Culling

Part I • Chapter XI

At this time...

"What if we don't want her to go?" Kota spoke up as he moved in front of me.

She tilted her head a bit as she studied him, she almost seemed amused at the challenge. "You all really don't have a choice, you do know that right?"

I put my hand on Kota's arm and felt that he was tense and ready to jump. 

They really didn't need to worry about me like this, I didn't want to be a cause of stress in their lives. "It's alright. If I'm not in trouble or anything, I can go and see what they want."

☜♡☞

I had been ushered into the administration offices, which were located right inside the sequestering circle. The building itself rivaled the size and appearance of the residential towers and apparently also had floors that went deep into the ground as well. 

During the grand tour, which for some reason I was given, I learned a lot about the Capital (some of which I knew before):

First, they really liked to spend money on ridiculous things. The administration building was equipped with technology found in the other buildings, which included eye and fingerprint scanning, automatic doorways and lights that changed depending on verbal instruction. There were also some impressive looking laser beams on the ceiling.

However, they had things in the administration building that the tribute's buildings lacked. For example, I was able to see 4D monitors with touchscreen capabilities, a vending machine that would cook an entire gourmet meal from a freeze dried packet and napping pods that would induce lucid dreams. 

They even had a sauna where caffeine was released into the surrounding air and absorbed into your skin. Why someone would want to do that, I had no idea. That seemed rather unhealthy.

That brings us to the second thing I really learned about the Capital; and it was that they really thought I'd be impressed by all this. Surprisingly, I found that trying to come to terms with your impending death really made a person rethink the practicality of some of these inventions. 

According to Ms Johnson though, employment here was a highly sought after thing. The establishment had been voted the #1 Best Place to Work in the world. I was a downer for not finding this amazing. Why they were giving me all this information, I had no idea.

The last thing that I had learned from my tour was that despite their all posturing, the folks at the Capital were exceedingly afraid of the tributes. Although that was more of a general vibe I had gotten, not so much something that anyone flat out told me.

"So what are those for?" I pointed to another set of perilous looking lasers that crisscrossed back and forth across the hallway ceilings. It had been the upteeth occasion I've seen a similar setups during my little tour, and Ms Johnson had yet to bring them up.

She barely glanced up at them, before brushing off the question. "Don't worry about them, unless you are planning on staging a coup or something. Which, of course, is impossible. So don't do that."

"But what do they do if activated?" I studied them in interest. I had heard of lasers being used in science fiction novels for weapons and things, but had never heard of lasers being arranged in this way before. "Are they meant to stun? Do they come flashing down from the ceilings during an attack to behead invaders? Are they meant to slice off people's limbs in erratic patterns? What?"

"Wow. You are a bloodthirsty little thing, aren't you?" She seemed horrified by my questions.

"I didn't mean..." Ok, maybe security wasn't the purpose of the lasers. Maybe it was something completely innocent. "I was just asking." 

Great, now she thought that I was a violent person. I was actually the complete opposite of a violent person, but I was sure that this woman would never forget this moment.

"Never you mind." We had reached the end of the hallway and she touched the pad to open the door. "We are here anyway. President Hendricks will see you now."

The metallic door slid to the side, exposing a room of blinding white. Colorless carpet, white furniture and white or crystal decorations. The only things not of that color was the dark grained wood desk and the man in the purple suit behind it. 

The man had a snappish, no-nonsense look about him and his shaved head appeared to reflect the light behind him. He wore thick white rimmed glasses which looked too large for his angular face. 

He looked up from his desk when the door opened.

The man, who I assumed was President Hendricks, stood as I tentatively entered the room. 

I could see that he was tall and lean, and entirely as scary looking as I expected the leader of the free world to be. "Miss Sorenson," he gestured towards an open chair in front of his desk, "please have a seat."

I sat, knowing that running away wasn't really an option at the moment. 

"Hello President." I found that I couldn't even look at him. I was just me, plain old Sang Sorenson and never before in my life had I imagined that one day I'd be in the presence of the man who ruled our world. "W- what can I do for you?"

"You've been causing quite a stir, young lady." He sat back down and continued to stir sugar into a cup of tea he must have just started before I ended the room. 

"Tea?" He nodded towards a teapot sitting on the desk in front of me.

"No thanks." 

Knowing my luck it was probably poisoned. 

"I'm sorry if I caused you trouble. I am not trying to do anything."

He finished stirring and set his cup aside. "That is where I know you are correct. However, you seem to have a habit of being involved in unfortunate circumstances which have landed you here at the Capital." 

He put his elbows on the desk and crossed his arms as he sternly looked at me. "I had my people ask around about you and yours, and do you know what I found?"

God only knows. Everyone else seemed to know more about me than I knew about me. "No?"

"Nothing." He tilted his head. "I found nothing. Your father's local papers were faked and his background is shrouded in mystery. No one in your local government offices knows of your birth mother, or her origins. The rest of your family has disappeared, and nobody knows anything about you and how you came to be in district six. 

For all I am aware, you could be some kind of rebellion spy sent to destroy everything that my family has built for this world. If I had a lick of common sense I wouldn't let you leave this room alive. So tell me, why do you think I let my assistant give you a tour of the building?"

I was terrified out of my mind now. I was none of these things. 

A spy? 

I was just me, Sang. All I wanted was to be left alone and live in peace. Of course, being a tribute meant my life wouldn't be long, but I could still wish for it to be semi-peaceful. 

He appeared to be expecting an answer, but I could only shake my head.

That seemed to be enough. "I let you live because, believe it or not, I would have a riot on my hands if you died before the arena and killing you would be more trouble than it's worth. You may not be fully aware of it right now, but you are the Capital's darling. 

Quite frankly, your background is not important. For some reason the public has been buying the poor little innocent victim act that you have going on-"

"But sir, it's not an act!" I had to let him know. I wasn't trying to cause trouble.

"Be silent. I let you see the inside of the building, and even come into my office, for one reason and one reason only. You are going to work for me."