In Their Words

by ArJayWriter

Thank you Dear Viewer for viewing this documentary series of the Hunger Games. We are but a humble company documenting the period of Panem in which history was corrupted through the Hunger Games. We hope that these films are to your liking and that these spur discussions of the history that must not be erased. (AU with District 13)

12. Fool's Gold, Hunger Games 08

HUNGER GAMES 08: Fool's Gold

Name: Prestige Calloway

District: 01

Age: 16

Directed by Porcelain Calloway (District 1)

---

Immediately after Fjord's victory District 4 saw a noted increase in tourism. By virtue of being the first district to gain multiple victors, it received a rather noted economic boom thanks to Capitol Fans. Fjord, for his part, took up Leon's mantle of teaching teenagers in his district skills to survive the Hunger Games, which doubled as teaching teenagers how to survive in their District.

Elsewhere in Panem: District 9 suffered a particularly harsh tornado year that destroyed three factories and one distillery, District 7 opened two new lumber mills, District 11 saw two riots break out, and District 3 saw the construction begin for 4 new factories.

By the start of the reapings the country was ready to see the usual crop of competitors reaped for the Hunger Games.

What the country did not expect was for the District 1 reapings to completely buck the trend. While a normal 15 year old girl was reaped first, when the male was reaped the entire country drew a collective breath. The reaped male, Sterling Calloway, was 18 years old and strong looking in spite of a rather bad and twitchy leg. The boy was limping his way onto the stage when a figure in the sixteen year old section jumped out eagerly.

The boy introduced himself as Sterling's brother, and asked if he could go in Sterling's place. Sterling helplessly looked on while the treaty of treason was read and reread, until it was eventually determined that this act of volunteering would be honored as indicated by the treaty of treason. Sterling Calloway left his seventh reaping guaranteed to live, but the same could not be said for his younger brother.

District 2 had a slight girl who was reaped from the orphanage and an older male who was the scion of one of the richer miner families. The tributes from District 3 were relative duds by reaping two small children who trembled with the wind on the stage. Both tributes from District 4 were beautiful and strong looking, but the girl seemed to balk at the sight of her district partner.

Both tributes from District six were similarly sized, though only the female was a morphling, as was commonly known.

District 7 reaped a rather strong boy and a decent looking girl. The tributes from District 8 both sported identically clever looks, and it was discovered that the two were among the top students in their school. The tributes from District 9-contrary to years past-were hardly anything noteworthy at the reaping, physically at least.

The boy from District 10 had to be coerced on stage after he experienced a meltdown in the public square when his name was called. The girl was silent throughout. Both from District 11 were tall and some of the strongest the district ever had. The tributes from District 12 coughed up coal dust upon being called. Finally, the tributes from District 13 shared a similar dynamic to the duo from District 9.

The District 1 boy's act of volunteering caused a disproportionate amount of attention to be lavished onto the first district. It was clear during the parades that most attention was on the lower Districts. Already good looking, the District 1 boy looked downright dashing in a suit meant to evoke an emerald, overshadowing his District partner dressed to evoke a diamond. Their compatriots in 2 and 4 were moderate successes, as were the boys from 7 and 11, and the girls from 8, 11, and 13.

Negative standouts again included District 3 with their abstract sculpture design, the girl from District 5 in a felt lightning bolt, and the boy from District 9 dressed as butter to go with his partner's bread.

The first day of training followed the trends established by years prior. The Inner Districts of 1, 2, and 4 had their tributes immediately link up in an alliance that established dominance through the training days. Other alliances like the District 7-8-9 coalition and 12-13 association failed to last even through the first day of training.

Awarded to three of the tributes, the boy from District 1, the gilr from District 2, and the boy from District 4, were scores of 11s. Notably this would be the last year for almost 2 decades where three tributes would score 11s. The lowest scorer of the 1-2-4 alliance, slowly becoming known as the careers, was the District 4 girl, who only got a 6, putting her below many of the lower districts. With the outlier tributes, the boy from District 7, the girls from Districts 8 and 11, and the boys from 11-13 were all cited as notable threats.

Interview night was dominated in reception from the first District. The boy from District 1 had his interview last the customary 3 minutes but the Capitol wanted more of him. However the gamemakers quickly established the rules again. Other standouts came from the boy from District 3-who was so bad he was good-the handsome boys from 4 and 7, the cunning girls from Districts 8 and 13, and the trainwrecks of the tributes from District 6.

The arena chosen for this year was the culmination of 3 years of negotiations. After the 4th Hunger Games, demand among the capitol elites for an indoor, tourist worthy arena began to skyrocket. Seeking to capitalize on this new niche the gamemakers constructed their smallest arena yet- a four story pyramidal mega mall that would also function as the very first indoor arena. After the games the arena would function as not just an arena but noted shopping destination. Supplies and stores in the mall were provided from many Capitol companies who paid a significant fee to have their products featured in the store. The estimated revenue from this tactic is estimated to encompass half of District 8's total GDP at the time.

An overt amount of attention clearly on the District 1 male aside, the pre-games again were largely considered a success.

District 1; Male: Prestige Calloway (16), 11, 8-1 odds; Female: Carat DeSoto (15), 7, 52-1 odds

District 2; Male: Androcles Mythril (18), 9, 32-1 odds; Female: Eir Walkerson (17), 11, 4-1 odds

District 3; Male: Sergey Kalanick (16), 2, 500-1 odds; Female: Harriet Kichler (16), 5, 128-1 odds

District 4; Male: Moraine Wallis (18), 11, 6-1 odds; Female: Lisa Karachi (17), 6, 64-1 odds

District 5; Male: Eddrick Gerrani (16), 8, 40-1 odds; Female: Soltana Lynth (15), 4, 312-1 odds

District 6; Male: Myles Ruby (15), 5, 84-1 odds; Female: Caproni Dougla (18), 2, 640-1 odds

District 7; Male: Sherman Vince Wulliger (18), 9, 28-1 odds; Female: Florence Bermiego (17), 6, 70-1 odds

District 8; Male: Alex LaBronx (15), 6, 68-1 odds; Female: Coco Carthine (18), 7, 42-1 odds

District 9; Male: Giuseppe Montessori (15), 3, 256-1 odds; Female: Brick Markowski (16), 5, 92-1 odds

District 10; Male: Logan Nartelle (15), 3, 250-1 odds; Female: Rennet Shapiro (15), 4, 300-1 odds

District 11; Male: Pecan Florez (17), 7, 86-1 odds; Female: Tecoma Rivera (17), 8, 34-1 odds

District 12; Male: Tarry McNary (16), 7, 96-1 odds; Female: Lily Kooper (15), 6, 100-1 odds

District 13; Male: Derrin Hendrick (17), 7, 72-1 odds; Female: Cara Li Sorbel (17), 6, 175-1 odds

---

In His Words: Prestige

The tube raises us all up into an arena very different than any of the previous years. I turn around to see that I'm in a mall, something very familiar to District One. We're in the center of an open plaza, like the clearings in previous years. The floor looks like tile and it's perfect for our flat shoes, but they won't be comfortable for long. There don't seem to be a lot of supplies at the cornucopia. They probably expect us to look for things in the stores.

I look behind me- there's a large map with a "Where you are" sticker on it. I can't see the finer details on the map. I feel the eyes of my neighbors, two girls, piercing me. We're an older set of tributes this time around but the girl on my left looks hardly bigger than a 12 year old. She's from District 10 I believe. On my other side is probably the bigger threat, the girl from District 12.

The countdown is already down to thirty seconds.

Shit.

No, keep your eye on the prize, the center of the cornucopia. There's some clothes, some first aid, a small electric stove, some high end stuff this time around. I guess because we're inside a mall, not outside in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. There are twenty six large bags that I count at the mouth of the cornucopia. Countless bags line the floor. Don't trip on them.

Fifteen, Fourteen, Thirteen

I can spot Androcles somewhere across the way. He's eying the District Seven boy, one of the more deadly guys this year. Just as the countdown hits ten, I spot Carat and Moraine. Lisa and Eir are nowhere to be found.

THe gong rings.

I jump off of my pedestal. In my periphery the girls from either side of me make a dive to some of the closer bag sets. I'm not the first one to the center of the cornucopia; Androcles is. He tosses me a sword and I turn on the tributes currently arriving.

The screams begin.

26th, Harriet Kichler, District 3 Female, 16 years old, Killed by Eir Walkerson (D2F)

I thrust my sword into a weak, gangly looking boy from one of the middle Districts. I can't remember which one. He lets out a scream and falls to the ground.

25th, Eddrick Gerrani, District 5 Male, 16 years old, Killed by Prestige Calloway (D1M)

I find Moraine in the middle of a scuffle with two tributes, a boy and a girl, from the lower districts. Moraine sees me coming and he whips a girl in the face with his knife set that he was wrestling from the boy. The girl spirals to the ground in a mess of blood and tears. It's an ugly death when Moraine finally slits her throat.

24th, Lily Kooper, District 12 Female, 15 years old, Throat Slit by Moraine Wallis (D4M)

The boy recovers his balance and pushes Moraine to the side. Moraine jumps to his feet and barely avoids what looks to be a giant staff.

23rd, Carat Desoto, District 1 Female, 15 years old, Head bashed in by Androcles Mythril (D2M)

I jump and tackle the boy to the ground. The staff goes spiraling beyond his head. I take my sword and plunge it into his mouth. It takes him a while but his final death gugle rings.

22nd, Tarry McNary, District 12 Male, 16 years old, Slashed by Prestige Calloway (D1M)

There's still no sign of the other alliance members so Moraine and I split up. Other tributes seem to have picked the floor clean of all the supplies. Come to think of it, there were hardly any items in the cornucopia besides the usual ones.

No time to think though.

Eir and I pass each other and I slow my pace. If we're able to cross each other this easily that means there's hardly any other tributes. Some others seem to be picking things off of the ground. There's sounds of a scuffle coming from the base of the Cornucopia. I change my direction and run towards Androcles and Lisa, who seem to be holding one side of the cornucopia together.

I'm not the only one running forward. Moraine launches forward and pounces on one of the boys fighting off with Androcles.

21st, Myles Ruby, District 6 Male, 15 years old, Stabbed by Moraine Wallis (D6M)

Androcles grabs a girl by the throat and throws her to the ground, stomping on her face, spraying an ugly mess over the floor.

20th, Caproni Dougla, District 6 Female, 18 years old, Stomped by Androcles Mythril (D2M)

I grab the last girl and slit her throat. Her body slumps to the ground a heavy weight and blood sprays over my shoes.

19th, Brick Markowski, District 9 Female, 16 years old, Throat Slit by Prestige Calloway (D1M)

"Is that all?" Eir walks up to us, sounding almost disappointed.

"One more," Androcles grunts. He tilts his head behind him and we look over. Lisa seemed to be in a winning battle with a boy about her size. "Let's head around the cornucopia just in case he tries to run for it."

Just as we head over, Lisa ends it. She wrenches the hand axe from the boy's hands and throws it down into his stomach repeatedly. Blood sprays over the walls of the cornucopia, and over Lisa.

18th, Alex Labronx, District 8 Male, 15 years old, Axed by Lisa Karachi (D4F)

With his death we hear nine cannons sound. Not the most, but not the least. Last year there were 16 bloodbath deaths so it seems like this year is going to be much longer. I look at each of my allies before I realize that my count might be off. "District 7 got her," Androcles says. "He got away before I could do anything."

"Carat?"

It seems like Androcles wants to say something but he bites his tongue. "Let's get our shit for now," Moraine speaks up. "Something about all these dead bodies disturbs me. The Capitol needs them too I'm sure."

"I agree," Eir speaks up. "How are you holding up Karachi?"

Lisa seems to be shaking but she manages to peep out something to say she's okay. "Did you guys see anything good in the field?" Androcles asks.

"We might need all that away from the cornucopia. This mall seems big enough as is. Way bigger than the mall back in District 1," I speak up. "There's a map over there, let's see what this mall has in store."

The five of us walk to the map, several bags in hand. It was an average bloodbath this year. Not the biggest, but still tough. The map shows that we're on what looks like a four leveled mall. There are two levels above us and one level below us. The level below us looks like it's much bigger than the one we're currently on. As I suspected, the Cornucopia seems to be in the center.

"Let's go that way," Moraine says. He points to an easterly direction relative to the point of the cornucopia. It's as good an idea as any so we grab some light packs and walk down. I don't really know why we're walking in this direction in particular but a walk is a walk. I don't think we can handle finding any more tributes though.

The hallway we walk down has 24 stores of similar sizes on both sides, with different wares in each. Clothes, bedding, books, furniture, and a lot of electronics. Already I can see that the mall is many times bigger than any mall in District One, with this corridor being the size of the mall that I'm most comfortable with. The thought of bodies lining the store front suddenly makes me squeamish.

"Here let's check this one out," Eir says. She's pointing into a television store. Scenes from our home District are playing live on screen. I feel like it's an easy place for us to get trapped in if neither of us are careful.

None of us have any reason to object so we walk into the television store. As expected, besides the televisions there are hardly any useful materials. Maybe a box cutter or two, but Androcles shows us that they aren't useful by stabbing them against a television. It's only then I notice he stabbed a television that's showing District 1.

"What do you have against me?" I joke.

He looks at the television screen, where my brother is in his wheelchair as a girl I don't know is giving him comfort. "Nothing really, I just didn't see I was stabbing. That your girlfriend on the screen?"

