Chapter 11:
District Ten
Fox Durham, 18
Three Years Before The Reaping
"Fox!"
The boy looks around at the sound of his name being called, bringing his tractor to a stop right away, not knowing if someone is calling for him or yelling that there's a fox on the property. Last thing they need is for another fox to get in the chicken coup and kill a few birds. When Fox glances back over his shoulder, he finds his two sisters closest in age to him, both behind in their tractor race. But he finds Rita picking herself up from the ground, now covered in mud while the youngest of the ten siblings, Charlotte, is bent over in laughter. "What happened?"
"She cheated!" Rita yells as she starts stomping over to Charlotte with a fiery look in her eyes that makes Fox jump off of his tractor to stop them from getting in a fight. That's the last thing Fox wants to happen between his siblings, or really anyone for that matter. "She cut in front of me and made me have to turn quickly and I fell off!"
"Well I'm sure she didn't mean it," Fox tries to reason with Rita, wanting to believe little Charlotte wouldn't do something like that. "And if she did, well, she's just a little kid and maybe didn't have full control of the tractor."
"Hey!" Charlotte cries out in offense at this statement as Rita looks all smug about Fox seemingly taking her side. "I had full control and knew exactly what I was doing!"
"See!" Rita yells immediately, pointing a finger over at the younger girl accusingly. "I knew it! She just couldn't accept getting last place!"
Charlotte sticks her tongue out at Rita and Fox takes another step forward so that he stands between the two sisters, still a little worried that they might start fighting. "Okay, cheating like that wasn't right, Charlotte," Fox starts, getting a smug look from Rita as she crosses her arms. "But, we didn't have rules really about what you can and can't do," Fox continues, making Charlotte stick out her tongue once more at their older sister. "So Charlotte, apologize to Rita and we'll make a rule now about no cutting people off during our races."
Fox stares at his younger sister, giving her an encouraging smile in the hopes that she'll apologize to Rita. He knows she won't do it again as he trusts her to follow the rules. Charlotte stares down, kicking her toes into the dirt as she grumbles out her apology. "I'm sorry."
"What was that?" Rita asks smugly, putting a hand up to her ear. "I didn't quite catch that."
Charlotte brings up her gaze to glare at Rita. "I'm sor- Paloma!" She shouts, distracting all three of them from the argument. Well, mostly distracting Fox.
They all turn to look over towards the house and Fox immediately starts grinning when he sees his girlfriend walking over to him. "Okay, no more arguing today?"
"Fine," Rita grumbles, giving an annoyed look at their younger sibling before starting to stomp off towards the house so she can wash off the mud.
Charlotte giggles a little at her reaction and Fox struggles to bring his gaze away from his beautiful girlfriend walking over to him to look at his sister. "Alright Charlotte, why don't you go check on the cows?"
"But I want to talk to Paloma!" Charlotte whines, even stomping one of her feet in protest.
Fox puts a hand on her shoulder and gently pushes her in the direction of the barn. "Pal is staying for dinner so you can talk to her then, okay?"
"Okay!" Charlotte answers, no longer digging her feet into the ground to stop fighting against Fox pushing her away. As she starts walking towards the barn, she turns back towards his girlfriend and gives a big wave as she shouts over at her. "Hi Paloma! Fox is being mean and sending me away!"
"Fox being mean? I don't believe it," Paloma calls to Charlotte and Fox laughs a little at that, knowing she's completely right, but stops after a couple seconds as Paloma gets closer to him. He can immediately tell that something is wrong with his normally bubbly girlfriend.
Fox starts running over to her, closing the remaining distance between them. He tries to put his hands on her waist to pull her closer but she steps back, just out of reach from him. "Is…is everything okay? Did I…did I do something wrong? Because if I did something bad, I'm so very sorry and you know I didn't mean it."
"No, you didn't do anything," Paloma says quickly, lifting up her hand like she wants to take his before dropping it. She starts shaking her head up at him as tears fill her eyes and Fox doesn't care if she rejected his hug at first, he's going to hug his girlfriend when she's upset. As soon as Fox takes a step towards her, she falls into his chest and her hands clutch his shirt tightly as she starts sniffling. Fox can feel his own eyes prickling, always hating to see other people crying. He slowly rubs her back, knowing that's helped soothe her before when she's been upset. God, he hates seeing her like this and so badly wants to help her, yet he knows she'll tell him when she's ready. Finally, she lets out a sigh as she presses her head against his chest and he kisses the top of it. "At least…not right now. But I guess you did do something."
"Shit, I'm so sorry, Pal, you know I wouldn't do anything to hurt you," Fox pleads with her, barely able to keep his tears back at this point. "God, that's the last thing I would ever want to do."
