District 7 Reaping

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Lucas wiped off the sweat from his brow. The July heat beamed down on him as he held on to a single rope that rounded around a tree and the bottom of his thighs. The thick rope had started to slide up again over his bare back that trickled with sweat. Giving the rope some slack, he pulled on it tight and readjusted so it was underneath him once more. As he did so, the tree shook causing some of the leaves to fall down over him. Dirt, broken twigs, and leaves cascaded over his body. Looking up at the sun, Lucas determined it was perhaps getting close ten o'clock. The Escort from the Capitol would be coming to District 7 soon. Lucas was 18, but he had close to thirty tesseras with his name on it, just waiting to be reaped. He sighed, before pulling his ask from a clip that hung on his belt loop. Gripping the axe tight, he swung at a nearby branch was about two feet away from him. Hack. Hack. Hack. The sound of the sharp axe met with the branch continuously. The hacking sound reverberated through the forest, causing echoes to fire back at him from birds and other creatures whom he had ungraciously disturbed. Another hack. And another. Then the last caused the branch to pull itself down from its massive weight. 3 inches around in diameter and no less than 5 feet long with even more branches jutting out of it, the base of it cracked away from the very last inch that held it to the large tree. Then, with a snap, the branch broke and fell down. The friction of the air and wind caused the branch to slow in its decent, and even more so when it hit no less than 3 more branches on the way down. Then with a leafy thud, it fell onto the soft ground already bedded with leaves. Lucas sighed. Pulling on the canteen that he had wrapped around his jean belt loop, he unscrewed the top and tilted the canteen over his face. The cool water cascaded down in a small water fall to his mouth, cooling his parched throat that felt like dried paper. He licked his cracked lips before capping the canteen once more and letting it fall beside his thigh, the rope around it keeping it by his side instead of falling.

Pulling the rope once more and giving it some slack, he positioned his brown heavy boots against the thick bark of the tree. Then foot by foot, he climbed his way up the tree even higher. His eyes set on another large branch. One. Two. Three. More steps Lucas took up the tree before stopping and looking down. From this height, the ground looks much too far away. It was perhaps the highest he had ever climbed. Pushing his feet on the hard tree, he stretched his legs far and pushed his arms back, giving himself a proper stretch followed by a much needed yawn. The heat was making him tired, and not even noon, yet. But Lucas had to get this tree done. Then afterwards, chop them all down to bits and throw them in the large train with the words THE CAPITOL WOOD written across it in bold black letters. It's where the other pieces of wood went. Straight to the Capitol. It was amazing how much wood they needed, and yet as much wood as District 7 gave them, they never fully gave back the right amount of money that they should have to help out District 7. They weren't very poor like the outlying districts of course, but none the less, they had less than Lucas thought they deserved, or at least should have. Every time he watched the Hunger Games and saw how all the people in the Capitol dressed, he knew they had more than enough money and food to spare for the other Districts. But no. There was no kindness from them.

His forearm went up again towards his forehead, wiping off the sweat from his brow. One more branch, Lucas. Just one more. He repeated it back to himself to give himself some motivation. He still had plenty of time, right? Tugging on the rope that held his axe, he swung it up and gripped it by the handle. The sharp axe met with the branch. More hacking sounds came from him, birds and other wildlife scurried about at the sudden noise once more. Once the axe cut the branch within an inch, the branch began to lean down from its weight. The branch made the same noise as the previous when it hit the ground.

Lucas tightened the strap on his axe and canteen as he loosened the thick rope around him and the tree. Gripping the rope tightly, he allowed himself to slide down the tree cleaned of its branches. The rope bumped over the cut parts of the tree where he had taken all the previous branches. Some of the barks flew off from the tree and at him as he slid down carefully and slowly. Once he was close to the ground, he loosened the rope some more. Then with one quick movement, he pushed himself off the tree and towards the ground. Lucas's boots hit the ground, pine and leaves and twigs crushing beneath his heavy brown boots. 


Now it was time for the next part of a lumberjack's job. Picking up the closest branch to him, he dragged it down the woods towards his house which was at the edge of town. Dropping the branch at the back of his house, he took off his canteen and axe and set it on the chopping block that used to be a tree before it was cut down. The tree was large, perhaps two feet in diameter and made for a perfect chopping block. In fact, they had been using it for at least 3 generations. Lucas walked back into the woods towards the tree that he was slowly cutting down, branch by branch. It was only a quarter of a mile from his house and the path was more or less clear of trees. One by one, he brought all three branches to the back of his house.


