Just Some Children From The Districts

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A/N: Hello, I am trying to get back into writing, but I have lost some of my writing ability. If you have read my other fics, I apologize if you were hoping for an update on any of them. I plan to, but things have changed for them. I want to execute these changes well and that you like them. These changes will be more prominent for From Zero to Hero and Mandalore The Eternal. The changes will be minor for Of the Creed & Moon when I get to that one. This is a crossover of Percy Jackson & the Olympians and The Hunger Games with aspects from The Maze Runner. Percy won't be a demigod; it will be more similar to rebirth. If you loved the length of the chapters from Mandalore The Eternal, I don't think I will do chapters that reach 10 thousand words again. I feel that it burnt me out because I wanted to have longer chapters for you guys. It's not on you; it is on me, and I just overworked myself by having too many obligations. Chapters won't be as short as 1 thousand words, but closer to the 3 thousand to 6 thousand range as I did with Of the Creed & Moon. I didn't want to rant, but I hope to write something you all enjoy again.

Chapter One - First Day of Boot Part 1

Journal Entry: June 21st, 2301

"Another day, another dollar. That is what life is like in the Glade. When this project started three years ago, most of the staff weren't told why they were brought here. They only knew that change was coming and that they would be making the catalyst. Two years ago, Dr. Johnson told them of the project's purpose: to train and prepare children for a rebellion that no one had any idea of when it could happen."

"Over the past few days, twenty-eight children have been taken from the other twelve districts and brought to the Glade. While some scientists and doctors hated doing what they were ordered to do, they fell in line soon enough. Each child went through procedures that, while removing most of their memories up to this point, would leave what was considered vital. Some held on to more than others, but most only kept their names, bare memories of the districts they came from, and what muscle memory they already had."

"The procedures should be finished today, and tonight, the children will meet Dr. Johnson and the other essential personnel. Unfortunately for them, that means they will be forced to meet the lapdogs of President Janson. Well, it's a good thing that Dr. Johnson doesn't care about her authority."

– A profitable pilot

Dr. Johnson stood on the amphitheater stage while she waited for Boggs and others to bring in the subjects. The only sound that could be heard was her footsteps as she anxiously paced across the stage. For someone who has known about this project the longest, besides President Janson, she still wasn't mentally prepared for what she was about to put these children through. Twenty-eight children have been stripped from their lives and will now start harsher ones.

"Stop pacing, Doctor," a gruff voice spoke near her. "It's making your nerves worse."

They would be disappointed if the person expected her to be surprised by their presence. His accent gave him away as someone she had come to trust. They had both been assigned to this project at the same time, after all. She turned and looked at the wall behind her where the lights didn't reach. Somewhere in those shadows was the man who would ensure these children became the best of the best. Well, maybe man wasn't the best way to describe him; a ghost was a more fitting description.

"Well, Lieutenant Riley, as a doctor, my morals don't exactly agree with what I am about to do." She turned back towards the seats that would soon fill up. "You may be numb to all this, but I swore to heal others. As much as I want the Capitol to pay, using children to do it isn't the way I envisioned it." She let out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding.

"Have you considered my suggestion?" The man behind her asked. She had, but she didn't like it. This man was pragmatic and didn't care about the what-ifs. He wanted to go with the more direct choice, something she didn't exactly agree with.

"Yes, it has merit," Dr. Johnson answered. "But is it the best way to go about this?" A grunt from the shadows was all she heard for a few moments. She thought she wouldn't get a reply before his gruff voice spoke again. This time, it felt as if his eyes were staring not at her but through her. As if he was looking at her secrets and not her.

"While there are other avenues you could take when talking to these kids, this is the best one. You lie; you risk them learning the truth and abandoning everything we have been preparing for. Telling them the truth also has its risks. They might resist, but eventually, they will accept the situation they are now in." She thought he was done speaking until she heard him whisper under his breath. "For most of them, this new life would be an improvement."

Their conversation ended when a new person walked into the amphitheater. It was Boggs in his usual garb. Like most of the soldiers here, he was dressed in dark colors. Unlike most, he didn't follow President Janson mindlessly. He was taller than her, almost reaching past six feet in height. His blue eyes contrasted with his dark skin; most would think he wore contacts.

