Aronovich Malenkov, sixty third floor manager, waited in the elevator as it rose up to the desired destination. Standing next to him was the garrison Lieutenant for the floor, a man named Boggs who did not want to be in a confined space with Malenkov for even twenty seconds, let alone a whole meeting. But since it was time for another District Management Meeting, all the floor managers and all the floor garrison lieutenants have to gather into a conference room so that President Coin can know for sure how the floors of District 13 are running. While the meetings were originally meant to be collaborative, President Coin has surrounded herself with either blindly loyal followers or yes men.
One hundred and ninety six of the most powerful people in District 13 sat around a large conference table. For each of the sixty five floors of District 13 was one Floor Manager, his secretary, and one Floor Garrison Lieutenant. At the head if the circular table was a The Throne Of The Proletariat (renamed from "Throne Of The People" after this title was deemed inappropriate), upon which sat the President of District 13.
The surface of the table was covered with a seal bearing the symbol of Bolshevism's most recent descendent ideology; Proletarianism. The seal of Proletarianism was a hammer standing strait up and down, superimposed over two sickles that cross to form an X, with a bundle of blood red wheat on the left side and a bundle of blood tipped arrows on the right side. The shape of the seal border was not circular, but rather had ridges along the side akin to those in a gear or cog. Written on the gear, and winding around the whole seal, were the words "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need".
The walls surrounding the meeting hall were made of a sleek metal that looked much like obsidian. The walls were separated into segments by steel columns, and on the side of the wall behind The Throne Of The Proletariat was a large mural detailing from left to right the history of their ideology from the birth of Karl Marx to the sealing off of the District 13 fallout gates. Well maintained, the mural looked almost the same as when it was painted sixty years ago.
Alma Coin, President of District 13 and General Secretary of the World Committee of the Proletariat, spoke the opening words of the meeting.
"It has been four months, and I think you all know what that means. I have already read them, but I will still hear the reports from you now. Once I know what is going on in each floor, those of you the also hold a commission will thoroughly explain the details the details of your goings on. Then we can act towards the common good."
The reports were almost the same as always. The whole of the Floor Reports went something like this.
A soldier went rogue and massacred children at the school on floor 5
There was a widespread case of food poisoning on floor 7
The power outage on floor 12 is in its third week.
There is a rat outbreak on floor 15.
There was a riot in the cafeteria on floor 17; sixty seven civilians and five soldiers died
There was a riot in the hallway on floor 18; thirty two civilians and seven soldiers died
There were massed protests outside the cafeteria on floor 20; the garrison had to place the whole floor on lockdown
There was a massive riot in the cafeteria on floor 23; and in order to prevent an escalation into rebellion the lieutenant had to seal off the cafeteria and used nerve gas to turn the whole cafeteria into a gas chamber. All seven thousand civilians which included women and children, as well as sixty three soldiers and seven officers in the cafeteria, lost their lives
There is a rat infestation on floor 27
Part of a sector was flooded due to broken sewer pipes on floor 29; forty five civilians were displaced and three died
The hunger strike on floor 34 has caused people on that floor to passively resist; productivity on that floor fell by 74%
There was a riot on floor 37 that lasted for three days and is presumed to have killed two thousand civilians and thirteen soldiers
Someone illegally spreading religious sentiment on floor 41 continues to escape detection despite the bounty on his or her head
The metal welders on floor 45 are on strike, demanding better wages and refusing to continue work until their demands are met
A serial killer on floor 49 has just murdered his twenty forth victim
A fire broke out on floor 57, killing three hundred and forty seven civilians
A sector on floor 65 collapsed into an undetected cavern below, resulting in the death of thousands of civilians and hundreds of soldiers.
After hearing all this, and commending the garrison lieutenant of floor 23, Alma Coin them heard from the commissioners.
The Commissioner Of The Workers Revolution gave bad news; attempts to foment revolution abroad have not been going well and so far zero successes have been seen.
The Commissioner Of War had better news; the District 13 Proletarian Army was the biggest it has ever been and District 13 is virtually impregnable.
The Commissioner Of Propaganda also had good news in the form of a successful experiment; blaring propaganda slogans and speeches from speakers in the hallways of Floor 20 really make the people docile, but he still felt Alma Coin should grant permission to distribute a newspaper. Any paper lost would be more than made up for in a content populace. President Coin decided to consider it.
The Commissioner Of Agriculture states that using ground up animal bones in the flour makes bread baking much mire efficient. However, the preserved food storage is nearly full and they could due good to increase rations or sell off some food in exchange for raw materials they could not get themselves. President Coin decided to exchange food for raw materials, but not to increase rations.
The Commissioner of Genetic Correction, Aronovich Malenkov, was able to report that the genetic make up of District 13 was slowly changing and that inbreeding was at he lowest it has been all year.
The Commissioner Of Finance had more bad news; there was little money left after maintaining the district and constructing nuclear warheads.
The Commissioner Of Internal Security had the worst news of all; riots are flaring up and will only get worse.
President Alma Coin said only this: "Those of you that are Floor Managers, do what you think is best to solve the problem on your floor. As for the national problems, I will compile a written report detailing specific instructions on how is nation is to be run. We can not give up just because a few people feel like rioting. Now, let's get on with business ..."
During the interval, one hour of rest between the lengthy meeting, Boggs was sitting down and rubbing his temples. He hated these meetings; they were not collaborative like they should be and he was tired of putting on his yes-man face.
He could not wait to get as far away from this hellhole as possible.