Chapter 1
There I am, in the middle of the Capitol waiting to be relocated into a district. I know nothing about what is going on, just that my name is Maria, i'm thirteen, and the Capitol is under attack.
I have long, wavy blonde hair and fair, slightly tanned skin. I wear black running shoes and matching gloves with a violet purple shirt that is tied in a knot that just lays above my belly button. I have white sweat pantsand dark brown eyes that remind my parents of chocolate. Of coarse, their dead now. I make my way through the crowd as peacekeeps are directing people to safer locations, away from the bombs. Like thats going to help. Already half a dozen people lie either dead, or fataly injured on the ground where people trample over them. Cries of screaming kids and babies ring in my ear drums as I run away from where the bombs are falling. I abruptly come to a stop where a newborn child, about three weeks old, lies crying on the road, wrapped in a pink, blood splattered blanket. I quickly sweep up the crying baby into my arms and continue to run east. The baby continues to cry, but I have no time to check for wounds, just enough time to run, and never look back. Sounds of machine guns echo behind me, as I run in zig-zag motions incase their shooting at me. The sounds grow quieter and quieter and soon, the baby stops crying too. Crap, I should have checked for wounds. Luckily, when I look at the baby, it is still alive, but not for long. A bomb falls twenty five feet in front of us. We fall in differnt directions as the ground shakes in terror and pain. The baby I assume is dead. I fall into the grass, but its all hard and dry, lacking of water. The explosion sent debree everywhere. I have alot of shattered pieced of glass in my left arm, and my right foot is broken. I can't open my right eye and I taste blood. I scream for help as I lie on the ground trying to find the baby, but I can't get up. I don't hear anything. Not the screams of the people, nor the crying of the baby, just sounds of my heavy breathing. I manage to pull myself onto my feet, and dart into a wide section of trees. I can't help but wince everytime my body trips over a rock, or bumps into a tree. I feel very dizzy but continue to tell myself that I will survive, just as my parents would of wanted me to. I get a sudden flashback of twenty minutes ago, when I was watching my parents die before my eyes. They were blasted into pieces after they. The rebels must have killed everyone who was apart of the Capitol. Exept me. I pull myself out of the flash back, and into reality as I stumble over a stump. I sob loudly as I pull myself to my feet and continue into the unkown forest. Stabbing pain paralyzes my as I fall to the ground clutching my left side. As I return my left hand to my face, it is covered in blood, and I realize that I have been shot. My breathing quickens, as does my heart, and I am now panting as I lie in the grass that is now more red than green. If I could move, I would already been bandaged up right now instead of shouting in pain that no one can hear. I knew that this day would eventually come, but I thought it Wouldn't be so soon, in the middle of a forest in the Capitol. Before I die, I re-run everything I know is to be true in my head. My proof you ask? The presedent announced it live, with proof. Vampires, Hunters, Rebels, Phycics, Half human - half Mutts, Half human - half robots, zombies, and that the rebels will soon bomb our Capitol, but the presedent didn't say when, or how, or if we could fight them back or not. I soon become un-paralized, and very weak. But not weak enough to keep moving. I slowly get to my feet, and using my bare hands, I dig out two bullets in to left side, and one in my broken foot. How did that get in there? I pick out the glass in my left arm, and wipe some blood off of my face from where wet, tear like drops of blood have formed. I have not yet stopped bleeding, and I assume it would take awhile. There is a leaf on a tree with a bit of dew on it.I quickly drink the small drop, and dart further into the forest. I yell for help again, but recieve no awnser. Fine. I really am on my own. At the end of the forest, there is a caved in electronic store, with one TV working, but has a giant crack down the left side of the screen. I watch carefully, and see peacekeepers escort dead body into graves, piled one after the other.