"They're about here," his voice broke her out of her analysis of him. "Just need your ok to bring them in."

"Get up here, then have them brought in." Dr. Johnson spoke as she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do. To condemn these children to a life of violence that they might never escape. She didn't realize that Boggs had given the order until the doors at the top of the amphitheater opened, and the children were guided in.

Each child looked just as she expected after their procedures. Confusion was evident on their faces, as was the wariness of their new environment. However, it was the other looks that crossed their faces that she didn't know what to make of. The children didn't seem to be as scared as she thought. It was more of a look of recognition that shouldn't have been there.

"Welcome, children," Dr. Johnson spoke, hoping to get their attention. "As ordered by President Janson and cleared by the District 13 Security Council, you have been chosen to serve the betterment of Panem. You are now part of a classified project, codenamed Task Force: Stalker. You are Apha Group."

She paused to let the children take in the words. These kids… all ranged between six years old and eight years old. How would they understand what she was saying? Two of the older kids, one with green eyes and black hair and the other with narrow, slanted eyes and black hair, went to move but were stopped by a few of the men around them. They shared a look, and when the green-eyed child nodded, the other stopped struggling.

"The staff here consists of both doctors and military personnel. It is our task to make you the best you can possibly be. You were all chosen because of your status as orphans. There is no better life for you if you try to run. We are your best chance whether you like it or not." She took a deep breath. What she needed to ensure these kids understood their situation.

"We will teach you all you need to know that you would have learned in the district schools had you gone to them. You don't remember anything for the reason our President gave us. To make you a blank slate that can be molded into blades for a rebellion to come."

The children all became disgruntled at those words. It was as if being forced under someone's control didn't sit right with them. "Your old lives are gone. You didn't have any family before, but you do now. Those brought with you are now your family, your brothers and sisters. Now, the road ahead of you is filled with hardship and struggle, but you must succeed because I don't want to think about what will happen if you don't. Before I forget, welcome to the Glade."

Dr. Johnson turned to Boggs and gave him the order to have the kids fed and then taken to their new barracks. The steps of the children and staff were all she heard as Boggs led them out of the amphitheater. She knew the children would make it. They had to if Panem wanted to be free again. Footsteps neared her from behind, and she turned to the man she spoke to before the children arrived.

He looked just as his profile described him. Lieutenant Simon Riley was tall, standing at six feet two inches tall. His style of clothing made most in the Glade wary of him. Most tended to leave his vicinity as soon as he neared them. His military-issued gear was more excessive than others, but that wasn't what put others off. What covered his head put them off: A headset over a black balaclava with a skull pattern while dark red sunglasses kept anyone from seeing his eyes.

"Was that the right choice, Lieutenant?" Dr. Johnson asked. "I've just damned twenty-eight children to lives they never wanted. They didn't ask for any of this." She wanted to be composed but couldn't stop the lone tear running down her face.

"It's not about what's right, Doctor," he replied. "Right now, it's about what's needed. You're right about one thing; these kids didn't ask for any of what's about to happen."

He walked off the stage and began walking up the stairs to leave. Before she could say anything more, he spoke. "These kids didn't have much of anything before we grabbed them. I can't do much for them besides train them to be soldiers. You can do more and teach them what it means to be human." Without another word, he left the amphitheater, leaving her in the room's silence.

'Perseus, are we ever gonna be free?'

'Come on, Percy, we can't let Tommy do this alone.'

'You'll be alright, Percy. Let your old pal Frypan take care of things now.'

Voices continued to swim through his head. He couldn't see any faces, but the voices sounded familiar and trustworthy. Percy thought his dream might continue until he started hearing muffled words that he couldn't locate. Before he could move to get up from his bed, a hand grabbed him and roughly threw him to the ground.

"Get up, kid! Training starts today!"

Percy tried to get up but was disoriented from the fast movement from his bed to the floor. Through his spinning vision, he saw gray camouflage pants standing over him.

"I said get up! You forget what direction that was during the wipe?"

The shouting didn't help his disorientation at all. After finally standing up, he noticed a metal rod in the man beside him. He didn't know why, but he stepped back at the sight of it.

A man in a white uniform with black stripes stood over him as he repeatedly brought a metal baton down on his small body. Grunts left his mouth as he refused to let the men in white hear his screams. Through blurred vision, he saw a skinny blonde boy standing in a corner with a younger blonde girl behind him while another man in a white uniform yelled at them.