The girl easily towers over my brother and his wheelchair but I can tell that if my brother's legs get repaired then he'd be taller. "Don't know her. She doesn't go to my school or nothing."

"How strange," Eir mentions. "She does look like Carat."

A pang of guilt washes over me as I turn off the television. I don't need to feel guilty for Carat at this moment. Just as I turn off the television I see a swarm of reporters storm the District 1 stage. "There was nothing here," Lisa speaks up. "I think our mentors would be rather mad at us for wasting time idling on these televisions."

That's something we can all agree upon.

By the time we get back to the cornucopia it seems like most of the supplies and most of the bodies are gone. "Do you remember if the gamemakers ever did anything like this before?" I ask Androcles.

"Like what?"

"Get rid of the supplies?"

"To my knowledge, no," Androcles says. "But we still have our main supplies in the cornucopia itself."

Moraine decides to open a basket full of random items that wouldn't be out of place from a grocery store. Under one of our packs there's a gas stove that easily plugs into what looks like a generator. At least, what I vaguely recognize as a generator. It has a plug and a crank so it looks like he's going to need help for cooking.

He calls over Lisa to turn some kind of crank that activates the power on the stove. "I always wanted to be a chef. I could make a good meal out of tesserae," Eir tells me.

"We had to learn to cook in District 1. You should have been born there," I mention.

"I'm not sure if it beats mining and fighting," she says in a tone that I'm not sure is a joking one. I've never been able to have a good conversation with Eir, but this one flows rather smoothly. Androcles doesn't join in. He chooses to sharpen a blade rather menacingly. I'm sure he's playing it up for the camera rather than us.

"How do you think the capitol is seeing us all?" Lisa asks, walking up to us.

"We're the ones who made the most kills so the action should be on us for a while, right?" My statement gets a little bit of agreement. "I thought you were cooking with Moraine."

"It's almost done, he says it only needs a minute or two, he sent me to check for silverware. Even in the outdoor arena we got some. Indoors I bet we'll have more."

"And if we don't I bet our mentors are willing to send some to us," Androcles finally chimes in. He adds something about Remus and Paisley in a small voice but I can't make heads nor tails of it.

No sooner after Androcles mentions it, five packages pop up from the ground. Before I propose that we all open them together Lisa and Androcles grab their packages and open it up secretly. I'm surprised that Duke has sent one my way this early. It's a small package-selfishly I thought I would have gotten a bigger one due to the cheers during interview night- that only has one item in it. Well, once I unwrap the package there's two of them. A note falls out.

Prestige, don't get cocky. You have a lot of supporters but once the prices go up we're gonna need more money. Be careful with this tactical baton. It might come in handy. Don't open it. Duke

The object in question is a three inch wide cylinder that's about four inches tall. I've heard of these things, I've seen the peacekeepers use them on rebels. They threatened to use one on Sterling but our uncle Reymond didn't stand for that. I wonder how they're doing now.

Moraine calls for our food. He's actually prepared something decent; what looks to be salisbury steak, dried potatoes, beans, and some kind of bread. We all sit around the gas stove and use silverware that Lisa volunteered up. I'm reminded of picnics with my richer friends back in District 1. I'm sure that in District 4 they had something similar on the beaches. I'll have to ask Moraine. The District 4 boy has figured out a grill from the storefront and is roasting some of the steak for all of us.

Dinner is uneventful and by the time we finish we see the lights go down and there is a display on the walls. The nine tributes of the bloodbath, starting with Carat and ending with the tributes from District 12, flash up on the screen. "I expected seven and eight to make it out intact," I hear Androcles mention. "Was hoping to see District 9 too."

"I bet you would," Moraine says in a half joking manner. "Who got who?"

"I got the boys from 12 and 5, then I got the girl from 9," I speak up. Androcles looks at me, impressed, before he mentions that he got the girl from 6. We know that LIsa got the boy from 8, Eir mentions she got the girl from 13, and Moraine says he got the girl from 12. "And one of the boys got Carat, right?" I ask Androcles. He nods grimly.

At that confirmation we start the nightly routine, putting the supplies towards the back, dressing out of our ruined clothes, and heading to the back of the cornucopia. "I've got the first watch," Lisa says.

"Wake me up when you need to sleep," Moraine says. "No use staying up for a watch if you're more tired than things want…"

"Moraine, you seem tired, I'll take the next watch. I prefer staying alone for a while anyways," Eir mentions. Androcles heads to the cornucopia. I follow, then Moraine, and finally Eir.

The sleep I get tonight is some of the worst that I've ever had. I dream of District 1 on fire, surrounded by the tiles that line the floor, and through shop window after shop window I see my friends, Sterling, Uncle Reymond, Carat and her family, mom and dad hung upside down. It feels like I'm on a moving sidewalk that keeps me in front of Sterling's store front. The girl I killed today buries a sword that looks like it belongs on a corn field into Sterling's legs. He drops to the ground, flopping like a fish, and the two boys I killed take a knife to each of his side and split him open. I'm screaming in my dream but dead silent when I awaken.

It's brighter now. I see Eir sitting with Moraine. They seem to be locked in some kind of conversation. Next to them three packages pop out of the ground, each with a numeral of all of our districts on it. My package looks the smallest but since the other districts still have the partnerships intact i suppose it makes sense. Eir notices me awake and waves me over. Moraine gets the gas stove going and soon my nose is filled with the scent of sizzling meat. It smells like pork this time.

I recognize the strips on the stove as bacon and I smile just a bit. Fatty, oily, and at times too crunchy, but a favorite of Sterling and I.

Eir and Moraine wave me over and I slide in between their conversation, which seems to be about their extended family. I divulge a little about my missing uncle, but not too much. He was always ambiguously rebellious and I don't think the capitol would like that. Moraine is talking about how his sister is dating one of their second cousins and it's awkward, to say the least. Eir says it is a weird thing since her parents are second cousins.

"Of course I don't know if there's something medically wrong with that but I have two brothers and they seem alright," she adds.

The three of us wait for Androcles and Lisa to wake up. By the time they do we've gone through most of the bacon but there's still enough to split for Androcles and Lisa. Androcles makes a grab for his district's giant bag. He opens it to reveal a particularly nasty looking sword and more than enough bandages to last us for the games. He chuckles almost evilly before handing the bag to Eir.

Lisa and Moraine split their bag open to find some comforts from home- blankets, rope, and something that I don't exactly catch. Lisa takes the rope and awkwardly fiddles with it to form a noose.

I turn my attention to my own care package. It feels surprisingly light. There's a small lighter, some dried fruit, some sweets I particularly enjoy, a pair of two sided knives, and a letter from Duke. The letter is long, a couple of paragraphs long, pocked with imperfections and shaky words of reassurance. I gloss over some of the text but I from what I can glean, I have a fair bit of fans in the capitol who want to see me get physical with my metal knives. The knives are too close ranged for my liking but something tells me that if I use them we'll be able to get more support.

"I'm going to take watch today. I don't feel that good today," Eir says loudly, snapping us from the concentration of our packages.

"I'll stay with you," Moraine adds. "I wanna sleep but you can wake me up any time."

"Then that's me, Androcles, and Lisa hunting today." The word hunting slips through almost naturally. It's morbid considering that we're hunting other humans, other kids like us, but there isn't a better term for it that I've heard.

"I'm always down for a chance to stretch my legs," Androcles mentions. "Someone has to trim the fat."

Lisa is a bit more hesitant. I can tell she's more pensieve at the thought of meeting other tributes. She finally agrees to come with us provided she can have the rope. "It'll be a supply run. These clothes are already starting to smell."

We split off, heading northward instead of the easterly direction we went down yesterday. The stores on either side are markedly similar to the ones on the east part of the mall with one exception. A theater, like the one that used to be on the corner of Waldorf and Astoria, is somehow in the center of the mall. I'm instinctively lured to it and drag Lisa and Androcles with me.

The doors open to a massive chandelier high above, a hardwood stage raised some ten feet high, and the odd sounds of musical instruments. There was a musician some five blocks from our house who lost his feet in the war. He was training Sterling in playing the harp back when we could pay for it. Then Uncle Reymond lost his job, our parents lost their lives, and Sterling had to pick up the slack knitting with old biddies from his wheelchair.

"FUCKS SAKE PRESTIGE!" Androcles shouts, snapping me from my train of thought. He tackles me out of the way of the falling chandelier and holds me down as something flies over both our heads. Lisa throws something in response asd we hear a feminine scream and a thud.

Lisa runs up to the two of us and helps us up. "I didn't hear a cannon, they could still be here," she worriedly says.

I pull out one of my knives and cautiously move towards the stage. The curtains are down now, thick brown curtains that go straight to the floor. They barely move. I don't know how it happens but I dodge the spear that comes out from one of the curtains mere inches from my head. I grab onto the spear, cutting my hands but pulling the spear-and the spear holder-out from the curtain.

The silent girl from District 10 falls from behind the curtain and looks up at me with narrow eyes. Even now she doesn't speak. She doesn't get a chance before I snap her wood spear and stab her in the back, before cutting across her throat.

17th, REnnet Shapiro, District 10 Female, 15 years old, Slashed and stabbed by Prestige Calloway (D1M)

Her cannon fires and the curtain rises. All of a sudden another mass runs straight towards me, pushing me to the ground and cutting me in the shoulder. I kick him off as Androcles and Lisa again come running to my side. Lisa uses her rope to tie the assailants hands to their back as Androcles quickly wraps my shoulder.

Androcles storms up to the assailant with what seems to be steam going out of his ears. He slashes across the pleading boy's face once. He asks a question and tells Lisa to hunt in the wings. Lisa wisely runs from the ensuing torture that begins when Androcles stomps on the boy's feet and on his knees, causing an excruciating crack to echo through the theater. The boy is crying but Androcles drives what looks to be a stake in his eye. The boy howls in pain as Androcles again asks for a response. He's crying and we can't hear a coherent response. Androcles drives a knife into his ear and kicks the boy down. His cannon fires before the boy hits the ground.

16th, Giuseppe Montessori, District 9 Male, 15 years old, Stabbed by Androcles Mythril (D2M)

Lisa steps out from the wings shaking her head. She holds up a bag and tosses it to Androcles, who has somehow calmed down after that intense scene. I roll my shoulder and wince. "Do you... " I start, before looking at all the blood on Androcles.

"I saw a door in the wings that opened to a lower part of this shopping place. I'm willing to bet that there's a pharmacy or something with medicine." Lisa points to a door partially blocked by some curtains.

"Dickwad over there said that their other ally ran on catwalks or some other shit," Androcles spits. "I think we should go there."

"We don't have medicine besides bandages. Isn't two people today enough?" Lisa asks.

A vein starts pulsing in Androcles' head. I instinctively move between him and Lisa with my hands partially outstretched. "I agree. We have a lot of room in our bags so we can loot that pharmacy if we do find it and deprive others. If we also find tributes then we can dispatch them."

It seems to calm Androcles down. He and I help Lisa get rid of the random junk that's in front of the door and open it to find ourselves in a small hallway. It's a small hallway that opens up into the rest of the mall. We find ourselves next to what looks like a hair salon and a costume store. Already this mall seems like it's much bigger than any building back in District 1, possibly even bigger than the Mayor's manor.

Lisa leads the way. I'm immediately hit with a strong impulse to kill Lisa, just a quick stab, but that means I'm open to a retribution attack from Androcles.

A sign pops out from one of the walls. "Pharmacy" It says. Lisa grabs my and Androcles' hands to drag us into the store. We have one in District 1, maybe they have one in the rich parts where Lisa is from in District 4 and where Androcles is from. The shelves of this pharmacy are low and stocked to the brim with drugs, the names of which I can't hope to pronounce. Lisa recognizes a couple of boxes and slams them on a counter, calling me over.

"You're gonna need to take off your shirt," Lisa says.

"If only it was this easy to get girls half as interested as you in taking my shirt off back home," I joke. A flush of red immediately goes to her cheeks and she indignantly slams her hand on the table. I take my shirt off and she presses a vein in my shoulder to stop some bleeding. "You're pinching kind of hard there."

"You've got muscles," she says before slapping her hand over her mouth. Something tells me she's used to snarking or something at her friends when she heals them. She patches on a gauze that stops the bleeding and slaps on a bandage. "Does that fit?"

I flex my upper arm in a couple of poses and roll my shoulder back and forth. Lisa hands over a small package of tablets that she found. "Put it on tonight before you sleep."

"What does it do?" I ask.

"It helps the blood clot," she says. "We used it out on the seas. At least my dad does for his crew."

Androcles comes over with a giant pile of what very well may be pills and potions. We divide them into our bags. "Let's head back. I took a look outside and there weren't any kids out there."

Kids. Isn't that what we are?

We walk through the theater and back the way we came up the steps. Passing through the hallway there's nothing really to make a fuss over but I can't help but think that Androcles is judging me. I mean, I'm sure that he's been judging me since I volunteered a week ago was it? Lisa's judging me too, but she's better at hiding it.

The cornucopia appears within our vision. Eir and Moraine just seem to be ending a conversation, meaning we arrive at the perfect time. "Did you guys grab any more food?" Moraine asks.

"Nope," Lisa shakes her head. "Just didn't cross our mind since we ran into trouble."

"How bad was the trouble?" Eir seems to straighten up as I sit down.

