Chapter 10

Beetee's point of view:

We were now 10 hours into the Games. There had been no cannons fired since the bloodbath. But I was not worried about the Gamemakers spicing things up yet. The pattern that they follow in most years is that the Capitol audience doesn't get bored unless more than two days pass without a death. Just as long as the Gamemakers don't ruin my trap then I'll be fine and I will give them something to remember.

I had been considering what to do, and I'm going to electrocute whoever is unfortunate enough to trigger the trap.

Two hours later, it was almost midnight and I was waiting to see who was left.

A few minutes later the anthem started playing and I saw the faces in the sky.

The first face in the sky that I saw was my district partner, Barbie Nettel. DAMN! This is going to look bad on, Neil's mentoring skills.

The next face was the District 5 boy, Hugo Carlynn. Then his district partner, Rena Zola.

Then the girl from District 6, Holly Prue.

Then the boy from District 7, Richie Rovi.

Then the boy from District 8, Zebulon Woody. Then his district partner Sabein Frits.

Then boy from District 9, Clifford Cristoff, and his district partner, Makenzie Zackery.

Then the boy from District 10, Leland Geraint, and his district partner, Cleo Ricola.

Then the boy from District 11, Clyde Lennon, and his district partner, Caroline Bean.

And that is thirteen faces. So who is left? The entire Career Pack, being all six kids from Districts 1, 2, and 4. Sasha Quinn, the boy from District 6. Charley Curt, the girl from District 7. And Peter Wolofon and Macy Keen, both the kids from District 12.

That doesn't leave much competition for the Career Pack. Their biggest challenge will be me and Peter Wolofon, who impressed the Gamemakers enough to score an 8. He is big and strong for a District 12 kid. Macy Keen, is a weak 12 year old, and must have had the sense to get out of there right away and not go for the supplies. Sasha Quinn and Charley Curt, scored a 6 and a 5. Not much, some of the dead tributes had much higher scores than that, but must have been either smart enough or strong enough to survive. Maybe they were just lucky.

The anthem ended and I went back to my nest in the hidden corner of the house to get some sleep.

In the morning, I set to work. First I needed to determine what I was going to do exactly. In order to electrocute someone, the first thing I need is, of course, electricity. And in order for electricity to electrocute the person, a sufficient quantity of the power would need to pass through the heart. Now I need a means to generate the power. That should be easy enough. I can find a way. But then there is the matter of enough power to hit the person's heart hard enough, as crude power-generation may not jolt the heart hard enough. Maybe there's a way to tap into the power-grid of the arena's catacombs? But, no. The Gamemakers would have made sure of that...or would they? They would never have imagined that a tribute would try. But, scratch that idea. There are no rules inside the arena for what the tributes do or use to win, but I don't think the Gamemakers would like it very much if a tribute used the arena itself as a weapon. And...even if I wanted to tap into the power-grid of the arena...I have absolutely no idea how to do it. I'm sure I could figure it out, but, for now I should focus on what I do best. Making clever gadgets out of whatever I can find.

What I need is a 'capacitor'. An electrical storage device that will hold the small amount of electricity from the crude power-generation over time and then release it all at once in a hard quick burst. I knew exactly how to build one from common local materials.

I went to the house's circuit-breaker. It was a panel of twenty-three switches with little one or two word notes by each switch. 'Laundry room', 'Master bedroom', 'Kitchen', 'Stove', 'Main bathroom', etc. Around the rectangular metal box of the circuit-breaker were about a hundred cords and wires, all leading away from the breaker and disappearing into the walls, corners, floor, and ceiling. The panel and switches were encrusted with dust. I filled my lungs with air and blew on the panel hard in one quick breath. A cloud of dust scattered. The 'MAIN' switch was in the 'ON' position, but of course there was no power. I tried flicking the 'MAIN' switch off and then on again but the power didn't come on, and I hadn't expected it to anyway. The city had been abandoned for nearly two centuries since the last world war. Most of the metals in this city are old corroded and oxidized, but if I collect a lot of stuff I should still be able to find some good condition components that I can retrofit together for my gadgets.

I took my screwdriver and took out the screws of the circuit breaker panel. I examined the corroded circuits inside. Just as I had thought the metal was nearly completely rusted through. I began quickly pulling it apart. Among the many wires I found a few that were still good. I took them and tossed the others away. I found a few of the circuits we're still good and I pulled them out. 99% of the stuff in here was no good, and I just salvaged the remaining 1% that was good. I will need the equivalent of 100% of good components, so I shall need to go to every building and vehicle that I can find and start pulling it all apart for potential good components to salvage.

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