Chapter 8: The big opening event

[Summer in the year after the 75th Hunger Games]

The big event was scheduled for July 4th, exactly on the day the reaping day had usually taken place in the years before. A little earlier than planned, the maglev line had been completed, and the first regular trains were going to run between our home town and the new settlement from that day on. The major had called a special holiday on that day, and everybody who wanted was going to get a chance to ride out and back. After all, our total population was only about five thousand, and a few trains could easily take all of us, even assuming that most did actually want to do that. For regular schedule, there would be only two or three short trains operating, but for this special big day, four long trains were going to be available, courtesy of District Six.

Prim and I were on the second train out, and our families were with us. The bakery and the apothecary were closed for the day, same as all businesses, and school had started the long summer holidays a few days earlier. Once again Primrose had managed to finish as one of the best in class, like I had come to expect from her, and at least for this year we did not have to worry about her getting reaped any longer.

The interior of the maglev cars we used was very different from what I had learned the ones used for the tributes had been like. Haymitch was sitting next to us, and he explained that the tribute trains had luxury compartments for each important person, a separate dining area, and many more luxuries:

"The tribute trains were traveling for a full day or so, but all of the luxury was not really required. It was likely part of the scheme to get the tributes impressed and maybe even intimidated by the Capitol's wealth. Anyway, we are only going for an hour, so that regular seats are just fine."

Indeed, rather than having luxury compartments for very few people, the cars had regular seats, with rows of two on each side, but there were big windows to allow a nice view. A single long car could easily take more than one hundred passengers, and several cars could be in a single train, up to about ten or so, as I had been told. There were also no servants or attendants around, and Haymitch added:

"I think that we can be glad about that. Having one of those avocs close to me always made me feel uneasy, and I suspect one of the reasons why the Capitol had them on the trains was to serve as a warning – behave or you might end up becoming one of those."

When the maglev started to move, Primrose was very excited; after all, it was her first maglev ride. I had been on one before, just a few weeks ago, when the connection was tested and the mayor had wanted me to get to the new site and check out a few details, so that I could provide a few explanations to my girlfriend and family members. Soon after we had left the station, we got into the long tunnel under the mountains, but of course the car's interior was dimly lighted. About ten minutes later we got back into the sunshine, and we paid attention to the areas we passed. There were lots of forests outside, sometimes interrupted by open grass, bushes, and what might have been fields, and a couple of times we passed very close to ruins of former population centers. Some parts of former big houses were still there, and Prim marveled at the remnants of those. I tried to explain and tell some of what I had learned earlier:

"Until less than two hundred years ago, this area was densely populated, with many cities and towns. It was high enough to not be flooded, but hit hard by the Great War. Even the buildings not being destroyed had to be abandoned due to radiation, and almost all people around died, I think, with only few of them being able to escape and get somewhere safe."

"Why are we not seeing more buildings?"

"Well, most of them were of course destroyed, and the others were quickly claimed again by nature. Plant life has a tendency to expand quickly if not stopped, specifically in warm and humid climate, and I believe that many more remnants can be found under the green carpet out there. This will be an interesting endeavor for scientists later on, I guess, but for now we have higher priorities I should think."

We passed a place with lots of concrete still showing, although grass, smaller tress, and other species of vegetation were covering a substantial part of the area, and I explained:

"A few interested scouts looked at this place a few when the line was built, and we believe that this used to be a so called shopping mall, and one of the largest ones, too. The huge center building used to have dozens of smaller and larger shops for all kind of merchandise, and the flat area around was only for parking."

"Parking what?" Wheat asked.

"For parking their cars" I told him. "At that time, practically everybody had their own personal vehicle – they called them 'cars' – and for a long time most of were powered by combustion engines. Only in the 21st century, electrical motors came up on a larger scale, but electricity was still mostly generated using fossil fuel and thus contributing to global warming. When this was eventually changed, it was too late to stop the drastic climatic change, or so we were told at least by history experts from Europe."

