They sound of the invading forces pounded in my ears. I fell down as I was running away from the white clad men, if men they could be called. I cursed metal, I cursed grates, I cursed my legs as I scrambled up and resumed my running away from the men, albeit slower and more like limping. I was terrified as they pointed their guns at me and decided to play moving Russian Roulette. They shot and I dodged. A song entered into my mind.
'And you can see my heart… beating. No, you can see it through my chest. That I'm terrified… But I'm not leaving. I know I must pass this test. So just pull the trigger.' I gulped and ran faster. 'As my life flashes before my eyes, I'm wondering. Will I ever see another sunrise? So many won't get the chance to say good bye… but it's too late to think of the value of my life.'
"Rhaich!" I cursed as I hit a stop sign and fell into the ditch by the stoplight. I bounced up and continued my further slowed flight. I used a technique my friend Regan perfected to keep from being killed by my pursuers and the fighters all around me. We called it jump-and-duck. I silently thanked her for sharing it with me in fifth grade.
"MEGAN!" I heard the terrified shriek of my classmates, Abby and Jakayla. I suddenly stumbled forward as the blow hit me on my back. I quickly started doing the army crawl, then transferred to the normal crawl, the jumped up and ran into the woods. I saw an explosion from the direction my house was in. My mother had a broken ankle…. I immediately took off for my house all manner of horrific thoughts were going through my mind. I never ran so fast in my life. I saw an abandoned four wheeler and ran for it. I hopped onto it and drove it to my house. Well, I ditched it when some more white clad men shot the tires and rendered it useless. I dropped to my knees as I saw what was left of my house….. My cry of pain echoed throughout Lee and Moore counties it was said. There was only a few things left. My Olivander's wand, my Harry Potter books, Lord of the Ring and the Hobbit books, drawing books, sketch pads, notebooks, writing and coloring implements, other such things, my dresser, all my dirty clothes, my tennis shoes, dress shoes, and boots. I saw my favorite pillow and necklace. A real bronze coin pressed with the design of a Shamrock on one side and a Celtic triple knot on the other, it wasn't much to look at, but it was special to me. The pillow was a small orange pillow with the Hogwarts castle on it. I saw nothing else. They had destroyed my home and family. I was taken off guard as a young white clad man grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. I punched him in the chin, causing his helmet to fly off and then I attempted to get his eyes. He blocked every move I made after the initial punch.
"Look, we don't want you dead. Calm down!" He hissed. I struggled to break free as I stared into his silver eyes. I stopped struggling after a few seconds.
"What use am I alive to you? I can't work, I'm too young." I said staring into his eyes.
"We are about to change that. How old are you anyway?" he responded.
"Thirteen, I know you want me for another reason." I said flatly.
"Was any of your parents' influential in this county and the surrounding areas?" he asked.
"Yes. My mother was known by the leaders of Moore, Harnett, Chatham, and Lee counties." I replied, thinking it wise to tell the truth while I was unarmed against an armed opponent that was stronger than me. "They don't know about me. Well, those in Lee County do." I said.
"I bet you're wondering how we knew to come here, aren't you?" He smirked.
"Yes." I replied curtly. I suddenly registered that he was very good looking. I mentally slapped myself. He nodded to the trees and two more men pulled out my two cousins. I gasped.
"How does it feel to know that your own family-" he started.
"DON'T YOU DARE FINISH THAT SENTENCE!" I growled. My cousins looked at me terrified. They had never seen me like this before. The men looked scared too. "YOU FORCED THE INFORMATION OUT OF THEM." I said dangerously. They were silent after that.
I shot up in bed and looked around the small house that I shared with my cousins. Grace was sleeping beside her brother, Wyeth, in the bed that an old woodworker made for them. I got up and quickly made my own bed up. It was a bed made by some friend of my classmate JD's dad for me. I slipped to the dresser that survived the ruin of my house. There were three large drawer and two small drawers. We each got a large drawer and used the other small drawers to put various things in there. I pulled out a pair of jeans, a red checkered button up shirt, a pair of socks, and a tattered pair of leather work gloves. I slipped into our bathroom and changed. Everyone either worked on the cotton fields, the tobacco fields, or the brick yards. I worked on the cotton fields at five in the morning and then the tobacco fields until ten that night. Wyeth worked on one of the brickyards and Grace, the cotton fields. I sighed. They were lucky they didn't have to start until eight-thirty and ended at eight-thirty that night. It was because they were still so young. Wyeth was going to be working the hours I was in one or two years. I began my walk to work.
