To die, or not to die. That is the question - Hungergames Fanfiction

Chapter one

I came back from school, wondering through the woods. I avoided the place where most of the lumberjacks worked and went to the burnt part of the forest instead. I had heard kids say that something important was going on in the capitol, and they were going to bring out the screens earlier than normal. The reapings weren't until next week. The workers and extra peacekeepers shouldn't be arriving yet.

My shift started in an hour, right after Bay finished his. Us kids were supposed to get the burnt part of the forest up on its feet again, even thought forests don't have feet. We had to get rid of all the burnt wood and plant new trees. There was a forest fire a year ago and we still hadn't completed the job. We were close though, give it another six months and all the burnt wood would be gone.

I saw Bay chopping away at a tree of about eight feet. We were told not to sneak up on each other, for it could be dangerous. But I did it anyway.

"I'd say only two more days until you get that tree down."

Bay was used to me sneaking up on him. It wasn't as fun anymore as when he would turn around, startled swinging the axe in my direction. He hit me once. I have a scar left on my forehead. We'll call it a battle scar.

Bay shoved me.

"Shut up! I can chop wood twice as fast as you can!"

"I'd like to see you try!"

A peacekeeper walked onto the grounds we were working on.

"Shift is over! Next shift for team H5 is at seven P.M. tonight."

Bay groaned.

"Don't, Bay. I have shifts that start at nine P.M. regularly."

"I'll see you at home. We're supposed to go out tomorrow to the square. Something about a Quarter Quell."

"What is a Quarter Quell?"

My brother just shrugged.

"Fine, go. But be nice to Mari."

And with that he took off, leaving his axe behind. We weren't allowed to have weapons. The Capitol was afraid of an uprising. We were supposed to hand each other our axes when our shift was over. Some people would come extra early to get a decent axe. I picked up Bay's. And the piece was about to fall off. Great...

I started swinging anyway. If it would fall off, I'd get a new axe. They always had extra axes on hand. Soon enough, the axe broke. I heard someone walking over to me. It was a peacekeeper. I traded my broken axe for a new one. No words exchanged. We were used to having axes break in the middle of a shift. It was normal, and no one had to talk to exchange an axe. Plus, peacekeepers look down on us anyway.

After three bottles of water and what seemed like forever, we finally heard the voice dismissing us.

"Shift is over! Next shift for team F3 is at nine A.M tomorrow. At ten A.M you are required to go to the town square. After that, you come back and work the remaining three hours of your shift."

I gave the axe to a girl behind me and left for the payment administration house. That's where they measure attendance.

"Name."

"Peony Ella Daren."

"Team."

"F3."

"Finger."

I extended my hand towards the woman behind the counter. She pricked my finger and put it on a piece of paper which had twenty-nine drops of blood. This was my thirtieth. It took thirty shifts to earn some money. The woman filed the paper away and went to the back of the shop. She appeared a minute later with some money. She put it on the counter and turned to the person behind me.