Half an hour before the Games begin we're allowed to enter the Viewing Hall, the other ground floor wing opposite the Sponsorship Hall. The large central screen dominates the end wall, with three much smaller screens running in panels down the side. Couches and chairs are arranged in front of small tables, all facing the screen. Prime positions to view the show. Along both sides of the room, long tables filled with food and drinks are being stocked by white-clad servers.

At the back of the room twelve individual booths are lined up, with lockable doors and sound-proofed walls if the Mentor's guidebook is to be believed. Cupros heads straight for the whiskey so I let myself in to the booth labelled 3. Inside are two chairs, two pairs of screens and a pair of phones. A drawer under the table holds notepads and pens, a booklet of suggested sponsorship gifts and a Capitol phone directory. Everything we need to keep our tributes alive.

When I step back out the room has begun to fill up. While only official mentors and Escorts are allowed to use the booths, all victors are welcome to view from the public area if they're in town. There are plenty of extras, especially from the Career districts, who have made the pilgrimage.

Cupros is busy talking over full glasses to Tolby and Wilf so I turn away and join Seeder, Diya and Pelline, who are making the most of a tantalizing fruit platter. I'm tempted by the strawberries, but decide to wait until after the bloodbath to eat. I'd rather not sour my favourite foods by throwing them back up as I watch my tribute die.

This thought doesn't seem to bother them. Then again Diya is the youngest of the group, and has been doing this for ten years already. Their stomachs have probably learned to cope. Another woman who looks vaguely familiar joins them as I dither, and when I finally wander over she is introduced as Jackie Ledger. Another of Ten's victors, and a friend of their boy's family, though she felt too emotionally compromised to want to mentor him. They all agree he has a good chance.

I had expected we would take our places in the booths just before the Games started, but it turns out that the whole group traditionally watches the bloodbath from the public area as there's no point in sending gifts during the early fighting.

When the screen finally lights up I find myself clenching the glass of water in my hand so tight that my whole body starts shaking. Seeder, with her years of wisdom, pries the glass from my hands and shoves me into the closest couch. Diya sits down beside me and says, "Don't worry, it'll be over in a flash."

And that's the sad truth.

The tributes rise on their platforms into a bleak, flat landscape almost identical to the one I drew for Allasan. When they cut around the circle I see she is three places along from the boy from One and when the gong rings he ignores the boy from Eleven and the girl from Seven to crash-tackle her to the ground. Grabbing her slight frame, he grabs her head and smashes it several times into the metal plate until she stops flailing and droops. He sits up and wraps one hand in her hair, the other on her shoulder and twists sharply. CRACK! He leaves her in heap, half-lying on the plate as he heads for the Cornucopia.

She wasn't the smartest of girls or the prettiest, but she could have done something with her life. Now she never will because I survived last year.

Slowly, slowly I let out the breath. Someone hands me a drink, and I down it despite the alcoholic burn. My face feels wet, and I realize I must have been crying. Someone takes my empty glass and replaces it with a full one. I drink again and am almost disappointed when I taste only water. Seeder looks at me sternly and says, "I think your district has enough alcoholic issues."

She's right of course. I drink the water and the shaking slowly subsides.

The lowest small screen on the right-hand panel shows the twenty-four official Games photos. Four are already grayed out, including Allasan's. Elmett's is still colored. I look for him in the different camera viewpoints on the smaller screens and eventually spot him running into the grassy plains. He has a small pack looped over his shoulder and a knife in his hand. Better than I'd hoped for him.

On the big screen the bloodbath is still going. The girl from One and the pair from Four have taken up defensive positions around the central supplies, while their allies do most of the fighting. When they're not fighting, the other Careers start gathering up supplies, piling them where their allies can defend. It looks like they don't want anyone getting away with much useful, though their main competition has already beaten them to the mark.

Jessi from Eight and Osbern from Ten both have packs and weapons, and even Tansy from Seven has got her hands on supplies, if not the axe she was after. I feel Seeder stiffen beside me and she whispers, "You stupid boy. We told you not to. We told you."

Sure enough, the dark-skinned boy from Eleven has made a run at an unclaimed spear, and actually gets it in hand when Brutus and Malachite corner him against the rear of the Cornucopia.

"Well, well," Brutus says with a laugh. "What do we have here? A rat with a stick? Don't you know rats belong on sticks."

The boy's eyes dart to the small gap between them and he forces himself upright, bluffing bravado.

"Who you calling a rat? Are you too scared to fight me that you got to go two on one for a little rat like me?"

