8: Haymitch's Story
Gale POV
The people of District 12 disappeared after the announcement, probably to celebrate. They don't have to go back into the Hunger Games. They don't have to watch anybody that they love going into the Hunger Games. Even more dangerous games than usual as this year everybody will have experience and skill. The career alliance won't be the only one to look out for. I feel my breath coming out quickly as I run towards Katniss. She is standing still, staring at the floor. I approach her slowly. At least I have a chance to not go into the Games.
"Katniss?" I ask cautiously. "Are you OK?" Katniss's head snaps up and I can see tears held in her eyes. She looks so broken by this announcement and I don't blame her. She is shivering and breathing slowly and I can feel the amounts of anger and fear rolling off her.
"Gale, I have to go in again," she says. She wipes her hand across her face, taking away some of the moisture from her eyes. Her voice is steady and determined. "And you have to promise me that if Haymitch is reaped, you won't volunteer. Do you promise?" she asks, staring into my eyes.
"Why would I volunteer?" I ask. "I know now that you won't let me die for you. The Capitol won't let both of us live again. If I go into the Games then it will end in either one of us being dead and the other heartbroken or both of us dead. So I promise. I promise that I won't volunteer if Haymitch is picked." And I will do my best to get Haymitch to volunteer if I am chosen, I think. Haymitch knows how important we are to the rebellion. With the right reasoning it might be possible to get him to volunteer for me. But I can't count on that.
"We need to train," Katniss says, getting her emotions under control. "This year we will be fighting against experienced and trained killers- experts. Last time we only just got out alive. We need to learn how to fight without weapons and learn to use close weapons. Maybe Haymitch can teach us. He went back to his house, I think."
"OK. He must be feeling pretty bad about this," I say. "After all, he isn't in the best shape to win another Hunger Games, so if he is reaped then he almost certainly die. It's a fifty-fifty chance for him. If I don't get reaped then I will need advice mentoring as well. Haymitch was a pretty good mentor."
We walk together back to Victors Village. On the way, we can see people celebrating the twist. Katniss and I may be well-liked in the District, or amongst the people of the Seam at least, but survival instinct wins out unless you really are in love with that person, like I was for Katniss. I wouldn't have volunteered for Madge or Prim or any of my other friends, though I would for family. I don't resent them for celebrating, I would be doing the same thing if I were in their shoes. Mixed with hatred for the Capitol of course for breaking one of the Hunger Games rules that nobody can go into an arena twice.
I wonder if this actually was the twist that was set for the third Quarter Quell or whether this was just set up by Snow to punish and kill us. My mind says the latter, though it is possible that it was coincidence. Seems unlikely though. It makes me hate Snow more than I usually do. We played his games the way he wanted. I proposed, I acted that I love the Capitol. Maybe it was because of what happened in District 8, though killing me off will just make them want to rebel more.
Maybe Snow just wants revenge, just wants to see us die. I doubt that though. Snow doesn't seem the type to act on his emotions, doesn't seem the type to crave revenge. No, what he wants is power- and power is kept by making the logical decisions. That's part of what makes him so dangerous. He isn't like the cartoon villains that heroes can provoke into making a reckless decision and letting them kill him and save the day. He is more comparable to a robot. No emotions, no morals. Only logic and a hunger to be obeyed. He has no better side that we can appeal too, he has no weakness.
Are Katniss and I heroes? Perhaps we are. We are certainly better than Snow. We don't kill for no reason- but then, neither does he. We killed to survive, given the chance I would have killed Romulus Thread for whipping Katniss's face. I would kill out of love for Katniss or self-preservation. Snow kills for his love of power. But does it matter if it is love for an idea or love for a person? I would die for an idea, the idea of a free Panem. Killing is killing. Maybe Katniss and I aren't the heroes. Maybe we are the villains.
It all depends on the perspective. To the people in the outer districts,the Capitol are oppressive and cruel and their leader is evil. To the people of Districts 1 and 2 and the Capitol, the people in the outlying Districts must be seen as savages, uneducated and barbaric. Maybe they feel sorry for us. If we led a rebellion then we would be hated. Is the system so bad that we should start a war over it, I wonder.
