Maze's earlier anger resurfaced.
She let her guard down momentarily, and Camilee weaseled her way right in with a ridiculous lie. A ridiculously obvious lie.
It was almost amusing.
Maze let out a sharp, bitter laugh. "You liar."
Any trace of warmth in her gaze had been snuffed out, along with any semblance of trust towards Camilee. "If you had paid attention to my interview, you'd know that I have no family. I'm an orphan."
"I know that," Camilee said. "That's because your family's in District 12. We had to flee 3 because we would have been executed if we stayed."
Maze scoffed, shaking her head. "That's impossible. You can't change districts."
Everyone knew moving between districts was impossible. In some cases, workers could travel between districts if needed there, for example, specific District 3 workers were often sent to the Capitol or other districts to fix their electronics, but the workers were carefully vetted and watched closely. Besides that, no one could voluntarily move between districts. Maze hadn't seen the tall, high voltage fences that made up the border of District 3, but she knew they existed. She imagined they existed in the other districts too.
"Not without resources and connections in high places, you can't," Camilee replied. "Our grandparents were well-connected. Grampa was a Researcher or whatever the inventors in District 3 are called, and Gramma was a secretary at the Justice Building."
Camilee was right about the Researcher part. But—
"How do you know that?" Maze demanded, crossing her arms.
"Ma told me," Camilee responded. "She told me everything. I think." She paused. "Her name back in District 3 was Titania, but in 12, she goes by Tania. Tania Roebuck. Changed her name when she married Pa. Changed mine, too. I used to be Camera for the first four years of my life. Then I became Camilee."
She looked at Maze. "Your ma — my aunt Milly — just changed the spelling of her name. Her name was M-I-L-L-I in Three. In Twelve, it's M-I-L-L-Y. She gave herself a new last name — Sullivan. Your father's last name. They never got married, though. Our grandparents had your last name. Gauss and Iris Donahue."
Maze could only stare at Camilee, her jaw going slack once more.
Titania. She knew Titania's name. And Gauss's. And Iris'.
Camilee — was she —?
"You know Titania's name," Maze croaked. "And the names of my grandparents."
"I take it you tried looking for your family back in Three?" Camilee asked.
Maze nodded. "Yeah."
"We ran away to District 12," Camilee stated. "We're not dead."
"Gauss and Iris are." Maze's voice was a whisper. Her head was starting to spin from all the information, as well as the adrenaline of the chase leaving her, and the fact that Camilee might not be lying.
No. She wasn't lying. She knew the names.
Her legs began wobbling, and she slid down to the floor, back against the wall. Camilee sat next to her, placing the flaming branch on the ground. The firelight flickered around them.
"Are you okay?" Camilee asked.
"I think I need a minute." Maze's voice wavered. She curled her knees to her chest, hugging them.
"Yeah. Sorry." Camilee looked sheepish. She patted Maze's shoulder. "I know this is a lot to take in."
"You're not lying." Maze couldn't manage to raise her voice above a whisper. "You know their names."
"I wouldn't lie to you, Maze," Camilee said, her own voice soft. "I wouldn't lie to family."
The two sat in silence while Maze recovered from her mad dash through the labyrinth. Her lungs still burned for air, and the stone walls still spun a bit, but after a while, it all subsided. Maze started to feel calmer.
She stood up, using the wall as support. "We should probably get out of here. In case the beast comes back."
Camilee nodded and rose to her feet. Together, the two girls ambled down the corridor, heading out.
The boy from District 4 was barely recognizable. If it weren't for his jacket color, Maze wouldn't be able to recognize him at all. He laid in multiple pieces, including some of his internal organs, scattered about on the ground. A giant red puddle encircled the pieces. The hovercraft's claw would have great difficulty gathering his body, so deep underground and in such a state.
Maze tried not to stare too much at the grisly scene before her, but it was impossible not to. Her legs started wobbling again and her head felt light. Camilee, noticing this, quickly wrapped an arm around Maze and guided her out of the labyrinth.
They soon emerged out into the hillside, blinking at the sudden light.
"My camp is nearby," Camilee said, pointing up the hillside. "We can rest there."
They made their way up to Camilee's camp, Maze still leaning on Camilee. Her grip on reality had become shaky and she felt as though she could fly off the surface of the earth at any second.
