Chapter 2
I jogged over to the training center as the sun was setting, cracking open the door with a sharp rock and my fist. I slipped inside and slide the letters for Clove and Cato into their lockers. I would truly miss them but this had to be done. I slipped back outside and ran into the woods.
I walked day after day. Stopping and sleeping in a nearby tree trunk. Eating the meat raw sense I didn't want to start a fire, seeing the peacekeepers would find me. I savored the water, drinking only what was necessary. The sun wasn't beaming down thanks to the tree tops, the leaves shielding me.
After about a week, my hair was frizzy and dirty, my skin scratched from twigs, my body becoming melnurished. I was running out of meat and my water supply was more than halfway gone. I kept walking, my strong legs starting to ache. But it wasn't much longer till I saw the fence, the only think that was blocking me from getting to district 10. I suddenly heard footsteps and ran, hiding behind a thick tree trunk. And then I saw them. The peacekeepers.
"I heard something," One of them said looking around.
"Well I don't see anything," The other replied annoyed. This would be my only chance. I ran out from behind the tree and up behind the closest guard, snapping his neck, seeing his body fall to my feet. I looked up to see the other guard, reaching and pulling out his baton. He brought it crashing down over my head, I blocked it with my forearm, grabbing the end of it and yanking it out of the peacekeepers hands. I gripped the baton with two hands and swung it at his face like a baseball bat, he stumbeled back. I grabbed his arms and kicked kneed him in the gut, kicking him down to the ground, his back scrapping a tree. I grabbed the baton again and kept swinging at the Peacekeeper, at his chest, face, head. I ignored the blood, letting it splatter on my face, my clothes. I didn't stop till he was dead, his body leaking red, his face broken and battered, his eyes watery from the tears. I stood over him breathing heavily, dropping the baton to the ground. He was dead.
I walked beside the electric fence for hours, finding the perfect tree that i could climb and jump off of to the other side. Never give up I kept telling myself. And I didn't.
I had found the tree and jumped over, landing on my feet swiftly, steading myself, making sure I didn't break anything. Nope, completely fine. I walked through the woods some more, now in District 10. I choice this district because the one year this district did win and they showed footage of his home, I saw the cows, the animals, all around. The mountains, the friendliest people. It was such a shame that these people always had to watch there youngest kids go into the Hunger Games every year and die, standing no chance. I felt worse for this district. That's why I chose it.
I walked and walked, but soon even that I couldn't do. I collapsed to the ground from exhaustion, panting, dying of starvation. The air was so humid, the night was approaching. My vision was starting to blur and I thought this was the end. But then she showed up. Alison, a late thirties woman with graying hair, a thin fragile body. She was picking berries in the woods and she saw me, rushing to my side. "What's your name? Are you okay?" Her voice was soft yet strong. I leaned into the tree I fell against and said with a dry throat, "My name's Sophia and I ran away from home, so yeah I'm doing pretty good," I managed a weak smiling before closing my eyes. I felt her arm around my waist, hoisting me up. Before I could say anything I passed out.
When I woke up I was in her home, a two story, half stone work, house with plenty of flowers growing around it. It was in a beautiful meadow that was at the edge of the forest she found me in. When my eyes fluttered open she was right there sitting by my side, wipping a cold towel on my face, dapping it around my neck, around my eyes, moving it slowly down the side of my face caringly. She asked me what had happened and I told her everything. How when I was born and I was told of my mother, what my father had done to her, how she couldn't protect herself. I promised to help people like her. And then I was told how other Districts don't stand a chance in the Hunger Games, I promised to train as hard as I could and then when I was strong enough and ready to teach I would leave and help another District. Alison was swayed by what I said, she admired my strength to help, strong enough to fight off my dad for that long, to survive the woods for that long. I owned nothing at that moment, I had no where to go, I was alone. I didn't know how to start my plan but Alison was there. I was 11 at the time. And things defiantly changed.