Glenn
When I imagined fighting for freedom I thought of Daryl and me shoulder to shoulder or back to back. That if the worst happened at least we'd be together. We haven't spent a night apart in seven years. I also thought we'd paid our dues and neither of us would ever be in the arena again.
But the 75th Hunger Games throws us a curve. It's the third quarter quell and the twist this time is that tributes will be chosen from previous winners. So Daryl or I must be the male tribute. Since we don't have a female winner, the rules apply and a tribute will be chosen from all girls 12 to 18 in the district.
Eliza's name is pulled from the bowl. She's the daughter of Victor and Miranda Morales. Her parents and brother Louis have the usual reactions and if you didn't know better you'd think they really were heartbroken. But Michonne volunteers as planned and Eliza is off the hook. My name is picked next and Daryl volunteers, also as planned.
Katniss and Peeta from District 12 will be going. They don't know that tributes from other districts in the resistance will protect them. Daryl is assigned to Peeta and Michonne to Katniss. Michonne is almost 19, dark-skinned with dreadlocks, and beautiful in a stern don't-touch-me way. She's been one of us from the beginning but she's quiet and doesn't speak without reason. She's strong and scary and full of seething rage over the death of her brother and boyfriend. I feel better knowing she'll have Daryl's back. I'm not sure I like her but I'm glad she's on our side.
Michonne is the reason I built myself up. I had been coasting since winning the games. I wasn't out of shape exactly but definitely not in peak form. Michonne looks like she could throw me around like Daryl does sometimes but without the happy ending he delivers.
Michonne works the fields which is unusual. Women are assigned to the orchards and gardens and men to the fields but she asked for field work. You should see her scything wheat or swinging a machete at sugar cane. Too bad the tools can't be weapons but they're issued each morning and turned in each night and locked up under Peacekeeper watch in between.
Andrea the mediator is with us too. Maybe. A few months ago I wouldn't have doubted it but she's been sleeping with the enemy and her loyalties might be divided. It was Carol who half jokingly suggested that someone sleep with 'The Governor' to get information from him. Andrea volunteered. Looking back, she was a little too eager.
She's passed along a few things like confirming that Milton Mamet was a mole for the Capitol. Soon after, the pretense of him being a regular citizen was over. He's openly assisting Blake now, some kind of secret experiments.
Daryl and I said our goodbyes last night because there's only time for a hurried farewell before he and Michonne take the train to the Capitol. I'm not going as mentor this year. No one is. Something else Katniss and Peeta don't know is that an operation is planned to rescue everyone from the arena. I have to keep holding on to the hope that it will work. It's the only thing that makes parting from Daryl bearable.
The district shuts down during the games except for the minimum of irrigation and weeding necessary to insure a good crop. Merle and I watch together and sometimes Rick joins us. It's a grueling ordeal and it doesn't look like much fun in the arena either. Over the course of the first 12 hours it's obvious to onlookers that the arena is organized as a clock face with the cornucopia on an island in the center and something horrible happening in the 12 sections around it. There's lightning and blood rain and poisonous fog. Monkey muttations, a tidal wave and jabberjays. The jabberjays mimic loved ones being tortured. It's disorienting to hear your own voice screaming from the screen.
At least they don't all happen at once but take turns hour by hour. Each bad thing happens twice a day. Wiress from District 3 figures out how it works. She's not entirely sane, though, and all she says is 'Tick tock' so it take the others awhile to know what she means.
I can't stop watching but I wish I didn't have to see what's happening. Until the Peacekeepers come for me, lock me up and beat me. Then I wish I still knew what was going on with Daryl.
Daryl
Daryl was committed to the cause but that didn't mean he couldn't regret being away from Glenn. Daryl almost always woke up first. He liked to watch Glenn wake up, see him yawn and stretch before opening his eyes. His limbs unfolded from being curled up, usually around Daryl. Then his eyes met Daryl's and he smiled. Yeah, Daryl's day didn't begin until Glenn's eyes opened.
But now Daryl is living a nightmare and he's grateful Glenn is safe at home in District 11. It took a day to figure out the arena was a clock. Two lightning strikes, two showers of blood, twice outrunning fog that corrodes the skin. Two monkey mutt attacks, two tidal waves and twice hearing Glenn's voice full of terror and pain.
Daryl almost lost it then. It sounded so real he figured Glenn must have been brought to the arena. Daryl was ready to go after him but wiser tributes prevailed and he realized the jabberjays were one more way to mess with their heads.
Daryl had a hard time taking the monkey mutts seriously even though they were vicious and deadly. Probably because he was thinking of the monkeys in one of Glenn's old books. 'The Wizard of Oz' was a children's book but Daryl, Glenn and Merle enjoyed it. These monkey mutts were orange and Daryl kept expecting a witch to show up and say 'Fly, my pretties.' Right up until the female morphling from District 6 jumped in front of Peeta and sacrificed herself to save him.
