The Suit War

Five

The flight to Mondo was pretty miserable. Winder was digging his nails into me during both takeoff and landing, only letting go after I pried him off of me. During the flight, he called the flight attendant over so many times that I lost count. He asked her numerous questions about the plane's last check up: when was the plane last checked for fuel? ... Are you sure we have enough to get to Mondo? ... Okay then what about the tire pressure? ... Why do you tell us the safety procedures if it's safe then? ... What about the wings, are they working? When did this plane last have maintenance done to it? ... For what? ... You sure we're safe up here? Blah, blah, blah. He was freaking out to say the least. The flight attendant gave him like, seven bags of chips, pretzels, and cookies (and a can of cola, upon his request ... bad idea if you ask me) to try to calm him down ... but surprise, surprise, it didn't work. As I expected, we got disgusted looks from the passengers that were sitting near us during the entire flight, but I think that had more to do with Winder's acting obnoxiously and less to do with them recognizing us as aces ... or maybe it was both ... who knows. The only time that I, and the rest of the plane seemed to get any peace and quiet on Winder's end was when he got up to go to the restroom (which he kept doing a lot). I didn't know for sure whether he was actually using the restroom or just throwing up, and I didn't want to find out.

As soon as we landed at Mondo, Winder and I took a cab to the outskirts of District 12. Then, once we were sure that no one was watching us, we headed deep into the woodlands. Surprisingly, the woods seemed to be in good shape compared to the glances of the Clubs streets we got while we were in the cab. The sidewalks and store windows had cracks going through them, there was trash everywhere, and everything seemed to just be in total dismay-the site was fairly familiar to me seeing as there were parts of Sector 4 back home that looked exactly the same way.

"We're lost," Winder stated simply as he suddenly stopped walking and shoved his hand in his back jean pocket. We'd been walking for hours. The deeper into the woods we got, the darker it seemed to get from the shadows of the trees encircling us in every which way.

"We are not lost," I told him sternly as I stopped and faced him. "We just need to keep going east."

"Right ... and which way is east, Miss Smarty Hearty?" he asked as he started going through his phone.

"... I think it's this way-"

"You think? Oh my Diamonds, we're never gonna find our way out of here." Winder stared at his phone for a few seconds. "Damn it, I have sixteen missed calls and sixteen new voicemails." He frowned. "Sad. I don't even have service out here to call my parents. I should of called them back at-"

"No!" I said snatching the phone out of his hands.

"Hey!" He snatched it back.

"Why would you call your parents?"

"To tell them where I am," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Duh!"

"We can't tell anyone where we are, or what we're doing!"

"Listen, just because your parents could careless about where you are doesn't mean-" Ouch, that one hurt ... and he quickly realized that. "Oh ... Celia, I-"

"Well newsflash Mister Know-it-all: I may not have my parents in my life, but I do have Lark and Ilyx, who'd probably be worried about me if they knew where I was right now, and they're just as good if not better than any biological parents."

Pretty ticked off that Winder would spew such a low blow, I started to walk away, not really caring whether or not he was following behind me. "Wait! Celia!" I heard Winder say just before he grabbed my arm. I stopped walking. "I'm sor- ... I'm sor- ..."