Chapter 5: Site scouting

[Summer/Fall in the year of the 75th Hunger Games]

With time, life went on, and we tried our best to adapt to the new situation. The supplies in the peacekeeper bunker helped a lot, but they were not endless, and we encouraged activities to get families and the district more self-sustaining. A lot of people started to tend a garden, and we – the Everdeen, Anderson and Mellark families – used the large plot of land between the bakery and the apothecary for that. Lizzy and Prim split their time between healing, preparing medicine and working in the new garden, and keeping the greenhouse going. Even with Peeta being absent, they would not neglect it, and we knew that my youngest brother would like us to continue using it.

Gale continued to hunt, and each time he took a few volunteers with him to learn the trade. Now, with the fence being off permanently and no need to hide those activities any longer, hunting could be done much more efficiently. While Gale was best in laying snares and not so good in using a bow, he could at least test others, and there were indeed two boys and one girl who were very promising in shooting arrows from a bow. Small groups of people were sent out to search for berries and mushrooms, and for now, as we were still in late summer, this worked well.

Wheat, Leevy, Prim and I spent a somewhat awkward hour with Mabel discussing sex, or rather not having sex, and protection. It turned out that Prim was indeed quite knowledgeable on that topic, probably more than I was, and it was obvious that she had educated herself on the issue. Nonetheless, she had to stay until the end, and when we were finally done and outside, Wheat sighed:

"I am so glad that this is over. I just wonder, did somebody run Peeta through all of this as well?"

"I do not know, but I think so. If not, it's too late now, I guess."

On one nice day in September there was another public announcement on the screens, and it was from the Capitol again. President Snow delivered a short speech, asking that the rebellion be stopped, and then my brother Peeta was shown. He seemed to be reading from a script, and he urged everyone to support the President and the Capitol:

"To all those rebelling against the just leader of Panem – please drop your weapons and stop the massacre. Let us live in peace again, under the control of the benevolent Capitol and for the benefit of us all!"

After that short scene there was Johanna Mason, saying something similar. I could not believe what I had seen, and neither could the others. Mabel Everdeen was with us, though, and she explained:

"They are drugged."

"What?" my father asked. He was obviously totally confused, and he did not get it right away.

"Judged by the way they were presented and they behaved, they must have been drugged" Prim՚s mother elaborated. "The body language and way of speaking was all wrong, for both of them, and I bet that they got drugs to make them follow orders without questioning them."

Primrose chimed in: "There is no way Peeta would say something like that if he had his own free will, right, Rye?"

"No, he would not" I confirmed. "And I could see it in his eyes – there was no emotion in them any longer."

"That's real bad; I guess that explains why they did not tell us anything about the tributes."

"But we do not know if the Capitol has all of them or just a few!"

"Right, but if they had all of them, they would have shown all of them, I guess."

We continued to discuss this a little more, when the screen flickered again, and the now familiar mockingjay studio image appeared. A speaker started to talk:

"We apologize to the relatives of the tributes of the 75th Hunger Games that you had to watch the previous footage. As it happens, none of the surviving tributes support the Capitol and President Snow, and the speeches were faked while keeping the tributes drugged. As a matter of fact, I am glad to announce that we have all tributes here in District Thirteen with us. Yes, at the end of the games the Capitol managed to grab a few of them, but we were able to get them back to us with a special operation within a few weeks. They are still recovering, but we are showing you live images now so that you can see for yourself. And the two you have just seen in the Capitol scenes can mention something only the close relatives know about, so that you know our footage is real. The only tribute we cannot show today is Enobaria; she was tortured in the Capitol, and she is still in intensive care. Unfortunately, she will probably never fully recover."

Father sighed: "I am sad to hear that about Enobaria, but the rest is real good news."

First, the other tributes were shown, those who had been transported to District Thirteen right away after the breech of the arena screen. We could see Katniss, and while they all waved happily, Finnick stepped up to the microphone and said:

"Ladies and gentlemen in the districts and in the Capitol, we – all of the remaining tributes – fully support the rebellion. This is our chance to achieve freedom in Panem again, after we had to endure an oppressive rule for more than one hundred years. We fight for freedom and justice and we fight for equal rights in the districts. If you still support President Snow, be aware that you support a dictator and tyrant, that you help on suppressing us citizens in the districts and you are suppressing freedom and human rights."

