Massive Movie Mash-up

5. Alice in Wonderland

It is the first time Rosemary Ellesmere has seen daylight in a month, but she has no reason to celebrate. In a couple of minutes, she will be reaped into a Hunger Games. If it were an ordinary Hunger Games, she might have stood a chance, but nothing about today is ordinary. The vengeful dr. Marcus Geelong, now cyborg, orchestrated the entire thing and he will make sure Rosemary doesn’t survive.

She wouldn’t mind so much, if only her siblings weren’t about to be reaped too. Nicolas, who is 2 years her junior, will be reaped in Pontiasin with her. Unfortunately, Rosemary doesn’t know how Victoria and Thomas are doing. She only knows that they are in the town halls of their Districts.

At least, that is what Mr. Edwards told her. Maybe he lied and her siblings are already dead? No, Rosemary tells herself, if they were dead, I would know. Also, if dr. Geelong had killed them, she and Nicolas would be dead by now too. Victoria and Thomas can’t be dead. That would spoil Geelong’s fun.

Rosemary winces as she touches the bruise on her arm. A brute Orc from The Lord of the Rings grabbed her there and dragged her all the way to the town square. After Edwards read the ordinance which sentenced the Ellesmeres to death, Orcs led Nicolas and Rosemary from their cell to roped off areas.

In front of the town hall of Pontiasin, the two royals now stand in 30 by 30 feet squares. They painfully make clear that only Rosemary and Nicolas are District One’s possible tributes. Rosemary finds it humiliating to wait in an empty square while dr. Geelong performs his charade execution.

For a moment, she thinks of jumping over the ropes and escaping, but stormtroopers from Star Wars block her way. At least two dozen of them guard the roped off areas and their heavy white armour looks impenetrable. More stormtroopers as well as Orcs have scattered around the flagstone town square. Geelong has made escape impossible.

Instead, Rosemary peers over to the roped off square next to hers, where Nicolas stands. He was seething after Edwards' visit. Quite frankly, he still looks like he could yell his head off. Rosemary only hopes he keeps quiet or an Orc will beat him again. She would rather have him walking than limping into the Hunger Games arena.

Nicolas notices her looking and glares at her. She can read the mental cry on his face: Do something, Rose! He always goes to her for help, but now she can do nothing. The two of them are left to the mercy of a cyborg hellbent on killing them.

Andros-9's global anthem starts to play. The Reaping is about to start. Rosemary and Nicolas straighten up ready to meet their fate. Pontiasin residents who gathered behind the ropes now watch the Ellesmeres closely as well as their surroundings, the stormtroopers and Orcs. You can cut the tension on town square with a knife.

While the global anthem continues, the doors of town hall open and the Mayor of Pontiasin and Mr. Edwards exit the building. They mount the stage built in front of town hall and sit down on chairs on the left. The anthem stops and the entire square holds its breath for the arrival of the Capitol Representative.

Two hideous creatures exit town hall; both characters from Alice in Wonderland. The Red Queen with her enormously disproportional head struts onto the stage flanked by the Jabberwocky. Only the latter doesn’t quite resemble the film character. Instead of a massive dragon, a warrior joins the Red Queen. He has the Jabberwocky’s head, wings and scale-covered body, but his posture is humanlike.

Since Androsians are film fanatics, the crowd on town square immediately discusses the changed Jabberwocky. Rosemary and Nicolas, Androsian royals, notice the obvious difference too and glance at each other. Apparently, dr. Marcus Geelong adapted his solido-projectors even further.