AN: Welcome to chapter one of District 0! I thought I'd let you know that this story takes place a year before the 74th Hunger Games, and I'd like to give a thank you to Annabeth-TheTributeThatLived for reviewing my prologue.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games, just this storyline and a crazy imagination.
Kelcie Stone opened her eyes and yawned, shielding her face with her hand in an effort to block out the light coming from the cracked bedroom door. Pensee must have left it open again, likely because yesterday Kelcie had slept until nine in the morning and missed half of training; this was punishable by being put in the Chamber if it happened more than once, and as Kelcie had an almost clean track-record, she'd hate to ruin it because she slept in.
The alarm clock on the nightstand announced with its glowing red numbers that it was almost six, which gave Kelcie plenty of time to get ready before breakfast. The first part of training began at seven and ended at twelve for lunch, then continued at one and ended again at two. Then it was back to the dorms for homework until dinner was served at six, and afterwards Kelcie and her roommate Pensee could do whatever they wanted until curfew at nine and lights-out at ten. This would be their schedule five days a week until they turned twenty, and then, finally, their training would be over.
Kelcie was used to this, however. She'd lived in District 0 for as long as she could remember and had been training for five years. She had no idea how she'd ended up here, as she had no parents or even any family whatsoever, so she'd always assumed that she'd been adopted. Still, no one really took care of her and never had. Pensee was her best friend and that was about it other than a few people she occasionally struck up a conversation with. Somehow, District 0 had never felt like home. Kelcie had a gut feeling that she belonged somewhere else and her parents were still alive, no matter what she was told by her instructors.
Every once in a while she would chart out a plan to leave the underground city and go explore the world beyond, but in the end she would always laugh at herself and think of the numerous amounts of guards that always watched the entrance. No way was she getting a glimpse outside until she finished training.
But now, all thoughts of sneaking aside, Kelcie swung her legs over the side of the bed and forced herself to get up. She could already hear Pensee clamoring around in her room, more than likely looking for some decent, unwrinkled clothes to wear. She had a bad habit of crumpling up her uniforms and stuffing them in a random drawer.
Kelcie opened her closet door and pulled out the standard training outfit: an army-green t-shirt with matching cargo pants, a brown leather belt, and thick socks for her combat boots. She changed and brushed her teeth before pulling her hair into a ponytail and heading out the door to breakfast with Pensee, who had been waiting in the living room and tapping her foot, obviously growing impatient.
Considering ninety percent of it was located underground, District 0 was rather large. With all of its sprawling hallways and seemingly endless rows of doors, it was very easy to get lost if you didn't know your way around. While memorizing all the routes to key locations, you simply had to remember that the entrance was on ground level (of course), the officer dormitories were on the second floor, the dining room was on the third, the spare dormitories were on the fourth, the student dormitories were on the fifth, the training center was on the sixth, the seventh and eighth were both occupational floors, and the ninth was the emergency floor. Yes, there was a tenth level, but no one except the highest-ranking officers knew what it was for.
So of course this meant that every single one of the students in training were fascinated by the mysterious "number ten," but so far only small groups were able to agree on single assumptions as what it was. At least once a day you'd hear a rumor floating through the halls, and whether it was ridiculous or not it would always be passed on, one way or another, until it was spread amongst everyone. Kelcie preferred to keep her ideas to herself, but occasionally she'd let one slip to Pensee who never told a soul. That's what was so great about her: she could keep the biggest secret in the world without even the slightest temptation to spill it.
But there was one theory that always kept resurfacing under the many layers of guesses and presumed facts. It was famous, and no one knew exactly who'd come up with it. Actually, it was so believable that Kelcie wondered if it really was accurate.
There was a story that fifteen years ago, there had been some sort of natural disaster and everyone had had to go down to floor nine. Basically it was all one big, simple room and someone had found a door in the corner. It was painted taupe to blend in with the walls, and the only indication that it was there at all was its small, barely noticeable brass knob. Said finder had tried to open the door but, naturally, it was locked. They'd asked an officer about it but the only answer they got in return was "No such door exists." The person went back, just to make sure what they'd found wasn't some weird illusion, but sure enough, it was still there. They went to a different officer and asked about it again, but they replied the same way as the first. However, with some thorough examination, the finder had made a discovery: a slight draft was coming from the tiny crack under the door. This could only mean that the room beyond was tunnel of some sort that led outside, so they had the idea that maybe District 0 was communicating with someone…. No one knew if there were other Districts or not, but most people thought there were. In the matter of a week, the finder had written their theory that the occupants of District 0 were hiding from something, which would explain why they were underground, and that they were planning to attack whoever was threatening them. The finder had added to their report that the air coming from the room had smelled faintly of gunpowder.
Kelcie, personally, stuck to this and believed it could be true, and until the secret was out, if it ever was, the mystery of floor ten would remain unsolved.
And the guesses would just keep spreading like wildfire.
AN: I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!
-Dare