Ruins of the past

Chapter 9

Just a few minutes later I sit on my bed, picking out new clothes.
We're going to eat lunch with our mentors today, still as a big group but on individual tabels.
So I'm going to see mine again, what was his name again? Well, it doesn't really matter, he made it obvious that he doesn't want to help us. A cold blooded killer is not what I want to be.

"Vivus! Here!", I hear Lera call me. The table she sits at is already filled with food of all sorts, colorful and more then we could eat in a whole day, not to mention a few hours.
Next to her, Vastus, I remember his name.
Running his fingers through his usual high ponytail, he turns to the waitress. "Number four and seven, and hurry up, would you my dear?"
I just sighn and sit down, open the menu and order something.
"So you decided to join us!", our mentor greets me, not even looking up from his newspaper, a luxus that we're not allowed to have.
"And you decided to see us", I reply. He could visit and talk to us everytime, but he doesn't.
"So", he finally beings talking when our food arrives, "want to talk about your strategies?"
Oh yeah, so that everybody could hear them. Great idea!
But maybe this is the only time to get some advice, so I give in.
Lera starts talking: "I was planing to just run away, find some water. I don't want to die right at the start."
He looks at her like she just turned green and grew wings.
"Are you insane?! Without supplies you can't survive! Just look at you, small, skinny, weak!", he criticized her plan.
"You have to atleast get something if you want to survive for a few days!"
For a few days. Nice how he implies that she's going to die anyway, how encouraging.
She looks down and quietly askes: "What if I die? I- I don't want to, I want to see my family again. I miss them."
"Then you're dead. It doesn't matter if you die there or in the first night because you have nothing. Besides, you're going to die anyway so why not risk it all? Family, hah. They just bring you down, besides yours probably doesn't even want you back."
She nods, I think she's crying, a few teardrops roll down her cheeks, she has her head down.
He turn to me, asks me about my strategy.
"I'm not sure yet"
"The games start in two days!", he moaned.
"A little girl and a guy who can't even dicide on a strategy! My god, could you be any worse?", he complains loudly, which gets us a strange look from table eleven.

After a long time of silence he sighns and starts talking again: "Look. You won't win, we all know that. But atleast you can try to not embarrass our district too much! Do you want to hear my tips?"
We both nod, I don't think they're going to be useful but he's going to tell them even if we say no.
"Good"
He leans back in his chair, closes his eyes.
"You need supplies. Without them you won't make it very far. If you're not brave or fast enough to run to the Cornucopia itself, grab something near your launching platform. Then, search for water. Food is important, but you can survive longer without it. Also where water is there will most likely be animals and plants, atleast if it's a forest of some kind."
Lera, who now looks at Vastus, wants to know when he knew when to kill his allies.
"Well, I counted how many were left. I also payed attention to who they were, so that no serious threaths were left", he proudly explains while smiling.
She nods, then starts eating again.
"Also, drink a lot while you're here!"
 
"If you want to know whats going on outside I could tell you"
I take a look at him, then ask him to do so.
He raises one of his eyebrows, Lera adds a quiet 'please'.
"Well, I tried to find some sponsors for you but that didn't work, they just kept flirting with me. Understandable, but still.
There was a fire in district eleven, it's said that it was because of the summer heath but I've heaed someone did it on purpose."
"Those poor people", Lera says quietly.
He shrugs.
"Who cares about them anyways?Also, at home one of the very poor parts burned down, there was an explosion nearby. Some are hurt and many still not found. It was so beautiful! The red and orange of the flames, fueld by the organic matter stored there, it was around midnight, can you imagine how breathtaking that looked?"
I nearly choke on my food, shocked. Beautiful? Breathtaking?
"A- Are there any deaths?"
He shakes his head, then goes on about minor news from the capitol.
Res! What if she's hurt? Or homeless? Or dead and just not found?
I push the plate in front of me away, my stomach feels like it's tuned inside out, my hearth beats fast.
What if something happened to her? For a short moment the thought crosses my mind, that it maybe would be better if she is dead. She wouldn't have to watch me die a horrible death.

Then I shake my head, want to get rid of that idea. No! She has to be alive, and healthy. Most likely she was still at work. Yeah.
Also I have to survive, Vastus is right that I now need a strategy.
I'm very fast, good with swords, average with knifes. I can swim!
Most people never learn it and I had to teach it myself but I'm kinda good at it now. One time while searching for some wood in a nearby forest I found the edge of the big crater, that was caused by the bomb that ended the revolution and killed most of the rebels.
They hid under the earth, many victors were there too, but they didn't knew that some of them were for the Capitol, helped them.
They told them their position, when most people were inside, they best way to approach it.
The crater, it is all that's left, they filled the hideout with dirt, killed all of them, showed it everywhere in panem.
It was behind a big barbed wire fence.
A few days later I returned to it, this time with my rusty sword. I found some nearby bushes and cut a hole in it. In the crater were a few smaller ones, one of them had turned into a small lake.
I visited it often, it was hard at first but I managed.
After checking the close enviroment I showed it to Res, she loved it too.

It's 9pm, we're all eating dinner.
Most of the others are now talking to their allies if they have them.
The careeros have split into two groups, it's the first time this has happened.
"So, we're just going to run?", I hear a guy say.
"I miss my family", a little girl confesses at the other side of the table.
My family. I know I should miss them but I don't really care about them. We never had the connection they normally have, my parents were always working and there would be weeks were I didn't saw them at all.
I'm not mad or dissapointed, they just wanted to keep us alive.
I notice how my thoughts are going to Res again. I'm worried, the explosion and fire were described as gigantic, the worst ones in the last twenty years.

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Well, hello again
Want to know a secret? I improvised this meeting, but I do that a lot.
I first wrote the whole story, the main events at least, in some short sentences and then add more and more detail.