"Move it!"

The words broke him from his memories, and he noticed other kids begin to move away from the men grabbing them. He noticed from his memory that one of the kids, the skinny blonde boy, was by the bed next to him. He followed his sight line and saw the girl from his memory was across from them.

A sharp whistle broke through the barracks, and everyone turned to the source. Stood at the entrance was the dark-skinned man from the night before. It was the other man, though, that caught everyone's attention. His skull-patterned balaclava and dark red sunglasses set off everyone's danger instincts. He was already the most dangerous person in the building without saying a word or moving.

"My name is Lieutenant Boggs," the dark-skinned man introduced himself. "I and the rest of these men will be your instructors. When we tell you something, you will follow it like it is the law. This man to my right is Lieutenant Riley. Our word might be the law, but his word is to be taken the same as any higher power you might believe in." Without even noticing, his own back straightened as a sense of authority settled over him. "You may be Alpha Group, but here, you are no alphas!"

Percy looked at the man in the mask again. Higher power? Percy didn't really believe in any kind of higher power. Surely, one didn't exist. At that moment, images flashed through his mind: a flaming hammer, a silver bow, a white caduceus, and a golden trident. "What was that?" was all that crossed his mind as he held his head. Once again dizzy, he tried his best to listen.

"The showers are at the east end. You will all wash there, then return to your cots and change." The guard with the boy next to him opened the trunk in front of the cot and pulled out a set of clothes: a black tank top and matching sweatpants. Percy decided to look at his trunk and saw his name engraved onto a metal plate on it: PERSEUS 12-1. Confused at the number by his name, he looked over at the trunk belonging to the blonde boy: NEWT 12-3. "Now move!"

No one moved, and then the men with the batons moved closer to each of them. It was only when a kid with dark hair and brown skin got hit did anyone move. The boy beside Percy – Newt – ran to the blonde girl across from them and grabbed her before the man behind her could bring his baton down. He didn't know why, but Percy felt like they were close to him. Without a thought, he grabbed both of them and drugged them in the direction Boggs said the showers were in.

Other kids noticed them and followed with hurried steps. Everyone rushed through their showers and then back to their cots to change. Clothes were pulled on in a hurry before the men in the room herded them out the west doors. The sound of combat boots hitting the floor rang throughout the room.

As the twenty-eight pairs of boots ran out onto wet grass under a dark sky, Percy noticed other buildings near their barracks when he reached the front of the group. There were other barracks similar to the one he left, but what caught his attention was the four stone walls surrounding their area. Each wall was eighty feet tall and had ivy running up it, but Percy couldn't tell how wide from where he stood.

The men had the children get into four equal lines, and everyone did so as quickly as possible. No one wanted to be hit like the kid earlier was. "Listen up, Alphas!" the gruff voice of Lieutenant Riley startled the kids. "I give you an exercise. You give me one hundred reps. The first of you cadets to quit will run the entire length of these four walls and then come back here and give me another one hundred. I don't care if your body feels like it will give out. You don't stop."

With a yell of jumping jacks, each kid began. Percy tried his best to follow orders, but his body began to ache. Sweat already began to pour down the bodies of the children. "Done! Now, sit-ups! One… two… three…" Percy threw himself to the ground and didn't care about the scrapes he had gained.

Other exercises followed, each with one hundred reps: deep squats, knee bends, and leg lifts. No respite was given until everyone completed the last exercise. Percy wanted to throw up, but he refused to spill the contents of his dinner. Looking to his right, a large dark-skinned kid had no such care. Other kids followed suit, and soon, half of the kids were letting their stomachs loose. A kid who stopped to throw up before he finished quickly got hit with a baton to his back.

"Take a rest," Lieutenant Riley called out. "Hobbs, have the men bring out some water. Then, lead the run and bring them back for their lessons. I got to meet with the doc." Without another word, the kids who were paying attention watched as Lieutenant Riley walked off.

Every kid grabbed the water brought to them and drank it like they would never get any ever again. As Percy drank his water, he thought it would do more than quench his thirst. He didn't know why, but he felt that the water should have done more for him. Disappointment filled him for a moment before he put his thoughts to the back of his mind and looked around at the other children with him. About two-fifths of them looked eight years old, the same as him. The rest were all younger, probably six or seven years old.

