Hunger Games 1. Prologue

**The Presidents of Panem**

_PROLOGUE_

President of Panem. These words have been spoken by many, indicating the seven, to date, that have held office in the nation. At first, the title meant of reborn democracy from a nation that lost its original views and philosophy. Later in the nation's history, it meant corruption, fear, decadence, and favoritism. Now, it means hope of our nation to recover from the terrifying tyranny that has just been removed from power. In order to grow in the future, we must learn from the past. So, we must begin to research the origins of this nation, learn about the Dark Days and the Hunger Games, in order to prevent such atrocities from ever occurring again.

As I have said, we have had seven Presidents to date. Each have had their own positive and negative aspects, though more positive near the beginning, and negative near the end. This is a list of all who held the office of the President of Panem:

1. Romulus Peace (Warren Monocelli) 2054-2059

2. Wilson Clay 2059-2063

3. Edwin Morris 2063-2068

4. Ariann Fuler 2068-2102

5. Coriolanus Snow 2102-2148

6. Alma Coin of District Thirteen 2148

7. Paylor of District Eight 2148-present.

The history of our nation, prior to the existence of a President of Panem, begins with the civil war that tore the land asunder, and the World War that led to the decimation of the continent's land mass: the Peace War.


	2. Chapter 1

**The Peace War and Formation**

The importance of the Peace War isn't only supplemental in learning the formation of our country, but it is also helpful in learning the upbringing of our very first President, Romulus Peace.

**Birth and Youth**

Romulus Peace was born on January 31st, 2000 A.D. under the name of Warren Monocelli, to the parents of Guilia and Gerardo Monocelli. As his namesake proves, he is of Italian descent. His dialect and appearance further supported this fact. He was born in Denver, Colorado at the Denver Health Medical Center.

Monocelli was a computer science prodigy. In elementary school, he completely revamped the school's computer system all by himself, with no help from even people who did that for a living. By the time he was 12 years old, he developed the world's only existing indestructible firewall, which would end up being the firewall to span Panem's whole technological network. His other subjects weren't horrible either. Due to his outstanding GPA (grade-point average) and grades, he graduated from George Washington High School in Denver on June 2nd, 2015.

**Collegiate Career**

Because of Monocelli's academics, multiple big league colleges and universities were attempting to recruit him on full scholarships. Harvard University, Yale University, Vanderbilt University, etc. were all examples. Only, instead of going to a college such as those, or even a technical school, he went to the University of Denver, the college that would transform into the University of Panem in time, on a full scholarship for a Computer Science major.

During his down time, he learned any hacks that have been attempted on firewalls and were successful in any way. Using that knowledge and information he learned by professors, he strengthened his firewall and attempted to use all those hacks from a separate computer to verify that the firewall was unbreakable. His suspicions were proven correct when none of the hundreds of hacks could not break it even a little bit. He gave the software to his highest education level computer science teacher at the University, and the professor was shocked that an undergraduate student, especially while only 16 years old, could develop something that even the most intelligent people in the computer world couldn't even get close to inventing. Bill Gates, the CEO of the Microsoft Corporation, came to a demonstration of the software that the professor set up. Gates went to Monocelli personally and praised him for his work, offering him a high technology position at Microsoft, which he declined due to not wanting to be in business. Gates respected the decision and gave him a consolation instead, including all of the brand new Microsoft products for free. Monocelli appreciated the gesture, and he accepted it, but he knew that Gates wanted the firewall, and he wasn't going to give it up. Monocelli decided to keep testing and then sell it to the United States government in time to protect from foreign cyber-terrorism.

Monocelli met the love of his life at a fraternity party that his friends persuaded him to go to, on his birthday in 2017. She was currently a freshman that started in the 2016 fall semester, so she wasn't too old for a 17 year old like Warren. Her name was Emily Sruvank, and she was from Los Angeles, California. It was love at first sight for both of them. Monocelli walked into a room to get a can of soda, and he noticed her. She looked up, he looked away and she walked over to him. They began regular conversation to get to know one another, and then they ditched the party due to the extreme amount of intoxication among the partiers. She invited him to visit her dorm room and they spent a long night together.

A week later, they interacted at the main hub on campus. Emily officially asked Warren on a date, and he accepted. They continued to date through the end of their college careers, and would end up marrying in 2024.

**Beginning of a Political Career**

Warren Monocelli graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Denver in June of 2019. He went to become a computer education teacher at his high school alma mater while he was raising money to visit the capital city of the country, Washington, D.C. to propose the use of his firewall by the United States government.

His original plans were offset when the Great Recession of 2020 hit when the government was unable to raise the debt ceiling by the deadline while under a government shutdown. Monocelli was furious that the government couldn't come to a consensus on a plan that was for the great of the nation. Insult to injury came when taxes were spiked on the middle class while the upper class got away with less taxes. He decided to put a halt to his computer career and go into politics in order to change the path the country was going on.

Because of the democratic structure of the United States government, all federal, local and state, he would choose to run for office through the election process. He had to wait until 2025 to begin running for any office due to age requirements, so he stayed a teacher until then. He ran for Denver City Council beginning in 2025, but failed. He ran again and won the election in 2027. He was re-elected twice in 2029 and 2031. After noticing that being in City Council wasn't good enough, he decided to run for mayor of Denver. In the 2033 election, he lost by only eight votes compared to his opponent, which was the incumbent, political leader already in office.

Monocelli ran again in 2037, putting a lot more money and effort into his campaign. He won by a landslide over the incumbent and then would stay mayor of Denver until the formation of Panem.

**Signs of Rebellion**

The financial crisis in the United States was progressively getting worse. Everyone who wasn't rich was struggling, and the rich with less money were nearly borderline middle class because of taxation. State and city governments were forced to add more taxes due to the lack of funding from the federal government, and they had no choice if they wanted to prevent poverty, which was growing at an accelerated pace anyways. Monocelli kept Denver afloat by sacrificing most of his mayoral paycheck to pay the taxes, and passed a city law forcing taxes to be higher for the richer, and lower for the poorer. Of course it didn't prevent struggle, but the city was more stable than the rest of the nation. When he ran for re-election in 2049, he knew he couldn't sit by and watch the country struggle, but knew he had no chance to be elected into Congress, the US lawmaking body, because of his lack of funding so he can help pay off most of the taxes. He decided it was time for demonstrations to begin, a rebellion to fix the troubles. He felt that if the political leaders aren't helping out like he was, it was time to show that the near financial depression could not be afforded nor tolerated.

He began holding secret speeches in the City Hall over plans he has to begin rallying all over the country. He issued a secret declaration making the Denver Police Department and SWAT forces to begin military training for if war broke out. Monocelli didn't want to win with violence, but he knew that there would be retaliation, so he wanted to be prepared. The word of his rebellion spread fast around the populace, and the general consensus agreed with him. It was time for action.

Monocelli's slogan was "Panem republica", which was meant to stand for "Bread Republic" even though the actual Latin translation is _Panem Rei Publicae. _He was trying to say that he wants to make a republic that no one starves, everyone has food.

Rallies began as peaceful protests, but no action was being taken. Riots began in big cities around the nation and the government began to fear a civil war forming, yet were doing nothing to prevent it or fix things. The whole thing was launched into motion in 2052 after the inauguration of President Arthur Perona. The rebels kidnapped the President's daughter, Emily, and took her to Denver to Monocelli's base underneath his mansion. Monocelli did not command the kidnapping nor did he fully agree with it, but he was able to see that Perona did not trust the government, regardless of her father's position. She agreed to be a D.C. insider for Monocelli in return for if a victory does come for the rebellion, her father's life will be spared. Monocelli agreed.

Now, many had allegations that Monocelli had committed himself sexually to Perona, due to her being 16 years old at the kidnapping. This, of course, was not true. Due to these allegations making him look like a sexual predator, his wife, who was with him whenever he was with Perona, defended him. She was honest in stating she was always there and put out the flames of allegations by stating the truth that there was nothing more than professionalism with the President's daughter. This prevented any rebels from turning the tide against him. Perona even made a statement supporting everything Mrs. Monocelli said.

In 2053, the tide turned into a full out war, which would end up being called the Peace War. Sadly, there was weakness in the US's side. The government had most troops off fighting in China in World War III due to a military alliance with Japan made after World War II. The Union had too little wins in the major battles. Monocelli dictated troop movements from the safety of his base, hiding from federal US agents that were searching for him.

In 2054, the odds were too much out of the US's favor. With the Battle of Capitol Hill, the rebellion won and swore Monocelli in as interim leader of the United States. He said it was time for a new country with new laws and a new foundation. "It is a time for rebirth. Financial struggles cannot be repaired without a complete governmental overhaul. I declare this the end of the United States and the birth of a new land, new nation. With the new freedom, and our fight against hunger, this nation will be named Panem, from the Latin word for bread. I will take myself as anew with the nation, renaming myself. I am no longer professionally Warren Monocelli, I am now Romulus Peace." These were the famous _First Words of Panem_ as printed on his statue outside of the President's Mansion in the Capitol.

**AN: There is the formation, next will be the codification of the Capitol and its 49 states. No districts yet. Also, by "no longer professionally Warren Monocelli", he means that to friends and family, his name is the same, but for all formal actions in the government, it's Romulus Peace. Romulus from the mythological founder of Rome, Peace for what he planned to have in Panem. We know that's not gonna happen. XD Anyways, please review.**


	3. Chapter 2

**2. Codification of a Government**

The nation of Panem had been formed, but there was no set law, no set government. Romulus Peace began the creation of a document that would define Panem until the Dark Days: The Constitution of the Capitol.

_**The Constitution of the Capitol**_

As this would be the officiating document of the government, it was necessary for it to explain the layout of government, some basic laws, official tabs on the borders and the capital city, as a minimum number of requirements. The preamble of the document is nearly the same as the United States Constitution's because the goals of the government were very similar.

**The Capitol**

Peace decided to make his home town, the city he was still "legally" the elected mayoral incumbent of, the capital of this nation. It would keep its original title of Denver, but would not be part of the state of Colorado anymore. It would be part of the "Capitol District", and would ultimately be addressed as "Denver, C.D."

The statement in the Constitution that reports this says, "This city, due to the nature of our foreign relations, will be simply known as the 'Capitol', as will the government, in all public announcements, in order to prevent confusion." That is why to this day, we call the city and the government "the Capitol."

**The Government Organization**

Now, the government was assembled very closely to the United States government, but with some very obvious differences. There was still three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. The President had a little more power than the other two, but there were enough checks and balances to prevent a power haul in the Presidential department. Obviously it didn't work, but we aren't in that part of history yet.