Malachite snarls and charges him. The boy takes the opportunity to side-step him and make a run for it. Brutus bends over and picks up a chunky metal loop, hefting it in his hand before he throws. He connects with the boy's skull, a dull thud on the microphones as the boy collapses with a moan, not dead, but dazed enough that he can't get off all-fours before they reach him. Lazily Brutus hooks the spear away with his foot and kicks out, catching the boy in the ribs.

"Oh Barnard, why didn't you listen," Seeder says beside me.

Barnard groans as Malachite kicks him again, then screams as the third kick takes him lower. He curls into a ball, which only prompts a fourth kick—Brutus again—this time to the base of his spine.

Malachite laughs and bends over to retrieve the spear.

"Rat on a stick you said?"

The razor-sharp point rams through Barnard's stomach and he curls around it with an agonized moan. Without a word I rise from my seat and walk the short distance to the tables, where Pelline hands me a spare cup, already brimming with something pungent and gold.

I pass it to Seeder, who downs it the same way I did a few minutes ago while she watches the boy from her district writhe. Another glance at the photos screen shows me her girl is already gone. At least I still have someone to hope for.

Back at the Cornucopia the Careers aren't done yet. The four remaining allies have surrounded the surprisingly agile boy from Twelve, though they can't keep him still long enough to hit him down. While they're busy the girl from Five is grabbing armfuls of supplies from their now unguarded stash. She gets two packs, a knife and another smaller bag before they notice her, and when two of them turn to chase her the boy from Twelve runs through the gap and claims a pack of his own.

Flora eventually catches up to the girl from Five, and the short-lived fight comes to its inevitable conclusion. The boy escapes though, barrelling through the knee-high grass towards the tiny patch of trees about a mile away. The six split up to gather the rest of the strewn supplies while Barnard continues to moan.

After ten minutes Zirconia from One gets sick of the noise and cuts his throat, and the Gamemakers fire the cannons. All eight of them. A slightly below average bloodbath, and a quick one, though the wide open plains and tiny patches of shelter should make easy hunting.

As the chatter picks up through the room I look once more to the photo screen, this time paying attention to both rows of pictures. Allasan is gone of course. The girl from Five, both from Six and the boy from Seven. Barnard and the girls from Eleven and Twelve.

More survivors thanks to the Careers taking the defensive option. Objectively I'm not sure they made the right choice, as their main competition still escaped with useful supplies and weapons. Then I realize I'm thinking about the most efficient way to kill children and decide to find something else to do.

A gentle tap on the shoulder makes me whirl, and Glory Winchester raises his hands with an apologetic smile. "Hey, sorry about your girl."

"It's…it's…"

"It's what our district expected him to do," he says with a shrug.

"I…know," I tell him. I did know, and it's nice to see that he's not gloating about it.

He shrugs again and says, "Better luck with your boy," before heading for his booth.

"He's not a bad sort," Diya says, appearing beside me with drinks in hand. I take one, but make myself sip only. Seeder was right about enough alcoholics.

We wander back over to a group of three, all mentors who have already lost their tributes, and when Tolby raises his glass we all drink. The pair from Six have already disappeared and Marcie from Twelve is hobbling into her booth, still looking sour. Not that she could be blamed, mentoring for all twenty-six years alone without bringing a single person back.

They're the only district with a single victor. The first victor, though there's no record of her Games that I remember seeing. Only a name in a history book next to a number. Right after the Dark Days I can't imagine it was a particularly Capitol-friendly Games.

In fact, the earliest I can remember seeing anything from was a snippet of the 7th Games, where a boy from District Two went on a savage rampage. The arena was half a mile across and the tributes entered from gates in the wall, running for the pile of weapons and medic kits in the middle.

Back then the Games rarely lasted the day, according to the books, though it wasn't long after that that they went to the more modern format. Made it less of a contest of strength and more a challenge of survival. Possibly because only two of the first ten victors were girls.

Sometimes I hate having a good memory.

Cupros assures me that he has everything under control, but wouldn't mind a break after the evening interviews are done. I make one final round of the food platters and head back upstairs to call Allasan's family, and to write down something coherent about a girl I barely knew whose body is still lying crumpled beside her starting platform.

~xXx~

Even with words written on a card and memorized, the final interview is hard. Caesar does his best to help me, but by the end of the ten minutes I'm struggling to get two or more words strung together. He answers the last question himself and releases me from my duty. Diya is on next and pats my arm as she passes, stony faced. She's had a fair bit of practice with first night interviews.

I reach the Training Centre lifts before remembering I promised Cupros a break, and change direction back to the other wing. There's still a handful of people in the public area, mostly non-mentor victors from the Career districts.

