Smoldering- Madge's Untold Story
Tiny black dots. That's all they were. Dark smudges on the horizon. But I knew they were more than that. We all knew it. We saw Katniss shoot that arrow, destroy whatever kept them in. We saw them begin their escape, and we knew. The power in 12 went out; the world became black around us. Silence. It constricted us, with an unnatural force. We watched as death approached. Silence. Everything is so quiet. Deathly quiet. And then I began to pick up on a faint hum in the distance, and I knew that the hovercrafts were coming closer. Mother is in bed weeping; her body is curled into a fetal position. Her hair falling in her face in scattered clumps. Lost. She had given up. She had given up long ago. Her headaches had gotten to the point of being unbearable. She could barely lift her head without collapsing. Dad's face was an ashy white, his eyes sunken in, an undeniable horror was in his eyes. He reached over and took my mother's hand, holding it close to him, clinging silently to her. His eyes hold unshed tears, as he whispers over and over something inaudible. I strain my ears to hear the words. My ears finally pick up on the broken choked out syllables.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." My father whispered brokenly. He kissed my mother's hand and brushed a loose strand of hair from my mother's face. Not leaving her, ready to stay beside her, even in death. My stomach tightened. Death. We were going to die here. A jerk of terror woke me from my watchful stupor. I ran down the stairs, past the worn down piano that once belonged to my Aunt Maysilee. Sitting at my kitchen table, huddled together were Sedge, and Mercy our two house workers. Mercy's daughter who was about my age was crying uncontrollably on her mother's shoulder. This was the first time I had seen her here, she was usually in school during the day, she was a grade or two behind me. That thin strand of hope that had kept us holding on for so long had finally snapped, leaving broken remnants of our sanity and shattered hearts. I rushed past, my heart felt like it was draining out, pain was all I was aware of. I opened the front door and a few people were finding their way to the street craning to see the black hovercrafts that loomed over head, trying to figure out their purpose. I began making my way to the fence.
A blast of fire knocks me off my feet sending me reeling to the ground face first. I can feel the heat hit me, a red hot hammer knocking me into the ground. The first bomb had dropped. The sounds of dozens of wails rise above the confusion. Now everyone is in the streets, crowding the paths a foot finds my hand, crushing my fingers under it. I squeal in pain, struggling to stand in the crowd. People stumbled around me, but the traffic never slows it's fevered pace. Trapped. I was trapped. The pressure of people walking over me, jumping around me, pushing me into the earth. I tried to cry out but was met only with the ashen taste of soil. Suddenly was being jerked backward, my feet finding earth beneath them. I looked and saw Gale. The boy that had brought hope with his strawberries. No, not Gale. This person was younger, less strain on his panicked face. The name surfaces. Rory. I didn't even have time to thank him before he disappeared into the crowd. Would I ever stop owing the Hawthorns? Rory had saved me now, and Gale…well he had, in his own way saved me. He had taught me so much. He always smelled like wild strawberries and summer. Where was he now? What if he never made it out? What if I never got thank him, or tell him those words I longed to say. What if I never saw him again? I force it from my head. I can't afford to think about him now. I can't afford to think about us.
I press through the crowds, finally making it to the edge of town. To my surprise the usual low hum of the fence is replaced nothingness. The power must be off in the whole district, even the fence. Another fire burst into a deadly boom to my right. The coal dust that covered the entire town sparked the fires brighter, the blaze nearly doubled to the size of a normal fire. The twisting tongues of the flames leapt high over my head, devouring the town with each lick. Some of the trees in the forest had caught fire, and sharp hot embers rained down from above, landing on my skin with vicious stings. The Seam is a raging inferno burning up my entire life. I begin frantically digging at the ground, hot sparks landing on the back of my neck as the forest burns overhead. I continue to dig. The embers sear through me. I have to get out. I have to get out. It was the only thought running through my head. I can't break down now. I have to get out. I finally force myself to wiggle under the fence, the metal biting into my sides with its sharp jagged teeth. I feel layers of skin come off where the sharp claws of metal cut into my skin. Survival. Stay alive. Just stay alive.
I finally break out of the fence's jagged grip. I turn around and an old phrase I must have heard years ago pops into my head. 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire.' The forest had been set ablaze, trees burning in a wild ferociousness. I look back at my home, District 12. The world is fire. People are running madly through the streets fire coating them, mothers' burn as children scream, and families die in their homes. Chaos. The hovercrafts circle lazily above over head, and then one lethargically decides to let the last fireball go. It hits its mark perfectly sending up a wall of fire where once four walls had stood. My house. It was my house. The only people I had ever truly belonged with disappeared as the ball of fire broke apart my home. My heart splintered. I was on the ground again, trying to stop the world from dissolving around me. Dead. I begin to scream, hoping it does something to stop pain that now replaces my heart. Dead. I try to suck in oxygen, trying to breathe, but I get mouth after mouth of smoke. Dead. I couldn't save them. I never even tried. I ran off without even attempting to save the people I loved. I was a monster. My eyes poured out tears that sung my cheeks. I don't want to move. I want to die, right here and now, burn in the fires that had taken everything. Fear is the only thing that keeps me from throwing myself into the open flames. Because at this point, I don't have anything left to lose.
I stand and stagger through the burning woods. Burning branches fall like rain around my head, but I keep the pace. Sparks and bits of ashes pour from the burning foliage. I remember the cave that Gale once showed me. It was hidden away, partly underground. He took me here once while Katniss was in the Games. Maybe he was here. I crawl into the cave; it seems to be the only thing that isn't fire. Gale isn't here. I crawled deep into the cave trying to escape the harsh fury of the heat, trying to escape the horror of the screams of those still burning. Dead. They are all already dead. I wondered if Gale made it out, if Rory had escaped the flames. The Everdeens, where were they in all of this? So many families that I had known how many of them were already gone? I tried not to think about them. I would drive myself crazy if I did. I had to think of a way to survive. I knew how to hunt, Katniss had taught me. How could I make it through this? I lay down, exhausted, my heart bleeding. My eyes finally adjusted to the mixture of fire and the dimness of the cave. There, across from me, still growing strong even though the world had burned down around it, was a small plant growing out of the wall. On that vine grew a single strawberry. I knew then, no matter how bad the world could get, that I could make it. And I knew I was going to be okay.