The executive branch was composed of the President and his advisors, the Advising Council. The advisors took care of what the US Cabinet did, the departments of the government such as the Department of the Treasury, etc. As stated before, the government was assembled to be similar to the US government because Peace thought that the idea was good "in theory", until the government became way too centralized, taking rights away from state governments. He believed in a fair balance of federal, state, and citizen power.

The legislative branch was made up of a single house, the People's Senate. Unlike what popular opinion might have led to, it was not a communistic legislative branch, as the People's Republic of China would have given the vibe for, but the title was literally saying that "the government is for the people." That was carved on the top of the Senate building in the Capitol and was in large letters in the Legislation Room, until President Coriolanus Snow had the building demolished and built over. There were three representatives from each state, and there was 49 states, so there were 147 senators per session.

The senators served two year terms on a rotated basis that depended on a state's location. There were senatorial elections every year, but only certain senators needed to run for the election. On odd year elections, the eastern 24 states voted for their senators, and the western 25 on even year elections. This proved to keep the Senate away from the distractions of running a campaign when trying to help the President run the nation.

The judicial branch was composed of all the federal, state, and local courts. The main court of the nation was the Capitol Supreme Court. As the US Supreme Court did, they examined laws for if they agreed with the Constitution, only they had the power to pigeonhole the law on the spot, never to be allowed to be amended by the Senate for re-approval. Also, the state and local courts had the same permissions to judge upon laws. The United States trials of law set up was not changed with the governmental transition at all.

A new addition to the government was that executive order and executive privilege were revoked from the President's powers. Instead, the Senate had to debate on a bill proposed by the President, but didn't have to pass it. Due to abstentions allowed in voting for a law, the President also had a voting in Senate privilege called the "two-thirds person vote". His vote would count as either two people or three people, depending on if the matter had an even or odd amount of senators, in order to lead to majority, even in the case of a tie being far gone. As seen later in history, this Presidential privilege led to the denial of the "Thirteen District Act" under President Wilson Clay.

Also, the President exercised the right of choosing their succession line himself/herself. Because of the weakened trust of political leaders prior to the Peace War, President Peace felt that until the people expressed their want of electing a President, the incumbent will choose their successor. This was controversial all the way up until Coriolanus Snow's regime was overthrown, thinking that democracy was still far away. But, Peace addressed the nation in stating that the people could petition for the law to be removed, and by law, the Senate had to allow the amendment to go up to debate and that the President had no two-thirds vote or veto on the law if they passed it. The amendment was already written up and in a special safe in the Senate building, but was lost when the building was demolished.

There were still checks and balances, but they were more or less the same as the United States' system. An addition though was that when the President appointed people, both the Capitol Supreme Court and the Senate had to approve of the appointments, even in the case of new court judges. A veto by the President didn't need the 2/3 majority to be overruled, it actually needed a ¾ vote. With there being no existing political parties, platforms were no longer an issue. A veto normally was for the great of the nation.

**Military Options**

Because the new nation had a whole existing Armed Force from the United States at their disposal, Peace felt it was important to cover the military in the Constitution. There were five existing branches: Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army, and Coast Guard. All of the branches were readopted with manifestos registered by the Panem Department of Defense. All that was required for the current members serving were to pledge an oath of loyalty to the "Republic of Panem" and its "Horn of Plenty" to serve all its citizens both domestic and abroad. Abroad meant any citizens that have been detained or anything in a foreign land were still protected by the military and had all their rights of Panem safeguarded. This was, though, out of the confines of violating sovereignty, meaning that this wasn't as successful as Peace had hoped for.

Registering as part of a draft was no longer required for men of 18 years old or older. Military enrollment was completely voluntary. The required enrollment age by the time of shipment to training was 18 years of age, removing the ability for 17 year olds from joining, because they were still minors. The government was strict on enforcing this in order to prevent identity fraud, which still is a capital offense.

**Final Amendments**

Now, the US Bill of Rights was re-adopted, as stated in the final paragraph in the Constitution. President Peace felt that the rights given in the first 10 amendments of the document needed to be kept, and he felt it was unnecessary to re-write rights that were already stated in a prior document. The other amendments made to the US Constitution after its ratification were considered after the final printing of the Constitution and the Senate approved a small list of amendments to be re-adopted. They were printed as extra parts of the Constitution, and were kept with it everywhere, including when it was hidden after the Capitol exerted more than its legal power.

President Peace, his military advisors from his rebellion force (namely officers from Denver), former US President Arthur Perona, and former Vice President Elizabeth Colins signed and ratified the Constitution for final review by the people. All 52 United States voted on the document in the 2054 general November election, like normal, and only 49 ratified it as law. The three states that didn't vote for it understood this meant legal secession from Panem and its laws and protection.

Once the government was codified, senators were elected and judges were appointed. Afterwards, Peace was able to begin his actual term as President of Panem. He had a lot of plans to fix the disaster the nation was under in the years prior to the Peace War. His largest focus happened to be on corruption that helped lead to the rebellion. This would lead to his most famous action as President, the Corruption Correction Act.


	4. Chapter 3

**3. Corruption Correction**

President Romulus Peace distrusted most politicians ever since the Great Recession of 2020, so when the Capitol was fully instated and the senators elected, he proposed the first law that would take effect in Panem, the Corruption Correction Act. Corruption began to span the whole network of government, from federal to small town local, and Peace wanted to change that to ensure happiness in Panem. His beginning focus was on the federal government, not so much the Senate or the courts because they were just formed with new people, but the departments and agencies that the US government had that haven't been disbanded by the Capitol.

**Federal Correction**

First of all, all entities not closed down were moved to the Capitol before the full ratification of the Constitution of the Capitol due to the President's confidence.

Some agencies were shut down immediately and some were dissolved slowly but given some restricted abilities. Some were slowly closed down in full. The major body to have the least of work done on it was the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but its executive staff was completely altered.

The Department of the Treasury also had a lot of major correction within itself. First, as a law added as amendment to the Constitution of the Capitol was that the federal regulation for printing money was based off of need by federal standards, not by want of having more money than necessary in circulation. Also, the Federal Reserve was disbanded from Panem, as Peace wanted to return to the gold standard as the monetary system was more stable that way, especially because he chose to keep the US Dollar as the official Panem monetary system. The entire staff of executives in the Treasury were personally fired by the first Panem Secretary of the Treasury, Edwin Morris, who was still young, about 28 years old. He brought in newer people who had experience in economics with a full collegiate background. Peace personally checked over the Treasury every week for the remainder of his presidency, making sure that another corruption sweep was not necessary.

As the US Congress had not fully accepted that the government was turned over to the administration of Romulus Peace, he had to find a way to coax Congress into closing its doors. When Arthur Perona signed the Constitution of the Capitol, he thought he was signing it as the last act of executive order he could do before Peace reprimanded his power. But, even though by US law the Congress had to allow the executive order, they refused, forcing the whole city of Washington, D.C. into isolation while they attempt to recover the nation. The unfortunate part for them was that the military swore an oath to Panem and the US President was now in confinement by the Capitol via his own request. Plus, the US Supreme Court yielded their power to the Capitol Supreme Court. Congress was merely scraping along until President Peace and the Advising Council, as well as five different senators decided by the state with the most members of the House of Representatives, appeared on Capitol Hill.

Peace demanded that Congress disband on the sovereignty of their own soil before Washington, D.C., a place where the popular vote was 95% FOR the Constitution of the Capitol, is fully added into Panem. The US Senate threatened to alert the United Nations about the legality of Peace's rebellion, only to be shot down with Peace and Panem's current at the time UN Security Council delegate, Ariann Fuler, presenting an official delegation recognition for the Republic of Panem. (Peace wanted more isolationist views, but was in the UN to protect domestic interests by protecting the nation from foreign threats.) Still, Congress wouldn't stand down. The People's Senate proposed evacuating the city and then putting a blockade on it, but Peace vetoed that faster than any President has vetoed anything. He didn't want to harm anybody, he just wanted to get the nation of Panem on track.

Peace went to the day session of January 30th, 2055 and proposed a stipend for all congressmen and women to willingly disband and allow the Capitol to be the official government seat of Panem. The stipend worked, and Congress disbanded, but wished to be integrated into the Senate, but was denied. As soon as the building was evacuated, Capitol police officers locked the doors and guarded the building.

**State Correction**

After solving the issue with Congress, the Capitol was able to fix the rest of the federal government with little to no problems. But, there was more than just federal corruption in the governmental system.

The states' governments were not changed at all between the ratification and implementation of the Capitol's rule. The states each had their own corrupt individuals to deal with, but the Capitol didn't trust them to do it on their own. President Peace sent advisors to watch over the whole process, which included re-electing the governors and lawmakers, to changing state regulations that conflicted with Capitol agenda. The state correction was cleaner and quieter than the federal correction because the federal government respected states' rights, and wanted them to complete it without interfering with other decisions, such as the fact Panem didn't remove the US troops from World War III.

**Local Correction**

The easiest correction for Panem under the CCA was local governments, where the least corruption was, with the exception of a few metropolitan areas, which took a little longer, but was successful. The states watched over the local cleansing as an advisor of President Peace's Council kept an eye on them, making sure the act was respected. The most common was reopening every position for election, no former incumbent allowed for re-election.

The CCA required extensive surveillance, but only watching the governments, not the public. Police officers were there to protect and serve. The CCA didn't affect the public except for bringing them in new representatives in government. The next thing is that the public knew that the CCA was going on, and exactly what was happening. It wasn't a secret, as Peace didn't believe in governmental secrets. That is why he removed the power of executive privilege. He wanted all political matters to be in the public's attention.

Now, the corruption wasn't the only thing Peace had to deal with in his presidency. There was still a world war, as well as federal policies needing enforced. With the CCA fully completed by 2056 began, there was still a lot on the President's plate.

**Note: The CCA was only Peace's way of reforming the American democratic system with little problems. It was very successful, but the success and stability of Panem was short lived after Peace leaves office. Please review!**


	5. Chapter 4

**4. Finishing a Term**

Now that the CCA was showing signs of success, President Romulus Peace was able to focus on more items that a President must consider, especially foreign relations.

**A World War**

The United States was involved in World War III against the People's Republic of China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and Cuba. When the Peace War arrived on American soil, the US was too pre-occupied with this war. The whole war started when China attacked Japanese soldiers of the coast of an island that has been a sovereignty dispute between China and Japan since the existence of both lands back near medieval times. The US had a pact formed with Japan after World War II to protect them in the case of military conflict, as the island nation was forbidden from forming a large military after that war that caused a lot of harm. Since the US joined in, as a democratic nation, all of the Cold War disputes between democracy and communism came to head, causing alliances to back up both sides. There were the Allies: United States, United Kingdom, France, Brazil, and Germany. The other side, which was China, Korea, and Cuba, was called the Asian Front.

