*Lystra's POV. And the end of the chapter is foreshadowing for Catching Fire/The Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins*
Toppled buildings lay everywhere. A thick layer of dirt and dust lay on the ground we walked on – a place that obviously used to be a path.
"What is this place?" Echo asked, staring wide-eyed at it.
"Looks like that clip they should of 13," Lillibet muttered, moving through it carefully.
"But . . . why?" Julius asked. No one had anything to say to that. We walked slowly and carefully through the ruined town.
"Did someone drop a bomb here?" wondered Lillibet.
"Of course not," Echo said "We'd have heard it." Then she looked around, confused. Anything seemed likely in this ruined town. "Right?"
"I don't know," Totsie glanced over her shoulder. "Is anyone following us?"
"We wouldn't be able to see them," I agreed, feeling uneasy.
"No," Tanner said "they're still at the bloodbath."
"We need to keep going," Nich said, kicking a pile of rubble. We all gasped when the rubble moved aside to show a collapsed sign with words carved in :
District 1.
"W-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-what?" gasped Totsie, struck without words.
"District 1?" asked Julius "it can't . . ."
"What have they done?" Lillibet whispered
"This isn't the real District 1," Luna said reasonably. "there aren't any bodies." She shrugged
"Oh," I said, and it seemed completely obvious to me now. "oh . . . oh, yes, it can't be real."
We all began murmuring consolances to ourselves and each other. I found myself close to Tanner, and I blushed slightly, but didn't move away.
"We have to keep going," Nich repeated adamantly.
"Into that?" Lillibet's voice was a bit high-pitched "I don't think so." We all gulped at the thought of walking into the bombed District 1.
"All right," I said, turning decisively away. "Then we go the other way." Everyone followed me in the opposite direction. Mind full of pictures of the ruined District 1, I snuggled closer to Tanner as we walked.
Just as everyone calmed down slightly and all was quiet, the cannons went off.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
6.
6 tributes dead.
6 out of 24 tributes dead.
Nicholas, Peter, Steven, and Tomas were four of them. I thought about the tribute that Armando had torn apart. Surely she was among the dead.
There were 18 left.
And 10 of them were standing right here.
In unspoken agreement, we all stopped for just a moment, remembering the dead. Then we moved on. We didn't have time to stop. Now that the bloodbath was over, the Carreers were fully armed and ready to come after us. We had to get away.
We began to run – a slow, steady pace that we could maintain for a long time. The pace had only just been set for a few moments when we all stopped, crying out in horror again.
In front of us was another ruined city.
This one was burnt.
"Another one?" gasped Totsie.
"Why are they doing this?" asked Echo breathlessly
"Well, I would've thought that'd be obvious," a quiet voice said eventually. We all turned in surprise to Spade, who was still being supported by Mazie. We had forgotten about him; figured that he'd been unconscious.
"What do you mean?" Julius asked
"I mean what I said," Spade said.
There was silence for a moment. Then I laughed out loud and clapped Spade on his uninjured shoulder. "Good one!"
Everyone stared at me in amazement as I continued to laugh.
"But why is it obvious?" Nich asked Spade
"They are reminding us," Spade said slowly, with hidden meaning under his words. "what happens when people go up against the Capitol."
Slowly, his meaning dawned on all of us. It was the President sending us all a personal message : You go against us, and this is what we will do to you.
There was a long silence, and then, finally, Totsie asked,
"Which District is this?"
We all shrugged. "Why does it matter?" I ask. Totsie ignored me.
"Two, maybe?" Echo suggested to her sister.
"Maybe . . ." Totsie said, kicking aside ash, and revealing a charred sign with the words :
District 12.
Lillibet let out a gasp as she looked upon her district with horror. Spade groaned loudly. I shivered, wondering what it would feel like to see my home destroyed, and to know that, all across the country, everybody else was too. Including the people there.
"So . . . where do we go now?" asked Julius. I understood – I was feeling a little trapped, too.
"Through," Lillibet answered, her voice suddenly steady
"Through?" I asked "Lillibet, are you sure?"
"I –" she broke off and took a deep breath "I have to see it, Lystra."
I considered her and nodded along with everyone else. Then we set out throughout the burnt district.
*Lillibet Haldson's POV*
As I walked down the charred streets of my childhood, I felt a great, bubbling emotion kindle deep inside of me.
Hatred.
There was the bakery.
The warehouses.
The mayor's house.
The Capitol building.
My own house.
Our shop where I work as a seamstress.
All burned to the ground.
Ruined.
Hatred.
I felt it becoming part of me, settling in for a long rest.
We were near the center of my ruined district when we heard Elvatorix's scream. I exchanged a glance with Totsie. Elvatorix had found her district, 1.
"We need to stop," Tanner said, "Spade needs patched up." Spade looked bad. He was extremely pale, and he had been cut very badly on his shoulder. Blood continuously flowed from it. I gulped slightly as Tanner set him down.
"Erm," Lystra looked ready to puke. "Is anyone a medic here?"
"Me," I said quietly, and blushed when everyone looked at me. "Well . . . kind of. My mom . . . knew some things."
"I'll help," Luna offered. I smiled gratefully at the tribute as she rummaged through a bag, pulling out a medic kit.
*Nich's POV*
I instructed everyone to go through the bags so that we could see what we had. When we were done, we had two medic bags, one sleeping bag, 2 bag of dried food, and assorted weapons. We immediately handed out the weapons.
I had found a sheath and kept my sword in it.
Lystra grinned as she fashioned a bag around her waist. Inside, hilt/handles visible, was her short sword and 20 knives. No one had argued when she had taken nearly all of the knives.
Tanner had rigged up a useless leather strap around his back to hold three spears.
Lillibet had a small leather pouch holding a beautiful, deadly dagger.
Julius took a sword and a knife in a bag similar to Lystra's.
Spade (patched up with bloody bandages) carried his spade.
Luna took a short sword. I wondered if she could wield it.
Echo had a dark brown bow and peacock-feather arrows slung across her back in a sheath.
Totsie had a small bag around her waist with a slingshot in it. I knew that that bag would soon be full of rocks.
Rayne had a dagger and a short sword on a leather belt.
I stared at us all.
We were all drive by some force to join this alliance, but I was a bit scared that we were losing sight of our goal. I took out a medic kit.
"Come here, all of you," I said. I took out the bandages and tied a thick strip of bandage around all of our upper-left arms.
"Remember this,' I said "when the Careers come at you with their weapons; when you are struck with doubt : we are here to mend the festering wound between the districts and the Capitol. We are not here to cause more pain and suffering. We are here to end it. This is what the bandage stands for : that you are one in healing."
I felt the power swelling inside of me; the power my speeches had. It was like helium in a balloon. I knew that all cameras in the Capitol were on us.
I smiled.