Royce Covington, 18
District 1 Male
This is the scariest day since I found out that I've been in the Hunger Games by my parent's dollar. Today is the day that I'm going to have to put everything I've trained for to the test, and even though I'm technically not as good as I thought I was, I don't think my skills are as abysmal as I have forced myself to believe lately.
"You nervous?" asks Vanity. "First up has to be nerve-wracking, but remember that we are District 1, and even though we might be nervous, we are strong, Royce."
"Thanks for the pick me up."
That I didn't ask for.
I stand up and do a couple of stretches as I wait for the assistant to come and announce it is my time to go in. Vanity looks cool as a cucumber as she sits there with headphones in her ears, and I don't get it. How does she manage just to stay calm and focus on what she's doing?
It's because she earned her spot, Royce.
"Okay, the first rule of sword fighting is always keep your sword up," I start going over the training reminders that we were taught in the academy. If I can remember the basics, I'm at least better off than most of the other tributes, which came in with absolutely zero training, right? How often in the games do the careers even win?
And there's a simple reason. Why they might have all the skills required to accomplish their goals, they still lack the ability to control their ego. That seems to be the case for Hecate, for Gerard, and even Vanity. Kilee tries to have an ego, but I can see through it, and Alon is just neutral.
This is not your death sentence.
I remind myself of the boy from 6 that won a few years back at 16 years old. He was the youngest victor to date, and even though he won because he was the only one that didn't have a severe injury and could avoid the falling rocks, he still made it to the final three. He beat the District 4 girl and the District 1 boy.
"They're ready for your Royce."
I turn and see the assistant, a pretty blonde girl with freckles, standing in the doorway. She smiles and waves me into the room, and I follow her into the room with a confident stride.
"Hello, Gamemakers," I say, looking at the confidently walking up to the sword station. Our escort said to be confident. Be assertive, and don't bother asking for permission. They'll frown against that.
"I need a volunteer to spar with," I say.
"Well actually, you don't," A female with dirty blonde hair stands up from the couch and walks to the edge of the platform that the Gamemakers are sitting at. " I appreciate the enthusiasm, but things are going to be a little different this year, Royce," she says. "My name is Eden Grant, and I am this year's Head Gamemaker. My brother Seth and I designed a bit of a simulation that will test your skills in the game with real-life scenarios."
Crap. This wasn't what I was intending to do.
"If you're going to get that high school I know you upper Districts just crave, you're going to have to earn it." She descends the stairs in a dark red dress and motions for me to follow her to the center of the room. She has me stand next to her when the floor opens up, and a machine sprouts from the ground. She has me sit down and places a helmet with glasses over my face.
"Good luck, Royce,"
My vision goes black before I'm staring at an underwater cavern. There is a timer going off, and there is an oxygen tank on me that has less than 60 seconds before it runs out of air. I look to my left and see tributes I've never seen gearing up to swim to the cornucopia where there are fresh tanks of oxygen sitting.
This is it.
The gong sounds, and I instantly start swimming away from my platform. I swim as hard as I can until I come up to a tank and attach it to the scuba gear that I was given at the start of the games. Using my old tank, I smack a girl in the head that was about to reattach a new oxygen tank. She had a giant 12 on her jacket.
She tries to swim up to the surface for air, but when she almost gets to the top, she hits a glass wall. She bangs around on it until I drag her down to the watery surface and snap her neck. I turn to my left and see the boy from 3 attempting the same thing, but this time when I get to him, he has a knife that he slashes me with unexpectedly.
My oxygen tank gets a leak, but I manage to grab the knife out of his hand and slam it into his head, stealing his scuba gear.
The world suddenly goes black, and I wake up back in the room with the Gamemakers. I am gasping for breath as my mind starts to realize that that was not real—just a mere simulation.
"Very nice, Royce," repeats Eden from atop the platform. "Your score will be out later tonight."
Emerson Gepler, 17
District 5 Female
Imagine being someone that is not only hella powerful but insanely beautiful. It must be nice to have everything in the world that people could possibly want, Ms. Grant.
"Emerson," she asks me as I sit down in the chair. "Are there any last-minute questions you have for me regarding how this is going to look?"
