You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
In the hospital, I find my mother, the only one I trust to care for them. It takes her a minute to place the three,<br />
given their current condition, but already she wears a look of consternation. And I know it's not a result of seeing<br />
abused bodies, because they were her daily fare in District 12, but the realization that this sort of thing goes on<br />
in 13 as well.<br />
My mother was welcomed into the hospital, but she's viewed as more of a nurse than a doctor, despite her<br />
lifetime of healing. Still, no one interferes when she guides the trio into an examination room to assess their<br />
injuries. I plant myself on a bench in the hall outside the hospital entrance, waiting to hear her verdict. She will be<br />
able to read in their bodies the pain inflicted upon them.<br />
Gale sits next to me and puts an arm around my shoulder. "She'll fix them up." I give a nod, wondering if<br />
he's thinking about his own brutal flogging back in 12.<br />
Plutarch and Fulvia take the bench across from us but don't offer any comments on the state of my prep<br />
team. If they had no knowledge of the mistreatment, then what do they make of this move on President Coin's<br />
part? I decide to help them out.<br />
"I guess we've all been put on notice," I say.<br />
"What? No. What do you mean?" asks Fulvia.<br />
"Punishing my prep team's a warning," I tell her. "Not just to me. But to you, too. About who's really in control<br />
and what happens if she's not obeyed. If you had any delusions about having power, I'd let them go now.<br />
Apparently, a Capitol pedigree is no protection here. Maybe it's even a liability."<br />
"There is no comparison between Plutarch, who masterminded the rebel breakout, and those three<br />
beauticians," says Fulvia icily.<br />
I shrug. "If you say so, Fulvia. But what would happen if you got on Coin's bad side? My prep team was<br />
kidnapped. They can at least hope to one day return to the Capitol. Gale and I can live in the woods. But you?<br />
Where would you two run?"<br />
"Perhaps we're a little more necessary to the war effort than you give us credit for," says Plutarch,<br />
unconcerned.<br />
"Of course you are. The tributes were necessary to the Games, too. Until they weren't," I say. "And then we<br />
were very disposable--right, Plutarch?"<br />
That ends the conversation. We wait in silence until my mother finds us. "They'll be all right," she reports.<br />
"No permanent physical injuries."<br />
"Good. Splendid," says Plutarch. "How soon can they be put to work?"<br />
"Probably tomorrow," she answers. "You'll have to expect some emotional instability, after what they've<br />
been through. They were particularly ill prepared, coming from their life in the Capitol."<br />
"Weren't we all?" says Plutarch.<br />
Either because the prep team's incapacitated or I'm too on edge, Plutarch releases me from <strong>Mocking</strong>jay<br />
duties for the rest of the day. Gale and I head down to lunch, where we're served bean and onion stew, a thick<br />
slice of bread, and a cup of water. After Venia's story, the bread sticks in my throat, so I slide the rest of it onto<br />
Gale's tray. Neither of us speaks much during lunch, but when our bowls are clean, Gale pulls up his sleeve,<br />
revealing his schedule. "I've got training next."<br />
I tug up my sleeve and hold my arm next to his. "Me, too." I remember that training equals hunting now.<br />
My eagerness to escape into the woods, if only for two hours, overrides my current concerns. An immersion<br />
into greenery and sunlight will surely help me sort out my thoughts. Once off the main corridors, Gale and I race<br />
like schoolchildren for the armory, and by the time we arrive, I'm breathless and dizzy. A reminder that I'm not fully<br />
recovered. The guards provide our old weapons, as well as knives and a burlap sack that's meant for a game<br />
bag. I tolerate having the tracker clamped to my ankle, try to look as if I'm listening when they explain how to use<br />
the handheld communicator. The only thing that sticks in my head is that it has a clock, and we must be back<br />
inside 13 by the designated hour or our hunting privileges will be revoked. This is one rule I think I will make an<br />
effort to abide.<br />
We go outside into the large, fenced-in training area beside the woods. Guards open the well-oiled gates<br />
without comment. We would be hard-pressed to get past this fence on our own--thirty feet high and always<br />
buzzing with electricity, topped with razor-sharp curls of steel. We move through the woods until the view of the<br />
fence has been obscured. In a small clearing, we pause and drop back our heads to bask in the sunlight. I turn in<br />
a circle, my arms extended at my sides, revolving slowly so as not to set the world spinning.<br />
The lack of rain I saw in 12 has damaged the plants here as well, leaving some with brittle leaves, building<br />
a crunchy carpet under our feet. We take off our shoes. Mine don't fit right anyway, since in the spirit of waste-