Verbena Grayzer,17, District 11 female
I exhale and I can see the co2 release into the night sky as a chilling breeze blows past me.
"Looks like we're in for another all nighter huh?" I hear my team mate Harris and shift my position slightly as I continue resting my back against a tree as we continue guarding the surplus of supplies that's just going to be sent to the capitol while the district continues to die of thirst and starvation, fucking ridiculous…
"Well that's what it looks like." I glumly say as I check my handgun and take it apart, analyzing the inside components before putting it back together and sliding it back into my holster.
"You're quite skilled with that thing but then again we all know who your mom is, that's to be expected!" he cackles as he fiddles with his own handgun but doesn't seem to have any clue what he's doing. He then aims the handgun at nothing in particular and makes shooting sounds as if he's actually firing it.
"You should put that thing away unless you plan on using it." I suggest but he fires a shot from his handgun and it hits an owl that was resting on a tree above us and I give him a glare.
"We heard gunfire! What's your status!?" Harris's radio goes off.
"Everything's fine, just practicing my aim, over and out." Harris cackles on his radio before putting it away.
"Was that necessary?" I scold him
"Well I don't like being told what to do, so I guess so!" he growls and I narrow my eyes at him, can they just come already? I'm going to end up offing this guy before they even get here at this point.
"Looks like you got something to say." He spins the handgun in his hand while walking up to me.
"If that was the case then you best believe you would've heard it by now, point blank period." I assure him.
"Sassy one huh? I don't give a damn who your mom is though, and I certainly don't give a damn who your brother was. You're in my way of reaching the top position here, so I don't mind an 'unfortunate accident' occuring here so I can take your position!" he growls at me and I see a shadow swoop by the trees, finally they're here.
"What if you were the person this 'unfortunate accident' happened to?" I question him and he gives me a confused glance before an arrow suddenly lands in his throat and he gasps as he grabs his neck and immediately begins choking on his blood that's quickly filling up his wind pipe.
He tries to reach for his handgun but I casually snatch it from his holster and smack him across the face with it knocking him unconscious, he'll choke on his blood and die shortly afterwards.
I see several figures outside the gate for the supplies we're guarding and I flick the lock open to let them inside. The five of them are dressed in black cloaks and dark masks but one of them who's holding a bow lifts up his mask and it's Erovyn, the leader of the seedlings.
"Saved you the trouble of taking that guy out yourself huh?" He smirks at me as the rest of his team enters the gate.
"Got that right, look we don't have a lot of time, the whole building is going to be on your asses in a moment. Take this key, enter through the back door, keep going straight and make a left at the first intersection, it'll lead you straight to the supplies." I instruct Erovyn.
"Now what about you? How are you going to be able to convince your 'team' you had nothing to do with this?" Another member Moxie asks while slightly lifting up her mask.
"That's easy, you're going to hit me in the face, as hard as you can." I order Moxie.
"There has to be another way, Your face is very punchable but why punch you?" Moxie asks in a joking tone.
"This is the only way! You're wasting time, they're going to contact me any minute for an update on my status now hurry and get it over with!" I grit my teeth and moxie sighs before bashing me on the side of my face with her closed fist and it rattles me for a moment as I can immediately feel the side of my face swelling.
"Ouch…" I clutch my face.
"A-are you ok?" Moxie worriedly asks, damn she hits like a freaking truck!
"I'm fine, just go now, and don't be greedy! Just take what you need!" i practically shove Moxie while handing her and Erovyn the handguns.
"We'll meet up later, got a nice bag of ice for you waiting at the base!" Erovyn gives me a thumbs up before they press on and I turn around to a tall blood drenched figure standing behind me causing me to let out a low gasp.
"Scared you didn't i? He grins as blood continues oozing from the bullet wound in the middle of his head.
"Fucking go away…go away…" I mumble.
"Imagine how scary it was for me, learning my sister was a fucking rat, knowing that she's the one who put a bullet in me!" he glares me and I blink several times while clutching my fists and he's gone for now…
Several minutes pass and that's when I hear my walkie go off and I sprawl myself across the ground as if I'm unconscious.
"Verbena,Harris, requesting an update on your status over." I hear a voice go off and I continue laying on the ground sprawled as I look up at the sky where the stars are.
"I repeat, requesting an update on your status over." The voice repeats and I continue ignoring.
