The Hunger Games: Uprising!

Chapter 46

The rest of the day goes by with a steady stream of friends and well wishers. I didn't realise that it was my birthday, after spending a week under sedation I didn't even know what day it is let alone the date. Plutarch, Haymitch, Gale, Gibbs even Lyndon visit me. I take this opportunity to ask him about his issue with Elise Snow.
"What's the problem Lyndon, why are you so hostile toward Elise?" I ask him
"He sits down on the couch next to me and looks down at his fidgeting hands.

"Well, it's a long story"

"We've got plenty of time"

Peeta gets up from his chair and goes to the kitchen.

"Okay, I take it you've been told where we all came from? The Rapiers I mean?"

"Yea, I've been told"

"Well, we were all recruited right before we started high school in district 2. Before graduation you were required to attend an assessment session to judge your potential for entering the Hunger Games academy. They were looking for something that could make you stand out in the arena and I was seen as being particularly good at camouflage and organisation. There were originally twenty put forward for the academy with only one male and female put forward every year. The others who didn't make it or went over age were put into the ranks of peacekeepers".

Peeta walks back in from the kitchen carrying a tray with three mugs and a plate with some cheese buns.
Lyndon continues...

"Anyway, twelve of us eventually became too old for selection for the reaping and Snow and Romulus Thread formed the Rapier squad"

"But there's only six of you, what happened to the others?" asks Peeta taking a sip of his tea.

"Those that weren't selected were killed" he says looking at the ground.

"But why?" I ask.

"To keep us secret Katniss, that's the only reason. Snow wanted us to be a secret clandestine squad used to clear up Snow's dirty work. We killed, arranged accidents for possible presidential candidates, bombings, you name it and we did it. Anyway, over time we outlived our usefulness and Snow took things into his own hands using poison to remove his competition"

I think back to Finnick's propo film when he told Panem of Snow's use of poison to control any potential threats to him and his presidency. The problem was that the antidote to the poison that Snow took caused terrible sores in his mouth that wouldn't stop bleeding. I remember the terrible smell of blood on his breath whenever he came near me.

"What happened to you then?" asks Peeta.

"By now Wolfe was on the scene as head of presidential security and he came up with the idea of using us as Elise's personal guards. None of us were interested in being security guards as they were regularly killed to set an example to the others. I brought this up with Wolfe and Thread and they were very persuasive in trying to convince me to become part of the presidential watch. Anyway, at some point one of them must of spoken to Snow about it because without warning my brother, sister and mother were killed in a warning to me. If I wanted to safeguard the rest of my family I knew I'd have to back down and join willingly. Just to push it home the rest of my family were imprisoned as a tool to keep me motivated. I never saw them again, after the war I found out they'd all died in jail. I have no one, my family has been completely wiped out"

I sit in silence, trying to take all this in, the old regime of the Capitol never ceases to amaze me.
"How does this affect Elise Lyndon, She was the unwitting person in all of this, why do you hate her so much?"

"I dont hate her as a person Katniss, its just that she's got that name, Snow. I promised myself I'd never trust a member of that family again, I know we need her for the war effort and that she's only young and all that, but I just cant trust her. Her grandfather killed my entire family"