The Unexpected Tribute
Chapter Seven
by Technomad
Peeta MellarkI could see that Haymitch had hit some bad memories, and when Katniss got up to go after him, I put my hand on her arm. "Let him be. When he wants to come out, he'll come out." I bled inside for him.
In a lot of ways, I thought that for all his Victor status and his relative wealth, Haymitch Abernathy was probably the loneliest, unhappiest person in all of District 12. Even before I got swept up in all this Hunger Games craziness, I knew I wouldn't have changed places with him for anything. While my own life wasn't perfect by any means, and living with my parents had its unpleasant moments, at least I didn't have to live with the ghosts of dead Tributes that I had been forced to lead to the Games to be slaughtered! How he faced the parents and siblings of the Tributes that he'd mentored was a mystery to me.
Well, I'd found myself in the identical position that Haymitch had often been in. While he and I were working together for a common goal…namely, get Katniss Everdeen home safe and alive…I still found myself regretting bitterly that Haymitch would almost certainly not survive the upcoming Game. I vowed to myself that I would do all I could, including networking with any Capitol people I could, to see Haymitch safely through as well, if possible. If it had to come down to a choice between them, I'd choose Katniss, of course, but I was greedy enough to want to save Haymitch, too. Hey, there was even a precedent for two, instead of one, Hunger Games victors. Could I figure out how to invoke it? I'd need to talk to Haymitch, and the other Mentors, including those who were now contestants again, about how to network in the Capital.
While we waited for Haymitch to rejoin us, Katniss and I ordered some food. We tucked on in with good appetite. One thing I will admit I loved about the Capitol was all the wonderful, luxurious food they ate. Even though I knew fully well that every bite that went into my mouth had been taken by force from the Districts, just like they took our coal, I didn't let that bother me.
There was nothing I could do about the Panem system, after all. I'd have brought the whole thing down in flames were it up to me, but as it was, I had no power to change things. And I felt that I needed to be on top of my game every second I was in the Capitol. That meant eating well, but not to excess. I didn't want to be sleepy and logy at the worst possible time. I was also still avoiding alcohol, just like Katniss. And, to my eternal surprise, Haymitch. I knew very well how much Haymitch had come to depend on his daily intake of white liquor, and for him to voluntarily give it up for the sake of keeping Katniss alive told me how dedicated he was to our goal. I hoped that one day I could be as strong-willed as he had to be.
After we finished eating, Katniss and I went into the living area. Haymitch came out and saw that we had eaten, so he ordered some food for himself. Katniss called: "Haymitch! Will you watch some of the old Games with us? We want your input on them." When Haymitch came in, I saw that he was back in control of himself, and I was glad. Like most District 12 people, Haymitch was a proud sort, and not one to be comfortable showing his innermost feelings to people he didn't know well. And he'd made very sure that nobody knew him well.
Haymitch settled in with us, and we started up watching some of the old Games. The variety of scenarios caught my attention. When a Tribute went into the Arena, he or she could be faced with anything from a blistering-hot desert, where survival and winning might depend on staking out a water hole, to a frozen wilderness. Haymitch commented, about the frozen Game: "They only ever did that once. There wasn't much action, and that's the kiss of death for a Gamemaker. All the tributes did was to huddle in the cold in hiding places and slowly freeze to death."
When we got to the previous Quarter Quell, the one Haymitch had won, Katniss and I both sat up and paid close attention. Haymitch had been rather good-looking when he was young, and I could see that Katniss was by no means blind to that. She noticed me giving her a quizzical look, and reached out to squeeze my hand. That meant a lot to me.
As usual, the tributes from District 12, all four of them, were dressed up as coal miners for the grand parade. The commentators did not pay them much attention. They were much more occupied with discussing the tributes from the Career districts. All the girls from those districts were dressed up in outfits that left little or nothing to the imagination. It was easy to see that their designers were hoping that the sexy look would attract sponsors in the Arena.
The interviews were also interesting to listen to, but I was waiting to see what Haymitch would say. Caesar Flickerman, looking very like he still did, was conducting the interviews. Some of the tributes were shy, but Caesar, being a very old hand at this sort of thing, drew them out skilfully. He was good at his job, and I could see why he was popular in the Capitol. From my brief face-to-face encounter with him the previous year, I thought he was a hard man not to like. At least, the public persona was a hard man not to like. I'd never been around him in his private life, after all.
Finally, we got to Haymitch's interview. He seemed relaxed, bantering back and forth with Caesar as though being interviewed was something he did every day. I had to admire his poise. While I'd managed to keep my cool when Caesar was interviewing me, down deep I was terrified and wanted to run off the stage. I had managed to get my zinger off, though, and it had had the effect I had hoped for.
