Searching for a Myth

Almost There?

Poppy's POV:

"Guys, let's keep going," Andrew calls for the tenth time, as we all grab our knees panting, trying not to fall over but sometimes failing.

"Yeah, let's continue!" Basil wheezes, arms and legs wrapped around me. "Even I'm sick and I still wanna go."

"You're literally getting a piggyback ride from Poppy," Devin snaps.

"Whoa," Lavina attacks. "Someone's getting prickly."

"I'm not getting prickly!" he retorts, softly stamping a foot on the hard forest floor. "I'm just pointing out that she's-"

"Yeah, we get it." Ian mutters. Beside him, Violet yawns.

Ever since we started walking again, the old grumpy mood has returned to everyone like a spell. We're all trying to get rid of it, but it's still not easy. Maybe it's just that we're under the weather; maybe things will be way better when we reach District Thirteen.

I walk up to Andrew.

"What's up?" he asks.

"Well, what do you do for entertainment in Thirteen?"

"Not much," he mumbles, suddenly shy. "We basically just sing and dance."

"Can you show me a song?"

"Okay." Andrew takes a deep breath and begins softly humming out a tune before getting to the words that came out slowly.

"I can still remember the old times ..."

My mind crosses back to when Hazel and I were five years old, catching frogs and fish in the shimmering stream.

"Where every day we'd listen to the elders tell jokes.
And we didn't pay a price to be happy."

There was a time at the orphanage where little Basil did an imitation of Lavender the District Twelve Hunger Games escort, puckering her lips and strutting in such an odd fashion she almost fell over. The room filled with laughter for hours.

"But then the shadows started whispering a note.
A note that would take away lives."

The sound of a cannon blasting off into the distance rumbled in my ears, taking me back to the orphanage where I sat by the screen with an open jaw in a silent gasp.

"And suddenly all our cheerful memories disappeared
Into thin air."

It's true. Every time I tell myself to think of something nice, my mind goes blank.

"But hope is not extinct yet."

Yes. No. I'm not sure.

"My mother told me that her brother taught her this song," Andrew sighs wistfully after a couple minutes of singing. "He was actually from District Two, but wanted to go somewhere else, so he went on a journey."

"To Thirteen!" Isabelle excitedly gasps. "Like us!"

"Yeah," he replies. "Unfortunately, a Peacekeeper shot him in the woods. He was only four miles away from where we're going. You guys probably walked more than that every day.

"My mother wasn't really close to him, but she said that right before the Peacekeeper got her brother, he told her to make a run for it while he put up a distraction and died. Now, that's what I call real love. I now always keep the song in mind every time something dangerous happens. To remind myself that lots of people have lost their lives to save someone else, and that I should do the same thing."

"I shouldn't have let Lily volunteer for me like that," Lavina smiles sadly, head slightly drooping. "I have to somehow pay her back sometime."

"Yeah." Violet grins. "I'll make Ol and Aspen proud."

"You know," Devin puts a finger to his chin. "I don't think we should die for our loved ones. We should live for them."

No one answers after that, but we all are thinking the same thing.

"Hey everyone, look!" Basil suddenly cries. Wobbling just the tiniest bit, her arm extends out to point at something far off in the distance.

On a tiny, gray hill sits what looks like the top of an underground building. A hovercraft flies quickly above it, as if dancing out a greeting that said,

Welcome.