Gale's Window

Chapter 7: Estranged

There we were, once again, facing off against each other. Katniss' steely eyes bore into mine as she tried to remind me of the fact that the Nut was, essentially, an old mine. She clearly thought that bringing up our fathers, and the explosion which had killed them was going to make me change my mind.

She was mistaken.

If anything, all she did was remind me of the fact that, unlike my father, these people had been given a choice.

The explosion which had claimed my dad's life had been a result of the Capitol's neglect. Nothing had been gained by those miners' deaths. But this was completely different.

The Nut had been under siege for weeks. The people inside the military complex had been given every possible opportunity to surrender. But they still defied us. They were forcing our hand by playing this waiting game. They were hoping our resources would run out, and we'd have to leave them alone. Did they think we'd just grow tired and go? Well, I wasn't going anywhere.

So there we were, at a standstill. I could feel every pair of eyes in that room looking at me. They were analyzing me, judging me.

I knew District Two wasn't the Capitol. But, in my eyes, they were just as bad. They had been President Snow's lapdog for years, always eager to please their master.

Sure, they'd been forced to send their kids into the arenas, just like any other district. But they'd only sent those who had been trained. The careers had always been the oldest, biggest, meanest tributes. They had been arrogant and cruel, just like the Peacekeepers who had trained them. They'd hardly ever lost. Only the most resourceful and resilient of tributes had managed to defeat them. I felt no sympathy for them, or for anyone else in that district.

Knowing Peacekeepers came from District Two did nothing to appease me. If anything, the notion made my stomach turn.

Most peacekeepers had been like Thread, ruthless and cruel. They had asserted their power by threatening and hurting us. The government was always saying that they were there to protect us. But who had protected us from them? Who had stopped them from pointing their guns at us, from locking us up or from whipping us senseless? Who had shielded us from their insults and abuse? No one. That was who.

Back in our district, head Peacekeeper Cray had been more lenient, but he'd also been incredibly corrupt. Charged with the task of watching over the smallest and poorest district in the country, Cray had spent his time trading at the Hob. Drinking and preying on poor desperate girls who gave themselves over to him for a bit of bread or a couple of coins. Always thinking about his pleasure and his wellbeing and never about the district and its needs. He had been a good customer –probably the best if I was honest– always willing to pay for the fattest turkeys and the biggest fish. But he had been a negligent, lecherous man who had used his position to help himself without ever thinking about anyone else.

The truth was that this standstill was turning out to be very costly. If the District two loyalists had joined the rebellion sooner, we wouldn't have lost as many lives. But, even when presented with the opportunity to join the fight, they had remained loyal to the government that had been squeezing the life out of almost every other district in the country. They'd made their choice; the time had come for them to suffer the consequences.

I knew there were others, those precious few like Darius or Commander Lyme –who looked like she was ready to skewer me with her sword– who had decided to fight against the system. Darius had already paid dearly for his actions. The longer the war went on, the longer it would take for him to recover his freedom. As for Lyme and her spies, my heart went out to them, but they must have known what the risks were when they'd joined the rebellion. I knew I did.