I woke up next morning at 5am on the dot as I had for more than a decade of the recent past of my life. In school we learn District 13 is heavily reliant on technology to build our society, as well as extracting the maximum out of whatever natural resources we could access from underground. But humans were never supposed to live underground and there is never quite enough. We have to extract the maximum, use what energy we could obtain in the most efficient way possible, and do our best to simply survive and keep living. If we didn't we could all slowly starve to death, catch contagious diseases that would spread like wildfire in this confined space, and easily become a ghost town. That was also a reality complete with pictures that we viewed over and over again in school. In most years of school we went back to that topic, learnt about it in more depth, and the need to conserve energy was so heavily ingrained in us by the time we graduated I didn't think anybody who grew up in District 13 could ever forget for the rest of their lives.
Alarm clocks were a colossal waste of energy and batteries. Most people slept early and rose early. We had solar panels above the ground that generated more energy for us during the daylight hours. There was more technology available to use during those hours so a lot of people preferred to rise early to make maximum use of it. It was common to awake at dawn in District 13, and falling asleep at the same time every night tended to allow one to wake at the same time every morning. They were deeply ingrained habits from primary school and I felt myself awake at 5am, which I had been accustomed to doing ever since the lower grades of primary school. These schedules were comforting sometimes. I think I would go crazy if I lived elsewhere and had no schedule to run my life by. What would I do with all the free time? Or maybe I'll use it to get more work done and get ahead...that was a possibility too.
I put those idle thoughts out of my mind as I got up and went through my usual morning routine in the bathroom and then went downstairs to help cook breakfast for the entire family before we left. Mother slept in so Bellamy and I tended to cook and then leave her portion out on the kitchen table for when she woke up. It was the same routine every morning and the same calming silence and comfort seeped over me as I did it. I sometimes had idle thoughts about things, if I lived elsewhere, if my life was the same but ever so slightly different, if I tried this instead of that to get ahead...I didn't like them much because they were all fake and too far from reality to be of much real help to anything, so I usually tried to bat them out of my mind but I did think them from time to time. It was a tempestuous annoyance I couldn't turn of.
Bellamy and I made little conversation as we ate breakfast. Meals were usually the bare minimum to satisfy everyone's energy requirements for the day and not much more. Most people in District 13 preferred not to talk much because that took up valuable energy.
After we finished breakfast we bid goodbye to each other and then headed to work. Since our father used to work in government he bought an apartment close to the government quarters of the District so it wasn't a long walk for me. There were no cars or trains for that would take up too much energy. Everyone either walked, jogged, or rode a scooter if they wanted to get from one place to another fast. Scooters were easier to make than other modes of transport. It was a board, a stick, and two wheels. The engineers cleverly put them together so they were sturdy in spite of minimal materials and if you rode one correctly you could go much faster than if you were on foot. Some scooters had bigger wheels and an electric motor attached, for getting to places faster if there was ever a need for it. The military had access to those but there were a few in the government sectors of District 13. I'd never known of anyone using them however, there simply hadn't been a need.
Once I arrived at the office I was shown about by Callisto Holster, a 25 year old man who was also a representative for the Communications Department in the governing body. He was also the younger brother of Bellamy's boyfriend Deoxy Holster, who was 27 years old this year. I knew how to make connections with all the right people, but never exactly had a large group of personal friends growing up, so my sister's friends were also my friends. In the absence of spending time with many friends my age, I hung out more with Bellamy and her friends sometimes, and that's how I became acquainted with them. Due to the sheer amounts of time we spent together and sharing bonding activities together they probably fit the descriptions for friends more than many other people in my grade at school. Not that I minded, I'd always known I was special and different ever since my father died and I found myself thrust into the spotlight from a young age, having to weld his death to create a path forward and upward for myself, having friends from unusual places was just the cherry on top of it all.
