Thank you to all of the people who submitted tributes. It really means a lot, and I am sorry that many of you must die. Although this chapter (well, prologue) is about Lystra, I don't know if she is going to win yet. I haven't decided yet.
***I do not own the Hunger Games.***
If you live in District 11 around the time of the 25th Hunger Games, and are starving, there is a way to get you food.
Get your day's meat that you earn from working in the fields. Find a Owen Hopkins. Show him your meat – don't speak, because the district's bugged. He'll take your meat and give you a pair of night glasses.
Go hungry that day. Be careful, hide your glasses; act normally. Ignore your growling stomach – you'll have food soon. Eat half of the next day's meat. Save the other half. Sign up for as much tesserae as you are able to – you'll need it.
That night, take the rest of your meat and go to the fields. A man guards the entrance at night – a peacekeeper. Show him your meat, and he'll take it. He'll pretend not to see as you enter. Open the gate – it's not electrical, and it's never locked.
Here in front of you is food. Field upon field goes on for as far as you can see. Be careful; be quiet. Walk to the back of the fields. Keep your eyes out for peacekeepers – they patrol the inside of the fence, and they have weapons. Don't trample the plants. You're not supposed to be here, remember? All right, make your way to the apple trees. Further down the row . . . further! Stop. Now go two rows over. Yes, there! At the Granny Smith trees. Yes, yes, I know you're hungry. I know they look so beautiful and delicious.
All right. Eat.
Go ahead. There's one right there – on that branch. That's it. Just a little bit farther . . .
There.
Now bite into it . . . taste the delicious juices that flood into your mouth, satisfying your hunger. You probably hear something whizzing through the air, making a clean sound, right about now . . .
You're dead.
Or, at least, you're as good as dead.
The reason?
There's a girl in a tree – she thought that you were a peacekeeper. She won't come down to check on you. You're new here. She's been here for years.
She'll get her knife back later.
She smiles, a bit madly. She is a misunderstood girl – deep down, she feels bad . . . that is, if you were just starving, like her, she feels bad. But she's glad that you met the fate you did if you were a peacekeeper. She hates them.
In truth, she really did you a favor. Peacekeepers would have beat you to death in public, in front of your loved ones. It was a slow and painful death.
This is actually pretty painless . . . and private.
You've got to be thankful.
Her name is Lystra Fay Gull.
She has long, wavy, bright blonde hair, and bright green eyes that could pierce your soul, seeing all of your deepest secrets, regrets, sorrows, lies . . .
She trusts no one.
Not even her own father.
And she's about to change the world.