Callisto (Callie) Halter;; Wanderer ---Done

Callisto (Callie) Halter;; Wanderer ---Done Jan 5, 2014 15:28:36 GMT -5

Post by * on Jan 5, 2014 15:28:36 GMT -5

When I was three, my older siblings was the best people in my life. They raised me. They took care of me. My father and mother were hardly ever around. "Working" is what my brother called it, though at such a young age, I had no clue what that meant. I just thought it meant that they were always gone, leaving me with nothing but my two older siblings to be my guardians. I was coddled as a young child by them. They raised around the goats that my parents tried to raise and found the task daunting so they passed it off to their three children. The kids were my best friends growing up. We used to butt heads all the time, and I was always the one who ended up with the bruises. I never thought any different from it. I enjoyed life on the farms of this district. I was always out in the fields with the goats as they grazed, or in the makeshift barns in the middle of rainstorms. My only sister, who was three years my senior, showed me the ways of animal husbandry. She would be the one to show me how to care for the young kids and milk the nannies at a young age. My chores became my life and I couldn't think any less of what I was born to do. I always had a smile on my face when I was near the goats we took care of.

The family prospered from the goats that I helped raise. They were my soul purpose in life here in ten from the time I was a toddler. It's also fitting that at the early age of nine, I learned about death. It hit much closer to home then when the hunger games took someone's sibling away from one of my friends. Death was harsh for me at first. The four legged friend of mine that I had raised from birth had died. I learned a little bit about letting the past go; moving on. EAch year after that, I never grew close to the new births of kids. I did my job and let it go. My sister, Malia, was the one to push me past my sadness. Then came those dreadful days when the reapings began for me. My other brother was always ready to volunteer should I be reaped, to protect me as would my sister, in my place. Though, it never occured. Year after year until they became too old to protect me anymore and then silent whispers began to go back and forth between the two of them every night. I pretented to be asleep, listening to their plans formulate. I needed to be aware the moment they told me what they were planning. How to get all three of us out of the district. To live out in the wild and off of the land. What kind of supplies to take. I had seen them stashing dried meants and cheeses we produce in small amounts behind the old clay blocks in the house. They always called me sneaky. I felt apart of their scheme even though they'd never told me about it. I was just as excited about becoming part of the outter laying part of the districts. Surviving with supplies. Sleeping under the stars. I'm not one for a fancy life here in ten. We are farmers. We tend to cattle. We slaughter meat for the capitol. We have strong backgrounds.

A week before we were set to leave, my brother and sister took me far out into the woods to talk; away from the many ears that could be lurking. They told me of their plans to get me out of the district since neither of them could protect me anylonger since they were passed the reaping ages. Neither of them would be able to do what was needed to keep me from the reapings since I was sixteen years old. I could either hope for luck or be the next to be reaped. They were afraid of the capitol, yes, but they were more afraid of losing their baby sister. The one person they raised growing up with whom they shared their secrects. With whom they laughed at when a toddler had a head harder than any billy goats. So, their needs over ran their duty to the district. The duty to keep a family together set their plans in to motion.

Until that night we were to leave for good. I remember every detail. From the sleep that collected in the corner of my eye, to the burden of death upon my very soul.

That night, a loud and heavy pounding came to our door. In the early hours of night, a handful of peacekeepers came to the door. My father went to the door first, and was instantly detained as they barged in to search the house for rest of us that would be planning our escape that night. With hushed whispers and frightened voices, my two older siblings dashed to my room and baracaded the door and started shoving me around. My sister pulled my night shirt from over my head, my brother began pushing my shoes on my feet. I felt like they thought I couldn't do anything for myself.

"What's going on? Why are they here? How could they?" I whisper out to them. My voice trembling. I looked to the things they brought into my room. I look to their heavy sacks with supplies and they forced mine on me as well the moment they pulled it out from under my bed. We hadn't planned on leaving so early. WE had planned on getting two hours of sleep before all of this was to occur.

"What is the meaning of this? My children havn't done anything wrong. My children can't be in trouble." I hear from the living room, as well as a sudden 'thud' and then a shot rings out. I jump in my step, my eyes growing wildly huge and I shake as my fingers grip my bag and place it on my back in a hurry. The footsteps start down the hallway as well as my mother's voice.

