The Runaway Victor | Book II

Chapter Twenty-Six | Dust to Dust

As soon as Hazelle was awake, she quickly forced Orion to lay back down. This time she made a fairly comfortable bed on the floor for him. The she got her younger kids up and ready for school, Gale had gotten up and went hunting and then when he got back he hurried off to school too. So once they were gone, while Orion slept and Hannah spoke with Hazelle-- Quinn decided to try to get some of Kal's blood off of the backpack. She knew most of it would be dried on by now. But she knew that seeing obvious signs of blood wasn't helping anyone.

So she looked around the sink and found an old rag to use. She got it really wet before started to run off some of the blood. As soon it got in contact with the water, it began to turn into a liquid again, staining her hands with red. It made chills run up and down her spine. She couldn't imagine how someone could do this, touching someone else's blood...someone they knew had died. Dust to dust, everyone's the same. That had been what Elijah said during one conversation of theirs when Quinn was talking about death in the arena and Elijah said nobody was different in death-- no matter how they died.

She rinsed off the rag and moved to the strap, her fingers gliding across the mockingjay pin that was covered with blood. The way the blood was in its crevices, it looked like it had been in a battle-- she stared at it for a moment.

She remembered Damien presenting her with it one night in the garden on the roof. They way he explained the mockingjay, it was like he had been describing himself. The mockingjay was something that the Capitol created on accident. Damien was working with the Capitol, but not completely. The Capitol trained a peacekeeper that betrayed them. But when Damien said she was like the mockingjay...she couldn't disagree more. Yeah, the Capitol didn't mean for any of this to happen, but as time went on as Snow failed to kill her in the arena-- or decided not to...the Capitol made her on purpose. They pushed her and pushed her until she had no choice but to be the Rebel Victor. They made her a rebel on purpose. This pin wasn't meant for her. She didn't deserve it like every Drifter had.

Quinn dropped the backpack on the floor, then she held the pin under the water. Rubbing it clean until there wasn't a trace of blood on it anymore. She'd figure something out, she had to get rid of the pin. She didn't need it nor deserve it.

"Do you have any idea when we can leave, Hazelle?" Orion asked later that day once the younger kids had returned home from school. He had been growing more and more anxious being there, they weren't prepared there at all for peacekeepers if they got caught.

"You aren't in good shape," she replied.

"They can probably help him more in Thirteen." Hannah stated, glancing down at him and then at Hazelle.

"They wouldn't be much help if he couldn't make it to the fence." Hazelle replied, "I'd give yourself one more day of rest." she stated looking down at Orion. "No getting up in the middle of the night again."

Orion bit his cheek and sighed, he was fidgety, and he felt guilty. So staying with a family that didn't even have a safe bunker for them made things worse to him, even though if it hadn't been for the Hawthornes he probably would have been dead. Quinn wasn't really complaining about staying, there were warm meals even though they were small. Blankets and clean clothes...medicine.

Quinn was eyeing the cupboard where she had seen Hazelle put the morphling when the door opened and Gale walked in. Under one arm he had a few books. Then over his shoulder he had a brown bag that looked like it had a few things in it.

"Catch anything?" Hazelle she asked as she began to push away from the table.

Gale nodded, "A few squirrels, not too much." he replied as he held the bag open and Hazelle reached in and pulled one out. "I figured I'd bring the rest to the Hobb."