"Sending a unit to your location, over." The voice ends and I take a deep breath, I just hope they're gone by the time this unit arrives…
This is my life though, working as a double agent. Most families are very poor here and often work in the agricultural fields for their entire lives, being sure to have as many children as possible so they can grow up and lend an extra set of hands.
My family however is completely different. From a young age my mother was part of a select few who are trained and hired by District 11 Peacekeepers to provide security for the agricultural shipments in this district. My mother spent years building up trust with the peacekeepers and eventually began moving through the ranks to become one of most respected and feared people here.
She eventually settled down with a fellow agricultural security guard who's my father and they had me and my brother. My father died of an illness shortly after I was born but it was after that, that my mom began training us herself and we were also selected to be a part of the organization since they usually only ever hired from a trainee's family. My brother fit in well blindly following my mother and the capitol as all of our produces were shipped to them and I did for a while too working hard to gain the trust of my fellow "comrades" but I soon grew tired of it all.
Why was my mother and brother so happy with their jobs that was essentially keeping people here starving and dying of hunger? Why did they get so much pleasure from that? I didn't understand really… but it was those reasons alone why I had such conflicted feelings for my family, they were part of the fucking problem!
It was around this time that I discovered an underground activist group called the "seedlings" and in secret they were planning a rebellion to end starvation and the screwed up politics that were destroying this district. I immediately joined them but I also remained as an agricultural secruity guard to not only gather intel but to sneak food off to the less fortunate so they had a fighting chance!
It was only recently where I had to make a decision that will probably haunt me for the rest of my life, and it was taking the life of my own brother Cronoso. Cronoso was one of the highest ranked and most competent guards here. He was a muscleheaded arrogant jerk. I still remember how he used to bully and terrorize me but he also taught me how to defend myself and not take shit from anyone. He was very wise as well, being able to see through anyone's bullshit and that's what ultimately lead to his demise. Several weeks ago I snuck in some seedlings to the base to steal supplies but he quickly intercepted us on our way there. I was cloaked but the way he looked at me, it was like he can see right through my disguise and I saw the look of betrayal in his eyes. I had to make a quick decision, if I let him capture the seedings, they would've suffered an unbearable death along with anyone even remotely related to them. I took him out though and they'd get to live, they'll get to eat, feed their starving families, friends and the rest of the people in this district while moving one step closer to us all being free.
I pulled out my gun and shot him square in the forehead. He could've killed me as he already had his weapon drawn…but he hesitated. As cruel as he was to me, he still couldn't bring himself to kill me and…it hurts knowing that somewhere deep inside, he actually cared enough to feel that way. I relive that scene in my head over and over just wondering if it could've gone differently, if there was something I could've done so that he'd still be here. No one ever found out it was me and my mother only treats his death like he was another casualty rather than her own son being killed and that just angers me even more!
"Verbena! Harris!" I hear a voice as I'm sill sprawled on the ground and I pretend I'm unconscious.
"Harris is down! I repeat Harris is down!" I hear Don call over the radio while he shakes me and I slowly open my eyes.
"Verbena! You ok? Dammit another break in…you remember what happened!" Don helps me up and I groan a little rubbing my face.
"N-no, I don't." I groan.
"Crap whoever did this is probably still in the building, we need to do a sweep, looks like they took both of your weapons, can you walk?" He questions.
"Y-yeah I should be able to." I rub my face.
"We need to go then! Here!" He hands me a handgun.
"The rest of the unit is on route but for kow we need to Kill anyone on site. We're on our own for now but we should be able to neutralize anyone in there before back up arrvies!" Don orders and I nod.
"Yeah no problem." I check my handgun and we begin making our way into the building where most of the supplies are.
Erovyn…I'm just hoping you guys made it out in time, if they followed my strategy that we went over hundreds of times, they should be able to escape the premises without being seen by any of us. We start approaching the location most of the supplies are stored at but a bullet flies right by me and nearly hits Don but we both take cover behind the wall as he blindly fires his handgun.
"Cover me Verbena! I'm pressing forward!" Don instructs and i nod before coming from the corner and fire my handgun several times to see a shadow disappear around the corner who Don relentlessly pursues and I close in on Don's location.
