Chapter One
District Two
"Attention!" Officer Lefig yelled, as he was marching toward the hillside.
I walked out of line to notice dark clouds of smoke rising on the other side of the mountain.
"Sir," I stumbled, "clouds of smoke are rising, sir!"
"Yes Gale there is, now shut up!" Officer Lefig looked disappointed in me, but tried to show no sign of it. He turned back to the hillside and moved onward.
I soon heard screaming and could no longer stand and wait. I ran quickly to the hill to find myself shocked by a force field. For a moment I stood there confused, but I quickly caught up with the day. I took a glance at the force field; there was no weak spot in sight.
"Sir, the force field is activated!"
"Son, honestly, how do you expect this to be, without it people could escape. Not good boy, not good." Lefig replied in that sort of matter facty way that most people hate.
I started trying to catch on clearly to what he said. He meant that they didn't want people to escape. He didn't want us to escape? What does he mean by he doesn't want us to escape? Do we have a poor military or something? Then it hit me. They want control. I began to push through rows and rows of endless soldiers; following the wall of the force field, trying to find the weak spot. Soon I came upon the spot, it was wavy, just as before. I loaded my bow and pulled back the string quickly. I corrected my aim and released, moments later I was blown back by the impact of the dying force field.
I crawled toward my bow and slapped it over my shoulder making sure to collect any stray arrows. I continued until I came to a building, so that I remained hidden. All my ears could catch was moaning and screaming as it bursted. Even though I saw some of my fellow soldiers being wounded I pursued to move. I could only see dense forest ahead of me, uncharted territory, but at that moment I didn't seem to care. I began to sprint and once I reached my full speed I was flying. I leaped gracefully over a bush and persisted into the woods.
As I was running I convinced myself Katniss was running next to me, that we were escaping into the wilderness together. But, every time I turned to see if she was following, she would disappear from sight. I truly was alone, running for what… nothing. Katniss, I knew she would never pick me, I mean probably… if she hadn't competed in the hunger games. But the past is the past and I can't do anything about that.
Behind me I could hear the distant footsteps, scrabbling up the hillside to get me. I thought of all the other soldiers who probably envy me right now. I wonder if anyone even had the guts to go out of line. Who knows what they would do if they found out the force field was activated. I acted with my instincts; nothing more, nothing less. The footsteps began to get fainter as I moved, and eventually they were gone and a thing of the past.
