Training Day 3

Krystal's POV

I still did not trust Suffra, but she made a fair point. The words 'mutually' and 'beneficial' were actually a great reason to go into the alliance, especially if she took care of the plants and I had the weaponry skills. That way I could easily beat her if necessary.

But the alliance did not really have to be with Suffra. Surely the girl from 11, as the boy from 11 surely would not last long, would know more about plants than somebody who had just started learning about them two days ago. District 9, the grain district, might also be a good pair to target. I would watch those going to the various lesser stations to see who was better.

I was not going to offer myself up for alliance just yet; I would wait until I was in the arena. After all, there I would have the unquestioned advantage. And with that strange alliance with Suffra, she might not even last long either. Maybe somebody would take her out in the bloodbath and I would not have to worry about her, but I did not think she would stay around for the fight.

Or I could just rely on sponsors. District 1 always got sponsored a lot.

Looking around, I saw the girl from District 7 was still dangling from the netting above me, lying there like it was the most natural thing in the world. Perhaps that was because she did not have any skills and did not want to cry about it like the girl from 3, who was looking at the net nervously, obviously trying to climb it but not sure how.

The boy from 11 was actually quite good with plants and was teaching the girl from 10. They were getting very close and there seemed to have been an alliance between them for days. The girl from 9, now that I looked at her, was useless, and her district partner was only a little better.

Definitely sponsors.

Dina's POV

It took me a while to figure out how to climb the net, but as I had not been fast enough to find Mimi, the girl from 7, before training and she did not appear to want to come back to the ground I had no other choice but to climb up to her.

"Hi Mimi," I managed to say eventually, when I was half way up.

"It's easier to rest if you come all the way up to the top," Mimi said, and I trembled even more as I realized that I was afraid of heights. Finally I plopped myself down next to her, the net holding me up completely. I still gripped it tightly because I was not quite sure that I would not slip off it backwards.

"Aren't you going to do any other training?" I asked.

"Oh, I already know plants and shelter building," Mimi said. "And there is no point learning about weapons as I am not going to kill anybody."

"How can you win the Hunger Games without killing anybody?" I asked.

"I can't," Mimi said. "I'll try and survive as long as I can, but I am not going to win. I'll try and keep Bert alive for you though."

"How do you know that is what I am here for?"

"It's pretty obvious that you wanted to ask me something big, if not you would not have dared climb up here," she said. I nodded. She was right. I was glad that she could figure things out though, as she seemed trustworthy enough. "Are you also asking me for an alliance?"

"Um… maybe," I said. I had not thought of that.

"We'll see," Mimi said. "How are you at edible plants? It looks like there will at least be some of those in the arena with the variety that they are teaching us."

"How do you know? You've been up here practically since training started," I said

"I observe," she said, then fell silent again. I watched her for a second, then looked downwards and did the same. The boy from 2 yelled in frustration because the girl from 4 had basically monopolized the sword station for herself and wasn't even the best at it. The girl from 10 and the boy from 11, whose names turned out to be Celia and Hawk respectively, actually had a plan but did not speak of it in enough detail for me to figure out what it was. Bert, somehow, did not know that he was meant to be part of the alliance with Gregor and me. I was shocked when I realized that I had forgotten to tell him that, and forced myself to do that as soon as we were alone together again.

The boy from 12 was trying to convince himself that he had a hope by trying out the swords for last minute weapons skills, trying hard to avoid Districts 2 and 4, but nearly dropped the blade end on his foot and fell onto the ground hard. His district partner ran over to him, a pace that seemed painfully slow from my eagles-eye perspective, to see whether he was alright.

Mimi gave me a strange look that suggested she knew what I was thinking: that this was the most productive thing I had done in training so far. From up here I could see the strengths and weaknesses of all of the tributes. Mimi had figured it out on day 1.

If Mimi put her mind to it, she probably could go really far. Perhaps she could even win, but she seemed insistent that she did not want to kill. I could almost imagine what the commentators would say when they figured that out: it was too bad. District 7 did not have a living female victor, and would not be getting one now.

