Thirteen – The Wire
The Alliances – Division One (5.1)
After a hearty dinner, we go to watch Wiress' Games. It's only the four of us for tonight. Martinus doesn't seem to care about these Games, and disappeared to do whatever.
Until now, Radia is still on a high after Beetee's Games, coming up with a bunch of ideas that she could perform in the arena. On the other hand, I'm feeling a little deflated, but I figure the more I watch, the more I know what to expect. Beetee's Games isn't a great cross-reference to a usual Games, and judging from Martinus' indifference, Wiress might demonstrate that I won't have to be spectacular as Beetee.
As it was with Beetee's tape, the film begins with a smash cut of the reapings. Jovan points out which tributes are important and which ones have the most gruesome deaths so we can brace ourselves. Wiress Conduit gets reaped, in her long dark brown hair and short stature, followed by Tucric Latier.
Latier. Our heads turn towards Beetee.
"My younger cousin." he clarifies, but he doesn't seem to be fazed.
"I'm sorry." Radia and I both say. I further believe the reaping isn't as fair as it seems. Relatives of victors are often chosen to be tributes, even though they probably do not need to enter their name in for tesserae. It happened a few years ago. Cashmere Vallen, the sister of District 1 victor Gloss Vallen, was reaped in the following year of her brother's Games. I don't think it was intended for her to win, but she did, and the Capitol loved it. "Panem's family," they call them. The Capitol probably rigs the relatives in the Games so the victor feels that they haven't truly won, so I possibly like the brother and sister more for not allowing that.
"I have never talked to Tucric." says Beetee. I don't know if that means it's okay that Beetee never met him, or conversely, it was sad for never having the chance to meet his own cousin.
Fast forward to the opening ceremonies, and Wiress and Tucric wear silver with an insane amount of protruding spring and wires that doesn't make any sense to me. I don't think it won any favours with the crowd. The costumes from all districts were a step up from Beetee's year though.
"Welcome to the 46th Hunger Games!" booms President Snow. It was scary to see him younger, more handsome and more charming, yet still emanating the same power he has now.
The Careers may have been in full force for these Games, because they only score between 9 and 10 for training. Other tributes average a five as usual. Both Wiress and Tucric receive solid sixes.
For the interviews, we see that the tributes aren't really that interesting compared to other years. Some play a moderately funny or kind act, while the Careers are repulsively confident. Wiress spoke in one- or two-word answers to Caesar Flickerman, who is slightly younger to now but doesn't look any more different. Wiress doesn't leave much on an impression on anyone.
Transitioning to the first day of the Games, the arena finally has tributes enter on the metal platforms we see today. They stand in a clearing, surrounding a cornucopia more elegant than the one in Beetee's Games, and are being surrounded by a thick fruit forest, ringed by large, snow-capped mountains. It's noted that the only water source was on those mountains, but I'm not sure if it referred to the snow.
The countdown is up, and Wiress competes in the cornucopia, which would have been a death sentence for someone her size. But she manages to escape, only grabbing a meagre backpack before she would have had to engage in combat. Sadly, Tucric was not spared at the cornucopia. Radia and I look at Beetee but it's clear he's not looking for sympathy.
Wiress traverses in the fruit forest away from other tributes. They must have used smaller cameras by then, thanks to Beetee, since they're less obvious to find. Wiress must have spent a lot of time at the edible plants station in training, because she knew exactly which berries hanging from the low-lying branches could refuel her body, and which ones would be toxic. She stacks more of the safe fruit in her backpack for reserve. We're impressed at how well she's set up, but she needs to move on and find water.
Eleven tributes died at the cornucopia, and a few more cannons caused by the Careers signalled more deaths. Another upgrade to the Games were the collection of the corpses. I don't know how I would handle coming across an old, rotting corpse today. Anyway, Wiress was distraught to find out Tucric had been killed.
