The Runaway Victor | Book II

Chapter Eighteen | The Story of the Rebels

|AUTHORS NOTE|

This chapter references Ciruss's story. Be sure to check out his book in my works, it's unfinished, but there is quite a bit to read.

Stay classy!

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The hike to the next safe house didn't take all that long. It would have taken less time if they had been able to actually see. But they could only see what the small lights around the District allowed them to see, otherwise the dark air was practically impossible to see through. But they got to the next safe house with maybe another hour until the sun would begin to come up.

The house looked almost the same as the one before, and they were quickly welcomed into the house by a younger man-- Kal Benson. He lived there with his wife, and his grandmother who looked like she was older than Panem itself. Before they were let down into the Bunker, Mrs. Benson insisted on the four of them sitting down at the table and having a nice breakfast. Kal would be off to work soon, so they had already been preparing breakfast, and they had been making a bit extra for them.

"Have you heard anything of what happened in District Seven?" Orion asked curiously as he sat down next to Kal's grandmother who had yet to say a single word to either of them.

Mrs. Benson looked down at the dishes in her hands, pausing as she handed one to Jules.

"Hannah," Kal said, and she snapped out of whatever sort of daze the question had put her in. But she didn't say anything, so Kal did instead. "The Capitol made a big show about Ciruss Hayeden returning to the Capitol."

"He's alive?" Quinn asked, she felt her stomach beginning to do flips.

"What about Wade?" Marcus asked.

Kal's frown deepened, and his eyes avoided looking at Marcus. "The Capitol didn't say anything about him, but yeah, Ciruss is alive."

Marcus slouched in his seat as Hannah set a pot in the center of table. The smell that seemed to steam out of it was mouth watering. Quinn could tell what it was by the smell, it was scrambled eggs. Something simple, but familiar.

"What did the Capitol do to Ciruss?"

Kal shrugged, "In all honesty I don't know, he looked perfectly well."

Hannah scoffed a bit, "You know as well as I do something was wrong," she said as she seated herself at the cramped table. "He seemed...excited for the next games. He says he plans to be a mentor again."

Quinn felt her stomach drop. She should have known that Ciruss wouldn't have been perfectly fine at the Capitol after what he had done. And she knew that Ciruss wouldn't choose to be a mentor again.

For the first time Kal's grandma shook her head and sighed heavily, "I really wish they'd just let that poor boy be..."

"You knew Ciruss?" Jules asked, "But he's from District One."

She nodded, "I watched his games," she replied, "And from the moment he set foot in the arena he made it clear that he didn't like the Capitol or the games." she said, Quinn could have sworn she was trying to fight back tears. "But then something changed him, Ms. Maverick I'm sure you would understand." she said looking across the table at her. "Ciruss went in wanting to lose so his District partner could go home...but then...then he just wanted to survive. In his Victory interview, the boy was a mess. But he assured everyone that he won for the girl, he said dying in the arena was better than going home."

"Because then you're yourself still and not what the Capitol wants you to be." Quinn replied. She could vividly remember that polar change in the arena. Not wanting to win, and then suddenly just wanting to survive.

An awkward silence fell, and Quinn suddenly had lost her appetite. She had done a fairly good job at not thinking about the games, she had hoped that she could keep on thinking about other things instead of them. But simply talking about Ciruss and his victory, it made her feel sick to her stomach because the Victors of the games were the real losers. They had to live with the fact that they killed other children who simply wanted to go home, they wanted to forget it all but the Capitol made them relive it constantly.

"Kal," Jules spoke up breaking the silence. "How exactly did these safe houses come to be? It couldn't have been easy digging out the bunkers."

"All of the safe houses that are around now are just the ones that weren't found after the Dark Days." his grandmother said, "The rebels made them in the beginning of the dark days in case there were heavy bombings."

"They never stopped fight. But when Thirteen was bombed, they thought the Capitol was too strong. But now they have encouragement again. Now they just need a leader." she explained simply, glancing at Quinn.

Quinn knew that when she said encouragement, she meant her. If it hadn't been for her, rebels may have waited years to start doing anything. But Quinn couldn't lead them, she couldn't get them all to follow her through anything-- she was just angry. The Districts couldn't...connect with her. And until someone came around that could connect with them, the Capitol wasn't going to change.