Disclaimer: I do not own THG or PJO…if you still haven’t figure it out..
Percy’s POV
Working in the mines….it’s like working in an overstuffed and overheated oven. Fires everywhere…the smell of smoke and sweat, sometimes blood, mingles. I could suffocate in here. This place reminds me so much of my mother. Of the day of the explosions…
Mines…explosions…blood….bits of fleshes…
“ Hey, Jackson,” someone slapped me on the back. “ What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” I looked up from my meager lunch of katniss soup (ironic, right?) and saw the redheaded Peacekeeper I usually bump into at the Hob, Darius staring at me, his brows raised.
“ Uh…” I said, looking down back at my lunch. “ I…uh…”
“ You were forced, huh?” I looked back at his face, a small, kind smile on his lips. I didn’t answer. Seeing me reluctant to open my mouth, he sat on the boulder in front of me. “ What are you doing here, Percy? Truly… doing here.”
“ Mining. Can’t you see?” I asked him.
“ All I can see now is you eating a bowl of,” he peered into my tin bowl, “ katniss. Katniss soup,” he looked straight into my eyes. “ You do know that underage can’t go to the mines. And do you know what the punishments are for it?”
“ Whipping,” I said dully.
“ Or spending a day in the stocks,” he nodded. I think I lost my appetite now. “ So?”
“ So…what?” He sighed.
“ I got a few reports from these miners saying that the orphanage you live in have been sending…underage..males to work in the mines.” I stared into his blue eyes; thinking whether Addy will still see me, alive after this Peacekeeper, even though he is one of the nicest, is done with me. “ Percy?” he snapped his fingers in front of my eyes.
“ Our caretaker forced us to do this,” I said quietly, putting my bowl on the floor. He waved his hand, telling me to go on. “ She…treats us like slaves. Most of the time.”
“ What about the girls?” Darius asked, lacing his fingers together. “ If the boys are sent to go mining, even though they’re under eighteen, what does she made the girls do?”
“ For some reasons…unknown to me,” I picked my spoon and started to fiddle with it, “ I…she lets them go to school. Get some education of sorts.” Silence. “ A couple of the other boys think she may be anti-males.”
“ Which would explain why she only sent the boys to their deaths in these mines,” he nodded. And she was always happy if one of us got picked to be sent to the arena, I thought.
“ Probably.” Silence again. Darius got up, dusted himself and offered his hand.
“ Tell you what: go and round up the kids from your orphanage. I’ll be waiting at the entrance,” he said. “ It’s time for a change for you guys.”
“ Who told you? About us being sent to the mines?” I asked as I got up. “ Was it Gale?”
“ Gale Hawthorne? Hmm…not just him, Perce. Not just him,” Darius said. “ I’ll be waiting at the entrance. Go and get your friends. And be quick.” I just could stare at his treating back. If the authorities are taking us out of the orphanage, where are we going to stay?
“ Hey, Percy,” another voice said and before I could turn around to look for the source, a dark haired and gray eyed boy about my age sat on the same boulder Darius sat moments ago. “ What’s with Darius talking to you?” he asked, wiping his face clean with his grimy sleeves. Except, since his sleeves was already too grimy, it didn’t do much on his face. “ Looked pretty serious to me.”
“ Somebody reported about us working here in the mines even though we are underage,” I told him. His jaw fell. “ I know what you’re thinking. That we’re in trouble.”
“ I’d be stupid not to think like that!” the boy, Carrow exclaimed angrily. “ Who’s foolish enough to do that?! Don’t they have any – any – bit of sympathy for us at all?!”
“ Listen, Carrow,” I gripped him by the shoulders. “ Darius wasn’t talking to me about the punishments.” Which was actually a lie but hey, he wasn’t. “ He was talking to me about busting us out of that hellhole…”
“ Seriously?” His eyes sparkled with delight. It was our dream. All of us, to get out of that orphanage. To escape Mrs. Woodlum’s clutches. “ You’re damn serious?!” I nodded. “ Oh, man! This is like…the best news I’ve ever got in my life!” He wasn’t exaggerating: both of his parents were miners. And both of them died in the same explosion that killed mine, Gale’s and Katniss’. His older brother, Callum was sent as tribute in the 70th Hunger Games and died in the bloodbath the first day. His older sister was also sent as tribute in last year’s Hunger Games. She died of blood poisoning when one of the Careers injured her badly. He’s pretty much all alone in this world.
“ Could you do me a favor?” I asked him, looking straight into his eyes.
“ Anything!”
“ Round up the other kids. Tell them to gather at the entrance. Darius will be waiting for us there,” I said, releasing my grip on his shoulders.
“ Right you are!” he said happily before running off into the gloom. To alert the others about our long-awaited freedom. I smiled a little at his excitement. I was excited, too. I wanted to tell Addy that we’re finally free of the orphanage. Little did I know that as I turned my back, my nightmare was about to start….
