Oh please god, no. "Jennifer hensford!" the lady onstage screeched again. The
girl behind me shoved me forward and I tripped and stumbled up the stairs in my
nearly tear old favorite yellow wedges. The women on stage grabbed my shoulder
tightly and avoided my eyes as she glanced back at her tablet screen. "christina
snow!" she yelled even louder, and that sick bitch was smirking at that. A girl
no older than fourteen with silver blonde hair and pale blue eyes stalked
forward with her head high. I knew her by name, she was the old presidents
granddaughter. No surprise she was selected for the first annual new hunger
games. There was supposed to be thirteen of us, one child sacrifice for each
hundred rebels our 'parents' killed. One for each district we had failed to keep
down. And one for each stroke of bad luck. At least thats what they said, my dad
was a second year game maker and my mom had been on district 6's prep time.
Didn't take a genius to know they were dead. Christina and I joined another
eleven more kids, a 'random' mixture of boys and girls, who really weren't
random, because I recognized their last names by game makers and military
officials. Every single child up here, was the kid of someone the rebels hated,
they had a brother and sister pair brought up from one of snows personal cabinet
friends. A school friend of mine, Mitchell kielbasa, was the oldest of his
family, at age sixteen he was in charge of caring for his little eight year old
sister and eleven year old brother, and now neither of them would have anyone to
care for them. I had been an only child, but my best friend Mindy who had lost
her family as well, was openly crying in front of everyone. No one was allowed
to volunteer, that was supposed to be symbolic for watching your family die
while you could do nothing, but it seemed the cruelest thing a person could do
as they tore apart a nineteen year old boy from his fourteen year old sister and
knock him out with the butt of their gun, dragging her kicking and screaming up
to the front with the rest of us. Every child had two armed 'police men' which
was the new word for peacekeeper, on either side, making sure a terrified
teenager didn't go ballistic or anything. The thirteen of us were forced to
stand in a line and exit one by one backstage where we were allowed three
minutes of goodbye from family and friends. I had no family of course, but Mindy
came in sobbing, which pushed away the shock and I followed. What felt like
seconds later Mindy was pulled off by a police man and slammed behind metal
doors. Strong arms pulled me up from behind and dragged/carried me onto a
waiting hovercraft, strapping me in a seat between a scared silent mitchell and
a wild eyes hysterical girl with half her bubblegum pink curls yanked out and
bloodied fingernails. Mikey looked over at me with tears in his eyes and I
grabbed his hand through the seatbelt. The harnesses locked and we took off,
death grips on each others hands as I wondered how the new hunger games would
go. Normally each district had two tributes, who lived and trained together
until the hunger games started. But now there was an odd number, and the five to
eight boy girl ratio which would confuse thing even more. The usual hunger games
consisted of interviews, photos, stylists and a whole bunch of people eagerly
betting on kids who would come out alive. Sitting here now I wish I could take
back the hours I spent laughing with my friends over which little weakling would
die first, I had never been in their shoes. And now I was, though I felt it was
worse because this time the hunger games wasn't meant to be a show, it was meant
to be an example. Using children of the leaders as a sign even the most powerful
people can fall. Killing us was apparently suppose to start healing the world,
though I still didn't get their logic. The hovercraft landed and the pink hair
girl started screaming in earsplitting pitches, causing everyone to cringe and
me to rip my hand out of Mikey's to cover my ears. One of the police men walk
over calmly and stick her with something. There's a buzzing and the girl goes
still. The harnesses unlock and medics come and drag her out as the other twelve
nervously sit in a shocked silence. One police men comes in and grabs a chubby
blonde boy off the first row and walk him outside. Nearly an hour passes before
another is lead out. And another and another before it's finally my turn.
