Part III

Suddenly the steps on the other side of the door stopped. We turned around and ran up the stair behind us that went up to the second floor. Just as Root had got behind the railing on the second floor, the door opened and through the door stepped two guards. They were talking about how good they thought the tributes from district 1 and 2 were. "Did you hear that, it's District 1 or 2 we should bet on, let's get out of here!" Root said and started to move towards the stairs. "Stay down!" whispered Carnia and pulled him back down on the floor. "We have made it this far, we can't just leave now. By the way, since when do the guards know everything?" He said. "Since like, forever?" Anastasia said and moved towards the railing to peek down and see if the guards were still there. "How do you know that?" Carnia said with irritation in his voice. "It urban knowledge… they work here, they see the tributes every day. It most likely that they know who to bet on, and my uncle used to work here. He cleaned they guards break room" She said with a childish smile on her face.

"Did he work here? As a guard? Then why didn't we ask him if I did know something?" Root said with a surprised expression on his face. "No he was an janitor and that was ages ago, don't you ever listen?" She answered. "Are they gone yet?" I whispered to her and moved up beside her to take a look by myself. "Yes, they are gone." She said. "I think they went town to some of the lower floors, I wonder what's down there." I said. "Let's go then" Carnia said as he stood up and walked towards the stairs.

The entry hall was big. It was a simply white room with a black reception and elevators on the other side of the room. Behind us was a big walls wall that also included the big doors that separated us from the chilly night. "Where do we find the tributes and their training area, any idea?" I said and turned to Carnia. "I actually have no clue…" He said as he was looking around his feet, as he hoped to find a map or something. "Aright then, we tried. Let's get out of here" Root said. "Wait!" Anastasia said and moved across the room towards the reception counter. "Hey guys, get over here! I found something!" She said. We almost ran across the floor to see what she found. "Look here over here" she said and pointed at a piece of paper that was laying beside what appeared to be a phone. "A piece of paper?" I said and looked it. "No, look again" Carnia said as he gave the paper. "It's a list of where the tributes are being held and where they are going to train." Anastasia said. I looked at the list and it appeared that every district had its own floor. District 1 was in the first and 2 on the second and so it went on all the way up to the twelfth floor there the tributes form District 12 was held.

"Let's go down to the lowest floor and see what we could find down there." Anastasia said and started to move towards the elevators we heard something. We all froze and stood still as we tried to locate the sound. It was one of the elevators that had started to move. "Quick, everybody hide!" I said as I slide in behind a big plant that was placed in the floor right next to the elevators. Luckily the elevators just when pass us, and continued down to the lower floors. "That was close" Root said and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. We all moved away from our hideouts and moved carefully towards the elevators. When we reached the door Carnia tried to push the button butt nothing happened. He pushed it again. There was still no reaction. "Allow me" Anastasia said and she kicked the button with her shoe. The button lid up and the elevator started to move.

"That's how you do it!" She said and looked at Carnia wit triumph in her expression. "High five girl!" I said while Carnia just stood there and looked irritated. The elevator arrived a couple of seconds later and the doors opened with a sooth metallic sound. "Which floor was it again?" He said. "Try pressing the button with the letter G on it. I think it stands for gymnasium." Root said. "Let's go with G then." I said. Carnia pushed the button and the doors of the elevator closed. The elevator started to move down. Lower and lower down into the ground.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened with the same smooth metallic sound. Carnia was the first one out of the elevator. He checked so that there was no one around and the waved us to him. We all went up to him. "Okay, this floor is supposed to be pretty big. We can increase our chances of finding the tributes faster if we split up. Root and Ark you got that way while me and Ana goes this way" He said as he pointed down the big hall. "Hay… why do you always get the girl?" Root asked just to annoy him a little. "Okay fine! Ana go with Ark and Root come with me them" Carnia said and started to walk down the hall. "Come on Ark, let's go" Anastasia said and started to skip playfully down the hall. "Alright, alright, easy… I'm on my way" I said. The last thing I did was to give Root a confused look and then turned around and walked after Anastasia.

We walked through the endless corridor. It didn't even have door or to many lights so it was very dark. "You do know that Carnia has a crush on you, right?" I said to her just to kill the silence. I have always hated it. "Yeah I know" She replied. "You do?" I said surprised. "Yeah, it's not that hard to notice when you think about it." She said. "And do you like him?" I asked. "Like and like…. I like you… but not in the same way I like you or Isadora... Carnia is a friend and that's all. I mean he could never be like you or Isadora, you guys are like my siblings or something like that. But Carnia is just a friend." She said. That is what I always liked about Anastasia. We could talk about everything and no one cared. I think that I even knew more about what she was up to, more than her real brother. "Ah I see" I said and we continued walking in complete silence. "Root is kind of cute though." She said after a while. "What… wait…. You think that Roothervalski our Root is cute?" I said with confusion in my face. "Yeah, he has that courage that every girl wants" She said. "Yeah courage like an rabbit. Well I guess that we all have our moments." I said. Then she lost it. "Haha, I got you!" she said and started to laugh. "uh?" I said with even more confusion. "So you don't like Root?" I asked her. "No" She said. "He is like my weird little cousin and I would never date my cousin." She finished. This time we both laughed.

