Of Victors and Tributes

Chapter 33: District 6

District Six is not a famous place. Neither is my district, but I'd say District 6 is even duller. Axel and Fairlie seemed to confirm this belief when they were alive, anyway. I heard that they have the largest population of people- which is hard to consider after all the people I saw in District 11- and everyone secretly knows there's a bit of a morphling problem. Of the three victors that District 6 has, two of them are heavily addicted to morphling, making them useless to helping their tributes. I can almost hold a grudge over them and blame them for being the reason that Fairlie and Axel failed, but I know it isn't their fault.

It's early morning as we ride through the district. I sit in the back of the train, watching out the window as the district moves by. There's massive hubs for transport, trains decommissioned along with cars and planes. The factories bellow smoke, just like the factories back home. Surely Fairlie and Axel had to work in these factories. I notice a pretty large number of peacekeepers, which I guess can be expected of such a large district with so many people. I recall Axel saying something about how their peacekeepers keep a close eye on them.

I'm almost disturbed to find the district's similarity to my own home.

But I guess Axel and I were on different sides of the same coin. Both looking after our district partners, stubborn and argumentative when it came to survival in the Games. Maybe people like him and me are only produced in these kinds of districts, where the factories are overbearing and the only things around are dirt and dried up trees. I hated Axel while I was in the Games, and I considered his partner to be nearly useless; or at the very least, non-threatening. I was pretty disrespectful to them. At the very least, I could be respectful to their memory.

"Good morning, Taylor!"

My wake up call from Koi, even though I'm well-awake. Already dressed in my outfit for the day, I peek out of the room to see Koi. He waves me forward and I follow him to the dining room, where everyone else seems to be lazing about. I can feel the train coming to a slow, meaning we've reached the station. I shiver, rubbing my arms. Not from the cold, but from the anxiety of the day. I try to act aloof. This doesn't matter, I say to myself. I've done it before.

I hope it doesn't hurt anymore. That's what Axel said to Fairlie while she died in his arms. And I didn't say anything to Axel before he was crushed to death by the rockslide.

It's hard to remind myself that I'm the victor. That I can't care about these 'trivial' things. But I do.

"Here you go, Taylor. But you don't have to follow it word for word," Koi tells me. "Throw in some words for Fairlie and Axel."

"Right," I reply, taking the cards from his hands. I've been using them on and off, but I'd feel bad if I didn't include a personal message for my allies from District 6.

I sit sandwiched between my fellow victors while we drive to the Justice Building. I try to count the half-built cars as we go and the people working on them, but every time a head looks up I imagine either Fairlie or Axel's face on them. Eventually I give up my counting, which doesn't matter as we are about to park and get out.

I smooth my gray pants down as I await my introduction. It's cold here, colder than District 8, so I'm wrapped in a fuzzy black and white coat that just makes me look like a wild dog. Too late to worry about that now. The mayor announces my name and I slip out the doors of the Justice building, only half-prepared to meet the people of District 6.

My eyes immediately find Axel's picture after I'm handed my stupid plaque. He frowns at his family: a mother and father who cradle a baby and a toddler in their arms. A baby. I never would have guessed that Axel had such young siblings. I guess I'm lucky they are so young, though. Hopefully they'll forget me, and forget Axel, and won't need to worry about the Games for a long while. Axel's mother keeps her eyes on the children, but his father stares at me with a look scarily similar to his late son's. I look away, to where Fairlie's family stands.