A Perfect Storm (A Fanfiction for "The Hunger Games")

Chapter 2

I have just reached my decision when I start to wonder why the train hasn't left by now. Usually the gamemakers urge that the tributes depart as swiftly as possible, gone with the faintest whispers in the wind. I guess a lot of people wanted to see Mykael, I think bitterly, even though I know it's not fair to do so. But just as I am starting to develop such thoughts, someone pushes through the door and I have to blink several times and adjust my eyesight to wonder if I might be asleep.

        But no, it's her. 

        "Dayta." She rushes up to me and throws her arms around my neck, which shocks me so much that I fall back. When she pulls away, her green eyes look fierce to me, not something that I have ever used to describe Mag before.

        "What are you doing here?" I realize that the question must sound rude but we only have so much time and I want answers.

        "Listen to me, there isn't much time but you need to hear this," she tells me urgently and I have to bite my tongue to keep from screaming at her to get on with it. "It's the water."

        I stare at her, unblinking, and try to figure out her cryptic comment. "What about it?"

        "You have to find it."

        "Of course I do. It's my life source." I know that Mag obviously thinks that this information is important or she wouldn't have come, but I can't help feeling irritated. Does she think that I'm an idiot? I know that I need to stay hydrated.

        She shakes her head quickly and continues, her words slurred together so that she can get them out there before the clock ticks away our time together. "No! That's not what I meant. You have to follow the rivers. Please just tell me that you'll follow the rivers!"

        If not for the desperation in her voice for me to understand, I would have yelled at her to leave. How dare she mock me? But I know that there's something crucial that I'm missing. I swim in circles, searching for the invisible truth, but when I come up for air, it's still lost beneath the murky surface.

        "It's the only way, Dayta! Just remember District 13." I don't have time to ask her what she meant about District 13 or why I need to think about them or what she meant about the rivers because the peacekeepers have already led her out the door and when I hear it shut, it feels like a punch to the face.

        I wanted advice, not to be left with more questions.

        Biting my lip until I taste blood, I lean back against the single chair in the dark, depressing room. I close my eyes and hope that when I open them, this nightmare will be over.

***

My room on the train is unnaturally luxurious and like nothing I have ever seen before. The sheets are softer than a swan's feathers and my wardrobe is full of satins, silks, and other exotic fabrics that not even Mag owns back at the orphanage. The showers are like no other with different switches and levers that spray you from all around and in places that I never particularly needed to be targeted. Everything is designed for comfort and beauty. It's absolutely incredible. If this were a hotel like they used to have back in the olden days, it would be a five star.

        I feel like a fish out of water.

        Every single feature in here is foreign to me. For my entire life, I've grown used to cotton and denim. I've never even known that a toilet that sprays and washes my bum after I use it exists, let alone used one. If anyone had informed me that I would be treated as well as the president upon being reaped for the Hunger Games, I would have laughed in their face and called them a fool.