Cupros and Gloria are both in the booth when I open the door, the latter nattering away about something. He practically leaps out of the seat when he sees me, tells me not to do anything unless Elmett ends up in an immediate disaster and leaves.

"I do hope he's going to meet with those sponsors I was telling him about," Gloria says with a sniff.

"Why Felinus Drake and Inigo Bermann are just the…."

I tone her out and take his vacated seat, flicking the lever on the chair until it drops comfortably level with the screens. The left-hand side looks to be the main camera view, currently showing the Career pack feasting on apples and crackers. As in my year there is friendly banter between them, verging on unfriendly edges every now and then, with hands occasionally closing on weapons and suspicious looks thrown at turned backs.

The other screen is focused on Elmett, split to show a near and far camera angle. He's huddled down by a patch of bushes, sorting through his provisions. The pack is bigger than the one I escaped with, holding a few days' worth of food, a water bottle, some rope and wire, matches, and a collection of palm-sized metal loops like the one Brutus threw at Barnard.

They would have been useful to me as simple pulley rigs, but in this essentially tree-less arena they're of considerably less use. Elmett seems to have something in mind for them though, and toys with a grass stem for a bit before smiling.

In the fading light he pulls out the rope and ties the hard metal loops to one end, knotting repeatedly until they don't jingle. When he's done he coils it up in his hand and throws it suddenly in front of him, and I realize what he's after. A weapon with a bit of range to it, the weighted rope-end to be twirled and slammed into an opponent. It won't last long against anyone with a blade, but I suppose it could be of some use.

This done, he lies back in the grass and closes his eyes until the blare of the anthem announces the death recap. I watch his face show the tiniest flicker of emotion when Allasan's photo appears, then shift my attention to the screen on the left, which shows the full death scenes.

Allasan's is first, followed by Ava from Five, who goes down again to Flora's sword-thrust. Brutus hacks down the girl from Six. Four's boy spears Six's boy through the leg, then finishes him off with a blow to the neck. Brutus again, before he had the machete. He grabs the small boy from Seven and twists his neck with a laugh. After Sparrow's effort last year I'm not surprised to see him take out the nimble thirteen-year-old.

Zia from One finishes off Seeder's girl after Halga from Four wounds her, but seems unwilling to finish the job. She also technically gets the kill for Barnard, though they show Malachite and Brutus beating and spearing him first.

Malachite also accounts for the girl from Twelve, though she's already dazed from a hit from Eight's boy, him winning the tussle for a small loaf of bread.

Done with the death recap, they cut around the remaining tributes in turn, showing the Careers preparing for a night hunt and arguing about who will stay behind to guard their precious supplies.

Elmett practising with his rope again. The boy from Five alternates between lying in the grass and forcing himself into a stumbling run. Tansy from Seven seems to be heading for another distant patch of trees. Not surprising for someone from the lumber district. Jessi from Eight has found a shallow pool of water ringed by bushes, and is gathering the leaves. The boy from Eight seems to be walking in circles, constantly looking over his shoulder as he takes small bites from his bread.

The pair from Nine appear to be working together, though they only managed a bag of crackers and two plastic sheets from the Cornucopia. Osbern is tying the rope from his pack into a loop and staring at the stars. His female counterpart is curled up in the grass crying. She's bleeding from cuts across her face and shoulder, though I didn't see who from.

The boy from Twelve is still close to the Cornucopia, crouched in the grass a few hundred yards away, watching the Careers argue.

It focuses back on their group where the argument continues between Brutus and Zia from One, still debating who should stand guard.

"…of course I said to him…"

It takes me a moment to remember Gloria is still there, still yammering on about something or another.

There's a note-pad and pen beside the phones. I pick it up and start drawing as the Careers finally head out, the opposite direction to Elmett's location.

~xXx~

Cupros arrives back around three in the morning. I groggily raise my head from the eleven pages I've filled with engine drawings as the booth door opens. I'd tried checking back every half-hour or so to see if Elmett was still fine, but lost track of time at some point, and apparently dozed off. I don't remember Gloria leaving.

One last look shows our boy is sleeping fitfully, knife in hand. The four Careers out hunting—Malachite, the pair from Two and the boy from Four—have passed Twelve's hiding place, but have looped back around, and are nearing the girl from Ten.

I don't want to watch them find her and head up to bed as Cupros takes over the chair.

I'm not sure if I'm dreaming or simply replaying her death over and over in my mind, but I do wake with a start to a blare of sunlight and a repetitive ringing. It takes me a few seconds to realize it's the phone.