"You didn't hurt me…I don't think," Paloma tries to step back from him but he keeps his arms around her, not letting her step completely away. Not when he can see the fear in her eyes. "I…" Paloma takes a shaky breath and shakes her head, struggling to find the words to say to him.
Fox can't bring himself to believe the worst is happening, knowing that Paloma wouldn't do that to him. Their relationship has been nothing but great, especially the last few months. "Whatever it is, you can tell me."
"I think…" Paloma starts as she starts crying and looks away from Fox. "I th-think I'm pregnant."
The world goes out of focus for Fox as he stares down at his girlfriend, unable to control his mouth dropping open in shock. Holy shit…she's pregnant?
"It's al-all my fault and you p-p-probably hate me now," Paloma starts talking quickly in-between sobs as Fox just keeps staring down at her in shock, trying to even process exactly what that will mean for them. "And you're going to leave me and I-I'll have to raise the kid on my own and-"
"What?" Fox snaps out of his stupor at that and shakes his head at Paloma. "Pal, do you really think I'm going to leave you for this? No way."
Paloma still tries to step back from him, even if her faces shows she wants to do the complete opposite. "But we're only fifteen… I can't raise a kid…"
"We," Fox corrects her, shaking his head that she would ever think that he would just abandon her like that. He's completely terrified at the responsibility but he got them into this situation in the first place and he's going to stick with her. Not like they have any option other than raising the kid, not with how little their families have. He could never give up the kid or leave Paloma… "It's me and you, Pal."
Paloma lets out something half between a sob and a laugh at that statement and finally steps towards Fox again. He holds onto her so tightly, trying to push down his own fear of raising a child. After all, his fear must be nothing compared to Paloma's right now. "Our parents are going to be so mad…"
"Mine won't," Fox answers confidently as he starts rubbing her back, still hating to see her crying, even if it's for something that will turn out good in the end. "We can be just like them! They had Dakota when my mom was only 16 too and look at them now! Ten kids later and still just as much in love! We can get married when we're 16 and you can join the family. They already love you so much and so do I."
"Fox…" Paloma says as she picks her head up from his chest to look up at him with wide eyes. He leans down and kisses her gently on the forehead, making her relax a little bit. "Did you just ask me to marry you?"
"I sure did," Fox responds, slowly grinning down at her as she stares at him in shock. "Why not? We're a team now and going to raise ten of our own little kids."
"I don't know if I can handle ten kids," Paloma answers with a laugh before she presses her face into Fox's chest as she lets out a sigh.
"Oh I would love a ton of kids," Fox answers, slowly starting to smile as he starts imagining a whole house full of little kids running around that look like mini Paloma's. "I know you're scared right now – I am too – but Pal…I think this is going to be the best thing that could have happened to us."
"I'm so scared…" Paloma says quietly and the tears that had been stopping come back in full force. "What if we're bad parents?"
"We won't be," Fox answers confidently. "We have my whole family to help out and so many of them have had kids. And if we make mistakes, we use them to learn! We can do this. Together."
"Together," Paloma whispers back to him as she rests her head back down on his chest. She wraps her arms around him and sighs as they stand there in silence for a few seconds. "Yes."
"Yes what?" Fox asks her in confusion.
Paloma turns her head so she can grin up at him, "Yes I'll marry you."
Two Months Before The Reaping
Fox lets out a sigh of relief as he steps into the house and kicks off his boots, so happy to be back home. All he wants right now is a nice bath to wash away the sweat and hay from the day. The job isn't bad for the majority of the year, but once it starts heating up, hauling bales of hay around for cows becomes quite the task. But it's going to be so worth the long hours. Give it a few months more and he'll have enough money saved up for his family to move into their own house. The only downside to the long hours is missing out on-
"Daddy!"
Fox immediately starts grinning as he hears tiny patters of footsteps running over to him. He crouches down as his son rounds the corner and races right over to him, hugging him immediately. "Maddox!"
Fox picks his son up and as he stands up, he tosses him a little in the air, getting a small giggle out of the boy. Fox can't help but feel his heart melt every time he looks at his son that looks so much like Paloma, except for the full head of dark curly hair Maddox got from him. "Daddy can we ride Milly?"
"That depends," Fox tells him as he kisses the top of his head before putting him on his hip. They start walking over to the kitchen where he can hear Paloma helping out with cooking dinner. "Were you a good boy today?"
"Yes!" Maddox answers immediately, giggling a bunch as he leans his head against Fox's shoulder, knowing exactly how to get his father to do anything he wants.
"I don't know," Fox teases as he enters the kitchen. His wife looks up from cutting up some potatoes and smiles over at Fox as he walks over to give her a kiss on the check. "We have to ask Mommy if you were really a good boy today."