We were already getting close to out destination, and I added:

"When we scouted the site for the new city last year, we selected an area with few former settlements, so that we will not have to move around former buildings and structures all of the time. In addition, of course, we picked an area where radiation has gone down to minimum and safe levels."

When we arrived at the new station, we saw that the track actually continued further on, and a big panel showed a map and indicated that the line continued down to the coast and the future port. We were in the middle of summer, and when we stepped out of the climate controlled maglev car, Primrose told us:

"It's really hot out here! Couldn't you have selected a more comfortable site?"

I smiled and responded: "We could have, sure. But, it is the middle of summer right now, and I believe that the climate is very beneficial for growing all kind of crops. The longer growth period in this subtropical climate will help us to grow the food we need, and this is more important than the inconvenience of the summer heat for us. If the ocean wasn't so close, it would be even worse; the water works as kind of a heat buffer."

Indeed, I had heard from Michael Odair, who had been visiting the coastal areas first together with me, that the inland regions just north of the coast in their district, which was more south and closer to the equator than ours, were mostly not inhabitable at all. Even the regions not being radiated much any longer were just too hot for regular settlements, and only the long coastal region had tolerable temperatures, moderated by the huge amount of water around.

We looked and walked around for some time to see what was already there, and close to noon a bell sounded, calling everybody to the center square. A small stage had been erected close to the new maglev station, and a team of people prepared a large buffet; while this was in progress, the major stepped on the stage, and when everybody looked at him, he delivered a speech:

"Ladies and gentlemen, citizens of District Twelve, dear guests, it is not only an honor, but a pleasure for me today to talk to you all. Right on the day when we usually did the reaping for the Games, we are celebrating something else today. Rather than picking tributes from our district to go to their almost certain death, we are opening a maglev line between our town and the new settlement in our district. This place here is also part of the extended District Twelve, and we are all proud to be here!"

There was some shouting and cheering, and I recalled that the location we were in right now did actually not have a name yet. That was something to think about soon, I guessed, but for now we had other priorities, and it would have to be just the 'new settlement' for the time being. The mayor continued:

"For many years, since I had become mayor, I always dreaded the reaping day. I had to deliver a speech, and I never could say what I wanted to say. I had to sent tributes away, and I could not show my tears. I had to congratulate them, and I could not let them know that I was sorry. I had to watch our tributes competing in the arena, and I could not tell the Capitol people 'Go Fish!'. Today, I can finally deliver a reaping day speech like I want, and tell you that I am proud of you all. I am proud that we were able to repel Capitol attacks with the help from our allies in District Thirteen and abroad, I am proud that we have been able to share and work together, and I am proud knowing that the separation between Town and Seam is now mostly gone. Most of all, I am proud and happy to say that there will not be any Hunger Games any longer, at least not with participation from the free districts!"

There was some cheering again, but I knew as well as he did that there where still some people who felt different on both sides. There were still (former) Seam citizens who refused to work together with Townies, and there were still Merchants looking down on Seam people. Fortunately, at least, those were in a small minority nowadays.

The mayor continued to talk:

"This day designates a big achievement, with the opening of the new maglev line. Although the fighting in Panem is not yet over, we have basically gained our independence. With the help of our allies we will strive to stay independent, hopefully to join a united and free Panem as soon as Snow is defeated! So, let us celebrate and be happy today, and let us continue to work together in harmony in future."

There was more cheering and applause, and the mayor concluded:

"As you all have probably noticed, the maglev line does not end here, but continues down to the coast. I would like to invite those of you who are interested to board the next trains and see our new port; it is still in construction, but one dock is already usable, and I happen to know that a ship from Europe is supposed to arrive today. So, if you like to welcome our visitors from another continent, just follow me after the buffet has been served and join me in getting down to the new port!"

With those words Mayor Undersee left the stage and checked with the service people preparing the buffet. Apparently, it was ready now, and a gong sounded to announce that. Most of us out here started to form lines at the tables where the food was going to be served, and for the next two hours that activity kept us busy.