Rebellion is war. Starting a war will get people killed. And indirectly, those people will be my kills. My fault for starting a rebellion and if we are defeated, the punishment that the Capitol will give us will be blood on my hands. What is better- a slow, steady tyranny? A few people dying each year that we could save. Fifty perhaps, counting tributes and people that the Capitol kill for "crimes". Or a war that will save these people in the future, but kills thousands now.
I wish that I could just turn off that nagging voice in my head like I could in the Games. In the Hunger Games, it was simple. Kill or be killed. And whilst I felt sad about killing that girl from District 8, it honestly didn't bother me that much. I wasn't going to lie awake for days after it thinking if it was the right thing to do. The Games were almost like one constant adrenaline rush, always alert and quick to act. Killing first and asking questions later. That world suited me better. Here the decisions are dragged out and letting an act slip for one second can be fatal.
I beat the door to Haymitch's house. "It's open," I hear Haymitch grunt from inside. I twist the knob and Katniss and I enter the cluttered mess that is Haymitch's life. Alcohol bottles strewn across the floor with mud all over the carpet and clothes thrown around here and there. The smell is disgusting, some sort of a stale, dirty stench that permeates everything in the house. Haymitch is sitting on a sofa with a half-empty bottle of liquor in front of him. He must have built up quite a tolerance to still be able to react to them normally after all of that. But seeing Haymitch like this makes me glad that my way of coping with the after-effects of the Games is to hunt not to drink or take drugs.
"We came for advice about the Games," Katniss says. "I'm definitely going in this year, so I need your help. You've been a victor and a mentor for much longer than we have. Do you think you could give us some training, or at least some info on the other victors for us? It would help the rebellion." The word rebellion makes Haymitch perk up. Some sort of trigger in him that will make him help us. Haymitch would do anything for the rebellion, that I know. Something must have happened with the Capitol in the past, something more than the Hunger Games. Something that would make him really hate them.
"I could," Haymitch says. His voice is slightly slurred, but understandable. "You need training," he says. "You barely made it through the Games last year and that was with being a career for half of it and having a stable alliance for the other half. And half of the Capitol sponsoring you. You have no idea, do you? What it's like to be in true danger. Alone, being hunted by trained killers after the death of your love. No gifts coming from the sky. Starving, injured and with no hope. Do you?"
The harshness of his words shock and anger me. He thinks that we don't know hardship? After we suffered through the Hunger Games together, believing that I would certainly die. Winning, just to find out that the danger is not gone yet. To have our loved ones threatened? "What do you know of hardship?" I spit at him. "You went into the Games. So did we. And you didn't go in knowing that you would have to give up your life to save your love. You didn't have to worry that your family might go hungry. And you didn't have to worry about starting a bloody war after you won!"
"Do you even know which Games I won?" shouts Haymitch. He doesn't wait for me to answer and I don't know. "The fiftieth Hunger Games. The second Quarter Quell. Twice as many tributes!" He gets off the sofa and roots around the corner of the room. He emerges, an small object in his hands. He throws it at me hard and my reflexes kick in. I snatch it out of the air the edges stinging my hands. "Put that into your player," he orders me. "Come back once you've watched it." His anger has passed now and he sounds more weary.
Perhaps coming when he was drunk was a bad idea, but at least we have something about Haymitch's past now. Once we know what happened in his games we might be able to understand him better. The fact that Haymitch survived a Quarter Quell surprises me though. I have wondered in the past how he survived a regular Games, let alone twice as many tributes. Katniss and I walk back to my house and go up to my bedroom. We put the tape in the TV.
"Welcome to the 50th Annual Hunger Games!" a voice booms from the screen. Claudius Templesmith, I think. "And may the odds be ever in your favour.." The screen cuts to the tributes standing around the cornucopia in the arena. They have twice the length to run because of the size of the circle now. I wonder if Haymitch runs away or stays to fight it out at the cornucopia. The arena itself is beautiful. A lush valley with flowers all around, stunning mountains at the edge. Something more special than the usual arena. The bong goes off and the tributes jump off their platforms. Around half of them run away to hide in some of the woods around or in the bushes, but Haymitch runs for the middle.