The other tributes clapped their hands, and next Johanna Mason was shown, She mentioned a few details which were probably meant for the family, and a few minutes later Peeta was on the stage. He waved and smiled and he spoke:

"I am am real glad to be here, believe me. We are treated properly in District Thirteen, and I am with my wonderful wife again. The time in the Capitol was – difficult. And yes, we were drugged in the Capitol, and the drugs are still partially in my system. With time, I should fully recover, but let me just say this, to tell my family that this is the real me: Primrose, when you are at the bakery, are you now strong enough to bring the garbage out?"

We got the hint, and this was a story very unlikely to be known by others; this was Peeta՚s proof that it was really him, and that he spoke his own will without being forced or drugged. Prim giggled when she heard that and looked at Wheat, and she said:

"Not quite yet, I think."

The latest broadcast from District Thirteen had helped; while we were still worried about Peeta՚s state of health, we knew at least that he and Katniss were safe, for the time being.

The zeppelin stayed with us, and the crew had set up tents close to the landing site. Oberstleutnant Klein, Bonnie and Twill sat together with the mayor and Haymitch a lot for further planing, and I helped various people to get set up in their new homes, with special dedication to the apothecary, of course.

Summer turned into fall, and the days got colder. This time, at least, nobody needed to freeze. As we did not need to transport coal to the Capitol any longer, we had more than enough for ourselves, even with much fewer miners working, and each family could take as much as they needed. Food was a different story, but nobody needed to starve either.

In late fall there was another announcement from the mockingjay and they told us that Districts Four, Six, Eight, Eleven and Twelve were firmly under their control, and the President had lost all connections to those. Districts One, Two, Three, and Five were fully under Capitol control, and fighting was going on in Seven, Nine, and Ten. That implied that Snow still had a lot of power available, but the main food areas were war zones, with dire consequences for most people in Panem. With Six on our side, we learned that work was almost completed to restore the maglev tracks. Within a week or so we should expect to have the first train arriving from Four, with fish to complement our own food, and they'd appreciate to get some other food, like game, plus a car or two of coal in return. The train would pass Eleven and they'd add boxes with apples and some other fruit, also asking for coal in return.

One week later, the first train arriving since start of the rebellion was a major cause for celebration. Mayor Undersee himself stood next to the track and he smiled and waved when the train came in. I stood further back, but had Prim on my shoulders so that she could see everything. Representatives from Districts Four and Eleven stepped out as soon as the train had stopped, and there were cheers everywhere.

In the afternoon of the same day the representatives met Mayor Undersee in his large meeting room, and Haymitch, Oberstleutnant Klein, and Twill were there as well, together with me.

"We are really happy to see that this district is still alive" the lady from Four started. "We had heard reports about bombing, and we feared the worst. But, why do you use so little area around here? There is so much unclaimed land around you."

Mayor Undersee mentioned the fence and we learned that Four had a much large area they could use. But after all, they wanted to use the entire coast line, or at least those section which were not radiated. Same for Eleven – orchards needed space, and to produce enough fruit to keep the Capitol citizens happy, they needed a lot of space. Just for us here in Twelve, as the coal mines were only in a small area, they had see a purpose for limiting our space severely.

"But that is in the past now" the mayor stated. "We have already started to scout the land around us, and we are eager to find more spots for fields and such."

"What about building houses further out, too?"

"Well, not this year, at least. You see, our population is very limited, and we only amount to about four thousand now. We better stick together for now, I guess."

"But what about the refugees from other districts?"

"Refugees? What are you talking about?"

"Oh, they have not told you about that?"

"No, I do not have a clue."

"I guess communication between the district leaders needs to be properly set up. Anyway, there has been a lot of fighting going on in some districts, and we do not expect to be able to end this anytime soon, unfortunately. Capitol forces have dropped gas bombs in some areas, and they have also used low yield nuclear weapons again. Some of the population in the central districts need to move, but proper space to move to is limited. We are all searching for additional land to use, and we might hope that there is some in your district as well."

"I do not think that we can easily spare enough people to actively scout for new land around us" I objected.

"Oh, maybe we can help with that. See, a lot of fighting is going on in District Seven, and they have lots of people skilled for wilderness."

"People like Johanna Mason?"