Camilee's camp consisted of a plastic tarp nestled in a triangular gap between three pine trees, with a backpack next to it. Camilee helped Maze sit down on the tarp. "Here we are."
She sat down next to Maze. The two sat in silence again while Maze recovered. Soon enough, the world stopped spinning and Maze gradually returned to reality.
Camilee spoke after a while. "So...you said our grandparents were dead?"
"Yeah." Maze nodded. "The records said they were executed for treason a few months after I was born."
"Oh." Camilee looked downcast. "I figured something like that had happened when you mentioned that you were an orphan during your interview. According to Ma, they were gonna come and adopt you from the community home once things blew over, but it looks like that never happened."
Maze's heart sunk. Her grandparents were going to adopt her. She could have been adopted. Instead, she had to spend her life alone and unloved in the community home.
"What exactly happened?" She asked. "What happened that you and our mothers had to run away to District 12 and that caused our grandparents to be executed?"
Camilee sighed and bit her lip. "Yeah. I guess I should probably start from the beginning with that. It's a long story."
Maze got an idea. "You can tell me as we walk."
She stood up. Camilee's brow furrowed in confusion. "Walk where?"
"To my camp," Maze replied. She pointed up the hill. "If we retrace my steps, we can get back to it. I have an actual shelter there and tons of supplies."
Camilee's eyes lit up. "That would be great!"
Maze helped her fold up the plastic tarp, Camilee put her backpack on, and together, the two began trekking their way up the hill, away from the ruins and towards the meadow.
It wasn't until the ruins were out of sight that Camilee began to speak.
"So, like you, I was born in District 3. And I lived there for the first four years of my life. It was Ma and my biological father — I used to call him my sperm donor, but Ma said that was too crass."
Maze couldn't hide her chuckle at that. Camilee grinned and then continued.
"I remember a little bit of District 3. I remember how brown and dull and plain everything was. I also remember our grandparents. Grampa had glasses and a big mustache and always showed me these things he invented, while Gramma was really pretty, with blonde hair like yours, and a little grumpy. But my father…" Her eyes clouded over. "He hated me and Ma. I don't know why they got married and had me if he hated her so much. One of my earliest memories was of me wanting his attention and then crying because he wouldn't give me any."
The light came back into her eyes. "And then I remember you coming along! You were just a tiny baby. We all loved you, even grumpy Gramma." She chuckled. "I remember I called you Baby Mazey. And I wouldn't stop trying to hug you and play with you. Ma said I was obsessed with you."
The strange warmth Maze had felt when Beetee told her about her mother returned, much stronger than before. It overwhelmed her to the point where tears began to gather, but she quickly blinked them away. She had cried enough the past few days.
"I was loved?" Maze asked, trying to conceal the wobbling of her voice.
Camilee nodded, giving her a gentle smile. "Of course you were, Maze." Her smile widened. "You still are."
The tears came back at that. Maze desperately blinked them away again, trying not to break down sobbing at what she said.
Her and Beetee's conversation from before the bloodbath came to mind. She sniffed. "My ma…do I look like her? Beetee — my mentor, he knew them — said I look like her."
"Without a doubt," Camilee answered. "Spitting image of her. You look just like her, but younger, skinnier, and with shorter hair." She tilted her head and looked Maze up and down. "I think you got your gangliness from your pa. I don't know. I never met him."
had a pa, too.
"Who was my pa?" Maze asked.
"That's where the troubles begin." Camilee's smile turned sad. "Unbeknownst to Ma and our grandparents, Aunt Milli — your ma — had gotten involved with a rebel group."
She looked at Maze. "Have you heard of the Sparksetters?"
The Sparksetters. Nearly everyone in District 3 knew the name. They were one of the district's most notorious rebel groups, most known for putting explosives in electronics shipments to the Capitol. They had injured and killed Capitol and District 3 citizens alike with their methods. They were no longer as active as they were in previous years, due to Peacekeeper roundups and increased surveillance of shipments, but every once in a while, there was still an explosion connected to them. Majority of the district disapproved of them. They thought their actions were senselessly violent and only harmed themselves and the district rather than doing anything meaningful. Maze herself didn't really have an opinion on them.
Maze nodded, and Camilee continued. "Well, your pa was a leader of the Sparksetters. Ace Sullivan."
