A/N: I do not own The Hunger Games or any of its characters.
Chapter One
"Katniss, what are you doing?" my sister, Primrose, begs as I stuff essentials into the smallest pack I have. It's the third time in as many minutes that she's asked but I have to make sure that I have everything that she and my mother need before my best friend, Gale, arrives in five minutes to get them to a safe place. Our home, the house I've lived in since I was born, where all of my happiest memories are, isn't safe anymore. Not now that I am an enemy of the state.
Once I'm satisfied that I've packed everything my mother and sister might need, I take Prim's hands into mine. "You and mom have to go. It's not safe anymore. Gale will be here soon to get you both out of here." She tries to interrupt but I hush her. There's too much to say and not enough time to say it in. "Prim, listen to me. I love you and I wish we could stay here but we can't right now. I promised you a long time ago that I was going to protect you and that's what I'm doing. Someday I'll be able to find you again but right now, you have to go." I can see tears brimming in her clear blue eyes and I have to choke back my own feelings. I push them far down into my heart and lock them away, sliding my emotionless mask into place.
A single sharp rap on the door puts me on guard. I stand quickly, pushing Prim behind me, and my fingers close around the handle of the knife hidden in my coat. One little knife wouldn't do much against several castle guards, but I wouldn't go down without a fight. It wouldn't be them anyway. The King's soldiers would have stormed through the door immediately and taken me into custody, not knocked. I open the door a crack and am met with a grim looking Gale. "Ready," he says simply. He's been dreading this day for a while now. At least we have a plan in place for this situation. We came up with it when we first started having less than loyal feelings towards the King. Whichever one of us became the "enemy" would take the other's family underground and get them to safety. My time came before his though, so he's giving up everything to keep my family safe. If they get caught, they'll be tortured for information about me, whether they know it or not. If Gale is caught, he'll likely be put to death.
Prim whimpers behind me while I hand Gale the pack I had put together. "Keep them safe," I tell him. He nods gravely. My mother exits the other room clutching her wedding photo, the only tie she has left to my father. He died when I was just eleven years old, leaving me to take care of my mom and little Prim. I don't know if I can ever forgive him for that. If he was still alive, I wouldn't be in this situation now, being separated from everyone I love. I don't take the photo from her though. She's going to need all the strength she can get in the weeks to come and if she gets it from that photograph then so be it. Anything to keep her from falling into the same depression she had after his death that left myself and Prim almost starving to death.
My mom draws me into a quick hug and slips through the gap between Gale and the door. We all know that if she opens her mouth, uncontrollable tears will start to fall. She's always been a crier, a trait that she passed along to Prim but not myself, which I am thankful for at times like this. I watch her disappear to where Gale has a wagon waiting, then turn back to Prim.
"Can't you come with us?" she trembles.
I sigh. I should have prepared her better for this day. "You know I can't, little duck," I whisper to her. "You have to go now. Gale will keep you safe and bring you food. I'll be back with you before you know it," I promise. Before I can stop her, she throws her arms around me and squeezes tightly. I can feel the lump forming in my throat growing larger with very second yet I can't bring myself to push her away. Despite what I've told her, I know we won't see each other anytime soon, if ever again.
Thankfully Gale pulls her off me before I can change my mind and go with them into hiding. We both know they're safer without me. "You'd better get going, Catnip," he warns. "I'd bet you have less than five minutes before the guards show up." I wish he was wrong but he probably isn't and it's not a chance I can take. The only reason I had this much of a head start in the first place is because we live on the far outskirts of District Twelve, furthest away from the castle out of everyone in town.
He hauls Prim to the wagon where my mother holds her close, both weeping. I toss the rest of my own things into the small bag I can throw on my back and prepare to make my own exit, but Gale stops me and pulls me into his arms. I relish the feeling, knowing it will probably be the last bit of comfort I get for a long time. He surprises me by lifting my chin with two fingers. "You're going to be fine. They're going to be fine," he assures me. His grey eyes look back into my own for only a moment before his lips capture mine and my eyes go wide. We've never kissed before, not ever. I've never even considered it in the past. We've only ever been companions in survival and now this? I hardly have time to register how surprisingly soft he feels against me before he pulls back and whispers, "I had to do that. Just once." And then he's gone.
It's the sound of the wagon pulling away from my door that snaps me back to reality. Time is running out and I'm wasting it.
I grab my pack and haul the straps over my shoulders, securing it tightly. Everything in here is truly essential to my survival and I cannot afford to lose any of it. There's no turning back as I run out our back door to where Prim's horse, Buttercup, is waiting. The only moment of weakness I allow myself is the solitary tear that runs down my cheek as I strike a match and toss it into the pile of kindling I had gathered at the door. Our wooden house won't have any trouble at all burning to the ground and that's what I'm counting on. Even the slightest diversion from my trail and my family's trail will benefit us.
I pull myself up onto Buttercup and swing my leg over his back, not hesitating to dig my heels into his sides to spur him into action, not that he needs it. I'm barely on him before he takes off. He's spooked by the flames. I should have accounted for that in my preparations but it's far too late now. At least he trusts me now. Or at least doesn't hate me anymore. When he was a colt, he was injured badly enough that I didn't think he would make it. I think he knew I'd been looking into selling him to a glue factory and he healed up perfectly just to spite me. I found an apple tree in the woods a while back though and whenever I brought some home, I'd save one for him.
Urging him to go faster, I lean forward toward his neck. We need to put as much space between us and my home as possible before I can regroup and work out a solid plan for where to go. The forest behind my house is far too obvious. The people who knew me at the castle would expect me to go there. That's something else that I'm counting on to benefit me. The time it takes soldiers to search the woods will give me several hours ahead of them. Hopefully they take the time to look. I could use a small miracle at the moment.
