Chapter 1: End of Spring

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PART I - Tale of Two

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"Now we, returning from the vaulted domes

Of our colossal sleep, come home to find

A tall metropolis of catacombs"

'Doom of Exiles'

Sylvia Plath

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Five years before the 74th Games,

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Five years before the 74th Games,

"Do you want to run away?" Carina asked as she stretched out her hand towards the sun that peeked through from the foliage. Her light brown eyes shone brightly almost like gems, almost if the black specks were not there. She turned her head away as the rays momentarily blinded her.

Grinning, Gale covered her face with his hands and tried to stifle a laugh. Carina swatted his hands away and looked at him with her bright eyes. She wanted an answer from him. "Rina, you know we can't." He got up and sat up, plucking a daisy and twirling the stem between his hinges. "I want to, I really do but we can't."

Carina let out a frustrated sigh and looked away. "You keep saying that but I don't see why we can't just leave. We'll take our families and run. I only have Ron and my grandfather." She pulled at the grass in front of her and grabbed a fist full of grass, ripping it out. She let the blades of grass go and watched as they escaped from her hands, being lost in the Spring air.

"And I have three younger siblings and my mother, not to mention Posy's barely one. You also forgot your grandfather's pretty old. We're not gonna make it very far."

"We got lucky this time but what...what if we get called next time? What if next year, mine or yours or Ronan's name gets picked out?"

"It won't. Let's try to look on the bright side." Gale got up and dusted himself, holding out a hand for his only friend he had. Carina and he grew up side by side, the two were there for each other every step of the way and he promised himself that if she was ever reaped, he'd volunteer to go with her. She didn't know that. No doubt if she did, she'd be furious.

"There is no bright side to living here."

"Or anywhere in Panem. I'm sure it's the same everywhere."

"Not in the Capitol." She bent down to pick up her coat which was really her mother's which was originally her grandfather's. The old black leather coat had seen its better days. "We could live out in the woods, you know, I've heard that back in the day there used to be a whole community of people that lived out in the woods, between the districts. Maybe they're still out there,"

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