A flurry of cannons sound. I am jolted back in time to my own games, the adrenaline rush of I ran towards the middle fighting off tributes. I push the memory away and focus my eyes on the screen. Haymitch has killed a boy and a girl and has a large, double-sided axe in his hands. Both sides are red with blood and the camera zooms in on his face. He is twitching slightly and their is an insane gleam in his eyes. Then the camera cuts away to a few other careers, who are looking proud and bloodthirsty. Maybe Haymitch will join the career pack, but I can't see that coming.
Then the screen switches to something else. Tributes are falling out of the bushes, grasping at their throats. They can't breathe, I realise. Their must have been something poisonous in those bushes. It comes to me. The flowers, which I had thought so beautiful, we're actually killing machines. They release poisonous gas into the air so that when the tributes hid in the bushes and probably smelt the flowers, they would die. Smart, a good way to get more action. And a sick way to kill children who didn't want to kill. At least it was a quick death.
The bloodbath is now ending and a career comes up to Haymitch. The career is tall and well-muscled with blonde hair and blue eyes. His hair is stained with blood and he has a sword sheathed at his side. His beauty marks him as District 1. "You are fairly effective with that axe," he says. "Join us?" Haymitch looks up. I notice that he has a belt of knives now as well as the axe and their is a backpack on his back. The insane look has not left his eyes as he looks up at the career boy.
"Join you?" he shouts. "Never! You're heartless murderers!" he swings his axe towards the head of the career boy, who is too shocked to do anything, and it connects with a dull thud. He pulls it out quickly and starts to run towards the woodland area. The other careers chase him and are gaining on his quickly. Haymitch throws the axe behind him and it connects with the head of another career. The camera shows as the career falls down in slow motion. His face is completely cleaved in half by the axe and blood is quickly welling up around it. I can even see the brains and wonder how the Capitolites enjoy watching this.
Haymitch has climbed up a tree and is going higher and higher. There is some doubt amongst the careers. From what I remember, there were very few climbable trees in Districts 1 and 2 and the careers don't seem to pay attention to climbing in training, in the Capitol or in their own training centres. The lead career spits on the ground. "We lost him," he says. "We'd better get back to the cornucopia to stop those outlying wimps from stealing our supplies.
The games continue quite quickly and I realise that despite the number of tributes, these games are some of the shortest. Nobody except for the careers and District 11 tributes can eat because they have supplies or know what berries are and aren't safe. And for the eleven tributes, there is very little safe food that they can find. Haymitch slowly eats through the supplies in his backpack and kills some tributes with his knives and gradually makes his way over to the mountains. I am surprised to see Maysilee Donner in the games, she was Madge's aunt if I remember correctly. She's quite resourceful, more than I would expect for someone brought up in the mayor's family. She gets killed by a career though. Perhaps she was who Haymitch meant by his love.
Near to the end, there are only two tributes left. Haymitch is crawling towards the edge of the arena and the District 1 girl is following him. She has an axe in her hand, the same axe that Haymitch used to kill her District partner. She wants revenge for that and she wants to win. I wonder how Haymitch got out alive. If anything the Games seem to have made her fitter than before and Haymitch can barely even stand up.
Haymitch starts to taunt her, making her angry. She screams and throws the axe at his head. Haymitch drops to the floor, ducking just in the nick of time. The axe sails over the edge of the arena and the District 1 girl, Sylvia, screams in frustration. She runs over to him to kill him with her own hands, but it is coming back. The axe sails back over the mountainside and hits her in the head, cleaving her whole head in half. The force field, I realise. Haymitch took the Capitol's tool and used it as a weapon in his own games. So that is why Haymitch got into the rebellion.
I look over at Katniss, who has her eyes glued to the screen as the tributes and their descriptions come up. She looks angry and I suddenly understand why. Haymitch has no family. Snow threatens to kill the families of those who rebel. Haymitch must have rebelled against him and had everyone he loved killed as a result. No wonder he drinks. And now I know why Haymitch is so interested in the rebellion. It's about more than opposing a dictatorship to him, for him it is about vengeance for the death of his family and Maysilee.
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Sorry I took about three weeks to update. I just forgot to write even though I had this chapter fully planned out. Anyway, please leave a review telling me if you liked this chapter or have any constructive criticism. Thanks to those who have already reviewed, followed or favourited, and especially to TheFire who has reviewed every chapter so far.
-MoonOfPluto