Ace had never heard his name before.
"He and Aunt Milli fell in love, and you were created. Ma and our grandparents had no idea she was in a relationship until she got pregnant with you. And even then, they didn't know it was with Ace Sullivan."
She took a breath. "Anyways, a few months before you were born, there was a sting operation into the Sparksetters, and a bunch of them were rounded up and executed. Including your pa. And even after that, they continued investigating. Eventually, they found your ma. And you."
The two were starting to reach the top of the hill. Maze's legs still burned from the running earlier; the incline did nothing to help. She yearned for her spear. If she hadn't left it behind at camp, she could have used it as a walking stick.
"I mentioned that Gramma worked at the Justice Building, right? She got a warning from the Head Peacekeeper that they had found out about Milli's crime and that they were going to execute her, for being involved with the Sparksetters and with Ace, and you, because you were related to Ace."
"Me?" Maze sputtered. "But I was a baby! I didn't do anything!"
"Head Peacekeeper didn't seem to think so," Camilee replied. "Anyways, Gramma went home and confronted Milli about it. That was how everyone in the family found out that she was a Sparksetter and that Ace was your father. That was also the night Ma decided to kill my biological father. It was a very tense night for everyone."
It took Maze a moment to process what Camilee had said. When she did, her jaw dropped.
"Wait, what?"
"Ma killed my biological father that night." Camilee said that with the casualness of someone making small talk about the weather. "She was stressed because of Milli, and she was in the kitchen with a knife. He mentioned he had beat me earlier because of something bad I did. Ma said she saw red, and when it cleared, he was laying on the kitchen floor in a pool of his own blood."
The orange backpack that Maze had dropped fleeing from the boy from District 4 was in sight, nestled among the pine needles blanketing the forest floor. Maze picked it back up.
"So now both Ma and Milli had committed crimes. Ma would surely also be executed once the Peacekeepers found out what she did. But then Grampa pulled some strings and got them some information about a less-patrolled spot in the fence around District 3 in the south, and an escape route to District 12 used in the distant past. And then they fled. They took me and fled to District 12."
"Why didn't they take me?" Maze demanded.
"It was a dangerous trip," Camilee responded. "Two weeks trekking through the wilderness and the ruins of cities and towns with minimal supplies. The Capitol also occasionally patrols the wilderness in their hovercrafts, so we had to hide and be completely silent at times. A baby couldn't do that. I could just barely do that at four years old. I remember it was a long and miserable walk. I was scared the entire time." Camilee shuddered. "I remember there was a portion where we had to cross a large river using an old, crumbling bridge, and I was terrified. I'd never been so terrified in my life until I came here."
"You said the Head Peacekeeper wanted to kill me, right?" Maze questioned. "Why didn't he? I stayed behind in District 3, and they didn't change my name, so they could have easily found me at the community home and killed me."
"I think Ma said there was some law or something that prevented them from executing children placed at the community home," Camilee answered. "I'm not entirely sure, though. But whatever it was, I'm glad they didn't kill you."
"Me too."
The two had now reached the meadow. From where they stood, Maze could see a familiar arrangement of trees at the meadow's edge, and relief flooded her. From there, she knew the way back to camp.
Maze gave a dark chuckle and gestured around the arena. "Although, that doesn't matter anymore. The Capitol still ended up killing me after all."
"Eh." Camilee made a face that Maze interpreted as disapproving. "You're not dead yet."
Maze decided to change the subject. "So, what happened after you reached District 12?"
She started walking through the meadow towards the familiar trees. Camilee walked alongside her. The birds from the nearby bushes flew away, startled by their footfalls.
"It was miserable for a while," Camilee answered. "We made our home in an abandoned home in the poorest area of District 12, known as the Seam. Ma and Aunt Milly had to establish themselves and get money and food without being too suspicious, which was difficult. District 12 is the smallest district and almost everyone knows each other. But somehow, we managed. Ma and Aunt Milly got the house into a livable state again, and they established themselves in Twelve as the electronics repairwomen. Even the Peacekeepers utilize their service, since it's apparently a real pain in the rear to send out an officially sanctioned repairperson."