When the Peace War dissolved the US government, putting the government into the Capitol's hands, the war was stalled on the Allied front. All of the US troops were locked down after the coup d'état, in the possibility of having the order restored. Once the military signed the oath to Panem, the troops were dispersed. Peace felt that abandoning the war would mean a broken promise to Japan, even though the Capitol wasn't to be held responsible. He felt that this was necessary to prove his trustworthiness as a leader. Plus, he had a fear of being fully attacked financially if they pulled out, like the Soviet Union was when it pulled out of World War I, forced to give land and money to Germany.

But, Panem's presence was short lived. The soldiers were worn out from lockdown, and they had no official orders coming from the Capitol because of the focus on domestic issues. The final straw was when on June 29th, 2055, China sent a nuclear airstrike to hit the closest cities to the Great Lakes within Panem's borders. Cuba followed by attacking the whole eastern seaboard of the state of California. These attacks led to a major rise of sea level and lake level, as well as the radiation harshly affecting the weather conditions in areas that survived the blasts.

Peace issued a formal surrender at the United Nations Security Council briefing on the war, and China graciously accepted. All troops were returned home to help with the aid effort for survivors in the areas of the blast. This is still the most devastating nuclear attack to happen in human history, bypassing that of the WWII Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks.

The weather this lead to as well as the damage is what ends up being used as a guide to a history of Panem, or at least under President Snow's propaganda filled regime it was.

**Foreign Policy**

The nuclear attacks from China and Cuba forced President Peace's final hand to enact a policy of isolation from foreign matters. Even though Panem stayed in the United Nations, it was more to observe and watch the world to protect the sovereignty of Panem. They barely debated on matters, barely supported resolutions, and almost abstained from every vote except for procedural matters.

Still, Peace was aware that trade was a necessity, as the climate of Panem, especially after the attacks, was unable to sustain certain crops for either food, medicine, or other items that were necessary or useful. Plus, Peace was a major chocolate fan, and cocoa beans haven't grown in North America. So, he continued trade with trustworthy nations, such as Colombia, Mexico, and India. Luckily, the US already cut trade with China in WWIII, so he just didn't reinstate it.

**Corporations and the Economy**

Probably the next biggest thing in Peace's presidency was when he dealt with all the corporations. He understood the need of private companies from the government, but he felt that their economic rights were too lenient and susceptible for corruption to form, as well as divide the financial classes, which is one of the reasons he rebelled in the first place. So, in 2056, he went to every company, enforcing new laws he called the "Corporation Financial Acts of 2056". Peace created a new department in the Council to help him monitor this, the Department of Private Sector Actions. These acts started with giving a company the ability to leave the nation, or stay and be reformed. Companies that stayed were Fox, CNN, Apple, etc. Microsoft and all foreign companies left Panem. If a company stayed, their whole executive staff was fired and replaced with qualified workers who were normally underpaid by their employers. Peace enforced a new minimum wage of $35 an hour, no lower or the company would risk being closed down for good by the Capitol. They had to submit to the Capitol's, the states', and the local authorities, and no one, no matter how much money they had, were above the law. The Capitol enforced these laws strictly, until President Paylor repealed the acts.

The economy was actually not struggling after the end of the Peace War because all of the major taxes were repealed by the Senate as soon as the senators made it to office. Peace didn't go to banks for funding of the rebellion. All of the money came from the state of Colorado. Due to the Captiol's enforcements on private companies, no banks were allowed to exist without merging with the Department of the Treasury, forced to work along the President and his advisors. All existing debts were forgiven and eliminated, including all federal student loans, which were governmental given, not bank given. The colleges were forced to forgive the tuition costs, as well as lower them to the Capitol's regulations. Public education would have a maximum cost of $1000 a year without room and board included and private education would be $2500 a year without room and board included. Room and board would vary from $250-$400 a year.

**The National Network**

One of the most apparent contributions that President Peace made to Panem was the national network online. The firewall he created when he was young was incorporated into the entire Panem Online Server, the internet available to all citizens with an internet capable device. It was free, provided by the government, protected by the only unpassable firewall in the world. This was the President's way of protecting from foreign cyber-terrorism. In order to prevent domestic issues, people needed to download virus protection software and firewalls sold for separate computers as the whole nation of Panem was, and still is, under the server. This explains why District 13 was able to release propaganda on the airwaves during the Mockingjay Rebellion. The only way to remove an area from the protection was with the code key that only President Peace knew. No one to this day knows, and the Capitol technicians have been working non-stop since Peace died to change the system, but are unsuccessful. Peace felt that keeping the nation together on the server would promote unity and allow freedom of speech to soar.

**National Life**

Life under the fledgling Panem was better than life prior to the Peace War, thanks to the President. There were a lot of freedoms, but there were some laws prohibiting certain acts. Fraud was/is a capital offense, as was murder, kidnapping, rape or anything of forced sexual affiliation, etc. Surprisingly enough, crime rates went down after the Capitol was officiated as a government. Peace tended to tour the nation when he wasn't doing large amounts of work. He visited cities, small towns, and even villages so small that you could pass it in the blink of an eye. He and his wife loved the crowd of citizens everywhere they went. He promoted petitioning for certain laws and bills, which led to some of the existing laws of environmental protection and the nation's whole elimination of fossil fuel usage, except for coal, which was deemed necessary in certain areas. The people loved the President and all he has done.

**Abdication**

In 2059, Peace felt it was time to move on from leading Panem, to allow its prosperous growth to continue into an era brought on by a line of successors. He decided on one last act before abdicating, choosing a true national anthem. The song used was John Phillip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" and the words spoke of Panem's Horn of Plenty, which would lead to a new patriotic song in the future. After legalizing the anthem, Peace abdicated on June 26th, 2059. He chose his successor to be senator Wilson Clay of the state of North Dakota. Peace was given a special position in Clay's Council, inventing a new position, Head Advisor of Political Matters, the overall head of the Advising Council next to the President. Peace would die in 2075 in a Capitol hospital from sickness and depression, the latter coming from the Dark Days and President-at-the-time's invention of the Hunger Games.

Now that Wilson Clay was promoted from senator to President, he had some plans that would stick with Panem in for the long time. He would also get placed in debate over the most controversial topic of his entire term, the Thirteen District Act.


	6. Chapter 5

**5. A Fresh Order**

President Wilson Clay had a more active role involving the Senate during his time in office. A lot of legislation was brought up now that the visionary views of Romulus Peace were fulfilled. Peace helped advise Clay as the Head Advisor of Political Matters for the administration. Clay only introduced a few items himself.

**The Clay-soil Acts**

The laws that Clay proposed were called the "Clay-soil Acts" as a pun on his namesake. Only three were formally introduced in the Senate.

The first one was an amendment to Peace's Corruption Correction Act. Clay proposed a new governmental enforcement task force that would focus on making sure the CCA was still upheld, even including arresting violators. Violations would include bribing police, government officials, judges of law, etc., as well as companies laying off employees for the sake of profits, as another provision required employers to file paperwork prior to a firing or layoff. Any person who accepted bribes offered were also in violation, as Clay felt all things needed to be fair, not bought. Another violation would be threats made for a person to get their own way. A special branch of courts would judge over corruption allegations, and special judges and lawyers would be set aside for such proceedings. The Senate passed this law, but it was repealed soon after the President after Clay's successor got into office.

The next act was an attempt to remove the strict isolationist policies of his predecessor. Peace would disagree with this, but Clay even stated on live TV that, "With a global economic world, we can't afford to just rely on ourselves. We need allies to keep our country afloat." Obviously, the Senate threw this idea out almost unanimously because of the popular opinion that Panem had to build themselves up before they attempted to help others. Since the nation was still new, the government needed a solidified decade before the nation is fully recognized internationally as the power they were. This act was never attempted again.

The final proposed law by President Clay was the Infrastructure Reconstruction Act. He felt that the fixation of infrastructure after Peace War and beforehand damages were too slow to compensate for a growing nation. This would propose the government to fund construction of new buildings and repairing old buildings, as well as demolishing and rebuilding sketchy infrastructure for future use. Of course, this was government mandated and had a timeline set up. The bulk had to be completed by 2065 because the fund would run out. The Senate confidently passed this and it was completed prior to the deadline.

**Media Interactions**

The media began to make a comeback after the Peace War when Clay came to power. Fox and CNN began speaking politics as the normal routine, just like prior to the war. President Peace was under fire from the isolationist views, so when Clay presented his ideas to remove it, the media pulled for support. Of course, it didn't influence the Senate one bit from rejecting the law, but it showed that the media was going to be an influential mouthpiece for time to come. Because of his fears that the government will be divided again, Clay created a state-run media system, one that would survive until during the Mockingjay Rebellion. The station was called "Capitol News Television (CNTV)" and was controlled first in Milwaukee, Minnesota and was moved to the Capitol in 2069. This put Clay under fire from the other media, as they weren't disbanded, claiming he's attempting to force a "communistic state agenda" on Panem. CNTV came out with a bang and shot down these allegations. Clay didn't run the media, but his advisors kept tabs on it. They tried to keep the news going without causing political debate or propaganda from being constant. That only lasted his presidency.

**The Thirteen District Act Introduced**

The one thing that was very controversial for President Clay's term was the Thirteen District Act. This would be talked about on the media, on the Internet, on newspapers, books at the time, etc.

The law involved changing the setup of the borders inside the nation to help stimulate travel and eliminate unemployment. This law was proposed by an unmarked petition sent to the Senate in 2060 with 100,000 signatures. The bill was formally introduced by senator Jacobson Lieanto of Ohio to the floor. Clay already disapproved of the idea. It meant eliminating the states and creating thirteen districts with new borders and new governmental provisions, as well as reforming the whole Capitol government to fit the needs of thirteen large districts. The media began to pick sides on the whole matter. Fox supported the President in saying that it would mess up President Romulus Peace's visions for a freedom-filled nation. CNN refuted with the fact that unemployment needed solved, especially because it helped lead to the Peace War. Clay tried to state that unemployment had other safe solutions that didn't involve changing the national layout, but the Senate passed the bill. Luckily, Clay had a veto and the overrule vote was not high enough not pass the law. It was discarded until Clay left office, where it was reintroduced. Clay's veto would be the hot topic in the media for a few years.

As we all know, this was passed into law in the future. The most controversial fact wasn't the unemployment prevention or even the borders, but the inclusion of district-specific industries. The idea was deemed by President Clay as "A Totalitarian attempt at codifying control over the workforce of Panem, a very unpleasing and disgusting idea." He wished to know whose actual idea this was, so he could see why this idea was brought up. If it would have violated his provisions of the CCA, it would have led to justice action. Since it was petitioned in, the real author was never discovered. Several state judges deemed the idea unconstitutional, and claimed that it removed states' rights.