Paloma chuckles at this as she sets down her knife so she can ruffle Maddox's hair. "Hmm, I don't know, he did distract me a lot today."
"No, no, I helped!" Maddox tells her and he starts squirming in Fox's arms so he can look out the window. "Milly!"
"He wants to ride Milly," Fox tells Paloma as his arms ache as he holds Maddox, thanks to the day of work, but he'll never complain. Maddox is the best thing to happen to him in his life. Well, maybe second to Paloma, but just barely second.
"Of course," Paloma says with a chuckle and a smile at their son. "He was asking me all day when Daddy would be home. Hmm," Paloma says as she leans over to Maddox and gently boops him on the nose. "I think he was good enough today to ride Milly."
"Milly! Milly!" Maddox starts chanting and claps his hands in excitement.
Fox laughs at his reaction, just so damn happy whenever he's around Maddox. "Okay, let's go see Milly."
"Yay!" Maddox cries loudly and continues to chant the name as Fox starts walking over to the back door.
"Hey Fox?" Paloma calls out to him and he stops with his hand on the doorknob to look back at her. He immediately grows concerned when he sees her nervously picking at the seam of her apron and hesitating to meet his gaze. "I'll be out in a few minutes, I need to talk to you."
"We can talk now," Fox immediately responds and turns back around to face her. If something is wrong with her, he wants to fix it right now.
Paloma smiles at his reaction and shakes her head at him. "It can wait a few minutes. Go play with your son."
Fox stares at her for a few more seconds, wanting to make sure his wife is sure about this. But when Maddox starts tugging on his shirt and starts talking to him, well, he gives in right away. "Daddy, Milly!"
"Okay, okay," Fox laughs as he opens the door and starts walking outside towards the pasture with a very happy Maddox. "Let's go find Milly. So what did you do today?"
"Aunt Care played with me!" Maddox answers happily as they walk across the lawn and Fox grins like always at Maddox's name for his sister Charlotte since the little boy hasn't figured out yet how to pronounce her name. "We played with bugs!"
"Oh I'm sure Mommy loved that," Fox answers as he carefully opens up the door into the pasture with one hand and locks it up behind them.
Maddox laughs a bunch and Fox looks down at him, "I put a Mr. Wormy in her pocket."
"Maddox!" Fox scolds but the boy just laughs so much at this that there's no way he could possibly be mad at his son. And he's only two, after all. Fox was causing a lot more trouble than Maddox has until he was five. "What did Mommy do?"
"She loved Mr. Wormy!" Maddox tells him, but Fox knows his wife. She probably screamed in surprise when she reached in and felt a worm. But also he knows the reaction would have been funny to see. "Milly!"
Fox smiles over at the old cow of theirs that Maddox loves so much. "Yes, there's Milly," Fox tells him as they get closer to her. The gentle girl picks up her head from eating grass as they approach and lets out a long moo that Maddox repeats at her. Fox gently pets the cow's head, getting a bit of a head butt from her in response. "Hey girl, how are you doing today?"
Milly shuts her eyes as Fox scratches behind one of her ears and he lightly smiles at the cow that he raised all on his own from birth. "Alright Milly, toddler incoming!" Fox says as he picks up his very happy son and gently sets Maddox down on the cow's shoulders. Maddox pats her neck – well, more smacks her neck – as Fox holds onto the boy to keep him from falling off. Maddox even leans down so he can hug the cow.
Right now is one of the moments when Fox wishes he could afford a camera. He would love to have this moment frozen in time to look at years from now when Maddox is all grown up and can no longer ride Milly, or the sad day when Milly is gone. But he'll always have the memories and that's enough for him.
They stay out there for a while, just letting Maddox sit on Milly as she lazily wanders around and eats grass. Maddox doesn't care that she isn't moving much, just happily singing a song at the top of his lungs about cows that makes no sense to Fox, but it's just adorable. Eventually Fox hears the gate open and glances back to see Paloma walking over to him, looking a little nervous but mostly proud as she stares at him and Maddox. "Hey Pal," he says gently as she stops next to him. He puts one arm around her and she leans up against him as he kisses the top of her head.
"He was a lot today," she sighs but doesn't sound upset by this. At least, she won't bring up being upset in front of Maddox.
"He is only two," Fox tells her, knowing that probably the most challenging years are yet to come.
"I know…" Paloma responds and they stand in comfortable silence for a few minutes, just watching their son. Fox didn't think the moment could have gotten better, but it did by having his wife with him now. "Hey Fox…what do you think about having another one?"
"Oh I would love to have another," Fox answers immediately, already having known this for years. "The more kids, the merrier. Why, are you thinking you want to try and have another kid?"