"I'm just going to be thrown into a random simulation?"
"Yes," she says, setting the helmet on my head. "A random scenario, a random simulation, with random tributes. Be careful and good luck."
My vision goes dark, and I wait for some simulation to turn on. The longer I wait, the more I get a little freaked out. I stick my right hand out in front of me, and I can barely make out the outline of where it is.
I'm not waiting for the simulation to start. I'm in the simulation.
"You mean to tell me you put me in a plain dark simulation-"
A giant roar fills the room, and I let out a scream as I see fire appear from the center of what looks to be a cavern. I haven't moved an inch since the simulation started, and I'm glad I didn't because, by the looks of it, I am surrounded by pointy rocks.
"You idiot!" some girl screams at me as fire is blown again. "You woke the stupid thing up!"
My heart drops as I see the outline of what looks to be a dragon blowing fire around the room. It looks at me and starts to move toward me, and I'm frozen. The closer it gets, the closer I remember that this isn't real. This is a simulation.
I jump from my rock to another one that looks flatter around me. The flatter rocks lead to a path that looks like a rocky maze. I run to one of the long hallways of the labyrinth and duck behind a corner right as the dragon itself enters the labyrinth.
"Seriously, Ms. Grant?" I say, looking in various places of the camera. "I better get full marks for this."
I continue to run throughout the maze with the dragon right behind me. Now and then, it shoots fire, and I barely escape the hot blast.
You can only run for so long, Emerson.
I duck into a corner, and the dragon runs right past me. As it continues to run, I use this opportunity to run in the opposite direction of the maze and exit the maze. I fall to the ground and take a deep breath as the dragon once again shoots fire into the darkroom, and I look around to see myself surrounded by other tributes.
"You almost got us killed!" hisses the girl from before I went into the maze. "You're a liability. We might all need to die, but you die first!"
The charge at me, and I barely dodge the first stabbing motion from one of them as the fire continues to burn. I notice that they're not as mobile when the fire is not being blown, and I use the darkness to my advantage as I weave in and out of the circle they tried to place me in.
The girl attempts to stab me again, but this time I was expecting it and slid to the right. Her knife embedded into the chest of one of the other tributes surrounding me, and she screams in rage as she starts slinging her blade around without any plan.
"You'll die, 5!" she screams again.
The fire lights again, and I once again try and step to the side of where they aren't looking, but this time my face is met with a punch. I fall on my back and hit my head on the rocky ground as the girl climbs on top of me and stabs me in my shoulder.
This sure doesn't feel like a simulation.
"Goodbye, 5!"
The darkness disappears, and I snap back into the gym with my hands covering my face. I take a deep breath and remind myself that I'm not in the arena yet. That's just happening tomorrow night.
"You did way better than we were expecting."
Eden Grant is quickly making notes about what she saw in the simulation on a small computer. She looks up and smiles at me. "My favorite part was when you called me out in the middle of the simulation. Not only was it funny, but impressive. Most people don't remember they're in a simulation due to the realness they see. Your brain, while trying to survive, never went into panic mode."
"No," I say, shaking my head. "I never went into panic mode, but that hurt like a bitch," I say as she laughs, and her assistant shows me the exit to the room.
Alon Harlequin, 18
District 4 Male
The simulation snaps me into place, and I'm standing in an open grassy field surrounded by other tributes. There is a giant tree in the center of the field, and the timer hangs off of it. When it strikes zero, everyone makes a running start for the tree, but I stand back and allow the chaos to ensue.
I watch as tributes get hit with swords and knives, and blood spatters the field all around us. I start to move off my launchpad and make my way around the violence to the opposite end of the tree. As I attempt to sneak by, another tribute runs up behind me, slamming me to the ground.
"You're dead, 4!"
They're met with an arrow in their head from out of nowhere, and they fall on top of me. A beautiful girl with olive skin appears standing over him. I lay down on the ground playing dead as she pulls the arrow out of the back of his head and runs back to join the action happening in the center of the field.
I lay there with the dead boy on top of me and wait to make sure that the olive-skinned girl is gone before pushing him off of me and continuing my plight to the other side of the tree.