**Abdication**

After those few laws and ideas, President Wilson Clay hadn't done much in terms of the economy or foreign relations. He let the economics figure itself out. With the nation being distracted on the debate of the Thirteen District Act, he had no room to attempt to table the debate in the Senate. Most of the other legislation was either not very important, or was pigeonholed early on in debate. In 2063, with a nearly a quiet year after the debate of the district act calmed down, Clay abdicated his position, being succeeded by Secretary of the Treasury, Edwin Morris.

Morris would bring the Thirteen District Act back to the table, and the large amount of the debate on it would really begin. Also, he begins to put Panem on the path towards the nation falling into chaos, though it doesn't happen during his reign.


	7. Chapter 6

**6. The Reformation of a Nation**

President Edwin Morris was the first President of Panem to go through a major political struggle between his years in office. This lead to chaos in the Capitol government. The struggle focused on, yet again, the Thirteen District Act.

**Senatorial Battle**

President Morris actually supported the Thirteen District Act for the renovations on industry to prevent unemployment. He wasn't too fond of the "specific industry per district" fact, but he preferred that this could be enforced over nothing being done at all. He was right, it was better than nothing, but it wasn't a successful plan to protect the nation, as it would enforce more control over Panem, which the Peace War was trying to prevent.

When Morris reintroduced this bill, the Senate began to go into crazy debate, as most of the senators were different in that session than the one that passed it under Clay. A stalemate began.

Because of the regulations for debate and law passing in the Senate, this led to a major battle to get one little law that had small public support to pass. Regulations prevented a law from passing or failing if either FOR or AGAINST only had one to five more votes than the other. Even the President's two-thirds votes were subject to this rule of thumb. No senator was allowed to ABSTAIN, as those procedural rules were suspended. The most common vote results were 71-76 (AGAINST) or 75-72 (FOR) from the senators. Including President Morris's two-thirds vote, the AGAINST vote would be 73-76 and the FOR vote would be 77-72. The regulation claimed that if this voting sequence, called the "One-to-Five Resolution Rule", occurs, debate is reinforced on the bill until it is either passed, failed, or removed from debate. No one was willing to end the debate on the bill.

This stalemate locked the Capitol government in major debate. This is the most chaotic that the Capitol has ever been in Panem's history, even compared to the infamous Presidential Dissolution at the end of the Mockingjay Rebellion.

President Morris was attempting to increase public support, feeling that it would encourage more senators to support the act. He began a whole propaganda movement on CNTV to increase support, but it backfired because of the non-state run media. The use of propaganda on the state run media began to lead to more fears that the Capitol was about to exert its power over the nation.

Because the Senate would refuse to leave this bill alone, the public was really suspicious of the lawmaking body. Its distraction on the act would prevent other forms of legislation from making it far on the floor, if it even made it that far. In order to prevent the nation from going into distress from the lack of a federal legislator, President Morris delegated the legislative duties to the Capitol Supreme Court, with exception to the act, which would continue to battle out the Senate.

**Keeping the Nation Afloat**

The Court was delegated all the legislative abilities of the Senate while the President and the Senate continued debate on the act. Since the country still needed a useful federal government, the Court began to take care of issues. They passed laws that weren't significantly important, and they mainly watched over the enforcement of already existing laws, especially the CCA. Also, they kept tabs on the economy and the national budget. The nation managed to survive the whole senatorial battle, which I admit is very confusing. If Morris would have never temporarily given the legislative power to the Court, the nation would have fallen into a crisis because of the lack of a successful legislator and the fact that the top executive official, meaning the President, was also too occupied in passing a law to run the nation.

**The Passage of a Controversial Law**

In 2064, the Senate finally passed the act and President Morris signed it into law. Public and media opinion wanted the Capitol Supreme Court to call it unconstitutional because it was too controversial, enough to even lock the Senate in a yearlong debate. The Court did rule it unconstitutional, but the Senate quickly fired back by suspending the Court's power to protect and destroy certain laws based on the Constitution. You can guarantee they were under fire from this, but the Senate defended themselves by claiming that this was argued and worked on for far too long to be turned down, so they prevented the Court's word from ending the act.

With the Thirteen District Act now passed into law, the enforcement began.

**Elimination of the States-Reforming the Federal Government**

Before even re-evaluating the borders, the first thing on the agenda for the Thirteen District Act was reforming the Capitol government to meet the needs of thirteen districts, through the Reformation of the Capitol. Changing from 49 states was not easy. The whole Senate had to be amended to how many senators from each district was allowed. Because of how the political system would change, many people were surprised this even made it to the floor the first time in the Senate.

The Senate, according to the bill, would be amended to 130 members with 10 from each district. The districts would be divided into 10 voting precincts to give all the areas an equal chance of being represented. Two people, from the specific areas, would be decided through primaries on the election year, and the two would face each other in the general election, just as it worked in the United States. There were no political parties though. There were some instances of unopposed running, so the names were, by law, not put on the ballot.

The President would amend the executive branch would be the introduction of a new Advising Council committee, the Department of Resources. Because of the implementation of specified industries in each district, the products created needed a dispersal system because of the large amount of governmental surveillance over the companies. The companies were more or less just a namesake. The Capitol would have full power, through the Department of Resources, to allocate products. They would determine the minimum and maximum price allowed to be allotted to the products, and the companies would decide from that. Prices tended to stay near the minimum charge, a positive surprise to the public.

The Capitol Supreme Court was not altered during the Reformation, partially due to their powers being suspended. Another reason was that there wasn't much involving the states themselves that the Court was really involved in.

**Elimination of the States-Reforming the borders**

After the makeup of the Capitol was determined, it was time to redistribute the borders for the thirteen districts. I am going to be vague right now, because the next chapter will focus on each district specifically. The general areas we think of with the districts were set in stone to be the following areas:

District 1: The location of the states Washington and Idaho.

District 2: The states of Nevada and California (what was left of it)

District 3: The state of Oregon and a small amount of California that wasn't put in District 2.

District 4: The states of Arizona, New Mexico, and the northwestern part of what was remaining of Texas.

District 5: The states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.(well, again, what was left of them after the bombing attacks in 2056)

District 6: What was remaining of the states of Indiana and Illinois.

District 7: Nearly from Illinois until the Rocky Mountains, though not exactly. This involved the northernmost states of the region.

District 8: The states of North and South Carolina, as well as some of Virginia.

District 9: The eastern half of the Great Plains region of the continent.

District 10: The western half of the Great Plains.

District 11: The states that were considered "Southern" during early American times: Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.

District 12: The Appalachia region and the areas of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

District 13: New York, Vermont, and the existing surrounding areas. The current Thirteen is focused near Syracuse, New York was.

The Capitol: Inside of the Rocky Mountains. Same location it always was, just felt necessary to include it.

The borders were enforced and put into full force almost mid-2064.

This act, though not officially, helped put Panem on the path towards the Dark Days.

**Note: Next, I am going to explain each individual district as well as its industries, financial system, capital city, governmental setup, etc. as well as the general public opinion after the borders were enforced. **


	8. Chapter 7

**7. The Districts**

Each and every district had its own industry as well as political setup. How each of them were put together helps explain the events that would occur later in Panem's history.

**District One - Artisan Crafting/Luxury**

_"District 1 makes the luxury goods...Its excellent taste and craftmanship keep...residents bewigged and bedazzled year-round."_

District One's industry was Artisan Crafting, though we always consider it to be Luxury. A difference between then and now is that One's products were sold all over the nation. After the Dark Days, until recently, One's goods were only produced for sales in the Capitol.

The district is located very close to the Capitol, which explains their nearly friendly relations with it until the Mockingjay Rebellion.

The citizens of Panem, during the early stages of the enforcement of the Thirteen District Act, emigrated to the district that met their general job prefrences, so most of the artistic and creative Americans moved to One.

Other than just the luxury items, District One has and still shows a great appreciation for the arts: music (instrumental and vocal), visual art, dance, theatre, etc. The largest music institution of Panem existed in One until it was unfortunately demolished in a Capitol bombing during the MJ Rebellion. The school was named the Warren Monocelli Institute of Music, due to the fact former President Romulus Peace was very skilled at the piano and violin, even though his technological achievements caught historian attention more often. Most of Panem's musicians were brought in from that facility, while the rest came from the University of Panem.

District One's governmental setup was nearly the same as any state legislator had prior to the Thirteen District Act. Mayor (which held a similar job as the governor did), legislator (District One Senate and House of Representatives), and local governments that did not change at all. The split precincts for federal Senate elections in One were decided to be with the district split in equal parts.

**District Two - Masonry**

_"Our nation would be nothing without District 2's superb stonework. It builds and fortifies our cities, and its citizens are known individually for their strength."_

District Two's industry was Masonry, mainly, until after the Dark Days, when the Capitol enforced the training of the military force in one of Two's mountains. Masonry meant crafting of tools and necessary items, mainly from stone or iron ore, which were mined from the quarries in the mountains that were apparent around the district. The people of Two tended to be the most in shape and fit, due to the fact that large stones are heavy.

The masonry was especially crucial in building up the new type of society that Panem was forming into. Most of the buildings in the Capitol now would not exist without the people of Two, as neither would any of the districts' main buildings. Most construction workers have been recruited from the district.

Even prior to the Hunger Games and the training of Peacekeepers in the district, residents of Two tended to respect honor and courage. This would help shape the district into what it was for the past 75 years of the Games, only wanting to win for honor, not personal gain.

The government of Two was dictated solely by an elected Mayor and his/her group of officials and advisors. The President's Advising Council would watch over the Mayor to make sure he/she didn't infringe on any rights. The Capitol had the power to eliminate him/her if they overstepped their boundaries (That was true for all thirteen districts. This was an amendment to the CCA). The precincts were based on the populations of towns and cities, so that all people had a say in the Capitol's government. The populations would end up being nearly equal in all the precincts.

**District Three - Technology**

_"Panem is one of the most advanced nations in mankind's histort, thanks to the efforts of District computers keep us all connected, and its electronic gadgets keep us all entertained."_

District Three's industry was Technology, the production and design of most of the software we use today. They utilized the best technology already in existence from corporations like Apple, Inc., which was located in Three until the Dark Days, and helped improve things for technological use. This included video games, computers, television software, cameras, etc. Three's best scientists were the ones recruited to break through President Peace's firewall, but they still have yet to determine the code.

The people of Three are very intelligent and logical, while keeping high morality in their views.

The government in Three was an elected Mayoral Group. There were seven Mayors and no law could go through without a consensus. Plus, then there was the District Three Constitutional Court to go through. The precincts were the same as District Two's.

**District Four - Fishing**

_"Often overlooked, District 4 plays an essential role, bringing us the bounty of the sea. These citizens are adept with nets and tridents, and can swim like fish themselves."_

District Four's industry was Fishing. Yes, they were fishermen/women. The climate was generally tropical with beaches, due to the area the district was placed.