"Yes, indeed. Many of those need to relocate as maybe half of the forest in their area has been contaminated, and those together with some people from Eleven are interested in your area, as you also have a lot of forest around. Do you think that at least a few people from here could join them to start scouting parties?"

Haymitch grinned:

"Damn well we can do that – splendid idea!"

The mayor and I agreed with his statement, though not with his choice of words.

"A train will leave from Seven as soon as they get your agreement, and they will try to keep as much north as possible to get to Eight, and from there via Six to Twelve. There will be a few hundred scouts on board, and all they need is your permission and some advice, and hopefully a few guides."

"There's not much to guide" I threw in. "None of us know anything about the area more than a few kilometers around, and only a few of us have ever been outside of the fence prior to this summer. But, can't we use the zeppelin as scouting platform as well?"

Oberstleutnant Klein nodded and beamed: "Sure we can, ja doch!"

"Are we sure that a Capitol attack here cannot happen any longer?" Mayor Undersee was concerned.

"Good question" Twill replied. "However, as we have the adjacent districts – Six and Eleven – firmly under our control, with more zeppelins stationed there, we can safely us the one we have here for scouting. In addition, we have the long range RADAR sites operational, and we have a ground based air defense LASER set up on a hill close by."

"Good enough" the mayor nodded. "I guess that we can agree to the plan, can't we?"

"Who is going to be on that zeppelin for scouting?"

"Let's what until the train from Seven is here and discuss together. Oberstleutnant Klein, how many passengers can you carry?"

"I leave five soldiers here with you, and five scouts can come."

The train from Seven arrived one week later, and another train arrived as well, this one from Thirteen. With the latter one, Johanna Mason came in person; she was not needed for the fighting, and she had insisted to lead the scouting efforts personally.

While some scouting parties were about to explore the adjacent area next to the fence, the mayor wanted me to be in charge of the first aerial scouting trip, and I felt honored about that. We were supposed to be gone for a week or so, and Prim was not exactly happy about that. However, she and the others were still very busy to prepare the apothecary. They already live in there, but the shop area was not like they wanted it to be yet. Before the school started again, they wanted to be done. And hopefully she was not going to miss me too much.

"Prim, I will miss you, too" I told her. "I promise to give you some extra back scratching and cuddling when I am back!"

She liked that and replied, showing me her very special smile: "I will hold you to that, my love!"

On the next day, we – Johanna Mason, one more scout from Seven, a young lady from Eleven, a young man from Four, and I – embarked the zeppelin and were shown to the rooms in the large crew and passenger pod. We all got very small single cabins, with furniture made of something which looked like a light weight metal; a crew member told us that this was aluminum, selected for its low weight.

It was a strange feeling when the zeppelin rose and the ground crew released the lines, but I started to like it. Soon we had an overview on our core district area, and first we turned east, towards the coast. The hills around our homes slowly gave way to more flat area, and occasionally we could see what looked like remnants form an earlier human constructs, like houses covered by plants, parts of former wide roads and such. Just a few hours later we could see the ocean from high up. The crew had a strange device outside which make odd clicking noises from time to time, and they called it a 'Geiger-Mueller counter' - according to what I learned, they could use it to measure levels of radioactivity, which would be critical to learn if a specific area was suitable for inhabitation or not. We did pass over some areas with high levels of radiation, mostly north of our course, and as the levels seemed to be much better south, we turned right. On the third days of scouting, we saw an area of mostly flat land, but still about fifty meters higher than sea level; the ground looked very green, indication lush vegetation, and some forests were around as well. A medium sized river passed through the area to end in the sea, and it looked that it might be navigable. As this had been the most promising place we had seen so far, Oberstleutnant Klein gave the orders to touch down.

Getting a zeppelin to the ground was not quite that easy, as I saw. First, an area was selected which had some sturdy looking big trees around a clearing. Next, a group of about ten crew members dropped down to the ground along ropes, and once they were down, they grabbed the same ropes and tied them around six trees, and around the clearing. Once the ropes were secured, a command was given, and winches started to tighten the ropes and pull them in, thus forcing the zeppelin to lower itself to the ground, until the bottom on the main pod was only a few meters up. A gangway was lowered, and we could get off.

