Escaping was the easy part. The exits were staggered. Every ten minutes, Gale and I led ten more people into the woods. The going was slow, but once everyone was into the woods, Gale and I led them all deep into the forest. I had grabbed the carefully hidden bows that my father had made, and Gale and I led most of District Twelve into the forest.

I wondered why there had been no hovercrafts, or peacekeepers chasing us. Today was the reaping, after all, and missing it was punished severely. We must have been missed in the square. I came to the conclusion that the capitol and all that worked for them didn't care all that much if a couple hundred miners disappeared. They would make an excuse, as they always did, and that's what they would tell the other districts. Maybe they would say a plague had taken us, or a serial killer. It didn't really matter.

We walked for hours. Eventually, when we were far enough away from our district, we set up camp, sleeping on the soft ground. Our objective was to get as far from the capitol and anyone else who would want to capture us.

Hours turned into days, days to weeks, weeks to months, months to years. Two whole years had gone by before we found it. Before we found the city. It was a glorious city, filled with the most dazzling buildings.

We came across it one day, when Gale, a few other men, and I were hunting. We hadn't much luck, and I was beginning to get impatient. Two squirrels and a scrawny rabbit. That was all we had managed to catch. That was hardly enough to fed over two hundred people. I had told Gale that I would go ahead of the group, to scout the land in front of us.

I ran ahead, being careful and making next to no sound. A metallic glint caught my eye, just beyond a line of tees ahead of me. I stopped running, slowing to a walk. I parted the branches of the shrubbery, revealing the most beautiful city I had ever seen. I'd never seen buildings this tall, not even the ones that we saw on the required television shows from the Capitol. The buildings in this city were not colorful, like the Capitol's. This city's towered at least three times taller than that of the Capitol's. These towers were made of glass and metal, and were more dazzling to at than the sun.

As soon as I set my eyes on it, I nearly tripped over my own feet, trying to get back to our hunting party. As soon as I reached them, I was out of breath. I collapsed at Gale's feet, trying to tell him what I had seen. All I could manage was a strangled gasp. Somehow, Gale understood. "Where, Katniss," he said. I rose, pointing in the direction I had come.

The hunting party and I scouted the city. I knew by the architecture that is was before the war. You could tell that it was abandoned by the grass and vines sprouting everywhere, and the strange metal objects lining the street. I didn't know for sure what they were for, but they resembled trains, so I assumed they were vehicles used for transportation.

We continued walking down the deserted streets, when I noticed something. The sun was setting, so the city was full of shadows. A light. Inside a building, not far from where we had come to a stop, a light was on in one of the many stories. Spinning on my heel to face the group, I put my hand out to stop them.

Gale looked at me questioningly, and I pointed to the window. His eyes widened, and we went into a zone. This happened almost every time we hunted. We had each other's backs, and ignored everything that wasn't of concern to us. Our hunting group struggled to keep up, as Gale and I kept to the shadows, closing in on our target.
When we reached the building, I tried the door. It was open. Inside, the building was damp and musty. Lost birds and bats flew overhead. I briefly wondered how they got in, but dismissed my thoughts soon thereafter. The smell was the worst. Almost immediately after entering the building, I had to cover my nose. It smelled of rotting corpses and mothballs.

Despite this, the lobby we were standing in was more extravagant than nearly all the buildings in District Twelve. A slightly broken crystal chandelier hung above. Velvet couches sat placed throughout the room. I looked around, taking it all in.

Signaling to Gale, I began to climb the flights of stairs that started in one of the corners of the room. We moved quickly and quietly. Eventually we reached what we thought must be the floor where we had seen the light.

I put my hand to my lips, reminding the rest of our party to stay silent, though they hardly needed to be told that. One of the younger ones looked as though he were about to wet himself. They nodded their heads. Gale looked at me, then back at the group, mouthing to them to stay behind. He walked up to me, touching my shoulder lightly as we crept down the hallway, which was lined with numbered doors. I noticed that from underneath one of the many doors that lined the hall, a bit of light shone. Looking towards Gale, we silently, but mutually decided to open the door. Creeping slowly, one step almost every thirty seconds, we reached the door. Breathing deeply, but once again silently, I reached for the doorknob. Locked.

Inhaling sharply, Gale reached for the tool belt, secured to his waist. He retrieved a hammer. First raising it over his head, he brought it down on the flimsy door- handle. I raised my foot, kicking the door off the hinges.

I never could have braced myself enough for what I saw inside.

Author's Note:

Thank you so much for putting up with me all this time, and thank you even more for reading. I am soooooo sorry for the super long delay, but I have been beyond busy. Between homework, a Hot Chelle Rae concert, basketball practice (four times a week, 2 hours every time), Pottermore, my other fanfic, my fiction press, and stuff I do with my friends, I have not been able to get everything done :P. Please review, favorite, and subscribe. It would mean the world to me! Once again, I apologize for not updating since September, and I promise it won't take me that long next time.

I hope to have the next chapter up next week, bu until then. BYEYEYEYYEYE!

Oh, and last thing. Virtual hugs to everyone who mentions they read the note in the reviews. ;)

I lied, this is the last thing. I just wanted to let everyone know, I did not review my own story. That would be messed up. My friend tried to review from my laptop, and she forgot to sign me out. Obviously I can't delete it, otherwise, I would. Just to clarify, I DID NOT REVIEW MY OWN STORY.

Okay, now I'm done.