Chapter 1: Strategizing

Stab, stab, arm-chop. Head-chop. I concentrate on the dummy as I stabbed the stomach, and after beheading it, kicked it and it fell to the floor.

"Well done, Cato. Well done." Clove smiled approvingly. I shot her a look. Of course it is well done. I am a Career tribute. All my life I wanted to be a part of this game. Winning would always be my thing, no matter what.

"Whatever," I said. She rolled her eyes and took some spears and focused on the dummies.

I go around the Training Center and watch the other Tributes. I saw the guy from District 10 on the combat section. He's a failure. What a loser.

The girl from 5. Her strength is likely stealth. She's smart, but I know she'll be my prey in the games. But she looks at me that moment, like I was nothing. I smirked at her. She went back to her concentration in the Survival Section. Sly bitch.

And the guy from 12, together with the girl from the same district, who always had her hair braided. That guy has his hands camouflaged as a tree. Impressive. It looked exactly like a branch.

And the girl? The Girl on Fire. She is so going down. She's known by that name since presenting the twenty-four tributes when she and that other 12 guy wore capes of fire.

I watched them with a smug grin and she looks at me and whispers something to the guy, loud enough for me to hear.

"That guy from 2 is looking at you like a meal."

I chuckled at them. They are meals. Meals of victory.

That night, Clove and I, and our trainers, Enobaria and Brutus, eat a hearty feast that night. "How did your trainings go?"

"Well," Clove replies.

"And you, Cato?" Brutus turns to me.

"It was all right," I said. I hid the facts about the other tributes as a strategy for me to win, but both of them notice that I seem to be hiding something.

"What is it, Cato?" asked Clove.

"What are you talking about?" I snapped, pretending to not know anything.

Enobaria looks at me. "You look... troubled."

"I'm not, okay?"

"Aw, looks like somebody seems nervous about the game," Clove teases.

"Shut the fuck up, Clove," I snap. She shook her head. "Gosh, Cato. You're so moody. I just know it. Something's up," she pauses. "And you wouldn't tell us anything, wouldn't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said, a little more calmly this time.

I won't tell Clove. I won't tell any other Career or ally. Cato, the victor of the 74th Hunger Games. I'm going to plan a way to kill those Tributes I've watched. Like, the guy from... what district again? Oh, yes. District 10. Poor in combat. I'll probably engage him in that kind of fight. Something like that.

Sly, clever District 5. Being smart, she'd probably pull a trap on someone. I'll make sure she falls on her own acts.

If she tries to put me in a snare or something, she would be the one to step in it. That way, her own cleverness will trick her. I have no idea how, no idea what. But I know she will be defeated.

District 12 boy. Combat will do. Will try my best to see through him, though, no matter how amazing his camouflages look.

And lastly, the Girl on Fire. What will I do?

Oh yes. Kill her through her name. Fire.