"What's your name?"

Percy turned to his right to the person who asked his name. It was the large kid who was throwing up earlier. "Name's Perseus, from what I remember. I came from District 12, I think. How about you?"

"Siggy," the kid said, but he hesitated momentarily. "But from what I remember, people called me Frypan a lot. Think I might have been good with food, considering I rember I come from District 11."

Percy looked at the kid one more time. He was bigger than Percy by an inch or two. Going by his body, he must have lived a better life than Percy. Just like himself, Frypan had sweat drenching his body.

"Well, Frypan," Percy started. "Rest while you can. I have a feeling that this water time won't last long." True to his words, five minutes later, another sharp whistle from Boggs had everyone back in their lines and standing up.

"I hope you enjoyed your rest; it's time to run," Boggs commanded them. A groan came from some of the younger children. "You're tired?" he asked the groaning children. "Well, I don't care. Your feelings don't matter here, and no one here will care about them. Now follow me, and don't lag behind."

Without a word, Boggs took off at a jog. The kids didn't take long to follow Boggs toward the nearest stone wall. As they neared the middle of the wall, the kids stopped when they heard a loud boom that hurt their ears. When they looked toward the cause of the noise, they saw the wall spitting as the worst sound they had ever heard started. A crunching, grinding noise followed that, to Percy, sounded oddly familiar; looking at the other kids, some of them must have gotten the same feeling by looking at their faces.

A crack began to form down the middle of the wall as it split down the middle. This wall seemed to defy every law of physics known to man as it moved on its own. The adults around them acted as if it were an everyday occurrence. Percy and the other kids began to fall to the ground as the earth beneath them shook and rumbled. Percy swerved his head around without thinking, looking at the other walls. "Are they going to open?" The thought kept circling in his mind.

"Move it, cadet!"

So lost in his thoughts, Percy never noticed the instructor near him. He hurriedly got up and noticed Boggs had already begun to lead the others through the wall doors. Chasing after the group, he ran down the stone path that led out into a forest. By the time he reached the back of the group, the path had changed to gravel. The rest of the run went forever in Percy's mind. They abandoned the gravel path and ran alongside a river for some time before getting back on it to cross over a wide bridge. Then the path widened and changed back to stone, and Boggs still looked like he did not need to stop.

Percy had reached just behind Boggs by this point, with only one other eight-year-old keeping the same pace. He had narrow, slanted eyes with black hair, and like Percy, he was drenched in sweat. Looking behind him, Percy noticed that while the eight-year-olds led the pack, the odd seven or six-year-olds kept up with them.

Hearing the sound of an engine, Percy turned back forward. A gray vehicle with an angular body drove by them. The lack of doors allowed Percy and the rest of the kids to see everyone inside of it. While the driver was dressed the same as the rest of the soldiers, the man in the passenger seat caught his attention. Percy could only describe the man as rat-like with gray hair. Sat in the seats in the open back were two armed men sitting on either side of a woman with a bag covering her head.

"Eyes forward!" Boggs' voice made Percy snap his head forward. "Don't worry about that. Focus on the run." Boggs seemed annoyed that they all focused on the vehicle and increased his pace. Soon, they were running along a runway where a hovercraft sat near multiple large hangars.

"Stop!" The children all stopped to catch their breath. Some looked around for water but quickly noticed none was being brought to them. "This is your first day here, so I will let our distraction early go, but don't think you can be distracted by every small thing." Boggs had a severe look on his face as he talked. "Need I remind you what Dr. Johnson said? Only struggle and hardship lay ahead of you. Distractions will only drag you down, and they may just get you killed. I will give you two minutes, then we will run back the way we came. There will be a flag in the center of Glade; now, remember I didn't say to jog. I said run."

Percy didn't wait for Boggs to move. He had already started running the moment Boggs said the word run. It seemed that he wasn't the only one waiting for the two-minute break. About three other kids did the same and followed, including the black-haired kid with slanted eyes. Percy didn't worry about getting lost. For some reason unknown to him, he started memorizing the route the moment he left the large stone doors.