When I finally get there, I look around and see a tiny path that leads to the top of the tree, and I begin to climb up to the top. When I get there, I'm able to see the inside fold of the trunk where all the supplies are. The careers are currently guarding it led by the girl with olive skin. She is shooting arrows left and right, and I know that I have to stop her.
She's too big a threat.
I look around for something I can use as a weapon but soon realize that the only weapons in this arena are under me where they are guarding the supplies.
"Damnit! Think, Alon. Think."
The timer that told us when we could step off our platform is hanging by two ropes directly above the tributes with the supplies. "I can drop it on them," I mutter to myself. "But, I need something to help cut the ropes."
A white box falls from the sky as if the sponsors could hear my innermost thoughts. It is a long box that isn't wider than an oar used for rowing a boat. I open up the box and see an extremely sharp katana sitting in the box.
"Perfect, I say as I pick it up and take a few practice swings before walking over to the timer and slicing through both of the ropes in one fell swoop.
The timer crashes against the tree and falls at an angle on top of most of the tributes that were guarding the supplies. The olive-skinned girl barely sidestepped the large iron timer and looks up at me with rage in her eyes.
"You're dead!" she shouts as she runs over to the tree and begins to climb up. I immediately make my way for the path that leads down, and before long, I have feet on solid ground. I start to run for the field when an arrow narrowly misses me. I turn my head to the right and see the arrow intended for my head sitting in the tree.
"Those were my allies you killed," she sneers as she takes another arrow out of her pouch and strings it in the bow. "You're going to die for that."
Before she can release the arrow, I run at her with the katana and swing for her face. She easily sidesteps me and punches me square in the back, causing me to fall over and lose my breath. The katana falls out of my hand, and she kicks it away into the field.
"Any last words?" she asks me as she strings her arrow and aims it at my head. "To think, you killed your own District partner," she says as she releases the arrow.
I manage to roll to the side, but the arrow still pierces my ear. I let out a roar as I wrap my legs around the girl's and trip her to the ground. I attempt to climb on top of her, but she manages to punch me in my groin, and I fall over, clutching my stomach.
"You men are so easy to overcome," she says, wiping blood from her face "One little punch is all it takes you're on your back crying like a baby."
She takes an arrow from her pouch and walks over to stand above me. She smiles as she brings it down, but I reach up and grab her hand. A game of war erupts as she pushes the arrow down toward my throat, and I push her hand away.
Who's going to lose-
With a sudden burst of strength, she slams the arrow down on my neck.
I snap back into the gym, covered in sweat. The Gamemakers are whispering among themselves, switching from looking at their notes and back at me. "Very good, Alon," says Eden. "You can look for your score later this evening."
Dwindela Aluchi, 18
District 9 Female
What feels like hours have passed since my future husband has been called into the room and done his private sessions. What is taking so long this year? I thought that the sessions were only supposed to last fifteen minutes?
Every time someone walks out of the room, they look more frazzled than the last. I am starting to get nervous that I will not be able to do very well if some of the strongest people in this game are struggling.
Oh, please, Dwindela. You're the Rose Petal Killer.
"Dwindela?" the assistant says from the door. "They're ready for you now."
I walk down the hall and into the training room and see a pretty blonde girl standing next to a chair. She reminds me of Adele. A smile creeps on my face as I remember the life draining from her eyes.
"I've been waiting for you," says the blonde girl with a smile. "Your District partner had a lot to say about who you were and what you were capable of. So I am going to put that to the test."
That rat! I'll kill him personally when we get to the arena.
I sit down on the chair and smile as innocently as I can as she puts a helmet onto my head. I am suddenly standing in a boxing ring where the same blonde girl stands in a tuxedo suit and has a microphone that is dangling from the ceiling.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" she says, getting the hype up. "Welcome to the Hunger Games: A Tournament of Blood!"
The crowd hoots and hollers as a man doubling in size to me, stands in the opposite end of the ring. His muscles are bulging, and the sword he has next to him is daunting. I look around to see what weapons I have, and a single sickle is sitting next to me.
Perfect.
"In this corner, we have the 260-pound tank, Christoph Lemmings!"
