Belle sneaks up on me from behind her spear looking way more menacing up close. I twist under her hard grip as she pins me up against a tree. She launches the spear into my back before I can react. I watch as the dim motion censored lights on the black vest I wear go out. I sigh waiting for the tint to leave the windows.
The day after Snow's visit, I was ready to train, we took one of the centers on the sector nine mountains, where Cato had trained. The students from this academy would spend this year in the classrooms of the academy. We had ordered new machines and high tech technology from district thirteen.
Brutus kept us at the statistics bar, it was a virtual room that changed climates, locations and dispensed whichever weapon you were weakest at. Currently I was struggling in the bow and arrow field. Belle smiles removing her weapon from the deep port in my back, the suits we'd received were called r.b.d.s Realistic. Body. Death. Suits. They were covered in several ports, most around the front of the body and throat and skull.
The remaining pool of victors cheer as I walk out. Brutus stands on a glass podium, a small silver remote lies near a bottle of water. "Do you know what happened?" Brutus asks as I take another sip of water. I shake my head. "You turned away from a weapon, never do that or you could get stabbed in the back as easily as you could trip." He says. I nod. "Don't try to out run the heavier armor, try to take it away, be careful of your frontal bones, there the easiest to clobber." Belle says patting my sweaty shoulder.
I nod removing my sweat covered head piece. Cato kisses my cheek as he fastens his head gear around his small pink ears, I pant walking back towards the group of tributes. They would call us all into the capitol in two weeks, due to the missing female tribute from one, we would all be put into one jar instead of sending the usual one boy one girl.
Cato is dispensed a heavy pixelated orange axe. Enny walks up picking up her spear. "I'll take top." Cato says as he hefts himself up a metal latter. He opens the bullet proof glass door at the top leaning over the metal railing to blow me a kiss. I roll my eyes as Belle catches this action, and acts upon it, pretending to jump in front of me to take the kiss from its path towards me. Cato laughs turning into the glass room.
A blue-white metallic forest begins to grow, the atom generator on the floor working so fast you can barely see the objects spring into mocks of what they resemble. Cato hides in a bundle of trees, holding his axe to his chest. I smile sitting next to Brutus.
The past few months had been tiresome, all of the role-play arena's made me feel like a child again. We had several bloodbaths throughout the day, we were timed on everything, and put back in shape. I remember the day when I'd noticed the lack of Maren Marx's beer belly. He had won the twelfth hunger games, a chubby red- headed sixteen year old, I'd never seen a sign of any muscles on this fat drunk, but over the past months the poor old man had slimmed down.
Belle and I walk over into the training center, being dismissed from the role-play sector by Brutus. We head over to the weights preparing out usual exercises. I take the fifty pound medicine ball. Steading my weight. I square my legs slowly, I heft the heavy metallic ball over my head.
Belle already swings the heads off several of the mechanical droids, her rages scream shocks me. I smile thrusting the ball into a nearby wall I twist around flipping over several of the warm-up machines and treadmills. I twist it from its crackling dent in the wall. I smash it into the body of a bot, tearing through the torso. I tackle it, pulling its head in- between my soft fingers.
Belle lifts me by my collar throwing me into another of the bots, I land with a hard thud my bones aching as I lift my head. This is the usual way we invite each other to fight. A ringing alarm sounds, I sigh. "We'll go tomorrow." I say as the other victors begin to file out. She nods as we walk to the showers. "I'll get to kill you some more later." She says. I roll my eyes. "I wish Brute would keep the area open longer." I whine, pulling off my sweaty clothes.
Cato approaches me, his body caked in soap. He lies his temple on the wall. "What's our schedule for the rest of the day?" He asks as steam creeps around me. I untie my sweaty hair. "Pilates with Enny, Personal session with Brutus and dinner at Bell's." I say washing myself quickly. Cato wraps his hands around my bare waist. "Then a little sleepover?" He sighs. I smile nodding once. "Sure dude." I say. Belle leans from her stall to look at us. "Ew. Clove, I should tell your mom." She gags. I giggle softly, letting Cato massage the soap from my back.