After not hearing any cannons or drinking water for a few days, Wiress finally scales the mountain using limited climbing gear she'd retrieved in the backpack. There she stayed, purifying snow she had melted in a bottle and rationing out her food. I'm afraid she might die from exposure, but of course, we know she survives this.
Only a few tributes die for the next few days, and I think the gamemakers became tired of the Careers camping at one mountain in particular. It was easier to survive there with their supplies than at the cornucopia. The gamemakers set off a few warning avalanches in the hope of scaring the tributes away from the mountains, but nobody wants to engage with the bat mutts that they've also released in the fruit forest. Disappointed, the gamemakers triggered an earthquake and avalanche at the Careers' mountain, killing all but the girl from District 2 and the boy from District 4.
This brought the numbers down to six, and Wiress appears more mentally unstable by the day. The remaining Careers are forced to find another mountain. Unfortunately it's Wiress', and she, who hasn't hurt a soul, manages to evade the violent pair. But they still chase her towards the cornucopia. She manages to hide in the forest when a Feast for tomorrow morning is announced. I don't think Feasts have been thought of before Beetee's Games. The Feast is a move by the gamemakers for when they get bored or wish bloody endgames, by sending a bounty of supplies and food on a table at the cornucopia. It often results in the tributes meeting each other, and therefore some fights. Like a second bloodbath. A lot of people don't attend because of it, but some people give in to temptation.
The next day, Wiress decides to go to the Feast, not before carelessly grabbing a handful of berries from a shrub. These Games' Feast is slightly different, delivering assigned bags for each remaining tribute by district. Wiress waits at the edge of the clearing, and as soon as the bags are set down, she runs to the cornucopia as quick as she sprinted out of there on the first day. Fast.
She drops her berries in the bag labelled '2', snatches her own, puts more berries in the bag labelled '4' and '5', and crushes the remaining berries, letting the juices flow down into the bag from '6'. I realise she was sabotaging them with poison. She also steals the untouched duffel bag, the one for District 12. I didn't know that was allowed, but apparently so. I only wish I will be as selfish and partial to do that.
Since she was the first to get there, the other tributes couldn't catch up. She left unharmed, leaving the Careers and the girl from District 5 to fight. Up two to one, the Careers easily defeat the girl with a trident to the chest. With his body painted like a tree, the boy from district 6 manages to avoid all the carnage and stealthy retrieve his bag.
However, the small girl from District 2 was badly wounded by a knife slash of the girl she helped defeat. Her ally to tries to help her in feeding her what he thought was food, but the death of the girl was hastened.
The boy was in disbelief, still seemingly thinking she died from blood loss. The stocky boy from District 12 then enters the scene. I'm surprised he lasted this long for somebody from the coal district.
"Where's my bag?" He loudly shouts.
"The small girl took it." The boy from 4 replies.
"From 3?"
"Yes." The wealthier boy says. "No way am I going to get beaten by her."
"I can't believe she stole my bag." The poor boy says. "Let's go get her."
"We've got two bags for both of us."
Losing his own, the boy from 4 created another ally real quick and the two set their sights on Wiress. They became the final three, as the camouflaged boy from District 6 had his fate sealed by a loaf of bread soaked with toxic berry juice.
Meanwhile, Wiress frantically checks both of the bags she'd retrieved. She jumps ecstatically at discovering two coils of wire. She checks their durability. Thin but extremely strong. She examines her location, and gets to work, securing the wire between two trees to a height up to her eyes. She does the same a few times to surrounding trees, some to the height of her knee.
She goes to provoke the two boys but they are already out for her. Unfortunately, she encounters the bat muttations that initially target a tribute's throat. She sprints, cowering and screaming, but luckily the bats are a little slow and easily subdued with a solid punch, so she gains distance on them.
Her screams attract the boys to her, and they chase after her, unaware of the bats behind them.
"Come here!" The boys yell.
They were closing the margin, fast. Then Wiress ducks, then jumps.