They were supposed to be gone by now! Dammit! Several more shots go off followed by a deafening scream and I make my way over to Don to see him standing over Moxie who's now severely wounded as Don shot her several times and the look she's giving me, she's just begging me to intervene. She got too greedy though, I'm pretty sure the others just grabbed what they needed and left but she stayed behind, trying to get more supplies.
"Fucking seedlings, finally got one of them." Don comments as he takes out a cigar and lights it up with his lighter and I can only give Moxie a disappointed look, it didn't have to be this way…
"Why don't you handle this one Verbena, I'm going to update the rest of the team on our status." He takes out his radio beginning to update them.
"Yeah got it…" I aim my handgun at her.
"Please no…Please..." Moxie begs and seeing her like this shakes me up but I have to bite my tounge to hold back my true feelings. If I'm going to pull this double agent thing off then I need to have a healthy relationship on both sides, I take her out, no one will assume I had anything to do with this raid.
Moxie looks into my eyes and knows I'm not going to back down from this and I see her mouth beginning to open.
"Sh-" she begins but I shoot a bullet right into her skull silencing her for an eternity…she was going to rat me out, guess she felt she had nothing left to lose since she was going to die…still though.
"One down, probably fifty more to go, we'll bring them down though. Good job Verbena now let's get this trash out of here." He throws his unfinished cigar on Moxie's corpse and her cloak catches on fire before it begins slowly erupting in flames.
I look to my side though and I see him again, my brother who's only shaking his head at me.
"There's just no length you wouldn't go huh? He continues shaking his head at me.
No Cronoso, No…I guess there isn't.
Kade Jackson,14, District 11 male
"Don't forget anything this time…don't forget!" I scold myself as I work relentlessly in my basement trying to create a barrel of moonshine. I made this thing a million times yet I still do occasionally forget a vital ingredient to give it that kick it needs. I continue working but I hear the basement door open followed by heavy footsteps walking down the stairs and moments later, my towering giant of a father looms over me with a stern look on his face and I can feel my heart skip a beat.
"S-Sir…good morning." I fearfully greet him but he suddenly smacks me across the face and it's strong enough to knock me straight down to the door, I can already taste blood inside my mouth due to my teeth cutting the inside of it.
"You forgot again, the ingredient!" he scolds me but I stand back up and look at him.
"I know…I'm sorry Sir…" I apologize but this only seems to anger him more.
"Sorry isn't going to cut it, you need to get your shit together, After I step down you're set to take over and I'm not going to tolerate you slacking off like this!" he glares me.
"Understood…." I mumble.
He looks in the barrel and he's such an expert at this at this point that he can literally look at the moonshine and know if it's missing something or not.
"Looks like you got everything in there this time, I need more consistency though. Make another mistake like this and I don't mind getting the other top half of your face scarred." He threatens me.
"Yes sir…" I respond to him and he begins walking away but stops at the staircase.
"It should've been you…it should've been you that died that night." He states with his back still turned to me and begins walking up the stairs as I only hold my head down in shame. Zayde I wish you were still here, but it's cause of me that you don't live in this world anymore, that you aren't the leader of this gang like you're supposed to be…
I put a lid over this barrel of moonshine and by the time I make my way back upstairs, my father is already gone but my younger brother wade who's 11 is sitting at the table eating a breakfast sandwich.
"Nice mark you got on your face there, what you did to piss dad off this time?" Wade mocks me but I scoff before taking a carton of orange juice out of the fridge and pour it into a glass.
"What's new? Nothing I ever do will be good enough for him, maybe you can slip some encouraging words to him to loosen up?" i suggest but wade only lets out a guffaw.
"You bring all this crap on yourself, maybe if you had more ambition you'd have less scars to show for it!" He fires back at me as I chug down the rest of my juice .
"Well thank you for your encouraging advice, you're obviously much better suited for this than I am, why don't he sit you on the high chair and groom you to carry the torch?" I curiously ask.
"Cause you're in the damn way, so get your shit together or find some way to take yourself out the picture." He snarls at me.
"Well fuck you too." I bluntly say to him.
"Maybe if you wasn't such a pussy Zayde will still be here!" he lashes at me but I've heard enough from him and punch him across the face knocking him off his chair and I stand over him as he only gives me a shocked look.
"I don't need to be reminded over and over that I'm the reason Zayde is dead so just shut the fuck up about that already!" I shout at him and I see his lips quiver a bit but he jumps back up to his feet and glares me.
