Infinite
The sun rose over the hill.
It might've been nice if I wouldn't have been in the field.
It was hard, all that chopping. It made your back ache, and I imagined how anyone would ever be doing this for such a long time. My shift was a mere four hours, while most of the adults worked seven or eight. The sound of the axe, the familiar THUNK! as it hit a tree, was so familiar to locals that it wove in and out of our dreams.
My name is Sadie Mach.
My parents call me "a gift from God". I'm the only child they ever had, so I'm naturally supposed to be spoiled, right?
Wrong.
You see, here in District 7, life is rough. Life isn't nearly as nice as you may think. Mostly all adults spend the majority of their lives in the huge field where we harvest wood from the big oak trees. The children are forced to work at the age of fourteen.
Yesterday was my birthday, marking my ability to work in the fields. It wasn't the easiest job, but it soon became easy. I'd learned to handle an axe from a young age. It was just sorta... natural. Just like how naturally everyone was scared for the twenty-sixth annual Hunger Games.
You see... the Hunger Games is a sort of a punishment. From each of the twelve districts from around our country, Panem, must select one young boy and one young girl to compete in a battle to the death. Well... it's not exactly "selecting". More like "reaping". As decreed in The Treaty of The Treason, which they pour into our minds through your whole school career, one young man and one young woman must be "sacrificed" in this duel. The winner was to be crowned with fame and riches, so that was pretty much the only reason people wanted to win. If they did, of course. Most people cowered in their homes until they were forced out to the reaping. Every year, people disappear. A few years ago, my friend Sara was reaped. She did decent in the games, but it broke my soul to see her die in the final four (speared from behind). She was so close. However, this story isn't about Sara; this story is about me.
So anyway, I was in the field chopping (wishing I wasn't there) when I heard a voice calling from somewhere to my left.
"Saaaadie! C'mon! You have to get ready for Reaping Day!" I groaned. It was Thomas. Thomas was my older "brother" (he wasn't actually related to me, but our families were so close that we were practically related), but he treated me as equal to him. Thomas had actually been reaped once before, but a boy named George had volunteered for him for reasons not many people knew (he had died in the bloodbath).
"Coming!" I shouted, propping my axe up against the tree and dashing down the hill.
I dashed past the old capitol building made almost entirely out of oak wood, nearly running into one of the large stone columns holding it up. In front of the building, bright, electric lights were being set up. I felt a lump in my throat start to build, but I quickly dismissed it. Why would I feel nervous? My name is only in there once. My family wasn't the poorest, but they definitely weren't the richest either. We'd never had to borrow food, and we had a decent reputation among the community. I hesitated in front of the door to the big, brown house labeled "MACH" above the doorway, but went in anyway.
Chapter 2? Maybe
