Enjoy!

Chapter 21: Techno
The Game Maker and the Gadget.

The next mourning I am brought to the hovercraft. There, the rest of the tributes and myself are put aboard and we are set off to whatever the arena could possibly be. Once we land, I find that we're in some underground place. We are each led to a room where we meet with our stylist. I am dressed in the same clothing I wore in the training center with the addition of a hooded jacket.

Afterwards, I am put in a glass cylinder and raised into the arena to find that we are placed at the tip of a snow capped mountain, with bunches of forest running down it. I turn to see if it has a bottom but it appears to continue going down into the abyss. I turn to see the giant golden cornucopia in front of us.

The gong rings and I rush towards it. Halfway there, I am tackled to the ground by Reinzac who begins to choke me. I kick him to get him off of me and I eventually hit a weak spot. I scrabble up and run. All around me I can see people being killed; Aura is getting slashed by Bala with his spear, Oralae is killed by Glamour with her flail, eventually Reinzac is killed by Arma, and most shockingly of all, Jacob is killed by Thalia. Just as I get to the cornucopia, Crescent comes out of no where and BAM!

There's an axe in my head. I slip into nothingness and try to scream or yell but nothing happens. I fall to the ground and everything goes black. I haven't even survived the Cornucopia bloodbath...

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I suddenly wake up yelling my head off just to find that I'm still in the Capitol. I hug my pillow finally realizing that tomorrow will be the end of countless lives. I quietly weep into the pillow and lift my head. I am about to get a glass of water and wash off my face of tears.

That's when I see it. A dark shadow is sitting in a chair across the room from me. I quickly turn on the lights to see that it's the head Game Maker. But that's not all. He's holding my token. He's holding my gadget.

"What are you doing here?" I ask abruptly.

"Well, we were examining all of the tokens and then we came across yours," he says.

"Is there something wrong with it?" I ask innocently.

"I was hoping that you could tell me. We've had previous victors from District 3 come in to check on it. They've broken it down, reassembled it, and they can't seem to figure out what it does. It seems to them that its just a small cylinder that is full of wires. Now, I'm not going to be fooled by a thirteen year old boy so tell me. What does this thing do?"

I start to chuckle at this. I knew it was going to have to come down to this sooner or later.

"It deceives people," I laugh.

"What?" asks the Game Maker.

"That's what it does," I say, "Well actually that's what I do. But it's a prop. I can't do anything. It can't even generate electricity from it. It's just designed to look like it can do something really cool."

"Really?" says the Game Maker, "Prove it."

"Well you already did that for me," I say, "It's so basic that you've already been told what it does by the victors of District 3. It does nothing."

"Then why did you make it?" he asks.

"I already told you that," I say, "To deceive people. Kids my age… Kids my age never make it in the games. Not unless they have something they can use. This empty, good for nothing, cylinder is what I can use to make people think that I have something that I can give them, something that only I know how to use."

"But if it gives you an advantage like that…"

"But it's not the one giving me the advantage. I am. I'm the one who will be lying to these people telling them that it can do something great…So the cat's out of the bag I guess."

Now it's the Game makers turn to laugh. He sits back and chuckles like Santa Claus.

"What's so funny?" I ask.

"You," he says, "You're a clever one. And you're right. Kids under the age of fourteen never win. But hey there's a first time for everything."

"So…" I say, "You think I have a shot at winning?"

"I think you might be just clever enough to do it," he says, "But just remember that if they ever figure out that you're lying about what it does, or if I ever figure out that you're lying about what it does, then you'll be dead. You'll have to be careful with something like this."

"I understand," I say, "But trust me, I'm not lying to you."

"I trust you," he says, "And that's why I'm doing this."

He walks over and tosses the gadget into my lap.

"Really?" I exclaim, "Oh thank you so much!"

"Good luck kid," he says while on his way out, "And may the odds be ever in your favor."

Then he leaves. I smile because as of right now. The odds are defiantly in my favor. However not for the reasons one would expect. What I told him was the honest to god truth. This gadget does nothing. Anyone from District 3 would be able to tell that simply by looking at it.

The real reason that the odds were in my favor was because I had been scared that he wouldn't believe me, and confiscate it from me. If he had done that, then the events of my dream might actually come true. I sit there and hope that the events of that dream won't happen. And I swear, if tomorrow I look up and see the arena as the top of a snow capped mountain, I will die just by seeing it.

Alright, so that's what the gadget does. Not what you expected was it. Review!