Lucas then, having all three large branches, began to prepare them by pulling off the twigs of leaves followed by breaking off the small branches. Some of them were easy to pull off with his bare hands, although others needed the sharpness of the axe. Lucas continued to chop the branches smaller and smaller until he had them all nearly the same sizes of 1 foot each. Then, taking all the pieces of wood, he stacked them up on wheelbarrows. Lucas's wheelbarrow full of wood squeaked as he pushed it to the other side of town where the train station was. He slowly passed people who were going home to get ready for the reaping. Upon reaching the train station, he spotted the train that stated CAPITOL WOOD. Then one by one, he threw each piece of wood into the box carts of the train. Lucas made multiple trips to and from the back of his house to the capitol wood train until all the wood was gone. 


Lucas had 30 minutes left before he had to be at the square for the reaping. Running back to his house with wheelbarrow squeaking in front of him,  Lucas made it back in time to have 20 more minutes left before the reaping. Throwing the red, rusted wheelbarrow to the side of the house, Lucas jumped towards the back door. Opening it, he rushed inside to have one of his brothers yell at him. "Hurry up Luc, we're gonna be late! We can't be late again this year. I don't like those Peacekeepers," his little brother yelled after him as he made his way to the bathroom. 

Pulling off his belt, he threw it on the chair at the corner of the bath room. Then, taking off his pants, boots and socks, he jumped into the bathtub that was already filled with warm water for him. One of his younger brothers must have heated up the water earlier while he was out chopping wood. Lucas felt his body easy as the warmth of the water relaxed his muscles slowly. Taking a wash cloth, he wiped away at the dirt, leaves, twigs and grime that had managed to stick themselves on his body. He leaned back on the white tub, the water already turned a brownish gray color from all the dirt that came off his body. Lucas closed his eyes, trying to relax his mind. His breathing became heavy and for a few moments, he dozed off in a dream. In his dream, he was standing at the square. A woman was on the stage, holding a piece of paper and saying something. Then everyone turned to him. 


*knock* *knock* *knock*

A noise from the door pulled him out of his dream. "Yeah, I'm coming," he yelled towards the door. Lucas allowed his body to drift down into the water, his eyes closing. Submerging his entire head down, he shook his head back and forth trying to get rid of all the grime that was in his slightly lengthy blonde hair. Then rising back up above the water, he watched the water flow back and forth, to and fro from his body. With a single pull on the bath tub ring, he water started to go into the pipes, making gurgling noises as it went down. The brownish gray water disappeared down, leaving a few grits of dirt, grass, and twigs in the tub. 

Stepping out of the tub, he wiped himself off with a towel and looked down at the chair with clothes already laid out for him. He frowned, the shirt and pants were new. He wondered who had bought the clothes, considering it was only him and his father that were working by cutting trees and wood in order to provide for his family. He shook his head, of course his father. Donning on the blue jeans, blue undershirt and white button up, he finished dressing. 


Lucas walked with his brothers and father towards the town Square. They were just in time. Rushing towards the boys line, they looked at the table that were set up with people from the Capitol pricking fingers to get blood. One by one, they took little drops of their blood before walking towards where all the boys stood. Lucas stood behind his brothers. His father had only allowed his brothers to enter their names once. He had told Lucas the same thing from a young age ever since he was 12 and old enough to be reaped. But Lucas was stubborn. He refused for his family to starve. So each year, he entered the tesseras for each of his family members. He had to, they didn't make enough money. And a family of at least 4 was too much to feed with only 2 people working. Lucas watched as woman wearing peach colored clothing walked onto the stage. Her dark black hair contrasted her soft features and pale clothing. He smirked, people at the Capitol dressed very odd. Her eyelashes were much too long and looked too crazy for the rest of her face.


When the woman spoke, everyone quietened. The movie began as always. "War, terrible war." Lucas almost fell asleep throughout the short movie. He remembered the dream he had while laying in the bath tub. He breathed, wiping away sleep from his face. He was tired. Now all he wanted was sleep. The woman started with the girls name, as always. It was always the girls first. It made being a male even that much more anticipating. His heart beat loud. There was a ringing in his ears and for a moment he couldn't hear what the woman was saying. Then all the sudden everyone turned towards the girl's side. A girl slowly walked out of the crowd and onto the pathway towards the stage. Lucas knew the girl. He looked down at his hands, wringing them against each other. Then the Escort woman from the District said something about the boys. She walked over to the over sized bowl and pulled out a paper. She opened and for a moment, that was all Lucas heard. Just the ripping of the paper as it snapped and tore apart. 


"Lucas Gallant!"

The words echoed in his ears. His eyes blurred and his ears rang once more. Faces seemed to turn towards him. The light from the sun beat down on him. Heat filled inside his body and everything felt numb.

Lucas Gallant. The woman had said. There was no denying it. 18 years old, his last year. His very last year and his name was called. He looked down, his jaw pressing against the top part of his skull, grounding his teeth together. Clenching his hands into fists, he looked up at the top of the stage. His feet walked towards it, he knew his fate.