"Well…" Paloma hesitantly says to him and he turns to look down at her.
"Pal, you can tell me if that's not what you want," Fox tells her, just wanting to see her happy more than himself. He would love to have more kids but if that's not what Paloma wants, then he's more than happy to just have Maddox. His son has already been a blessing. "I promise you won't upset me if that's what you want. You're the one that has to carry them."
Paloma is quiet again and he just leaves her be, knowing she'll respond when she's ready to. And after over three years of being together, he knows she'll be honest with him, even if she's afraid. "I think I already am."
Fox immediately turns to look over at Paloma at this, barely remembering to keep a hold on Maddox. "You're joking."
Paloma shakes her head at this but gives a shrug at him. "I haven't gotten my period in two months."
Fox slowly starts to grin at her and lets go of her for a moment to pick up Maddox and set him down on the ground, which he protests a lot but he can't even be upset at him. Not after getting the best news from Paloma. "Pal this is amazing!" He picks her up from the ground, swinging her around and getting a little bit of a laugh from her, but he can tell she's not as excited yet as him. He gently sets her down so he can put his hands on her flat stomach, already so excited to see her stomach slowly start to grow again with a baby. "You're going to be a great mother to this little baby, just like you're already a great mother to Maddox. So don't worry, Pal. Plus we're adults now and I'm going to buy us our own house to live in."
"We still have one more Reaping…" Paloma whispers to him, her fear making her voice crack.
"We've made it through six so far, we'll make it through one last Reaping," Fox reassures her, unable to be worried at all. How could he be when he just got the best news? He hugs her once more, being careful not to hold her too tightly around her stomach. "Oh Pal, this is amazing. I'm so happy this is our life."
Genesis Barrett, 17
One Month Before The Reaping
One wouldn't think that there would be much need to chop up a ton of firewood at the beginning of summer in the southernmost District of Panem. And for most people in the District, the would only need a few small pieces to fuel their wood fire stoves, if at all. But not for Genesis' family. When you have over a dozen people to feed, you need as much fire wood as possible. And today wasn't just any day, today is her father's birthday, meaning all her older half-siblings and their families will be returning to the farmstead for a dinner. After all, it's his bloodline that will survive after the world gets destroyed. Everyone is expected to join for his birthday dinner.
But Genesis doesn't mind her role. As the oldest sibling from her mother, it's been expected from her at a young age to help with all of her many younger siblings. Everyone has their place in the farmstead to ensure everything runs smoothly and so they can live almost entirely on their own and minimize their dependency on the Capitol. That's how it's always been and Genesis can't see it being any other way.
Cutting the wood for her family has never been a problem for Genesis. When she was given the task at the age of eleven, she adapted it to her daily routine and never looked back. Such is her life. Now she's come to enjoy the task, with it providing a small reprieve from all the noise and chaos of her large family.
But the past couple days have disrupted this routine as they prepared for her father's birthday and all the mouths to feed. Genesis had to recruit her sister Justice to help and she has regretted the choice every time they have gone out.
"I just don't get why we have to be the ones cutting up the wood!" Justice whines once more and Genesis pauses from swinging her axe to purse her lips and hold her tongue. She so badly has wanted to tell off the girl for days now to get her to stop complaining, but that won't get her anywhere. If anything, it will just make Justice run off for a fourteenth time. "Like why can't some of the older boys do this? They're stronger than us."
"Because they have their own families to get ready for today," Genesis reminds her calmly, returning back to cutting up a log. She picks up one of the pieces and puts it in Justice's arms on top of two other pieces. "This is my task and it's also yours for a few days. The sooner you accept it, the easier it will be. If you were more responsible, you could be helping Faith get our siblings ready."
"This is stupid!" Justice yells as Genesis goes to pick up her other piece of wood and she glances up in time to see her sister throw all the firewood in her arms onto the ground. "I'm not helping anymore!"
"Pick up that wood right now," Genesis scolds her before looking around, checking that none of their half-siblings are around. The last thing she needs is for one of them to see this and think Genesis doesn't know how to keep control of her younger siblings. Justice starts crossing her arms and scowling at Genesis with as much anger as the thirteen year old can muster, and Genesis points down at the wood. "Now, Justice. The sooner you accept this is your life, the easier it all is."
"I hate this life!" Justice screams at her before turning around and starting to stomp away from the house.
"Justice!" Genesis calls after her sister and gets no response. She sighs to herself before quickly organizing the wood Justice dropped into a pile before following after her, axe still in hand to stop any of the younger siblings from finding it unattended and hurting themselves. "Come back here!"
"Leave me alone!" Justice calls back over her shoulder and when she sees Genesis following after her, she starts running across the property.