"Why did Panem want us? We aren't big enough to do anything to them… They dug their own grave now. Size doesn't matter to me anymore. I will free my people." I mused out loud as I walked by my old school, which was now a factory where they made cotton into the thread the Capitol wanted and base for the Peacekeepers. I walked on as I was joined by two of my remaining friends, Regan and Maddie.
"I wish we didn't have to see the mockery they made of the school." Maddie sighed. I nodded.
"How's Grace and Wyeth?" Regan asked.
"Grace is getting stronger and building up more stamina. Wyeth, well, he's coping." I said. "How's your brothers, Regan, and Matthew, Maddie?"
"They're fine." Regan shrugged.
"Matthew is good." Maddie replied. I fingered the necklace around my neck.
"Still dreaming about visiting Eire?" Regan asked, using the code name for Ireland, the Emerald Isle.
"Yeah, and Ulster too." I sighed. I heard the voice calling me home. The voice that supposedly called all the Irish back to their homeland. I was only part Irish, but the voice was just as strong as if I was full-blooded. I hadn't escaped to there because my cousins and my family needed me. Not that I hadn't wished I had, I had. I look and saw Glen walking toward me.
"Mornin'." Glen said as he joined us. I did Jack Sparrow's salute to him. Regan and Maddie nodded.
"Hey all." Our other classmates and kids I used to know joined us.
"Have you heard about those Hunger Games that some of us are going to compete in?" Glen asked as we walked knitting his fingers and placing them behind his head.
"Yeah, all the districts of Panem have to compete in them." Lindsay replied.
"I heard that it's a fight to the death between twenty six kids on live TV." I said. "And there is only one winner. That means twenty-five kids have to die." I felt their eyes on me. Out of horror of the actual event or shock that I remained unfeeling during my few sentences, I did not know.
"Well, see you guys at lunch." One by one we went to our respective jobs. The boys worked at the brickyards while the girls went to the farm fields. It was a few minutes after Glen left I noticed the pain in his eyes. He was hiding something and I planned to get it out of him.
"With the sting of the whip on my shoulder, with the salt of my sweat on my brow, Elohim, God on High, can you hear your people cry; help us now…This dark hour…" I heard one of the girls start the song we knew so well and sang often.
"Deliver us, hear our call, deliver us! Lord of All, remember us, here where we once called home. Deliver us. You promised to never leave or forsake us. Deliver us out of evil's path." I sang. I once wondered had the Lord abandoned us. But I saw that the only thing that was actually intact was my Bible. I read it and I grew stronger in my faith. God had a plan, and I would follow through with it.
"Deliver us! Hear our prayer! Deliver us, from despair! These years of slavery grow too cruel to stand. Deliver us! You promised to never leave or forsake us…" Regan picked up where I left off. She always had such a good voice.
"Deliver us out of bondage and deliver us out of evil's hand." Karson sang out loudly.
"Deliver us! Send a shepherd to shepherd us and deliver us from evil's hand."Maddie continued.
"Deliver us!" We finished. We sang several more until it was time to go to lunch. I sat with my friends with my cousins flanking on either side of me. I sighed as I nibbled at my apple I grew from my garden at home. Suddenly my vision went black and then I saw for only a few seconds, a boy that looked similar to me standing over me with a sword raised ready to end my life. My vision returned to the present and I gasped.
"What is it," Wesley asked as he plopped down on the other side of Wyeth.
"I just had a vision of sorts." I said as I looked at my apple.
"What was it about?" Regan asked.
"I just saw a boy." I shrugged, not letting the full truth out. I heard the sound of flutes and drums and the goofiest grin spread on my face.
"What is it?" Glen said seeing my grin.
"They're here." I bounced up and took off for the forest. We were given the rest of the day off as this was our first Hunger Games in two days, the Capitol wanted us to be rested and prepared.
"Ah, seems like Little Wolf is excited." I heard the taunting voice of my distant cousin, Girilal.
"Why wouldn't I be, I mean, my awesome Cherokee family is here." I grinned as I gave him a hug.
"There is more than just to visit you in our trip." I heard my great, great grandpa say. Girilal nodded.
"Oh…" I said.
"We first must have a ceremony. Then we attend to business." He responded.
"We brought gifts! For you and your neighbors around you." Girilal said. I smiled knowing it was food, clothes, and things like that.
"And we thank you for them. Your generosity has aided us many times." I replied. "About this ceremony, who is to be attending?"
"The tribe, you, young Grace, Wyeth, Wesley, and your close friends, it will take place tomorrow on the full moon." Grandpa responded. I knew who to take: my class. They were the closest, and Glen, but he wasn't in my class and the only one besides me and Regan to survive our take over in the youth group.
"But, tell them about tomorrow night, and then return here. We have a surprise for you." Girilal grinned.