When I Died

Chapter 18

They stare at me in disbelief.

"Primrose?" Percy says.

Right, I was supposed to be dead.

"Percy? Harriet?" I say.

"Oh splendid. Yes, you three know each other that's right! Inseparable school buddies, correct?" Max says with an evil smile.

Percy starts growling and Harriet grabs him before he lunges at Max.

"Tisk, tisk, tisk. That temper won't do good in the games. You might turn on an ally!"

He growls again. "I would never turn on a friend. But you aren't a friend." He lunges again but I step in the way.

"Percy, no! He's not worth it." I cry.

His face softens and he slowly steps back. Harriet lets him go and I step away. He turns to me.

"How aren't you dead? Not that I'm against it or anything. Just.. How?"

"Long story short, President Coin kidnapped me."

"But you died in the bomb? How could she have kidnapped you?"

"Well, obviously I didn't die. I was wearing my Armor. You know how Katniss had mockingjay armor, made by Cinna? Well, he also made me armor. I was wearing it when the bomb went off."

His confused look fades an suddenly Harriet runs up and hugs me. I hug her back. She pulls away. Max clears his throat.

"I'm sorry to interrupt this heartwarming reunion but, miss Everdeen, I have a lot to show you."

He tears me away from her and then pushes her onto the floor. Percy tenses but doesn't do anything.

"Now come, Miss Everdeen, and you too Bonnie. Twill, you stay here." He orders.

We follow him through the tributes, most of them giving me stares. He leads us to a door which opens into a white corridor, with a single door at the end. He leads us to the door and we go through to a strange room, with nothing in it except a panel of buttons. The door closes automatically behind us and max hits a button. Suddenly, the room starts moving, like an elevator. Except sideways, not up and down.

The door stays where it is but the small glass window shows the door we had walked through get smaller and smaller. Suddenly we get to a corner and turn, showing me a large intersection with more strange elevators on hold.

"What's going on?" Bonnie says.

"You'll see."

The elevator takes a few more turns and then stops suddenly. The door clicks into place and Max opens it. We step into a hallway, lined with doors, with numbers on them. 1g, 1b, 2g, 2b, 3g, 3b and so on all the way up to twelve. At the end is a door with the word 'hanger' on it. Reality dawns on me.

"This is an old arena." I manage to say.

"Correct. You would have found it sooner or later if you had been able to. You know those mountains you could see from a distance? That was the starting place of the arena. A forcefield, not unlike the one around the house, went around from there to a little way off the edge of the old town. Tourists, of course, have been here and left their mark but they're long gone now. This was a pretty old arena. Can you guess which games?"

I look closer at one of the doors. Underneath the number and letter is a name. Cringe Sparlan, victor. Cringe. That was the very first victor of the games, from district 1. Sure enough, when I check the number, it's 1b.

"The first games. The one we watched."

"Yes! Well, I chose it so I could get to know the arena a little better. I would often come here to supervise the building of the house and I couldn't help but assign a few people to fix up the old arena. Now, come on, we have a lot to see!"

He pushes us back into the 'elevator', presses a button and we zoom off in another direction.

"We go to the training room next. It wasn't in the original package so I had to fix one up. The builders did a good job of it, actually."

The elevator takes a few more turns then stops. We hear a click and Max opens the door. We step into a large room, filled with the usual stations, bow and arrow, sword, knife, fire lighting, edible foods and so on.

"I also managed to get a lot of weapons from the Capitol. It was while the rebellion was still on so no one really payed attention to me. If the districts lost, I was thinking about suggesting this arena to snow, but that wasn't the case."

I scan the room, looking at all the different stations.

"Train up, primrose. Because I heard that the district one tributes hated the rebellion. You know why? Because there was no more games."

We step back into the elevator and zoom back to the house.

I never wanted to go in the games. I couldn't even kill an animal so we didn't starve, so how would I kill a person?

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Lots to take in, in this chapter. Sorry for the wait. Next few chaps and then she's in the games!

Xela732!