"Justice!" Genesis screams as she starts running after her sister, clutching the axe very carefully so she doesn't hurt herself. She can't stop looking around as she chases her sister, worried that someone is going to see them and judge Genesis as being completely unable to care for her siblings and set an example. "Stop it right this second!" Yet Justice keeps running, her little kid energy making her much faster than Genesis, and the older girl lets out a huff of annoyance to herself at this situation.
They're getting close to one of the houses on the farmstead when exactly that happens. "What are you two doing? And why the hell are you chasing her with an axe?!"
Genesis digs her feet into the ground immediately to face whoever it was that yelled at them. Justice is much slower to stop running, looking a bit sheepish as she faces the one wife that Genesis can't bring herself to call mother due to her age. "Nothing, Mother Dara," Justice mumbles as she kicks her toes into the dirt and refuses to look at her.
Genesis looks down at the axe in her hands before moving to holding it behind her back so it's not as obvious that she was just chasing her younger sister around with an axe. "It looks worse than it was," Genesis starts carefully, choosing her words carefully, even if she knows Dara isn't going to tell anyone.
Dara chuckles a little as she shifts the one year old to her other hip. "Yeah? Do tell, I'm very curious about this story."
Genesis walks over to Justice and puts a hand on her sister's shoulder, lightly pushing her over towards Dara as for some reason, Dara is the only one she respects and will listen to. Genesis is very grateful that the one person to see them was the person she considers her friend, but that doesn't stop her from wanting to keep up a good impression with her. "Justice thought that cutting up wood to help with cooking the meals was stupid and ran off. So I followed after her and brought the axe with me to stop any of the younger kids from finding it on accident and hurting themselves."
"Is that so?" Dara asks her and Genesis nods her head as she glances away from her, unable to read whatever emotion she's feeling right now. "Come on, Justice, you can help watch Grace while I bathe."
"Yes, Mother Dara," Justice responds quietly and starts walking over towards the house, refusing to look back at Genesis.
Genesis shakes her head at her younger sister, understanding why Justice is acting the way she is. Genesis was like her too at one point, questioning why they had to do these chores and live all together. But she learned to just accept it and life became a lot easier once she embraced her role in the family. Justice will get there eventually. "Sorry for bothering you," Genesis apologizes to Dara, still struggling to make eye contact with her friend.
"It's alright," Dara responds and Genesis glances over to see a small smile on her face. "Children, am I right?"
"I suppose," Genesis shrugs her shoulders, not wanting to blame Justice for it out loud. But she sure is blaming Justice internally for causing her to look bad in front of the others and now have to do extra work on her own. She glances down at her watch and then back in the direction she ran from. "I need to get back to work or we won't have enough wood to cook with. Are you sure you're fine watching Justice?"
"Of course," Dara responds immediately and Genesis nods her head at her before turning around and starting to walk back to the pile of wood she abandoned. "See you in a bit to cook dinner!"
Genesis lets a brief grimace pass over her face since no one can see it before clearly her expression. She hasn't been looking forward to that all day. Not because she doesn't like cooking and helping out, quite the opposite. But she doesn't know how she's supposed to hold up a conversation with all the other eldest siblings helping out their mother's.
Well, at least she can stay quiet and say she's focusing on her work. No one will question that or know that she's actually thinking up a plan she'll never actually implement to get back at her sister for this.
Genesis keeps subtly glancing down at the farthest end of the table as she helps bring out the many platters of food, all stuff grown on their farmstead. She knows where she'll have to sit, the same spot she always has to sit at dinner time, closest to their mothers since she's the eldest sibling. But with everyone gathered tonight for dinner, she'll be with her half-siblings much older than her that she'll struggle to talk with. She's never been able to connect to the people over ten years older than her, always struggling to read the tone of their voice or their facial expressions, resulting in her growing worried that she's going to misinterpret something and say something wrong, making herself look bad in the process.
She would much rather be sitting at the end of the table with all of the other younger siblings. Children are just so much easier to handle and upfront about their emotions and will tell you exactly how they feel.
"That doesn't go there."
Genesis stops at the stern voice and keeps her gaze down as she turns to face the woman that runs the entire household. "Yes, Mother Sylvia, I'm sorry. Where should it go instead?"
Mother Sylvia looks at the bowl of carrots in Genesis' hands that she was about to place in the middle of the table before pointing at the far end. "Put it by the youngest, they need the vegetables."
"Of course, Mother Sylvia," Genesis says with a nod of her head before moving to put the bowl in the proper spot, walking with her shoulders back and head high to look like the proper young lady Mother Sylvia has raised her to be. She's the woman she's always had to work the hardest to impress.
