Our government will kill me. That’s what I think as I survey the beach-like terrain that is spread out before me. My eyes grow wide as I try to take in everything before the massacres begin. Knowing the careers will want me to join them, I seek out an escape route I can take to avoid them. My lungs fill up with air knowing that they will have to pump their hardest to keep me alive. I eye the silver disk-like object we are supported by and notice that the Capitol tries its hardest to keep dehumanizing us to Panem. They want the people to look at us like a repercussion of defiance and a sacrifice that the Capitol can decorate to suit their fancy and serve on a silver platter.

Suddenly I want to find anyway off of this dish so as not to give the Capitol their delighted show, but my uncle keeps me on, as I hear him ushering me to stay  so I won’t be blown sky-high and so I can survive for my mother. I only know him from stories, but along those spoken heirlooms, I have learned that he and I were alike in many ways. For my mother, I can only hope that by some miracle I can defy this corrupted authority and live. Seeing the palm trees correspond their movements in their orchestrated fashion gives me a nudge and tells me that this beautiful tropic oasis won’t be friendly for long. It is like a movie -the Hunger Games- in that we will stay on a set that can seem beautiful from the cameras of face-value but turn deadly for the characters.

A rustle in a nearby tree catches my acute sense of observation. Upon further examination, I can just barely make out eyes and notice a tail that I realize is a giant lizard slithering around like an innocent child that will no doubt kill one tribute here. That lizard embodies every one of us and mentally I make a one-sided pact that I won’t be too upset if it kills me so as long as it agrees to grow up strong and defy this horrid government. That thought reminds me that if I can make this lizard seem like that innocent tribute shaking in my peripheral vision, that this is going to be a lot harder than I have prepared my survival mindset to be. With a cannon shot, my thoughts bounce back to reality and leave me to sprint for my life in a humid and deadly scorching tropic kill-zone.