Rising Rebellion [#3]

Chapter 8 - Making A Statement

The next day, John and Sylvia pretty much repeated their first training session. Only this time, John actually did use the bow to get used to it again, before he joined Sylvia with the axes. There was a sense of irony in that: John hadn’t touched an axe since he had to pull it out of his leg in the Games. Another thing that they noticed was the fact that Katniss and Peeta kept to themselves in the session. They didn’t mingle with anybody. “They’ve stayed away from pretty much everyone today. How do they expect to survive without any of us?” Sylvia then asked as they stepped in to the elevator taking them back to the 7th floor. John didn’t answer as the elevator stopped at their floor and they stepped off. “Hold on, there might just be a way.” John then said.

He had hidden it in the room so that it wouldn’t be stolen. “Look, it’s like a bracelet…well, two bracelets.” John then said as he showed them to her. “We wear these on our wrists, and they will know to trust us. We show them this and we become their allies…for a period of time anyways. Katniss doesn’t strike me as one with a lot of trust in any of us.” John then responded. Sylvia held hers for a while. “We can manage to hide them off easily to get them to the Arena.” She then said. “Shouldn’t be too hard, I can always hide them both in my artificial leg. They never expect to find anything there anyways.” John then said quietly.

As they walked out to the living area, Calliope was waiting for them. “Oh, there you are!” She said almost too excited. “Sorry, we were busy discussing some private matters.” John then said apologetically as they sat down to eat something before the private session. Then there was the silence again. “So…any plans for the private session?” She then asked. John and Sylvia looked at each other as if to say to each other that they hadn’t really been thinking about it. “I almost forgot that I had to do something in there. They already know what I’m capable of.” John then said. “Of course you have to do something, John.” Calliope answered. “Give him a break, Calliope. I doubt any of the victors have really thought about that. Perhaps the Careers are the only ones that have.” Sylvia then defended him. Calliope nodded weakly as she felt like Sylvia shut her up pretty good.

“Speaking of that, what are we going to do in there? I mean, I don’t have anything to hide anymore.” John asked as he looked over at Sylvia sitting next to him. Sylvia had to think it through as she hadn’t really given it much thought. “I think for many of us, it’s about making a statement. A lot of us are pissed at the Capitol for this particular twist in the Quell. You’re supposed to get out for life, but apparently, Snow can bend the rules to whatever he freaking wants.” She said slightly irritated as she saw Calliope reacting to the choice of words. Sylvia ignored her as she didn’t really care. If she was going to do this, at least she could be who she truly was. John nodded in silence as a few minutes went by. “We should be getting down there.” John then said after a while.

Sitting down there waiting for his turn, John was thinking back and forth about what he was going to do. The first time, it had been about impressing the Gamemakers, get a high score and get in with the Careers. He didn’t see any of that happen this time. Besides, this time it was different. This time it was about making a statement, just like Sylvia said earlier. They weren’t really supposed to be in this position after the first time. They had suffered the cost of winning once, and now the Capitol wanted them to do it all over again? As he looked over at Sylvia, he saw that she was in deep thought as well. He grabbed her hand and she looked over at him. “You okay?” He whispered. She nodded her head weakly. “I’ll be even better when I’ve beaten the crap out of some dolls.” She said smiling. John smiled back. “That’s my girl.” He said as she was called inside.

The door closed behind her as she continued to walk forward. In the room there were different weapons at her disposal, but there was only one she knew by heart: the axe. She saw there were three axes there and she could easily use them all and a score a 10, but the score wasn’t the aim this time. She looked up at the Gamemakers. Plutarch Heavensbee was standing there, giving her a secretive nod as if to tell her to what she whatever she wanted to do. She looked back on the dummies and pulled one of them forward. She then took one of the axes in her hand.

“If there’s one thing I can tell you, it’s this: I’ll be improving my score from last time.” She said as she started to hit the dummy fiercely with the axe. Every inch of the dummy was a victim to Sylvia’s fierce moves. She finished by plunging it into its head. She turned back around to her audience. She had to catch her breath at first. “Being here once was stupid enough, and now I’m back here again. What I just did wasn’t about the fact that I could kill. It’s about the fact I’m pissed off.” She started. “You know the deal, right? We do this once, and we’re out for good. It was so much more than a deal, it was a promise!” She then finished as she walked towards the door.

John was sitting there on his own fiddling with his fingers as he was still trying to figure out what to do. For some reason he wanted to prove to them that he was still that archer from last time, but at the same time, he had to use it to make a statement of some kind. The score didn’t really matter. After a few more minutes in thought, he heard his name and got up on his feet. As he looked at them quite randomly to say the least, he had an idea. As he walked up to where the weapons were, he placed a dummy in front of him and then grabbed the bow. He could tell the Gamemakers thought they knew what he was about to do, but his next move surprised them.

He sat down and removed his artificial limb. The Gamemakers moved forward on the chair to get what he was doing. He then managed to stand up on the only healthy leg that he had. He seemed to be incredibly steady on that foot alone. He then turned to them. “This is what the last Games did to me. This is what happens when an axe hits your leg and it goes untreated. And now, I’m supposed to go back in there with this?” John started as he saw Plutarch Heavensbee nodding weakly. “Don’t get me wrong, I can still stand like this and hit that dummy without looking. I am that good, but I’m not gonna do it, because I’m here against my will. I was given a promise that I wouldn’t have to come back. That’s the deal all of us make. So tell me gentlemen, why should I do this?” John then challenged them.

None of them made a sound after John put the bow back in its place. The Gamemakers were whispering among themselves, but they didn’t know what to do or say otherwise. Heavensbee was the only one standing among them and seemed to be pleased with John’s performance and his spirit. It was a confirmation that John was still loyal to the plan that had been set in motion. “You are excused to go, Mr. Wintergreen.” He then said as he walked over to the rest.

John left the room, and to his surprise, Haymitch was standing there assumingly waiting for him. “Haymitch, what are you even doing here?” John asked confused. “I’ve been standing here since your partner verbally gave me the finger…it’s about Katniss and Peeta.” He then said. “Katniss has made it obvious that she doesn’t want me or Sylvia in her group.” John pointed out. “But there are people that she is interested in, but she knows she can’t get.” John crossed his arms. “Of the other victors, you mean?” John asked. Haymitch nodded. “Nuts and Volts…the moment I mentioned the names, Sylvia practically shut me out. What I tried to tell her, and I’m telling you now, is that Katniss will trust you if you two can bring those two to her.” Haymitch said.

“Why?” John then asked. “Don’t ask me, really, sometimes I don’t get that poor excuse of a girl, but if you want to gain her trust, and you should really try to do that, you have to bring them to her. Show her the thing I gave you two days ago.” Haymitch then pleaded. “Look, Sylvia didn’t like it, and I can tell that you’re skeptical, but we have to force an alliance here. She won’t make an alliance with anybody if she could choose, do you hear me?” Haymitch then asked. John nodded. “Yeah, I mean, I don’t like it, but if that’s what it takes, I’ll convince Sylvia to join in on it. She’ll have to because I will do my best to get Beetee and Wiress out of there.” John then pointed out. “Well, at least one of you listened. Good luck with convincing her.” Haymitch then said with a surrendered look. “She’ll come around, Haymitch, you’ll see.” John then said as he entered the elevator.