Once the bowl is set down, she glances back up at her before turning to look back at the mostly set table, the remaining dishes being brought out by her eldest half-siblings. But the look she briefly sees on Mother Sylvia's face makes her think for a second that she's proud, before making herself confused because when has Mother Sylvia ever been proud of her? "That will be all from you, your siblings have the rest. Sit."
"Yes, Mother," Genesis dutifully answers before taking her designated seat at the table as the last dishes are set down.
Mother Sylvia carefully examines the table before looking over at her child still living on the farmstead. "Ring the dinner bell, Freedom."
With a nod, the boy a few years older than Genesis goes to the bell standing near the table and gives it three loud rings. As he returns to the table and takes his spot next to Genesis – given thanks to being oldest still at the farmstead, but still farther than her from their father since he's not the eldest of his siblings – a large group of people start wandering out of the houses and towards the dinner table. They all take their seats in organized chaos, knowing where they're supposed to sit, yet everyone getting in each other's way. Mother Sylvia watches over all of them, standing behind one of the two spots at the head of the table. Once they're all sitting, she puts her fingers up to her mouth and gives a high pitched whistle that Genesis winces at but makes everyone fall quiet.
Mother Sylvia takes her seat as Father walks out of the main house, a similar expression on his face as he looks out at his large family as Mother Sylvia gave Genesis. As his gaze passes over Genesis, she glances away from him and down to her plate, not comfortable with making eye contact with the man she barely knows. When he reaches the table, she glances back at him, as is expected from her as the eldest daughter from Mother Willa. But she keeps her gaze focused on his shoulder, rather than his eyes as he smiles out at all of them.
"Before dinner, I'd like to say a few words," Father starts, his voice easily carrying over to the several dozen people gather tonight, all related to him by blood or marriage. "First, we need to say thanks to the ability to sustain our family here on our farmstead instead of relying on the corrupted Capitol for food and supplies. Thank you to Sylvia for managing all of this and delegating tasks to everyone. Our life free from the Capitol would not be possible without every single person working to do their part."
Genesis purses her lips, fighting back the urge to look back at Justice and give her a look of 'I told you so'. However, that would not be the proper thing for her to do and she has to set an example in front of all of her siblings. But oh does she so badly want to tell her off later. She hardly focuses on her father as he keeps talking about their family all being there tonight, thinking of a plan in her head for how she can tell Justice how she was right. It would be so great, yet she knows she won't ever actually go through with it. Even just telling Justice that gives the chance for someone else to find out. And rumors spread way too quickly when you're living with this many people around. It would only be a matter of time until Mother Sylvia found out and Genesis has not gotten her wrists smacked in years for being out of line. She doesn't plan on starting that again.
She brings her attention back to her father when she hears her name spoken and gives him a polite smile as he thanks the eldest children for their contributions. "Genesis, thank you for providing the firewood for all of us and helping with the cooking. We appreciate you-"
He's cut off by an alarm blaring across the farmstead that makes many of them look around in mixes of confusion and fear. Genesis makes eye contact with her mother and even she can recognize the total fear in her gaze. She quickly looks away towards her father to know if this is a drill or if they are actually under attack from Capitol mutts. He watches them with a smug smile and calls out to them as he starts walking back to the main house. "You know what to do!"
Genesis still isn't completely sure if this is a drill organized by her father or not, but she does not want to take the risk if it is real or get in trouble if she ignores the drill. No one has burst out into screams of panic or started running frantically at the alarm, having practiced the scenario of the Capitol bringing out the end of the world by mutts or disease numerous times. Mother Sylvia stands up and starts barking commands at all of them as the three other wives stand up and start gathering up their youngest children.
"Freedom, Tomer, Genesis, help your mothers," Mother Sylvia commands them and Genesis stands up immediately, following Mother Willa over to her seven full siblings. By time the two of them reach them, Faith has already started to gather them from the table, taking their youngest brother Joy into her arms and motioning the three youngest children over to Mother Willa.
Genesis goes towards the two sisters next oldest after Faith, knowing it's her job to make sure the eldest siblings are cared for. Justice has her arms crossed as Genesis puts a hand on her shoulder, but doesn't protest as Genesis starts pushing her towards their house. She grabs onto Harmony's hand to bring her with her, but the eleven year old pulls her hand away from her, face full of fear as she looks around at the sirens blaring. "It's okay, Harmony, we're just going to go to the house and go into the safe room." Genesis gives the girl what she hopes is a reassuring smile and holds out her hand again. "Come on, come with me."