He outran two of the other three by a few feet, except for the kid who was by him when Boggs led them. But he wasn't on your heels close; he was running side-by-side with Percy. When they reached the river, Percy felt something from it again, but he didn't know why. Putting it out of his mind, he focused on the calmness of the nature around him. The only thing disrupting the calm was the random instructor he would see every fifty meters or so.

As he ran, he closed his eyes and let his feet and instincts carry him to his destination. Everything around him faded away, and the other kids were pushed to the back of his mind. He felt free while running through the woods as if it was meant to be peaceful in this untouched place between the Glade and the road past the bridge. He didn't know how long he had been running with the others, but he liked the freedom.

'Run,' a female voice spoke. Percy opened his eyes and looked around for the voice he just heard. Quickly looking at the other kids around him, they were all boys. "Am I hearing things?" He thought to himself. 'Run Percy. Run as fast as you can.' The female voice encouraged him. "I am hearing things. I'm already going crazy," he thought to himself.

Before he could think about the female voice any longer, he spotted the entrance of the Glade. As he and the other three ran through the doors and continued to the center of the Glade, the instructors still there just stared at them. Percy heard a faint question from a nearby instructor about where Boggs was but ignored them in favor of reaching his goal.

The center of the Glade was easy for Percy and company to spot. There was a flagpole with a flag on it that gave away its location. The flag wasn't anything special in his mind. It was all black with a white skull similar to the one on Lieutenant Riley's mask on it. And right below it was the man himself, with the lady from last night –Dr. Johnson– to his left.

As soon as the four reached the two adults, they collapsed. Their heartbeats pounded in their ears, and the ache of overexerted muscles and hunger ate their bodies. Water was quickly brought to the four children, but they took a few moments to grab the bottles.

Dr. Johnson looked at them with slight concern while the Lieutenant continued looking toward the east wall. Not a word was said by either adult as everyone waited for the rest to arrive. Ten minutes later, Boggs and the rest of the cadets reached the flag. Like Percy and the others, they collapsed before struggling towards the water bottles.

"I'm surprised they all made it, Boggs," Lieutenant Riley spoke. "But it seems that we may need to beat the enthusiasm out of some of these cadets. Don't want them rushing into something and dying, do we?"

Percy didn't know why, but he felt he was talking about him and the three who go to the flag first. He looked at the others and thought they might think the same as him.

"Yes, well, maybe it also shows who we should keep our eyes on. Both for what you said and for other qualities we are looking for for the other project," Boggs replied.

A grunt was the only response the masked man let out. The sound of someone clearing their throat brought all attention to Dr. Johnson. "Gentlemen, we can discuss that later in private; let's move on for now." Her voice was irritated, as if she wished she was doing something else. She then turned to the cadets to speak. "Children, since you have finished your morning activities, please follow me, for I will be in charge of your academic lessons."

It didn't take long for groans of disappointment to ring throughout the children. No child liked school, and now they just wanted to rest after they finished running.

"Well, I will gladly let Lieutenant Boggs and Lieutenant Riley continue your exercise if you wish."

The groans stopped immediately, and a smirk crossed Boggs's face. Percy and the other children quickly followed her to the northwest section of the Glade to a building with a domed roof. Before they entered, Percy read the name above the front door: D-13 SPECIAL FORCES ACADEMY. With a final look, the children followed Dr. Johnson into the building.

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A/N: I will not continue to do these extensive author notes, but the two in this chapter were important to me, so I wrote them for you readers. These first few chapters take heavy inspiration from Halo: Fall of Reach. If you have read it, you will see its parts in this chapter and the next few. You may think I have taken too much, and I apologize for that. I just want to give Percy a different kind of background than just being a demigod, which, in my story, he isn't. I used this as inspiration to give Percy more backstory before meeting Katniss. If you don't like this approach, I understand. You might think that it doesn't feel like a Hunger Games story as the only things mentioned so far are name drops of Panem, the districts, and a memory of peacekeepers. Trust me when I say that we will meet Katniss in a few chapters. I want to build Percy's character, along with those with him. They aren't major characters in this fic like Percy and Katniss, but they will appear in flashbacks/memories that Percy has. As such, the pacing might seem off because of the large time skip that will happen to jump to when Percy meets Katniss. I understand if you don't like it, but if you would like to talk to me about the story and its direction, I would gladly do so. Just private message me, and I will answer as soon as possible.