Does anyone have any ideas for what should happen in the arena? PM me with any ideas.

Oh and I might not upload chapter eight for a couple days because I have projects for school I need to work on.

I'm running, darting through trees. Who am I running from? I turned around to see a faceless tribute. A heavy axe appeared in my hand, I turned around to throw it at the tribute, it hit the tribute right in the chest. I screamed, but the scream was silent. The cannon boomed, but then again. It boomed repeatedly and wouldn't stop, even after twenty-three times, it wouldn't stop. I covered my ears and shrank to the ground.

"Alex, you're ok, it's only a dream"

I opened my eyes, the alarm clock was beeping rapidly and Johanna was holding me still. The door flew open and Astra tumbled in,

"What in the name of the Capitol is going on here?" she screeched, "why is Alex screaming bloody murder?"

"Nothing" I grumbled, "just a bad dream"

Astra and Johanna left the room and I turned off my alarm clock. On my bed were the training clothes. The shirt was a tight, black short sleeved shirt with a russet brown stripe on each side, our district color. The back had a huge white seven on it. The pants were just tight black leggings and there were black boots as well. I took off my sleeping clothes and slipped on the training clothes. I brushed my hair and put it in a ponytail. I walked out of the bathroom, out of my room, and into the dining hall. The table was filled with many foods and everyone was there. I sat down at the table and grabbed another thing I didn't know the name of. It was a hard, round piece of bread with squares in it,

"Waffles" Johanna said, "they're called waffles"

"Oh! And I forgot!" Astra exclaimed, "you need to be in the training room by nine"

"What time is it now?" I asked,

"Around eight thirty" Blight answered,

I quickly began to eat the waffles and what looked like to be bacon. I quickly scoffed them down the bacon and waffles,

"Ready to go?" I asked to Oliver,

"Yep" he grumbled,

We opened the door and walked over to the elevator. I clicked the button on the side and the elevator came to us. There were people inside it, I could recognize it from their appearances. Inside were the people from District Twelve. I walked into the elevator, it was a little crammed. It started to move down and no one talked until Raven broke the silence,

"You guys from District Seven?" Raven asked,

"Yeah" I answered, "I'm Alex"

I extended my hand for her to shake it,

"I know" she replied, "Raven"

We shook hands and left the boys to introduce themselves,

"Oliver" he introduced as he shook Raven's hand,

The district twelve boy stood silent, leaning against the wall until Raven shoved him,

"Oh, hmm, what was that?" he asked, "Bryce, I'm Bryce"

Once we got to the bottom, we walked out of the elevator. We also had to walk down a flight of stairs to enter the training room. Almost all of the tributes are there. Everyone's heads turned towards us as we awkwardly walked into the room. I pushed my way through the crowd to get to the front, for some reason no one was training already. Raven was standing next to me,

"What are we waiting for?" I asked,

Raven held her finger to her mouth and pointed to a Peacekeeper in front of us. This one looked different, she wore a black beret and a white bodysuit instead of a helmet and armor. She only wore little bit of armor and wore black boots. She had olive skin and a black ponytail slipping down her shoulder, her brown eyes felt like they were piercing my skin,

"In two weeks, twenty-three of you will be dead, and only one of you will be alive" she began, "who that is depends on how much you pay attention over the next few days"

I looked around the training center. There was a lot of stuff and above us the Gamemakers sat in their own room with tons of food and watched us train,

"Pay careful attention to what I'm about to say" she continued, "first, no fighting with the other tributes, you'll have plenty of time for that in the arena"

She said that last part with a little chuckle. Why is she laughing at something so serious,

"You will have four days to train and on the final day will be your evaluation" she continued, "my advice is, don't ignore the survival skills. Anyone can grab a sword but most of you will die from natural causes"

I looked around, how many survival stations are there in here? It looked like there was some net-making, a fire making station, and then lots of other survival stations,

"Ten percent from infection, twenty percent from dehydration. Exposure can kill just as easily as a knife, good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor"

After that, she let us all go and train. What did Johanna say? Make allies, right. I looked around at the other tributes. The careers all gathered around the weapons, taking what they needed. I examined them, the District One girl, Velvet, grabbed a bow. She was tall and thin and looked fast. She pulled back the string and let the arrow fly, it missed the target the first time. She cursed under her breath and then shot the arrow again. This time, the arrow went flying right to the dummy and hit it right in forehead. Velvet didn't look like she could be messed with.

Then there was the boy, Vulture, was that his name? Right, Vulture. He held a long sword with a curved end. He was cutting down dummies right and left like I did to trees. He looked strong and lethal, nothing to sneeze at. Vulture was very small though, he didn't have a tall masculine body and could only be around five foot eight. His height didn't seem to matter at all though. The girl from District Two was using throwing knives and always hit the target. No misses, the knives went straight to the heart. The boy was very skilled with a spear. He was a lot taller than Vulture but didn't look as tough. He missed a bit but every time he hit it looked lethal. The last of the careers were the tributes from four. The pretty girl from last night, Marina, used a trident. She was very skilled with it just as the other careers were with their weapons. The three points of the trident would sometimes hit the target, and she didn't look as good as the other tributes. Marina was very pretty though and would draw lots of sponsors. The only career who wasn't using a weapon was the district four boy. He was over at a survival station weaving nets. He didn't look like he'd fit in with the careers.

"Looking at the careers?"

