually be hot outside for the toilet to not be painfully cold. Donna wiped her hands on her towel, which also felt cold to the touch, and sat down to read a book on the history of engineering as she waited for dinner.
Finally, some warmth. Donna could feel the heat of the buckwheat with vegetables through the metal tray as she walked back to her cell. The tea, however, was cold; Donna suspected it was room temperature. She had recently sent on the record of what food had been given to them, and hadn't started a new one. A part of her wanted to determine long-term trends, while another didn't feel motivated enough to waste an entire sheet of paper on it.
She finished eating and rinsed off the tray and spoon in the sink. After it was handed back and the door locked behind her for the night, Donna positioned herself comfortably on her cot and reached for a book. That was an advantage of living in such a small space - she could reach everything while lying in bed.
After finishing her reading, Donna began to write a brief letter to Dem. She warned him to not try to kick up a fuss in the media, and instructed him to simply point out the five children he had to take care of if asked. Anything more serious would probably backfire. After hiding the scrap of paper, she started on a sudoku. Donna had asked for a book of difficult sudokus, and the censors had delivered. Every single puzzle in the book was extremely challenging, though just barely doable. She leaned back against the wall, book propped against her knees, and slowly filled in the grid with numbers.
