Hey guys, this is the new story I'm working on starring Madge Undersee. Please stick through the Prologue because it really picks up next chapter when it switches to Madge POV.
Prologue
Thom was a burly native from District 12. He was a miner, just nineteen years old which explained his crew, full of other young men like him. Well his crew was full of men of his age before the rebellion. After the heated and successful revolution and mutiny of the prior government lead by Katniss Everdeen, Thom was left working with only two hands full of people who were all over thirty.
Thom gingerly pressed a hand a hand onto his back as he wiped the sweat from his brow with the other, caused by the sun responsible for the baked earth he worked on. Of course, Thom was happy that the rebels had won the war for the control of Panem. If you had to put a label on him he was one of them. And he was glad that no more children would be subjected to the Hunger Games every year, it took a lot off his chest not having to worry about his little brother Alex being Reaped.
Both of them had made it with the precious few survivors of 12 to 13. It was a dull life. Thom did his time in the army but as soon as the rebellion had unfolded and victory was there's he took Alex and retreated back to 12. The desolate district was even more under populated than before but that didn't bother either of them.
None of the other miners in Thom's crew came back. He had expected this from Gale Hawthorne, who was always too ambitious for a district as unimportant as 12, but even crewmates who had lesser roles in the rebellion like Bristel had scattered at the thought of returning. Now Thom just worked with a few adults who were either burying the grief of lost family members in work, wanting to keep the small district alive, or just needed to get away from their previous home. The government was not picky about who got to live in 12. The district was far too needy for that.
The remains of a destroyed white house laid before Thom: charred rubble and ashes to be exact. He was in charge of corpse control today. The crew didn't mine any more; the mines were blown up in the rebellion so they were just trying to get 12 back on its feet again. After that, who knew? Mayor Undersee's house had not gained so much as a glance since before the explosions and Thom was queasy about what he might find. The bodies could be quite gruesome. He'd already accepted the fact that bodies were going to be found. Being the mayor might spare you from destruction in other districts, but not 12.
Sure enough, after sifting through soot and hauling away planks of burned wood Thom found bodies. Five of them. The mayor and his wife lay in the parlour, looking like they had been stuck by something or other when trying to escape the house. The two servants were in the place where their quarters used to be. The girl was with them too; the mayors only daughter appeared to be dead on the floor.
Thom walked off to alert his crewmates of the confirmed deaths so they could wheel over a cart and carry the bodies to the makeshift cemetery on the outskirts of town, with a saddened look on his smudged face.
"All of them?" asked a crewmate with closely cropped grey hair by the name of Jack when Thom broke it to him.
"Yep," he returned. "Mayor Undersee, his wife and daughter, and two workers. All dead."
Jack shook his head and Thom clapped a hand on his shoulder before they went back to the house to collect the bodies. It was sad. It was a shame. But that was it. Well, that would've been it, if it were true.
The mayor and his wife were dead, yes, and so were their two most trusted servants, but their daughter Madge was not Another girl of merchant class who worked for them had come to the Undersee house to help the addled Mrs. Undersee do laundry on the night of the bombing and she was the one Thom believed to be the daughter. She had the same blonde curls and the decaying flesh of her face hadn't invited him to stare very long. But no, Madge Undersee was not dead. Madge Undersee was very much alive.
So reviews are much appreciated, especially because this is a pilot of source and I'd like to know if you want more. I'm not set on a title yet so it could randomly change, but keep an eye out!