While the main crew stayed aboard, the scouting party and some of the soldiers stepped out, and we first erected a small camp. I got to share a tent with the young man from Four, whose name turned out to be Michael Odair. He was a younger brother of Finnick Odair, and he had gladly accepted the chance to go scouting for new areas. If we got a chance to check out the coastline, he would be able to tell us it he water was clean and if fishing might be possible and worthwhile.

We got up early in the next morning to start the exploration. The zeppelin carried a pair of very light weight electrical vehicles, with big wheels and very little body, more or less just two seats attached to battery and engine. The range was very limited, as the batteries had to be small for weight reasons, but one of them should be good enough to get to the coast and back. Michael and I were sent to do that, and soon we were off, racing across the plain. A few times we had to slow down to get around trees and uneven ground, but we managed to be at the coastline about one hour later. Michael got it and sniffed the air, and he told me:

"It's colder here compared to where I come from, but it's the sea all right. Let's get wet and see what's in there."

He stripped down to a bathing suit and went into the surf, to get a feeling. A few minutes later he took some water samples and he looked around, and the reported: "So far this looks good, and there are plenty of small fish in the water. The water appears to be clean and not radiated. And, what is also important, look at those cliffs over there!"

I looked in the direction he pointed to and asked: "Yes, what about them?"

"I bet that the water is quite deep over there. With some effort, we might be able to make that a deep water port."

"And what would we need that for?"

"Ah, I forget that you still lack a lot of information. Our allies in Europe are willing to send some big ships with good for us, to help us get started. They will also ship some additional weapons. In Four we already have docks, though for smaller ships and boats only. Here, with a coastline like that, we should be able to build a real port, for the big ships, so that they dock and unload."

Somebody had mentioned ships before, indeed, but I did not know how this could work and thus asked:

"But, if we unload here, how do we transport the goods further inland?

"Good point, my friend. There are several options, and we can discuss those later if we agree on the site."

A few hours later we returned to the zeppelin and the camp, and we learned that the others had also liked what they had found. The ground was indeed very fertile, as the expert from Eleven had stated, Johann loved the forests around, and the ground was found to be stable enough to support a settlement. We planned to stay here for one more day for more checks, get airborne again to see if there might be even better sites, and if this one turned out to be the best, scout for a suitable connection to our core district, either with a road or something else. We did not have anybody from Six with us, but one of the soldiers was an engineer and knew the basics on the maglev tracks, and he would see if the maglev line, which currently ended in our core district, could be extended.

As I was a natural early riser I went to be before most others others did. Michael had decided to stay up for longer, and he had found a female soldier to talk to, and I heard them exchanging stories about their respective homes. When I was ready to sleep, the zipper of tent opened, and a body slid in close to me. At first I thought that Michael had changed his mind, but then I heard Johanna's voice:

"Ryan, you seem to be the best choice for me here. You are Peeta՚s older brother, right? Are you ready for some fun? I sure hope that you are!"

"What?"

I was really surprised and confused. Was she trying to do what I though she was? Was she trying to seduce me?

"Come on, no reason to be shy. Don' tell me that you don't need to get some action. You are not married, are you?"

"No, but..."

"I don't like 'buts', I only like 'butts', and yours seems to be quite all right from what I have seen so far!"

She seemed to be irritated that I was a little slow, and she started to drop some of her clothes.

"Wait Johanna, that's not going to work. I am engaged, and I am the wrong person for what you seem to have in mind."

"Engaged is not married; who is the lucky girl, by the way?"

She had stopped to shed her clothes, at least, and I decided to tell her:

"Johanna, I am betrothed to Primrose Everdeen."

"Wait, isn't that Katniss' younger sister? The one Katniss volunteered for last year?"

"Yes, indeed – we have been engaged for a few years already."

"For a few years? But, isn't she only like twelve or so?"

"Thirteen, actually."

"And you have been engaged to her for years already? Are you telling me that you have been tied to her for years, been faithful to her, too, although you are not getting any action from her?"

I was not quite sure what Johanna's definition of 'action' was, although I had a suspicion. I replied:

"I would not say that I do not get any action. When we are in bed together, we spend a lot of time with cuddling and kissing and such..."

"Wait, you are allowed to be in bed with her?"

"We have sometimes been in bed together since she was nine or ten, sure. Her mother fully trusts me with her.

"You love this girl so much that you can be close to her even without getting action? I mean, you are not having sex with her, right?"

"I don't know how this is your business, really, but no, we don't; she is way too young for that."

