thecapitol | Suspects' Holding Cell

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Suspects' Holding Cell

The vans drive for what seems like an hour before they come to a stop, and Peacekeepers blindfold and forcefully drag even the most cooperative suspects into a building.

The suspects are all held in one cell, a large, metal room with a thick door and a single ledge that serves as a bench. Bright fluorescent lights beam from overhead. There are no windows and no clocks, no sign of where they might be.

The Peacekeepers take off the blindfolds, though without much care for whether they come off all the way or chafe or stay slung around the suspects' necks. The suspects' hands are left cuffed behind their backs, and even the most ingenious of them won't be able to pick the lock on their restraints, but they're otherwise left to roam freely through the space.

Suspects are removed, one at a time, at unpredictable intervals, by Peacekeepers armed with tasers. Some take three hours to return, while others are back within only a minute. Each of them comes back having been clearly roughed up and pressed for information that they may or may not hold; some are bleeding or sporting the beginnings of black eyes.

They'll be sleeping here tonight.

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Shepard had long since taught Sandy how to take a punch but she nodded all the same.

"Thanks." She answered as honestly as she could manage. Just thinking about the blows she'd already endured made her face throb with heat.

"I'm sorry I can't let you...you know. Be you." She added burying her face in her knees. Mindy was a hero, a real hero. Not the kind Sandy had always dreamed about or heard stories from her dad about. Mindy protected the weak and killed anyone who tried to hurt them.

Mindy was also stubborn, egotistical and never ever wrong, but this was hardly the time for Sandy to hold those things against her.

"Was Pruna OK?" Thinking back now to the last time Sandy had seen Pruna alive it distracted her from the pain in her body with a fresh stab in her chest. Why had it taken them so long to bring her back this time?

Mindy chuckled, sounding hollow despite her well meaning. "Don't apologize, I wouldn't be looking forward to that. Not looking forward to any of this, really. I've been beaten the shit out of a few times in my life, but at least those times I was free to attempt a hit back. I don't know too many people who are fans of pain."

She wouldn't be looking forward to this, not at all. As for Pruna? Well...

"Not gonna lie: she seemed a little different. I think the time she was gone and the time she came back wasn't instantaneous. So, you know. Might have to work on that, whatever it means. Not that I think its gonna affect what's coming."

Sandy took a shuddering breath and it whistled out through her teeth as she closed her eyes feeling miserable exhaustion creeping up on her. She wouldn't be able to sleep here though.

"What did I miss?" She mumbled more to Pruna then Mindy. Then louder. "I wonder if anyone here actually did anything or if they're just guessing."

Talking to Mindy was helping distract her from the fear. It was still lingering but at least she knew she could trust Mindy. This little corner of the cell was a little safer even with bound hands.

"Ah, who knows? She probably went and slayed some goddamn demons and shit and is all 'I don't need any wimpy feelings' and shit. You know how we murderers roll. We don't have time for stupid feelings or whatever, we're too busy looking awesome. Present time excluded, of course."

Sandy fell silent again lost in her thoughts of Pruna. If Pruna had really been gone for a long time and was denying any feelings...perhaps she'd finally given up on Sandy.

What had started as a happy thought turned gloomy and Sandy gently leaned to one side till her body fell to the floor gently. There she remained curled up in a ball miserably.

"Oh don't be so mopey," Mindy said, rolling her eyes. "You must be on drugs if you think she's happy with you being here, being tortured. So you might as well not sit there feeling sorry for yourself. People miss you."

If Mindy thought that was going to cheer her up by acting like she was angsting over nothing she would be sorely disappointed. She wasn't some over emotional teenager. She was a kid who had died too many times, been beaten senseless and found out her best friend was probably about to do something very...very stupid.

Every time Mindy and Sandy seemed to be on the same wavelength for a few minutes it would get thrown off again.

Mindy, despite sounding bitchy about it, was actually trying to give Sandy some hope. She'd sparred with Pruna enough times to know when the girl wanted something bad enough, she would get it. Beating her had not made her think any less of her capabilities: she was a fighter, and she wrecked motherfuckers when they were in her way.

"But you'll see soon enough. In the meantime, like I said, stay frosty. You might have shit memories of this place, but there's some good things too, with people you care about. Me, I'll think of my own. Me and Clem in the bouncy house. Me and Ellie and Riley playing laser tag. Beating Dave in basketball and winning him a stuffed tiger."

Sandy listened and despite herself this actually helped. She muttered quietly in almost inaudible words.

"Flying my first kite."

She had argued with Mindy plenty of times. Even screamed at her and hated her, but the girl kept coming back to try and help. That much Sandy could be grateful for.

Mindy laughed. It was hoarse, and it cracked her lips, but it was genuine.

"That was fun, actually. I wondered if I was kid enough to come up with that. I'm glad you liked it. I thought you might be bored. Me and dad...we wound go to the park and do it sometimes."

Dad. Bad idea. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

Sandy nodded gently and kept her eyes closed. She couldn't sleep though, not here.

"My dad used to take me to the bakery on cold days and we'd get fresh doughnuts. Then we'd take them home and put ice cream on them and make it all melty. It was like a treat when things were rough."