I nodded as I took everything in, making polite small talk with Callisto and then chuckling together as we went from department to department. District 13 was split up into multiple Departments that managed crucial things to our everyday survival. The government was made up of representatives from them. The more important departments had more representatives in the government, and the individual that was most important to all of the departments working together was usually the president. District 13 was a technocracy, whoever was the most knowledgeable, had the most knowledge about all the latest technology which kept our society going, or the most useful technical skills in the entire District was unanimously considered the best and usually the leader. In the past this tended to be politicians from the Communications Department because they needed to communicate across all departments, without them none of the other departments could coordinate or cooperate together, so they were incredibly useful, and more often than not the President was from that department. It didn't have to be, but it usually ended up being.
The Communications Department was one of the only departments that didn't involve doing anything from scratch, but instead working between departments. If there needed to be information collected about one department's doings that another department requested, the communications department took care of those needs and transported the information. If one department needed another department to do a task for them, communications took care of it. If one department had any confusing or tricky things to discuss, communications attempted to find a solution between them. Communications was responsible for providing a rough summary of what every department was up to, daily to all the departments, as well as holding weekly, fortnightly and monthly meetings between them. Communications made sure each department knew exactly where the others were. Communications made it clear how the government structure worked and allowed every department to understand the inner workings easier. Without communications there would be anarchy and chaos in District 13. Communications was indispensable and had been ever since District 13 first came about, and the original officials figured no one department can do their job, as well as communications on the side. And that it was more convenient to have a separate department for all of that.
Communications also took care of well, communications with the Capitol, as well as anything about a rebellion, or contact with future rebels from the Capitol, but that was a lesser known fact whenever politics or governance was discussed in District 13. Which wasn't much. Most people's commentary on the government was merely that it was doing a good job, and then comments about the technology in certain departments and how that would affect their lives. In comparison to the intel we received from government in the Capitol or other Districts, District 13 had a relatively down to earth, small-scale and lowkey government and politics. There wasn't much political scandals or much to discuss at all really.
It took a whole day for Callisto to introduce me to many of the important people in all the departments and we were still not done. Some of them I already read up on before or paid attention to them, but some had come from departments so small they escaped my attention until now. I was polite, curt, and charming with all of them. As I worked in communications I would need to communicate with all of them on topics quite regularly so maintaining a good relationship with everyone was key. I had never struggled with this before however, I was very good at maintaining political relationships, so I thought today went well.
I reflected briefly on all the departments as I left. There was still more to go tomorrow.
There was the Department of Waste Management. The first we learned about at school, if there was no waste management we'd all drown in our waste if it flooded from the tanks and we'd all die nasty deaths. Disease would break out because sewerage wasn't good for anybody, especially down here when we all basically lived in gigantic tunnels buried hundreds of metres underground, under many kilograms of dirt, and there wasn't much places for sewerage to go. It wasn't like an existence on the ground where we could dump sewerage anywhere. There were many different types of waste, and each had their ways of managing it. Because it was so important to prevent disease all the latest and most cutting edge technology and power went to the waste management centre. The District's best people worked there, and it was one of the largest departments in the District.
Some of the sewerage was used to fertilise crops, but there had to be a system built for that, and that was a collaborative work between the Department of Waste Management and Department of Engineering. District 13 was sort of on the edge of extinction so there needed to be a lot of engineering feats to keep it up and running, the Department of Engineering was huge and probably one of the sustaining life forces of District 13. It had many branches, each tailored to any section of District 13 that needed man-made things.
There was also the Department of Military, rather important as District 13 never felt safe from Capitol rule. The Capitol knew we were down here, always, and most days it only felt like a matter of time before the Capitol would truly do some investigation on us, or attempt to control us even more. Our military was one of the most important things and we kept up very good training despite our meagre resources. That was a must.
Then there was the Department of Health, because we couldn't avoid illness and disease. They treated awful conditions and simple ones. The Department of Health took care of the food rationing as well, they calculated the bare minimum everyone needed to survive or avoid being malnutritioned so that they would use up more resources to treat any health problems. The Department of Rations took care of every other ration - soap, clothes, cleaning products, they assigned each household a set number and worked out how to distribute them across the entirety of District 13's underground hive, how to deliver them on time so that every place had those necessities available a decent amount of the week. It was quite an arduous process making sure all of those goods were able to be distributed to all the places on time but they were there. Bicycles with large carts attached to the back were used to transport them, vehicles used up too much energy, though the riders had to use up energy from their food in order to power the bicycles so it wasn't an ideal alternative either, but much better than the massive energies vehicles used up.