The boys did not follow her lead to duck. The boy from District 4, running at full speed, runs directly into the wire, cutting clean through his neck. His body and his head topples separately onto the ground.
However, the boy from District 12 lasted a little longer. He, too, was short, the first wire only grazing his head. Puzzled over his ally's decapitation, he does not spot the second wire Wiress jumped over. The wire snags on his foot and he falls hard on the ground, unable to go back up.
Wiress has time to turn back and catch her breath as the cannon booms, and she sees the corpse of the boy from District 4 and the pleas of the fallen boy from District 12. She wasn't celebrating. She was petrified. I notice she had never seen a dead body until that moment.
"Help me." The boy struggles. "Please."
The young Wiress could not move. At that moment, she was clearly traumatised.
She doesn't even leave when the bats swarm in and dive for the boy.
"No! Please!" The boys screams were drowned out with the bats. They seem to leave her alone, seeing that there would be no victor if they did.
The boy is eventually silenced. The bats fly into the sky, revealing the boy with a bloody neck staring soullessly. Wiress does not move until after she is declared the victor of the 46th Hunger Games. When the hovercraft comes to pick her up, she lets out a long-awaited, high-pitched scream.
The film cuts to her post-Games interview with Caesar Flickerman, and there it was apparent that she could not even talk or focus on Caesar's questions. One of the only comprehensible words she had muttered was 'invent'.
"You probably already know that she worked alongside me as inventors. Me more in devices and her more related to apparel. District 8 has had advances thanks to her." Beetee says. "We became best friends. I helped her get through the trauma of the Games but the effects are obvious."
"How did you not get affected by your Games?" asks Radia, looking shaken by the decapitation.
"Believe me, I did, and I still am." answers Beetee, but we're not sure how. "Not as much as her or Jovan, though. Everyone is built different, I guess."
"Like the two of you." says Jovan. "You both are going to be like the lovechild of Finnick and us. Smart and popular."
The tape ends when Wiress gets crowned by President Snow.
I don't know if it's the film editing or not but again I feel inferior to Wiress' triumph. Looks like edible plants will help me but I don't think I'll be any way as fast at deciphering the plants in the arena as her. Also, she had done anything to survive and succeeded, to even sabotage and kill. I don't know if that instinct will come in the arena but I'm not there yet.
"You were both so smart." Radia says. "Really helped you two win."
"We don't want you two to just focus on what Wiress did to win." says Beetee. "We want you to focus on what the other tributes failed in doing. Especially the ones in alliances, since you're planning to be in one."
I don't know how we'd be able to ever survive an avalanche or any other gamemaker manipulation, but I guess we're not allowed to bore the gamemakers. We have to stay active.
"So be aware of traps." adds Jovan. "Don't assume you're the only one who makes them."
Radia and I carefully listen and nod. Jovan pulls out the tape from the player, ending our session.
"We have another plan for the two of you." Jovan spurts.
"What now?" I ask.
"Get fit." He says, like an order.
"Huh?"
"We think it will be a lot beneficial for you to do some exercise outside of training." Beetee explains. "Increase your stamina, tone your muscles, improve your strength. It would really help in the arena. Any bit counts."
"You have so much energy from the food you eat to do this." says Jovan. "And training doesn't offer much for overall endurance and strength in training. Just skills."
It sounds like a great idea, but I don't think we have enough time to improve appreciably. Also, I'm not ready to see Beetee and Jovan lift some weights. I can't picture it.
"Wouldn't it take like a week for it to actually make a difference?" I ask.
"Yeah, why didn't we start on the first day?" Radia asks, disappointed.
"Because we just thought of it while you were at training earlier." Jovan mutters.
"So this was never a strategy of yours?" asks Radia. "Where did you come up with this?"
"Jovan was just walking around and noticing how good some people's body's look." replies Beetee.
"So you were thinking of those bodies put on us?" Radia asks teasingly.
