The Hunger Games: The Pawns

Chapter 1: The Events of Tomorrow

~~Theoram Warrik~~

Every street in this wonderful city was painted white like marble. Every tree bore the golden leaves of a better life. The faces of every person he passed were jolly and smiling, but all of it was a bold-faced lie. He knew those faces were actually masks hiding their fear. The leaves were merely plastic and cheap knock-offs of the authentic. Under those paints that coated the Capitol was the agony of the citizens who were too afraid to speak up.

The tea tasted faintly of olives and the color of early autumn. It was a difficult taste to describe, but it was one that Theo had grown accustomed to through his forty years of life. In the Capitol, drink flowed like water. You could almost pluck food off of any tree you passed by on the street. Theo despised it.

Theoram Warrik was a simple man, or that's how he appeared. He didn't fall into the chasm of debt that those unnatural body modifications provided. He never wore extravagant makeup like the majority of his peers. He was born with a hard limp in his left leg and a weak eye that he hid behind a thick glass. From the perspective of the average Capitol citizen, Theo wasn't even worth talking to, and he liked to keep it that way. He didn't much enjoy that petty small talk of the Capitol folk, nor about sports, nor the latest fashion or technology. Theo only cared about the Games.

The day it all started was in January. The place where Theo had taken a seat that afternoon was one he had become very close to: a small coffee shop just outside the condo he called his summer home. It was the only one that served his favorite brand of tea: Winkberry Brew. It was the name of the restaurant and a genetically modified fruit that they served as sweetener in their teas and coffees. Though Theo adamantly opposed most things that defied nature, he couldn't say it didn't take the edge off of a bad day.

It was a lovely shop. There were several lamps on the wall that, in the evening, would glow a radiant blue. The tables placed out evenly on the patio in front of the store were made of aluminum wire and were painted black and white, the colors of the nation of Panem in which they lived. There was a likely rumor that before the war, there were hundreds of nations with completely separate governments, all coexisting with one another. Now, with most of the planet ravaged with nuclear waste and disease, there was only one: Panem, and the twelve districts it contained.

He watched as the men and women around him gallivanted through the streets of their beloved city, laughing and chattering about things that didn't matter. It pained Theo to know that he was one of them.

"Theo..." He heard a familiar voice ringing from behind him. He gazed from his tea for a moment to find it was the man he had spent the better part of his life with. Though they had been raised on vastly different paths, Roman Walsh was Theo's best friend. He wasn't at all surprised to see him there, as they had met at Winkberry Brew weekly for as long as he could remember. "Theo, you got the job."

Theo spun around to see the man beaming back at him with the same disbelief he held. He stood at just under four feet, and so Theo didn't have to stand to meet him at eye level. "You're joking..."

Roman took a seat on the iron wire chair across from his friend. "How many years have you known me? Enough to know that I never joke."

Roman's response confirmed his every hope. Theo had passed the exam and he was now a seat on the panel of Gamemakers. He would finally sit with judges and help forge the arena. He had worked his entire life to become a Gamemaker for The Hunger Games, and had fallen short every single time until now. Most people pursued the position for selfish power, or for the pay, or sometimes even for the thrill of it; Theo needed it because he had seen the suffering of those outside the great marble walls surrounding the Capitol. He was going to end it, and he was more than determined to. Ever since the Dark Days drew to a close in his adolescence and the President of Panem instated the Hunger Games, Theo knew he had to be the one to put them to an end.