"Wait till dad hears about this! I'm gonna make sure he stomps a mudhole in you!" Wade threatens me before running upstairs and I sigh before looking at a family photo of me,Zayde,Wade and my grandfather who we always call Papi Jack.
"Zayde…I'm sorry brother." I hold my head down for a moment and relive my fuck up over and over, if theres one thing my father is right about, it should've been me that died that night.
My family are notorious around this district for their involvement in gang activity. My father is the leader of the Adeions clan who are known for their illegal production and underground distribution of moonshine. From a young age all the males are forced to remember the recipe put into producing this moonshine and once I caught onto the recipe a few times, I began to show a lot of promise. It's not only memorizing the recipe that's important though, we need to be capable of putting on a quality scam.
I got a bunch of peacekeepers drunk and stole their stash of weapons so I guess that won me some points but my own flaws began to become exposed around that time as well. I just always forgot something, whether it was a vital ingredient or just some task I had to do, I just always had a bad habit of forgetting something. Our gang survived for several generations, Papi Jack was leader before he passed the torch down to my father who only likes to be addressed as Sir. My older brother Zayde was considered a natural prospect in this line of work, he was even better than my father which he proudly admitted and Zayde was being groomed to become the next leader as my father was just about ready to step down from his position.
Everything seemed to be going well for a while but we also had a rival gang in this district called "Crows" who specialized in illegal Bourbon production and distribution.
The gang invaded one of our territories when my brother Zayde was walking me and Wade home from one of our hideouts and a huge gun fight broke out. I had a gun on me as well, I never would've imagined having to use one so soon but rather than help out Zayde, I only hid like a coward with my younger brother Wade while Zayde fought off the gang by himself, once the gunfight appeared to be over, I peered from the car I was hiding behind to see Zayde standing over multiple dead bodies and he looked over at me and Wade to make sure we were ok but I saw another Crow sneak up behind Zayde and I couldn't even shout or pull the trigger on my gun to take out this Crow. I completely froze and literally watched the crow shoot Zayde in the back of the head point blank killing him instantly and my younger brother Wade snatched the gun from my hands and took out that last remaining Crow.
Upon returning back to my father, Wade explained to him everything that happened and in response to my cowardice my father had me severely beaten and I now have a large scar across my eyebrow as a result. Zayde was now gone so my father had no choice but to prep me to become the next leader but he makes it no secret how he wishes it was me that died instead of Zayde…
I dress in my outfit for the reapings which is black overalls with a white turtleneck underneath, a gold chain around my neck with a gray loafer on my right foot and a maroon sneaker on my right. I do tend to wear stuff that don't match together. I hear knocking on my door afterwards and I race downstairs knowing exactly who it is and I open the door to see it's my best friend Kayla holding a pan of those cherry muffins I love. Kayla's family runs a bakery not far from here so she loves surprising me with these muffins.
"Kayla, my bestie!" I happily greet her.
"Morning bestie!" She pecks me on the cheek and I let her inside my house so she can sit the tray down on my table. Me being addicted to these muffins wastes no time pulling one out of the pan and taking a huge bite out of one of them but Kayla throws her arms around me and I laugh a bit before hugging her back and we embrace each other for quite a while. I start wondering when she's going to let go but she doesn't and it'll be a bit awkward if I try gently pushing her off of me.
"Uh... You ok Kayla?" I curiously ask.
"…Yeah, I just had a dream well a nightmare really." She mumbles.
"Yeah? What was it about?" I ask.
"You died…" she answers almost immediately and I let out chuckle afterwards.
"Well dreams are always weird, like I had a dream I was a teacher, teaching a bunch of little rascals that wouldn't listen." I try cheering her up.
"I'm just glad you're ok Kade, I'll be honest, I rushed right over here after waking up. I was so worried." She admits.
"Hey I'm not going to die that easily, we're stuck like glue, yeah?" I playfully pinch her cheek and she nods and smiles before we embrace each other again. Kayla is well aware of my familie's affiliation, the gang life even interests her but I'll never allow her to be a part of that life of mines.
"You have a hand mark on the side of your face, what happened?" She asks.
"I had to smack myself up a couple of times so I could stop daydreaming about these muffins!" I joke and she laughs.
"You're such a clown!" she playfully hits my shoulder.
"Anyways bestie shall we be on our way?" I speak in royal tone while holding my hand out.