"No, I'm not like that!" denies Jovan. He holds his stomach with both hands. "I just wanted to be fit, and then I realised the fitter the tributes are, the better they usually do in the Games."
"Let's do it." says Radia, pumped up. "I'm down."
"I'm for it." I agree. If I have to die in the arena, I want to die with a well-built body. "So what sort of things are we doing?"
Beetee runs down the regimen. Tomorrow morning, we'd be doing some light running and stretching before breakfast. Hours after lunch and training, we will try to build up our arms, abdominals, and legs with routines Jovan asked off from some fit Capitol people.
"But now," says Jovan. "The two of you should go to sleep. It's been another big day for both of you. The first day of training, meeting new people, and watching two Hunger Games. At least tomorrow, you already have an idea for training."
They're right. The past few days have been exhausting. We bid each other good night and I go straight to bed after cleaning my teeth. I don't even bother taking a shower. I replay some of the scenes I've witnessed on the screen today in my mind. Then I go over all the tributes I've had a run-in with today. It just tires my brain even more, and I drift off into a more peaceful sleep than the one I had last night.
I wake to gentle rapping at my door and not a lot of light streaming through the window. It's even earlier than when I stirred yesterday.
"Huh?" I groan. "Good morning!"
"Yes, it's a good morning because it's time for you to get fit!" cheers Jovan's voice. "Meet us in five!"
"It's too early!" I say, before yawning loudly. I thought Beetee had said it was only light running today. I doubt we'd take more than an hour to do that. I'd be fatigued before breakfast.
"Well, the longer we wake, the later we'll eat breakfast." says Jovan. "And then we'll be late for training!"
We have more than four hours. We will definitely make it in time for training. "Okay, Marty!" I say sarcastically. "I'll be there!"
"What did you say?"
I ignore him as I quickly use the bathroom, wash my face, comb my hair, and freshen my breath for a bit. I arrive in the dining room to a messy-haired Radia already lightly running on the spot, with Beetee and Jovan waiting for me.
"Follow me and keep my pace!" says Jovan abruptly, and he jogs off outside of where I came. Radia and even Beetee are confused for a bit, but we eventually follow Jovan with the same jog.
I didn't know Beetee would be in such a mood to run. I haven't seen him exercise outside of the Games. So to be doing this, he must agree that it will be super helpful for us. He's never said it, but it's obvious he really wants us to survive too.
I trail the group. Jovan follows the corridors which loop around the floor. Every lap, we get a rest break. After a few laps, Radia begins to show signs of exhaustion. Having the better endurance from having to walk to get water back home every day, I ask if she's okay.
"G- good!" she pants with a grin on her face. "It's... Ugh, I love it!"
I admit my breathing is also getting a little louder and I'm perspiring a bit more.
"I haven't showered since yesterday morning!" I complain in an attempt to ease down or completely stop. "I'm going to smell so bad!"
"We've all smelled worse." says Beetee, still jogging leisurely.
Jovan makes an unusual break halfway through the lap. He bends over, putting his hands on his knees.
"Is this rest break for you or for us?" I ask Jovan.
He waves me off. "I forgot. Do any of you kids have asthma?"
"You ask that now?" Radia says loudly.
I've seen a few kids in the Revolt who probably have asthma. Neither Radia or I have it, but provided a kid with the condition didn't refuse to run here, I'm quite sure they'd already be dead.
We continue running and we almost literally bump into Martinus.
"Oh!" he says, surprised. "What are you lot doing?"
"Running." says Radia. "Want to join?"
I imagine Martinus running with us, and see his wig dislodging as he bumps up and down, eventually falling off his head. I don't like it.
"No, not for me." says Martinus. "I'll see you athletes at breakfast!"
We make it past the elevator when Jovan announces that it's the last lap. Good. I'm tired and my stomach is empty.
