Through The Forest ((Mel))

With a grudging step, Roman trundled out of the house. He hadn’t spoken to his mother, father or even his brother today. There was no need. He was up early. Rest was today, and with a slightly natural instinct Roman made his way into the woods. Even though he still had hatred towards his families lack of love, and his parents uncanny love for Shard, his brother. Roman sighed and rubbed his hands together. The fifteen year old noticed some people walking around District 7. He could hear some of the lumberjacks working on their trees. He was going to have to be careful. District 7 was, in essence, a dangerous place. Nowhere near as the Capitol though. Roman licked his lips in an attempt to dampen his dry lips. He swung his arms at his side and glanced around as his eyes tried to pick up certain colours. It was a useless task and Roman simply grumbled before turning his head back forwards.

He performed the action just in time, stopping him from walking straight into a tree trunk. “Woh.” He shuffled backwards slightly then shrugged and sidestepped the tree and continued to make his way into the woods. He felt secure here. It was another world, away from his horrible family. He wasn’t breaking the Capitol rules either; he was still in the Districts border even though Roman could see the fence from here. The boy exhaled slightly and sat down on a log that was lying on the floor. He placed his hands in his brown trouser’s pockets. He hadn’t brought anything here with him. It didn’t matter though. This place was peaceful, and Roman welcomed the silence. Almost every movement in the forest could be heard. The chirping of the odd bird, the rustling of the trees...and then there was the sudden roaring nose of a tree falling. Roman clenched his jaw and groaned. It had ruined a good moment. His good moment.

Roman wasn’t someone who was loud or overly outspoken at least. He was a quiet boy, who went along with everyday life. This was a common event for him and he had learnt to deal with the annoying noises of District Seven. He decided to actually try and do something productive to put his mind of things. Inquisitively he glanced around the forest, gritting his teeth as he heard men shouting to his right. He glanced over his shoulder to see a full on argument breaking lose. It started off as just shouting but then the first blow came. Peacekeepers forced their way in. Roman stood and watched in awe. This wasn’t something he was meant to be seeing. Quickly he shuffled backwards on his feet. A loud thud as he hit the ground. He moved himself backwards along the floor, and then one of the Peacekeepers spotted him.

The boy’s body froze. His hands clenched the grass on the ground and he tugged on the side of his mouth with his teeth. These actions were only short lived and soon Roman found himself jumping from the ground and running into a full on sprint. Unaware as to whether the Peacekeeper was following him or not. Roman ran. Each breath was deep and he didn’t dare look back. He nearly tripped on the uneven ground beneath his feet, several times. He cursed as he stumbled slightly as he leapt over a log, almost landing on the floor. For the first time since sprinting away, Roman turned round. They were indeed following him, but they were a fair distance away. They were shouting to each other, searching for him.

Without thinking it through first, Roman continued running away. He needed to lose them. Frantically he ran behind a tree, ducking down and hiding from the two Peacekeepers now looking for him. He had only come out for a short walk for god’s sake. His eyes darted around, scared to see the figures of the two men. Whilst he turned his head back from glancing round the tree he noticed a girl. Roman was slightly confused, what was she doing here? It didn’t make much sense really. Barely anyway, bar Roman, came into this part of the woods, as far as Roman knew anyway. Tentatively and glancing back every so often Roman approached her. “Hey there.” He said, panting slightly.

Roman licked his lips then took yet another glance behind him. The two Peacekeepers weren’t in sight, but their faint shouts could be heard. “Being chased by...two...Peacekeepers.” Roman placed his hands on his knees, continuously panting. “We gotta go. I’m Roman by the way. Roman Shaw.” He smiled then exhaled. Not really bothered about the quickness of the introduction. He just didn’t want to get caught.

((Sorry this took me a while to write. O.o))

Even after doing this for several months, Mel still hated going into districts. There were far too many ways for things to go wrong and her to be captured by the Capitol for her to be able to enjoy the new experiences. Fortunately, today she found herself heading into District 7. She’d been there twice before, and nothing too awful had happened, so that had to be a good sign, right?

Wrong.

No sooner had the youngest of the rebels made it almost to the district that did she hear the unmistakable sound of people running. Her pulse quickening, she immediately ducked behind a tree, but not before a boy around her age, maybe a bit older, looked right at her. Well crap. Mel stared, frozen by fear as he looked at her. Should she run? Act casual, like she came here all the time? The blonde racked her brain for an idea, but they were all shoved from her head the moment the boy opened his mouth.