"Yes we may my bestie!" She politely grabs my hand and I give it a gentle kiss which cracks her up and we head out of the house holding hands as we make our way to the square.
It doesn't take us very long to get there as I literally live only a few minutes from it but there's quite the line infront of us so me and Kayla stand on the line and to kill time I break off pieces of my muffin and toss them in the air before catching them in my mouth.
"Hey stop playing with your food!" Kayla playfully scolds me but I pluck a piece at her and she catches it in her mouth which we both find amusing. The line moves way quicker than I expected and me and Kayla need to go our separate ways for now so we give each other a quick hug and I go off to the 14 year old male section.
Our overly bored and bland escort is on the stage slogging through the introductions and her lack of energy and charisma can put anyone to sleep so I start doing some break dancing which some of the guys here find amusing and Zara the escort lets out a loud exaggerated yawn.
"Well now that we have that out of the way, let's start with our female." Zara yawns again before lazilly walking over to the female's bowl and pulls out a name.
"Verbena Grayzer..." Zara nonchalantly states and I swear I hear someone utter the words "I volun-" only to stop and after another moment I hear faint sobbing and I see a rather strong and sexy looking female emerge from the 17 year old female section.
She's around 5'10 In height with an hourglass shaped body, her almond shaped amber eyes seem so welcoming but also intimidating, like you just want to make direct eye contact with her because of how they can pull you in, but they're also so bright. Her hair is medium length, dark brown, and thickly coiled. Her eyebrows are pretty well kept and slightly thin. Her nose is narrow and pointed just a bit at the tip and her skin seems very smooth and well moistured as it glows in it's vibrant light bronze color.
Her outfit consists of a button down, olive green spaghetti strap dress, made from denim material it seems. It goes a bit past her knees and even has some pockets. She has an angry look on her face but I can also see pain and sadness. None the less, you take one look at this chick and she just screams badass.
She makes her way to the stage and only stands still crossing her arms as she appears to gradually get more angry.
"Well no volunteers I guess so off to the males." She yawns and walks over to the male's bowl before pulling out a name.
"Kade Jackson." Zara yawns and there's a brief silence but I break into a hysterical laughter.
"Haha very funny, but quit playing yall!" I laugh but there's only an awkward silence as everyone is now looking at me and when I see two hulking peacekeepers closing in one that's when I realize shit is real!
I pretend to make a run for it but stop in my tracks.
"Just joking! Don't pop a blood vessel you peacekeepers or whatever!" I joke with the peacekeepers and make my way to the stage with both of them walking behind me incase I 'run off' again. Once I arrive on the state I continue doing a chuckle to hide just how nervous i am.
"Why hello ma'am I am Kade Jackson, pleasure to meet you!" I do a bow to the escort and extend my hand to the escort.
"Well you seem clean enough…" I hear her mumble before extending her hand and i clutch it before giving it a polite kiss and she pulls it away and gives me an irritated look.
"Well no volunteers so here's our two tributes, shake hands if you want." Zara throws the mic on the floor and walks away and me and Verbena looks at each other while I grin extending my hand and she gives me handshake with a firm grip and seeing those eyes burn right into me while doing it, yeah this girl is a bit scary….very scary!
We're escorted towards the justice building afterwards and me and Verbena are walking side by side but we still haven't exchanged any words yet.
"Hey there." I suddenly greet her and she looks at me with those welcoming but intimidating eyes.
"Hi." she greets me back.
"Kinda sucks we were both reaped…" I sigh.
"All we can really do now is fight and try to survive." She responds.
"Perhaps we can fight together then?" I suggest.
"Proposing an alliance I see, I like that you take the initiative, we'll see what happens though." She states as we reach the justice rooms.
"Well yeah, guess we will!" I give her a thumbs up and smile but she only gives me an odd glance before entering her room and I enter mine's as well. One thing I do know is that I need an alliance of some sort, I can't do all of this alone…
Here's our two tributes for district 11! Only two more reapings to go before we're officially done! Thank you so much guys for the reviews regarding the reapings, i do try to make each one unique so I'm glad you guys noticed. I'm going to blitz through these last two reapings and we'll get this show on the road! i am so happy with the cast of characters i have and i love them all but that's why it's going to hurt alot when it's time to start killing them off! Anyways guys I'll see you all soon, till next time!