After a few minutes I noticed something. "What is that?" I said. "What is what? I can't see anything" Anastasia said. It was something that glimmered a little longer down the hall. I went over to it and found that it was a big window. "It's a window. You can see the whole gymnasium from here. Or I think that this is the gymnasium. Come and take a look" I said to Anastasia that looked very lost. She ran over to me and started to look out the window. "I think this is the gymnasium! I think we found it" She said. But where are the tributes? Shouldn't they be here and train for the Games?" She said. "I don't know. It's almost midnight and they are going to perform for the Gamemakers tomorrow." I said and looked at my watch. "Oh… that's too bad…" She said with a disappointed look on her face. "Wait" I said. Suddenly I saw something coming. There was some light lights was lit up in the corner of the big room with training encampment. "I think that there is someone in there" I said.

Her light lit up with joy and she looked the place that just had pointed at. "Hey look! It looks like it's someone there! Let's take a closer look." She said. "How I said? There is no stairs or something that can get us down there" I said. Wait here she said and climbed out of the window. What are you doing? You are crazy, get back in here!" I said. "Ark, trust she" said and the disappeared. She was gone for about two or three minutes before she showed up again. But his time she didn't came through the window. It appeared as she went through the wall. Then I realize a big door that I hadn't seen because I was too distracted by the window. "In here" She said. I followed her through the door and into the next room. I was a kind of balcony there the Gamemakers could sit and watch the tributes train. In front of the balcony was a big railing with something that looked like stairs attached to it. "See, I told you I was right. Here is stairs." She said. "I can see that, let's check out the light" I said and started to walk down the stairs.

I felt how my heartbeat raised as I came closer to the lit up corner of the room. I realized that the tributes training area was a pretty scary place in the darkness. Some of the walls were covered with weird training equipment and others with weapons. Everything from small throwing knifes to big odd looking axes. We approached the light as silent as we could.

We took cover behind a big bench that was lactated on a safe length from the tributes field of sight. We figure that was moving around in the area of light was training on thronging knifes and even on what appeared to be some sort for hand to hand combat.

The figure of the character inside was not tall but still not short and had a thin figure. "Who do you think that is?" I whispered to Anastasia that was next to me. "I don't know, maybe a tribute from District 10 or something." she said. I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl in there. But suddenly the figure stops. It reaches to its head to release what appeared to it hair. It was not until then I realized what we was looking at. We were looking at a girl. Not an ordinary girl it was one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen. She was not like the other girls inside the Capitol. She some kind of natural beauty that no make-up or body alterations could match. She had long brown hair with some stains of red in it that really glowed in the light. "I know who that is!" Anastasia said. "Who is it?" I said. I could not take my eyes of the wonderful creature in front of my eyes. "That is Cornelia Silk from District 8." She said. "Wow… she is pretty…" I said with a stunned expression in my face. "She's not that pretty…" Anastasia said. "Fine if you don't think so" I said with my eyes till locked on Cornelia that was dancing around in front of me with knives in her hands.

"Ark, Ark, Arkam! We need to go." Anastasia said. "Wha… wha… what?" I said. "We need to get back to Root and Carnia" She reminded me. "Oh right" I said. I had totally forgot about both Root and Carnia. All I wanted to was to sit there in the darkness and watch her, Cornelia.

Back the elevators we meet up with both Carnia and Root. Carnia's hands were filled with different videotapes and Root looks like had run through a forest of poison ivy. What do you have there? I asked him. "I found the security room and found some tapes of all the tributes when they train, so know we can watch these at home and decide on who we will bet on." Carnia said. "And what happened to you? Is that lipstick?" Anastasia asks Root and takes a look at him. "He found the Avox girls room. To answer on your second question: yes that is lipstick. I hope…." Carnia said. "For how long has he been like that?" I ask Carnia while I look at Root who just stands there with and empty expression and just looks stupid. "I don't know about ten of fifteen minutes." Carnia said. "Let's head back home" I said.

Thay way back goes smooth and quick without any more problems that we have to wait for another guard switch. It's was almost Dawn when I get back into my own house and seek back to my room. I kicked of my shoes and just left my clothes on the chair in the corner of my room and just went down to bed. This night was the first night that I dreamt about Cornelia. Cornelia Silk, the tribute from District 8.