Caesar asked: "So, Haymitch. You're going to be up against a hundred percent more Tributes than are competing in other years. What's your take on that?"
Haymitch grinned wickedly. "There may be a hundred percent more Tributes, but they're still a hundred percent as stupid as always, so I figure I've got a good chance." That line brought down the house, and even Caesar laughed. Katniss and I applauded, and Haymitch got up and took a rather ironic bow.
When we got to watch Haymitch's game, we all went very quiet. The Tributes were delivered, as always, by one-man elevators that brought them up to the level of the Arena. They found themselves in an utterly beautiful environment, spread out in a circle around the Cornucopia.
Even when the signal to start was sounded, the sheer beauty of their surroundings seemed to hypnotize many of the Tributes. Not Haymitch, though! The second he heard the signal he was off, snagging a bag full of supplies and heading for the woods before most of the others could snap out of it and follow him. I had to give him considerable credit for keeping his head about him. But then, I had never been one to underestimate his intelligence. Despite all the white liquor and all the snarking, what he had to say was generally to the point and useful to know.
For all its beauty, that arena turned out to be a death trap. Everything in it, from the fruits and leaves of the trees to the water in the streams, was poisonous, and that killed many of the other Tributes. There was a ten-member Career pack, but a volcanic eruption took half of them out. Haymitch figured out quickly what was going on, and kept to a path he'd staked out, heading toward the edge of the Arena. He ran into Maysilee Donner, another of the Tributes from District 12, and they partnered up, after Haymitch had killed two of the remaining Careers and Maysilee had taken the third out just in time.
In my ear, Katniss muttered: "She's the aunt of the girl who gave me my Mockingjay pin." I had thought she looked familiar, but a lot of people from District 12 do resemble each other. When I looked at her more closely, I could see the resemblance between her and her niece. I wondered what she'd think of what was going on.
They finally ran up against an impenetrable hedge that Haymitch had come across earlier. When they cut through it with a blow torch (salvage from one of the dead Careers' packs) they found themselves on flat earth, with a cliff on one side and jagged rocks below. "That's all there is, Haymitch, let's go back," says Maysilee. Haymitch wanted to stay.
After a while, Maysilee and Haymitch agreed to split up. I thought they both looked regretful, but they knew the iron rule of the Hunger Games. Only one survives. And neither of them wanted to return to District 12 and face the parents and family of someone they'd had to kill. Yet again, in my mind, I cursed the cruelty and ingenuity of the people who had come up with the idea for the Hunger Games.
Maysilee went back through the hedge, while Haymitch continued to investigate what they'd found. He threw a rock over the edge of the cliff, and in a couple of seconds, it came soaring right back up, nearly hitting him. Haymitch throws another rock over the edge, and when it comes right back up, he starts laughing. I know that laugh. He's figured out what's going on. They've hit the very edge of the Arena.
The cameras were on Haymitch when he suddenly heard a terrified scream. It was Maysilee. Even though Haymitch and she had agreed to go their separate ways, he ran to help her. He wasn't in time to save her, but he was with her when she died. I could see silent tears running down Katniss' face, and I was misting up, too. I didn't look at Haymitch while we were watching that scene. I figured it was a private thing. Haymitch is a proud person.
Finally, it came down to Haymitch and the only other surviving tribute, a girl from District 1. Haymitch was good…fast, agile and deadly…but so was she, and she'd had the advantage of Career training. The fight was vicious, as bad as any I'd ever seen in any Games, and it ended with Haymitch disarmed, holding his intestines in as he staggered back toward his cliff, and the girl behind him with an axe.
They got to the bare ground, the girl threw her axe, and stood there, apparently intending to outlast Haymitch, who was in a very bad way. She didn't know about the force field, but Haymitch did, and when the axe flew back up and over, it caught her in the head and killed her. We heard the cannons, and then the fanfare announcing Haymitch's victory. We turned the screen off.
Haymitch's expression was unreadable. "Not really my proudest moment as a human being," he commented, and I knew just what he meant. Looking at Katniss, I could see that she did, too.
It was getting late, and we all went off to bed. Tomorrow was going to be "my Tributes'" training day, and I had plans to get together with some of the other Mentors. However, I found sleep elusive. I lay back, staring up into the darkness, and the images of what Haymitch had done, and had done to him, in his last Game ran through my mind, again and again.
A tap on the door, and Katniss came in. "Are you asleep? Can I join you?" she asked. She sounded shy, as though she expected me to repel her.
I patted the bed beside me. "Come on in, Katniss. I can't sleep. You, too?" She slipped in with me, lying on her back beside me, our bodies not touching. For a few seconds, all I could hear was her breathing, and I could smell her clean girl smell. I felt a rush of happiness.