But then our mentors ask us to do these jumps called jumping jacks, and by the end of the sets I feel sweaty and gross. Radia is on the floor. Beetee comes to offer us glasses of water and I down it in an instant. Then we do a few hard but relaxing stretches and I realise how inflexible I am. I can't even reach my ankles with my arms without bending my knees. I really hope nobody can read minds, especially Beetee with those glasses of his.
"Beetee," I ask in a pose. "Can your glasses do anything special?"
"No, they're just normal glasses." The conversation stops.
After our stretches, I feel surprisingly good. I feel stronger and more flexible. The whole session took us about an hour. It takes the time for us to serve ourselves for breakfast that I finally stop sweating.
"We'll do this tomorrow and probably the morning before the interviews." says Jovan, buttering a roll. "Now, what are your plans for training?"
"Try out more stations." I say. "And..."
"Find out more on the alliance." finishes Radia.
"Great. Once again, tells us everything." says Beetee.
After breakfast, I take a much-needed shower and change into another inconspicuous dark orange outfit. At around the same time as the first day, Radia and I make our way to the elevator where Martinus takes us to the training floor. We round out the first five districts, before the rest trickle in. Atala doesn't say much this time round, only reminding us of the rules. We're off.
Greig comes and finds me revisiting edible plants so I could beat my own record on the test. We talk a bit, reconfirming that we're still close, which is assuring, and we agree not to stick with each other so we don't indicate to the other tributes that we are a duo that needs separating. I suggest for him to talk with "the District 7 girl", and he agrees.
I make sure nobody else is around when I once again finish the test with 100% accuracy, and I'm out in five minutes. The trainer gives me a thumbs up.
I spend just as long in the edible insects section, blitzing through all questions correctly this time, before anybody has a chance to test themselves. My next move would have been to review and retry all the knots and snares I learned yesterday, but Greig's quiet district partner is there again. I don't want her knowing that I can be more than adept, so I find other stations.
I don't feel like mastering hammock-making, camouflage, fish hooks, or shelter-making since I've noticed I'm not the best tribute who has done them. I feel like trying out other skills. With the run this morning, I feel confident.
I start off slow, though. I join the boy and the girl from District 12 at practicing fire-making. I bid them hello as a courtesy greeting and they don't say anything more than a "Hi." back. They are two of the quietest tributes in these Games, and also the most undernourished by appearance. I have only seen them speak to each other. The girl is a little older than the boy, around my age, but they are both very thin, faces sunken. Even with all this food in the Capitol, I don't think they have chosen to eat significantly more than they usually do.
Their quietness discourages me from asking them about an alliance, although they will definitely be in the one against the Careers. But I don't want to disturb them from working together in producing a flame, and if they haven't heard about the alliance, what's to stop them from somehow spreading the news to the Careers? I decide to be patient. I'm not treating this as carelessly as the boy from District 9 did.
As far as making a fire goes, I'm able to have one going with a bunch of sticks in around the combined time I spent at both edible plants and edible insects. I hope it means I can make one quicker in the arena, where the sun will most likely be hot and the temperature a little warmer.
I examine other stations. I want to keep grenades a secret for now, and I ignore the ones I don't have a chance with at all, like the weights, the spears, the tridents, and the axes. Ringo and Connie are at the latter station, burying blades in dummies left and right. It makes me hope that if someone small like them can, I could do it too, but I realise they have probably handled axes for years. I can't learn in a few days.
I would try making my way across the gauntlets, but it's currently occupied by the girl from District 6, flying through them. She is young and small, but her agility easily avoids the trainers' attacks and she sometimes even skips a pedestal.
I end up doing the ropes course instead, believing it will help me navigate some difficult terrain. I'm light enough to climb the rope net to the top without losing control and hanging upside down, but I almost panic when I notice how high I am. The gamemakers in the stands are now at eye level, and I can oversee most of the stations and the tributes training below. I'm harnessed so I do feel safer in case I fall, but falling would be a failure for me.
