Disclaimer: All the Hunger Games characters belong to Suzanne Collins and all my characters belong to me.
A/N: So just a few things before we get into the story. This story is set a year ahead of the original plot line so this year would be the year of the Quarter Quill. Also please be kind. This is my first attempt at a Hunger Games story so please don't send me any flames they just destroy any chance of me actually writing. Now on to the story…
Chapter One: Fire
Snow
It was the worst yet, at least that's what everybody was saying. A thousand dead. No one was quite sure how it started but nobody cared enough to find out as we all raced to try and tame the fire before it could consume all of Seam.
They let us out of school early and I stood among the soot covered children passing the buckets of icy water along the line that had formed. As we worked Peace Keepers in white uniforms carried out the countless bodies on long, white stretchers. The lucky ones had been vaporized in the heat of the explosion but the ones that they pulled out…fate had not been kind to them. The surgeons would do everything they could to save them but I can tell by the way that the charred skin hides all of their identities. No one was going to make it.
I was pulled out of the line to assist in arranging the stretchers so that the mourning families could come and claim their loved ones. As I work I find a man about eight or so years older then me. He must have been brand new to the mines. He isn't in as bad shape as the others. He must have been near the exit where the fire started. His arms are badly burnt and he has several patches of blackened flash on his face but there is hope for him.
I want to help him and my remedial knowledge of medicine comes to mind. "To lesson the pain of a bad burn cold water is the first thing you should get on it." Madam Clara's words speak clearly to me. I rush back to the line and I pull a bucket from the line and one of the volunteers protest but I ignore them. I manage to sooth the man's burns and his eyes open to give me a painfully grateful smile. I grasp his hand and squeeze before moving on to help the next person.
I work for hours and more children have left the line to aid in the healing. Mrs. Everdeen, a skilled healer, has joined in and is rubbing a paste on the burns of the surviving victims.
Not everyone is as lucky as the boy I first helped. I hold the hands of the hopeless and watch the lights fade from their eyes. Tears seem to be absent as they leave the wrenched world and all I can do is pull the white sheet over their lifeless corpse and whisper a soft goodbye when it finally becomes to much.
It is well into the next morning when the flames have finally been settled. I stagger in a daze through the milling crowds. Nobody has slept this night and not even the people in town could ignore this fire.
I drift home in a daze; all I want to do is collapse in my bed. As I walk into the house I call home I knew something was wrong immediately. My mom was sitting at the table, her head in her hands and silent tears dripped onto the floor beneath her. Across the room Vick and Rory were holding each other as they cried. Gale was passing furiously. I could see the anger plainly on his face but deep under I could see the overwhelming sadness.
"Gale…"
"Snow," Gale stops his pacing and turns to me. He places his hands on my shoulders and pulls me into a hug. "Snow…Dad was in the mines."
A/N: I know this was a short one but it is only the beginning and yes if you hadn't noticed Snow is Gale's younger sister. Please, be nice when reviewing.
