haul morgan

Kids get to play when they have free time, we’re only as strict as we have to be because we’re currently under constant threat. It’s not our faults that kids aren’t given as much liberty as they should get. If your sister wants special treatment, she should find somewhere else to get it, because we’re trying our best to give her everything she needs right now. May not be what she deserves, but it’s the best we could do.

'She should find it somewhere else'? So, you're saying my ten year old sister should just leave because she's getting stressed out about pleasing people here?

Yeah. Five years of Peacekeeping, then you could choose if you wanted to change. But I was supposed to be a doctor like my Mom, so… yeah.

I thought as much since you were made a medic here, and everything.

They only got mad if you didn’t train. And if you got kicked out of training, you had to work in the mine all day. So we all went to training.

And if you graduated from your academy but didn't get to volunteer are those the people who became Peacekeepers? Or did you get to pick?

It’s not stupid. We have training from sunrise until midday, then class or working in the mines until dark. But they never really yelled at us if we didn’t go.

Really? You could just blow that stuff off if you wanted to and they didn't do anything about it?

I used to skip school to go to training— I’m sorry, that was a crappy thing to say. Did you finish?

I always thought that was sort of... all your schools included. Sounds pretty stupid now. But I finished. We graduate at sixteen then we're sent out to the fields, so that was a few years ago. What about you all?

Alright, I guess its not, I wasn’t saying this is the only place in the world like it, I’m just telling it how it is.

No, but I also don't think it's alright for little kids to not be able to act like little kids, and be terrified of the consequences if they're not perfect. Especially when those little kids start to include my sisters. 

Didn’t you?

Usually. I took some days off to work on my families farm though. Same with a lot of kids in Eleven.

They have to be. You’re expected to grow up quickly here, at Fourteen you pick your job and you’re an adult, regardless of how fresh faced you are. Physical punishment isn’t necessary, most kids know when it’s time to play and when it’s time to be serious. Hurting kids causes emotional trauma and Snow wouldn’t want that.

You know it's not just like that here.

Its not that much different from home, when you think about it.

No. Not for me, either. 

How else are they supposed to act? They’ve to be obedient or else they’d get in trouble.

I just think... it's sad that the rules are even that strict for the kids. -- I know what it's like getting into trouble with Peacekeepers back at home. This feels the same to me. Barring the physical punishment...

That’s how all kids are, plus when you’re little the big things seem even bigger. Soldiers are giants to the little ones.

I don't mean they just quiet down. They're very well organized, and... obedient.

I’ve been down to the kitchens, and all they have down there is canned foods. You’d think with how advanced this place is technologically they could find some way to grow everything better underground.

I guess it's a good way to store things. They make due with what they can have, which is respectable. But... It's not a good substitute. 

Has it only been two days? It’s felt like so much longer… [Thalia grows quiet and looks down at her feet before jerking her head up when Haul mentions killing the other tributes. She whispers her next words, afraid of being overheard and thrown into a cell as well.] I don’t like staying here now, but especially if they kill Silver and Tatiana and the others…it’s like going from one tyrant to the next if they do. If the Capitol is going to kill the ones left behind…they’re going to make a big show of it, show the districts that they still have power. [She shook her head and sighed.]

[Haul gave a small nod and wondered how easy or difficult it would be to convince his family to leave if they had to. Because he didn't want to stay here if it was as much like the capitol as it seemed.] Hopefully that's just... Well, hopefully it's just talk and they won't actually do it. You know, just a few extremists opinions and not the opinion of the actual District... Yeah. [He didn't want to think what else they'd be doing with them in the Capitol though.]

I’m…I’m not always good with talking to people—I’ve always been a soldier over a speaker but…I wanted to thank you for helping Thalia.

I--