"Why do you think we needed the medicine?" I retort. "Sorry for being rude." I take off my shirt and point to my wound on my shoulder. "WE aren't the only alliance this year it seems."

"Sounded like there were three of them but we only got two," Androcles mentions, pointedly avoiding how he killed the boy.

"So those were the cannons," Moraine muses. "Well, you and PRestige seem kind of rough. Lisa are you down to go with me and Eir hunting for food? Or purchasing."

"No purchases necessary," LIsa explains. "We didn't pay for it. I hope our mentors aren't paying."

Eir and I laugh at the joke while Lisa looks at us confused. "In any case, let's go," Eir says as she slings a bag over her shoulders. She grabs what looks to be a throwing axe and dagger from our small weapon pile. Moraine also takes a rather long spear with a sword on the back of his neck. The three of them leave rather quietly.

As I lie down in the cornucopia I can't help but to think Androcles is staring at me. "ARe all District 1 boys that pretty?" Androcles asks.

"The correct term is handsome," I admonish. "You saw Duke, you saw me. What do you think?"

"Do you want me to put it nicely or give it to you like I'd tell my friends?"

"Whatever way you want," I prop myself up on my elbows as Androcles fingers through the piles, finding some clothes of his own. "Unless you're giving it to me naked, which I ask that you use protection."

"Protection?" Androcles says as he takes off his shirt. "Well unless you consider herpes detrimental then I think you're safe. You're not my type anyway." He covers his torso rather quickly.

"You're handsome but you aren't mine either," I roll my eyes. "So how would you describe me?"

He strips off his shorts and puts on a pair of long pants. "District 1, the land of more looks than brains. More abs than braincells. Self absorbed blond people who become doctors only to improve themselves. But they're loyal to the capitol and provide luxury. Which is needed."

"Accurate," I say, pushing myself up to a cross legged position. "Rude, but accurate."

Our conversation ends when we each get a parachute. Androcles accidentally drops his supplies, bread, cheese, and meat, and I open my package. There's a small bit of antibacterial ointment, some bananas, s strip of meat, a water bottle, and what looks to be a message. I open the message. Androcles' actions are giving him favors. I don't believe it either. Just kill appropriately.

"I'll give you some of my bread if you give me some of your bananas," Androcles mentions.

"Who said I'd be willing to trade?" I defensively ask.

"You aren't the only one playing the game of hiding your sponsor presents," Androcles leers. "Smart game you have there. Let's both keep it a secret as to what we have, and let's not speak of this."

It suddenly dawns on me that Androcles has evaluated me as the biggest threat. Why else would he want to converse with me this much. I hold out a firm hand and he takes it. He grips tightly, I do too, we don't acknowledge it.

I let out a loud breath as Androcles and I enter a small conversation about the natural features of our homes. I talk about our canals, our rivers, and he talks about his mountaintops and cliffs. Just when I'm comfortable talking to him again another cannon fires.

15th, Tecoma Rivera, District 11 Female, 17 years old, Bludgeoned by Eir Walkerson (D2F)

We continue our conversation and split some bread together as our allies return. Lisa is holding her side, which I now see has a bit of a brown bandage over it. Eir seems fine except for the blood down her arm, and Moraine is the least harmed of them, just walking a little slower. A parachute comes down, one with 4 and another with 2 on the canisters. Lisa and Eir grab them quickly.

"Who did you get?" Androcles asks.

"District 11," Moraine says. "I think they're in an alliance with someone else... They put up a good fight but two of them got away."

"Moraine stabbed a boy in the gut," Lisa speaks up. "Gnarly."

"Gut wounds don't last long. A week at max unless they get sponsor support," Eir mentions. The others go to their bags and begin looking through their supplies. Eir sits next to me. "Something tells me he's not getting it," she whispers.

I look at her with a furrowed brow.

"I don't care how scared Lisa is of you, you're staying alive," she adds in a lower and more rushed whisper.

I don't push the subject.

The rest of our day goes rather boring. We sort through our packs, change out of our clothes, talk about our lives back home, eat from what the sponsors gave us, but the rest of the day can easily be considered one of the most boring.

Night finally falls and the first face in the sky belongs to the boy from District 9. He was only a year younger than me, but he seemed much younger. It might have been the fact that he didn't really go through puberty yet or the tears in his eyes. Androcles at least has the decency to avert his eyes. After him is the girl from District 10. My kill. She didn't stand out, mainly because she was silent, but she seemed determined if nothing else. The last face in the sky is the District 11 girl, Tecoma. She must have been the girl who didn't go down without a fight. She was tough. She had two brothers and a sister back home. I talked to her when we lined up at the archery station. She was closed off.

The faces disappear and we're all in darkness. "I have first watch," I immediately volunteer.

"Then I've got second," Lisa speaks up. That seems to be an easy agreement for the others. The others head into the arena and I sit at our camp, eyes glued to the darkness.

I begin to think about Sterling. He got injured during the war seven years ago in the same bomb blast that killed our older brothers, parents, and sister and he's gotten- actually he hasn't gotten anywhere. He can barely walk with stilts. He prefers to use a wheelchair but the reaping pens didn't have enough space for the chair. He's still stronger than people think of him but he wouldn't have lasted beyond the 60 second countdown.

I heard people calling me stupid just as I took the stage. I was never the smart brother; that was also Sterling. And despite his crippling he's always been the attractive one according to his girlfriends. I know I'm not stupid, but looking out into the seemingly endless hallway I can't help but wonder if I made a dumb move.

"It's time," Lisa says as she taps me on the shoulder. I shook myself out of my thoughts and retreat into the cornucopia. I tap Lisa on the shoulder before I go inside.

I don't dream tonight. I don't even feel like I've slept at all.

I'm shocked awake by cannon fire.

14th, Coco Carthine, District 8 Female, 18 years old, Bludgeoned by Sherman Vance Wulliger (D7M)

"Did someone go on a hunt?" I ask. I look at my allies- Moraine has just woken up, Eir and Lisa look as confused as I do, and Androcles seems to have dropped whatever food he was making.

"Someone is doing our job for us," Eir says grimly. I can see Lisa mouth the word 'Good' as she pokes at whatever food Androcles was making.

I find a restroom and head off to use it, telling Moraine as I pat him on the shoulder. It occurs to me that they've never shown the tributes using the restroom to do their duties. I wonder what the capitol cuts away to. Knowing my brother he's going to be watching the screen even as they cut away from me. Granted, I had to help him use the restroom back home… as scarring as that may have been for a while but you have to do it for your brother.

I finish up in the restroom and head over to join the group for breakfast, which looks like eggs. Simple but rather effective. Androcles seems to have cleaned up his mess but the rest of breakfast seems to be rather simple and quiet.

"Who wants to go out first?" Eir breaks the silence.

"We could all go," Moraine speaks up. I raise an eyebrow as he points to the stores immediately around us. "There wasn't anything valuable between those stores and we have full domain over the cornucopia. We're in a good position to move out."

"Didn't you say that the floor below us was big?" Eir mentions.

"And I think there's a floor above us too if I recall," Androcles chimes in. "How about this-the girls head upstairs to find out if there's anyone there and the boys go downstairs. It'll be a way to get some more information."

"Guys day out," I chuckle. "I like it."

Androcles snorts. "Seems like 1 is into it. How about 4?"

"Let's go for it," Moraine shrugs. "Girls?"

"I'm down," Lisa thumbs up. "Eir?"

She nods placidly and turns off the stove we were using to cook our egg. It doesn't take long for us to divide our set of supplies. Eventually we're going to have to drop some of them off, probably after ruining them. Though I wonder if the gamemakers would punish us for destroying some of these coveted supplies. I can only guess that what we have here is even more than in some district 2 neighborhoods.

Eir and Lisa soon split up from us guys and head northward where I assume there's a way to the upper levels. We walk southward towards a different part of the mall. Most of the stores are empty and the ones that do have things are filled with barely filling food and rather greasy clothes. The store of note on one side of the hall has a giant sign over it.

Androcles and Moraine open the door. To our relief there isn't any other tribute to attack us. The type of store briefly escapes me but then it comes to mind as Moraine looks through what looks to be a giant telescope. "An observatory?"

"We have one of these in District 4, but I think they're called telescopes," Moraine mentions.

"Yeah they're definitely telescopes, but I've never seen one of them in person before," Androcles adds.

"No, we're in an observatory, we have telescopes in District 1 too. All the telescopes in our district are in the observatories or in the rich parts of town. Wouldn't it make more sense to have observatories in District 2?"

"Beats me," Androcles shrugs. "Maybe there are some that were destroyed in the war, I don't know."

As if on cue the lights in the observatory go down except for a single spotlight in the center of the observatory. It's directed to the giant screen on the opposite side of the entrance. A dazzling display of lights and lasers almost draws me to the center, and I fail to notice that I'm almost falling off of the upper level of the observatory. Moraine catches me with one hand and the lights turn on.

"Well that was a painful experience," Androcles says, rubbing his eyes.

"There's a door down there," I point out. "Let's go down. It must lead to a different hallway since we didn't go down the same hall as yesterday. You didn't go down this hall did you Moraine?"

Moraine shakes his head. He points to an elevator that seems to ding as he does. "Thanks gamemakers for pointing that out for me," Moraine smiles.

The three of us take the elevator down to the lower floor. There seems to be more telescopes and control panels where the elevator drops us off. There's a light that indicates the exit since it seems like the floor above us was just an overhand. I head through the exit into the comparatively harsher light of the mall hallways.

Like the hall from yesterday, there are stores and stores of varying usefulness. Something draws me to what looks like a model shop filled to the brim of hunger games memorabilia. There are models of the arenas from the previous seven hunger games with a price tag on them. I find a model of this very arena in the center of the store.

The cornucopia looks to be on the second of four floors. There's a floor above the cornucopia that looks smaller and looks like a plus shape. Above that there is a comparatively smaller floor that looks to be about the size of the cornucopia clearing and then some. The floor Androcles, Moraine, and I are on looks to be sprawling with more hallways than the floor above us and even more stores. I have difficulty pinpointing the hallway we went down.

13th, Logan Nartelle, District 10 Male, 15 years old, Throat slit by Moraine Wallis (D4M)

A cannon fires and I rush out of the model shop. Moraine and Androcles are standing about two hundred feet away over the body of a scrawnier, tanned boy. "What did I miss?"

"Fucker tried to jump me," Androcles mentions. "Caught me when I had my pants down."

"We were in the bathroom and he was in one of the stalls," Moraine elaborates.

12th, Derrin Hendrick, District 13 Male, 17 years old, Impaled by Eir Walkerson (D2F)

"That wasn't me," I shake my head.

"I hope it wasn't Lisa or Eir," Moraine scratches his head.

Androcles looks around uncomfortably before he fixates on something at the corner of his eye. "I didn't know they had a gym here."

He heads inside with a rather loud stomp. Moraine and I quickly follow and I'm blown away.

Androcles has already made his way to the back of the room where there are mirrors and rather nice lighting. He puts his hands on the mirror and balls his fists. I'm momentarily distracted by the myriad and variety of weightlifting machines. I spare a glance to Moraine putting a hand on Androcles' shoulder as they move away from the mirror.

Back in District 1 Sterling and I would look at the weight lifting machines in the catalogs they sent us. He'd walk down and try to use them but a lot of them weren't...cripple friendly as he put it. He was comfortable calling himself crippled even after we got attacked by a girl for saying crippled in public.

I decide to join the other guys, who seem to be attacking a punching bag. I sit to the side on a bench and notice that it has its own screen. I probably shouldn't be lifting heavy weights but I might as well do something to occupy the time. Androcles and Moraine seem to really be getting into the punching bag as I begin to lift some light weights. My shoulder isn't as good as it was a couple of weeks ago so I don't want to affect anything.

I have to wonder if the camera is focused on us or if there's more interesting things going on. There are gyms in District 1 and some guys would spend time looking at the people working out. And some girls for that matter. I've been in the gym a fair bit and weightlifting was a unit in the gym.

By the time I finish a brief workout Androcles and Moraine have shed their shirts and decided to move onto a rather large machine. I join them on the side. "We used to have this back home. Well, my school let us use machines like this. Did either of you want to try?" Moraine and I shake our heads. He puts on some weight as Moraine and I pass across what looks to be a heavy ball. I accidentally drop the weight, which makes a big sound in the gym, and one of the weights on the machine Androcles is using drops on his stomach.

Moraine lifts the weight off of him effortlessly and sits him up. He coughs violently before he pats Moraine on the back. He wipes a tear from his eye and the sweat from his brow before he picks up a bag of stuff. "Well we have some time to kill before I think Eir and Lisa want to find us. Moraine, you said you wanted to try some workout?"

"Oh, oh yeah," Moraine says with a bit of a hesitation. "But not with weights."

He moves to a bar some eight feet off of the ground and jumps up to it. I drop my jaw, stunned, as he seems to do an impressive calisthenics routine that lasts for a good ten minutes. By the time he finishes he hangs limp, sweat over his well muscled torso. "Wanna give it a shot?" he asks.

He drops from the bar and I jump up to it. Unlike the impressive show of gymnastics I can only do a couple pull ups. I drop after doing fifteen, sweaty as Moraine. I move to some weight machines and slowly build up to a weight I'm more used to back home. Moraine and Androcles look at me decently impressed, but I can tell they're both stronger than I and probably humoring me.