“You – what?” There was no mistaking the dismay on the blonde’s face. Unfortunately, she was slowly growing used to the fact that she had horrible luck, but that didn’t make it any less stressful when things like this happened to her. Of course she would end up being spotted by some guy being chased by peacekeepers – before she’d even really entered the district! And of course he would decide to go and start talking to her, therefore getting her tangled up in whatever his mess was.

She didn’t have any time to think past that point, however, because the boy was speaking again. “We?” The words left Mel’s lips before she could stop them; she couldn’t help it, really. It seemed, whatever mess he was in, they were now in it together. “I – uh – Mel.” She hesitated.

There wasn’t much time for the blonde to process what was going on as much as she would have liked. All she knew was that right now her options seemed to be to Roman or stick around here and risk getting caught by peacekeepers. And as little as she knew about Roman, Mel knew perfectly well that she never wanted to face a peacekeeper ever again – she still had nightmares about that peacekeeper from 10, and what would have happened if that random guy hadn’t saved her – not to mention what may have happened to said random guy.

…So yeah, she had a fear of peacekeepers, and she was actually feeling rather grateful that Roman had warned her of their approach. Her pale skin and bright blonde hair had apparently made her stick out the other times she’d been in seven, so it was lucky Roman had seen her before the peacekeepers did. Well, lucky for Mel. Roman, however, probably would have done better to ignore her and keep running. Because assuming the peacekeepers did catch up to him, Mel had a feeling her presence would only get him into more trouble. She certainly seemed to be a magnet for trouble lately, but maybe her luck was beginning to change?

Regardless, now really wasn’t the time to be standing around and thinking about that, was it? “…Yeah, okay.” She finally replied to Roman, hesitating a bit before she started running. Roman already looked pretty exhausted – how long had he been running for? Did he have a destination in mind? Then she heard the voices of the peacekeepers in the distance, and Mel didn’t particularly care. She took his advice and took off running back the way she’d come, deeper into the woods, away from the peacekeepers. After a few moments of sprinting, she glanced behind her to make sure Roman was following and that she was going in the right direction – surely he’d stop her if he had something else in mind, right?

The dismay on the girls face was clear. Roman moved his tongue around his mouth, almost impatiently. Here words did not form clear sentences, and Roman really couldn’t blame her for that. If someone randomly ran up to him and told him to move because of peacekeepers, he would have been confused. He wasn’t bothered that his introduction had been quick though, he would have preferred it to be like this rather than having both of them caught. This was the first time that Roman had really had an encounter like this. He had managed to avoid the Peacekeepers for the vast majority of his life. Instinctively Romans hand went for the wooden bracelet around his wrist, his name etched into the bark. His father had made it.

Tension started to build up in the boy, he flung his head across his shoulders looking for any signs of the Peacekeepers, but luckily they were quite far away from the two of them. At least that gave them some sort of advantage in this chase. The girl introduced her name as Mel, Roman gritted his teeth before turning his head to look back at her raising his eyebrows slightly and becoming increasingly twitchy as the Peacekeepers came closer and closer. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with Peacekeepers; he didn’t want to make much of a name for himself. He had only come here to get away from the house, it was early in the morning and until recently he hadn’t been fully awake. It just had to be him to run into Peacekeepers at this time in the morning.

Roman took his very small amount of time to examine the girl he had just spoken to. Mel. She looked like a good hider, from first glance at least. Roman didn’t really take much notice, before he had time to fully examine her, the voices of the Peacekeepers reached his ear and he looked around for a second. He had only just heard Mel say ‘okay’. So it came as a vague surprise to see her sprint off, obviously wanting him to follow her. It has to be said; Roman doubted the direction she went. Deeper into the woods would raise more suspicion. Though there was something about this girl, she gave off an aura. An aura that told Roman that she knew what she was doing. Whether she did know what she was doing was a different matter altogether though. Nevertheless the Fifteen year old decided to follow her. As she stopped to turn back to him he froze and glanced over to the direction of the Peacekeepers. He pointed back to built up area of District 7. “It’d be easier...to go back...right?” still Roman was out of breath. He wouldn’t have been capable of running for long or at least without getting a stitch.