"Please... just leave them alone. We meant no disrespect. You have the wrong people. They are asleep. They are good kids!" Her voice travels through the wood of the door so easily and penetrates my delicate ears. How much I want to cover them up and pretend all of this is a nightmare.

"Open up. You three are under arrest under suspicions of leaving the district. Attempting to evade arrest will leave you shot. Open the door. NOW!" Their voiced boomed out, and their fists connected to the door multiple times as my siblings made sure they had what they needed and we broke through the window; glass shattering and disembodied voices shouting directions.

We make a break for it and run as fast as we can with only a single flashlight guiding the way. I tug on my shoulder length hair and put it into a pony tail as we run to keep the strands of hair out of my face. I look beside me to see my sister keeping pace with me and my brother has lead the way.

"Lets go. Keep down, Callie. Don't let anyone see you!" He tells me and I duck while trying to run, but the weight on my bag pulls me down just slightly. "Hurry! Hurry!"

From behind us, we hear the voices. The loud booming noises of gunshots ringing out. Little flashes of light trying to keep up with us and nothing but adrenaline is going through my veins. I want to cry out. I want to shout my surrender, but I feel my sister pushing me aside the moment I hear this painful yelp and her hand leaves my body, shoving me aside. I see it instantly. That look on her face. That pained expression that tells me she was shot. My brother stops and comes back for me, taking me by my hands and pulling me away from my sister.

"She did that to save you... NOW RUN! RUN!" He shoves me forward as I stumble in the darkness. The voices behind us are cut in half, but still they come after us. I know they must have stopped for my sister. I know they are going to drill her until she exploits our plans for escape. By then, I hope, we will be long gone. What she did for me, I'll never forget. I can't forget her for her sacrifice.

My breath begins to leave me weak by the time we make it to the fence. The eternal buzzing coming from the coiled wires tells me that the electricity is on and I know the only way through the fence is over it. Readily, I see my brothers face as studies different ways to go and he whistles for me to follow. He had obviously had every bit of this planned out. Every single detail that I had missed in their whispered chats during the night. Within a short distance, there in the vines, my brother pulls them from view. A hole. A place that was dug out by hand by the looks of it, covered with vines and lay waiting for this very moment.

My brother and I made a break for it. We dug under the fence, carefully covered the hole back up with the vines and escaped into the night. Our life began for the first time outside of the humm of the fence. We are no longer part of district ten. We had became wanderers in the wilderness.

After that night, we took our first couple of hours with so much hesitancy. We hide at the first sound of every noise. We had taken up weapons in our hands and tensed with every howl or chatter we heard from the wildlife. We walked for hours before my brother had deemed it safe for us to relax.

Our first month out in the wilderness was the hardest. He had to teach me about a whole new world. Trapping. Fishing. Building fires. Purifying water. Cooking was no problem for me and I enjoyed that task. My brother was my best friend. He had kept me safe. Protected me. Him and my sister, with whom I knew was dead. That look on her face said it all. If she wasn't dead by the time the peacekeepers go to her, she was gone now. Peacekeepers in ten weren't exactly one to keep people alive for long once they evaded arrest. They were harsh and unforgiving.

Our journey together lasted for five months out here in the wild. I'd became stronger. More mentally stable to survive by myself. My brother did as well. I even celebrated my seventeenth birthday out here with a small katniss root cake that I had prepared in soup form. The happiest of times wouldn't stay for long though. Not long after our fifth month out, I ended up getting sick. My face flushed with a high fever over night and delerium set in by the next night. I couldn't stand without aid and my head ached so bad. My brother disappeared that same day to find help.

For hours, I waited on him during bouts of fever induced sleep and restlessness. Before nightfall, I heard footsteps and my foggy brain heard his voice and felt his touch, but the scent was all too different. He stunk of dust and body odor. His hands were calloused and large. That's when I had realized, that it wasn't my brother at all.

"Who... are you..." I manage out through a whisper, my breath set afire against his cool skin. He made a tisking noise and placed a cool hand to my forehead and covered me up with a blanket.

"Your brother isn't doing well right now. He sent me out here. I'm afraid... he won't be able to come back, dear one. He wanted me to take care of you, and I never go back on a promise." I heard his words and for four days, I remember nothing.