9th Hunger Game
Chapter 4: The Train Ride
Mags POV
I was awoken by an odd growling sound coming from the lake. It reminded me of something, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. I leant back against the tree I spent the night beneath. I could hear the birds chirping and the mice squeeking. A rabbit hopped by me and I used my spear to kill it without a second thought. Realizing that I had nothing to cook it with, I wrapped it up in a plastic bag and took out the crackers and goat cheese that had been in the silver pack I'd taken from the Cornocopia. As I began eating, hunched protectively over the precious food in my lap, I heard the growling noise again. Suddenly I recognized the sound, and memories started flooding back to me. The train ride, training and the interviews. I leaned back and let them consume me.
I sat on the nice velvet seat as the train whipped past the districts. We had started off in District 4 and now were headed towards the Capitol. I loved District 4, the way the wind blows, the smell of the sea. And my house most of all. It was situated at the shore. You could see out in the gulf, and if you looked east you could see a part of District 11 that sticks out into the water, the area our ancestors used to call the Gulf of Mexico, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. I wasn't sure where exactly Mexico used to be, or what Atlantic meant, but I guess it had some signicance for the people that used to live here. Now the water around the peninsula has been nicknamed by the people from 4 as the 'Sea of Blood' because apparently the Peacekeepers over in District 11 dump dead bodies in it. I don't know if that's true or not.
If you look out to the west you can see the part of District 10 that extends south, towards the area where there are said to be jungles. That's also where the Capitol creates their muttations. Supposedly there is a huge fence protecting District 10 from the mutts, but occasionaly a mutt escapes and attacks some of the livestock, and more rarely, humans. According to my history teacher, Mrs. Rocher, the rebellion would use flashing lights across the gulf as means of communication between 10 and 11. After the war District 4 was extended between the two Districts to stop any means of communication from one to the other. Because of that, the Capitol supplies us with food, money, medecine and training. Thus we are a Career District.
I looked through the window and was surprised to see that we were out of District 9 and its seemingly endless fields of grain, and were now in another District. From afar I could see the twinkle of a humungous city. At first I thought it was the Capitol, but then I remembered that District 6 was the second smallest District, but had the fourth biggest population. The light must have been from the huge cluster of construction sites that line up all around the shores of a group of lakes, up north, that used to be called the Great Lakes.
I looked up at my mentors, Miley and Havoc. District 4 had had the most victors in the past 8 years. And my sister was one of them. If I remembered correctly, it was: 4 with three wins, 2 with two, and 10, 1, and 3 with 1 win respectively.
Suddenly somebody screamed, followed a few seconds later by cannon fire, jolting me out of my reverie. But the odd thing was that even after the shot died away, someone was screaming, and whoever it was, they were very close to where I was sitting.