Authors Note: Hey again! I'm back with Chapter 2, the first few are going to be quick-fire chapters to establish most of the story, then I may or may not slow down a bit for a few updates per week. Action is going to start picking up in the next few chapters, so feel free skip along to the next one should you wish, though this one is important for developing the scene! I hope you've been enjoying it so far, there's plenty of zombie goodness to come! xD
Checking her phone, she pushed the door to her room open and dialled her home number. Her sister still lived at home with her mother, being a freshman at high school in her home town back in Tennessee. She moved a few states away to Minnesota to study for her Psychology degree in Panem, a small town 20 miles south of Minneapolis, the colleges there being the best to offer her the best college courses. Her sister, alike her mother, wanted to go into the medical field, mending wounds and tending to the sick, but she desired to go deeper than the physical.
After her father's death, a 10-year-old Katniss was left with practically orphaned as her mother succumbed to crippling depression sparked by his demise. She was left to care for her younger sister all on her own, and to wonder if her mother would ever recover. Since being abandoned by the one parent she had left for reasons she couldn't explain, she vowed to uncover the truth behind mental illness so that she could not only help her mother, but others in her position too. After months of research, she could finally reach out to her mother, eventually getting her to eat more than a slice of bread a day. The road to recovery had been long and gruelling, but she managed to not only raise her younger sister for 5 years, but begin to piece together the fragments of her mother that had been left shattered long after her father's death.
She was drawn from her reflection as Prims eager voice sounded through the receiver. "Katniss?" Prim squeaked, not bothering to hide her enthusiasm at her older sister's call. "Heya, Prim! How're y'all?" Her soft southern drawl reappearing as it often did when talking to her family. "We're great, Mom's been showing me how to use Ceder tree bark to treat the flu! You can even use Elm bark salve to treat gunshot wounds, Katniss!" Chuckling at Prims antics, Katniss flopped down onto her bed, munching on some toast she made. "That's great Prim, now if someone ever gets shot you can just run off into the woods and try to find a tree to chop up!"
"It's not like that Katniss, you don't just chop 'em up! You scrape off a teeny tiny but of bark, mix it with some sap and water and hey presto! Why don't they just do that? It'd be so much cheaper than all of this no good expensive, unnatural ju-" Giggling, Katniss cut Prim's endearing ramble short. "Okay, okay kiddo, I was just messin' with ya!"
"Gee, I can just hear all that statements condescending goodness." Prim sarcastically sulked, her pout detectable through the phone. "Wow, look at you usin' big words!" She teased, remembering just how easy it was to rile her younger sister up. Lowering her tone back to normal once again, she went on. "I'm proud of you, y'know. You're pretty much all grown up! And speaking of growing up, got your eye on any boys yet?"
"Uuugh!" Prim groaned, "Is that all there is to adult life? Boys? I don't get what's so good about 'em at the moment, they're smelly, they're immature and they're so mean!" she whined, huffing an indignant breath through the receiver. "That'll change; just give it time, kid! You don't have to worry about anythin' like that for a while now."
Just as she finished speaking, Delly kicked open the door and hovered in the doorway. Her blonde hair was dulled and ruffled, her eyes swollen and puffy. Her cheeks were pale and the clothes she wore the night before were unkempt and stained. She looked exhausted.
She looked dead.