But instead of taking her hand, the scared girl starts running away and Mother Willa shrieks her name. Genesis looks around at the people around her, knowing someone needs to get Harmony before she gets too far away and is in danger. But when no one starts moving, Genesis starts sprinting after the girl, making her mother shriek her name this time. But she ignores her, knowing it's her task to watch Harmony and Justice, and she is not going to get in trouble for not following her instructions.
Genesis is so thankful for the summer causing later sunsets and allowing her enough light to see Harmony as she gets close to the edge of the forest. But she knows the young girl and she's nimble enough to scale any of the trees lining the property and if that happens, Genesis will never catch her. She forces her legs to move even faster, allowing her to catch up to Harmony just at the tree line.
She grabs onto Harmony's hand and the girl lets out a squeak of fear as she turns around to face Genesis. The older girl holds onto Harmony tightly, not letting up even when the younger girl whimpers from her grip. She won't lose her again. "Don't you dare run again," Genesis scolds her and when Harmony glances around, she hefts the girl up onto her shoulder, straining under her weight but still holding onto her tightly so she doesn't slip away as she starts jogging back to the house.
As she jogs, Genesis finds herself thanking Mother Sylvia in her head for forcing her to start cutting firewood all those years ago, otherwise she would never have the upper body strength for this. When they get closer to their house, light pours out of the open door, partially blocked by their mother standing in the doorway, hand over her chest. "Oh thank goodness you're both safe! Quickly, inside!" She shouts at them and Genesis does her best to force her legs to keep moving.
Mother Willa steps out of the way for Genesis to run into the house before slamming the door shut and setting the numerous locks into place. Genesis doesn't set Harmony down yet, even as her arms scream at her and her legs burn from the running. Not until she has done her job and gotten her safely in the safe room.
When Genesis enters the room, Faith lets out a squeal of relief and jumps up to hug Genesis as she sets down Harmony. "You're both safe!"
"Yes," Genesis responds as she turns to Harmony, simultaneously wanting to scold her and make sure that she's okay.
But before she can say anything, Mother Willa steps forward and puts her hands on Harmony's shoulders as she looks at Genesis. "Your job is done, just keep them busy."
"Yes, Mother," she responds obediently, even if right now entertaining the youngest is not what she wants to do. But she's not Justice and she does what she's told.
So she settles down with the youngest children, playing with them as the alarm continues to sound, muffled by the walls of the house. She can't tell how much time passes before the alarm shuts off and she looks around with the others. But they don't move to leave the room yet, and won't until her father stops by to tell them that it's safe.
Another twenty minutes pass until there's the coded knock on the door and Mother Willa sighs in relief as she quickly opens up the door to reveal their father. He steps into the room and looks around at all of them. "Good job, everyone. While tonight was just a drill, you all did what you would need to if the Capitol was really attacking us." Genesis turns her eyes down at this, knowing she didn't do exactly what she was supposed to do…but it wasn't her fault that Harmony ran away… "Genesis, can I speak with you please?"
Genesis nods her head dutifully as she keeps her head down, afraid that she's about to get in trouble for what she did tonight. She was just trying to save her sister… "Yes, Father," she says and follows him out of the room, still keeping her gaze trained on the floor.
She nearly runs into him when he comes to a stop and turns around to face her. She barely glances up at him for a second but when she has no clue what he's thinking, she turns her gaze back down to the ground. "I heard you ran after Harmony and brought her back."
Genesis nods her head slowly at this, having no clue if she's in trouble for doing that. She just wanted to do her job and keep her sister safe… But if she did the wrong thing, she knows it's best to apologize to him now and let him know she recognizes it was a mistake. "Yes, Father… I'm sorry if that was wrong."
"Wrong?" He questions and she briefly glances back up at him again before looking back down once more. "No, it was the right decision. You acted immediately to protect the bloodline from the Capitol threat." He puts a hand on her shoulder suddenly and she tenses up immediately as he pats it a couple times before removing it. "You did well."
"Thank…you, Father," Genesis hesitantly answers, not knowing him well enough to know if he is happy with her.
"Keep it up," he says before turning around and leaving, letting her know the conversation is done.
Genesis watches him leave, waiting until the front door is shut behind him before releasing the tension in her shoulders and letting out a sigh. She doesn't know how she's supposed to feel right now. Relieved? Proud? Angry at Harmony for running? All of the above?
But one feeling she knows for sure is that she's hungry and wondering when they will get to have their dinner that they abandoned.
Icarus Clo, Escort for District Ten
Icarus had thought he got over being a little salty that they didn't ask him if he would like to move up to a new District instead of putting young people up higher. But being back in District Ten and struggling again to get the microphone up to an appropriate height for him, it just reminded him that he's been stuck here his entire career.