I turned around to see a girl, not Raven though. Her thick red hair was tied up in a ponytail and her face was dotted with freckles. A five was printed on her shoulder,

"Yeah" I answered, "they look good this year"

"The guys from two are Caecilia and Julius" she said, "the kids from four are Marina and Luke"

"How old are they?" I asked,

"All eighteen, except for Luke who is sixteen" she answered, "Karlee Meyers, District Five"

I shook her hand and smiled at her,

"Alex Vice, District Seven" I replied,

"So what do you got?" she asked,

I stood up and walked over to the weapons. Which one should I try first? There were so many deadly weapons at my fingertips. I brushed my hand against an axe, it looked a lot more different than my one at home. The blade was sharp and not old, it was made for killing and not chopping down trees. I picked up the axe and it dragged my arms down. This one is a lot heavier. I lifted the weight and I walked over to a dummy. I lifted the axe above my head and swung it against the dummy and it fell right in half like a tree,

"Hey Seven!" someone shouted, "you're not at home anymore. Those aren't trees!"

My head turned to Vulture where the sound came from. Once Vulture shouted that, all eyes were on me. Karlee leaned over and whispered to me,

"They're paying attention, better not embarrass yourself"

I walked over to a new dummy and swung the axe. It found itself right in the dummy's arm and cut it off. I did the same to the next one and then I swung it again, cutting off the legs. The dummy fell to the ground and I speared it in the chest with it. If this was a person, it would be dead. My hands would be stained with blood and screams would fill the air. I used the axe to slit the dummy's throat and cut off its head. The round, lifeless head of the dummy rolled along the training floor. I looked at Vulture,

"Is that good enough for you?" I shouted at Vulture,

"Yeah" he smirked, "nice job Seven"

After that, everyone went back to training. Karlee and Raven were the first to walk over to me after that,

"Wanna be allies?" they both asked,

"You're awesome with an axe!" Karlee exclaimed,

"Where did you learn to do that?" Raven asked,

"I don't know" I admitted, "I guess I do well under pressure"

I picked up the axe and put it back where I found it and then walked back over to Karlee and Raven,

"What can you two do?" I asked,

"I can shoot a bow" Karlee answered,

"And I can use throwing knives" Raven answered,

"Can you show me?" I asked,

Karlee was the first to go. Velvet put her bow down for a minute to try and use a spear which she was failing at. Karlee walked over to a target and loaded an arrow into her bow. She drew the string back and shot at the target. She missed the heart by a few inches. She tried again and loaded another one in, this time it missed the target entirely. She loaded one more arrow in and took a deep breath, she pulled the string back and released the arrow. This time the arrow flew right to the heart and landed right in the center like she was a career,

"Where did you learn to do that?" I asked,

"I took some archery classes when I was little" she answered, "I kept doing it for a while and now I guess I'm ok at it?"

"Your turn Raven" I said,

Raven walked over to the weapons and grabbed some throwing knives. She began to throw them at the targets. The knives never made a complete miss but either found themselves in or close to the heart. None of them hit the heart exactly,

"Where do those skills come from?" Karlee asked,

"Throwing darts" Raven answered, "I played that game back at home. It was the only entertainment I had"

"So do we have an alliance?" Karlee asked,

"We do" Raven answered, shaking Karlee's hand, "you?"

I shook Karlee and Raven's hand, "we have a team"

I spent the rest of the day learning to use the new axe. I knew that in order to survive in the games I needed to find a way to get an axe in the games. Twenty-three other tributes also have the same goal, and it will be hard to beat them all. I watched Oliver fight using a sickle. He actually was really good with it and he was slashing dummies right and left. Oliver might actually be a threat, my biggest threat,

"Hey Alex!" he shouted, "this one's for you!"

He slashed a dummies throat open and stuffing flew out like it was blood. He hit it in the chest and turned it around and around in there, cutting up all of the stuffing inside. He then slashed up the dummies head and it flew over to me. I caught it and looked at the bodiless head, I could see it as mine and I immediately dropped it. I realized that Oliver is seriously out to kill me, and he is just imagining this dummy is me.

The training went for a little longer and we ate lunch in the training center. It was just a chicken sandwich and then I got right back to training. I kept figuring out how to use the axe and after a while I had it down. I could slash dummies up right and left and it felt natural to me,

"Hey Oliver!" I shouted, he turned his head to me, "this one's for you!"

I mimicked his technique of killing me. I used the axe to slit the dummy's throat and then shoved the axe in its chest. I turned it around and around, grinding the insides. I cut off the head then and it fell to the ground. I dropped the axe and picked up the head and threw it to Oliver. Raven and Karlee smiled at me,

"Nice" Raven complimented,

"What do you got against this guy anyways?" Karlee asked,

I told them my entire volunteering story and how I took Eve's place. I told them how Oliver wanted to kill me for taking Eve's place,

"Wow" Karlee said,

"Yeah" I replied,

"Don't worry Alex, we'll kill him" Raven comforted, "and we won't die until he does"

The rest of the day flew by and one training day was gone. At dinner, I told Johanna about Karlee and Raven and it seemed like she wasn't listening,

"Good" Blight replied, "it seems like they are good teammates"

Oliver didn't say anything the entire night except for when Johanna asked him something,

"So what weapon are you guys going to use?"

"Hmmm, oh a sickle" he answered,

"Axe" I answered,

After that I went back into my room and changed into my nightclothes that I was given. I slid under the comfy covers and fell asleep. Tomorrow is the second training day, one more day closer to the games. Once I enter that arena, everything matters.