Author Games: Return To Seasons

Task Six: Keep The Home Fires Burning/QF - ☣ Hybrid Entries ☣

District 15 Female - PLUMPKIN PYE [1]

One of the most exciting things a student does in District Fifteen is go to the Friendly Farm. The trip is always during the last weeks of the school year and talked about for months before. It is the one day of the year that children under the age of eighteen are allowed to leave the District. Small groups of children huddle together as the trek across the border into District Two.

Cutepid drops a long candy cane into my hand, and smiles weakly. He slips his own into his mouth and I don’t think I want to know what he thinks about as he sucks it. I stare at my own, with its white and red and green stripes all swirled together. As I unwrap the plastic, the curved top breaks off. In frustration I chuck the cane into the snow beside us.

I remember my trip to the Friendly Farm vividly. It started so innocently, with excited chatter. We gasped as we stroked the long mane of a horse and felt coarse sheep fur between our fingers. Students from the school in Two joined us and for the first time in our lives, Hybrids were accepted as normal people. 

Cutepid stares at my action, his mouth twisting into a frown around the stick. “If you didn’t want it, all you had to do was say so.” There is a bit of truth behind the lightness of his voice and I feel guilt weigh me down. I sigh and bury my head into his shoulder to block out the scene in front of us. His hand feels to heavy on my back and the sword in my hand is pulling me down and the fire feels like it is burning my skin and I have to pull away from him.

The one animal I wanted to see more than anything were the pigs, but the nice lady had told us “they were sleeping in the barn this time of year”. I think she said it to discourage us, but my mind was whirling with ideas of sneaking into the barn. At lunchtime, I found my opportunity. Ms. Lanely asked me of all people to go fetch some farm fresh milk. And where was the milk? In the barn. 

There are unmistakable red lips in the crowd in front of us, turned down into a bitter smirk. I want to raise my arm to wave to Holly, but I can’t. I can’t bring my hands to release their grip on the weapon Rudy gave to me. “Use this for good, Plump.” He had whispered, but how could a weapon cause good? How could any of this be good?

I was giddy with joy at the thought of seeing a pig. I had dreamt many times of sitting on one and riding it around. When the large doors of the barn swung open, I saw the milk quickly. But the room was void of the little piggies I wanted to badly to see. 

There is a loud shout and the Oppidium soldiers and Cutepid turns to look at me. He leans in a plants a delicate kiss on my forehead. “Good luck, little Plump.” Then he raises his bow and charges forward, away from me. The wrapper from his candy cane floats slightly in the wind before it meets its untimely demise in the fire. 

My legs carried me past a farmer, so quietly he didn’t even notice me. Perhaps the tiny creatures were hidden in a back room, or behind the farm. I thought of Ms. Lanely, and hoped she wouldn’t come looking for the milk herself and notice me missing. 

I lose sight of both Holly and Cutepid and while I see Rudy, I know I can’t use him for support. My eyes watch the fire spit sparks into the air, black smoke meeting the snow. It seems so unfair to fight this battle. We didn’t start the fire. It was always burning, ever since the world started. We didn’t start the fire. We didn’t light it. But we sure as hell will try and fight it. And with that, I pull myself away from the fire and whip the sword up. 

The faint squeal of a pig brought me to my senses and reminded me of the mission. The pig was silent after that, but I had figured out exactly where it came from. My hands trembled with excitement as my hand gripped the doorknob. This was it. I was about to see my first pig. The door swung open, and to my relief, the piggies were all there. It was like a dream come true as my hand reached out to touch his prickly skin. 

A tiny little girl takes a different approach to the fight. She bares her fists and grits her teeth and dances around a girl much taller than herself. “I’m Tansy Orintha and I am going to fight you.” She tells the older girl, but she doesn’t laugh. She pulls out her sword and points it at Tansy. 

A farmer alarmed me as he shouted. There was a knife in his hand, and he waved it towards me. “You can’t be in here, kid.” He yelled, standing up. But I was more focused on what was behind him.

“You have two options.” The girl growls, baring the knife close to Tansy’s chest. “I’ll stab you, or-” She plunges the knife forward but Tansy jumps backwards to avoid it. Except she meets a far worse fate as she trips into the fire. She struggles to get out, but it’s no use. Fire covers her entire body and her screams echo loudly. 

A pig. It was hanging upside down, its legs tied together. I wanted to reach out and untie the poor thing, but one look into his eyes made me realize it was too late. The knife in the man’s hand had small traces of blood and there was a long gash down the pig’s tummy. With tears in my eyes, I look at the farmer. “Why would you kill the pig?” I asked him accusingly. 

I look over to find Holly again, but my eyes capture her at the wrong moment. She tackles Heath, who I recognize instantly. He made a joke at dinner last night. None of us laughed. Now, as Holly uses her delicate hands to snap his neck, I wish I had laughed. 

“Where do you think meat comes from, kid?” With that thought, I throw up the ham sandwich I had eaten for lunch. I turned away running from the scene and everything I had seen. 

My legs trip over a slaughtered body and I stumble to the ground beside her. Instead of shrinking away, I inspect her body. She is so slim and perfect with a tangle of beautiful black hair. Blood drips from a wound on her throat, but Eskalee had scars covering her body from long before this fight. We are all so damaged in every way.

I never did tell Ms. Lanely what I had seen at the farm. I told her I got lost trying to find the bathroom, and she was so preoccupied by the other students she didn’t even care. But it changed me.

Something pulls at my hair, and I scramble to my feet to avoid the feeling. I raise my sword and scowl at Neve. She is so young, yet so much more aggressive than I could ever be. Neve’s eyes flick to the sword, as if she was shocked I would touch such a thing. “We both know you won’t use it, Plumpcakes.” She challenges.

With the sight of dead pigs in my mind, seven year old me made a decision to never engage in anything that would encourage death ever again in my life. I stopped watching the Games. I stopped eating meat. I couldn’t handle it ever again.

I plunge the blade deep into Neeve. 

Her screams sound just like pig squeals. 

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