8. A Haunting or 9. Hundreds and Thousands?
Thanks @mollywog ! I actually came up with something! Slapped together quickly so forgive any errors <3.
8. A Haunting
Dr Aurelius finally gives Peeta a clean enough bill of health that he's allowed to leave the Capitol and continue his treatment by telephone wherever he decides to settle. There's no decision to be made. There's only one place for Peeta.
And while he wants to be away from the place that holds so many horrific memories, he isn't in a hurry to be back in Twelve, where uncertainty waits for him. So instead of taking a hovercraft, Peeta opts for a train, a method that will give him a few days to get used to the idea of seeing home and the rubble of the bakery and Haymitch and...and...her. Katniss.
At least Peeta thought the train was his best bet. That certainty hung on as the Capitol disappeared behind him. I'm never coming back, Peeta vowed as he settled in, turning his head to look out the window.
The thing is, the new train system doesn't run at the same high speed as the old line did, back when he and Katniss travelled across Panem in their Tribute and Victor days. There is still extensive damage to the high-speed rails, so all travel between the Districts is now relegated to the mostly untouched commerce lines. The line Peeta is traveling on used to drag heavy coal cars from Twelve to the Capitol and back again.
Those places he and Katniss used to zip so quickly, the landscape was an indiscernible blur? Peeta wishes for it with every fiber of his being. This journey stretches out before him in a never-ending landscape of destruction. The districts he passes through are bad enough. It's the wastelands between that make him certain they will haunt his dreams. The wastelands are nightmare fuel, barren, burned-out spaces, and when the train passes through them in the dark, Peeta can't help noticing the pairs of eyes shining back at him. He wonders what sort of things can still exist in the aftermath of those radioactive bombs the Capitol dropped seventy-five years ago, during the Dark Days.