A Rebellious Spirit | Book III

Chapter Three | Coleman

Quinn followed closely behind Isabella once they were past the fences. It was early, but it was what they had planned. Coleman worked the night shift on the boats, and as soon as he got to the docks he went hunting. Isabella explained that after Quinn had left Four, security had gotten a lot more serious. Work shifts were longer and twice of intense. They thought that if people were tired enough, nobody else would run. But there were a few people who still snuck out to hunt. And Coleman had apparently been hunting for a few years, with a bow and arrow he had managed to get off of someone in the Market. He had been working with Isabella a bit, teaching her to use it. Isabella knew so much about him, but Quinn knew next to nothing. All she knew is that the name was vaguely familiar.

"We usually meet up here," Isabella stated looking over her shoulder at Quinn.

"Are you sure it's alright that I came with?" Quinn asked, "I can go back..." she added as she glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the fence. After everything that had happened, after the firebombs-- she couldn't help but think a Capitol ship would appear out of no where.

Isabella shook her head, "Don't worry about it," she sighed. "It's alright, I promise."

Quinn sighed but wasn't convinced. Isabella couldn't assure Coleman she wasn't going to report back to Mayor Griffith or one of the peacekeepers. Even though she wasn't going to, he didn't know that. The two of them walked for a few more minutes before they finally got to where Coleman sat. He sat with his back to a tree, and his bow and arrow sitting across his lap. At first Quinn struggled to see his face, but when he looked up at them-- she recognised him immediately.

"Jenson," Quinn paused, grabbing his arm to stop him. "Just stay out of it..."

Jenson looked over his shoulder at her and then at the group of kids on the other side of the warehouse. They were the older kids, well they were at least two years older than them-- they were at least sixteen. The group of them always got into it over something, usually about who was going to go on a food run to the Market. Recently there had been fewer kids wanting to go, none of the girls ever went-- and Quinn was alright with that. She much rather would have stayed back with the younger ones. But lately, the peacekeepers had been keeping a close eye on them. One to three whacks with their cane was the usual punishment if one of them was caught with food that they called stolen.

Jenson pulled his arm out of her grip, "I could go though."

Quinn raised an eyebrow, "Yeah and Rudy could win the games." she said quietly, but her voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Besides, Annie said she'd try to get some food over on Tuesday."

He frowned, "But Rosa is still sick, Quinn and it's only Sunday." he replied. They both looked over at Rosa who one of the older girls was tending to. She wasn't real sick, but she had caught a flu that had been going around.

"Just shut up!" Quinn jumped at the sound of Coleman Ayres yelling at the group of kids. "If its that big of a deal, I'll go." he said as he pushed himself up from his corner that he rarely left.

Coleman was only a yeah older than Quinn was. But nobody ever pushed him around, even when they were the young kids. Coleman had been raised on the streets of Four. His parents went from house to house hoping to find some sort of shelter. But they both died from the epidemic too, so he stayed on the streets on his own and ended up in the warehouse. He knew all the ins and outs in the district. He knew what houses threw out scraps and let people take it if they had to, he knew who would give them food. He even knew when old Elijah in the Market had fresh goods to give out.

"Do you need someone to go with you?" one of the boys asked. He was at least seventeen, two years older than Coleman.

"Are you gonna cry the whole way?" he retorted, "I can go on my own."

"Are you sure? I could go with you..." Jenson said as Coleman walked by. Even though he wasn't much older, he looked much older. He was taller than Jenson was, he had light brown hair, and bright blue eyes.

Coleman looked at him as he walked by, and he shrugged. "Sure, we can bring more stuff back if there's two of us."

Jenson glanced at Quinn and she only glared at him. Then with that, the two of them left leaving the group of kids who had been fighting to go off on their own. Quinn sighed heavily and decided to make her way over to where Rosa was and take the other girls place. Quinn sat and talked to her, not about anything important. Just small talk to keep her distracted from feeling sick. It wasn't even a half hour before her small talk was cut off by the warehouse doors getting pushed open and Jenson and Coleman walked in completely untouched and with food.

Quinn looked down at her feet, a bit uncomfortably. She still felt like Coleman was the...lead orphan, at least that what some of them had called him. And it had been so long since she had seen him, she hadn't seen him since the morning of her reaping-- she had assumed every orphan was gone.

"When did you get back to Four?" Coleman asked.

"Yesterday day afternoon," she replied simply.

"I thought that you were one of the Capitol people now." he said smirking a bit at the end.

Quinn forced herself to snicker a bit, "Not quite..."