The Dark Days - Chapter Two

I'm back, twelve hours ahead of schedule!

Chapter Two

"Rebellion, you say," says Holly.
"Yes," I tell her. "I've been suggesting that ever since you got here!"
She stares off into the distance, as if trying to pull our conversation from the past.
"Aryn," says Amy quietly. She repeats my name again, only louder.
"What?" I finally ask, irritated. Is anyone going to side with me? These two are so stubborn!
"Well, how exactly are we going to incite a rebellion? How do we overthrow the Capitol? You've got to think this over, Sis!"
I take a deep breath. "Well... we'll talk about that later, okay? I mean, like, you know..."
"No, I don't know," says Holly and Amy simultaneously. Sometimes I think that they should be twins, not me and Amy. They're so alike - both shy and quiet, willing to think before acting.
I'm getting annoyed. "Once we've got this thing planned out, I promise that I'll tell you, okay? The moment I deem our district having a chance against the Peacekeepers, I'll call a meeting and reveal my plan."
"How do we even gather people?" Amy asks. "The Peacekeepers watch our every move. Meetings will be impossible."
"Even Peacekeepers have to sleep," I tell her. "At midnight, when the guards shift stations, we gather in the Underground."
Amy doesn't say anything. Neither does Holly. But finally I do.
"If you two are such big cowards you're fearing the Underground, I'll get Sage to come with me. He hates the Capitol too, you know."
Sage. I've never spoken to him, only saw him on one occassion. About five months ago, a woman was publicly executed for stealing food. Her family was hungry; all she took were a couple of strawberries and died for it. She had three kids. Her husband had died from hunger recently, and she didn't want her kids going the same way. Now, her kids are orphans.
Like us.
Sage Newheart is her eldest child, sixteen now and from what I hear, almost seventeen. He has two younger siblings, I know. Pine and Mint. I think Pine is thirteen and Mint is nine. I'm sure that they'll side with me. Especially when…
What am I talking about? I'm about to side with someone I've never spoken to. Never made any gesture of each others' existence. We've never looked at each other in the eye. But I know that he'll be my first choice as a recruit.
"You must be kidding me, Aryn," says Holly. "If you dragged me all the way over here, only to talk about overthrowing the Capitol, forget it. I'm not doing it. It's hopeless, buddy. The Capitol's got strong firearms, we've got nothing. Only in terms of numbers, but the Capitol's weapons must outnumber that fifty to one. No, if we have any chance of success, it won't be to charge. We need someone smart for that!"
"Yeah, we do," I say simply. "I know just the perfect choice."
"Who?" Amy asks, a bit accusingly.
"Maybelle Waters. The mayor's niece. She aces every test in school, never gets in trouble, but I know personally that she's the one who grafittied the school walls with berry juice without getting caught. She's that smart."
"Maybelle Waters..." Amy murmurs. "Well, she's a good choice, I suppose, but who knows if she'll side with us? She's the mayor's niece. She never starves."
"But she watches other people starve," I counter. "They fall to the ground every day, Amy! Too tired to get up again! The Capitol ignores them. The Peacekeepers walk past them. It's only us who stare at them pitifully, but can't afford to give them food to keep going!" I pause to draw in a deep breath but Amy cuts me off.
"Maybelle Waters has food. Tons of it. Her uncle must get a steady supply of them. I've seen her pass the starving and the ill on the streets. She never glances twice at them."
I give my only answer available. "Because she's too smart to do it."
Amy and Holly stare at me in confusion. What do I mean by that? I don't really know, either, but suddenly, out of the blue, I do.
"What–" Holly starts off, but I cut her off.
"She knows that her parents, her uncle, her relatives, and the Peacekeepers won't approve of that. She'll only bring trouble down on her and her family," I explain.
"How do you know, then?" Holly asks snarkily. "She might just not care. She's going to bust you to the Peacekeepers and surely you're a goner. Aryn, please, don't do it!"
"Even if I die, at least I can say I tried!" I yell in her face. Amy takes a step back although it's Holly I'm yelling at. She's never seen me so enraged before.
"Then you do it yourself," Holly says angrily. She storms through the house and wrenches open the door. For a split second, the room echoes with the angry patters of rain against pavement, the thunder striking the sky. Then the door slams closed, and she's gone.
I stand in silence, and I see that Amy's shocked still, too. It seems like a long time before either of us move, but in truth it's probably only a few seconds.
"Aryn–" Amy tries to say, but she's cut off by a long, loud scream. The wailing continues for a few seconds but suddenly is cut short. Amy stares at me as the realization dawns on her.
I leap up, and run out the door, slippers bashing against the wet pavement, the rain soaking into my sweater, but I don't care. All I care about now is to reach her...
The bloodcurdling scream was Holly's.



I know how everything is jumbled together, but hey, it's copied from a Word document! The unedited version is the way you guys might want... but like I said, it's unedited. And I haven't even finished editing this one yet.