The riders were especially selected, they had to be incredibly strong to carry those loads every day, for most days of the week, and not sustain any injuries. District 13 wanted the most efficient riders on there. There were also some government checks to make sure all of those riders didn't have any sentiments or ideologies against the government before they were hired. Even though most people of District 13 had a down to earth view of the government, there were occasional reports of defamatory remarks made about the government, or dissents among troublesome people in District 13 from time to time. We didn't want anyone with those sort of ideas to work their way in power. That would be a disaster for us.
I couldn't fathom why anyone would have anything against District 13's government, we had done such a good job in keeping everyone alive despite the underground conditions, and I thought all of those people lunatics with views beyond redemption. Bad apples. There were some in every good population I suppose.
There was also the Department of Law, which wasn't as heavily developed in District 13 as some other Districts. There was no real room to commit crimes here, so there wasn't an extensive legal system. Most people simply didn't commit crimes so there was no need for one. Our punishments were fairly severe however. You got a fine, imprisonment, and then a death sentence. It was so simple, just like that, there was no room for arguing. Some of our military enforced the law for us.
There was also the Department of Science, who tried to research how to better use our resources, build better technologies, and things like that.
The Department of Communications was also asked with attempting to find information about the outside world, from the Capitol to the other Districts, so that we knew what was going on. If there was a rebellion in the future, which was what anyone deep in government knew we were going to bring the District to, we had to to ensure our survival, eventually, the Department of Communications was tasked to plan and arrange all of those as well. And of course, communicate to the citizens about what was really going on.
District 13 prided itself on a government that was open and transparent with it's citizens. A lot of direct information about how the government worked, our rules, were directly told to the citizens, and it was one of the things that made us better than the Capitol and the other Districts. The fact that we were a down to earth government who mostly spent their time working out how to survive well under these awful conditions underground. We had no time for airs or graces unlike other governments, and it was probably one of the reasons we were so well liked by most of the population.
I had grown up hearing president after president of District 13 intone this feature of our government, how serving it was to our people, and thought it a trademark of District 13's governance, something that made us superior to the other governments across Panem.
There were a few smaller Departments here and there, but those were the major ones. Each Department had many workers, and a subset of those workers were selected to represent them in the governing body. Each representative had to be fully up to date with everyone occurring in their department, so they could represent issues at the higher level and work out solutions. The governing body was the ultimate authority though. We could bypass any requirements or commands of the workers in the departments if we wanted to, but in the history of District 13's governance, there has been little of that. It simply wasn't an efficient way to get things done.
There were 13 representatives of District 13. Four from the Department of Communications, 3 from the Department of Engineering, 2 from the Department of Waste Management, 1 from the Department of Military, 1 from the Department of Health, 1 from the Department of Rations and 1 from the Department of Science.
Elijah Raine from the Department of Communications was currently President, Herb Tylenol from the Department of Health was currently vice President. The Department of Health had played some major roles when District 13 first went underground so many people held a soft spot for it, and he had been vice-president for many years. The voting for the President and vice-president was cast with some votes from the governing body, and also some votes from District 13, which were taken into account. Herb Tylenol won by quite a mile due to the votes from District 13. If it weren't for him it would've most likely been Fission Harlowe from the Department of Military, a more active member of the governing body who would've filled the role of vice President for many decades if it weren't for Herb.
After most of the day was over Callisto and I walked back to the Communications Office in the government building to sign out before we headed home. There were separate buildings for each of the Departments, then a separate building for the government which had offices representative from all the Departments. Some of the Department buildings were quite far from their government offices so their workers had to travel a long way but the Communications Department was near the centre of the city, so it was almost next door for us.