The giant man stands up with his sword and points it at me. He then uses his finger to slash across his neck, and I resist the urge to laugh. "And in this corner, we have the sickle swinging, Dwindela Aluchi!"
The crowd screams as she says my name, and I barely hear the bell ring. The giant man picks his sword up and steps into the middle of the ring. "You know the drill," says the blonde lady. "Two enter, one leaves, anything goes."
She motions for us to shake hands, but I refuse his handshake as I walk back to my corner and grab my sickle. He looks upset as he begins to practice swinging his sword around.
"Let the round commence."
For a fat guy, Christoph Lemmings can move with fast agility. He runs at me with a full force, and I barely have time to bring my sickle up to block his sword from swinging into my head before he takes a step back, once again swinging his sword hard.
Well, this just got interesting.
I take a step to the side, and he swings his sword into the rubber edges of the boxing ring. He screams in frustration as I swing my sickle directly into his right arm. He screams as I bring the sickle back and swing again, but this time he saw me coming and steps out of the way in time.
"You'll pay for that, little bitch!" He screams as he ferociously and without aiming swings his sword around the ring. I take a step back and tuck myself into a ball, throwing myself under his legs as he looks confused. "Fight like a woman-"
He is cut off as I swing my sickle into the back of his head. Red blood splatters to the floor as he coughs and sinks to his knees. I walk around to look him in the face. "Don't ever call me a bitch," I say as I reach around to the back of his head and pull the sickle out. His eyes gloss over, and his lifeless body falls to the floor.
I return to the gym feeling triumphant as the blonde lady looks at me with fear in her eyes. My heart flutters with the idea that she knows that I'm more powerful than her. Nobody can hurt me.
"That was…" she begins but cuts off. "That was very surprising, Dwindela. Nicely done."
I laugh as she motions for her assistant to show me the door, and I walk out of the room with my head held high. Nobody can stop me.
I am invincible.
Eden Grant, 25
CEO of Grant Enterprises
"We're live in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."
The cameraman cues me in, and I smile as the little green light appears on my teleprompter that there's no way in hell I'm using.
"Good evening, Panem. My name is Eden Grant. Head Gamemaker for the 60th Hunger Games and CEO of Grant Enterprises. Tonight we have a treat as we are about to reveal the training scores for the 24 tributes that are entering the arena in less than a day!"
Soundboard applause fills the room, and I resist the urge to feign barfing at the cheesiness of this all. "There was something that I wanted to address. This year, the interviews are going to be a little different. I am going to host a grand party. All of the celebrities and people willing to pay top dollar will get an invitation to interact with the tributes for a night. They will have single interviews on stage with Mr. Flickerman throughout the night, but the main event will be the scoring from the partygoers, and you back home watching the interviews."
Oohs and ahhs fill the room, and I can't help but feel excited about this twist. People will love this. An interactive interview? Daddy was out of touch with what's going on in society. People want a voice. They want to feel like they matter.
"You will download an app and score the tributes based on qualities such as charm, likability, and conversationalist. If you want them to get sponsors, this is something you want them to do well in. The tribute with the highest score will get a special prize while in the arena. If they make it through the bloodbath."
I flip my hair over my left shoulder and wave to the camera. "But that's enough from me. Let's get those scores!"
Training Scores
Royce- 8
Vanity- 10
Gerard- 10
Hecate- 10
Celio- 4
Jenava- 3
Kilee- 5
Alon- 6
Spike- 4
Emerson- 6
Luster- 3
Maeve- 4
Cullen- 5
Hazel- 5
Kallel- 4
Twine- 3
Patrick- 5
Dwindela- 8
Othniel- 5
Saiz- 3
Djuvicko- 2
Chrysanthemum- 4
Darren- 2
Madison- 5
What did you think of this chapter? What do you think of the scoring system? News flash: You're the capitolite! Go to my profile page and vote for your favorite tribute! The winner will get a prize that I will distribute after the bloodbath!
Congratulations to FabulousAbby for winning the Jenava placement contest!
Also, thank you for 197 reviews! That's crazy! Thank you so much for reading and reviewing my story! I hope you like reading it as much as I have loved writing it!
Hope to hear from you soon,
Caleb