The Stars
Title: Drive
Characters: Syarnark, Cuan, Pyro, mentions of everyone else
Word Count: 628
Warnings: Assassinations and computer hacking
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games and the inspiration for these characters comes from another series entirely.
Notes: I don't think they have cars/use them as often as we do so this was the best I could think of.
009: Drive
The screen came to life in a burst of violent color, instantly washing the immediate area in an eerie blue glow.
Syarnark bent over the keys with a grin as his eyes scanned the complex codes and files that were appearing one after another. His fingers moved rapidly, hardly pausing even for a second as he shifted through the depths of the computer.
Aside from Cuan, Syarnark was the only other member who bothered to devote any substantial amount of time to electronics and technology. It sounded weird coming from a group of people in District 3, but most of them couldn't be bothered with learning more than just the basics.
Syarnark had always loved computers, though. Sche called him a freak for his obsession, for how scarily efficient he was at cracking most codes and sneaking into any computer's interface without leaving a single track, but it was a bloody useful skill.
"You really understand all that?" Pyro asked uncertainly over his shoulder, squinting at the screen dubiously. "Looks like a bunch of nothing."
"Oh, but this is everything. I can find out anything that's ever went through this computer just from this," Syarnark said with a widening smile as he turned around and held out his hand. "Disk, please."
Pyro handed over a flat, shiny silver disk from the bag over his shoulder.
"Can you hack the Capitol's computers?" he asked.
Syarnark scoffed as he searched for the disk drive. "No, of course not, at least not without access to another Capitol computer to work from. Then, maybe. Too risky though."
He heard Pyro shuffle away, most likely nodding. The boy didn't move far, though. Syarnark knew that he found things like this intriguing - perhaps not something he would take up as a hobby like Syarnark, but intriguing nonetheless.
Download started, Syarnark sat back to watch the information process. There were other ways to obtain the same information, but the computers didn't lie like human beings did. It was much cleaner and quieter, too, a method Pyro preferred.
He couldn't really understand that boy sometimes. Even though Syarnark liked technology, sometimes it was fun to just enjoy the chase, the exhilaration that coursed through one's veins while on the run from committing a violently brilliant act.
And besides, the "messy" jobs paid more. Not that they truly needed the money, he supposed.
Pyro once asked him what drove them to commit such acts, but Syarnark had been unable to give him a satisfactory answer.
He really didn't know. All he could say was, "We do it because we feel like it and because we can."
Syarnark had never asked that question before. He could remember the first time he was allowed to accompany the rest on one of their assassination jobs, right after the Reaping when he was thirteen.
"A bit disrespectful," Cuan admitted, "but not that it concerns us."
Syarnark had gone along and watched from afar, finding himself entranced and awed by the simple, effortless way they killed.
Death, as far as he knew up until then, was a messy and undignified thing. He'd seen it plenty of times during the Games, but none killed with the ease and finesse that these people before him possessed.
Syarnark wasn't obsessed with death or killing. Cuan called it flashy, a deed committed to make a point and while some of them truly did enjoy it, Syarnark was not one of them.
He liked computers, technology, fiddling with spare parts they found in the junkyard and creating something out of nothing.
Sometimes though, it was necessary to get a bit dirty.
"Make sure no one sees us leave," he told Pyro as he retrieved the disk from the drive. "If they do, we'll have to kill them."