As we walked back however we passed an adolescent girl stacking some wodden creates of once-of supplies to the store rooms of the Government Building.
"Afternoon," Callisto nodded. Usually only adult workers were allowed anywhere near the Government Building so it must've been a special case they sent a teenager out to do it. I wondered if someone was ill or couldn't do their shift for any other reason.
The girl's eyes went wide when she saw us, her eyes zooming over to Callisto. "Oh! You're the Representative for Communications. I can't believe I'm getting to do this shift and meet you all at the same time! I've always admired you-" she held out her hand to be shaken. She was average in appearance and dressed in a drab District 13 uniformed way, but there was a quickness and flow to her movements that gave me the distinct impression she was more of the flirtatious type of personality, even though most people were obedient and dull in District 13. Who put their heads down and merely tried to do their job and not overuse the energy they received from their food every day.
"Nice to meet you, thank you for doing your job. Keep that up and District 13 will be a great place, but you wouldn't be here. Who's your supervisor?" Callisto got to the point as always. There was a strict policy of only government approved adults being allowed to work in the government building because in the past a few of the people with sentiments against the government were teenagers, and we had known that group could sometimes have issues with us. We didn't want there to be any lunatics similar to those in the past that have access to the government building so only approved adults were allowed to be on the premises. It was a strict rule that had history to support it's upkeep and so it was only natural Callisto would investigate a little further.
The girl faltered, torn between loyalty to her supervisor and Callisto, whom I got the impression was some kind of heartthrob among the younger girls. Many notable people in government were, it was an unintended side effect that came with the role. Her supervisor could be fined at this so I could understand her hesitance in selling them out.
"Well, next time if your supervisor asks you to do something you're not authorised to do, you tell them you're not authorised to do that, and that you shall want to break no rules. The responsibility lies on your shoulders as well as your supervisor's. Is that clear?" Callisto said. Perhaps he had never been intending to make her say the name of the supervisor, something she would surely do everything in her power to avoid, there were only 3 notches on the rung to a death sentence anyway, so I didn't blame her for not wanting to be the reason her supervisor received the first, and he had merely pretended to probe to scare her a little, but ultimately was just hellbent on delivering that message. The girl faltered under his strong gaze, she was holding up incredibly well but even I could sense the panic that must be fluttering in her heart. We were members of the government and she was a teenager afterall.
"Y-yes," she said, her gaze not totally meeting his. She snuck one last look at him before she returned his nod and left, the scuffles of her feet betraying a sadness and depression that wasn't there at the beginning. Clearly she had caught onto the seriousness of this.
"I'll be having a word with the Rations Department, this is awful. We can't have rules be broken like this. Should there be a small punishment of some sort? It shall get the message across clearer I think," Callisto said matter of factly once we were in the government building and had signed of our signatures.
"Oh yes. Of course, it is only necessary to drive in that very important point," I said almost immediately. Callisto nodded and we had a few more exchanges before we went our separate ways home.
I would be lying if I said I didn't have a crush on Callisto myself.
When I was younger, at a time when it didn't sink in what politics truly was, I used to look up at President Snow when he made his yearly Hunger Games broadcast (which was also replayed in District 13 for everyone to see) and think he looked most regal and handsome there, with all his symbols of excess, wealth and status all around him. His demeanour and mannerisms that he displayed, even in a speech as short as that, and when I dreamed of a happy family or lover as I grew older, it was President Snow's image that filled my imaginations before I went to sleep at night. I didn't mean I truly wanted to marry him or anything, he was decades older than I was and even then I knew it was an childish impossibility. I was under no delusions that I would marry him or anything, but he had been in a way, my childhood crush, the hero I idolised when I saw him on tv.
