The sun is raising when I wake up. It's actually the sunrise that wakes me up, I fell asleep in the tree I was perched in, waiting for game. I groan, slide my hand over my face. I hate it when I do this. It's dangerous. I could fall out of the three, or get attacked by wild animals, or any number of things. "How could I be so stupid?" I think to myself, "Mother would never do that." Then I bite the inside of my cheek, hard, as a way of stopping myself from even going there. "I am not my mother," I remind myself, "That's why I ran away from civilization in the first place." Everybody assumes that because my mother was some great war hero I'm going to be some great figure, but that's just not me. I'm not going to become President of The Republic Of Panem because everybody wants me to. I don't suppose anyone ever thinks about what it cost her to become Katniss Everdeen, Girl On Fire, the Great Mockingjay. Her sister, her family, her home, her best friend, her sanity to a certain extent. I suppose it wasn't all terrible, though. They left her alone after they used her up, and she got Father out of the deal, me and my brother, too. "Like that's much consolation," I think to myself as I climb down from the tree, "Father died, Monroe couldn't be bothered to stick around to take care of her, and I was a complete failure." Not a complete failure, though, I suppose. I did make a nice living protecting the settlers from other Districts, and selling food from the woods, and cared for both my parents in their premature decrepitude, until the day they died.
I bite my cheek again to force myself off this train of thought. Again, this is why I ran off to the woods after they died, built a cabin somewhere so deep and the woods no one would ever find me unless I wanted them to, and the sooner I get back to that cabin the better. I don't really need to hunt right now, I have plenty of food stored up, it was just something to do. Something to twirl away the time. I need to tidy the cabin up anyway.
I'm halfway to the cabin when I hear it. The sound of a hover craft over head. I look up and, sure enough, there's a red hover craft, just about to crush me. Adrenaline breaks through the shock, and I duck out of its way and scurry up a tree as it lands. I draw on arrow from my quiver and put it in my bow, just in case. "What are they doing here?" I think to myself, "No one ever comes out this far." And then as I watch a group of three men, and two woman, armed with tranlizer weapons, step out of the craft and look around the woods, I get angry. How dare they come into my woods, trampling through it, disrespecting it, defiling it. Just the thought of it makes me shoot my arrow in the air, too high to possibly hit any of them, but this still gets their attention. They ready their weapons to fire. I jump down from the tree, landing on my feet. Instantly all trank guns train on me. "Indentify yourself." The leader, a broad-shoulder muscular man with tan skin, and black hair commands.
"You're kidding, right?" I think to myself. Still I answer. "Primrose Everdeen-Mellark."
Everyone turns their heads directly at me, with looks of surprise, and intrigue and in some cases reverence. The guy in charge quickly regains his bearings and asked, "What are you doing here, Ms. Everdeen-Mellark?"
"I live here," I say defensively, "Or at least, I live near here. What are you doing here?"
"I'm afraid that's classified, Ms. Everdeen-Mellark," The man says.
"Sir," A twig-thin, red-headed young woman who can't be much older than me speaks up, "Maybe she could help. I mean, if she lives here she knows the area, and no one else has been out this far into the wilderness before."
The man thinks on this for am minute, because he knows she's right, and says, "I'm Dr. Brent Guinan of The Private Science Guild. Perhaps you might want to sit down, this could take a while to explain."
I sit down with Dr .Guinan and he explains to me that The Private Science Guild had been working on device that they hope would transmit broadcast from the future, but it had backfired went to the past, and dropped two things from the past in the middle of the woods surrounding District Twelve. "We're not sure what they are," He explains," That's why we're so well armed."
"And what are you going to do when you get them?" I ask. If they are living things they don't deserve to be imprisoned just because some idiots created something they couldn't control.
''Send them back to their time," Dr. Guinan answers, "We have it mark, and have the device homed in on it. All we have to do is it retrieve them."
"Good luck with that," I snort when I see the path they've drawn out on their map.
"Excuse me?" Dr. Guninan asked, vexed by my laughter.
"I'm sorry, but," I know this area, and it's so unbeaten and densely wooded, if they are living things they'll hear you coming literally from a mile away," I explain.
"Well, what would have us do?" Dr. Guinan asks sincerely.
That's a good question. "What would I have them do?" I think to myself, "What would I do if it were me?" Then the answer hits me like a ton of bricks. It's obvious really. "Send me." I say to him.
"What?" Dr. Guninan asked. The entire group looks at me with looks of confusion and shock.
"Send me," I repeat, "I know the area, I can move without being undetected, and can get whatever's back there back safely, and defend myself against them if he's dangerous."
Dr. Guninan just sit there a moment, as if contemplating what I have said. At last he said, "We won't be responsible if anything happens to you."
Of crouse that's his first concern, that his butt's covered. "Don't worry." I tell him, "I can more than take care of myself."
"And our two unknowns?" He asks me.
"If they're imamate objects I can carry them back, an if they're living I can guide them back," I say confidently, "I protected the colonists for years, without losing one of them. Just give me some time to get some supplies together, and I can be going by the end of today and have them back here in at the most a week if everything goes according to plan."
Dr. Guinan walks back to the hover craft, and comes back out carrying a black bracelet. I stand up as he walks towards me. "Here," He says as he tosses me the bracelet, "It's a comuicuff. You can use it to call us if you get held up, or you need help."
"Does that mean you've excepted my offer?" I ask as I put on the cuff.
"Yes," He answers.
"I'll need the map as well." I tell him.
Without asking for an explanation he hands me the map. "Good luck," He says as I take the map, "And Godspeed."
I make it back to my cottage, and grab a some supplies. I grab my gathering bag, jam in some dried meat, dried fruit, and tubers, put some extra water, and took my family book down from the self I have it on. I don't know why, I have a feeling I might need it. And then I walk out again. The door doesn't have a lock, I'd never thought I'd need it out here anyway, so I reach into the window for a chair and pull it next to the door. I don't want the science team coming into mu home while I'm cleaning up their mess. I don't want them here at all. I start walking in the direction of the two unknowns. If I go through the night I should be there by mid-day tomorrow. The sooner I get everyone out of my woods, and I can get to my life of solitude, the better.