Writer Games | Death Wish & 51

Task Six: Children Will Listen /QF - Females

District Two - Epona Jericho [3]

Her mind incapable of  forming any particular memory, Epona found herself wandering among the  abandoned streets of District Two. Even though she had lived within its  confines for all of her life, she was pretty certain that she recognised  nothing from her home. The streets had once been constructed from tough  concrete, built over the natural land so that it would be safe for a  civilisation to reside there. Now, however, nature itself had begun to  reclaim the cold roads. The tarmac was cracked and broken, plants and  greenery pushing up through the ground to overtake everything that was  around them. Their leaves stretched towards the sun, leaning around the  buildings that enclosed them on the street.

Epona went out of her  way to tread on all of the plants she could see as she continued to make  her way along the street. The houses and buildings stood tall either  side of her, their once-strong windows collapsed into glass shards on  the floor. They shone like segments of a sunbeam as the light reflected  on their razor sharp edges, enticing Epona closer in order to come and  look. The inside of the buildings was far from what it had once been,  with no furniture adorning a carpeted floor. Instead, the plants here  had grown into a much thicker shrubbery as they had pushed through the  rotting floorboards that made up the house's foundations. A creeping  plant had crawled up the fireplace, overtaking a few old ornaments that  had been left on its top.

The sound of fluttering  wings caused Epona to glance upwards, eyeing up a family of magpies that  had taken refuge in the beams of the ceiling. Their silver eyes watched  back, both of the parents making sure that the girl was not a threat to  their newly born chicks. However, when Epona did not come any closer,  they turned their attention onto the house across the street which they  could see through the broken window. Epona followed their eyeline, first  seeing the usual foliage but then also realising what it was  concealing: a wild lynx, just like the pictures of the big cats children  had been shown in class to remind them never to leave the constraints  of the District border. It must have made it past the District's fence.

Epona continued along  her path, not comfortable when watched by the lynx's hungry gaze.  Usually, she was not fussed by the animals they were threatened with -  Isla had proved that they were not all evil - but she was not willing to  take any chances. If she survived and won, the gates would be removed  around District Two and all the animals would be freed. Whatever had  happened to the District currently, it would all be reversed and humans  could live in harmony with the animals. Its current state had to be some  trick played by the Game-Makers - Epona was certain.

She continued along the  path until she reached the very edge of the District. The cracked tarmac  and greenery turned into damp grass as she made her way into the  meadow, almost certain that she would soon find the point where she had  first rescued Isla from the loose wire of the fence. If Epona looked  towards the horizon, she was certain that she would be able to see the  fence that she detested so much. Maybe she would be able to cut it open  with her sword.

There was no fence.

Epona knew where it  should have been. When she wandered through the meadow, she could even  see the line in the grass where the barricade had once resided. Either  someone had removed it before she got there or her wish had been  granted. Had she already won the Games?

No - she could not have  done. Epona would never have let herself, or anyone else, forget such an  achievement. The final fight would still burn in her mind if she was a  Victor and she would have returned home to Isla and her family rather  than a forgotten District reclaimed by nature.

The missing fence would  explain the lynx. It must have wandered in, enticed by the lure of new  hunting ground and strange scents. It might even have followed the  blackbirds. The plants, however, had never been held back. They  frequently grew within District Two, but never to the extent that Epona  had seen now. They were always cut back before they could do any proper  damage, just like Epona would take care of another tribute before they  had the chance to hurt her instead.