I ignored the cries behind me as I turned my slow walk into a sprint. It was fall and all he leaves were falling, catching the curls in my hair and getting stuck. Leaves covered the ground and a rock that was infront of me. I took another step and trippeed over it, landing on my front. I took a minute and rolled ovr on my back and looked up at the sky, ""Why don't you take me now?" I said to myself. I heard crunching ahead of me and I looked up to see what it was. A boy aout my age stood threw, his bow and arrow drawn, aimed at my head. "What's your name." He asked as I slowly stood up with my hands up as if I was being arrested. "June. June Day." I said, lying. He looked at me suspicously and then, slowly, drew down his bow. "June Day? I've never seen you around here. Where you live." He said, looking aroundas if someone was watching us.

"My family died in a fire. I managed to escape and I didn't know where to go so I just ran." He studied me from head to toe and then stepped twords me. "Well, I'm Layne Percher. Sorry about your losses." And with that he turned around and headed off. "Wait!" I screamed after him. "You're just going to leave me here!" He smiled and walked back twords me and grabbed my arm. "I wondered if you'd let me walk away." This boy had autmn colored hair and brown eyes that match the color of milk chocolate. He was charming and had a deep, soothing voice that calms you down. We had only walked about a mile until we came to a small town that had ashes every where and was dark. Everyone there was poor and had ragged clothes and dirt on their faces.

"What town is this?" I asked as I looked at the children with their worn clothes and dirty bodies as we passed each one. "Prim." He said, not even ignoliging the people around him. "Why is everyone so dirty?" I asked in a hussed voice. "We just had a coal mining expolsion. Lots of fathers and brothers were killed in there and no one has food now." "So, how's your family?" "We lost my older brother John in the explosion. I'm too young to work in the mines and my father left us for another lady in Norm. I go out illegally in the woods every day and hunt." "Have they ever caught you?" "No." We came to a door and he threw a bag he had been carrying over his shoulder and opened th door. "Hey mum! I got us some food and a girl!" A young looking woman peered down the stairs. She had blonde hair that only came to the bottom of her jaw and curled under.

She walked down and grabbed the bag and looked at me, "Who's this?" "Her name is June. I found her in the woods, her family is dead and she had no where to go. I figured she could stay with us. Maybe work for the Careers and make some money for us." She looked at me, eyes wide. Her eyes were a rich brown like Layne's but huge. "You're willing to work for the Careers?" "Who are the Careers?" I asked, confused. "The rich people up north of here." I tilted my head back to think and then nodded, showing my aprooval of working for them.