Fisheries and fishing rod shops were already available in the area prior to the district existing, and with the sea, the location was very ideal. The people of Four are very skilled swimmers and, because of the patience required for fishing, the people are very strategic.

The government of Four was a Mayor with no official power, with all proceedings being decided in a district-wide vote. The people would rally at the Justice Building and the Mayor would act as a chairperson, having no real authority. This was only in district matters, all federal matters were still done by electing officials to office. There were 10 cities in the district and each were a separate precinct.

**District Five - Power**

_"Electric, solar, and nuclear - District 5 harnesses the energy of the earth and the sky in order to power our great nation."_

District Five's industry was Power, aka electricity. The power plants, solar, wind, or nuclear, were stationed in the district. The Illuminating Company, the only electric company to accept the CCA, was moved to the center of the district. With the nationwide electrical power grid, there was no electric bill. The people of five are silent, manipulative people, due to working constantly with wires and the slow pace required for it.

The government of Five was a Mayor and a representative from each precinct, which were similar to Four, except there were five cities split into two precincts determined by the city's population. The representatives were elected democratically, as was the Mayor.

**District Six - Transportation**

_"Our hovercraft, our high-speed trains, and our cargo trains come to us from District 6."_

District Six's industry was Transportation, and no, not being a subway or transport station, but the industry of creating the vehicles used in all forms of tranportation, from hovercrafts to trains. Even cars in the Capitol come from Six. Ford Motor Company became the backbone for Six until the Dark Days. The people are tough and resilient, and know how to fight easily, even though the right to bear arms was revoked before the Dark Days.

The government of Six was a Mayor in complete control, in writing. He/she was democratically elected and every law brought up had to be voted upon by the entire voting population of the district, just a slight alteration of Four's government. Precincts, strangely, were never mapped out by the Department of District Elections in the Capitol until a month after the beginning of the Dark Days. It was odd, because of how Six was arranged, so the senators had to be elected directly by everybody, different from every district except Nine.

**District Seven - Lumber**

_"This beautfiul district is lush with trees, from which these citizens supply our lumber and paper. The people of District 7 are hardworking and down-to-earth."_

District Seven's industry was Lumber. This was due to the extense amount of forestry within district borders. This helped maunfacture anything wooden, and the most obvious, paper. The people of Seven were claimed to be down-to-earth by the Capitol, but that was far from true. All it takes is one look at Hunger Games victor Johanna Mason to know that. They are hard workers, but they all act like complete badasses, which most of them are. It is a surprise that Seven had the second lowest amount of victors in Games history, with Twelve topping that list, because the ability to use an ax and chop down, well a freaking tree, is pretty physically demanding. The people of Seven are known as the "Daredevils of Panem" to most of the other districts.

The government of Seven, or well, the anarchy of Seven was reflected in their people. The Mayor had no power, his council was afraid of the people. They got the workload done and didn't break any Capitol laws, so what was the fear of? An uprising or usurption of power? Yes and No. The government of Seven was weak. The Capitol was unaware of how the government of Seven corrupted fast by the mob, and how quickly the people rose up against the group and demanded that the mob be jailed forever. The government in Seven, until the Hunger Games era, was too afraid of the people. The precincts were the same as Five, and when it came to the Capitol, Seven was fine. But, the legislators would never back down from an argument in the Senate. Voting went smoothly, and police never understood the whole awkward situation.

Let's just say Seven has been an interesting district...

**District Eight - Textiles**

_"From the simple, lovely fabrics of the districts to the beautiful brocades favored in the Capitol, District 8 makes it all."_

District Eight's industry was Textile Production aka clothing and anything that involved fabric. The clothes in the Capitol and the generic clothing of the districts were made in Eight. Even the police and SWAT team, later Peacekeepers, uniforms were created here. Eight was probably the most down-to-earth district, with very calm people. Until the Dark Days, the people were very pacifistic in nature. They were even educated that in school. The Dark Days had a "last straw" kind of thing attached to it.

The government of Eight was identical to One, except with three legistlative houses: the Eight Committee, the Eight House of Delegation, and the Eight Senate. Laws were very challenging to pass, especially because of the pacifistic nature of a lot of legislators. The Mayor was the head of the House of Delegation, and ruled over multiple district Senate meetings. Even the precincts were similar to District One's.

**District Nine - Grain**

_"District 9 is Panem's bread bowl, giving us the fertile harvest we need to keep rising as a nation. Its amber waves of grain are an inspiration to us all."_

District Nine's industry was Grain development. They created bread materials for bread and desserts. The bakeries in Nine were desirable places to eat prior to the closing of the borders by President Ariann Fuler. The people were very patrioric, and even in the Mockingjay Rebellion, Nine was a quiet district, even when compared to Two.

The government of Nine was a Mayor, his council, and _nine_ delegated personnel elected by the people. The number of delegates was intended. The delegates ran the district. They were the ones in contact with the Department of Resources, unlike the Mayor in most of the other districts, and they always mingled with the public. Public policy would have been very low if it wasn't for the delegates. As it was in Six, Nine was never decided were the precincts would be located. As the Capitol won the Dark Days, the Department of District Elections finally decided what they would be, only to be dismantled by the Capitol prior to executing the lines. So, all senators were voted on directly.

**District Ten - Livestock**

_"The gentle lowing of cattle is the first thing a visitor to District 10 hears. This region raises string, healthy livestock, which becomes the meat that helps us raise strong, helthy children of Panem."_

District Ten's industry was Livestock. They were farmers that took care of the dairy and the beef that was consumed by most of the populace. The Ten Cheese was the best cheese ever tasted around the world, as stated at the first United Nations summit that the new government of Panem attended. The people of Ten are gracious farmers that know their boundaries, but protect each other and their property. This was the district with the least amount of Peacekeeper abuse.

The government of Ten was a board of farmers, and the Mayor. The farmers were chosen by experience and knowledge of basic political procedure, as set forth by the Capitol in the Thirteen District Act bill. The farmers were chosen by the public, but most of them did not run, but were chosen only. The precincts were decided by how many farms were in a certain area. Most senators, like that farmers on the board, were chosen to run, not by their own decision. It was considered courtesy to accept the offer.

**District Eleven - Agriculture**

_"Known for its bountiful orchards, District 11's workers spend their days among rustling fruit trees and sizable farms."_

District Eleven's industry was Agriculture, specifically any produce that wasn't grain which was in Nine. The fruits and orchards were the best that Panem could produce in terms of food, and I mean the best. They were healthy, pletniful, and tasty. Capitol and district citizen alike enjoy fruit from Eleven. The people of Eleven are selfless and never wish to owe a debt to someone, when they could be doing nice things for people without needing to pay them back. Just for the record, Eleven is the most populated district in Panem.

The government was a General Assembly, and three Mayors, until after the Dark Days. The General Assembly consisted of nearly half the population, which still never made a dent in the workforce. The precincts were based off of the multiple orchards around the district. There were twenty well known orchards, so two were always divided into one precinct.

**District Twelve - Coal Mining**

_"One of the outer districts, this is nonetheless a crucial one. These brave and hardy workers descend deep into the earth each day to mine the coal that keeps our nation running."_

District Twelve's industry was Coal Mining. Even though the nation pulled itself off of fossil fuels, coal was still considered a necessity. The people of Twelve were fearless, but not risk-takers like people in Seven were. Similar to Eleven, people of Twelve never wanted to owe a debt to somebody. They always made it up to someone in someway.

The government of Twelve was a Mayor and a Senate. The Senate consisted of five people from each precinct and the Mayor was elected from the 50 senators every new session. The precincts were put with every coal mine, and the federal senators were always the "battlemen" in debate. District Twelve is currently being rebuilt from its post-Quarter Quell destruction. I know that isn't history pending at this point, but I feel it is necessary to point out since the district levelled not too long ago...

President Coriolanus Snow would refer to District Twelve as the "babied district".

**District Thirteen - Graphite Mining (and Nuclear Development)**

_"The miners of District 13 descend into graphite mines to give us materials that help our technology run smoother, and our education system sharp." _-Before Dark Days

District Thirteen's indutries were Graphite Mining and Nuclear Development. Outside of Thirteen and the Capitol, only the graphite mines were known about. The existence of the nuclear program in the district was so classified outside of it, that the crime for attempting to disclose the information was punished with life in prison without parole, and every prisoner informed was stirpped of the memory of being informed it. This was very controversial to citizens of Thirteen and they petitioned for that to be removed, only for the Senate to approve it and the President to throw it in the trash. The Capitol Supreme Court cornered him for it and he extended the suspension of the Court indefinitely, which began a major power struggle in Panem (see next chapter). The Senate was too afraid of being dismantled to attack him for those moves.

The people of Thirteen were very donw-to-earth, strong, and intelligent. This would play a major role later in history.

The government of Thirteen, due to the confidentiality of the nuclear program, was setup by the Capitol. The Mayor was chosen from a Panel of Directors, all of which were elected by the Senate in the Capitol. The people could vote on laws, but they had no say on who ran the district. The precincts were only located in the graphite mine areas, though all people go to vote. Only, nuclear scientists were not allowed to work in the government or even attempt to run.

_"The ruins of the traitorous District 13 are a reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated. The area is still smoking and dangerous from the bombings." _-After Dark Days

I will not cover much about District Thirteen after the Dark Days for now. Once I begin covering the war, I will explain what happens to the district.

* * *

><p>The districts of the nation of Panem were the building blocks of the entire Capitol infrastructure. Without them, the system would collapse, due to the Thirteen District Act. Once the Capitol overstepped its bounds, only a matter of time was needed. President Edwin Morris began, near the end of his term, to extend the power of the Capitol more than was ever intended.<p>

**Note: Except for 13's entries, all of the quotes are from **_**The Hunger Games Tribute Guide**_** that Scholastic sold during the release of the movie for the first book. I only created the quotes for District Thirteen. And, District Seven was...interesting, so to say, to write LOL. Now, we finish up Morris's presidency so that, when the next President comes, we can get to the most interesting part of the Hunger Games world, the Dark Days. Please review!**


	9. Chapter 8

**8. Extention of Capitol Power**

After the final fortification of the thirteen districts, regular government duties continued. President Morris began, though not intentionally, to increase Capitol power over the districts. He was very protective of the Thirteen District Act because of how much work was put into it in the Senate, and he didn't want to see it fail. Any demonstration that talked down on the Act was shut down by police. Arrests were made on anyone that spoke in a demonstration, though the strictest verdict a judge decided would only lead to community service as a punishment. But, outside of the Act, there were other things that the Capitol would extend its power on.