The boy knew most of District 7. However, it was one of the largest Districts. And it was simply too large for Roman to memorize the whole place. He really didn’t need to either. Thoughts conflicted in Roman’s mind and the boy struggled to come to a decision. The voices grew closer and closer. Eventually Roman gave up, “Okay just...let’s go before they get too close. I hope you...know where you’re going.” With that, Roman ran on after Mel. The air brushed his face gently. Birds chirped in the trees and if the two of them weren’t running away from Peacekeepers and Roman was practically breathless then it would have passed as quite a peaceful atmosphere. Not that this surprised Roman at all. He often came into the woods of District 7 to relax and to get away from the hectic everyday life, to get away from his family. Mainly the woods were Roman’s place to relax when his brother got on his nerves. An event which occurred many times throughout the day. Simply put the two of them hated each other. Roman was a quiet boy, yes, but he was also rather strong, mainly in his arms. He could pack quite a punch when he wanted to. Of course Shard had learnt that many times. Roman hadn’t even contemplated the pain he must have caused, Shard had deserved it.

As Roman ran his head constantly looked backwards, the two Peacekeepers were still quite a distance away and they were jogging rather than running. If Mel and he kept up this pace then they would get away. No doubt the Peacekeepers would forget their faces after enough time went by. That was what Roman was hoping for at least. “We’ve got to keep going.”

Mel wished she knew what she was doing, but the truth was the blonde couldn’t even remember the last time she knew what she was doing. So it came as no surprise when Roman questioned the direction she’d chosen to run in. Honestly, Mel hadn’t even been considering being strategic or drawing any less suspicious when she’d taken off. She’d been a bit more concerned with just getting away than in exactly where she was running off to. Plus, in Mel’s mind, getting away from District Seven was much safer than going towards it.

But now that she stopped to think about it, her companion had a good point; maybe going back towards District Seven would be easier. But…wouldn’t that also lead them closer to the peacekeepers? And what would she do once she was in the district? Roman could just blend in and go back home or something, but Mel would be left with nowhere to go, sticking out like a sore thumb. On the other hand…she also couldn’t keep leading Roman in the direction of the Railway. Oh, man. Mel’s brows furrowed as she weighed their options, standing on the balls of her feet as she wavered between their two options.

Meanwhile, the voices of the Peackeepers were getting louder and louder, which was what finally forced her to make a decision. Apparently Roman was thinking along the same lines as well, however, because he beat her to the punch. He wanted to keep following her now? Mel hesitated, but now was hardly the time to stop and discuss their options, so she simply nodded tersely and took off once more into the woods. At this point, she didn’t even know if she was getting closer to the District or the Railway anymore; all she knew was that she was running away from the voices, and that was all she cared about. Still, she decided it couldn’t hurt to give Roman the opportunity to take the lead – he lived in the district, so maybe he had some better ideas of where they could go – so she called behind her, “If you have any ideas, feel free to take the lead.” She wasn’t going to come right out and tell the boy she had no clue what she was doing, but she certainly wouldn’t object to a change of course.

In a way, it was almost lucky that Mel had run into so much trouble over the year she’d been with the railway; she’d built up quite a lot of stamina, and was able to keep running without growing too tired. Hopefully Roman could hang in there. She mirrored the boy in constantly looking back over her shoulder, eyes and ears alert for their pursuers. Was it just wishful thinking or…were they getting further away?

Not far enough, apparently, since Roman thought they needed to keep going. Well, Mel wasn’t about to argue, but even she couldn’t deny she was getting tired. Without slowing, she turned to look at him and asked between breaths, “Yeah, well…can’t we just…climb a tree or something?” It was the blonde’s default tactic, and it had worked pretty well for her in the past. Though seeing as this was the woodcutting district, its members were probably better at tree climbing than those of other districts. “…What’d you do anyways?” The question left the fourteen year old’s lips before she could stop it, but now that it was out she was hopeful that Roman would give her an honest answer. Well…kind of hopeful. There was also the possibility that she was running through the woods with some crazed murderer or something, but…somehow Roman didn’t strike her as that type. She didn’t necessarily trust him, but…well, Mel didn’t really know. She was just going to keep running for now, thanks.