You Won't Drown: A Hunger Games story

Chapter Ten

Finnick POV

By now, I'm more than familiar with the train station in the Capitol. Even by the high standards the Capitol tends to uphold, this place is incredibly grand, and only the incredibly elite are able to walk through the large and relatively empty building that houses the five train platforms with trains that make their way to and from the Capitol.

At the entrance to the station, heavily armed Peacekeepers check train tickets and search through any bags the Capitolites want to take with them on their trips. This train station is only for passenger trains and so there won't be any supplies of lumber or coal or wristwatches or books being unloaded here. That all takes place at the train yard which is little more than a few derelict platforms. Heaven forbid the people from the districts, especially the lower ones like 10 and 12 have access to even the tiniest bit of luxury the Capitol could provide, I think wryly.

I also know what each of the five trains is for, as I've visited this station enough times to see them pull in and out of the station multiple times, each on their way to different destinations. Two of the trains, the least extravagant ones, are used for transporting Peacekeepers to the different districts from the Capitol and back again. The third train is used by the elite to travel through Panem (after getting the required personal permission of President Snow of course) without having to interact with the district people or really deal with any of the unpleasantness in general.

Then there's the fourth train, the one that I always call the "Tribute Train" since it's the one used every year during the Hunger Games to transport the tributes from their home districts to the Capitol for the Hunger Games, and then bring the one remaining survivor back home to a world that (after the arena) will feel completely foreign to them. Of course, the mentors ride on this train too, and it's also used for the Victory Tours, but other than that, it sits in the station, unused.

The fifth train is far and away the most extravagant one of them all since it's President Snow's personal train. Yes, the man has his own personal train. Sometimes the luxury of the Capitol is so over the top that it takes all my self control to keep from gagging. I've only actually ridden on that train once, when it came to District Four to pick me up for my first tour in the Capitol as the newest victor for sale. I wasn't allowed to explore the train and was told to stay exclusively in the middle three cars (dining car, prep car, and sleeping car) but from what little I did see, I remember being blown away. Of course, I hadn't known then the horror that I'd be in for but still...it was definitely memorable.

On the way to the train, I pass a couple of little cafes, restaurants, and stores and, even though I'm in a rush, I decide to stop in the little train station bookstore for something to read. There aren't a lot of options, since the Capitol keeps tight control over the media and even tighter control over what's actually allowed to be written down or kept in any sort of permanent format, but eventually I find a collection of short stories I haven't read yet and quickly buy it before rushing onto the train right before it's scheduled to leave.

Of course, my first priority when I get on the train is to look "camera ready" for the Reaping and so I get to work picking an acceptable outfit and let my usual prep team work on my hair and makeup. Once the whole process has finished, the train is just crossing the outskirts of district one which isn't too bad at all time wise. That probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not expected to look nearly as nice for the Reaping as I am for my patrons in the Capitol.

Grabbing a cherry danish from the dining car and my book from where I'd thrown it on my bed, I walk down to the viewing car to sit there until the train starts to pull into district four. If the train is running on time (which it always does) then that should mean I have a little under two hours to sit here and try and get some food in my stomach. Even though it's hard to choke anything down, I force myself to finish the entire danish. The first year after I won, I made the mistake of going to the Reaping on an empty stomach and I nearly threw up on stage in front of everyone so ever since I've made it a personal rule that I have to eat before the Reaping, no matter how much I might not want to.