**Economic Power**

At the time, this was not exactly a bad thing. The government, as you know, already had a low regard for private companies. They did not allow companies to have a large amount of control on job security and prices of products. The Capitol prevented any uncalled for layoffs, and firings had to be filed by the employer to an office of the company overseen by the government. For prices, if they didn't listen to the Capitol, the company could have different forms of punishment inflicted. Some included fines, removal and replacement of executive staff, and in extreme cases, dissolution of the whole company. For companies connected to district indutries, they had only a namesake on the products. The Capitol was in full control of the industry. This was mainly toward the offices.

The trade with Colombia and Canada prevailed during this time in Panem's history. The thirteen districts cleared out exactly what was necessary in trade. Certain foods and materials needed were not suppliable due to the climate of North America at the time, so this was a perfect alternative. The ports, which closed down after the 74th Hunger Games and just reopened recently, are located in District One (Canada) and Four (Colombia).

**The Police Setup**

Something that was a red flag to many people was the alteration of the policing force. As protests against the Thirteen District Act were violent for quite some time, President Morris felt it was a good idea to prepare the police officers for rioting. The uniforms created were armored well, kind of a prototype of what Peacekeeper uniforms would end up being, and had specialized helmets with the Capitol seal on it. Sound familiar? This was only step one in creating the Peacekeeper Corps., but that wouldn't be codified until the next President. A basic police officer would now hold a riot shield in his car, be armed with two guns, a tazer, a pair of electronic handcuffs as well as a traditional pair, and a computer in the car with access to the Capitol's criminal records. This lead to many conspiracy theories, as usual, but there wasn't any other signs that could support anything. The US Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, which was upheld by the Constitution of the Capitol, was never affected by this.

Also, protesting was severely watched, for anything including boycotting prices or school/government decisions, to anything against the Capitol itself. Anything that could cause a peaceful protest to transform into something more violently associated was shutdown, whether it be an angry mob forming or even the egging or flogging of anything. Punishments, depending on the crime, would vary from various degrees of community service to jail/prison time of longer than normal sentences to possible execution. All executions at that time were private, nothing public.

**Foreign Relations**

As you know, trade relations with Canada and Colombia flourished during this time. The rest of Panem's foreign relations were different. President Morris saw that the result of World War III was terrible. The whole world was in shambles. Panem was nearly the only stable nation out there, next to its trade partners. The People's Republic of China was torn apart in rebellion; Italy fell to the power of the Roman Catholic Church; Brazil took over most of South America, with exception to Colombia, who had protection from Panem; the old state of Alaska suffered from a red scare, leading to a Soviet-like government forming, etc. The European Union, which was still a monetary collaboration, reformed itself into a national federation to prevent these troubles from reaching their land. The entire planet was going through a massive governmental change.

So, Morris felt it was a lost cause to attempt to please the international community, as he wanted to do at first. But, he felt that as WWIII did haunt Panem in its beginning stages, he took an action secret outside of the nation. As revenge for the nuclear attacks, Morris sent a secret military group, called the Panem Secret Conquerors (PSC) to the People's Republic of China to help with the rebellion effort. He told them to not stop until a government that was not a nuclear powerhouse was formed. That still has yet to happen, so contact with the PSC has been almost non-existent. The current nation in the area, the Republic of Asian Provinces, ended up forming from that rebellion in China. The government has hated Panem, especially because they caught the PSC and forced them into hiding. Morris refused to accept allegations from the international community that the PSC existed.

Other than that, he stayed out of the affairs in the world. With the world becoming catostrophic, Morris said these words on a CNTV exclusive of the PSC launching (he did not keep it secret within our borders), "Panem is not a globalized nation. There is no confidence that I or the Senate have with the people outside of Panem. After the third World War, the planet fell into disarray. The fears of many have come forth as I see a distopian future coming towards our planet. Luckily, everyone in the government, including myself, will make sure to go opposite the path that the rest of the world is going on. We will attempt to achieve the utopian idea that President Romulus Peace had began creating. Panem is the future for us. We will bring forth a calm era in North America. An era that will lead into eternity. We shall never fall as a nation!"

Obviously, because of some of the moves he has made with the police and the enforcement of the Thirteen District Act, CNN and Fox slammed him after he said that statement. Of course, his actions would only make a distopic nation easier to come forth, but he wasn't making one himself. These actions were made out of his own fears.

This speech that he made led to the idea of a new national anthem, our current national anthem, _The Horn of Plenty._ Artie Floures took President Morris's feelings to music and wrote an anthem to fit the new Panem, a new anthem written for the country. The song was very patriotic. At the time, it was felt as a national symbol, but as of the Dark Days, it was a propaganda theme song. President Morris adopted it on February 1, 2067 as the official song of the Capitol.

**Final Abdication**

As the middle of the year 2068 approached, Morris began to slack up on his uptight attitude about the Thirteen District Act. He revoked the suspension of the Capitol Supreme Court, so long they accepted the Act as legal in the Constitution. The Senate nearly passed all of his legislation because of fears of being attacked like the Court was with their power, but when the Court was re-opened in the government, the Senate began to go back to their regular routine. Everything was starting to look up. The districts were running smoothly, and most crimes against the Act disappeared due to the lack of support anymore. There was still a mess that was in need of being cleaned up, though. Morris felt that he would not be able to fix somethings he saw that he accidently created, so he steeped down. On July 9th, 2068, President Morris officially stepped down and named the very "loyal" Ariann Fuler as his successor of the presidency.

With Fuler, things began to seem better, at first. The nation was recovering from Morris's problematic reign. But, everything was very shortlived. A new era, not of peace, was about to enter the Capitol in full force.

**Note: One, this WWIII makes sense still because I, personally, don't see a war forming from the Russia/Ukraine issue. I highly doubt it right now. But if it does happen, I'll come back and edit this to be WWIV instead. And the name of the anthem and such is owned by Lionsgate and James Newton Howard. But regardless, it is time for the Capitol's power to increase. Now that the next President is up, our favorite part of Panem is coming. Exciting is the Dark Days, which we will see soon.**


	10. Chapter 9

**9. A Year of Calmness**

President Ariann Fuler began officially running Panem on July 15, 2068. The Senate and Court had to re-adjust because of the late change of leader in the nation. Regardless, this didn't affect regular meetings or anything. Ariann Fuler had a past that could help explain what happens with her later in Panem's history.

**Past of Ariann Fuler**

Ariann Olivia Fuler was born in Nashville, Tennessee on August 17, 2006, part of the area that would be considered District 12 as of the Thirteen District Act. Fuler always enjoyed politics. She was on her middle school and high school debate teams and Model United Nations teams. Upon her graduation from high school in 2024, she went to Harvard University for Political Science, the first president in Panem to actually go to college for politics. Upon gaining her Masters degree in 2029, she began working in governmental positions.

Her first governmental-type position was an intern to the Mayor of the city of Nashville. She would do things such as make important copies and get his coffee. It wasn't much, but it helped get her on the map as a political leader. She would, later that year, run for election as a City Council member under the Democratic ticket. She defeated her Republican opponent by a decent sized margin. The city was struggling almost as bad as Denver was, so she did the same thing Warren Monocelli did by covering a lot of the taxes with her personal salary. She did this first, though Monocelli was never aware of it when he did it. Sadly, this caused the Mayor and the rest of the council to revoke her position as a legislator. She shrugged this off and moved to the capital of the United States of America: Washington, D.C.

Starting as an intern yet again, this time to senator Arthur Perona (yes, so many connections), Fuler began to see the full view of the American government. This increased her nationalism exponentially. The grace of a capital city and government keeping afloat in a depression-strewn country; it really spoke to her. So, in 2035, when she spoke to a crowd about the importance of globalism in the economy, a topic her boss supported, the current US President, Elizabeth Hubel, approached her with a job offer. This job was different from the type of career path she was searching for; the job was as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly.

She accepted President Hubel's offer and began working immediately in New York City, New York. It was just a General Assembly position, but it helped her see the true depth of foreign affairs that she could not see in Model United Nations: the true passion for the governments, the full understanding of debate. She fully enjoyed the decision.

Once World War III started, President Arthur Perona promoted her to the Security Council delegation as the head delegate. She constantly butted heads with the Chinese delegation, and vetoed any resolution that China supported. This, though, brought out Fuler's true passion in debate. Since the Peace War started in the middle of WWIII, she targetted China for causing a financial collapse in the United States, which led to a rebellion that was tearing the nation apart. She spared no feelings in shooting down everything the Chinese delegates brought to the table. She was fearless as she continuously faced off against all of them. This helps explain somethings later in history. Let's just say now that when she was passionate about something, making her mad was not the way to fight against her or her ideals.

The Peace War came and went, causing the collapse of the United States and the upbringing of Panem. Ariann Fuler, though concerned, didn't actually budge from the governmental reformation. She knew that President Peace meant well, and with the ratification of the Constitution of the Capitol, she resigned as the United States' Security Council head delegate.

Romulus Peace saw Fuler's potential and immediately hired her upon her resignation to be Panem's head delegate in the United Nations. She even obtained a legal Certificate of Recognition when the UN accepted the Capitol and Panem. As you know, she helped Peace prove it to the US Congress to get them to remove their hold on Panem's existence.

With a new nation came new policies, but she defended them just as well. She was loyal to the government and their policies, she never let her personal political views show in debate. Even though Panem was uninvolved in almost everything and their views were pretty much strictly isolationist, this did not stop Fuler from dominating in session. Many governments sent requests to the Capitol asking for them to allow her to visit for diplomacy reasons. All three Presidents rejected these requests for the reason of "preventing foreign diplomats from lobbying certain ideas into the policies of the Capitol." Fuler didn't actually care what the other governments felt about her. She only wanted to please the Capitol and the people of Panem.

Her love of defending the foreign policy of Panem began to fade right when President Morris came to power. The whole scenario of deciding if the Thirteen District Act would become law or not represented the weakness that the government of Panem was showing. She had a fear that other nations would recognize this and begin to crackdown in session on her and the Capitol, leading to a fear of a foreign military conquest in the time of weakness. So, she resigned from the position as the head delegate and began to work in the Office of the President.

During the time that the Senate debated over the Thirteen District Act under President Morris's guidance, Fuler took over as an "interim President". Since the Capitol Supreme Court ran the nation during the time, she presided over the meetings. She acted as a general President in Morris's technical absence. This proved to Panem that she was a natural born leader. After the Act passed and all of the chaos began to die down, Morris decided it was best to name Fuler the next President of Panem.

**Beginning Reforms**

As President, Ariann Fuler wanted to clean up the mess that President Morris caused because of the Thirteen District Act. Seeing how chaotic altering the borders into thirteen districts from 49 states was, she knew reversing the whole thing would be a call for a complete collapse. Instead, she began to back pedal on some of the other things that were put in place.