After some more time with some unfamiliar machines Androcles lets out a small laugh. "You should take a look in the mirror," Androcles mentions, a small smile on his face. "I'm looking good, you're looking good and Moraine is too."

I turn around and yes, we're all pretty nice looking… as nice looking as we can get in the arena. My brother hates me posing in the mirror but he's not here. I wonder what the Capitol is going to do with three boys posing in the mirror.

"I feel kind of musky, is there a shower here?" Moraine looks around.

There is a shower room with a light helpfully above it. I guess we have to thank the gamemakers for all the convenience they gave us. That or they're trying to give the pervs something to look for. Whatever the case I'm 16 and I don't give a fuck who sees me naked. Androcles and Moraine don't seem to mind either.

The shower room we walk into is strikingly similar to the one back home at school. There is a row of eight showerheads along a tiled wall and floor with what looks to be curtains in between each of them. This is divided by a wall that goes up to my waist, definitely to keep water from pouring out. Upon closer examination there are cleaning dispensers underneath the showerheads and what looks to be some kind of loofah- enough for all three of us to use.

"Are we showering now?" I ask the other two.

"I don't see why not," Androcles shrugs. He takes off his shorts and steps into the shower, adjusting the water and letting it drip over his decently muscular back.

Moraine and I strip and follow him into the showers, taking a different showerhead. I let the water go under my underwear as I scrub the rest of my body. Out of the corner of my eye I see Moraine has chosen to go fully nude, adding a layer of impressiveness to his already impressive body. I hear Androcles doing the same, prompting me to do it as well.

The shower is relieving but I can't help to think that the other victors are somewhat jealous of us. If not for our good looks then for the fact that we get to shower. We get back in our clothes and head back into the main area of the mall. I feel kind of selfish for going here without the girls but I know they'd probably prefer privacy from us guys.

On the way back we stop in a store with the sign 8. From the looks of the store it has clothes for all of us, which we can all probably use. I thank the gamemakers that we don't really need to make any payment for these...rather shitty clothes. I might be spoiled from District 1 but the clothes here are the same for boys and girls, only in different colors. We leave with our bags stuffed with clothes.

The walk back isn't eventful and the girls haven't come back yet. When we sit down at the cornucopia three parachutes pop out of the ground for each of us. I open mine to find food in the form of potatoes, steak, and some kind of vegetable that I can't quite place. I fire up the grill and put the steak back on it, after biting into it and finding that despite its brown exterior it's bleeding too much. I look through the parachute again to see that there's a cutlery set with some napkins. Duke has a message on one of them, but it's nothing important.

Moraine taps me on the shoulder and asks to use the grill next. I take my steak off to see that he's putting up some fish. Androcles falls in line after with what looks to be some chicken strips. I take a bite into my steak and find that it's alright, I'm not much of a chef like my mentor but I think I did well. Again I wonder how jealous the previous victors are.

Eir and Lisa come up to us with what looks to be more fabric. Eir dumps them unceremoniously at the opening of the cornucopia and two more parachutes pop up. "Did you find anyone?" I ask Eir.

"I got one of the boys," Eir says with a blunt look on her face. "It's been so long I don't remember where they were from."

"Obviously not from one of us...what was it the outliers called us?" Lisa asks, suddenly looking up from her parachute.

"They called us careers," Androcles snorts. "I didn't do any training but they still lumped me in with those...cheaters. I attended an informational session with Remus but it just didn't stick with me."

"I didn't train either," Moraine adds. I shake my head and we all go around shaking our heads. Some of us are probably lying. Technically I didn't do any illegal training, we just had weightlifting at school and I did roughhouse a bunch with my friends. Something tells me Androcles is a fan of using the exact wording of things.

"Well the boy wasn't from us," Lisa continues. We drop the subject since we're going to find out later tonight. "It's been getting cold lately. Have you guys been feeling it?"

"If it is, I haven't noticed, but thanks for getting the blankets," I mention.

"Well we have two big ones,we tried to get five but they were too...I don't want to say heavy, they were just too hard for us to carry," Lisa trails off.

"Thank you Lisa," Moraine smiles. "I have been noticing. Are the blankets big enough to share?"

"I'm willing to just sleep in my clothes. I've had to do that with my brother back home. District 1 got decently cold."

"If I remember correctly District 1 is considered more north than even District 4, and the cold we get is more because of the wind from the sea," Lisa chirps.

"What did you guys find?" Eir changes the subject.

"A tribute," Androcles says. "Moraine got the fucker good."

I didn't notice any wounds on the boy but there was a lot of blood. Androcles did have a fair bit over him now that I recall, but surely it can't be as bad as that torture Androcles gave, right?

"We also found a gym. Let's all go there tomorrow. We can use a rest day," I speak up.

"That sounds like a good idea. We have gyms back in District 2. It'll be like home," Eir mentions. "We have a bit of a shorts hierarchy back home and I was one of the top."

"I'm sorry what?" Lisa asks.

"In District 2 for our physical education classes we have different color shorts that we have to wear. If you are participating at 25% of the required average you wear white shorts. 50% of the required average is a weird mustardy yellow, 75% of the required average is an orange. If you participate at average you get green shorts. After that it gets a bit subjective but the fact of the matter is that the ten best performers are permitted to wear black shorts."

"You reset per year right?" Moraine asks.

"Yes," Eir clarifies.

"That sounds really complicated. District 4's physical education… if you could call it that, you have to learn to climb, learn to swim, and if you can properly swim for five hundred feet without calling for help you pass," Lisa muses.

"Sounds kind of boring," I comment. "District 1 we have a test of push ups, sit ups, pull ups, and cycle runs. And then for some reason we have an etiquette test."

"Based on your manners from eating," Androcles speaks up, "You're failing."

This earns a round of laughter as we change the subject to the meals we have in our District. We share our food. It's a light hearted conversation.

The lights go down in the arena and then the faces begin to appear on the screen. By my calculation the first of 3 faces is the girl from District 8. She was skinny but she looked like she could put up a fight, but her name...Cocoa… you'd think she's a white girl from District 11. After her is the boy from District 10, who was the boy Moraine caught. I hope he didn't torture him. Logaine? Lugan? Lakelan? Something along those lines. He seemed cool, like one of my neighbors from back home. The last face in the sky is the boy from District 13, Derrin. He was tough. He had three brothers back home. And I remember Carat and I thought he was kind of cute for a rebel.

"You got District 13?" Androcles asks his partner before the face disappears from the sky.

"That I did," Eir mumbles. "The boy from District 11 wasn't in the sky. I guess he's alive still."

"Classic Moraine," Moraine grumbles. "Can't even finish his job."

"You did what you had to don't dwell on it," Eir bluntly says. By my count there are 11 of us left. We're going at a decently fast pace since more than half of us are gone. "There are 11 of us left. After we get one more should we split up?"

"Why split up at 10?" Moraine asks.

"Because then there's half of us left and we have a 50/50 chance of killing each other technically," Androcles adds. "Right?"

"But why so soon?" Lisa nervously whimpers. "Can't we wait until the final 9 so that way there's a greater than likely chance that one of us would win?"

"A fifty-fifty shot that we win or one of the outliers win isn't a chance I wanna go for. If we split at 9 then we all have a shot at getting rid of one of the stronger threats," I contribute.

"Like the boy from District 7," Androcles nods in the low light of the arena. "Or the girl from 13. Of course that can easily be the fodder from 3."

"If we stick together until we kill just one more then we can still contribute our supplies with each other. I don't want to risk being abandoned and infected too soon," Lisa adds.

"Okay," Eir holds up a hand. "Are we in agreement?" We all nod quietly.

"I think we better split up for the night. Moraine and Eir can take the first sleeping shift. I can stay up. I didn't do much today," I instantly offer.

"I'll stay up with you," Lisa contributes. "Androcles can rest if he wants to."

"Sure," Androcles says. The division of labor is relatively quick this time around. Eir curls up under one blanket while Moraine and Androcles go awfully close to each other in the other.

Lisa and I sit across from each other in the cornucopia. "You know who you remind me of?" Lisa speaks up after an hour of silence. I look at her tiredly. "My cousin."

"How so?"

"He's blond, thinks a lot of things are kind of useless, but is always willing to go on a walk. Mom is always talking about how handsome and how smart he is if he applies himself but he's more concerned with the girls in the district."

"I don't know if I should be insulted or flattered."

"Well, if his leg wasn't broken he'd volunteer for his little brother in a heartbeat. And if his little brother was of reaping age," Lisa philosophises. "I think if you two met you'd get along."

The conversation dies down a bit before I fix my seating position. "I appreciate the sentiment. I think I'd want to have a cousin like you."

"You don't have any?"

"Uncle Reymond didn't have much luck with the ladies back home and he was a bachelor when my parents died. I was never close to him. Me and Sterling against the world until his injuries got worse."

"How bad did they start?"

"Sterling limped along for a while. Four years ago he got so bad he had to use a wheelchair. He still does but for brief standing moments like the reaping he has crutches. He doesn't want me taking tesserae but he takes a lot of them. The money he makes goes for the Doctor's office."

"Oh," Lisa sighs.

"I think all of you would like him. Maybe not dating, he hasn't talked about dating in the years we've been siblings, but he's handsome enough with the wheelchair."

Again silence falls over us. I'm mentally kicking myself for revealing more about my brother. He's probably fending off people calling me a dumbass, or people thinking that he's jealous for me taking the glory. It's not like he could have won anyway.

My eyes are closing on me when I hear Androcles tapping my shoulder. "Do you want me to take over?" he asks gruffly.

"You sound like you need to sleep more than I do," I shake my head.

"I need it but I can't get it," he says, irate, "Moraine is a good cuddler and I thought you might want to try."

"I guess I will if you're so insistent," I sigh. He gives me what I think is a sheepish smile and I curl in the blanket next to Moraine.

Tonight I dream. I dream that my mouth is full of steak, bloody steak, and I'm still in this forsaken mall arena. I see my brother up for sale on top of a wheelchair that only people with more money than sense would buy. Rain begins to fall in the arena like a shower over a roof. The sound of rain eventually becomes the sound of bombs. I hear my parents screaming as I try to break Sterling out of the store display. When I pick up a proper chair it breaks through the glass and Sterling shatters into pieces.

I wake up, sweating, and something is around me. The thick blanket. I'm covered in an entire jacket of sweat. I roll over and am only met with the cold hard metal of the cornucopia. The lights are on in the arena now, and with it…

Yep, the smell of something cooking. I can hear something boiling too. Looking over to my left Lisa is sound asleep which can only mean that the other three are currently cooking. "Look who's up," I hear Moraine lightly taunt as I finally take a step outside the cornucopia.

"You got a present," Eir mentions, holding up a new kind of parachute. "I don't know why it looks like this."

The parachute looks weird, but that's only because there's a lock on it. Sponsored by...Secura Lock Company made in District 3. Seems that someone here was trying to tamper with the parachutes, but I don't dwell on it. It's a fingerprint lock and I don't know how Secura got my fingerprint but I put it on and it unlocks. Inside are more eggs, some jerky, and what looks to be seasoning. There's another letter from Duke. Thank the capitol owners of Secura. They're funding a lot of your sponsor presents.

"Wow, Secura really does work," I say after reading the message several times. The others look at me strangely before I fill the parachute with water and place it on the grill. The water begins to boil and I plop an egg in. "Never seen a boiled egg before?" I ask the others staring at me.

Lisa begins to wake up too and Eir holds up her parachute, what looks to be a small thing. A strong whiff of fish and vegetables comes out. She prepares them- raw- and hands them to all of us. "Is it safe to eat raw fish?" Androcles questions.

"It happens in District 4 every so often," Moraine starts. "During the war we ate a bit of it raw."

"Anyways what's our plans for the day?" I ask, breaking into my boiled egg.

"How about we go to that gym you guys found yesterday?" Lisa suggests. "Can we all go? So that we're all secure?"

"We can afford a rest day I suppose," Androcles muses. "Anyone disagree?"

All of us affirm the decision. Once we finish eating we all grab a bag and begin to head off. "Now, which hallway did we go down last time?" I ask Androcles.

"That one," Androcles points. "Let's go."

The trip down to the gym isn't something noteworthy. When my allies turn into the gym I again make a stop in the model shop nearby. I don't know what I expect but there are no changes through the entire shop. I head further inside to see a perfect replica of District 1's main town center. We're supposed to be one of the smaller districts and from here it looks even smaller.

Something does catch my eye though, a large swatch of land is barren and filled with a lot of construction material. Immediately my mind goes to the idea that they're building an arena. If they're building an arena in District 1...oh no...that means they're going to draft my brother to construct it. What if Uncle Reymond-

Stop it dammit.

I need to step out of here and join the others at the gym. They seem to be doing their own thing on the various machines. I sit down at what looks to be a machine for legs and begin work on it. The sound of weights clanking in the gym feels almost like home. I finish with my legs and move to a chest exercise machine. I struggle a bit but I get through a couple of reps.

Thoroughly tired I decide to watch Moraine do his gymnastics routine again. Or calisthenics. What's the difference? I can notice both Eir and Lisa staring and chuckle to myself. "Second time he did this and it's even better the second," Lisa gushes.

"And you get mad at me for supposedly flirting with you," I turn, a blank look on my face.

"At least I'm honest with how hot Moraine is. You can't tell me if Eir didn't start stripping you'd compliment her too."