Camilee's eyes shone, and a grin came onto her face. "And then Ma met Pa. And they fell in love. Actual love. Not whatever Ma and my biological father had. They make each other smile and laugh. And Pa was already a much better man. He was kind to me, even before he and Ma started dating. Carved me some toys to play with. And after she and him got married and he officially became my Pa, he never hit me or neglected me. And that's why he got the title of Pa and not my sperm donor. Because he acted like a Pa. And he is my Pa."
Not that I would have any idea what a Pa is like, Maze thought bitterly. Or any type of parental love. I was too young to remember my own Ma.
When she was younger, Maze had a fantasy she would indulge in, usually late at night, when laying in her cot and trying to fall asleep, or during a particularly boring class at school. She would fantasize about a couple adopting her from the community home. In her fantasies, this couple was always rich, eccentric Researchers, with a large but cozy house with many, many rooms for Maze to explore. The rooms were full of fantastic inventions of theirs, like mechanical animals or machines that could instantly make cookies and the like. She spent a lot of imaginary time in these rooms but also with her imaginary adoptive parents. They fed her delicious, imagined foods reminiscent of the ones she ate in the Capitol. Her imaginary parents encouraged her hijinks and helped her with them instead of scolding her or beating her like Mrs. Tapp did. Sometimes, they took a giant balloon with a basket attached for them to sit in and flew it over Central City, above the brown clouds of smog. And at the end of the imaginary nights, they would tuck her into bed, looking down at her with eyes brimming with love, and each would kiss her on the forehead and tell her goodnight and that they loved her.
Of course, the fantasy never came true. It never would. Especially not now, when Maze's death was imminent. She would never get to feel parental love.
"What happened to my mother?" She found herself asking Camilee. "Did she ever find happiness?"
Camilee's smile turned sad again. She shook her head. "I don't know. For a while after we arrived in Twelve, I remember her being sad and crying all the time. Crying for her baby Mazey. I cried for you too. I wanted my baby cousin back. After a while, she started smiling and laughing again. But…I don't know. The sadness never fully left her. I see it in her eyes when she thinks nobody's looking. And I hear her crying sometimes at night. Sometimes she still cries for you."
They were approaching the camp by then. The shelter had appeared in the woods in front of them, as well as the campfire. Some chunks of the ground were still tinted red from the bloodshed of a few days ago.
"Oh, this is pretty nice," Camilee commented as the two girls approached. "Did you find this, or make it yourself? The woodwork seems pretty solid."
"Willow and Sorb made it," Maze replied.
"The District 7 tributes, right?"
"Yeah. They were my allies."
Camilee gave a thoughtful nod. "They seemed nice, from what I saw during training and interviews. I'm sure they made good allies."
"They did." Maze's heart broke all over again at the thought of them. "The guy from District 10 killed them."
"He died pretty soon after them, right?" Camilee asked. "What happened?"
Maze took a deep breath. "I killed him."
Camilee was silent longer than Maze wanted her to be.
"He was going to kill me," Maze justified. But was he really? He already had several deep wounds from Sorb when Maze killed him. He was hardly in any state to fight Maze, even though he tried. He definitely would have died if Maze hadn't done anything. "And he had already killed my friends. So I killed him."
Her spear, laying in the dirt, caught her eye. She went over to it and picked it up, showing the murder weapon to Camilee. Dried blood still spattered the steel tip from the boy's murder.
"I killed him with this."
Camilee's eyes arced from one end of the spear to the other. "I see."
"I didn't want to kill him." Maze's voice was small. "But I had to."
"I can tell." Camilee patted Maze's shoulder. "I wasn't judging you for killing. This is the Hunger Games. There's bound to be some of that. I was…just surprised. You don't seem like the type to kill. But then again, neither did Ma. And Aunt Milly used to work at one of the factories where the Sparksetters placed some of their explosives. There's a good chance she was partially responsible for some of the deaths, too."
Camilee withdrew a dagger from her jacket pocket. With the exception of some scuff marks and a few flecks of blood, it still shone like it was brand-new. "I haven't used this on a person yet. It's been good for animals and whittling things, though."
"Hopefully you don't get the chance to use it on a person," Maze said. "Killing isn't fun."
"Yeah."
Maze put her spear back down and went over to the shelter, opening the door and sitting in it. Her legs still burned from the run and hike. She needed desperately to sit down. Camilee joined her, crossing her legs next to her. She kept her dagger out, fidgeting with it.
