Chapter 4

Haymitch stood by the geese pen, shoulders tensed and fist clenched at his side. Peeta was next to him, having come out of his house at the commotion.

"We should bury them," the boy suggested. "It'll start to smell if we don't and if they really did have the bird flu then - "

"They didn't," Haymitch cut off. "I don't know what bullshit is going on but something's happening somewhere and the authorities are being … It's suspicious."

The National Environment Agency had never given them any problem, much less pay house visit. For them to suddenly appear in their hazmat suits and hose down his geese with chemicals made him cautiously wary that there was something deeper going on.

His geese were all dead within minutes. If it weren't for the brutal manner that they were killed, Effie would have been glad, he thought shrewdly. She had never liked those geese.

"This one was attacked?" Peeta asked, prodding the goose at the far end of the fence.

"Yeah, found a fox this mornin', must have been what attacked it. Was gonna get rid of it when the Peacekeepers came."

He went round the house towards the small shed and grabbed two shovels, throwing one of it to Peeta. They started the arduous task of digging a hole and once in a while, Haymitch's gaze strayed towards the boy's prosthetic leg. Peeta would never complain which was why Haymitch was keeping an eye out. If it proved too much, he would ask the boy to stop.

"Might as well take the damn pen down," Haymitch muttered. "Don't think I'll be keeping any more fowls from now."

Effie was moving in anyway and it would be easier for everyone involved not to have the geese if she was just going to spend her time complaining like she had before.

She always had a lot to say. The first time they met years before, she had been complaining about the lacklustre refreshment at their self-help meeting – hers for sleeping pills addiction and him, for his dependency on alcohol.

Haymitch had found her arrogant and difficult, and from the moment she propped her hands on her hips to stare him down when he made a dig at her appearance, he knew he was going to keep coming back to those damned meetings if it meant crossing paths with her.

"Son of a bitch," Haymitch cursed loudly when a movement from the corner of his eyes caught his attention.

He stared as the goose, supposedly dead by a fox attack, staggered and stood on its feet. It unfurled its good wing while the broken wing hung limply by its side.

Without much thought, Haymitch took a step closer.

"I thought you said it was dead," Peeta stared.

"It should be dead. It was," Haymitch frowned. "It was dead when I checked it this morning and even if the fox bite didn't kill it, then the chemicals should have. Somethin' ain't right."

He glanced around but all the other geese were as lifeless as they had been when the peacekeepers left. Turning his attention back to the goose in front of him, Haymitch took note of its glassy eyes and its jerky movement.

Haymitch crouched and made a clucking noise with his tongue, like he used to when he announced his presence during feeding time. The goose turned its head and then launched itself on Haymitch, its sharp teeth inches away from his nose.

In a bid to defend himself, Haymitch instinctively went for its neck, holding it away even as it fought to bite.

Peeta swung his shovel, knocking the bird off Haymitch and when it was on the ground, he brought his shovel down on its head for good measure.

"What the fuck," Haymitch heaved a breath, panting as he pushed himself up.

"It's safe to say that's not the bird flu or whatever else they're claiming it to be," Peeta said breathlessly.

XxX

Effie turned the page of the magazine, humming a tune under her breath. The quiet talks of Finnick and his wife, the live news update on the television and the slightly clipped tone of the silver haired man whose name Effie learnt to be Coriolanus as he was talking on the phone became a soothing background noise in Car 9.

Once in a while, she would check her phone for any messages Haymitch might have left her but there was none which was unsurprising from a bad texter like himself but still, it was a habit of hers to keep checking.

Effie flipped the last page with a sigh. It was the second magazine she completed, and since she only had three with her, if she did not slow down, she would soon run out of reading materials.

She fired a quick message to Haymitch to let him know that she was thinking of him and that they had just left District Two which meant, there were still a few more hours to go.

Just as she stood up to make her way over to Car 10 where the cafeteria was located, a woman barreled towards their car. Unless her eyes were deceiving her, the woman was covered in blood and grime with a metal bar gripped tight in her hand.

She burst into their car, pushing a young girl clutching a baseball bat in front of her. Effie's gaze darted to the dirty bet. It was wet and sticky, and Effie tried not to think about what it could possibly be or how it got there.

"What is this?" Effie demanded.

The tone of her voice caught the attention of others and soon, most of them were on their feet, looking at the scene curiously.

Ignoring her completely, the woman shoved the girl deeper into their car and she stumbled on her feet, looking around with wide, fearful eyes. Being the person nearest to the door, Katniss grabbed the girl and held her steady on her feet.

"We have to lock the door," she whispered.

"Lock the fuckin' door," the woman directed that command to Finnick.

Effie thought she recognised her. She had seen the woman from somewhere before but with her face dirty like that, it was difficult to tell.

"If you do not leave us be, I will call security," Coriolanus announced, looking coldly at them. "This is not the place to beg."

"What'd you say, kid, if we feed this one to the monsters out there?" the woman asked.

The girl stared at her, too shocked by now to give her thoughts, much less talk.

"Do you know who I am?" the man demanded. "I am Coriolanus Snow and – "

"I don't give a fuck and if you have to introduce yourself that way then it's a bit clear that you ain't well-known as you think you are. I'm Johanna fucking Mason, and I'm asking you to lock the fucking door if you all don't want to die."

"Hey," Finnick stepped forward with a frown. "You're scaring my wife."

Johanna looked over his shoulder where Annie was clutching the back of Finnick's shirt, watching the exchange.

"You should be scared," Johanna spoke to Annie. "Because what I saw out there, it's like nothing I've ever seen before. I don't know what the fuck's happening but we need to get off this train at the next stop."


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