The Ballad of Lucy Gray

Chapter 18

At half past seven, leaders, commanders and soldiers file silently into the Command room. I've been here for nearly half an hour, going over my plan over and over again in my head, getting it word perfect and making slight last-minute adjustments.

Soon, everyone has taken their positions and I stand up and address the glum faces of the room. I pick up my papers containing my plan and clear the lump my throat.

Breath in, breath out. Speak slowly. Cleary. Don't mess this up. You got this.

"I'll get straight to the point. I want to bring down the Capitol and I have a plan. We send people to the districts where they will from an underground group and spy for us. We send people to the Capitol to recruit as many rebels as we can. The people we send out will fake identities- they will be given backstories. We get as many rebels as we can and together we will overthrow the Capitol."

This is met by a stunned silence. Perhaps this is a first. Maybe no one in the history of 13 has suggested something as ridiculous as this.

"I'm sick of them treating us like slaves," I continue. "People are starving in the districts. Suffering is all some people know. They have the Hunger Games, sick, twisted, forcing district children to fight to the death. They see it as form entertainment. We can't sit back and let the Capitol do this. And don't forget what they did to you. Sentencing as underground. Cutting off all forms of communication. Bombing us and letting us slowly starve to death. We can't sit back and let them enslave Panem. We need to take action and we take action now!"

My voice has risen to a yell and my heart is hammering furiously in my ribcage, sending waves of hatred coursing through my bloodstream. With each breath I take, I breath anger and I spew out the words I associate with the Capitol in vegeneance. I sit back down.

"I agree we need to take action," I look at the ageing face of President Ashbrook, my face lit up with hope. It's no denying- with all the stress of running a District, he's getting older and older although his voice rumbles clear and powerful, filling the whole room. "But to be at war now? I don't think we can take it. I agree that the districts aren't happy and would overthrow the capital at any chance they get, although we have to remember that they're hungry and suffering. They don't have a military like us all the weapons. All of them have to rebel or none of them."

"Why can't it just be us against Capitol?" I counter. "We have nuclear weapons, we can flatten them in an instant. Force the Capitol to surrender."

"The districts rely on the Capitol for food. If we bomb the Capitol, we cannot provide Panem with a food supply. We simply do not have the resources. Some districts, particularly 2 are Capitol loyalists. They were loyal to the Capitol during the Dark Days. It was hard getting them to join our cause." President Ashbrook finishes.

I'm intrigued. The dark days. They were started by District 13, I know that. But how did they incite the first rebellion? That knowledge would mean everything to me.

"How did the dark days start?" I ask innocently.

I notice that people in the room are avoiding eye contact, others are shifting around uncomfortably. I turn my attention to President Ashbrook. His lips are pressed together in a tight line, his forehead creased.

"That is a matter I do not wish to discuss," he replies in a clipped voice.

"But-"

"Moving on!" President Ashbrook exclaims with such ferocity, startling me.

"We sent people out. Persuade him to repel. Make them see their horrors of their Capitol."

"Say you persuaded them. Then what? How do you know it's time?" A husky voiced middle-aged man with dark skin and tightly coiled hair who works in education speaks up.