She removed the requirement for police to be present at every existing protest out there. It was costly to dispatch multiple officers to a protest when another crime could be committed somewhere close by, such as a felony like murder or domestic abuse. Plus, Fuler felt it was infringing on the rights of free speech and assembly. Also, some officers would step in when a situation wasn't dire enough and would escalate it to violence instead of preventing it. She proposed this reform to the Senate within the first week of her presidency and it passed very quickly and with little dissent.

Another reform she began working on was something I did not cover in the last few chapters, the need of a Capitol-issued visa to travel in between the districts. Morris wanted to keep track of citizen movements between the districts in order to keep track of industrial growth and decline through employment. Also, it helped him keep a census of the population. Fuler felt that this was too far. It was too nosy into the business of a citizen. So, she revoked it and offered a $50 apology check to any citizen who had to purchase the $45 visa and go through federal background checks. All of the information was returned to the respective people and was erased from the Capitol's database, except for things such as tax history and if they were employed by the Capitol's industry or if they worked as a merchant, apothecary, baker, etc.

The final major reform President Fuler would attempt to work on was the improvement of infrastructure in certain areas of the districts. The districts were mainly advanced in infrastructure, but some places were less than decent in terms of living conditions. The Capitol under Morris gave a blind eye to it because of the focus on cracking down on riots, so this part suffered. Fuler passed a law through the Senate to appoint special construction workers, mainly recruited from District Two, to help build up the lacking infrastructure. It in turn saved multiple lives that were endangered by the crumbling buildings and torn up roads. This major project boosted the economy of Two and helped advance Panem farther into the futuristic age, as the years were 2068/2069.

President Fuler's reforms were beneficial to the good being of Panem, but many people put a blind eye to her projects. Many were still enraged of the Thirteen District Act and the moves that former President Morris implemented to defend it. Protests would continue, and violence began to spread out once again. Soon, the Capitol would end up cracking under the pressure. The fear of a new civil war was on the horizon...

**Note: No Dark Days, yet. But what I said at the end will be elaborated in the next chapter. Then after that, the Dark Days and the Hunger Games. Now, I understand that explaining President Fuler's upbringing might have been dry, but I felt it was necessary for certain reasons. Only her and President Peace as of now have been exclusively covered. Anyways, please review!**


	11. Chapter 10

**10. The Capitol That We Know Of**

After President Ariann Fuler began her reforms, it seemed as if things were beginning to look better for Panem. Sadly, that was not the case. Protests continued to happen, though not violent _at first_. But, it seemed as if no one was realizing that the Capitol was trying to fix the mistakes of President Morris and his attempts to protect the Thirteen District Act. Riots began to ensue where the police, now less prepared for the situation, had to intervene to protect the public from the violence of a few. Petitions were filing into the Senate to do things that no one realized were already done. Fuler attempted to get more information out there of what she was trying to do through the state-run CNTV, but it was just considered propaganda. Because of the private media, things were only getting worse. Protests were forming out of plain speculation because no one was listening to the Capitol. And that is when the President had enough...

**The Oppression Begins**

President Fuler began to crack down on the protesting in order to silence dissent, which wasn't even to blame on her government, so that she can push for her reforms that were for the better of the nation. She didn't want to become an iron fist leader, but as I stated before, she was very passionate about what she believes in. Sadly, this meant backpedaling on some of her original reforms. She had to improve upon the police force because they were not prepared for outbreaks. The peace needed to be kept. She felt that police with military experience would be more beneficial to protect and serve the people than just people with regular police experience. With the existence of the SWAT team and a military that hasn't had a major duty since WWIII due to Panem's isolationism, President Fuler created the Peacekeeping Corps. The Peacekeepers would, well, "keep the peace" while carrying out the average duties of a police officer. They would also be utilized as the military for the Capitol if it was ever needed, such as a military mission in another nation (This has never happened. I am just making a point for how they would be used in her plans. Also, the separate branches were merged together as one force). We all know how they were used instead.

Peacekeepers began with a more basic uniform than what we saw recently in the Mockingjay Rebellion. There was a helmet with the Capitol seal, specialized gloves for holding items such as shields, guns, tazers, etc. with no backlash on the hands. There was also a simple blue fitted jumpsuit that was tear resistent and was, though not bulletproof, protective in the case of a firefight with a suspect.

Public executions were legalized and so were whippings and floggings. Fortunately, they were only used for severe crimes, so prison and jail were still options for some inmates. The Capitol made the justice system crackdown on evidence and even faked evidence in order to make a conviction.

President Fuler also wanted to prevent the spread of riots throughout all thirteen districts. This lead to the one of the two most controversial laws in her attempt to make peace. This was the closing down of the district borders to anyone not working for the Capitol. Capitol workers were considered senators, Council members, the President herself, or members of the Department of Resources. No regular citizen could leave a district without major permission from the government. Most cases would take about six months, and most resulted in rejection. Anyone who attempted to cross a border without legal papers was arrested on arrival.

The most controversial law during this time, even more so than the last one, was the raising of prices and the deduction of resources being distributed to the districts. Less products that cost more. In capitalism, low supply would lead to higher prices, due to the demand of the item. But this wasn't used in a capitalist attempt to patch things up; this was committed in a command economy type style. Though Panem was considered a capitalist nation with a strong control over the private sector, the economy on the districts was completely a command market. The Capitol chose what went to the districts, when they were delivered, and how much they cost. Nothing was cheap. This lead to a type of oppression that deprived people of their necessities in order to get them to obey the government.

The district with the least amount of oppression and horror was the area that contained President Fuler's homeland of Nashville, Tennessee: District Twelve.

**Shots Fired**

Fuler thought this would quiet dissent so she could do her reforms in peace, without the threat of more violence. Of course, the Peacekeepers were not abusive to the people like they were recently; they only ran the district like regular police officers with riot prepardness (and yes, there were the whippings and such). But, Fuler didn't realize that oppression was just going to cause more dissent, not less. Soon the people had enough of the crap they have been going through and decided to take action, and not just by rioting. By staging an uprising...

The real first shots of the Dark Days are unknown. There are multiple theories of where the war began, but most of them revolve around District Thirteen. Records from that time were lost after a while, so the exact truth is not known. Speculation has gone from a hostage crisis in the Peacekeeper Headquarters to multiple Peacekeepers being shot and either killed or injured by masked people in the square of the district. Any theories involving the other districts have little to no real proof surrounding them, that's why we all believe Thirteen started the war.

With an uprising in District Thirteen, the private media took the chance to ignite more dissent by spouting information that a rebellion had begun. The private companies were joining in on the fight because they had no rights outside of the Capitol to endorse their own products. Also, their workers were unable to do their jobs because of the lack of food or money provided by the federal government. CNN and Fox moved to separate districts to prevent an usurption by "a violation of the Corruptiuon Correction Act". Also, this meant that the Capitol wouldn't catch them as they became the centers for the rebellion's information.

As a final attempt to patch things up on January 5, 2070, President Fuler made a statement on CNTV about the coming war. "A dark age is coming to the Republic of Panem. I am sorry to say that the districts have yet to listen to reason and have chosen violence instead of peace. The Capitol is prepared to end these problems before casualties get insanely high. Please, citizens, end the violence before we all destroy each other. Please, before these dark days get much worse."

No one listened, and with that, nine of the thirteen districts officially declared war on the Captiol by the first of February that year. The only four to not declare war were Districts One, Two, Four, and Twelve.

And with that, the Dark Days officially began.

**Note: The Peacekeeper uniforms I am talking about are the ones that you see in the movie of **_**The Hunger Games**_**. Now here is the exciting part that starts the whole history that we want to know, the war to create the distopian society of Panem with the annual Hunger Games.**


	12. Chapter 11

**11. The Dark Days Begin**

**Press Releases**

"_**The Capitol Jorunal**_

_Article from January 28, 2070_

(AP)-SYRACUSE, DISTRICT THIRTEEN - Riots have been increasing in the suburban areas of District Thirteen. People wearing masks have been attacking Peacekeepers with anything they could get their hands on: guns, tazers, bricks, etc. Rioters have been shouting things profane and inaudible. Multiple Peacekeepers have been dispatched to attempt to subdue the crowds. Pictures of President Ariann Fuler are plastered all over the district with profanity and crude drawings throughout them. The Capitol is attempting to find refuge for civilians stuck amist in the chaos."

"_**Unmarked News Website (.pos)**_

_Article posted on Januray 30, 2070_

NEWS: Riots have been increasing throughout multiple districts within the nation. Rebel groups have been shouting multiple things, including, "Down with the f****** Capitol!". In District 13, other phrases that have been shouted, according to reporters are, "We have nukes! Down with the Capitol. We have nuclear protection!" President Fuler has attemtpted to hide these allegations of Thirteen having nuclear weapons by having the state-run media spew out that the sayings are inaudible. According to our reporters, these quotes are completely accurate. Researchers are looking into the possible nuclear arsenal."

(That article was sent in to me after the fall of President Alma Coin, and it was by paper mail, so the official network was not found.)

"_**Capitol News Television**_

_**Evening National News - February 1st, 2070**_

ANNOUNCER: Here is your host, Juilia Flickerman!

JUILIA: Breaking News from the government. More and more riots have broken out all over the country. According the the Department of Defense, an official declaration of war has been issued by District Thirteen. More Peacekeepers are being dispatched in an attempt to resolve the issue before a full civil war ensues. President Fuler promises to calmer districts and the city of the Capitol that things will be perfectly fine and the Capitol is doing all they can to fix the problems. Uneasy crowds are beginning to move to violence in Districts Six, Seven, and Ten. District Twelve is offering food aid to refugees escaping the violence. The Department of Resources is going to help distribute the aid once civilians are out of the line of fire. If any riot picks up, call the Peacekeeper hotline for your area and stay inside, away from harm and danger. More coming on this fast breaking story."

"_**Capitol News Television**_

_**Afternoon Circle - February 3rd, 2070**_

ANNOUNCER: Time for the Circle! Here is Juilia Flickerman, Janola Dreevs, Octavio Straisure, and special guest, President of the Republic of Panem: Ariann Fuler!

JUILIA: Hello, Circle fans. We have a very special guest for your guys today. All the way from Capitol Boulevard, here is our beautiful President!

FULER: Thank you, Mrs. Flickerman. I have an update about the riots going on within the districts and sadly, it is not good news. All districts except four of them have officially sent a declaraction of war to the Department of Defense. The Secretary of Defense, Mr. Zeus Trianto, says that we will be prepared for military-like exercises only if they are necessary. We are going into a civil war, but I ask all people not involved to stay calm. Any refugee in this conflict is recommended to evacuate the warzone and contact the Capitol to be taken away from the conflict. Possible refuge locations are in Districts One, Two, Four, and Twelve. I promise all will be okay."