"Only if she wanted, there are catcallers out there and I refuse to be one of them." Moraine turns upside down and does some crunches. I'm suddenly very insecure about my body and decide to move to the bench press machine. Lisa follows along boredly and sees me put a plate on the bar. I'm able to squeeze out 10 reps before I change the bench to a different position, and still I'm able to do 10 reps. I change again and only make it 8, but from the looks on Lisa's face she's suitably impressed.

I move to a different machine and begin doing a set of pull ups. Androcles and Eir are attacking a punching bag. Lisa just looks at us from a pile of boxes, stepping up and down, jumping high, and then not doing much.

By the time we all finish all of us, sans Lisa, are covered in a sheen of sweat. I take off my shirt and check myself out in the mirror. I'm feeling rather good about myself until Moraine and Androcles, both bigger than me by a good bit, begin out flexing me. My pride sufficiently hurt, I move into the shower room, turning on the showerhead and looking down at my feet.

"Did we hurt your ego or something?" I hear Moraine's voice.

"I'm a teenage boy, I have an ego bigger than my head. You definitely hurt something."

"We're boys too, we just want to have fun you know," Androcles says, hopping in the shower with me and Moraine. "Before the inevitable."

"I guess we're friends then?" I ask, looking at the two of them as water falls over us.

"As much as we can be," Moraine readily says. Androcles nods his head too. I give them both a slight smile as they move to get suitably washed themselves.

Once the three of us are done we go out to the gym and wait for Eir and Lisa. They finish in about a minute so we leave the gym. I haven't looked at all the stores here in depth besides the model shop. Lisa points to what looks to be a photography store and I follow her in there. "My aunt has a stockpile of cameras," Lisa wistfully remembers. "Every year on my birthday she'd give a disposable one to me and I'd take a bunch of photos in a day."

"They're pretty annoying if you ask me," I mention, "What do you think, Moraine?"

"Never really had a purpose for taking photos. Doesn't look important here either. I wonder what else we can find here."

Among the picture frames and flash bulbs and props I find a stockpile of photos of all the tributes. I'm somehow managing a half cocky smirk in mine. I turn the frame over to see my statistics. I'm recorded as 5'11" and given a weight range of 120-150 pounds. It's kind of a big range. I have blond hair and blue eyes, but I knew that already.

I look around the shop to see that a room to the back is open. Lisa and Moraine are putting on what look to be ridiculous hats. They rope me in. Lisa leaves with a hat labeled as tricorn, I get a hat with a propeller on it, and Moraine gets a tweed hat. We grab 2 more hats for Eir and Androcles, who we see outside the photo shop. They look shaken.

"The model shop scares me," Eir says quietly. She puts on a hat with a feather in it and walks away.

"It scared me too," Androcles murmurs. We follow Eir down the hall to see that it opens up into what seems to be a veritable maze of hallways. Who needs this many stores in a mall? "Do you want to go anywhere Eir?"

Eir points to something that looks like a restaurant. I haven't noticed it but my stomach is rumbling. I follow her inside to find it has an array- multiple rows of food. It's a veritable feast down here. Eir looks over the food and reads the labels. They don't indicate anything poisonous. Eir takes a chunk of meat and samples it. Lucky for her, she doesn't keel over and die.

I head over to one of the fruits nearby. I pop a small, grape looking thing in my mouth. I also don't keel over and die. I see the others trying bread, trying fruits, trying other kinds of food that I don't even know the name of. The food is safe. A parachute pops up, not really directed to any of us, and inside there are napkins. That must mean it's safe to eat, right?

Eir seems to think so. She stacks a bunch of food high on the plate then sits down at the table, inviting the rest of us to join her. It doesn't take long for us to pick up piles of food and we eat like we did so long ago at the capitol. The mood considerably lightens under our hats and in front of our food. Androcles tells a story about how he got trapped in a mine for a week because of rebel bombings, Moraine tells us that the ship his family worked on was destroyed in a rebel fire, Lisa tells us that one of her grandfathers was executed after being taken hostage by a rebel, and I tell the story about losing my parents to some rebel firefight. "What about you Eir?"

Her face darkens as she picks at a piece of chicken. "I feel out of place because both of my parents are alive, currently on a firing squad against rebels. My mom…" She trails off.

The gears turn in my head and I realize that something unspeakable happened to her. "You don't have to tell us. Want to change the conversation?"

"Sorry for bringing you guys down," Eir sadly smiles. "Do you guys raise animals?"

"That's something for the really rich and the really poor where I'm from," I mention. "Actually it was for the people who had the most space."

"Had a dog," Androcles bites into a piece of steak. "Don't know what happened to it. I think it got lost in the war."

"We have a couple of cats, help keep the flies away and let us know when the fish goes bad," Lsia mentions. "Is it true down south Moraine?"

"I suppose," Moraine shrugs. "You did get to see dolphins out on the sea and they're better than pets if you ask me. That and birds. I was always a fan of birds."

"Birds?" Androcles asks.

"I told you I was shipwrecked for a bit with a couple of my friends? We were stuck outside the patrol ships for officers and we needed to find our way back. There was an albatross. Next to some seagulls actually. They led us home. I had to swim for days on end but I was able to find some helpful captains," he explains.

"So are you only into albatrosses?" Eir asks.

"Hawks are cool too, but you don't see them often. An albatross really is a sailor's best friend. That and blue sails," Moraine wistfully says.

We finish lunch quickly and begin exploring the rest of the bottommost floor. There are more model shops, one of them seems to be connected to what looks to be a slot car track. Bored, Androcles and Lisa begin playing with it while Eir, Moraine, and I move into another clothing store. We change into a better set of clothes, more comfortable ones, shovelling some into rather gaudy bags to take with us.

Lisa wins the race and we move onto a different store, and it looks to be full of board games and broomsticks and model kits. What is it with this mall and models? I'm barely musing on this thought when I walk into a scantily clad model that barely covers the essential goods with a tray. Eir hovers over a bit of dice before knocking them down, rolling a total of 48 from just as many dice.

Other than that there's nothing, and we're all feeling rather tired, so we head back upstairs to the cornucopia, waiting for night to come so we can all just sleep. Food comes up, a lighter meal of bread and fruit and some juice. We head off to the bathroom every so often and sit, playing with the newfound goodies we found during our hall.

Moraine teaches us a dice game. Eir chooses not to participate but I can tell that she's watching us intently. I win five rounds, Androcles claims 2, Moraine claims 3, and Lisa only gets one. Androcles turns to Lisa with a smug smile before he changes his clothes. Somehow that causes a lewd game of strip poker to come. Lisa chooses to sleep in the cornucopia since she's the youngest of us. But can you blame us? We're bored.

I'm down to my underwear and shorts, Moraine to one sock, Eir to her bra, shorts, and presumably panties, and Androcles only lost his shirt when the anthem begins to play. WE look up respectfully, training our eyes to the ceilings and the walls to look at the seal of panem. It's been what? Four days now? And we're only down to...what? Eleven?

No one is in the mood for strip poker after the anthem finishes. Androcles and Eir follow Lisa into the cornucopia for some shut eye. I don't know if it's me adapting to the arena or the arena accomodating us but the arena just seems brighter even in the dark. "After so many nights at sea if you end up in the dark in familiar waters then you can begin to see features that you normally wouldn't in dark areas," Moraine says.

"Do you read minds often?" I ask.

"Only for people I can consider friends."

"Are we friends?" I ask Moraine genuinely.

"I want to be your friend. Better than being enemies. It's better to live your last days in comfort than it is to live at each other's throats."

"I get that," I mumble. The conversation peters out and the hours go by. Eir and Lisa wake up and tag me and Moraine out. He and I go under the same big blanket.

That night I dream that all five of us are back home - no it's not home. It's a mountain lake surrounded by an endless ocean down below. We fish up food and Carat comes over for a visit. I hop on a phone call to talk to my brother and Duke, who seem to be in a relationship? I always thought Sterling was straight but since it's my dream I'm probably projecting in a strange way. We take our houseboat to the capitol and greet the president like old friends before the light goes out, there are screams, and we're all dead on the floor.

I pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming when I wake up. Under this very thick blanket I'm sweating up a storm and Moraine is nowhere to be found. I head out of the cornucopia to see that only Androcles is sitting at our grill. "You're finally up," Androcles snarks.

"Had some rough dreams," I mention. "Where'd the others go?"

"Washing up in the restroom. You might want to join them."

"Not going down to the gym today?"

"We tried," Androcles mentions offhandedly. "You wouldn't believe it but there's a gate on the stairs downstairs."

"I guess they were sick of us lollygagging downstairs."

Androcles opens his mouth to speak but then Eir, Lisa, and Moraine come back, hair still wet. "You're finally up," Lisa comments.

"We're going upstairs today," Moraine tells us. "You might wanna get changed and eat."

A parachute pops out of the ground, addressed to me because of the rather large P on it, and the number 1 basically emblazoned on it. I take the parachute, some clothes, something from one of our food stockpiles, a calorie bar from the look on the label, and a giant duffel bag. "Let's head upstairs once I finish changing," I suggest, retrieving a round of nods.

Back into the bathroom I go. Inside I let the sink run as I open up my parachute. The message is a narrow strip that lines the interior walls of the parachute. The capitol likes what they see. All of it. Sterling is fine. Keep doing what you need to. You'll make it to the end. -Duke

Besides the message I find a bag of chips, some dried fruit, some water, some meat, and a collapsed backpack. down the chips- they taste like popcorn and caramel sweets- and the calorie stick and change into the clothes they have. The parachute clinks against the floor and I get another parachute.

It's longer and narrower than the other. I open it up to see another message from Duke. I didn't want to risk this one being found by the others. An ornate sword, with dark blue gems on the hilt and a silver sheen all over, is my present from the capitol. I'm thinking about how I'm going to have to stab my allies- friends?- allies with this before I manage to hide the sword in one of the bags I grabbed. To my shock it fits, but there's a hole in there from my general callousness. I cover the hole up with some clothes I have and head out.

"Sorry for the wait," I walk out of the bathroom having washed up and changed.

"Were the shirts not big enough for you?" Androcles taunts.

I'm momentarily confused when I realize that I'm shirtless. "Unfortunately, but I did find a jacket. It's too clunky for now. Let's get moving."

"Head north for the stairs to the upper floor," Eir says, walking north with me at first. I let myself fall back so that Eir can take the least.

Looks wise the upstairs of the mall is rather similar to the two floors below it. I remember there being a level above this one so I'm sure the general looks of it are going to be largely the same. I turn to Eir as she walks down to what looks to be a furniture store. She and I split up in the store and find no one. Lisa, Androcles, and Moraine sit on a table playing with one of the table toppers on there. We move out.

The next store we go to is almost too immature for this mall. Inflatable bounce houses line the walls and ceilings. There are monkey bars from the top, slides down to the side, and what look to be cubbyholes on any side. Moraine and Eir check out the store and suddenly there's a cannon.

11th Place, Pecan Flores, District 11 Male, 17 years old, Mortally injured by Moraine Wallis (D4M)

It takes ten more minutes or so before Moraine and Eir walk out. Eir seems to be comforting Moraine with a hand on his shoulder. "Who'd you get?" asks Lisa.

"The District 11 boy we fought a while ago," Moraine explain. "Died before I got to him again."

"You were the last person to fight him. Doesn't that mean you killed him?" asks Lisa.

"There were no other wounds on his body besides that gut wound Moraine gave. That does indicate that you killed him but I am unsure if he did fight another person and was healing."

"We'll find out when one of us gets out of the games," Androcles says confidently.

Our next stop is another big gym looking area. It's a rock climbing locale and Androcles and Eir just look ready to climb. We look behind the counter for harnesses and rope. Eir ties herself to a rock and begins climbing. I guess it's natural in District 2. Moraine, Lisa, and I stick to the lower rock walls where we change into more appropriate rock climbing shoes. They're metal tipped and when I drive it into the rock it helps me get a grip with just my toes.

It's a bit of light fun, we need to get our minds off of the game as much as we can anyway. Androcles and Moraine race and Moraine almost beats Androcles. Lisa and Eir talk about knot tying strategies. I climb to the top and look around, taking a moment to breathe, wiping tears from my eyes as again, I realize this can't last forever.

Androcles offers to let me ride him to get down the mountain and not seeing a better plan I oblige. He's careful and well experienced. By the time he finishes he strips off his shirt. Moraine has done so too.

We walk around the rest of the floor but find nothing of interest. The hunger games are really boring at times.

We head back downstairs and have our food. It's a good meal if nothing else but nothing really stops us from thinking of the inevitable. Another tribute died so we're closer to having to kill each other in a great big melee where only one of us can make it out. Or brawl. Or kerfuffle.

Night falls. The anthem plays. The only face in the sky belongs to the boy from District 11. Pecan? Peanut? One of those names. Eir and Moraine volunteer for the first watch. I curl up in one blanket. Androcles joins me.

I can't really explain what happens that night. By the time morning happens I'm well rested and ready for the next day but I don't remember sleeping at all. It's hazy, but I remember curling up to Androcles and Androcles curling up to me. Was that Moraine? Was that Androcles? Lisa? Eir? Carat's ghost? Pecan's ghost?

The smell of breakfast snaps me out of the questioning trance. This time we've chopped up potatoes and are grilling them to the point they're very crunchy. Potatoes are nice, a little oily at times, but filling and helps make people sturdy. Lisa and Moraine eat the most potatoes while Eir is content to nibble on fruit. Androcles doesn't seem to eat much today. I lose track of what I eat.

