Clair Mushroom- District Seven female (17)

"You really think this will work?" Oaken asked as the four of us sat crowded around the desk in the security room.

I shrugged. "Can't hurt. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? He doesn't fall for it?" It was a silly idea I'd come up with while Oaken and I were waiting for Alysanne and Lacey but it had been a kind of silly Games so far.

"Where should we have it happen?" Lacey asked.

"Let's say in the cafeteria," Alysanne suggested. "It's only a floor above us so it will be easy to get their first."

"Good idea," Oaken said. "Who should do the talking?"

"Not Alysanne," Lacey said. "She was with the Careers in the Capitol so Flint would have been paying attention to her."

"You have an accent," Oaken said to Lacey.

"I do not!" she said in an Eight accent. "You two have accents."

"We all have accents. I guess it's a matter of who can fake a Capitol accent best," I said.

"It kind of sounds like a little kid," Lacey said. "Like 'how now brown cow'," she said in what sounded to me like it could be a Capitol accent.

"I like fancy things and killing kids," Oaken said in a most dissonant tone.

"Ew, not you. You sound too rugged," Alysanne said.

"Don't mind if I do," Oaken preened.

"I feel so stupid," I said. "Okay, here goes. The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plains."

"That's the best one," Alysanne said.

"Yeah, it is," Oaken agreed.

"You want me to do it? Okay, I guess," I said. "But we need to write it down." I didn't want to lose my train of thought mid-sentence as I was trying to maintain a stupid accent.

"Kind of do a little falsetto so it doesn't sound like you," Alysanne suggested after we'd decided on the message and written it down. I tried it out a few times until the others approved it.

I moved the pointer icon to the all button and picked up the microphone. "Here goes nothing."

Flint Kenyte- District Two male (18)

If I won the Games I wouldn't have to do this anymore. No one just woke up one day and decided to join a gang. There were a million factors and societal failings that led just to the development of gangs. I was never very scholastically-minded but I'd read a little about our history to sharpen my strategy. Gangs were always made up of the marginalized- historically by race and income level and now mostly just by income level. They were a means to establish community and group protection where those things had been denied by the establishment. We weren't noble freedom fighters rallying against an evil government. We were more like wolves that banded together so we wouldn't starve.

If I won that could all be over. I'd have the wealth and security to leave that life behind. I could live in a normal house with curtains and a working stove and everything I could dream of. I'd have so much money I could share it with Aston so he didn't have to live like that either. There would always be gangs. I couldn't stop that, not even with Victor money. But I could get myself out of it and take some of the people I cared about. And I'd do my best to help other people like me, even if there would always be gangs.

Four people were left with me in the Arena. I just wished they were four Careers. It would be harder to kill them but it would also be easier. The twins were still together. That was what I dreaded most. How was I going to look at myself in a mirror after I looked into the eyes of one of them cradling their dead sibling and rightly blaming me? I was going to pick that battle especially carefully because when I took one I better be ready to take the other.

Alysanne is a combatant, I told myself. Gangsters were cruel but we had our rules. Don't kill kids, don't kill Peacekeepers, and don't involve non-gangsters. Unless someone got in the way of a robbery or was willing to testify there was a divide between our world and theirs and we respected it. Alysanne didn't volunteer for the Games but she did ally herself with the Careers. She signaled her willingness to kill and that made her fair game. It didn't make it enjoyable to kill her but it made it tolerable. And Lacey is... well, at least she's eighteen.

All that assumed I was going to be the one to kill everyone. The others didn't make it this far by sitting around. I didn't know who put which face in the sky but it was a safe bet that every one of them was responsible for one. I'd seen the skinniest little kids fight their way out of a three-to-one fight when it was their lives on the line.

Don't think about it. Think of what you'll do when you get out. Victors are supposed to have a talent. I always liked to sing. Maybe I could hire some backup singers off the streets. And I could hang out with Randy from Nine. He liked makeup. I liked makeup, too. Makeup can cover up scars.

I jumped, eyes scanning the room, at a crackle of static.

"Attention, Tributes. We are happy to welcome you to a feast held at the cafeteria. Attendance and enjoyment are mandatory! Please arrive in a timely manner."

Alysanne Audren- District Six female (15)

This wasn't really about killing Flint. That was what we all came together to do. I was confident we'd be able to do it. The real question was which of us would die in the process. This battle was almost certainly going to be the finale. After Flint was gone we'd turn on each other and it would be a matter of which alliance was less damaged by Flint.

Obscenely enough, the whole thing called up a memory from forever ago. When the Games weren't being broadcasted the Capitol would air decades-old movies they'd deemed acceptable for the masses. They were usually lame and boring but once in a while if I had nothing else to do I'd watch one. One was set in some desert town out west and involved a multi-party gunfight. Sensei liked to wander in and lurk beside the couch not really watching but kind of checking it out. He gave an unimpressed sniff and called it a "Mexican standoff".

That was what was happening right now. Five people all waiting until a spark goes off and we start killing each other. It was dizzyingly complex. The four of us had each run through the numbers just to agree to join up. Each of us thought that if we didn't join Flint would certainly kill us. Allying at this point was near-suicide but near-suicide was better than definite suicide. In addition we were both hoping the other alliance would be more damaged when Flint was dead. Complicating the matters further was the fact that Oaken and Clair were twins. After Flint was dead they would have far more connection to each other than Lacey and I did. But contrariwise, that very fact gave me and Lacey more reason to stay loyal, since turning on each other would certainly lead to Clair and Oaken picking a target and overwhelming them in a three-on-one fight and then pursuing the other. Unless either Lacey or I were willing to take that risk and hope that the twins would overwhelm the other and get wounded. And if we did splinter I knew I would be the one they went against, since Lacey was the smaller target. It was a lot to calculate.

The cafeteria was small and mostly open space between tables. On the camera we'd seen that Flint was sixteen stories away. We used the time it would take for him to descend that many stairs to throw a bunch of food and stuff on the table in the middle of the room so he wouldn't smell a rat as soon as he walked in. Then we huddled behind a bar-like table that went all the way to the ground so we could wait until Flint walked in a few steps and dart out behind him to prevent him from running right back out.

Moments passed as we crouched on legs that started to cramp and go numb. We shifted nervously and were all silent with the foreboding energy. Oaken, who was peeking out from the edge of the table, tensed suddenly and drew back. We all tensed with him because we knew what that meant. He'd seen a shadow in the hall. Flint was about to arrive.