"_**District Seven News Today**_

_Article from February 5, 2070_

War has begun between us, the Free Americans, and the Peacekeepers, the Capitol's lackeys. The traitors in One, Two, Four, and Twelve are planned to be targeted in the chance of our success. Anyone wanting to join the Free American Army is recommended to go to the safe base in Seven to get certification from Commandant Styke to go to Thirteen for training. In the instance of it being too dangerous, you will be trained here."

-Showing multiple news articles presented from different sources would help explain both sides of the conflict.

**Beginning Battle**

As it was just starting, the Capitol was more focused on securing the loyal districts, leading to a few early victories for the rebellion. Thirteen was a constant battlefield for most of the war. The first major battle, called the Battle of Buffalo, a smaller city with a nuclear base inside of it, was a win for the Capitol. Soldiers stormed the rebel base inside a tall, evacuated hotel building and held the rebels hostage, threatening to detonate a bomb inside of the nuclear facility if they fought back ("They" meaning the hostages specifically. The government just prevented any other rebel from entering the base by strongly arming it). The Capitol created an internal base in Thirteen for the remainder of the war.

**The Evolution into a Single Branch Government**

When President Fuler began her oppressive actions, she held the threat of suspension over the Senate and Capitol Supreme Court if they denied her moves so she could do the reforms. Once the war started, the President knew that the extra branches would interfere with military actions. So, she stormed the Senate building with Peacekeepers and forced them to approve a bill causing them to disband the Constitution of the Capitol and implementing a single house governmental system, ran by the President and her Advising Council. In order to provide an incentive for nearly pointing guns at their heads, she offered the senators Capitol citizenship and their regular full retirement plan so long they actually approved the bill. Any abstainers were refused all except the citizenship and those who voted "NO" were arrested. Now, the Capitol was completely at Fuler's command. The rest of the Dark Days would be fully done at Fuler's exact discretion.

**The Loyal Districts**

Four of the districts stayed loyal to the Capitol, at least in the beginning. They were Districts One, Two, Four, and Twelve. Twelve was an obvious one because they were babied by the Capitol prior to the war because President Fuler was born there. One and Two predominantly stayed loyal because of their proximity to the Capitol, having fears of being completely destroyed within days of rebelling. Four stayed loyal because at the time, the navy of Peacekeepers was one of the strongest military navies in the world.

Because of the war, the Capitol decided not to send resources to any of the rebelling districts, claiming it was "too dangerous to risk the lives of Capitol citizens in the conflict" by sending resources to disloyal people. On the bright side for the loyal districts, they got all of the extra resources, distributed equally to all four.

Life in One, Two, Four, and Twelve went on as usual and peaceful. They already had the least amount of protests on the Thirteen District Act and the Capitol reforms. Schools shouted praise to the Capitol for protecting them from the horrid conflict outside of their borders. Refugees that were not rebels were transported to one of these districts and were put into the swing of things.

Professional sporting events flourished in these areas during this time, since it promoted peace between those not in the war. The main American Football team of the nation was the Denver Broncos, since they were in the Capitol, but every district had a football team. So, on the CNTV sporting network, CSTV (Capitol Sports Television), had a tournament in 2070 involving one team each from the loyal districts. The teams were the Seattle Seahawks (One), San Diego Chargers (Two), Arizona Cardinals (Four), and the Tennessee Titans (Twelve). The winning team, Cardinals, faced the Broncos in the final round for a trophy. The Cardinals won, bringing a trophy home to District Four. This helped quell any existing dissent in these districts, at the time.

After problematic negotiations with the rebelling districts, One, Two, and Four fell to peer pressure, joining in on the war effort against the Capitol. By 2071, District Twelve was the last remaining district on the side of the Capitol. They were not pushed to the other side until near the end of the war.

**Next Battles**

Major battles nearly happened everyday, but a few had major impacts on the rest of the war. There was the Battle of Columbus in District Five during April of 2070. The rebellion won that battle, successfully gaining control of the Capitol in the district.

Another battle was the Battle of Atlanta in District Eleven during May and June of 2070. Unfortunately, with Eleven having the highest population in the entire nation, this was the bloodiest battle in Panem's history, even when compared to the recent Mockingjay Rebellion, or even the Peace War. This was a victory for the Capitol, so they subdued the area and regained control of it. Largely blockading it with Peacekeepers, the Capitol prevented Thirteen or any other rebel group from entering Eleven.

Yet another earlier battle of the Dark Days was the Battle of Indiana Proper in District Six during June of 2070. Indiana Proper in this tense is referred to the land of the former state of Indiana, so only about half of Six was completely engulfed in this fight. Yet again, it was a victory for the Capitol. Even though it only covered a small portion of District Six, this battle led to the district returning to the Capitol's power.

So, by the middle of 2070, the Capitol had four loyal districts and two subdued from the fight already. Of course, the four loyal ones would rebel in time, but at the time, the favor of the war was leaning towards the Capitol. President Fuler was pleased. But the Capitol's luck was short lived, for a small amount of time.

**Note: So, I got a review with an idea that I really liked, so I would like to bring it up to hear opinions on it. For one, the reviewer that gave me the idea was _Saltey_. One, I would like to thank them for the idea. Now here it is: showing life in the districts from their conception and throughout the whole Dark Days and at least the beginning of the Hunger Games/the Mockingjay Rebellion through diary excerpts, whether they be short or long. (their idea was the diary excerpts from the districts, but I specified on what the time periods _could_ be.) I would like to do that, but I have two questions. One, should I add them onto the end of this story or should I make a technical "sequel" full of these? Two, I am stuck for time until I graduate high school on June 8, so would any writers like to help collaborate in writing these? If so, please review stating your interest or PM me.  
><strong>**And, the Dark Days are now in full swing. Please review.**


	13. Chapter 12

**12. Sight of Victory**

As stated in the last chapter, the tide temporarily turned in favor of the rebellion after a few Capitol victories. With President Fuler and Capitol citizens celebrating regaining two districts, that gave the rebels at the command of District Thirteen an opening to strike hard in claiming some of the other districts.

**Regaining Land**

District Five had already been secured from the Capitol, but as Fuler gained Six and Eleven, the rebellion had to fight back in order to save them from the Capitol. Another hotspot was District Ten. So many battles occurred there between June of 2070 to January of 2071, that it was actually a surprise that the district was still afloat. Most of the victories were Capitol wins, but the people did not back down. Since most of the local and districtwide government was pro-Rebellion, this lead to an upper hand for Ten. The Board of Farmers and the Precinct Commissioners approved a military bombing of the only held Capitol area in the district, the Peacekeeper Headquarters. Thirteen sent in hovercraft and completely levelled the facility. Capitol hovercraft attempted to take down the ones from Thirteen, but they failed. By the end of January 2071, District Ten was officially secured from the Capitol.

District Seven, the anarchist state in Panem, was definitely interesting in the war. Many people, ironically, joined together to fight off the Capitol. They bombed any area with Capitol soldiers, sadly without thought of civilians of Seven in mind. Then again, who would have expected less from that district?

**Thirteen's Big Dilemma**

Near the middle of 2071, with little major advances on either side, a weakness in the Capitol was discovered by the authorities of District Thirteen, led by Commander Kati Halston. Halston was one of the nuclear scientists that majorly opposed the obstruction of their studies from the other districts.

The weakness was the necessity of the districts in keeping the nation running. Ever since the passing of the Thirteen District Act, the districts produced the goods, not private companies. Halston knew that the Capitol needed the districts or a worse, Somali-like, chaos would ensue. She began utilizing a style of warfare seen in the United States' Civil War in the 1860s, the scorched earth policy. She began advising all rebel strongholds to begin destroying all of the resources that are necessary for the Capitol for survival, but after making sure enough has been distributed among themselves. The Capitol began to flinch at the realization of this tactic.

President Fuler began to fight back, using nature in her own way. She sent out a lot of different muttations, or mutts for short, to the districts. These mutts were genetically engineered animals with a particular trait. Jabberjays recorded entire human messages and played them back to the listener. Tracker jacker wasps always attacked a person who messed with their nest. There were other forms of mutts out there as well.

Almost at the end of 2071, another stalemate occurred. Nearly half of the districts were secured by the Capitol, half were secured by the rebellion. District Twelve was finally forced into the fight and was quickly secured by the rebels. Commander Halston decided to ambush the Capitol with everything they got. In a failed attempt on Christmas Day, rebels climbed the mountains that bordered the city of the Capitol. Hovercrafts bombed every single soldier on the mountain they saw. Any survivors were imprisoned by the Capitol.

On New Years Day, 2072, Thirteen made one last ditch attempt to stop the rebellion in victory. They set their nuclear arsenal to be directed at the Capitol. Unfortunate for them, the Capitol had an arsenal close by to the city. Both aimed for each other, and a policy of M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) that was originally seen in the Cold War of Communism versus Democracy, was enacted. Both groups knew that launching one bomb would lead to nuclear retaliation, and a nuclear fallout would occur.

**The Bargain**

Seeing this war going no where with District Thirteen on the front lines, President Fuler decided to make a deal. She travelled, unarmed, to Thirteen and scheduled a meeting with Commander Halston. Halston had guns pointed at Fuler at all times in the case she was assaulted.

Fuler's deal was simple, if District Thirteen decides to pull out of the war and adopt a legal secession from Panem, as well as allow the carpet bombing of their surface by moving the populace into the well built emergency bunkers, then when the Capitol wins the war, Thirteen will have autonomy and will not be punished in anyway for actions that occurred in the war. Fuler stated that if Thirteen refused and the M.A.D. policy was held by both sides, provocation could lead to a never ending winter. No one wanted that. Since no other viable solution was available, Halston agreed to the terms. Fuler and her signed a small document, _The Autonomy of District Thirteen, PN_ in which stated the legality of the secession and named Halston's second-in-command, Larry Pall, as President of District Thirteen.

The Captiol taped the carpet bombing of Thirteen and sent the footage to all of the districts. No one else except the Capitol and Thirteen knew of the agreement, so Fuler stated that the Capitol destroyed the district for their treason. This lead to discouragement throughout the whole rebel group. Within five months, the Capitol subdued all twelve remaining districts and won the war. The Dark Days were over. But, the Capitol needed to enact punishment on the rebels in order to prevent them from ever rising up again. And so came the _Treaty of Treason_...

**Note: You guys know the whole spiel about my update schedule, so I'm not going to keep reiterating it. Anyways, I forgot to mention during Chapter 7 about the districts was that the precincts were not just voting districts, but also served as county governments. Technical counties were appointed for areas that were not involved in a certain precinct (like what Thirteen had to deal with in the nuclear areas). And District or local governments that supported the rebellion were the ones in charge of their individual troops and relations with Thirteen. (Just talked about local government in my Gov't class).**

**Also, I've been getting into Halo lately, as you can see as Kati Halston's name came as a basis of the name Catherine Halsey.**


End file.

Hunger Games, Fantasy, Suspense