The two girls lapsed into silence for a few moments, before something came to Maze's mind.
"Camilee?"
"Hm?"
"You do realize you broadcast your family members' crimes on national television, right?"
Camilee's mention of the Hunger Games had reminded Maze that everything they were saying and doing was being recorded and watched across all of Panem. Unless something more interesting was going on elsewhere in the arena, Camilee and Maze's conversation was probably on every screen in the nation.
"Yeah." Camilee picked at the dried specks of blood on the dagger blade with her fingernails. "But that wouldn't have stopped me from telling you the truth."
She looked up from the dagger, looking deep into Maze's eyes. "You deserve to know the truth about your family, Maze. You're a member of our family, and you have the right to know about us. This would have been better to tell you in secret, yes, but I still would have told you. No matter what."
She sighed, going back to picking at the bloodstains. "I would have told you sooner if I weren't a coward. I wanted to tell you during training, but I was too scared to approach you. That's why I kept staring at you. I was so scared that it was just a big coincidence — like yes, a girl from District 3 who looks just like Aunt Milly and has both the name of Baby Mazey and the same last name as your grandparents exists, and it just happens to be a coincidence — and that you weren't actually Baby Mazey. That, and I was scared you'd be rude or mean or try to target me for trying to tell you that, and just — I don't know. In general, I was scared. But your interview — when you mentioned you were an orphan, and you seemed to be nice and funny — that changed my mind. I was gonna tell you after the interviews, but your mentor and stylist and whatnot found you before I did. And I promised myself I'd do my best to find you during the Games and tell you the truth. I was upset when I couldn't find you during the bloodbath. And I've been stressing myself out about it this whole time."
She smiled, looking back up at Maze. "But thankfully, I found you."
Maze was silent for a few moments, reflecting on Camilee's words. "Is that what you meant when you promised during your interview that you'd do the right thing?" She tucked her knees to her chest, hugging them.
Camilee nodded. "Yes." She sighed. "I wish I could have talked to them about you, had I known you were going to be in these Games too. They had no idea you would be here. I had no idea you would be here. And I have no idea how they reacted when they realized you were here too."
She put her dagger back in her pocket, staring off into the forest with a longing expression on her face. "I wish I could talk to them again. There's so much I want to say to them. And I'm sure they'd want to talk to you, too."
"It would be nice to talk to them," Maze replied.
"Yeah."
The two went silent once more, each of them staring off into the woods. Around the shelter, birds chattered, and insects buzzed. Cloud cover had moved in, rendering the sky gray and everything several shades duller than it was in the sunlight.
Camilee had looked so glum while talking about her family and their reactions to Maze also being in the Games. She had such a pained wistfulness to her look — almost a hunger of some sort — while she talked about their family that it made Maze's heart hurt.
And so Maze made her decision.
No matter what, she would help Camilee win the Hunger Games. Even if it meant sacrificing her own life.
Maze might have had family in District 12, but she had none in District 3. There was no one there waiting for her return. But Camilee still had their family waiting for her back in Twelve. If she won, she'd be able to go back to them. See them again. Talk to them again. Hug them.
Maze had no one to go back to. Even if she did win, which seemed about as likely as Willow's fairytales coming true, her family would still be back in District 12, inaccessible and intangible. They wouldn't be able to see her or talk to her or hug her or anything.
But Camilee — she could still win and return to them.
There were now ten tributes left, half of them Careers. Any one of them could return alive.
Maze crunched the numbers in her head. Excluding external factors, like Career status and current situations, each tribute had a 10% chance of winning. Maze and Camilee combined had a 20% chance of winning. Their real chance was likely much lower, but they were still non-zero.
Maze had beaten the odds before. She had a .00238% chance of being Reaped, and there she was in the arena. And so had Camilee. Her odds were probably a bit higher due to District 12's smaller population, but she had still beaten them. And together, the two of them had beaten the odds even more by being Reaped for the same Hunger Games. The odds of that were astronomical. There was no Hunger Games in their recorded history where two related tributes had been Reaped.
Perhaps one of them could beat the odds once more.
And with this, we are now caught up to the Ao3 version of this chapter! The next update will be posted alongside the updating of the Ao3 version.
Hope you all are enjoying this so far! Feel free to tell me your thoughts in the comments :)