Daryl did his share of saving tributes, finding food and getting water from trees. But after three days he was looking forward to the rescue that should be coming any time now.
Glenn
I've been in this storage room in Peacekeeper headquarters for two days. I'm in bad shape from being beaten but they've given me enough food and water to keep me coherent for interrogation. I haven't answered any questions yet but I'm afraid the time is coming when I won't be able to hold out.
The door opens. Time for another round. But no, a walking dead mutt is pushed into the room and released and the door slams shut. I haven't seen one since the 74th Hunger Games. His opaque eyes seem sightless but he lifts his head and sniffs and heads in my direction. Is this the experiment Milton has been working on in secret for Blake?
No use wondering how it happened, I need to think about how to get out of this without being bitten or scratched. We've learned since last year that each walker mutt doesn't have to be created individually. They can make more of their own.
I'm tied to a chair. I get up and swing around and knock the mutt off his feet. Then I slam the chair into the wall. Fortunately it's an olden wooden chair. I guess they didn't want to risk me bleeding on the nice padded metal chairs I saw in PK HQ when Daryl and I met with Blake. I have to knock the mutt around a couple more times between crashing into the wall before the chair breaks apart. One of the legs has a jagged end. I shove it into the mutt's head and he drops.
Caesar Martinez comes in. He's the PK who beats me while Blake asks questions. He looks like he didn't expect me to put down the mutt but he sneers and says if I'm still not answering questions, there's no reason to keep me around. He drags the mutt out and locks the door behind him. He comes back a few minutes later with Maggie Greene. I didn't know she was here, too. It pisses me off that Blake must have thought we were the two most likely to give up the resistance and their plans. Maggie isn't beaten but she's topless and terrified and I suddenly think there might be worse things than a beating. I give her my shirt then Martinez tells us to kneel. His weapon is drawn. Blake comes in. This is it. We're going to be executed unless we talk. And if we talk we'll probably be executed as soon as Blake thinks we've told everything we know.
Then Michonne is in the doorway with the sword she got at the cornucopia. The rescue must have taken place but where's Daryl? Rick follows her and there's no time to chat. Rick grabs Martinez' hand with the gun and twists it up. He pulls Martinez' trigger finger and shoots him in the head just as he must have done years ago with Shane Walsh. Might as well keep doing what works for you. Meanwhile Blake is fumbling for his weapon as Michonne puts her sword to his head.
"This is for my boyfriend and my brother."
They were the two men executed the first month that Blake took over. She swings, but Andrea has entered the room during the confusion and slaps at Michonne's arm. Blake moves his head and the sword catches his eye. Andrea grabs his weapon as he stumbles away. She turns it on Michonne.
"All of you leave. Now."
A PK weapon trumps a sword. Martinez' weapon is still in his dead hand. Rick was reaching for it when Andrea arrived. We know whose side she's on but at least she's letting us go.
Rick helps Maggie and me up and gets us out of the room. Michonne's face is stone as she says to Andrea, "You cunt."
She darts out the door and we're on our way. Peacekeeper headquarters is empty and so is the town. Mostly. We avoid a few PKs on patrol and head for the woods. When we stop to regroup Rick tells us his kids and the inner circle of rebels are with Merle.
"Merle said you'd get us out," Rick says. I smile. I can do that.
We make our way through the woods to the sandstone bluff. It's dark and cloudy so the moonlight is patchy but I know the hidden entrance well by now. They're waiting for us in the cave: Merle, Carl and Judith, Carol, Hershel and Beth.
"Where's Daryl?" I wondered why Daryl didn't come himself to get me but I wouldn't let myself think the worst. Maybe he was hurt, a bad leg that wouldn't allow him to move quickly. Maybe he let Michonne go because she was bent on revenge.
Michonne speaks. "Katniss and Peeta were supposed to stay together. But they separated at the end. I went with Kat and Daryl with Peeta. My group got rescued. Peeta's got captured. The Capitol has them."
"Is he dead?" I should have asked if 'they' were dead but all I really care about is Daryl.
"There's no reason to think so. Not yet. The Capitol will want them alive. For now."
I'd feel more reassured if Michonne had omitted 'Not yet' and 'For now' but she's terse and truthful. Surely Daryl and the others will be retrieved. Katniss is safe but she'll want Peeta back. Their romance is part of what fired the uprising.
We won't know anything more until morning. After being rescued herself, Michonne asked to be dropped in District 11 instead of going with the others to District 13 which has become the headquarters of the resistance. Now we have to get through the woods beyond the fence to coordinates where a hover plane will pick us up at dawn.