A Whole New Game: A Hunger Games Story

Chapter 1: Beginnings

Athena

"Athena? Can you watch Samantha tonight? Your father and I are going out for a bit."

"Yeah, sure mom," I reply.

I don't know where exactly they go, I only pray that they are safe. My parents are part of a secret organization who's goal is to overthrow the Capitol. What my parents do is dangerous and we have to be careful, everyone is a potential predator, everywhere could possibly be the last place they ever see.

I sigh as I turn toward my little sister in her cradle. Only two months old, and still I would do anything for her. Something about the smooth rhythm of her breathing gives me chills. In and out, in and out. The way something can be so small and fragile, but still so alive, so young and full of life...it's baffling.

Slam.

I peer out the window, I see my parents get out of the car. Something is wrong. I see a Peacekeeper come out of the backseat, holding a gun to their heads. I freeze, unable to feel my body other than my inflamed heartbeat and raging pulse. They are arguing. I know I should move, do something, help them, but I cannot. I am motionless.

He pulls the trigger once, twice, and they are dead.

They are dead. They are dead. They are-he sees me. He starts towards the house. I run, snatching my sister from her cradle in a mass of tiny blankets, and flee out the back door. I fly up the hill, gliding through the thick woods like a thin torch, a darkened silhouette trailed after by a volley of fiery locks, licking the night as it begins to engulf me. At first I catch only a whiff of the smoke, but then turn to find our home, now a raging conflagration, billowing in stacks of ash as flames pour from the exploding windows. The sting of heat inhales me, the burn of embers under my eyes scalding my lashes and further encouraging the burn of melting tears that iron the crevices of my pale cheeks.

I run and never look back.

The bed shudders as I jolt up from my nightmare. Well, more of a cot than a bed, and though it creaks and groans with the slightest shifts in weight, I look to find that I have not yet woken my sister, Samantha, for she sleeps peaceful next to me, curled into the thin blankets. I look around the muggy storage room, shaking myself awake as the powerful sunbeams stream through the broken windows.

This place had once been one of the most notable and massive power plants of District 5, but after several more had been built in nearer proximity to the main city, this one had become abandoned. Some electronics had been entirely left behind, clunky TVs clogging doorways and conveyor belts, old generators randomly humming to life every now and then. The forest around it had grown thick and unkept, hiding it effectively in the hills, making a perfect home for two needy children to whom it hosted. I had been searching for somewhere for Samantha and I to stay for months since my parents had been assassinated, and this was the one place I had found that had not been crawling with Peacekeepers, though it was familiar with most other vermin. It wasn't much, but it covered from weather and hid us effectively, so we had been living here ever since. Two years; Samantha now three and I now sixteen. If only our parents could see us now; we look more like sisters than ever, I think to myself as I watch her exhale. In the upcoming year, I will turn seventeen, the legal working age here in our District, and perhaps with a steady income might be able to afford us a real home, some food, maybe even some toys for her.

I wake her, and we eat a small lunch of strawberries I pick from a patch near our little home. She smiles at me as she eats, the red stain of the fruit drowning her lips in color that make her teeth beam when she smiles.