Hunger Games (DNF)

Part 2, Chapter 43: the peacekeepers trucks

Clay POV
✨2 days later✨

“Our final stop before District 3. My home District!” Fundy announced as the train slowed at the station, the redhead was clearly excited to see his family.
He looked over to me as I pulled the peacekeeper's helmet back on, knowing how desperate I was to get this over with before going to find George.

I gave him a smile as I left the room. Heading into the hallway where Alex, Nick, and Karl were all standing, also in peacekeeper uniforms. The train was full of a lot more people now, since we had made more stops and we often had to move around as they walked through the halls to different rooms.

Along with Karl’s family, Nick’s family, my family, the avoxes, and Techno, there was Alex’s parents, grandparents, aunt, and cousin, all of whom we got last night, and all of whom managed to sneak bags of wheat, grain, bread, and other seeds from their farm.

Charlie also had his family; his father and 2 sisters, we also managed to get chickens and pigs off of his farm (which were extremely difficult to get on the train). Charlie’s father also managed to quickly talk his neighbours into giving him 4 cows. So along with the people we had 12 chickens, 8 pigs, and 4 cows, along with feed for all of them.

Each different type of animal had their own room in one of the cargo bays, with someone watching over them the entire time. It was kind of cruel to have the animals inside when they had lived their whole lives out in the sun but we stopped a few times to let them and the other people onboard have some fresh air.

“Are you guys ready to go?” Karl asked, his hand was currently intertwined with Nick’s as he leaned onto Alex’s shoulder.
All 3 of us nodded and so he let go of Nick’s hand, walked over to the door, and opened it.

The 4 of us stepped onto the station platform and were immediately overwhelmed with the smell of burning rubber and oil. Unlike all the other Districts we’d been to where there were usually only a few people around, there were heaps of people standing around the station.

About 2 dozen men and women were hanging around all dressed in blue or grey overalls. They were polishing up a new looking train which was reminiscent of the one that took me and Nick to the Capitol after the reaping over a month ago.

All 4 of us walked past them without any of the people even glancing at us, they seemed to be in a hurry to get the train done. As we headed through the main building of the station I couldn’t help but look back at them again. At least half of the group looked close to passing out, and all of them looked incredibly stressed. They were all thin and looked as if they hadn’t eaten in ages.

I decided to ignore them for now, to block them out. Fundy had told us about his District and so had Techno. Since Fundy had been there his whole life he told us about how his mother designed the plans for all the different trains in an office by the station, and that his father made the peacekeeper’s trucks in a factory by the Justice building in the District’s centre square.

While Techno knew a lot less he had also been here on a victory tour almost 5 years ago, and remembered to mention some of the streets which he surprisingly remembered. I could hear Karl quietly muttering different street names that both of them had told us.

“We’ll get Fundy’s dad first,” Nick stated, quietly enough so nobody around could hear us. “Then 2 of us will go back to the train with him and the other 2 will take a small detour and get Fundy’s mother.”
All of us nodded in agreement as we continued.

Not many people were around because it was the middle of the work day, but there were some people walking around carrying blueprints or parts from one place to another. But more than anything there were other peacekeepers.

The 4 of us immediately felt more worried. Surely they must know about the fact that half a dozen tributes went missing 3 or 4 days ago, and so they might be looking for us. But surely they hadn’t figured out that we were here. There was no way.

We walked along the street feeling anxious at the looks we got from some of the other peacekeepers hanging around. After walking for what felt like hours we saw the Justice building up ahead. We always recognised it since the reaping took place here every year.

Once we reached the main stairs we looked around curiously, studying all of the streets. “So where do we go from here?” Alex asked as we looked around.
There were no signs or maps giving us directions, so we looked around for the buildings Fundy told us about.

“On the end of the street, connecting the centre square to the street my father works, is a shop selling wooden toys for kids.” He told me while I was pulling the peacekeeper uniform on over my clothes.

So I looked around at all of the shops. A butcher, a clothes shop, a shoe shop, and a shop that sold firewood were on one side of the square. On the other was a bakery, a large factory that made something, and there. On the corner was a small shop made of the same ugly bricks that every other building was made of, was a shop which had some wooden toys in the window.

As we walked out of the shopping area there were more and more factories, giving the entire area an even more depressing look. The only colours around were the brown dirt, and the grey factories, which made us all walk slightly faster, to get out of this District faster.

After a while we reached a factory which made peacekeepers trucks, since there didn’t seem to be many others we decided that this must be it. We walked in and saw several trucks being assembled at once, one missing wheels, one missing some seats, and one with it’s engine sitting on a workbench beside it getting added to.

When they saw us come in, the people working there were all looking over at us. “Where is Mr Damon?” I asked the group of workers.
They all looked over towards some shelves at the back of the main room. Alex and I began walking over there while the other 2 stayed and their eyes scanned over the group of workers.

We walked in between the shelves and saw a man there marking things off on a checklist. He had fiery coloured hair and when we walked over to him he looked up at us worriedly. “Are you Mr Damon?” Alex asked.

The man worriedly nodded and sat the clipboard down on a shelf as he watched us. “You need to come with us.” I told him in a firm voice.
He seemed scared but hurriedly nodded and ran to catch up to us.

Alex began walking in front of him and I began walking behind him as we led him to the entrance. Nick and Karl began walking behind us as Fundy’s father looked around at his coworkers before letting his gaze drop to the ground.

We led him through the streets and back towards the train station. I noticed as Karl and Nick disappeared into an office to find Fundy’s mother. Once again Fundy’s dad sent a glance in their direction before his gaze fell for a second time.

He stayed like that as we walked through the station and onto the platform where the workers were still adding the final touches to the train, shining it and filling it with fuel as we walked onto another platform and onto our train.

The second the door shut behind us Fundy’s father looked at both of us warily. His eyes widened as we pulled off our helmets but before he could say anything he heard Fundy calling him from the direction of the control room.

I smiled at their small reunion before heading to put my stuff away in the barrack.
_________________________________________
1403 words.