They annouce me, Maria, missing and if anyone is to see me, to help me emmediatly since I might be injured. They say more names about people missing, since they don't have any photos of them. How did they get mine I wonder? Tia, Valerie, Mako, Freyer, Shun, Kendal, and Zavier. Five boys and three girls including me. All thirteen, just like me. I let out a soft moaning sound as another bomb drops behind me somewhere, send pine needles everywhere around me, some in my hair or in my shoes. I slowly walk across broken glass as I watch the the sky above me turn dark, and some building catch fore for no reason. Is this real? It must be. Everyone is dead, exept for those missing, but They will probably die before they make it to a district. Thats my goal. Even if I end up in some really lame district, as least people will be looking for me. I hope. But the real question is, Am I really that important to people? Or do they just want to kill me because I live in the Capitol. I was supposed to move into a district when my parents died, but its too late now isn't it? I could have fought off the rebels, but i'm not much of a killer. I seem mean, and have this really bad attitude, but deep down inside, I love everything and everyone. I start into a light jog when I start to hear the howls of what I assume as baby coyotes, but with the rebels still after us, its probably just Half human - Half mutts. They take the important people, and give them a soul from a ravenous man- eating wolf, then they transform them to look scarey, but whats the point? I mean, Who want even want to fight one your loved ones? Even if they are half Mutt. I hear another howl, and that really gets my nerves on edge. I run back into another forest, this forest has dead branches all over the ground, and a lake with about seventy five dead human bodys in it. Well cancels out my urge to dink. I make a mental note about the rivers, and climb up the tallest tree I see, and settle on a nice sturdy branch. The howls are below me now, and the pray that the ravenous mutts can't climb trees. They probably have my sent already. They continue to howl blood curling screams from when they heard their loved ones die, making sleep impossible. I mutter to them "Go Away stupid Mutts! I can't sleep" they stop for five seconds, only to copy my voice. They chant back and fouth among them "Go to sleep" in creepy human voices. I wish I could see them, but what if they used to be my parents? I count about five mutts. I decide to sing a song, and maybe they will sleep. I don't beleive it will work, but I give it a shot. As I sing, they interrupt me several times to say
"Go to sleep" but I continue, and they eventually repeat the words of the song. Its only the chorus, but it makes me fall asleep while they chant.
"Everybody hurts somedays
Its okay to be afraid
Everybody hurts, everybody screams
Everybody feels this way
And its okay, and its okay"
My dream involves me running to my parents, exept that I can never reach them, like i'm not moving anywhere, no madder how fast I try to run. I call their names, but they just stand there, smiling at me from five feet away. I tell them to come closer, but they just stand there. I still try to run, but I fall out of breath and collapse to the ground. My mother stops smiling and looks worried. She now tries to call me name but no words come out of her mouth. My father frowns and walks away. I try to get up, but it feels like an enormous weight has been set on top of me. My mother walks away to, but keeps looking back over her shoulder at me to see if I will follow, but I can't. I scream for her to come back and help me, or at least stay there, but she can't hear me, nobody can. Because I have become an Avox. No tongue. I wake up to the sound of my mother's horrified screams, and relieze that I had fallen out of the tree and onto the ground. I look around for the Mutts, and see nothing but black. must still be night then. The Mutts let out my mothers screams again from the back of their throat, screaming it over and over until my ears are ringing. I yell at them with my loudest voice to stop, but they just yell back at me. I feel one of the mutts brush past me, filling my nostils with the sent of urine, stale milk, and a little blood. I instantly recoil backwards into another Mutt who growls furiously at me. One of them pounces beside me as a warning to stay away from them, but I still can't see what they look like, just pure black. "Maria! Run Maria! There is no time so save me, run!" Chants the Mutts. That was what my mother had said to me right before the bomb was dropped. A tear escapes through my good eye, and I hear my dad chuckling through one of the Mutts mouthes. Even the sound of the crying baby I had in my arms was recorded through the Mutts. And the sound of me screaming and crying for help when I was injured. One Mutt mutters the names of all the missing people, including my name with a sharp hissing sound. They they repeat the song chorus again, but I don't know why.
"Everybody hurts somedays
Its okay to be afraid
Everybody hurts, everybody screams
Everybody feels this way
And its okay, and its okay."
