Price of Rebellion (The Hunger Games)

Chapter Eight

I wake up to my back soaking wet. Wet with water that is. My hands fall to the floor and make a splashing sound. I sit up and look around. The whole basement floor is covered in a thin layer of water. During bad rain storms, the basement usually floods. That's why we never use it, if we put anything down here, it would end up being damaged by water. Another crack of lightning flashes the dark sky and then a rumble of thunder follows. I crawl over to my mom, who like everyone else is in a deep sleep. It's probably one in the morning or something.

"Mom," I whisper.

"What..." She rubs her eyes and looks at me. I pat the floor and it splashes.

"Oh god. Because we really need this now..." she mumbles as she gets up uncomfortably. "Jeff, the basement is flooding." She shakes my dad awake.

"Damn it," he says tiredly. "Sit on the steps, I'll try and stop it." He gets up to assess the pipes, while I wake up Alex, Hope, and Rose and tell them to move to the stairs. My mom moves the boxes on higher tables and then sits next to us. Hope sits on her lap, and falls asleep instantly. Rose is trying to stay awake, but leans against the railing as she slowly closes her eyes. Alex went over to help my dad by holding a flashlight in his direction. My mom, Hope, Rose, and I all sit on the stairs quietly while the two of them work. I lean against a railing and close my eyes, not to fall asleep, just to relax...

~

"Take this gun!" I hear a man shout at me. Where am I? I take the gun and follow the others. I have a scarf around my mouth and a gun in my hand. I don't want a gun! "Go!" Another man orders me. What's going on? We all turn the corner into a dark alley and cut through a street. When we reach the other side, everyone around me loads their guns. I follow suit, and I hear a click. Everything is silent around us, you could hear a pin drop on the street. Then you can't. Bullets are fired everywhere and I drop to the ground instantly. "Stay low." I hear someone say next to me. I roll to the side of the street and hide behind a bush. A white armored soldier sees me and he is running closer to me. I am the gun and fire instantly, shooting him in the arm, the only unprotected part I see. I blink my eyes and fire at another white armored soldier instantly. Like robots, five of them march towards me. I shoot at them like I shot the two before, but the bullets don't make a dent. They all aim at the same time at me, and shoot.

~

I open my eyes to darkness. My forehead is wet, with sweat, and my ankles are underwater. I lean forward and my elbows press on my knees. I hold my hands to my mouth and close my eyes.

It didn't happen. None of that happened and I'm safe here, in our flooding basement. I scoot up another step and press my knees to my chest.

My mom, sister, and Rose are above me and still sleeping. We are already halfway up the stairs and the water won't stop flowing in. I jump to the clap of thunder. With my heart beating quickly, I find our second flashlight at the top of the stairs and flash it in my father and brother's direction. They are panicking to find a solution. I step down in the water and make my way towards them.

"What's going on? I was asleep for what, ten minutes and the water level rose like one foot?" I ask. I'm not even kidding, the water is almost at my knees.

"Because we have no power, some pipes aren't closing and the storm is getting stronger. When I was your age, there was a bad storm like this but we maintained our electricity, so we weren't hit that bad. Everything is worse right now." My dad says quickly and panicking.

"So is this like a hurricane?" I ask. My dad sadly nods.

"Well what are we supposed to do? We can't drown down here?" Alex says splashing the water angrily.

"And we can't go up there." I add on.

"You know what, just..." My dad says, trying to find the right words. He looks like he's going to pull out his hair. "Em, open up the basement door. See if we can get upstairs. We could probably lock ourselves in the attic. Alex, try and help me with..." By the time he tells Alex what to do, I am already up the steps. My mom looks at me with caution, but I ignore her. I open up the door a little bit, but the wind knocks it wide open.

"Shit," I swear under my breath, which is being taken away by the strong wind. Through the pouring rain, I see that our whole house is around me, destroyed from the previous battle. There's no ceiling and I can only make out almost three walls. I can't even feel anything for the house that used to be ours because I'm fighting for my life now. "A little help!" I shout over the storm. I'm holding on to the wet door knob with all of my strength. I'm even using my bad arm, which probably isn't a good idea, but I don't care. My mom comes up behind me and grabs the door. The wind is nothing like I've seen before.

I slip on the wet ground beneath me and hit my head, hard. I grit my teeth and grab what's left of the wall behind me. My mother reaches to help me up, but I stumble backwards and fall down the stairs. I feel my back hit something hard and I hear a splash. I'm completely underwater and the only thing I can physically do is shut my eyes.