"Damn – this must be some love. I wish somebody felt for me like that. But how do you manage that?"

"Do you recall the games when they had a pregnant woman as tribute and she got her belly cut open?"

"Oh yes, that was really sick."

"See, we both had to watch this, and this image got burned into our minds. I would never do anything to even slightly risk to knock her up."

"You do know that there is a concept called protection, right?"

"Yes, I heard about it. In our district, though, this is almost impossible to get. And it does not change the fact that my Primrose is too young for sex. Why am I telling you all of this, by the way?"

Johanna grinned and replied: "I am known for having a way to extract the dirtiest secrets out from almost everybody. In your case, though, the secrets appear to be not really dirty, I have to admit. Damn, what a waste."

I was not really sure what her idea of 'waste' implied, but at least she was fully clothed again now; after a little more small talk she left my tent again, presumably to look for another 'victim'. Prim would sure have some fun when I was going to tell her about this encounter later on.

The next couple of days confirmed that the site he wad identified seemed to be the best suited by far, with access to most critical resources; a few lower hills located between the site and the ocean promised to protect from harsh coastal winds, too. Access to the coast was easily possible, and Finnick was sure that the location was well suited for a major port, to be connected to the site by road or rail.

While we slowly pursued a path home, the engineer was busy mapping the ground from above, and so far he had not seen any obstacle preventing a maglev track construction. Only about 30 kilometers out, a range of hills were so close to each other that finding a gap seemed to be quite tricky.

"Not a problem" he said. "We will bring one of our compact tunnel boring machines, and we will dig through the hills in not time. They work with lasers, and they can be carried by zeppelin to where needed."

"Are you guys in Europe just going to provide all of that for us? Won't you want something in return?"

"Sure we do. We want to gain a good trading partner again. We have some trade with Asia and a little bit with South America, but we recall that a lot of cotton was grown in Panem before the Great War. We do not have cotton in Europe, and we are looking forward to getting some again, for a fair price. It is much more versatile for clothes than what we currently have. We also do have a lack of some other resources, and we have to pay a country in Asia a lot of money for those. We are hoping that we can find some rare earth metals and such in Panem, too."

Eventually we arrived back in the district, and there as time enough to get to he mayor's office and tell him about the good news and the almost perfect location we had found. He was happy to hear about it, and over the coming weeks we intended to start planing for setting up there.

As soon as I could I rushed home, and I found Primrose still rummaging around in the apothecary ground floor. School was going to start again next Monday, and as I saw she had been quite busy cleaning and rearranging, with a lot of help from Lizzy and her parents, I assumed and hoped. Prim had not seen me come in, and when she bent down to the floor to pick up something small, I grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up. She squeaked, and I used my low voice to ask:

"What is such a pretty young girl going all alone here in this lonely building?"

I was sure that she recognized my voice, and sure she played along with me:

"Oh, please, do not hurt me, sir. I will do everything you want if you do not kill me!"

"Everything, really? So, I can have my way with you?"

"Oh yes, please, I would love that!"

"Okay, so I guess that I am going to grab you and have you in my bed for a start, and then we will see if you are as willing as you say – you better behave!"

Prim giggled; I threw her over my shoulder, switched off the lights and went over to the bakery. Wheat saw me coming in with Prim over my shoulder; he grinned and asked me:

"What are you up to, big brother?"

"Well, I found this pretty girl all alone in the next building, and I thought that she might be good enough to warm my bed."

He laughed: "Yes, I should think so – have fun!"

In my room, I dropped Prim on my bed, and first we spent a few minutes with laughing. When we had done our chores in the bathroom and in were in bed next to each other, I told Prim about our survey, and I also told her about Johanna and her seduction attempt.

Prim giggled, and then she told me:

"Rye, I am real glad that you are who you are. Sometimes I feel very sorry that I cannot provide the 'action' you deserve, but you can bet that I will try to make up for that once we are married. I keep hearing rumors that they are discussing to allow people to marry at the age of sixteen already in future, once President Snow is defeated and we know that there are definitely no more Hunger Games coming up. If that is actually true, it's only going to be two and a half years, my love!"

I had heard rumors about that, too, but the war was still ongoing, and there still were no indications that it could be ended anytime soon.

[Author's Notes: The hint about bringing the garbage out is a reference to chapter 17 in the prequel story.]