I do not own anything, just my ideas!
Chapter 1
GALE
I stand in my new office, staring out the window that shows a clear view of The Nut. It is still in pretty bad shape, considering we bombed it heavily during the war. The community around it are still trying to recover anything worth saving around it; it is a mess. But these are the cost of war.
My office is new, but it doesn't look like it. There are empty containers of food and random junk everywhere. There is a stack of clothes off in the corner accompanied with a few tolitary items, enough to suffice living. Along with this nice job, and an office, and access to everything, and pretty much anything I want, I have a nice home that they gave to me. I hardly go there and I don't care for it. It's unfriendly and uninviting. And it is empty; large and horribly empty. Too much room for thinking, and I don't want free time to think. All I want is work.
I fill every second of my time with working, to avoid the alternative. I just feel like it is the only way to spend my time effectivly. It is all I can do to keep me from unraveling into a horrible fit. Every once in a while I catch myself thinking about her, and those last moments we spent together. And all the other moments, especially in the woods. Oh, the woods; what I would give to go back, but I can't. Every ounce of me wants to run to her and make everything better, but it is out of my control! I had one thing going for me then, nothing... I just... It is so frustrating, how could this happen...
That's when I notice the lamp on the floor, and the stack of papers that were once perfected stacked moments ago, scattered all over the floor. I did it again. I let my mind drift away from my work and lost control. I pick up the papers and lay them on my desk. I leave the lamp, the janitor is used to this kind of thing, but I still sweep it in a pile for him later. I sit down and get back to my computer.
My job isn't horrible, it is actually really good. Really good. I have Plutarch to thank for that. After the war ended and some of the dust rested, there were jobs that needed to be filled. Plutarch recommended me to Paylor, after my stellar accomplishments during the war, and she offered me the job of Secretary of Defense, located in 2. It was the only thing I could do, I couldn't go back to 12, that would not have been fair to her. I oversee the defense of the country, down to the different districts. Right now our biggest issue is the computer systems. Because of the war, pretty much everything is torn to pieces and everything we used to have is unusable. These systems are what we use to function pretty much every piece of technology in this place. Plutarch says he has some people coming to help fix it, some super nerds. But they will not all arrive for a few more days.
Days?! What am I going to do for a few days, they are beginning to make me go home at night instead of staying overnight at the office. Because we just finished a war, there are not am major conflicts, just a few minor things that I don't even need to get involved in. I have to do something, or I will go crazy. And catching up on sleep is obviously out. I can never truly sleep soundly anymore, not for the past few years, actually.
I find myself looking up different security jobs that need temporarly filled. Anything, even if it is stupid and pointless, I need something! Then I find it. It is in the hospital, they are low on night security. Perfect. And with that I close my computer and walk out. I can't go to that house, so I run to the forest. It is different from 12's. The most obvious difference is the trees, they have something different about them in the way they travel to the sky. But to my eyes, the eyes that have lived in the forest, there is something different in the air, the way it blows and the way the world reacts under me. Somehow I find myself a soft spot of earth and lay there looking at the sky and all I can wonder is if the moon was always that far away.
Author's Note: My very first Hunger Games fanfic. Please review!