"What?" I force out and she sighs.

"Thought it was pretty obvious." She says, still staring at the streets. "Thought I made it obvious enough. Either that or you're an idiot." She mumbles the last part and I rub my eyes. She has to be kidding. There's no way.

"But why me?" I bark and she shrugs.

"I don't know. I really don't know." She says, dropping her face into her hands. "If you want to yell at me or something then feel free. Guess I deserve it, telling this to you the night before the Games.

Nope, not saying anything else. I can't take it, I have to get out of here. I rush back downstairs and into my room. I don't even try to sleep. She has to be lying. I've been horrible to her! There's no way! There just can't be a way that she likes me. I start pacing across the room. Hell, I hate her. She decides to pull this on me now? Of all times, now? I don't even know if she's lying or not!

She sounded pretty sincerce though, says the voice in my head. What if she is serious? I could possibly be dead in a matter of days, and she's telling me that now? I guess that's why she told me. Because I could die pretty soon. God, I hate girls.

Hell, I don't know what to think! Madge Undersee, freaking Madge Undersee was talking about me in her interview! There's something seriously wrong about this. I don't even know what to think. I really have no clue what she was thinking. Was she drunk? Who in their right mind would tell someone something like that the day before they go into the Games? It's suicide for the person going in!

I don't even get sleep. Portia comes to get me at four in the morning. I'm still awake, trying to figure out why the hell Undersee told me that.

"Rough night?" Portia asks quietly and I nod.

"You can't even imagine." I mutter and she sighs. I hear movement in the room across from me and know that Naomi is being awakened too. Portia leads me out before Naomi comes out. Guess we can't see each other before the Games. There's a silent apartment. I want to find Undersee and ask her why but I know that she won't have to be up for a while, unless she's not even here at the moment.

I find myself beginning to freak out as the tracker is inserted in my arm. That way, they can find me anywhere, at any time. Wouldn't want to lose me. We ride forever, at least four hours. Where the hell is this arena? Middle of nowhere? Seems like it.

Quickly, I begin to start shaking. I can't show how scared I am. Portia tries to get me to sleep, eat, anything, but I can't. I'm too distracted. With the Games. With Undersee. With everything.

My thoughts stray back to my family. I wonder how they're holding up. If they think I'm going to die today, or tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. God, I hope they don't think so. I'm going to get back to them, I'll do anything too. I bet Katniss is in the woods. Nothing extraordinary hits me when I think of Katniss. I guess she's a sister, now. I love her, I do. But not like that.

The windows black out soon after. Thirty minutes pass.

Finally, the hovercraft pulls to a stop. Portia helps me stand and leads me to where I'll be deposited into the catacombs of the arena. Once underground, we're brought to a room where I will prepare for the Games. I step into the shower and try to block out everything. I have to get out of the arena. I have too, no questions asked. My family. My heart aches a little when I realize I may never see them again, if I die today. The thought doesn't help.

Once out, Portia helps me into clothes. Black shirt. Brown cargo pants. Some boots.

"Good for running." She notes, moving onto the thin jacket I'll be going in with. And when I say thin, I mean thin. As soon as I'm dressed, I fall onto the couch and drop my head into my hands.

"Gale?" Portia asks gently, setting a hand on my shoulder. "Do you want to talk?"

"Nothing to talk about." I grunt and she sits down.

"Talk about why you're getting home."

Family. I have too, I even told them I would come home. I have too.

"It's okay to be scared. Cinna said that last year, Madge was shaking so much she couldn't stand." I give her a look. Of course, she had to bring her up now. I swear Portia knows something I don't.

"Did you really have to bring her up?" I grumble and go to pace.

"Well I was just making conversation." She mutters, before standing and coming to me. "You will do fine. Clear your head of everything, your family, home, everything. You can make it out. I know you can." Portia is the one thing I'll miss if I die. She's been nice, helped me even. I won't really miss my prep team. Especially not Elowen.

Probably the food, too.

I nod and pleasant female voice comes on the loud speaker.

"One minute to launch." I swallow and Portia gives me a quick hug.

"Remember, Gale, clear your head. You can do this." I nod again and start to walk to the tube that could bring me to my doom. Once in the tube, it closes around me. God, I'm scared. Hell, I am terrified. I can't let it show. When it starts to move, I turn so I'm facing Portia.