I didn't get why other people disliked him so much at first. His views were misaligned with District 13 yes, that was exactly why we were so miserable, but he seemed to run the Capitol pretty well, and keep the rest of the Districts in control with an iron first. His rule over all the Districts seemed impossibly powerful and expertised to me. I wanted to point out the practicalities of what he did, and how well he did it, but when a few experimental remarks drew curious glances and narrowed eyes from my contemporaries at school, that was all the lesson I needed to shut my mouth on it. And so I did. We were so young then, that I don't think anybody really remembered or took it seriously, but after that President Snow was my hero no more. He wasn't someone I could talk freely about and receive the same understanding that other girls had when they talked about their crushes.
Callisto was someone whom I admired for his picture perfect nature and whom I could talk about to the other girls and receive understanding for. He was everything a picture perfect successful person in society could be, and seemed to rise above and beyond in hitting everything in life so right somehow, that I knew I had a bit of a crush on him since the moment I first laid my eyes on him. He was my sister Bellamy's boyfriend's younger brother. Initially school holidays, weekends and school afternoons when I had the free time was just spent with Bellamy and I, again, I couldn't say we were close growing up for we took on quite different roles after father's death but we did spend a lot of time together, and soon those moments included Deoxy, who had been Bellamy's boyfriend since highschool. They were incredibly tight.
At first I didn't like Deoxy, Bellamy was a sunny personality who was a nice companion most of the time and I wanted her all to myself, but once Deoxy revealed himself to be quite interested in Engineering, particularly Communications Engineering, any technology that aided in communication between people, I saw the virtue in keeping him around. Father was a communications engineer who later represented the Communications Department in government. The house was peppered with his inventions from work, textbooks on the matter and also the government and politics, and after he died I sometimes perused through those old materials to find things to talk about in my speeches that showed I valued the same ideals he did. I had a bit of interest in those fields for some time in my childhood, and Deoxy's casual remarks as he talked about them in his chatter with Bellamy and I seemed to scratch some itch or stroke some obsession, coupled with the fact that Deoxy was a very chilled, laidback sort of person with an easygoing personality and quick sense of humour I began to appreciate his company more and more, and soon found myself not minding that I was spending my free time with Bellamy, Deoxy, and soon his younger brother Callisto, who seemed to be around whenever Deoxy was around at their house.
Originally Bellamy invited Deoxy over to our place, a little unbeknownst to mother who hadn't known she was dating by that time, but soon we went over to theirs in our free time, and Callisto also became someone I knew through my family and friends, someone that was the picture perfect sort of person, who looked like a success in society and acted like one too, someone who had a healthy dose of respect from my friends at school and whom I would never face any troubles talking about, and to say that I had a crush on him was a bit of an understatement.
In fact, I had an obsession with him. Just like I wanted my goals of moving up in the government, I wanted him as well. The picture perfect image. Everything. He was perfection to me and I would feel like perfection if we could date and eventually marry. I wanted him as much as I wanted anything else in my life, and it is with a burning intensity only I knew. I didn't choose to spend my life revolving around one person so much, let alone a guy, but it just happened, and though every year that I'd known him, I always had intense, deep-seated feelings swirling underneath.
That, was just another complication in the otherwise content and carefree life of Alma Coin. Having grown up in a relatively wealthy and high class family untouched by much of the daily horrors of District 13, a smooth journey from childhood to adolescence and now adulthood, I didn't have much misery or unhappiness in my life really, most of it had gone by fine, but when it came to Callisto, I had to admit there was some heaviness there.
"We're having a small problem arranging everyone's shifts for the year at work. I was wondering if you could help, you always have the mind for such things..." said Bellamy after some light chit-chat and when we were halfway through cooking dinner.
"What is it then?" I asked. Bellamy usually had little things in her life here and there she asked for my help on, I was good at those things and she didn't enjoy them, so it cost me relatively little effort or energy to work on them for her and it bought her great reprieve from doing what she disliked so it worked out well. It was one of the ways in which we helped each other, each person attending to the other's weaknesses and so on that I liked.
Bellamy got out her her notes in her notebook and quickly showed me the problem they were stuck on. The next half hour or so was spent on that. I had a relatively good day and thoughts of Callisto and the girl trickled out of my mind fairly quickly as we worked. All in all, my first real day at work had been a carefree and easygoing one.