We take another staircase upstairs to the...3rd floor I believe. Some of the stores have shuttered down, which I only notice when we try to go into that bounce house, but it wasn't like there was anything important there in the store. The furniture store is also closed off and so are rows of other stores. The rock climbing place is open though.

We come to the collective decision to burn another couple of hours there.

By the time we're all sweaty and gross it's been about three hours. "Do you think this place has a shower?" Lisa looks around.

"There are water bottles and a bathroom. No shampoo," Eir replies from the back of a counter.

"I saw one shower stall at the top of one of the features," Moraine contributes. "We can always take turns."

"You go first," I wave off, "You found it."

He strips himself of his shirt and rubs a cold water bottle over his stomach. He looks to Lisa, who is blushing, and Eir, who has an appreciative smile on her face. "That fine with you ladies? Androcles? Prestige?"

"Go ahead," Androcles grunts.

It takes another hour or so for all of us to finish showering. The shower is more complicated than the gym shower, with much of the same features from the capitol showers on the train and the bedrooms. I take the liberty of washing my clothes in the shower before I actually finish up. When I do we all decide to leave, searching for the next thing to kill.

Hours or tributes or boredom.

Androcles' stomach rumbles loudly. I guess it would since he was and Moraine got into what seemed to be a heated series of competitions. As if on cue Moraine's stomach rumbles while we look at a store with a conveyor belt inside it. It looks to have bar seating along the conveyor belt. It's as good a place to check as any.

We sit in a row with Eir closest to the door and Moraine closest to the interior. Lisa is in the middle and the conveyor belt starts. Small food supplies on plates that are barely bigger than my expanded palm begin to appear. Lisa grabs one of them, sniffs it, and eats it. It seems safe and more food comes rolling out. Another conveyor belt drops from the ceiling with different colored drinks.

I grab a plate of weird fried dough balls. They taste tender and vaguely like a fish. I can't quite place the name of it but I bite one and find my tongue sticking to it. A small plate of rice and meat passes by. I grab it and wrap it in another piece of bread that goes by. Lisa points to a bit of sauce that I roll my bread wrapped rice and meat in.

I can't quite believe it but it tastes good. "We had stuff like this in District 4. Sauce was easy to come by. Oysters and all that," Lisa explains.

"True but we didn't have the fancy schmancy plates," Moraine adds.

Even after I'm finished eating I look at the plates zoom past us in a neat and orderly line. I wonder why the gamemakers are generous with us this year. In case I do make it out of the games I'll donate more money to the restaurants. Uncle Reymond did want to open a restaurant before the dark days rebellion. Come to think of it, I haven't seen him since three days before the reaping.

The others finish their meal and stack their empty plates onto the conveyor belt. We continue walking but a lot of other stores are closed. The displays on the windows are nice to look at if nothing else. Some of them show old propaganda movies that used to air during the war. Other windows play the Panem anthem on different instruments, imported straight from District 1. Lisa in particular is captivated with the model of a grand organ.

"Hey there's a staircase," Moraine calls out. We rush towards him only to see the staircase blocked off by a gate. It's in the middle of the plus shape of this floor so I assume it leads up to a smaller square. I put my hand on the gate and immediately yank it back, getting a shock. "Did that hurt?"

"No, why would it?"

"We saw sparks," Lisa says with wide eyes. "How didn't that hurt?"

"If I'm dead in two hours you'll leave my body behind and win the games right?" That's a bit of an uncomfortable subject so we move around the rest of the floor, finally ending up at the staircase we used to enter this floor.

It speaks volumes that the five of us have entered some kind of routine waiting for the end of the Hunger Games. Androcles and Eir get a parachute full of breakfast stuff from one of the top breakfast haunts in the capitol. Our breakfast for dinner is eggs, hash browns, and bacon. I'm actually not a big fan of bacon because it feels so greasy and fatty. Gross.

The anthem comes and goes with ironically little fanfare and we turn to sleep. I watch first with Eir, engaged in a simple conversation about our houses that doesn't really go anywhere. After that Androcles and Lisa wake up to give me and Eir the opportunity to sleep.

I dream of a house with Eir, in a neighborhood that looks strikingly like the victor's village that Duke and other victors call home. There is a museum devoted to our hunger games in a mall that's erected right before our eyes. Eir and I walk inside to see our allies hung up by their necks with placards that show their statistics. The nooses break and then Moraine rolls on the floor, cackling like a hyena. Then Eir begins to laugh as I feel fish in my stomach rumble,

When I wake up, breakfast today is fish sticks, raw duck eggs, and orange juice. Individually, all of them are really, really, good but together they leave a terrible aftertaste. Androcles and I rush to the restroom, emptying our bowels and rinsing out our mouths. I leave to grab some clothes to change out of, bringing my duffel bag that contains my sword in it. Androcles still is in the restroom. We're joined by Moraine shortly after who goes to comfort Androcles.

Even though I leave the room without any other thoughts entering my head I can't help but to think that Moraine and Androcles are getting a little too close for comfort. "You guys done eating?" Lisa asks.

"Well we were finished about five minutes ago. Moraine and Androcles are still puking a storm. No offense to your cooking; it was good but it just didn't sit well," I backpedal. Eir shares a small glance with Lisa and does something with her hand that I don't quite understand. Lisa and Eir turn off the grill before grabbing their bags.

"I heard some gates going up during the night. I think that means the bottom floor is open again. We can go down there if we want to," Lisa mentions.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Eir shrugs. We wait outside the bathroom for the other boys before we head downstairs.

The walk is almost routine enough for us to commit it to memory. Even though one of the stairways downstairs is closed off in the general direction of the gym we can still take the theater route downstairs. Most of the other stores, model shop not included, are closed off.

Even though all five of us walk into the same location where the gym initially was, the machines seem to have moved in the day that we didn't visit. Now there is a swimming pool where many of the leg machines were. Moraine and Lisa smile before they jump in, still clothed, and decide to race. "Are you going to join them?" Androcles asks me.

I shake my head. He nods over to Eir and the two walk over again to the punching bags. I notice that Lisa and Moraine have largely taken off their clothes and are now swimming much more fluidly. I'm tempted to join them but I retreat to an all encompassing weight lifting machine. My shoulder feels a lot better so I decide to push myself a little more, putting two plates- a forty five and a twenty five- on each end of the bar and trying to lift it up. I'm able to finish one set of eight reps and start the second.

Just as I finish the sixth rep I lose control of the bar and it falls onto my chest. I manage to muscle my way out of the weight bench before I'm really suffocated. The weights clang to the floor unceremoniously. I wipe my hands on the shirt before moving to a simple cardio machine, hoping that I don't fuck that up. I get in three miles in under 15 minutes. I don't know if that's fast or if that's slow but it's something.

"Did you hurt yourself on that bench?" Moraine asks as he leans on the treadmill that I'm using. I shake my head as he shrugs. "Can't blame me for being concerned. Can you help me with some of those machines? I'm not confident enough on my own."

I step off the treadmill telling Moraine to get himself set up on the machine. The machine allows for multiple people on it—actually it allows for up to three people- so I begin to practice my pull ups just as Moraine puts on about the same weight I dropped. As I finish fifteen pull ups he also accomplishes three sets of eight. He even adjusts the bench height to something of an incline to accomplish just as many reps bench pressing.

After Moraine finishes he looks at me hanging on the bar. "Are you going to do more pull ups?" he asks me.

"I was going to move onto the ab machines," I shake my head.

"Why don't you just use the pull up bar? You can also get a good back workout." Noticing my confused face Moraine encourages me to go to the side. "Here, I'll show you."

Moraine lowers the bar with surprising ease to a safer level. He throws his hands up on the bar before he swings his legs up. He's got a good grip on his legs and he dangles his arms downward. "All you need to do is swing up. It's a killer ab workout. Not that you need it."

"Oh I probably do," I say as I watch him do a quick five round routine. "Only five?"

"I just wanted to show you how you can do it. I can easily do more if I wanted to."

"Then do it," I laugh. "I wanna see if I can beat it."

"Why don't you go first? I already made my mark with five?"

Seeing a challenge I take off my shirt and cast it off to the side. Moraine helps me get my legs up on the bar and I do thirty of these suspended upside down crunches before I fall down, moraine catching me as I do so. "You've gotta do 25 more."

Moraine gives me a surprisingly confident smile. He does the first twenty with ease but by the twenty third he drops to the ground with a flip. "Looks like you win this one PRestige," he replies at ease. "If Androcles and Eir are done then we can all go wash up."

"Where did Lisa go?"

"She wanted to check out the model shop next door. She already washed up and everything so we're gonna get her once we all finish. You done working out?"

"No, not really. I'm gonna try some of the leg machines."

"Looks like Androcles and Eir are finishing up so you might wanna get on that as quickly as you can." He points to the duo from 2 who are exchanging water bottles and talking on a bench.

"You know what, it can wait," I mention. "Walking is enough of a workout anyway."

"I'll agree to that."

Moraine and I walk into the shower and rinse ourselves off. The natural curiosity in me spares a glance at Moraine, who looks massive in his element- the water. It's almost intimidating. Almost. I finish up my wash and put on my clothes just as Androcles heads into the shower. Moraine still seems like he has a bit to go in order to get clean and from what I see Androcles and Moraine start a conversation.

I leave the gym to head into the model shop. Hopefully Lisa is up for a bit of conversation.

Like the gym the model shop has changed its layout to be more… decentralized I wanna say. Four models representing each of the four floors of the mall take up the center. Well, that's not entirely accurate. They're around a model of the Capitol. Looking at it from this distance almost makes it look small. Back in the capitol towering buildings made it a mess to really see anything more than the lake from the tribute building. There were parks from what I was able to see in the tribute building, big ones too, and there were a lot of colors.

"Are you guys done with the gym?" I hear Lisa ask me from behind.

"The others are washing up," I tell her. "Did you see any interesting models?"

"Here," she grabs my hand and takes me to a wall where vehicles of different types are along the wall. I move my hand to grab one when she immediately slaps it. "They're fragile! But look at this one. The shipbuilders practice by making canoes for the teens to use in District 4. Once they finish with canoes they make bigger boats like that one over there." I see her point to boat after boat and she tells me all of their names and all of their purposes.

By the time the other three join us I know more about boats than a District 1 tribute probably would. We head out of the model shop to head for some food. The buffet style eatery is still open with all the fixings of a good meal. We spend about an hour just...talking really. Like normal teens would do in a non Hunger Games setting. As best as I can manage I'm beginning to consider these guys at least acquaintances. Not quite friends, that makes it harder to kill them.

And besides, I have more friends back home. They're probably rooting for me. If they're worth their salt then they're helping keep my brother fed, washed, and whatever the needy fucker needs.

After we finish eating there aren't any other conversation topics to be had nor other stores open so we head back up to the cornucopia. We try playing a different game with cards but it doesn't hit as well as strip poker. I don't quite pay as much attention to our dinner or the anthem but I stay up first with Androcles.

There isn't really anything important to say during the dark so we both head off once Moraine and Lisa take our places. I fall asleep with little fanfare, dreaming of my friends back home.

In a very surreal dream I find myself walking down an endless street much like the one Sterling and I grow up on. Porcelain, a girl who sometimes comes over to talk with Sterling, unveils a new dress and puts it all over me. The dress is restricting and I feel like I'm suffocating but she laughs it off and pushes me into my brother's wheelchair. Sol Franclin, my best friend and my usual weight lifting partner, pushes me down the street in the constricting dress despite my objections. He stops when there's a soccer game with Paris, Astro, and Valerian. Elinor and Citrine sit next to me as the others play a soccer game with my head.

I don't wake up screaming, just sweating and incredibly confused. I deflect questions from our breakfast of steak and eggs and juice. The plan for the day seems to just be going down and scooping out the areas. Like last night Lisa tells me that a bunch of gates went up and down so that means some shops are open and some shops are closed for some reason. We decide to go downstairs like yesterday.

"How about instead of going to the gym the usual route we take some of the other staircases?" Eir speaks up.

"I see your point," Androcles chimes in. "We go down another route, see things that we haven't before, find a tribute, move the game along."

"There's only so many times we can take off our shirts and make the capitol drool over us. We have to do something else," Lisa agrees.

"There's another staircase in the direction of the tail of the cornucopia. We should head that way because it might lead us to new shops," Moraine points out. "Very interesting that we have all these shops in a single building when in District 4 most of the shops are single buildings all in a row."

"In District 1 there are some buildings like this," I counter. "Not as big, maybe the size of the second floor, but they have food, entertainment, and shops. Though it's not as specialized as these stores."

We grab our bags tightly before heading up towards the tail of the cornucopia. Moraine's staircase to the lower floor is still open so that means we take it down. The bottom floor is much larger than all of our initial hunts would have had us realize.

The five of us can see a different hallway. A sign for the gym is way off in the distance but it's closed off by a gate. "I guess we're on this side of the wall now," observes Androcles.

"There's still a lot of stores for us to check," Eir interjects. "Like that one over there."

She points to a dark room with a lot of flashing lights and machines. She's seemingly drawn to the machines further in the back. I find myself drawn to some claw machines. Androlces and Lisa play a racing game while Moraine restricts himself to looking at a street fighting arcade game. We're able to burn off some time when something tells me to turn around. "TRIBUTE!" Androcles points. He and Moraine sprint off in a craze while LIsa trips over her own shoes.