"Peeta?" Katniss rolled over on her side, propping her head on her hand. "What did you think of Haymitch's last Game?"
I thought about it for a second. "I think he feels we got off easy, compared to him," I finally said. "That awful wound he took, what they did to his family and girlfriend…he probably thinks we got the better deal."
Katniss was silent for a second. "No, Peeta." She looked at me intently. "I think that compared to the Tributes he had to Mentor before he got to us, he thinks he got the easy deal." I chewed that over, and decided she had a point.
"You're right, as usual, Katniss," I said. "Guess that's why you're the brains of this relationship."
"And you're the heart," she said.
After a while, we drifted off to sleep. The next day was going to be strenuous for both of us. Katniss was going to be training for the Games, while I did my best to do what Haymitch should have been doing…networking and making deals so that my Tributes would have a better chance of making it out alive. I wanted Katniss to live, of course…but I also was greedy enough to want Haymitch. If nothing else, Victors' Village wouldn't be the same without him. And while he was snarky, surly and difficult to deal with, a lot of what he said was worth listening to.
The next morning, we were awakened by Effie Trinket. The sight of us there, lying peacefully asleep with Katniss' head on my shoulder and my arm around her, was too much for poor Effie. She stared, her eyes welling with tears, and finally stumbled out of the room on those ridiculous too-high heels she insists on wearing. "Come on, Katniss," I said. "Training today. You need your breakfast."
"Mmmm…lemme sleep, Prim," she mumbled, before she realized that I am not Prim. "Peeta. Good morning." She rolled out of bed, pulled a robe on over her pajamas, and went out to see what new goodies the Capitol was going to be serving that morning.
After breakfast, we went off in different directions. Haymitch and Katniss went off to train, while I went to talk to the other Mentors. Before I left, though, Haymitch had given me some things to think about.
Apparently there was a plan in place to disrupt the Games, and most of the Mentors were in on it. The Tributes themselves were not; some of them were fairly out of it from years of morphling or other substance abuse (Haymitch had the grace to blush when he said that) and a few of them were known to be such Capitol suckups that any hint of rebellion would normally send them straight to the authorities. They were also more carefully watched than we Mentors were, and some of them…I immediately flashed to Katniss…were not good enough at acting to fool the surveillance.
When I met the other Mentors, we spoke of inconsequentialities. Haymitch had given me a discreet hand signal to use to determine if another Mentor was in on the plan. Sure enough, the majority of them were. To my surprise, the Mentors from Districts 1 and 2, the ones I would have thought would be most loyal, returned the signal.
We were given a view of the training area. I noticed that Johanna Mason had stripped down again, this time to practice wrestling. Katniss was giving her a Glare of Doom, even though neither of them were aware that I was watching. I will admit that I enjoyed the view. While my heart belongs to Katniss, I am still a healthy young man, and I can't help but like the sight of an athletic, trim young woman wearing nothing but a thin coating of oil, squaring off to wrestle with another woman.
I knew Haymitch would know who to talk to among the other trainees, so I turned my attention to my fellow Mentors. I was taken in tow quickly by Brendan Baley, one of the District 4 mentors. He was a tall, older man with what I took to be a seaman's tan. His hands were covered in small scars, and when he shook hands with me, I could see that he had elaborate tattoos on his arms. He noticed me looking at them.
"Yes, those are traditional in our District. Each one means something. The more you do at sea, the more tattoos you earn. Besides," he winked at me, and I couldn't help but smile back, "women think they're hot!"
"You know that for me there's only one woman, don't you?" I responded. "We don't do tattooing in District 12. I think you're the first person I've ever seen with them. And I notice Finnick doesn't have any." Since I'd seen Finnick in next-to-nothing at the Tributes' Parade, I could speak with complete confidence."
"Oh, Finnick's always been a special case," Brendan answered. "Unlike me, he became a Victor young enough that he hadn't earned any tattoos. He doesn't need to go to sea any more, not with his Victor's stipend. Not that that stops him!"
"Really?"
"Really. For all that he doesn't have to, he's one of the best seamen in our District. He used part of his wealth to endow a lifeboat service, to help fishermen who're in trouble. And when the call goes up, he's right there at the tiller, steering straight and true through the stormiest seas! He's saved a lot of lives in District 4, and he's one of our most popular citizens." Brendan lowered his voice. "When the Peacekeepers tried to flog some of us for holding back on the catch, Finnick was able to stop them. They didn't dare touch him. He knows more than enough people here in the Capitol to get any Peacekeeper made into an Avox."
The more I learned about Finnick Odare, the more interesting he sounded. I hoped that Haymitch could clue me in some more. And I hoped he would be willing to ally with the odd couple from District 12 when it was time to go to the Arena.