The maze ~Newtmas~

Thomas the train (Thomas on the train)

Oleander led them onto the train through a few compartments into a dinning car. "Sit, eat, we have a long day ahead of us." Oleander said as he plopped into a seat and immediately started to pile food on his plate. Thomas and Elizabeth looked at each other unsure before they sat down a chair apart on the opposite side of the table from Oleander, neither of them having the confidence to eat yet. "Eat you two, it's not poisoned. you'd be no use in the games if you were already dead." He said chuckling. Thomas doesn't say anything he just glares. "You tributes never have a decent sense of humor." He sigh taking a bite of some orange mash potato looking substance.

"Well sorry, I'm to busy trying to comprehend my inevitable death." Thomas said calmly, still glaring at him. "So grumpy." Oleander said leaning on his fist smirking.
He heard a soft snicker and turned to see Elizabeth trying to hold in a laugh. "Really?" He said annoyed. "Sorry sorry." She said fake coughing to cover up her laughs. "Finally, someone with a good sense of humor!" Oleander says smiling. she glares at him, making him smile wider.

Thomas looks out the window to see the train was already well away from the station, He didn't even feel the train start moving.

After about five minutes of listening to Oleander talk about himself and eat He decided not eating was only going to hurt himself in the long run, He reluctantly started piling anything that looked good on his plate and slowly eating, Elizabeth followed his lead and did the same.

We ate in silence. Some time later after He finished eating, Oleander checked his watch before slamming his silverware down on the table. "Oh we're gonna be late! Hurry you two!" He said ushering us through compartment after compartment. "Where are we going?" Elizabeth asked. "We're meeting with your advisors in the lounge car." Oleander replied snagging a bottle of champagne from a bartending cart.

They enter a compartment with white plush couches and chairs lining the walls with a fancy table in the center of the room, two people, a man and a women sit beside each other on one of the couches facing us as we filed into the room. "Mark, Trina, so good to see you two back again this year." Oleander greeted the two victors. "You say that every year like we have a choice." Mark said chuckling and standing up to greet them. "And you say that every year when you could just say 'it's good to see you too Oleander'." Oleander replied with a annoyed look on his face.
"Never gonna happen." He chuckled as he put a hand on Oleanders shoulder which was quickly slapped off. "Hands off the suit, it's designer." Oleander practically squeaked, making Mark and Trina laugh.

"Hey you two, nice to meet you." Trina greeted us in a soft voice coming up behind Mark. "Sit down. We have strategy to discus." They all made their way to sit down. Oleander on a separate chair with Mark and Trina across from Elizabeth and Thomas.
"As you heard Oleander say, I'm Trina and this is Mark." Trina said pointing to herself then Mark, before continuing. "What are your names?" "You were at the reaping, you know our names." Elizabeth says annoyed. "After today everyone will always already know your names,Trina and I know from experience how annoying it is, just thought I'd ask." Mark explains sighing heavily. "Thats depressing, well I'm Elizabeth." They turned to looked at Thomas. He looked at them confused for a second before realizing. "I'm Thomas."  He managed not to stutter.

"Now that that's out of the way let's get started." Mark said bluntly. Trina slapped him on the arm. "Tell us about yourselves. What are your talents, hobbies, special skills, what do you study in school, tell us anything that could be remotely helpful."Trina asks taking a cracker from a plate full of snack foods on the center table. Thomas thinks for a second before Elizabeth speaks. "Nothing that I can think of that would help me kill people." Making Mark sigh. "You may not think that it would, but it's almost always the little things that give you an advantage, Now think harder." Mark explained obviously getting annoyed. 

Thomas starts thinking deeply into everything He's ever learned after about five minutes something hits him. "I used to go on runs with my sister almost every day so I guess I have decent stamina." He said timidly not knowing if it was worth mentioning. "That's a good start most likely will come in handy. Are you fast?" Trina asked sounding interested. "My friends say I am." He chuckles at the thought. None of them have ever beaten him in a race, it became a goal for them to have one of them beat him just once, hasn't happened yet and with how things are going most likely never will.

"Now we're getting somewhere ok what about you Elizabeth?" Lawrence says annoyance fading. "I can make stuff." Elizabeth says with uncertainty.

They discuss special skills for about an hour before Oleander checks his watch. "We can continue this later, It's almost time for the relays of the reapings." Oleander says right before the TVs perched in the two opposite corners of room turned on by themselves revealing the capitols logo.

The first 5 districts are like they are every year. 1 2 and 4 all volunteers, 5 both in shock crying, 6 just started. a dark skinned man walked onto the stage wearing a solid red tuxedo, probably one of the least odd outfits He'd ever seen on a capitol citizen.

He started with the same reworded speech that every one of them use. He called out the girls name which was Evie, once she was on stage he went over to the boys side. He reached into the bowl. Before calling out the boys name which was Minho.

Everything was going normal, until one of the peacekeepers that was guiding Minho grabbed his arm to pull him to the stage, that seemed to piss Minho off, he punched the peacekeeper directly in the jaw causing her to fall back into the crowd of boys. 4 peacekeepers rush to restrain Minho, Minho surprisingly was able to fight them off. a few more peacekeepers came to help and were able to restrain Minho, before the boys who didn't react kindly to a 200 pound women falling onto them shoved her back into the group of peacekeepers knocking her into the peacekeepers holding Minho affectively freeing him from their arms. Minho fought, elbowing punching kicking everyone who came into his reach, 8 peacekeepers wrestled him to the ground dragging him into the town hall still fighting and screaming, the doors shutting behind him silencing Minho's screams.

"Barbarian, there was no need for any of that." Oleander says, a disgusted look on his face. "I feel bad for the kid, he isn't going to make it long in the arena after that stunt." Trina said sighing, Oleander just scoffs.

Thomas tenses but stays quiet, silently Cursing them for saying that what he did wasn't justified. Because it was.

The rest of the reapings went by as usual. A chubby kid no older then 13 got selected for 9 was sad, but nothing out of the ordinary.

11's reaping seemed normal until, after what Thomas thought was the end, it panned out to the tributes being escorted to the train station. A women in her early forties running at them yelling. "YOU CANT TAKE HER!" His jaw dropped, the women had shoved three peacekeepers out of her way like they weighed nothing. Before he could process the screams and loud bangs the women had three bloody bullet holes in her torso, before she fell to the ground, Dead.

The camera zooms in on the female tributes face, as she bawled her eyes out over the loss of whoever that was to her.

It stayed on her face for a few seconds before flicking to the male tribute, who looked to be in shock, starring at the figure lying dead on the road.

Once 11s tributes were through the sliding doors of the capital train, the Tv cuts to hunger games hostess Cara Flickerman who took over just a few years ago, after her father retired. "Tragic, an unnecessary life taken in the name of rebellion."

Thomas tuned out the tv, and turned to stare out the window at the rolling hills they passed, losing himself to his thoughts. His breathing was erratic and his mind was spinning with the image of the woman's lifeless corpse. He should get used to the sight of death, if he wants to survive the upcoming weeks. he's going to be seeing a lot of it.