Suffra's POV

Last night on the roof had gone pretty well, but Krystal's face was far from the blank slate she obviously thought it was. She did not trust anybody here, including me. The alliance, like the Career one, would be one that might form but not last for long. It was probably something that would depend on how the Hunger Games progressed.

There was only about half an hour left before lunch. I had visited every survival station at least in passing, allowing the more time for the skills that I thought would be most useful and taking in as much as I could. I had started thinking about my tactics at the bloodbath. I had to be the first one to move, but I could not go before the gong sounded or I would be blown to smithereens. Then I could probably run to grab something good before one of the others reached a distance weapon to take me out.

My next plan would be to sit as close to the Careers as possible today, see who they had picked out as the easy targets. The obvious ones that would be seen as easy target were the pairs from 3 and 12, perhaps the pair from 6. Usually they wanted to take out major threats as well in the first minutes.

I finished off with the survival training and walked to lunch nervously. I knew that I was going to do something with knives for the gamemakers; I had to. Grabbing as much food as possible for my plates, piling them up, I sat down to the table nearest to the centre one where the Careers usually congregated. The girl from 7 with the wispy ginger hair was already there, like she had been since the first day. Perhaps she'd had the same tactics I had now, except she'd figured it out a lot sooner.

She nodded at me, and I felt shivers run up my spine. Yes, she had the same tactics, and also knew why I was there. I tried not to show how much that frightened me as I nodded back, and she put a finger to her lips and pointed at the Careers.

"We should take out that boy from 7 in the bloodbath," the girl from 4, Anemone, was suggesting with a lot of vigour. "I wouldn't want to hunt him down."

"Wow, you are such a wimp. He doesn't stand a chance against me," Katran said cockily, patting Anemone on the back mockingly.

"Take out that girl from 8," Krystal said, and I glared daggers into her back. She wasn't good with alliances, was she? Just at that moment I wanted to strangle her.

"That girl isn't a danger to anybody except you, Princess," Katran mocked.

"I can't believe we ever even considered her for an alliance," Ray butted in.

"How about we definitely take her out if she gets more than a 5," Krystal suggested. Is she or isn't she on my side? There was one thing I knew for sure. My tactics had to adapt. I was not going to get any more than a 5, although that had been likely to begin with. If I did not get more than a 5, they would not see me as a threat.

I had to talk to Krystal before the Games. She'd brought me to the other Careers' attention, then told them if I sucked enough they would not have to take me out. I could not see what she was doing, whether she even had any tactics or whether she was just trying to dispel and rumours about our possible alliance.

Krystal's POV

Suffra was glaring at me. I had my back to her but I could still feel that. Garnet was probably the only one who was not noticing, and he was facing her. The interviews were definitely going to be interesting with him. I almost bet that he would accidentally slag off the Capitol and probably pay for that in the arena in some way. That suddenly got less funny when I realized that I would be affected by that too, as we would probably be together as allies.

When I turned around, I saw that Suffra had stopped glaring and was now talking to that girl from District 7. Suffra was talking about her twin, who was called Iva, and I was not sure how it was even relevant. Now I knew the name of some random girl in District 8, a district I had never even been to, but not the names of half of the competitors. Fair enough.

"There aren't that many strong tributes this year," Ray was saying. "Most of those lesser districts would probably die from the elements if we left them to it for a couple of days."

"Oh Ray," Katran said, sounding exasperated. "Where is the fun in that?"

"Sitting around, sunning ourselves at the Cornocopia eating food and having plentiful water," Anemone mused. "I could think of less enjoyable activities."

"Well done," Spear said. "You have just made yourself sound like a stupid bimbo in front of everybody."

"Are you honestly saying that you would not enjoy it?" Anemone asked pointlessly, and I sneered at her. They should be calling her 'Princess', not me.

At that moment it was announced that it was time for the private sessions with the gamemakers to begin. I was from District 1, so I would be the second person to go as boys always preceded girls in the private sessions.

Garnet went in and it took about fifteen minutes of waiting around, listening to and occasionally joining in with the pack's banter, before I was finally called in.

