The Hunger Games of Bengui

Chapter 5

When I opened my eyes, the sun had disappeared. The lights in the train were at full blast, temporarily stunning me. I gazed over to the bench across from me and Jason was sitting there with his legs in a criss cross formation, looking at a piece of burnt brownish paper. He looked up and smiled at me.

"Welcome to the future, Cara. The year is 2099, harhar."

"Yeah, yeah, very funny," I groaned. "What time is it?"

"It's 20 past 7."

"No need to be a fancy bitch, just say 7:20 jeez." I stood up from my seat and headed to the restroom. It was a small and compact squeeze to fit through the door but I eventually made it. I splashed water on my face and rubbed my eyes, unsatisfied with my bags. I grabbed a paper towel and wiped off as much water as I could on this 0.5 ply paper. It makes me question how advanced the technology on this train was, yet they couldn't provide decent paper towels. I hated these automatic doors. My dress would always get caught in them.

The squeeze to get out the cramped restroom was equally troublesome but I eventually made it back to my seat, skipping through the empty aisle. There were 3 rooms on this train. One for Jason and I and the other two for the Capitol party, accompanied by Figs and Katniss. I've only met Katniss once, when she was on her way to the town square to pick up some bread rolls. She lives in the Victor's Village, an area filled with 12 houses reserved for the winning tributes and their families. So far only 3 houses are full, must get lonely every once in a while.

"What are you looking at?" I asked when it got too quiet.

"Oh it's nothing..."

"Come on let me see!" I got up and sat in the seat next to him. "Scoot over, you're taking up the whole bench."

"It's just a--," I interrupted him by yanking the piece of paper from his hands. It was a portrait of a boy. He looked about our age.

"Who's this? I don't recognize him... does he go to our school? No... I would've recognized him..." I asked, confused.

"No, it's no one... Well I don't know who it is. But I had this dream one night you see, of me and this beautiful boy," he clutched the paper close to his chest. "I don't remember what his name is unfortunately, but I named him Greg. Doesn't he look like a Greg?"

"Uh. Sure."

"But anyways, the dream was so magical and we were holding hands and walking around in a better world! A world where there were no poor Districts, where there were no Hunger Games! When I awoke, I immediately grabbed my sketch book and started drawing him out so that I wouldn't forget what he looked like."

Jason's eyes were twinkling under the overhead lights on the train's roofs. He was so lost in thought, probably dreaming about this Greg. I took another look at the paper. Greg had a round face, thin lips and shaggy hair.

"Wait you're gay?" I asked him, slowly putting together the pieces.

"Uh duh". He looked at me like I was retarded.

"Jeez, don't be rude," I rolled my eyes and stared out the window.

"Whatever, I'm hungry. Let's go get something to eat eh?" He grabbed my arm and dragged me through the swooshing doors. I almost tripped again when the doors closed in on my dress.

"If that damn thing gets caught in the door one more time I'm cutting it off!" he screamed.

"You're so gross!" I shoved past him and grabbed a blueberry muffin, then dashed back through the doors, bundling up the ends of my dress together so they wouldn't get caught. I slammed back into my seat.

He came back moments later, his plate piled with desserts of every kind.

"Jason, it's snack time not hibernation time."

"Whatever, a man's gotta eat."

We chatted some more, and after we threw away our trash, Figs came strutting down the aisle with a grin on her face. "Good news! We have landed! Welcome to the Training Center, your temporary housing and training unit before the games starts in 2 weeks! Now chop chop, come on you two, we don't have all day you know!"

She grabbed both our hands and hauled us through the train's doors, and with a blink of an eye it drove away with a great rumbling commotion. The car ride was quick and smooth, and in no time I was inside the lobby of the Training Center. There were 12 floors in the building. The lobby doubled up as the training room and also the cafeteria, located steps away behind designated doors. The 12 floors stood for each district's personal floor, with mini training rooms, sleeping quarters, and some lounges. I hauled myself up to the 12th floor, for the elevator took too long to wait for. Figs had given me a key and I found my room, D1, unlocked the door and knocked myself on the bed, falling into a deep slumber, not even bothering to get a change of clothes.