Culling

Part I • Chapter X

After about five minutes, I swear that I began to feel human again. Even the aches and pains of Juliana's training routine melted away.

However, I couldn't afford to stay too long. I turned to cross my arms over the lip of the tub, my arms on the floor in front of me and rested my head for a moment.

  ☜♡☞  

The sounds of echoing footsteps and talking had startled me awake. 

My eyes snapped open and I realized that I must have fallen asleep in the bath. I looked around quickly and saw that I was still alone. However, from the increasing sounds and vibrations on the floor, I knew that a group of men were making their way towards the facilities.

Oh no.

I had no idea if it was my group, or the other. We still hadn't seen our floor-mates. Whoever it was though, I could tell that they were only feet away from the door, so I had no time to waste. 

By some miracle of god I didn't fall and break my neck as I jumped out of the bath and grabbed a nearby towel. I just barely made it out of the bath in time to hide in the changing area of a shower stall before the door opened with a bang.

My clothes, which had been a few feet away from the towel, didn't make it with me in my escape. Thankfully they weren't sitting out in a super obvious place and were packed into a small bundle. However, someone was surely bound to notice! 

On top of that, these stalls didn't even have doors or curtains, so I couldn't hide here forever. Apparently the Capital was under the impression that tributes were meant to be exhibitionists.

Derrick walked into the room first and breezed past my hideout, not seeing me. 

He was followed by a group of four others, two of whom I recognized. They were from the group of men who were threatening Silas two nights before. 

Wonderful.

The four were presently engaged in their own conversation while Derrick made towards the sinks on the other side of the room. He trudged right along the path of my forgotten clothes.

He stopped abruptly and looked down at my clothes for a moment. I actually think he might have been momentarily stunned. The other men did not notice his behavior, which was lucky for me. 

Derrick wasn't an idiot. He had to know they were my clothing, they were clearly feminine.

His head snapped up and his eyes searched the room. At the same time he somewhat discretely dropped his change of clothes and towel on top of my pile. If I didn't know better, I was beginning to think that he going to cover for me. 

Finally, he spotted me and our eyes met.

I knew I was looking kind of pathetic. I was currently wrapped in a fluffy white towel and dripping wet. I was clearly not having my best moment.

I hoped he could read the pleading in my eyes. 

He raised an eyebrow in response. 

I peered at him harder, if that was even a thing. I needed a distraction. I could probably avoid being seen for a while but without a diversion someone would definitely notice the door opening and closing. 'Please Derrick! Please, please.'

To my surprise, he rolled his eyes at me and I thought I saw him hide a grin with his hand. 

I didn't think I had ever seen Derrick smile very much growing up, only a few times when we were younger before his mother died. So I was actually stunned for a moment before I realized that this response meant that he was actually going to help me.