Another Mutt brushes past me, and this time I can feel the warmth of the rubber like skin from underneath the fur. A set of yellow eyes appears before my face, and I know that I'm staring into the human like face of the baby. I scream and run into the forest deeper than I should in case I get lost. The Mutts stay right by my side, but they do not attack, they just repeat everything you or some one else does. And I start to think of why they are not attacking me. The missing people one of the Mutts had chanted, they can't be harmed unless they do somthing bad, but everyone else could be killed, but when your found by someone, then you can be killed unless you live in a district, and the other way around for the head pounds with confusion as I think it over. The five Mutts repeat the words "Go to sleep" from last night. At least they can talk. I stop running, and sit down on what I think is a rock. The Mutts all sit beside me, panting. It sounds like moaning from other people, but these Mutts don't try to kill me. Yet. And that is all I can ask for. I'm about to go to sleep again, when I hear a somthing up ahead. I look around for the Mutts and their gone. Smart little guys aren't they? I dart through the forest as fast as I have ever gone, occasionally avoiding little puddles of mud that will show my footprints. I hold my breath so I don't pant, but who knows if what ever is behind has already seen, or heard me. After about maybe ten minutes, I stop to take a break. I see a couple birds fly out of the trees above me.
"Are you kidding me?" I yelled out to them. "I ran all the way out here because of a couple of stupid birds?" I grunt and continue to head west, back towards the main city of the Capitol. It feels somewhat like two hours before I re-enter the blood splattered streets. Wierd, all the bodys are gone. I walk into an abandoned hotel, and sleep in the most non-wrecked room I can find. Actually, its more liked passed out from the loss of blood in my side. This time my dream involves me in the Capitol, with everybody there, but they werent really there. The were ghost like torsos, just floating around everywhere. A couple fly through me, but they never smile. They just fly around, expressionless. I abruptly wake to the stabbing pain in my arm, and relieze that its trying to heal. I heave a sigh in relief and cautously look at my side. It was an ugly open cut, probably infected, but as well is healing. I root around the room for a working tv, and find one. I turn it on just in time for more missing people. Maria, Zavier, Mako, Shun, Valerie, Tia, Kendal, Freyer, Jen, Camus, Tullia, Arlyn, and Akito. All are still thirteen years of age like me. Man, thats creepy. I count in my head how many of us there are now. Thirteen of us.I shut the tv off and try to find a working bathtub. Damn, looks like the Capitol's water has been shut off. I turn my head just in time to hear howls and a whole bunch of shouting. I dart up the the second floor and hide in one of the guest rooms. Room one hundred and five I think it said I dart into a closet when i hear someone or somthing running up the stairs. I lock the closet from the inside when I hear sniffing, and clawing at the door. I think I hear my name *Maria* being chanted on the otherside of the door, when the smell of blood and urine enter my nostrils again. "Oh great, its you guys* I say back to them with heavy sarcasm. A hand reaches underneath the door for my foot. I scream. The hand tries to inch forward towards me but the door blocks it. The mutts scream back at me from outside of the door. I hear a whole bunch growling and mutter under my breath "Okay NOW they want to kill me, lovely."
I grab a coat hanger and begin scratching at the hand. It instantly retreats from under the door, and I hear howling. Great, now theyre calling reinforcements. But its not other mutts running up the stairs that I hear, Instead, I hear the running up the stairs turn into a voice, and sudden gun shots as the mutts stop howling. I look under the door as a figuer walks around the room. It notices the closet because it starts walking toward it, and I hear the knob start to turn. I emmediatly curl up into a ball when the figuer starts to pound on the door.
"I know your in there rebel! you will pay for our town!" Shouted a boy. I knew it was a boy because of the lower voice. It wasnt to low, but I knew that if I didnt say somthing, this would end badly."No!" I half shouted, half sobbed. "Its me Maria, the girl missing on tv!" "I won't beleive it till I see it" Snarled the voice. I burried my head in my arms, still cuddled up, and again yell "Don't hurt me!" But he starts shooting at the lock.
The door flies open and litterally off of its hindges. I scream as the boy reaches a hand towards me, and drags me out of the closet and onto the rug, where I lie in a puddle of blood from the now dead mutts. I start sobbing as my arms are yanked away from my face and to my side. And the next thing I see knocks the wind right out of me.