Hunger Games: YouTuber edition

Twenty-Two

The Next Day

Jack

Jack opened his eyes as the lights turned on in his room followed by the door mysteriously opening. As the door opened, he heard what sounded like mumbling coming from the cafeteria area. He's never heard so many people before and he was confused to what was going on. But he felt interested in checking it out.

He slowly made his way out of his room and down the hallway to the cafeteria, where he noticed a large group of people.

His eyes widened as he realized who they were.

They were all families of the tributes, both dead and alive.

"JACK!" He heard a voice yell behind him.

As he turned around, he felt relief, happiness and all positive thoughts as his younger sister, Courtney was running over to him.

They both immediately embraced each other and Jack began crying tears of joy as he was able to hug his sister again, something he never thought he would do again.

He then looked up and smiled as his mom approached him and hugged him tightly.

"I knew you weren't dead..." She mumbled in his ear. "They kept making it sound like you were."

Jack then became confused. As happy as he was to see his family, he wasn't sure why or how they got here.

"What's going on?" Jack asked. "How did you get here?"
"They asked all the families of the tributes to come with them to the Capitol." His mom explained.
"Why all the families?" Jack asked. "Eight tributes are dead!"
"I'm not sure." His mom shrugged. "But I'm not even worried about it at the moment. I got to see you alive and well again."

Jack, Courtney and his mom decided to give each other another hug.

Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around. It was a woman he had never seen before, but she was quite emotional.

"Hello, y-you must be Jack." The woman began. Jack only nodded. "I-I'm sorry to interrupt your reunion with your family... But I just wanted to... To thank you for what you did with Phil after my son had died."
Jack's eyes widened, "You're Dan's mother?"

Dan's mom nodded before beginning to cry again. Jack immediately hugged her tightly while she cried on his chest.

"I'm so sorry with what happened to your son." Jack said. "Nobody should ever have to go through this."
"I saw everything..." She responded. "I didn't even cry... All of my emotions were just blown away at that moment... I felt terrible."
"I wasn't able to see what actually happened, but after I saw Phil with Dan, I knew I had to try and help somehow." Jack explained.
Dan's mom then faced Jack. "It's people like you that give us hope during these games."

Jack didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say to her after that. Did he seriously give hope to Dan's mother? After everything she had witnessed? Was it this way for other people as well?

Mark

Mark came in soon after Jack came in. The first thing he noticed was his mother running over towards him and embracing him tightly. Something he never thought would happen ever again, or ever in general. She never gave him any affection and now after having to go through hell, she decides to finally show it.

Figures.

After embracing his mother, he noticed a girl with long, blond hair walking to him. He didn't recognize her at first, but then a flashback came to him of Wade talking about her and showing a picture of the two of them.

It was his fiancée, Molly.

"You must be Mark." Molly told Mark.
"You must be Molly." Mark nodded. "Wade told me some stuff about you.
Molly nodded, biting her lip and hiding her emotions . "I just wish both of you were here right now."
"Trust me, I do too." Mark responded. "I wish all of the tributes were here right now."
"I don't even know why we were all forced here. They just made us all go on the train and now we're here." She explained.
"Really?" Mark asked. Molly nodded.

Mark then began to wonder whether they were now going to be part of an "experiment" or not.

Phil

As soon as Phil came into the room, he grew emotional as he saw his family at the side of the room. He slowly walked over to them and hugged them, beginning to tear up. He never thought he would see his family again, and to see them when he was the way he was actually made him feel worse.

After hugging his mom, dad and brother, he noticed Dan's mom approaching him. Without any hesitation, he embraced her and began to sob.

"I'm so sorry Mrs. Howell..." Phil sobbed.
"It's not your fault, Philip..." She responded. "Don't blame yourself. You're a brave young man and I'm happy to at least see you alive."

Suddenly, two Capitol soldiers approached the group.

"Mrs. Howell, we would like to escort you out of the room for the moment." The soldier said.
"Why is that?" She asked.
"The young man who had killed your son is alive and is about to come into the room." The other soldier stated.
Mrs. Howell took a deep breath and exhaled, her heart racing. But she remained calm. "Thank you, gentlemen. But I will be able to handle this situation."

Phil thought the soldiers would argue with her farther, but instead, they walked off.

Suddenly, just at the entrance was Ryan.

Ryan

As Ryan entered the room, silence filled the air. Everybody was looking at him. All of the families of the tributes he had killed, were looking directly at him. It made him feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.

But, even with all the silence, Ryan's family still came up to him and gave him a hug.

"Don't listen to anything negative they tell you." His mom whispered in his ear. "You did what you had to do."

He didn't respond to that. Instead, he felt more regret for doing what he had to do in the games. If he knew this was how it was going to be for them, he would've spared as many people as he could.

But he knew it would probably have been this way no matter what.

All of his thoughts were interrupted by Seneca Crane, who was standing on a little stage area by the cafeteria.

"Welcome all the families of surviving, and of the fallen, tributes." Seneca announced. "Today, we brought you here so that the surviving tributes could reunite with their loved ones, and so that the families of the deceased could join together and share their thoughts with one another, and hopefully gain trust and bond with one another. Starting in a few moments, we will gather up all the remaining surviving tributes, and each family one at a time, will go in and speak to the survivors and share their thoughts with them. It may seem uncomfortable to some, but it may also be beneficial."

Beneficial? How could any of this be beneficial to any of the surviving tributes? They'll all possibly be shamed for being alive.

And Ryan... He knows he'll probably get it worse...

But before he could say anything, the Capitol soldiers took all four of the surviving tributes back into four separate rooms.