Chapter 68: Ron Stafford

Not for the first time, Ron Stafford is glad the Career Pack thought to include the large and capable boy from 6 in their crowd.

Especially on the twentieth day of the Sixty-Eighth Hunger Games, when he and his three allies arrive at one end of the train trestle spanning across a mighty river.

It's a woodland arena this year, and Ron remembers seeing Rowan Palmer of 7 interviewed on TV before the Games opened, claiming that he knew, just by observing the trees, exactly where the arena is. Ron is also fairly confident the arena lies somewhere within District 7, likely in part of what was once the U.S. State of Oregon.

He and the Career pack passed through an abandoned town six days ago; the faded sign had designated it as Castle Rock. Now it is their four-man team against the tributes from Seven, who Ron is sure are somewhere within these woods.

The Last Six hopefully won't continue for much longer, which means the Career Pack isn't long for this world either. But Ron is prepared to deal with that.

The slightly pudgy boy from Three, Verne (Snow knows why he was brought on, Ron bitterly thinks, but unfortunately, no one had thought to allow him to make the rules as Leader) appears nervous.

"Any of you guys known when the next train is due?" Verne sounds serious, and Ron, along with Teddy, the boy from 6 who knows more about train tracks than any of them, actually start to laugh. The boy from Two and leader of the Pack, Blaze, stares out at the train trestle thoughtfully.

"We could go down to the Route 136 bridge," he postulates. After nearly three weeks in here, they are starting to learn and map the arena as well as they might know their home districts.

Teddy looks appalled. "What, are you crazy? That's five miles down the river! You walk five miles down the river, you'd have to walk five miles back – that could take till dark! We cross here, we can get to the same place in ten minutes."

"Yeah," Verne concedes. "But supposing a train does come, there's nowheres to go."

"No, there isn't. You'd just jump," Teddy shrugs. Now it's Blaze's turn to look appalled.

"Teddy, it's a hundred foot drop!"

"Yeah, Teddy."

"Look," Teddy draws out a sigh. "You guys can go around if you want to – I'm crossing here. And while you guys are dragging your candy asses halfway across the arena and back, I'll be waiting on the other side…. Relaxing with my thoughts." He runs a thumb along the edge of his axe blade, which he had become proficient with in Training. Ron is hoping Teddy can stay alive long enough to help them in the coming battle with the Sevens.

"You use your left hand or your right hand for that?" Ron asks, and he's pleased when Blaze starts snickering even as Teddy turns back to him with a glower.

"You wish, Four."

They start out across the trestle single file, Teddy from Six leading the way. Ron pauses briefly to touch the rails, feeling for any tremors, before heading out over the water himself. Verne is just acting all jumpy… there's no train that could come through here. Not in the arena…. Right?

Ron's own progress is slowed bringing up the rear, on account that Verne has decided to crawl across the trestle at the pace of a turtle mutt. At one point, he accidentally drops the jar of napalm they'd recovered at the Cornucopia through a hole in the bridge. Ron just tells him to forget it.

When they're still only halfway across, Ron is chilled when he thinks he hears something in the distance. Paranoid, he cops a feel along the rails again.

Glancing back, that is when he sees it: over the tops of the trees behind them, coming around the bend: a plume of smoke.

Ron leaps to his feet: "TRAIN!" His voice echoes around the gorge they now straddle, causing Blaze and Teddy – farther ahead so that by now, they're about three-quarters of the way across – to snap their heads back.

Verne panics. "Oh, shit!" He tries crawling faster.

"Move it, man! Come on, move it!" Teddy drags Blaze along, knowing just how dangerous it can be to get caught out on a train trestle, all jokes about jumping to their deaths aside.

The train's whistle blows, bearing down, while Ron is frantically trying to haul Verne to his feet. "Get up, Verne! Damn it – GET UP!" But Verne is now curled in a ball, his girth causing Ron to trip and fall on top of him.

"I don't wanna…. Ronny, I don't wanna…." The whistle again, closer now.

Ron loses all patience with the chubby 13-year-old. "We're gonna DIE, damnit! GET UP! GO! MOVE IT!" Verne finally decides running might be better after all, and the two of them try to chase back down Blaze and Teddy.

Up ahead, Blaze is huffing and puffing, cursing Androcles, his useless mentor; Caesar Flickerman, and even the President. But he saves most of his ire for the Gamemakers.

"We were shipped here on trains… wasn't that enough? No… a train…. Out of all the traps they could have used, it has to be a train…"

He and Teddy reach the opposite shore first and leap to the side of the tracks, watching with growing concern as Verne and Ron, lagging behind, are in danger of being overtaken.

"Run, man! Come on, man – MOVE YOUR ASS, MAN!" Blaze bellows encouragement.

"Move, Verne! VERNE! GO! RUN!" Ron is hollering abuses in his ally's ear as the end of the trestle nears, but the train sounds as though it will run them down any moment and crush them under the wheels.

Ron finally makes a decision. "Verne, it was nice knowing you!" Then he shoves him out of the way.

Verne pitches over the edge of the train trestle with a Doppler-effected scream that Ron barely hears over the train whistle. He's gonna get ramrodded, there's no time left, that's it, he's lost the Hunger Games, and Ron quickly dives off the side…. Just inches from dry land at the end of the trestle.

He lands quicker than he expected, and does not feel oblivion follow. Coughing up dust, he realizes he's landed on a patch of earth sloping down from the top of this cliff. Glancing up, he sees Blaze and Teddy peering over at him from the top of the train trestle, and he freezes, prepared for them to scramble down and attack him.

But instead, Blaze just smirks. "Hey: at least now we know when the next train is due."

BOOM. A cannon fires, and Ron's eyes go wide. "VERNE!"

He peers over the edge and into the water.

Verne wasn't so lucky to fall onto dry land. He was still over water when he was pushed, falling a hundred feet to his death. His chubby corpse can be seen, bobbing in the water.

Ron feels a twinge of regret over what he did to save his own skin. Teddy tells him not to worry about it as they move on, the train's whistle – now ahead of them – fading away on the air.

Ron still does, though. For years afterward, he still does.