Since noon, the first maglev trains had already started to get people down to the port site, and Mayor Undersee had been on the first one. Prim, myself and our families boarded a later one once we had eaten, and soon the train left the station to get down to the coast and the port. The ride was not long, as only a distance of slightly more than 20 kilometers needed to be covered, and we arrived twenty minutes later; the train needed to go slow as the track was not yet fully stabilized for higher speeds.

The mayor's timing had been perfect. When we stepped out of the train at the coastal station, a ship was already visible and about to enter the bay. There was a walkway close to the station, and a narrow path lead to a small hill with a large viewing platform. Some citizens opted to stay close to the station, others walked down to the port itself to look at the dock and others again, our families included, followed the trail; ten minutes later we were on that hill and looked down to the sea and the port.

It was obvious that the advanced settlement team in charge of port construction had been busy over the last few months. A natural small but steep cliff has been used to construct a single dock, and the water out there looked deep enough for big ships. The ship we had seen before was getting closer now, and it should be at the dock in half an hour or so. The scenery, though, was in my opinion even more impressive than the ship. Many birds, sea gulls and others, flew around and made a lot of noise, and the view forward extended right to the horizon, not interrupted by anything. That was something I had never seen before, except for the short scouting trip; at home, there was always a hill or a forest block the view. Here, on the shore, it was normal. I wondered how it might be to be on a boat or on a ship on that large area of water.

I must have looked at the sea for quite some time, as suddenly somebody touched my arm. I turned around and noticed Primrose trying to get my attention:

"Rye, you are so quiet; are you all right?"

"Yes, I am, my love. This view here is really spectacular, and I guess I could stand here for hours without tiring from it. Just imagine living close to the coast and seeing that every day from your window!"

Michael Odair, Finnick՚s brother, had stepped close to us and heard that. He had been at the coast for most of the past weeks and months, and of course he was here with us for the ceremony; he told us:

"Yes, I know how that is, and I would not want to live without it. However, when you have a storm coming in, it's not really that nice any longer, believe me, although this can also be an enjoyable sight when viewed from a safe place."

Primrose wanted to know:

"What is actually in the water? Are there some fish?"

Michael beamed and told her:

"Oh, yes, absolutely. See over there, in the distance, further north along the coast? We already established a small fishing harbor there, and a few fishing boats have started to roam the coastal waters. Now, with the maglev being operational, I expect some fresh fish to arrive in your home town every morning, and I do hope that you will enjoy that. In addition to that, we are using special methods, like salting and deep freezing, to keep the fish fresh for transport to other districts as well. As the Capitol forces have bombed some areas in other districts, some regions lack sufficient food, and fish from around here will help with that, too."

"So, what kind of fish is this?"

"First of all, of course," Michael responded, "we are looking at fish which can be eaten. There are several species of eel, herring, bass, and many others, and sometimes you can even see flying fishes."

"Flying fishes? Are you kidding us?"

"No, really. They jump out of the water, glide in the air for a few meters, and come down again. It can be quite a spectacle when you are out on a fishing boat and see that, believe me. If you get lucky, they sometimes glide right into your boat even. Above and beyond that we have many other forms of marine life, including sea turtles and squids, for instance. However, there are also inhabitants we need to be careful about, like sharks and jellyfish. I hope that we can see more of those in future, maybe in a museum or in a zoo."

Meanwhile, the ship had completed the docking procedure, a gangway had been lowered to the pier, and a small group of people walked down from the ship. Mayor Undersee was there to greet them, and while we could not hear words nor see the faces in details, they all looked like very happy people; I guess that it was exciting for them, too, to arrive at a new port they had never seen before.

Soon one of the big side gates was opened on the ship and the first trailers were pulled out and moved onto a special train prepared for cargo rather then passengers.

For today, the spectacle was about over, and we took the next maglev back to our home town, happily reflecting on the day and the events. We had seen a glimpse of the future, and the opportunity to actually build a new settlement, far away from the fence and where we wanted it to be, was enticing.