When I hear Plutarch's voice on the other end I clap a hand over my mouth to stifle the groan and try to focus on what he's saying. Engine. Miniature prototype. Modifications. Today at twelve.

I glance at my watch, which shows quarter past eleven. I doubt Cupros will thank me if I disappear, though I suppose he's used enough to Beetee doing it.

I tell Plutarch I'll be there and have a quick shower and breakfast before heading downstairs. Cupros is sitting on the couches with Tolby, Boyd, and old Abram from Ten. Elmett's photo is still lit. The girl from Ten's is faded out.

"Come to relieve me?" Cupros asks as I reach them.

"I have to…go…"

He rolls his eyes and waves me away. "Go then. Make sure they're willing to pay if our boy needs the money."

His way of reminding me that I'm still being helpful to our tribute. I go feeling less guilty, and pretend not to see Gloria waving as I slip out the door. Two reporters ambush me briefly on the building steps and follow along as I keep walking, asking about my thoughts on Allasan's death and Elmett's continued chances. I tell them to go watch last night's interview and pretend not to hear any more questions until we reach the workshop. Thankfully they don't try to follow me inside.

I spend the rest of the day happily losing myself in the demands of technology. The engineers have put together several hand-sized versions of the hovercraft engine with various suggested changes for testing. Two of them work better than the original.

Damascus Riley shows me how to use the high power laser cutter and 3D plastics printer, though I can't do anything of my own without the computer drawing software. I beg and he promises to send me a copy that I can use at home.

There's a large screen playing the Games on the rear wall, though the workshop noise drowns out the sound. The few times I look, nothing interesting is happening. As we near four in the afternoon and the workers start heading home the boy from Twelve tries to raid the Cornucopia. He thinks it's unguarded but the boy from Four is lurking in the entrance and quickly puts an end to his plans and existence.

I walk back through a busier crowd; the Games are a holiday of sorts here in the Capitol, though plenty of the workers are still working, albeit shorter hours. Back home, factory shifts and school hours are adjusted around the mandatory viewing instead, leaving everyone sleep-deprived and miserable. Though most people back home wouldn't want to miss out on the pay. Making ends meet is hard enough as is.

There's a few more people around in the Viewing Hall, settling in to eat dinner while watching the big screen. Gloria meets me at the door to our booth to inform me that Cupros went to rest four hours ago and she's been looking after Elmett all by herself since. Not that she actually did anything.

I grab a plate of food and join Nio and Olivia, both of whom still have their tribute alive. Olivia's girl has reached the patch of trees and found a small rodent-like creature to kill and cook. Nio's boy is a long way from anyone, and is plucking uncertainly at the grass stalks around him. He keeps coughing and Nio tells me that he hasn't had any water since the start.

The pair from Nine have found Jessi's water-hole and are whispering together a hundred yards away, crouched behind a lonely tree. Elmett has found his own small pool of water near another patch of bushes, and appears to be trying to fish with his wire, to no avail.

The Career pack are resting after an afternoon tussle with a gigantic bird. They are currently roasting chunks of it over a coal fire, courtesy of a generous sponsor.

The collection of Career victors in the Viewing Hall start a rowdy drinking game around eight and I retreat into the booth to watch Elmett give up on fishing and practice with his rope. I fall asleep again in the chair and wake suddenly to a hand shaking my shoulder.

As the blind panic clears I realize I have the man who was behind our stall in the Sponsorship Hall pinned by the throat to the wall and let go with a stammered apology. He smiles ruefully, rubbing his throat, and tells me he should have known better. Apparently there's a couple who want to talk sponsorship deals. Cupros isn't here yet. I hate talking, but I go to meet Mr and Mrs Rainbird, and their little dog Gemmit. An hour later we have another sponsor and I have a headache and a bad case of the shakes.

I hear a cannon fire as I walk through the door back into the Viewing Room, and for a moment I think it was all for nothing. But no, it's the boy from Eight. Wilf swears and throws his glass at the wall, sending a cascade of shards onto the assorted cheeses below it.

The boy from Four is wiping off his knife, his district partner beside him looking green in the face. I'd guess they cornered Wilf's boy and made their non-volunteer ally prove herself. It looks like she failed. We can only hope that it causes dissent in their alliance; if they break early and kill one-another off then Elmett's chances will go through the roof.

Cupros is back in the booth again. He's just sent Elmett more food and water purifiers. The nearest tribute to him, Nio's boy, is over a mile away and relatively harmless. There's nothing else for us to do but wait.