And I do fall. I was going really well along some suspended balance beams and taut rope nets, and not too slow either, until the last obstacle where I fail to centre myself on a narrow tightrope. I give a scream that cracks my voice, and I'm pretty sure the tributes below me heard it.
After a bit of advice from the trainer, I nail my second attempt, boosting my confidence a bit. I realise that I could do better in the Games based on mentality and confidence alone, and to do that I just have to complete lessons at other stations.
So knives was an utter failure. At least I'm not as bad at it compared to archery and the slingshots, so maybe I'll give knives another shot tomorrow.
The experience with the new skills feels quite rewarding that I don't even notice the time fly by. I only have time to try out two or three stations left, and I haven't even gained any information about the alliance or strengthened the bond with Connie.
So I try out hand-to-hand combat where the somewhat approachable looking boy from District 6 is, and I hope to find out whether he does know about the alliance. Also, learning how to do combat would help me greatly in the Games. My body is the only weapon I am guaranteed have with me at all times, so I would learn how to use it. The station has room for two tributes to learn with trainers at the same time so I join. For some reason, the trainers wait or give us some time to talk. I think they like the idea of tributes making alliances.
"Hey." The boy greets first before I get ready to talk. "I'm Abel."
"Able to do hand-to-hand combat well?" I ask.
"No, uh, that's my name." Abel clarifies. "My name is Abel. But I think I'm okay at combat."
I want to leave and dig myself into a hole where Abel, the trainers who heard us, and anybody else can never see me.
"Sorry, Abel." I hold my forehead and recover. "I'm Henry."
"Nice to meet you." He has a slightly different accent to the tributes from other districts I've talked to, but not as bad as the Capitol. "How about you, District 3, any good?"
"No." I say immediately. "Hoping..." I read the name tag on my trainer's uniform. "Dorian teaches me how to do combat well."
Dorian grins and Abel's trainer speaks up. "Alright, let's get to work you can chit-chat later."
We learn that hand-to-hand combat is the first form of fighting ever known in places somewhere used to be called Ancient Greece and Rome, and includes actions like punching, kicking, dodging, and grabbing.
Dorian is quite kind on me, speaking very calmly when instructing me to strike, and slowly striking so I calculate a successful dodge. He asks me to go hard on him, but he easily absorbs all of my weak kicks and punches. When he has me in a hold, he tells me that it's the Hunger Games and I can bite the tributes or pull their hair to do whatever I can to survive. I remember the victor a few years ago who literally killed her competition by biting their throats with her razor sharp teeth.
Meanwhile, Abel manages to land a few hard hits on his trainer.
"Okay, you can talk." his trainer says, walking off and panting.
Abel approaches me, dusting himself off. "Hey, 3. Have you heard of-"
"An alliance?" I spit out.
"I was going to say 'orange chunks and creamy white sauce before' but yes!" says Abel. I almost just have a heart attack. I don't know what I would have said if he'd said no to hearing about the alliance. At least I know there's definitely an alliance going on now. He leans and closer and speaks quietly. "An alliance against the Careers?"
"Yes." I sigh in relief. "I'm glad it's real."
"You're from 3. I figured you would be part of it." Abel says. "I was going to ask you a bit later."
"I'm so happy you're in." I say.
"Likewise." responds Abel. "We need a lot more people to be against them."
Abel and I part ways, and after a really embarrassing start, I'm glad to have had an easy conversation with him and to have gained certainty about the alliance.
I don't relate with him as much as I do with Greig, Connie or Steffi because he comes off a bit strong, but I wouldn't count out working with him when it comes to it.
The gauntlets are finally vacant so I attempt to finish the course, almost falling once when a trainer's soft baton struck me in the ankle. Overall I feel just as accomplished as finishing the ropes course.
I'm able to fit one more station, so I try out the swords since the weapon looks the most majestic out of all of them, but again it's not for me. I think I'm too afraid of accidentally maiming the trainer, even though she blocks and parries every move I make.