She gives me a small smile and I swallow thickly. The tube keeps moving upward, until it goes dark for several seconds and the only thing I can hear is my own breathing. Then, I'm blinded by bright, harsh sunlight.


"Ladies and gentlemen, let the 74th Annual Hunger Games begin!"

The minute I see the arena, I know I'm in trouble. No trees, no forest, no water for even that matter. Desert. Sand dune over sand dune over sand dune. Though, about two-hundred meters from the cornucopia, there's a rectangular building, with a few windows here and there. Train tracks. There are train tracks running all through this place.

My eyes are searching around, trying to find a bow. There's only one. Wait, two. There's only weapons. My eyes narrow as I realize this. How the hell do they expect us to survive without water? It won't be a very good . I'm next to the small girl from 11 and the fox from 5. They both look terrified. The thought brings my brain back to Undersee. No. Stop. You have to survive. Don't think about her.

Cato catches my gaze and tips his head towards the building. I think I get what he means. Either we're going to stay there, or hunt down the people who go there. The second option makes me a little sick to my stomach. Animals I can handle. People, I really don't know. Not yet at least.

The countdown is getting closer and closer to zero. My brain is going nuts, trying to figure out what I'm going to do. I can't run away; the Careers will hunt me down. I don't want to run into the Cornucopia, that means possible death. Basically, any move I make, I could die.

There are ten seconds left, and I don't know what I'm going to do. I guess my only option is to fight, like a Career would. I barely have time to place my feet before the gong rings out and chaos happens. It takes me a second to realize what I'm going to have to do before I'm running to the Cornucopia, with the other Careers in front of me. Damn, they're fast.

I charge into the Cornucopia quickly, throwing the quiver over my shoulder and grabbing the bow. Glimmer gets the other one. I don't mind; I've gotten a bow, I'm good. She starts shooting very poorly and I'm grimacing just watching it. Cato and Marvel are already slashing at tributes and one jumps on my back, trying to slice my eye out. I jab my elbow backwards and the person's grip slacks before they fall with a knife in their back. Clove.

The poor kid's still alive, struggling. It's a pity kill, but I kill him. And I don't like it, much. I shake it off. I can't think about it, keep going. Stay alive. Have to stay alive.

Pretty quickly, the remaining tributes scurry off and Clove counts up the kills.

"Four. Only four tributes." I guess that's why the Bloodbath ended so quickly. I stay out of Cato's rage as he goes around kicking the dead tributes. God, will it kill you to show some respect? I mean, I know they're dead, but they have families at home. The thought of having to see a body of someone you knew come home dead... It doesn't sit well in my stomach.

As Glimmer attempts to calm Cato down, the rest of us go through what supplies there are. Only weapons, really. Several knives, some swords and spears, a couple bows, even some poison blow guns. It's a little odd, that there's no supplies. There's no way twenty more people are going to be able to survive in the middle of the desert with no shelter or water, for that matter. If it keeps going like this, we'll all be dead soon. Maybe I'll have an advantage, you know, from years of surviving with little.

Finally, Cato comes back, his fit of rage forgotten. "Okay, I say, we head to that building over there and look around, y'know? Idiot tributes could have run off there, thinking we wouldn't find them."

"Yeah, right." Marvel smirks and Naomi giggles. God, I'm going to hurl.

"Get a room, already." Cato grumbles, whacking Marvel with the point of his sword.

"Maybe we will," Naomi shouts out, before planting her lips firmly on Marvel's.

"God, I'm going to hurl." Glimmer says and their kiss gets deeper and deeper.

"Can they just go away?" I voice and Cato chuckles.

"I wish. Maybe if we leave them here they'll stop." I force a laugh as they pull away. Naomi is obviously going for the sex angle. I mean, they way the men's eyes bugged out of their heads at her interview, or even the opening ceremonies, I could tell. Hell, I'm sure my eyes were bugging out of my head. That surely wasn't Undersee's angle and she still ended up.. No. Stop thinking about her.

Finally, they surface and we begin the long trek to the building where hopefully supplies will be waiting.


A/N: So there we go. Desert. Train tracks, it should be interesting. I'm kinda taking some of the arena theme from a movie, well two different movies, but still. What do you think? Up to par? I like it, so that's what counts to me.