POV Amber:

The second day of training is a lot like the first. I learned how to throw a dagger, but I'm not that good. Then again, I know where all the pulse points are, so that might be of some help in the arena. Honestly, I'm not worried about making a fool of myself, so I'm going to try everything. I try tying knots (good), using an axe (bad), using a sword (ok), throwing daggers (passable), climbing (great), identifying food (great), and bow and arrow (terrible). My best hope is to climb trees, find food, and somehow procure some throwing daggers.

Sighing, as the training finishes, I make my way down for dinner. After finishing some bread pudding, I look up at my mentor, Belinda Voss. She's the only victor from District 5, ever. With mousy brown hair and small, watery eyes, she isn't the victor "type". I've never talked to her before the games, but I didn't realize how messed up the games made her. She talks very little, and takes Morphling often. Making eye contact with me, her eyes water again. This happens nearly every tie she looks at us. Belinda knows we're going to die.

"B-Belinda?" I ask timidly. She flinches and looks back at me, unblinking. "How… how did you win your games?"

I know Belinda was the Victor of the 9th games at age 17, but I have no idea how she won. She gets up from the table. Feeling hurt, I catch up with her down the hallway.

"Look, Belinda," I start out shakily. "I'm not trying to... upset you, or bring back bad memories, but you haven't said a word to either of us yet, and you might know something that can help us win." She blinked at me and motioned for me to follow her into the living room, went over to the shelves under the TV, and found a tape. Shakily putting it into the TV, she sat down next to me and curled into a ball as the tape began to play.

Startled, I see a very pretty girl during her reaping. The name Belinda Voss was called, and she determinedly took her place on stage. The tape skipped ahead to the reaping, where I could see Belinda and a short blond boy on a chariot. The boy was wearing a tuxedo, and she was wearing a knee-length pink sundress. I looked over at her, confused, and then I saw that the other tributes were wearing similar things: the guys in a tux or a suit, and the girl in a dress. I guess in the first couple of games, they didn't dress them according to their district. Then, I see a clip of Brant Lockers, the interviewer for the games, revealing that Belinda got a 6 in training. The tape skips over to the interview, where I see a young, pretty Belinda in another pink dress, but this one was made of silk and dropped to the floor. She was cheerful and smiley in her interview, mentioning her older brother, who would be rooting for her. I couldn't believe that this was the same person sitting next to me.

The games begin. I see that the arena is in a square desert full of boulders and scrubs. The 60 seconds ticks away and I see a close-up of Belinda's eyes looking at the other tributes. I hear an explosion as a tribute boy steps off his podium. As the gong rings, I see everyone run towards the cornucopia. Belinda ducks though kids meekly fighting, and hides inside a medium black crate. Many kids fall dead, and those left run and hide behind boulders. There's a tall boy standing by the cornucopia by himself, and he begins to look through crates to find some food and a weapon. He takes out a piece of meat and a sword and sits down to eat. 5 faces appear in the sky.

There are 4 booms in the middle of the night as some tributes freeze to death. The next day, it is apparent that many of the tributes are hungry and need the food in the cornucopia, but they're too afraid of the boy with the sword. Some girl runs out and grabs another sword to start fighting the boy clumsily. After about 10 minutes, the girl is killed. In the evening, there are screams as a poisonous rattlesnake appears and chases a couple tributes out of their hiding places. 2 tributes are killed by the snake. The boy at the cornucopia runs out to fight them, as other tributes steal food from the cornucopia. The boy returns after killing a tribute. 13 are dead. 11 survive.

In the middle of the night, the cornucopia boy falls asleep, and many tributes run to the cornucopia to steal food, the boy wakes up, manages to kill one of them, but the others run away. He settles back in his sleeping bag and rests. Over the night, 3 tributes die of hunger/dehydration. The next morning, a frantic looking girl is shown eating shrubs and dirt. She slowly dies of starvation. The boy goes searching for the remaining tribute, who is actually Belinda in the cornucopia. He spends all day searching, as Belinda eats the food in the cornucopia. When he returns at night, he drinks some water that Belinda poisoned, and dies immediately, crowning her the Victor. The screen shuts off, leaving me with a weird feeling.

Part of me is angry that she didn't have some amazing fighting skill to help me. Part of me is shocked that careers weren't a thing yet, at how bad at fighting they all were, how bad the arena was, with 10 of them dying from starvation or cold. Part of me is shocked at how little the gamemakers did, how short the games were. And part of me is shocked that Belinda is here. Part of me is angry that my games will not be like hers. I won't be able to hide in a place with food and water and weapons, waiting for the disorganized, weak tributes to die by themselves. I'm going to be up against the highly trained careers, in a dangerous arena, with lots of twists and turns from the gamemakers. What right did Belinda have to be scarred by the games? She didn't even fight at all. I'm seriously pissed, so I get up without a word to her and get into the elevator.