Buttercup is going as fast as he possibly can at the moment and I've angled us to do a large loop around the town toward the other side of District Twelve. From there, I can figure out where else to go. As my heart rate lowers to something closer to normal, I relax my limbs. Soldiers will have arrived at my home by now to find it ablaze. They'll have to wait for the flames to go out before they can search for human remains. That should give me some extra time. In my slightly less panicked state, I let my mind wander to thoughts of King Snow and how much I despise him for this. I didn't always despise him though; in fact, I once thought of him like a father. That's what makes this so much more painful.
At just eleven years old, less than six months after my father passed away, I was plucked out of District Twelve, chosen specially by the King along with a few others, to live at the castle and be trained as a part of a new military branch. Of course, I didn't know what his intentions were at the time, but I knew that if I went, my mother and sister would receive food and money to keep them going. I jumped at the chance and moved into a wing of the castle less than two days later, along with the other recruits.
There, I was put into rigorous training. Every day we learned skills like horseback riding and plant identification, and did strength training to build up our muscle. On my thirteenth birthday, the King called me into his chambers and presented me with a pristine bow, declaring that I was ready to move on to the next phase of my training. I was ecstatic. I trained with other weapons as well, knives and swords, among others. I could perform well enough with all of them but the bow felt like a natural extension of my own arm; it was easily my best weapon. In no time at all, I could pick out which plants were poisonous and which ones were edible out of an entire forest. I could hit a moving target on horseback from up to nearly one hundred meters. Every now and then, one of the less menacing trainers would charge me with seeing if I could navigate from one end of the castle to the other without getting caught by a guard. I did it every time. I didn't think anything of it then but now I know that it had been a test of stealth and eventually agility, once the trainers started timing me. Could I get to a specified point within a certain time frame while evading capture? Turns out, I could.
Every week, myself and the other recruits were invited to dine with the King. He always asked me to sit in the seat to his right. I was the favorite, the envy of all the other recruits. They threw me dirty looks at every opportunity and did their best to sabotage me during training sessions, but to no avail. Eventually the King started requesting my company at meals almost every day while my fellow recruits ate in the barracks dining hall. He confided in me that I reminded him of his daughter, whom had died several years earlier due to an outbreak of influenza. The compliment warmed my heart. Since my father's death, I'd felt so alone and so hopelessly lost despite how busy my training kept me. But I filled the void in my heart with love for my King and my country. He told me that one day, I might even rule over the kingdom, and I'd been foolish enough to believe him. I pledged my allegiance to him, promising that I would do anything he asked of me.
It must have been just what he wanted me to hear, for he told me that I was ready to move on from my training to real, important missions that needed to be carried out. He held my attention with a tale of the seeds of an uprising being planted in District Nine, telling me of how they had already made two attempts on his life. First they sent poisoned fruit in the hopes that he would eat it. But thankfully a servant boy had gotten greedy and sampled some first. He died instantly. Then they had attacked his caravan when he was returning to the castle from a trip to a neighboring kingdom. He said he feared they were planning a third attempt to assassinate him. I asked what I could do to help him. "Go to Nine and take out the rebel leader," he'd told me.
I hadn't been prepared for that but nevertheless, I agreed. If his life was on the line, I would do anything to protect him. How foolish I was then…
Within days, I was crossing the border into Nine, dressed as an unassuming young girl, hardly fourteen years old, in search of a rebel leader to assassinate.
A particularly hard bump jolts me out of my memories and back to the present. I am no longer an assassin. I am the enemy. I am dangerous. I am to be feared.
The sun is setting now and Buttercup is starting to slow. He's not used to being ridden at night. We're nearing the district edge though and we need to find somewhere to settle and rest while I think of a plan. Under the cover of the forest edge, I dismount Buttercup and pat his neck. I dig in my pack and extract some of my only fresh food- a single apple. It will go bad if it's not eaten soon so I don't feel bad about taking a few eager bites and feeding the rest to Buttercup. I'm going to have to be more careful with the rest of my food though. I have no idea how long it's going to have to last me.
"Katniss…" a voice hisses at me. My body tenses. It hasn't even been a day. They can't have found me already. "Katniss Everdeen…" I have no chance at escape. Buttercup is too worn down to continue and I'll never make it on foot against a hoard of soldiers. I swallow and turn around to face my fate, praying that death will come quickly. I've seen the castle's version of 'suffering' and it isn't a pretty sight.
"Girl, get in here before one o' them soldiers sees you. And tie up your beast," the voice commands. From the light of a house not far from the trees' edge, I can see a somewhat hobbled old woman, hunched over, beckoning me towards her. But do I trust her? I've never seen her before in my life but it's clear she knows me. It doesn't seem like she wants to turn me over to the guards though and there's no doubt that her house will be safer to me than the open air, so I guide Buttercup to a post along the back of the house and tie his reins to it tightly. The woman glares at me through her one good eye. The other eye seems to be on a journey of its own, lolling in a different direction. I do my best not to stare. "Look just like your father, you do," she says, ushering me inside, catching me off guard. She knew my father? Who is this woman?
I'm still not sure if I can trust her but I have no choice at the moment and I know I have the protection of my knife. I could easily take her out if necessary. For now though, I think I'm safe, and that's all that matters.
A/N: Well that's all for this chapter. If you've enjoyed it, I'd appreciate a review and/or some other type of love. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I possibly can. Thanks for reading!