She hadn't mentioned her dad much either since they'd gotten to know each other. Just that he told her stories of more famous people in her world and that he was taken away by the government. It seemed that their fathers both had meant to give them at least some normality.

One dad certainly was more normal than the other.

"He sounds awesome. My dad used to take me out for hot chocolate after we trained, and we'd shoot the shit, whatever, you know? He was a smart guy, but you could see that he'd been through some shit. I can't bring him up in conversation around Joel though, not ever. We just start fighting."

Ironic given that Mindy's father was physically more normal compared to Sandy's.

Joel...that name rang a bell and Sandy had to focus to recall his face.

"Isn't he Ellie's dad?" She'd only met him once and had only spoken with Ellie a few times.

"The closest thing she's got to one. He's a stubborn ass, and worse with people, even more than me. Or maybe equal, probably. But he and Ellie have been through some shit together, so he sticks by her. He worries."

She chuckled. "He is like a dad, sorta. But he believes kids should get to play and frolic and be kept outta trouble. It's he hated my dad. For me, dad pretty much invited trouble in. Sitting here and, you know, licking my wounds, I can see why it pisses him off."

Then again, without her dad, she also wouldn't be casually talking like this either.

Sandy listened with her eye still closed. The other one still throbbed where it had swollen shut and she worried idly that she might not be able to see out of it when the swelling went down.

She could see where Joel would be upset with Mindy's dad for what he'd done. After all hadn't her own father tried to give Sandy a peaceful and happy life despite their surroundings?

But she also knew that no force on any Earth could shake the love she felt for her father and it was likely Mindy felt the same way.

"I wonder what dad would do if he was here." she thought out loud trying to imagine what he looked like and finding with worry that she'd forgotten the details of his face. He'd hard short dusty hair and stubble...didn't he have eyes like hers?

"Well he's somewhere," Mindy mumbled, her voice small now. "He came for the parent shit. Like they haven't turned the knife enough, there's that in the back of my mind. Sometimes, the dead should stay fucking dead, damn it. Except for Ellie."

She coughed, spitting some blood out of her mouth. "Better he's not. Would you want him suffering in here with you?"

The obvious answer to that was no.

"We shouldn't have to be the strong ones though you know? I mean you were taught how to be strong but...we're still kids. Or at least we're supposed to be. And our dads would want to be the strong ones for us if they could."

Meaning that even if it would be selfish of her, yes she wanted her daddy here.

Mindy made a non committal noise.

"That assumption is based on them living long enough to do it. Mine lived just long enough to make me be self sufficient. So I am. I would have loved to be a kid, maybe, but I was born the victim of a crime that took my mom. One day, that favor had to be paid. If it meant taking out some useless shit heads too, all the better."

Mindy was serving as an excellent distraction now that the ball was rolling.

"What exactly was your plan after you got revenge?" Because from what Mindy had told her previously she had succeeded in her plot for revenge so...where to next? What do you do when the only thing you had left was as easily dispatched as turning on a light switch?

"We had a stash of money. I was going to try and actually set up a spot for more heroes. Where I'm from, you know, heroes don't have powers, so you need gadgets, money, the whole thing. For all I know it could be confiscated by now. I was supposed to lay low as a regular civilian going to school. A transition."

A bullshit one, but Sandy didn't need to hear her say that.

Sandy was a bit confused by that and opened her good eye to fix her attention on Mindy once more.

"So you were supposed to be laying low and living a normal life but you were trying to set up some kind of superhero secret team? I'm guessing it wasn't your dad who told you to lay low."

Sandy didn't know a ton about Mindy, but she had the distinct impression that Mindy wouldn't disobey her father.

Mindy shook her head. "No. Daddy didn't live long enough for that part. But I still lived in a world where you sort of have to obey the law, and I'm a minor. Wherever I went I'd have to go to school, you know?"

She sighed, straining her neck. "Just as well. Going to school after the shit I did would have sucked. You already see hwo good I am at social interaction here."

"Yeah, you're really charming." Sandy muttered with what could have almost been a smirk, but she hid it in her knees.

"You can't stab a math test to death." She added. "Probably not too many girls who would tease you about how you dressed."

School seemed like a million years away from her current situation. Things as mundane as standing in line to get her lunch or standing up and reciting the pledge of allegiance all seemed like a dream she had once.

She'd never been very popular in school either. Drifting about among the rebellious older kids she would try to be included and end up running away at the first sign of trouble.

"Don't I know it," Mindy joked, shaking her head. "People are just naturally drawn to my shining personality."

She blew a raspberry. "I don't know what other girls would do. I don't even know if I can think like them, pretend that all that meaningless bullshit they talk about matters. Lip gloss. Boys. Celebrities."

She shook her head. "Don't think I could manage that with a straight face, and I've dealt with sponsors."

The silence drew out for a moment as Sandy reflected on something.

"Daddy told me once when I wasn't sure if I'd ever have any friends "No matter where you go, you'll find people like you." I didn't believe him back then but...well look at where we are now."

Even in a place as strange as Panem Sandy had found people like her, and more importantly people who liked her.

Suspects' Holding Cell

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