Because of the damage to the mine opening no one could be retrieved, they closed up the south entrance and it became a mass grave, many of the families would come and mourn by the mound.
15 workers in all were presumed dead in the explosion, all from the seam - something that hit the poorest families very hard.
It was shortly after the funeral that my mother started to check out, she wouldn't eat, if she did she would just throw the food back up, she didn't sleep and hardly spoke a word from morning to night.
At this point I had to start selling our belongings, my mother could no longer work and we were using up the rations too quickly, I missed days of school down at the Hob trying to get some kind of trade for our old rags, I managed to sell a lot of my fathers clothes and shoes and make enough for a weeks worth of food but as that started to go i resorted to picking through the bins in the merchants quarter.
It was late in the evening, raining heavily when I found a bin half filled with stale loaves behind Mellark's bakery, we hadn't eaten in days and I could barely stand up anymore.
I hurried to get one of the hard loaves into my satchel bag.
The back door opened with an aggressive crash as Mrs Mellark stormed out, she scolded me and took the bread from my bag, shooing me away like a dog, I mustered up enough strength to get to the end of the garden before collapsing next to a tree.
That was the day that Peeta threw out the burnt bread to me, he often retells the beating he got from his mother but how it was worth it 10 times over to see me eat and know I would be able to live another day.
The boy with bread, that saved my life
YOU ARE READING
Nightlock
Teen Fiction6 months after the revolution and life seems to be just fixing back together for the star crossed lovers Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark but after all that they have been through can they against all odds survive their hardest challenge yet? Post...