Back in the core district, a tragedy awaited us. While most citizens had been at the new site, a small group of armed people had managed to get in; the fence had been open for a long time, after all. We did not know where they had come from, but they had obviously been under orders to do some damage to our small town's infrastructure. In addition, they had taken hostages and had barricaded themselves into one of the most sturdy buildings they could get into – the butchery. Peacekeepers had the building surrounded, but did not dare to storm it, as the attackers threatened to kill the hostages.

Purnia, who had been out with us, took charge and first asked about the name of the hostages. I was shocked to learn that a few young people, including the mayor's own daughter, Madge, were among them. One of Oberstleutnant Klein's soldiers, a 'Hauptmann Müller', joined us, and he offered some advice on what we might be able to do. While Darius kept communicating with the kidnappers, Purnia, the two soldiers, and me discussed options. Mayor Undersee was way too worried about this daughter, so that I jumped in for him.

Hauptmann Müller agreed that storming the house would be very risky, but suggested:

"Maybe we can help with some, what do you call that, gadgets?"

He showed us a few small devices which looked like bombs, and explained:

"This is what is called a flash-bang grenade. When it goes off, it generates very bright flashes of light and piercing sounds, so that anybody within a few meters will be stunned. The grenade does not cause any permanent damage, but both vision and hearing will be back to normal after a few days. If we can get a few of those into the building, the peacekeepers should be able to storm in and rescue the hostages."

"But how do we get the grenades in?" I asked.

"Good point. Who knows how the butchery looks from inside?"

Purnia was familiar with the building's layout, not only because her peacekeeper duties had forced her to control the butchery a few times, but also because she loved to eat meat and had been a regular customer in there. Back in the old times shops had been forced to provide merchandise and food to peacekeepers at reduced prices, or else.

Meanwhile, another peacekeeper stepped into our room and told us that the kidnappers demanded our district to stop resisting and obey the law and President Snow again; we should claim all weapons from the 'foreign invaders' and renounce our alliance with them and with District Thirteen. If we refused to comply, they'd start to kill the first hostage in two hours.

"If I can get onto the roof, there is a hatch which is always open, and I can trow the grenades in" Purnia claimed. "However, it may be difficult to get up there without alerting the bad guys."

"Maybe if we had some distraction, like something on the road creating a lot of noise?"

"Like what?"

"Hm, what if I fed our pigs at the right time? It's about the time for them anyway, and they tend to get very noisy at feeding time. The bakery is not far from the butchery, so maybe that's good enough?"

After a quick discussion that idea was accepted. I went to the bakery, prepared the pig food, and waited for my signal. Unseen by the bad guys Purnia waved from behind the butchery, and I opened the door to she shed with the pigs inside. Right away a squealing from several animals started, and while I usually detested that sound and tried to have somebody else feed the pigs, I welcomed it on that day. I made additional noise with my bucket, and I was reasonably sure that the loud 'oink...oink' was heard well almost to the other half of town. Over at the butchery it should do to drown whatever little noise Purnia caused when climbing the roof.

A couple of minutes later, when the first few pigs had just started to feed while the other still waited for me to pass out more of the bucket's content, I heard a series of very loud bangs, overpowering the pigs, and bright flashes were visible even through the thin wooden barn walls. Even knowing that this was about to come, I got startled and dropped the bucket. Rather then looking outside and checking for progress, I forced myself to complete the feeding, and only ten minutes later I cautiously and slowly opened the barn door again and stepped outside.

Apparently, the operation had been a full success. Peacekeepers had three men in custody, and all three of them were bleeding from the ears. Madge and the other hostages were already being treated by Mabel and Prim, and Purnia quickly told me that this situation was now resolved. However, we also learned that the three attackers had killed a few citizens who had been in their way before and caused some damage to a couple of power lines and transformers, but that could be repaired.

On the next day we heard about similar incidents from a few other districts, and we assumed that President Snow had had a few teams hiding somewhere, maybe at the places the mutts had come from, and he had given the command for them to start a desperate attempt to regain control. It had failed, but in District Eleven the attackers had managed to set a few orchards on fire, and several people had died there, including children.

