A Tale of a Boy and His Flower

Tunnels

"My brother worked down here after he became an Avox," says Castor. Of course. Who else would they get to maintain these dank, evil-smelling passages mined with pods? "Took five years before we were able to buy his way up to ground level. Didn't see the sun once." 

Under better conditions, on a day with fewer horrors and more rest, someone would surely know what to say. Instead we all stand there for a long time trying to formulate a response.

Finally, Peeta turns to Pollux. "Well, then you just became our most valuable asset." Castor laughs and Pollux manages a smile. 

We're halfway down the first tunnel when I realize what was so remarkable about the exchange. Peeta sounded like his old self, the one who could always think of the right thing to say when nobody else could. Ironic,encouraging, a little funny, but not at anyone's expense. I glance back at him as he trudges along under his guards, Gale and Jackson, his eyes fixed on the ground, his shoulders hunched forward. So dispirited. But for a moment, he was really here. 

Peeta called it right. Pollux turns out to be worth ten Holos

There is a simple network of wide tunnels that directly corresponds to the main street plan above, underlying the major avenues and cross streets. It's called the Transfer, since small trucks use it to deliver goods around the city. During the day, its many pods are deactivated, but at night it's a minefield. 

However, hundreds of additional passages, utility shafts, train tracks,and drainage tubes form a multilevel maze. Pollux knows details that would lead to disaster for a newcomer, like which offshoots might require gas masks or have live wires or rats the size of beavers. He alerts us to the gush of water that sweeps through the sewers periodically, anticipates the time the Avoxes will be changing shifts,leads us into damp, obscure pipes to dodge the nearly silent passage of cargo trains. 

Most important, he has knowledge of the cameras. There aren't many down in this gloomy, misty place, except in the Transfer. But we keep well out of their way. Under Pollux's guidance we make good time--remarkable time, if you compare it to our above ground travel. After about six hours, fatigue takes over. It's three in the morning, so I figure we still have a few hours before our bodies are discovered missing, they search through the rubble of the whole block of apartments in case we tried to escape through the shafts, and the hunt begins. 

When I suggest we rest, no one objects. Pollux finds a small, warm room humming with machines loaded with levers and dials. He holds up his fingers to indicate we must be gone in four hours. Jackson works out a guard schedule, and, since I'm not on the first shift, I wedge myself in the tight space between Finnick and Zach. 

Finnick rolls over to look at me. He brushes a piece of loose hair from from face. 

I smile, "I love you." I whisper so only he can hear it. 

He presses a quick kiss to my lips. "I love you too." 

We close our eyes and go right to sleep.

I took the last watch. I look down at the sleeping soldiers,crew, friends, and lover, and I wonder how many of us will ever see the sun again.

When my eyes fall on Peeta, I see that his eyes are open. He's awake. 

"Have you slept?" I ask. 

"Some." 

I remember something that's been itching at the back of my mind since yesterday. "Peeta,when you asked about what happened to Darius and Lavinia, and I told you it was real, you said youthought so. Because there was nothing shiny about it. What did you mean?" 

"Oh. I don't know exactly how to explain it," he tells me. "In the beginning, everything was just completeconfusion. Now I can sort certain things out. I think there's a pattern emerging. The memories they altered withthe tracker jacker venom have this strange quality about them. Like they're too intense or the images aren'tstable. Have you ever been stung by one?"