"District Ten, you never disappoint," Icarus says passive aggressively as he keeps struggling to raise the microphone before finally getting it set with a screech over the sound system. "Well then," he says with a cringe at the noise before straightening out his tweed jacket that was all the rage last year. As he stares out at the crowd of scared children, he hopes for a brief moment that there won't be any issues once more with the cameras… Maybe that was the reason they didn't promote him. Surely it's not from his lack of trying to get a victor. "As you know from me being here for over twenty years, I'm Icarus Clo and it's time to find out who our tributes will be for the Sixth Quarter Quell."
Icarus walks with confidence across the stage, none of that fake confidence that the younger escorts have but the confidence of someone that has been at this job for decades. He takes his time assessing the pieces of papers in the glass bowl, wondering what kind of tributes he'll pick this year. He would love to rub it in Flannery's face that he picked the Quell victor after she got the last one. And he totally doesn't want to brag for the fact that the escort dumped him after their short fling. Nope, not at all… He certainly would like a fighter like Nyra last year, but not someone who ends up going off the deep end from the pressure of the Games. And he certainly wouldn't like another twelve year old like Cutter. Well…only one way to find out and that's to pick them.
Icarus chooses his name and returns to the microphone only to find that it slowly slid down while he was away from it. He struggles for a few seconds with it before just sighing and leaning down to speak into it. "Our first tribute is Genesis Barrett."
The escort waits for a few seconds to see where the tribute will emerge from in the crowd and has to hold back a bit of excitement that he's picking an older tribute when the girl steps out from the seventeen year olds. She doesn't immediately scream 'I'm a threat!' but Icarus supposes neither did Nyra last year. But at least she's not crying, keeping her face a frozen mask and all emotions locked up as she approaches the stage.
As she approaches Icarus, he can tell that while she's a bit scrawny, she at least has some strength when he holds out his hand to her and she shakes it firmly. "Welcome, Genesis," he tells her with a smile, ready to start working with her to give her the best shot at victory. But before he fully commits to her, he turns back out to the crowd. "Are there any volunteers?"
In the shocker of the century, there are no volunteers. Icarus holds back his lack of surprise on his face as he looks out at the crowd standing still. "Well we'll see if there are any volunteers for the other tribute," Icarus tells them, still having to hunch over the microphone to speak to them. He goes to pick the other name, once more contemplating the slips as if he can see through them to figure out exactly which name will give him a strong tribute.
He finally settles on one and returns to the microphone that has slid even farther down. "Alright," he starts, trying to lean down to speak but feeling his back start aching already. He struggles to raise it back up for a few seconds before finally giving up and just picking up the entire microphone stand, getting a few snickers from the crowd. "The second tribute is Fox Durham."
Movement starts in the section of the oldest tributes and Icarus starts to grin at his choice, but his smile immediately disappears at yelling from outside the area of eligible children. "I volunteer! Take me instead of him!"
Fox stops between the section and the stage, looking back at the crowd with wide eyes. Suddenly a man not much older than Fox and looking similar to him starts running towards the stage and Fox, only to get stopped almost immediately by Peacekeepers. "Take me instead! It's a Quell, anyone should be able to volunteer!"
"I'm afraid that's not how it works…" Icarus tells the man, frowning a bit by the display from him. Fox watches the Peacekeepers take away his older brother for a few seconds before a Peacekeeper steps up and takes his arm, leading him the rest of the way up onto the stage. The scrawny looking guy is barely holding back his tears as he is brought next to Icarus and the escort puts a hand on his shoulder, only making him sniffle a bit. "Well…are there any volunteers that are actually eligible?"
No one steps forward for Fox, just like with Genesis. Fox clears his throat and tries to stand up straighter as he stares straight ahead at the crowd. Icarus looks at both of his tributes this year, just feeling good about both of them. There's just something to both of them that has him feeling confident he can guide one of them towards victory. He'll give them both the best shot.
And then hopefully he can rub it in Flannery's face when he has the victor.
"Alright District Ten, we have our tributes for the Sixth Quarter Quell: Genesis Barrett and Fox Durham!"
Here we go, our second to last pair of tributes! Big thanks as always to paperairline, Golden Moon Huntress, and misfit-right-in for Fox, Genesis, and Icarus respectively! These two were a blast to write!
Well, this chapter ended up longer than intended but uh, that's what happens when you have two tributes with very large families lol. I was also going to wait another week with this chapter but I have about zero impulse control and want to get to the Wayward bloodbath asap. So here we are, only one intro chapter left! And I'm excited because I actually have that chapter finished already! So expect that update in a somewhat timely manner.
Thoughts on these two? And since we're nearly done with intros, any alliance ideas? I already have them figured out but I'm curious if anyone will guess some of them!
Alright I will see you probably in 2-3 weeks with the last intro! We are nearly there! :D