"Krystal Alrich, District 1," I announced, before starting. I began by lining up four dummies, smiling then placing a different weapon in front of each of them, before starting off with the spears. Not that I like spears that particularly much, not even stopping at that station during the regular training time, but I wanted to show that I was good at a variety of weapons. The spear hit the dummy in the stomach, making it reel backwards on its string. I pulled the spear out, with the exception of the sharp end which had broken off in the dummy, and tossed it into the main weapons pile. Axes next, and I embedded the end deeply into the second dummy's head.

Then I went on to the knives, aiming one for the head, one for the chest and one for the abdomen so they landed in a perfect vertical straight line. That dummy would probably be declared dead at least twice. I placed my foot on the end of the machete, stamping on it so it flung upwards and I caught it in my hand. At that stage it took a little bit of focus to maintain my composure and not shout 'ta-da' at the gamemakers.

The fourth dummy got cut up into little pieces. I slashed the limbs off separately, then went in for the final stab where the heart would be. Turning around, I bowed at them with a cocky smirk on my face.

"You may go," one of the gamemakers said.

Dina's POV

I refused to sit wedged between the Career districts as I waited. It was a relief when both of them from District 2 disappeared, but that just meant that I would be next after Bert and I had absolutely no idea what to show them.

Bert went in, and I smiled and wished him luck. What do I do? What do I do? The more I pondered over it, the more confusing it seemed to get. If only I was classic District 3 smart, not just regular district average intelligence. That way I would probably be able to use my wits to survive.

"Dina Larson!" I was called in before I was ready. There were tons of discarded weapons in a pile, but that was probably from Districts 1 and 2 rather than Bert. I looked upwards to see the netting where Mimi had spent all of the training days.

"Dina Larson, District 3," I announced, trying not to sound weak as I slowly climbed up the nets so I was perched above everybody else looking down on them. As there was nobody else there, it did not have as much effect. I surveyed the area.

"There is a broken spear in the weapons pile. The camouflage station has been used" – that one was probably Bert –"And I am in less danger of being attacked up here," I finished. Usually they cleaned up what the other tributes did, but as I guessed where Bert would have been there were indicators. I probably would not get a good score, because I had to talk them through what I was doing, and done nothing except watch.

"You may go," a gamemaker said.

Suffra's POV

I headed inside slowly, intending to do survival skills and gravitating towards the edible plants station, but shaking my head forcing myself to stand in the centre of the room first. I announced my name and my district, then I started at shelter building and made a relatively solid one against the nets. Carefully, I picked out some edible plants. My hands hovered over a deadly one.

The trainer had warned me about this one. If you ate it, just a little bit, you would die. I had asked then, because I had some foresight, what would happen if you cut yourself and a bit of the berry-juice got into your bloodstream. I had said it like I was scared.

"Avoid it at all costs," the trainer had said. "You will die within seconds." Same result, basically. But it had given me an idea. It was a sick and twisted idea, which is why I almost hoped that they did not have that plant in the arena, but it would work. I would just have to be very careful.

If I poisoned the end of a knife, all I had to do was cut the opponents slightly and they would die. I would do anything to get home, but I did not think I was capable of murder like that. Not yet.

No, I told myself mentally. I was not going to show the gamemakers that. I did not want a high score, as the Careers had already been talking about me as a target. Krystal had brought it up, but then dismissed it. It would probably have come up eventually anyway, but that way all rumours about out alliance would dissipate.

"Thank you," I said when I was done. The gamemakers obviously did not think that I had finished, or they would have dismissed me. About a third of them weren't even paying any attention anymore, having been the 16th person they'd had to watch in a row. I estimated that a few of them had stopped paying any attention at all after District 4.

"Thank you," I repeated again as they dismissed me. I wondered vaguely which score I would get.

Krystal's POV

"How did you do?" Delilah asked, and I turned my back to her.

"Get me sponsors, but other than that I don't see why I even need a mentor," I growled, and Delilah grabbed my hand hard turning me towards her.

"How badly did it go?" Delilah asked.

"It didn't go badly," I said indignantly. Delilah smiled at me knowingly. "Honestly, it didn't."