Then the boy from District 1 comes with his short, golden hair and twinkling eyes. I almost stiffen. I haven't come to face to face with a Career yet. Being supportive of an anti-Career alliance makes me nervous of what to say to the mature, perfect-bodied boy in front of me.
"Not bad." The boy says, cheerfully. He's even more joyful than Radia. "There's probably plenty more skill in that brain of yours."
Okay, yes. We are smart. Just another District 3 stereotype. But I think he might be asking for me. His smile, although charming, makes him look a little dumb himself, but I can't judge him just yet.
"Thanks." is all I say. Can lunch come sooner? I don't wish to talk with the boy, but in case he do wants me, I need to look open to working with him for my life.
And he do wants me.
"I'm Guano." he shakes my hand. "What's your name, 3?"
"Henry."
"Say, Henry, you were looking a little alone." says Guano. So he didn't see me Abel just before or with Radia, Greig, and Steffi yesterday? I think this is a good thing, because he wouldn't approach me if he knew I was tighter with other tributes. And to be so casual, it shows he isn't aware of other alliances going on. "Well, our elite Career alliance is in need of brains. There's a spot for you."
I'm not going to lie. Guano makes it sound tempting. I can get a free pass in the Games, live off rich with the Careers. Then I think of the girl from District 3 in the previous Games being left out to die. I realise I will only get a free pass to seventh place. Then I remember how much I despise the Careers for always winning. Except for Guano right now, I don't even know the other five, and they haven't even shown an interest in me.
"Really?" I ask. "You all are okay with me?" I gesture to my body. "Someone like me?"
"Yes, someone like you." he points at my head. "I suggested that you would be a great member of the pack."
"Do I have to talk with them?"
"No, they're cool with you. I can vouch to them for you." says Guano. I don't know how I'll be a member of their alliance if they're not willing to talk with me. That makes my job easier, since I don't want to talk to them either. "You can talk to me, though." says Guano.
I notice I'm beginning to like Guano, for reminding me a lot of Radia and for being the only Career to talk to me, but I immediately try to brush it off. He's one of the tributes that takes the Games way too seriously and treats it like an event to be celebrated. He and the Careers are way too confident that it's hard to feel sympathetic for them to be reaped.
"I know you're good with mines." he says. "We can help each other. But I won't tell anybody about it."
How did he know that? I haven't been at the grenade station for anyone to see, nor have I told anyone about my strength except Radia, and Steffi yesterday. Radia would never spread that to jeopardise my chances. Was this Steffi's doing? I don't pursue the matter further in case I wrongly out Steffi. Why would she help the Careers when she equally hates them? Maybe she's doing what I am, almost acting as a double agent between the Careers and District 10. Or he just probably overheard me saying it.
He tells me he won't share the information, but I don't believe it. Sooner or later somebody else is going to find out about my strength, and I may or may not become a threat to target.
"What do you say?" he asks.
I feel like this is what some people call dealing with the devil. If I join the Careers, I might end up worse off. I definitely will work with the anti-Career alliance over the Careers, since I'm way closer to more people - Radia, Greig, Steffi, and even Connie and Abel - than Guano and his people. But I really have no choice here.
I say the words. "I'm good with that. Thank you."
Right on time, Atala blows the whistle for lunch. Everybody stops training and the tributes begin to move off into the dining room.
Guano gives me a few playful punches. "Good man. Stay alive for us, okay? And don't tell anyone!" He bounces off to his district partner.
"I won't!"
What will I do? I can't be seen with other people now, or else the Careers think I'm betraying them. And the other way around. What if the people of the anti-Career alliance, the alliance I've also sworn myself to, find out that I have been crossing paths with the Careers? I won't be trusted by anybody. I need to be extra careful. That places so much stress on me. I'm worried I might become too paranoid to function.