Eir is lost in the maze of arcade machines. I don't think she even heard Androcles call out for a tribute. I hesitate but I run to catch up to the other three during our frantic chase along the bottom floor of the mall.

Our chase leads us to a massive furniture store with luxury materials. Past the rows and rows of couches and tables the others have caught up to the other tribute. Tall, but lanky, and he looks on the verge of wetting himself as he crawls away. He already has substantial wounds on him. I rush towards the others who seem to be exchanging blows. "JUST DIE!" Androcles says as he swings at his legs.

There's a lot of blood from that. Androcles breathes heavily and swings what looks to be a chair leg at his back. Moraine has to restrain him as Lisa climbs on his back and slits his throat. He calls out for someone and collapses on the floor.

There's no cannon.

I hear Moraine and Androcles getting into a heated argument as Lisa tries to get between them. I begin to back away from the three of them. If I run away now then the three of them can take each other out. The boy twitches on the ground and then a cannon fires.

10th Place, Sergey Kalanick, District 3 Male, 16 years old, Throat Slit by Lisa Karachi (D4F)

A loud creak comes from high up above. I see the figure of a girl move away from several chandeliers. They begin to swing violently. The decorations clang against each other and the rope attached begins to spiral high above my allies. Only Lisa notices and she calls for the three of them to move.

I whip around and begin to run towards the exit. I don't make it before too many chandeliers behind me crash to the floor.

All I register before blacking out are three cannons.

9th Place, Lisa Karachi, District 4 Female, 15 years old, Crushed by Chandelier dropped by Cara Li Sorbel (D13F)

8th Place, Androcles Mythril, District 2 Male, 18 years old, Crushed by Chandelier dopped by Cara Li Sorbel (D13F)

7th Place, Moraine Wallis, District 4 Male, 18 years old, Crushed by Chandelier dropped by Cara Li Sorbel (D13F)

I fade in and out of consciousness for what seems to be hours. In the blackness of my subconscious I can hear my brother calling for me. I'm moved by a weird figure. I roll onto a new bed as I see Sterling look over. "Your friends are here," he says. "They brought you candles and cookies and candies."

In between Sterling and Sol is Lisa. She gives me a kiss on the cheek and slaps me in the throat. Sol and I wind up arguing about our weightlifting prowess before Moraine lifts my entire bed up on his arms, curling them like the perfect motherfucker he is. Then he makes out with Paris and gets into a fight with Sterling. Androcles tells me there's a lion.

The lion tells me to wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up!

I find myself covered in dust, glass, and glitter. I hate glitter. I'm coughing out a lot from the debris and slowly push myself up off of the ground. The chandeliers make a loud clinking noise. Lisa, Androcles, and Moraine are nowhere to be seen. I guess their bodies were taken away. Is it safe for me to go back to the cornucopia?

Wait, why am I thinking of going to the cornucopia? Eir and I don't have any alliance anymore. I have my duffel bag full of clothes and my sword-shit my sword.

It's still there.

I have my sword, some beef jerky, some knives, dried fruit, and water. I should be fine. It's no...sushi restaurant or whatever food places are out there but it'll suffice. I stand up taking care not to aggravate the pile of chandeliers in the vicinity. The ground is covered in glass and dust and broken pieces of gold. It's almost infuriating that the capitol is willing to let all these lavish set pieces go to waste.

Well, that wasn't the capitol, it was that girl I saw.

What District was she from? From what I remember the girls from 5, 7, and 13 are all alive. And Eir. I don't know how long I was out but I didn't feel any cannons while unconscious. Maybe that's what Moraine lifting weights was, a cannon.

I almost miss Mister Perfect. At least with him there I could strive to become better and he wasn't that bad to look at. He was better conversation than Lisa and Androcles at least. Androcles and I did have good conversations, but he kind of lost it during the games...and I didn't want to be on the wrong side of it. Lisa… she was shifty at first but then she and I finally got along.

Funny how quickly these things change.

By the time I snap out of my trance I'm in what looks to be another place with machines. I dont' quite get the practicality of having models of farming supplies in this kind of shopping area. My hand wanders on something called a khopesh with a price tag that's way higher than I'm sure our home is worth. "Hey stupid!" I hear a female voice shout.

I whip around, sword and koopesh in hand. The lean girl from District 13 looks at me with a cocky smirk. "My name is Prestige," I roll my eyes, holding my sword in hand.

"Dumbass," she chuckles. "I got rid of all of your allies and you're gonna be next. Oh I can't wait for you careers to go out like a light. You not so tough, you glory hounding loyalist lapdog. You people are the reason why people like me, hardworking and stern, and strong and full of dreams are forced to work in the-"

I throw the khopesh at her. She ducks and charges at me with a knife. I rush forward with my sword. It's not a dramatic battle at all. The sword cuts through her chest like butter. I pull it out and slice her head. "You wouldn't have been in this situation if you just shut up."

6th Place, Cara Li Sorbel, District 13 Female, Run through sword by Prestige Calloway (D1M)

Her cannon fires and I kick her body off of me. She has a bag full of random stuff on her. I'll look through it later, I'm suddenly feeling hungry. I head out of the farm machine store and leave the khopesh on the ground. I have my sword and that's well enough for me. After walking for what seems like another ten minutes I have to rest on the walls. My back slumps and I bury my head in my hands. The isolation really is getting to me as much as I hate to say it.

By the time I get my head out of my hands a parachute has popped up in front of me. I get a sword polishing kit, three meat patties with all the fixings, some sushi, a really nice rock, and what looks like a utensil kit. Like always there's a note from Duke. Got this before the prices went up. Ration as much of it possible and keep scavenging. Oh, and have as much fun as you can. Duke

The meat patties are large and in what looks to be a resealable package. I take some of the lettuce toppings and chuck them onto the patty. Then I add a tomato, some pickles, and a bit of sauce that was provided. I also have one piece of sushi for the night. It isn't until I finish up that I realize that I'm thirsty. There has to be, like, a juice shop nearby right?

I put all my supplies into my duffel bag, taking care to wrap my sword in the polishing kit before I actually make progress with it. The walk to the next drinking source doesn't take long. I find myself in what looks to be a cafe of some sorts. A row of seven drinks are on the table with a piece of paper in front.

"One among us seven will let you move ahead, another will transport the drinker back instead…" the paper starts. I don't get it at all. I tear the paper up as I grab one of the bottles and take a swig. I'm not dead yet so I think I solved the puzzle. As I do a machine starts up in the back. It sprays out a heart and then...pukes up a drink. I guess that's success.

The drink from the machine is invigorating. It tastes just like the juice back home from the school's vending machines that I'd split with Sol and Paris since they were too big. Sol's mom would be the school chef and give the orphans- myself included- a little extra. Sol says she has been coughing a lot more lately, at least the last time I saw him before the reaping, something up with her lungs. He's been taking a lot more tesserae.

If I make it back then he doesn't have to take tesserae. It's the least I can do for my best friend.

That, and he's probably been taking care of STerling. Not without arguments, the two of them could have a row for hours if I didn't stop them, but definitely a lot of stupid arguments.

The anthem begins to play once I finish half of my reward. I look outside to see the face of the District 13 girl.. Kara Lee if I'm not mistaken… high on the walls. She was a bitch who never shut up, but if what she said was true, then she sees me as a glory hound, which is probably what the other Districts are seeing in me right now. The anthem plays out its song and the arena turns to dark.

It takes me a while to adjust to the darkness and I can hear some stores closing behind me. Despite all the stores and gates closing directly across from the cafe is...honestly not much. It just looks like a lounge or something. Shrugging, I walk over to the lounge and find a bunch of tables and a couch that's way too hard for real comfort but I'm so tired I'm out like a light.

The dreams I have tonight, or nightmares rather, become more and more surreal. Tonight my brain takes me back home to District 1. The small house me and Sterling share with our uncle becomes overbearingly hot. Sterling tells me that all of a sudden he can't breathe so I take him out of the house in his wheelchair. As we step out onto our porch we are instantly taken into the giant mall.

A new store has opened up in the mall, a museum based on the hunger games. We go through exhibits that show all of our deaths. Kara is impaled on the Khopesh i used on her. Her face follows me and Sterling as I wheel him through. We pass Sol and Citrine throwing popcorn at the cornucopia, where many tributes are strewn. As we walk past them all conversation stops and everyone stares at us. The District 11 boy who Moraine killed a while ago pops up from an exhibit based on the bounce houses and kidnaps sterling. I try to chase after him but suddenly I'm stuck holding my sword and it's pointed in my direction. An audience of multicolored capitol tourists take my photo as I cannot move.

More importantly, I cannot scream.

I wake up with pain in my back. Clearly I'm not meant to lie down on couches like that. When I roll over I realize that I must have fallen from the couch. I guess that's figures. My sword is still in my duffel bag but I crushed it when I rolled over. Wow, that could have ended badly. I chuckle to myself as I decide it's a good time to eat as any.

When I chew into another one of the patties and pop another piece of sushi into my mouth I begin to think. This would be better if I had friends around. Or at least, my allies. At least we'd have the grill to reheat this emeat. But I can't complain. In Duke's hunger games he had to rely on his ally to hunt for gross fish in a lake. The year after that Paisley used her allies to kill mountain lions for mountain lion food.

The thought of it almost makes me want to hurl. Almost.

Everything gets cleaned up and neatly tucked away. I let out a small burp before I carry the duffel bag on my back. The hunt begins for a bathroom but ends immediately when I realize that the room next to this very shitty lounge is actually a bathroom. I head inside to see that it's very small, with a weird machine for womanly products on one wall and a machine for men's products on the other. Surprisingly there's a showerhead here. I strip off my clothes and cover them in the bag.

The term comes to me in the shower- wet bath. It's common in my neighborhood and Sterling actually prefers it because it has room for his wheelchair. Maybe I can find a wheelchair store if Sterling can't get his legs fixed. I hope that if I do die in this situation then Sol and Porcelain can keep taking care of him. I can't quite expect that from them but if they can get along with Sterling then he doesn't have to worry about me.

Finishing the shower I dry off and put my clothes back on. I grab a towel from the vending machines and use it to dry off. I grab another towel from the vending machine to begin polishing my sword. It takes me the better part of an hour but my sword shines nicely in the light.

Leaving the bathroom a blast of hot air immediately comes my way. Almost instantly I'm sweating. It's definitely an attempt to get my shirt off. I have to wonder if any of the other boys who are still alive are eye candy. They have to be getting tired of me, right?

Thinking about it there really is only one other guy left alive in the arena. District 9? 7? I think he's from District 7. Who else is alive? District 2 has Eir. I don't know if anyone else is alive. We might be in the final four. I think that some other girls are alive actually. I don't know from what District, I lost track awhile ago.

A large garish neon sign protrudes from the side of one of the walls. It is in the shape of a music note and has something of a rhythmic hum to it. Against my better judgement i walk inside. Hundreds if not thousands of instruments are along the floor playing a discordant harmony of tunes and medlies. One of them in particular, a guitar, seems to be strumming louder than all the rest.

It draws me in. I push my hand towards it and the strap immediately wraps around me. I fall back, dropping my sword, but the guitar seems to relax in my hand. I put my hands on the strings as a screen drops down from the ceiling. I follow the patterns given on the screen. The music that plays is a folk song from the Capitol remixed for a new generation as the caption on the screen says. The red guitar feels natural in my hands and I keep playing. I lose myself in the music for the rest of the day, hardly letting go of the guitar until I hear a sudden blast of air. The screen tells me my demo is up. That was way long for a demo!

The guitar goes back on its hook and I imagine a crowd cheering after me. Duke managed to become something of a chef after his hunger games, maybe I can try doing this kind of music. I pick the sword up from the ground, choosing to sit at a piano for a while to catch my breath.

Somehow I've worked up a sweat playing the guitar. The piano begins playing behind me and I jump. The keys of the piano move to the sounds of the Panem Anthem. At this point I've heard it many times over but something tells me to keep standing and salute the piano while it plays. Another demonstration from the wind instrument session also causes me to jump.

Ears covered at the increasing volume I grab my duffel bag and head outside. I catch my breath again just as my stomach rumbles. I wonder if the cafe I went to has some other food. If not, it's a meat patty for me again.

Back at the cafe there are some cold eggs, cold soup, and cold crackers. There's a warm cup of water. After clearing the cafe- which, there isn't much to clear - I dig into the soup, eggs, and crackers. It's a very boring meal.

I wander the mall after eating. This bottom floor is way bigger than any of us ever saw back when we were allied. There is a model house in the middle of all the stores. Well, a model bedroom, but same difference. The bed is firm and the covers are stiff. Even if it was comfortable to lie on I wouldn't stay in this open an area. Maybe I'd hide under the bed but then you get the risk of someone collapsing the bed from above.

All of a sudden night quickly falls and some stores close and open. Before I can think of it I run into a store. Mattresses. Nothing but mattresses. With a sigh I decide to make something of a fort with the mattresses. There's nothing else I can do and these mattresses are thick.

Which is good, because by the time the anthem finishes playing and I set up a small square of a shelter, I collapse onto the mattress.

I don't dream that night. I am aware that I am asleep but I don't feel rested at all.

The next day I crawl out of my shelter to see that the model house is gone. I grab my duffel bag and head into the next available open store. Carnival music plays from every direction and bright neon lights guide me to the back. At the back there's a weird funfair aesthetic that I've only heard about in stories. The carnivals at District 1 never have this circus-like aesthetic.