"You are nervous to see how you compare to Districts 2 and 4," Delilah stated, like there was absolutely no doubt in her mind. I glared again, as I knew using words would be pointless to somebody who was convinced that she was right. Delilah and Lacey shared that quality. "The scores will be shown in half an hour. Why don't you eat something?"

"I'm fine," I said, still staring her down. Delilah gripped my hand tightly, then gave up and pushed me backwards. Aiming for a knife on the table without looking, I grabbed a fork instead and figured that it was close enough. She seemed to calm down, and snatched the fork away from me, telling me to sit down.

"So, are you allying with that girl from 8?" Delilah asked. Her tone was carefully empty, so I did not know whether she would approve or not. In truth, it was complicated. It was technically a done deal, but there was a large chance that when the pack broke up, there were too little people left to realistically have alliances.

"No," I said defensively.

"You two talked on the roof last night," she said. She knows about that!?

"Let's watch the results," I said quickly, switching on the TV and hoping that she would not push it. For somebody who won her Hunger Games by betraying alliances, she did not strike me as somebody who was particularly understanding and I did not like talking to her.

Luckily, Delilah did not push it and the training scores were displayed about fifteen minutes later after a lot of commentary. We in District 1 were the favourites. Good. Garnet got a 9. He pounded his fists at that in the adjacent room. I waited for my score and a 10 flashed across the screen.

Good, they like me mutilating dummies, I thought. Katran also scored a 10, whereas Ray with all of her bragging got only an 8. District 3 were up next. The 12 year old got a 4, and the girl only scraped a 3. Spear got a score of 9, and Anemone only managed 7.

"We should kick her out of the alliance!" Garnet yelled, more likely at the TV than at me. We had not spoken much although we shared a floor.

Walton, the boy from 7, also got a 10, which meant he was a definite target. Suffra only scored a 4, which probably stopped her being a target for the time being. Good for her. Then I mainly zoned out, as none of the districts above that got any more than a 5.

Dina's POV

I got a 3. That was hopeless, and it was still the best that I had possibly tried to do. Bert got a 4 though. He was happy enough with that. Gregor did better, scoring a 5. Casey, his district partner, also scored a 4. Mimi got a 5 as well. All in all, we looked like a rather mediocre alliance.

"That is horrible," I said. I went to my room and started crying again, which was actually the best time to do it. Tomorrow I would get training for my interviews, and the day after that the actual interviews took place. Then I would be thrown into the arena.

Two more days guaranteed left alive, and that was it. I cried and did not stop until it was incredibly late, and I did not think there were any tears left in my body.

Suffra's POV

A four. That was okay, I guess. It did not impact my strategy, but actually reduced my possibility of getting targeted by having a lower score. What was worse is the way Cecilia tried to comfort me, like she knew that it was one of my last days. I gave in and told her that I had no intention of going down. I would not consider what would happen if I did.

Stitch did a lot better. He got a 6, which was just above average. I congratulated him for it, and he smiled and pretended that my score was great as well.

"Can I see you in my room for a second?" he asked. I nodded and followed him, sitting on the plush bed and waiting expectantly.

"What?" I asked.

"What are you playing at?" he asked. "Anybody can see it in your eyes that you have not given up yet. That was probably the only reason that they gave you a 4 and not lower."

"How would you know that? You did not see what I did," I said, although he was right. A score of 4 was suspiciously high for what I did, not that I knew exactly what the score boundaries were. "I'm glad you did well."

"Why?" Stitch said bitterly. This time, I forced myself to say the alternative.

"Because if I don't get home, you winning benefits everybody at home the most," I said. Everybody would get packets of food in parcel day every month, and be provided with tons of other gifts. It was the one good thing that came out of the Hunger Games, but it only occurred for the winning district. Our district did not win frequently. However, with the amount of food I had seen at the Capitol, they could easily feed themselves and the districts.

That was when I decided that the interviews would actually be very hard. Ignoring the stage fright of talking in front of an audience of millions, it would be difficult to pretend to like a place that forced children to fight to their deaths every year and starved you when there was clearly another way.