TWISTED // Clato | ✓

Transition Chapter to Part 3: THE CITY

"Well, this one's a mess." 

Rux the associate Gamemaker bent over the mangled bloody body of the District 2 boy. The grated floor of the hovercraft rocked beneath his feet. The moment Cato had been picked up by him and his colleagues, they had set to work on him, hooking him up to machines that would give him the life he needed while they fixed his body.

"Do you think we can still save him?" 

Rux looked up and his eyes met those of his young assistant. "We'll see, Derrick. We'll see." He straightened up, averting his eyes from Cato's battered and bloody body. "Any success with the District 5 female?"

"The poisoned one?" Derrick rubbed the sweat off his forehead and leaned against the doorframe. "Well, I think I may be managing to retrieve her... It's not simple, though. I have to draw all the poison out of her body... difficult."

"Is she being a good patient?" Rux adjusted a few switches on one of the machines attached to Cato and turned to his partner.

"She's moderately cooperative," Derrick said sarcastically. "She's also inches from the clutches of death. If I can't speed up the process, she may die yet."

Rux placed both hands on Derrick's shoulders. "Listen to me, Derrick. This is more important than you realize, and it's more than just these other tributes. This may affect all of society. Don't give up if they're drifting away. Try your hardest. We've already lost a few tributes that have been beyond the aid of even our advanced technology. We can't afford to lose more. Do you understand?"

Derrick's hands dropped to his sides. "Yes... sir."

"Good." Rux paused, thinking. "How's the District 2 girl?"

"Very well!" Derrick brightened up instantly. "I've worked at repairing her skull, and it is going very well. There was some damage to her brain, but I was able to reconstruct the affected section. She certainly won't remember anything, however."

"None of them will," Rux replied. "Even if they are saved, they will know nothing of Panem."

"They'll never remember?"

Rux sighed. "It's possible, I suppose, that their brains could latch onto one particular memory which, if recalled, could unlock the rest, but that is very unlikely. Anyhow, we won't want them remembering anything. It could seriously cause disorder. Our plans could very well turn to lash us in the face."

Derrick looked back at Cato. "How should we go about this procedure? It may take a long time to repair him."

"We have all the time we need," Rux replied. "I'm sending each tribute back to the same moment in time so it'll seem that they all will appear at the same instant."

"Won't the Capitol and the other Gamemakers suspect something?" Derrick asked anxiously, still uncertain.

Rux shook his head. "The Master has it covered. He's spread a rumor that all the tribute bodies were attacked by a disease, making them unfit for transportation back to their districts, so they all have been buried someplace where it won't spread further. The Gamemaker in charge of the care of the bodies of fallen tributes is an associate of mine. Seneca will not question it further."

Rux and Derrick got to work on the tributes. Most of the ones they were able to save had already been transported through the Timetwistplex 3000, but Cato and the District 5 female were still in their hands.

Rux, rummaging through the rags which remained of Cato's clothing, came across a small sapphire ring. "What's this?"

Derrick leaned over to look. "His token, perhaps?"

"CLATO," Rux said, reading the side. "Hmm. Wonder who that is."

"It's nothing, I'm sure," Derrick replied. "Might as well give it back to him, though. Something of his from home. Shouldn't hurt."

"All right." 

A few moments later, Derrick inquired, "We won't need his DNA too, right?"

"No; they're done with those dogs," Rux replied with a slight shiver. "Extra closeness if you ask me. I think the Gamemakers went a little out of control with that, although they successfully spooked the tributes."

By the time Rux and Derrick were through with him, Cato's body was operated on, groomed, and cleaned. He was still on the sedation that they had put on him, but he was ready to be taken through the Timetwistplex 3000.

"How does this machine work?" Derrick asked nervously as he and Rux stepped inside. The chrome interior was the size of an elevator.

"Well, it's not an ordinary time machine," Rux answered, "that is, if you can call any time machine ordinary. The Timetwistplex 3000 travels up and down a timeshaft between our world--Panem--and this other place: New York City in 2015."

"Like an elevator?"

Rux bit his lip. "Sort of... sort of not. I suppose it could go other places too, but it would have to leave the timeshaft."

Derrick rubbed his forehead. "This machine is confusing."

"That's why it's called a Timetwistplex," replied Rux curtly as the machine set off, heading upward through some unspaced shaft. Derrick leaned on the metal railing, looking scared he was going to crash at any second, even though they were enclosed by metal walls.

Then it stopped. The doors slid open like a normal elevator and Derrick and Rux found themselves staring into a long room. Tributes lay in rows on vinyl mattresses with floodlights above them. 

"They've just arrived. It's the very same moment," whispered Rux. "Come quickly." He and Derrick moved past the unconscious tributes and laid down the ones they had brought in empty spots. Then they slipped out as quickly as they had come.

Derrick stared straight ahead. He was staring through the open doors of the Timetwistplex, but something was weird. Did this actually take up space on the wall, like a real elevator? Just to see, he closed the doors. Before his eyes, a large metal door rose up in the wall, covering it.

Rux turned around. "What are you doing?"

"Oh! Sorry." Derrick pressed a button on the door and the metal door lowered. 

"Wait a second..." Rux stepped closer, examining the door. "I see. If anyone presses this button, the door will open, revealing the timeshaft. He paused for a minute, his hand on the door. "Hmmm..."

"So they can all see this door?" Derrick asked.

"No; no they can't. Only we can, because we're from the place on the other side," Rux replied. 

Derrick's eyes widened. "But then... the tributes can..."

For once, Derrick got it right. Rux turned to look apprehensively at the still-sedative tributes. "We'll have to change that."

He turned back to the door and lifted a latch. Plugging in a small screening device, he flicked it on. SET PASSWORD appeared on the screen. Rux typed in Password Question: What is your country name?

"You see, anyone else will just say 'the United States', but unless those tributes remember they're from Panem, which they won't, they'll never get passed this baby. And even if they do, they won't find a Timetwistplex on the other side; just a long empty shaft." Rux was feeling very pleased with himself as he and Derrick slid back inside the Timetwistplex 3000.