The Hunger Games: Resume

Prologue

My name is Katniss Everdeen. I am eighteen years old. My home is District 12. President Snow is dead. There are no more Hunger Games. My sister, Prim is...

I can't allow myself to finish. Somehow I know she's with me. Picking flowers from the garden. My mother busy in the kitchen. The sweet smell of her cooking, and even my father in his hunting jacket, waiting for me in the woods and by the lake. Sometimes, I wish I never met the boy with the bread or even Gale. I long for my father's closeness, Prim's giggle and my mother's beauty. I sigh for my family to be whole again. But I have met the boy with the bread, and the boy who I never managed to shake off in the woods. As I loved one, I hurt the other. In the end I knew who I needed to survive in this world. No matter how much I wanted to leave, the boy with the bread refused. The dandelion in the spring. That hopeful dandelion I stared at after turning away from that boy. That beautiful, empty boy. He and this dandelion share a quality about them. They share the symbol of hope. And I chose him over Gale. Because I am tired of fire, the burns have left scars in my dreams, the ones that are too stubborn to heal. I am tired of threats, deaths and pain. I finally get to throw it all away. The past is the past, but it finds its way back eventually. It always does. At least I have Peeta Mellark, the boy with the bread and Haymitch too. They are my family now.

President Paylor has found justice for all. The Capitol is not as pristine as I once saw it. It is now a replica of the other districts. But now there is colour in all districts. There is nothing to mine here in 12. Coal-mines no longer exist. I'm pleased too because those mines used to be a daily reminder of my father's death. Now there are happier things to remind me of him, like hunting and archery. I've only visited the Capitol once after my encounter with President Coin for a medal of honour. I saved our country by being the face of the rebellion. Yet all I managed to do is not kill President Snow. Peeta and I visit the memorials often, to remember those who fought and died. The Capitol have most of those who died in the war, but some have been rested in their homes. Yet too many have died in the Hunger Games and no one will ever forget that. Our country Panem is now peaceful, but not entirely.

District 12 is not that grimy, grey place filled with coal dust anymore. The hob was annihilated with flame guns before the third Quarter Quell of the Hunger Games. We no longer walk in damp mud and grass. That is reserved for the beautiful fields that now grow our crops. This means the people of 12 no longer starve. Employment is open to most, but there is the occasional unemployed person. Before the second war, I was rich but I'd never flaunt my wealth. I was reasonable with it. I decided to give my prosperity up, I didn't have to though. I hated being poor and I hated being rich. There is no winning with me. The electric fence that used to separate District 12 and the woods remains. But it is so fragile that all the wires have crumpled on the floor. No one has touched it. The Capitol dropped firebombs after the 75th Hunger Games obliterating everything in District 12. During the rebuilding of my home, no one cared for the fence that protects us from the predators in the woods. But the animals have no business in our district, the food is only contained in the woods. Why would they go elsewhere? There is no reason for anything to endanger my home.