At the same time, though, we learned that four children seemed to be missing from our district, with one of them being Vick Hawthorne, Gale's younger brother. We had no clue where they could have gone, and Hazelle Hawthorne, Vick՚s mother, was getting really worried.

About a week later Primrose and I met Mayor Undersee while going for a walk in the evening, and he greeted us cordially:

"Mellark, it is good to see you out here, too. How are you this nice evening?"

"Quite good, sir, thank you for asking."

"And what about you, young lady?"

"I am worried about the missing children; have we learned anything about them yet?"

"No, we have not, and am very concerned as well. We have sent a few patrols out, but they have not found any traces. However, I wanted to talk to both of you about a different topic. My colleague, the mayor of District Six, has invited a small team to visit them, and I believe it would be good to learn about ways of transportation inside a city. This site here is still very small, but I hope that it will be growing, and I do not want to plan city transport when there is no space any longer left to place it. They will have a few experts in from Europe in the coming weeks, and I want you, Mellark, to join them for discussions."

"That sounds interesting, Mayor Undersee."

"It does, doesn't it? And about you, young lady," he turned to Primrose now, "I have heard that you helped your mother a lot with preparing medicine and healing and all of that, despite still going to school. You are in summer holidays now, aren't you?"

For the moment, at least, the missing children were forgotten. Primrose beamed and nodded, replying: "Thank you, sir, and yes, school will start again in September."

"My daughter Madge reminded me that you need some time off as well, and it just so happens that the major of Six has also asked about some assistance related to a medical issue. Do you recall the tributes from Six during the last Games?"

Prim responded promptly: "Yes, sure, I do recall the female from Six who helped to save Peeta from the monkey attack."

"Right" the mayor said. "Did you notice something odd about her?"

"Well," Prim pondered that, "the woman seemed to be a little off. I mean, she was wounded, sure, but the way she talked, I almost thought she was drunk or drugged or something like that. Maybe the monkeys had some poison in them."

"No, not the monkeys" the mayor corrected her, "the morphling. The Capitol uses extracts from a special plant to create a very powerful and efficient painkiller. My wife died about eight years ago, and in the years before her death she suffered from a painful illness. I got painkillers based on morphling on a regular basis from the Capitol, and I was told that morphling products cane be very addictive if used on a regular basis. Addiction was not going to be an issue, as she was about to die anyway, but that's when I learned about that. Now, my colleague from Six told me that the same plants they make morphling from also grow in Six, and apparently there is some secret morphling production going on, authorized neither by the Capitol nor by the district administration."

"Does that imply that the female tribute from Six suffered from morphling addiction?" Prim asked.

"This is what we suspect, indeed" the mayor nodded. "They want to get opinions from all other districts and some help to look into that. As it appears, a few important people in the district have already been found addicted, and they hope that somebody might have an idea on how to treat it. At the least, everybody will get samples and can do some more investigations when they are back. In return, they will offer samples from their own healing plants, and you, young Primrose, are the one to collect those and bring them back."

I could clearly see that Prim liked that idea, and she asked: "Does that mean that I get to travel to District Six together with Rye?"

"Yes, it does" the mayor confirmed. "Madge insisted that the two of you work best when being together, and you can stay for two or three weeks. Some people over there are a little bit on the conservative side, though, so that you best take a copy of your engagement and custody contract with you."

Prim jumped up in the air a few times and shouted "Yes!" until she realized that the mayor was still next to us. "Sorry, sir" she added.

"That's okay, my dear girl" he smiled. "It is quite refreshing to see somebody showing spontaneous reactions from time to time."

[Author's Notes: The Fandom Wiki suggests that the reaping day was usually scheduled for July 4th, and although not being a citizen of the USA, I like the idea and the implications.

The rank 'Hauptmann' in the German military is roughly equivalent to a 'Captain' in the Air Force of the USA.

So, yet another problem, and Snow does not give up just yet. The rebellion is not yet over, and more exciting months are about to wait for our young people.]