My hand presses a button in front of a neon light display. A robotic arm gives me some cotton candy, butter, pretzels, and a hot dog all in the same cup. I somehow am able to shovel it all down. Bored, I hit the button again. This time it triggers a complicated machine that deposits a simple gumball. As the gumball drops into my hand pinwheels spin, making a very loud noise.

I spend a while looking at the dazzling lights before a cannon shocks me out of my trance.

5th, Florence Bermiego, District 7 Female, 17 years old, Stabbed by Eir Walkerson (D2F)

That puts us in the final… final 4? Five? I still don't know how many died from when I was knocked out. For all I know there's only two other people left in the arena. The lights in the store go out and that tells me to leave. What was the point of the store?

Whatever candy or sweets I had to eat there immediately makes me feel lethargic. I have the sudden urge to burn off as much of those greasy calories. Once I head out of the store I spot a sign for another gym, though this one is labeled as being Ancient American. What kind of gym is that?

As I expected, the gym I walk into definitely seems like America. There's an old American flag hanging from the ceiling and mirrors line every wall. There aren't any pull up bars or complicated weight machines. There are weights but they look like they are made of harsher metal than the ones from the gym upstairs. The machines seem simpler and also made from the same harsh metal of the weight.

Well, there isn't anything left to do, so I guess the capitol audience at home can take a look at me, if they're not tired of me yet. Maybe they're tuning into District 1 just to get a whiff of eye candy. I'm gonna say it, I think District 1 is the most attractive district. No shortage of hot guys or girls out there.

Though I choose to keep my shirt on this time. At least until I finish a workout.

Grabbing two forty pound dumbbells I'm surprised when a screen drops from the ceiling. Just like the music room there's a tutorial for weight lifting going on. I sit down on one of the benches and follow the workout routine.

It lasts an unfathomable three hours. By the time I finish the workout my muscles are throbbing and I've basically sweated through my shirt. If I didn't notice how stinky it was before I definitely notice it now as I fall onto the ground. There is no muscle of mine that isn't hurting. Somehow I manage the strength to stand up and look in the mirror.

I've lost a bit of mass, but that must have been fat because in the subpar lighting of this gym I somehow look like Duke after a shower. And I know that because the capitol tabloids make no effort hiding his body. Every boy in the District wants to look like him, myself included. I flex my biceps and smile. I certainly feel more powerful even though my hair looks like shit.

Gripping the mirror, I drag my bag on the ground and carry it to the shower room in this gym. I guess the ancient Americans did have an idea what makes a good gym.

Initially the shower has only one temperature setting- Cold Water. I let out a decidedly shrill scream before just getting a grip and letting the cold water flow over me.

As I close my eyes the cold water hitting my skin causes me to picture a life back home. Sterling, walking with his future children. My best friends visiting me with arms wide open and gifts at the victor's village. The smell of food already entering my nostrils and the taste entering my mouth. Everything I've ever dreamed of, a newfound guitar, photos of my family that I discovered with Sterling. A future with Duke and the other existing victors.

I don't know what was in that water, but now I know something more.

I'm making it home.

"I'm making it home!" I boldly shout. The water suddenly becomes piping hot and I have to jump back to avoid getting more substantial burns. The steam is relaxing though. It makes this shower room feel like a sauna.

After another fifteen minutes or so I step out of the shower into much colder, cooler air in the gym. My muscles are still aching but at least I can walk on my own. I roll my shoulder involuntarily. I guess that stab wound didn't do much. How long ago was that stab wound?

Once I put on my clothes I make it a mission for today to look for a new kind of food. As if the gamemakers are pitying me for being exhausted from just a simple workout they put what looks to be a pizza store in the middle of the mall with flyers all around it. Tacky.

An aroma of freshly made dough lures me into seating. Just as I sit down another screen pops down and shows me an animation of a pizza being made. The screen prompts me to touch some icons that now appear on screen. I tap some olives, some mushrooms, and some broccoli. It comes to me on a robot some ten minutes later with a giant blue cup of a very blue drink. I know I shouldn't be worried about food handed to me on a platter since there is likely no one tainting my meal.

It's an eventless meal. I finish up and clean up with my duffel bag on my back and my sword in hand. The food was food but it does feel greasy. I feel the immediate need to wash my face in the bathroom but choose not to. Clearly there's more of a need to hunt for tributes.

The first store I choose to look into seems to be another loud music store. Rows and rows of music in formats that I can never name line the shelves from the walls to the ceiling to the floor. There is a giant statue of a pewter guitar that I do admire but it isn't useful for my hunt.

Directly next to that store is a media store full of screens and screens and screens. They show different parts of the mall but without a label to tell me where they are it's as useful as a gold drill. At one point all the screens begin to show me hunting through this media store. Sufficiently creeped out I move onto one more store.

In the last store I check the smell of fabric immediately penetrates my nose. Displays are on the wall showing how wool is made from the sheep to the factories to the dyes to the clothes. I never really liked wool because it was too itchy for me. Wool hats are a mistake and I'll likely be taking that opinion to the grave. Besides the wool display there's something for leather, which I like more. It looks cool. Maybe not for the cows but they were always a good look for us in the district when the temperature got cold.

The workout must have taken out more of me, or maybe I'm just looking through these places very inefficiently. I have the sudden urge to sit down on a bench or mattress or-

Another furniture store. I guess it's just my luck that there's a specialty couch store next to the last store I check. The couches already look more comfortable than the brick I slept on last night. I move some of them to the front of the store and make a barrier against the opening. I've gotten six of them in a giant rectangle, doubling up the side closest to the front with another couch, just before the anthem begins.

There's a female face all along the walls. It's the District 7 girl… for some reason her name jumps out at me as Florence. I think I trained with her. She giggled when I showed her how to cut out of some rope trap and then her male partner ushered her away. Florence was nice enough, I hope she got a quick and easy death.

Darkness again and I curl up in between the couches, lying flat as I stare at the darkness of the ceiling. It's really the first time I've ever had to think about how close to home I'm getting. Only three or four others need to die and then Sterling and I can live our lives in luxury. But that means Eir and whoever is alive would have to go. I'm not looking forward to facing Eir.

She probably killed the District 7 girl in a spectacular fight. There was a reason she got an 11. I'm not sure what kind of skills she had exactly but she did get an 11.

No, stop.

Thinking about all of this means that I am only more likely to not make it home. I stop thinking about Eir and just focus on getting to sleep. The finale has to be soon, right?

I don't know when staring at the ceiling turns into dreaming about the mall. I'm dreaming about the exterior of the mall. I've never seen an exit to the outside of the mall in all of our hunts but there's one with our escort acting as a tour guide. I find Uncle Reymond running the ticket booth and he aggressively forces me to 'buy a fucking ticket'. The only payment they accept is my blood and then someone smashes my face into the ticket counter. Blood spills into my eyesight and then the world begins to swirl. My body is taken into a coffin and paraded through the mall. I hit the lid but I can't break free. I can hear Sterling- sterling crying.

All of a sudden Eir pulls me out of my dream. "We need to go!" she tells me. She grabs me by the hand and takes me through a collapsing mall. We jump over a pit and catch our breath. I'm barely able to properly thank her when she throws a knife into my nose.

I wake up properly sweating and breathing heavily. My hand is on the sword and I've knocked my duffel bag into the center of the rectangle. What a fuckign nightmare.

Today I decide to break into my meat patties. I finish off half of one of them with all the lettuce and tomato I have. Then I make a note to myself never to eat old tomatoes again because thaty's just fucking gross.

Once I finish sitting on my ass and pigging out I decide to see if there's something I can do to occupy my mind. There's a gate all along the stores and restaurants where I went yesterday so backtracking is clearly out of the question. After passing a store filled with nothing but office supplies and another store that has what looks to be metal working tools I somehow find another gym.

This one is more similar to the rock climbing gym two...yeah two floors above me. Only one wall has the rock climbing features like the rock climbing gym high above. Another wall has screens way bigger than any of the monitors that I saw in one of the shops yesterday. Foam shapes are all over the center with a softer version of the obstacle course that was in the training center.

With a buzz there's a timer that appears on the screen. As the time begins to tick down a voice similar to the timer at the cornucopia way back when during the beginning of the games. I'm just about prepared to dart off when the monitors start going through a series of a stretches. Caught off guard I trip over my feet and faceplant into the soft mat. I guess I have to follow the fucking stretches.

Only after ten minutes of stretches am I instructed to run through the obstacle course in front of me. I swing on monkey bars, hop across angled steps, move from pedestal to pedestal, climb up an inverted ladder, and run up a warped wall. Once I reach the top another timer begins. I grab onto rings hanging from a series of curved bar, swing through rings holding what looks to be a candy cane, dangle by my fingertips by a low hanging bar, and swing all the way through to the end.

After that I take a firepole down and collapse onto the mat. There aren't many moments where I regret choosing weightlifting over gymnastics but this is one of them. The monitors on the wall give me mocking applause and tell me I completed the course faster than 25% of individuals. Who would have time to do these obstacle courses? And more importantly, where?!

A new display on the wall encourages me to try a new game on the new high tech wall. I'm vaguely impressed when the wall I'm assigned to go to is full of clear wall fixtures that light up. After another five minute tutorial I'm instructed to put my left hand on the blue, right hand on the green, left leg on the pink, and right leg on the red.

I only manage to stay on the wall for twelve limb changes before falling onto the mat below. I prefer the weight rooms, especially after the screen tells me I'm in the bottom 10% of people who tried this game.

The only people that come to mind when I think who could have had the time to work on all of this are the gamemakers and capitol citizens themselves. I guess it figures. Most people in the capitol are more concerned with how they look than with how they perform.

Whatever the case I'm hungry. I'm spent. And I'm not really in a good mood after being insulted by the gym. I know that the capitol doesn't have to worry about the rigamarole of working in the diamond or gem mines or in the furniture factories. My stomach rumbles loudly and I feel my muscles twitch. I guess that was more of a workout than I wanted.

In any case, some four stores down there is a sandwich shop with more bread than I can correctly identify with fresh vegetables and healthy drinks. I take a swig of one from the bottle. It's palatable, certainly no blueberry ice thing I got yesterday, but I grab another bottle of it and throw it into my bag. Now that I've basically finished off my meats and veggies for the rest of the games I'm going to need to stockpile. Even with only four of us left they could stretch the games out for another day.

The sandwich I do eat comes with some bland but sustainable chips. I don't really pay attention to what I eat but it's meaty and saucy and messy. Still sustaining and actually good. I have a feeling that whatever companies that are sponsoring me for my looks are cringing at me. My friends...probably. I wonder if Sterling is still giving a fuck as to how my manners are portrayed on tv.

After the meal it's another fruitless hunt for another tribute. I visit a store lined with books, a store that is nothing but toy cars and race tracks, and end up in a small arcade. There are lines of what look like pinball machines that begin to play loudly. When I cover my ears I begin to fixate on a particular machine full of balls and balls that only deposits more.

With nothing better to do I start off with ten balls that I drop into the machine. They fall into targets that allow me to multiply the balls that I deposit. I pick up one of the balls that I gained from the initial ten, drop it in, and then it falls into a new hole that opens up. The machine seems to expand ten times into an entirely different machine where a waterfall of balls flows through the machine, spilling out and burying my feet in about an inch. I guess this means that I win? But the machine keeps going and I clearly can't lose any of these balls. I fruitlessly shovel the balls in but it just keeps coming and coming! By the time I manage to get down to only about one layer of balls around my feet I trigger another jackpot. I throw my hands in the air, giving up, and hitting a button to cash out.

After all that mischief I'm awarded a tiny four inch plaque that says I won a hundred million balls, redeemable at the next opportunity. The plaque directs me to a prize counter where I can redeem them for fabulous prizes. And by fabulous, they're clearly cheap and kitschy and would crack if I look at them funny. After I decline to get a new prize I'm given a small necklace for my plaque that I hang around my neck. It dangles around my chest.

Just when I step out I find a store that is entirely vending machines, couches, chairs, and blankets. Obviously it's supposed to be another lounge where the gamemakers took my advice in getting in some comfortable couches. I put my bag on a couch just as the nightly anthem begins. I didn't hear any cannons and I take a cursory look to check that yes, there were no deaths today.

The anthem stays up for longer and then there are trumpets. "Greetings to the final four of Hunger Games Number Eight!" EmCee Ouranous Emdderland tells us. "We would like to congratulate your survival with a celebratory feast on the highest floor of the mall! Elevators will be located at the center of the store tomorrow for your prompt arrival!"

A feast? Shit, that hasn't been around for years. They used to have them on an annual basis in the earlier Hunger Games and then stopped after the threat of one year got taken out by a cruel trick. Feasts usually mean deaths and this may be the only chance to end the games.

Why didn't the gamemakers call a feast earlier? WAs it because of the death of four people in one day? Did the capitol really get a lot of entertainment from us last four?

I sit up and open up one of my chips. Using the chips I'm able to track the deaths. I killed Kara three days ago, then the day after there was nothing, then someone died, then today there was no one. If the games don't end tomorrow I don't know how long I'll be here.

No matter, we're just going to have to end it, one way or another.

I don't dream tonight. I feel every thread of the couch cushions even as I'm asleep and dreaming of nothing. Even though I do fall asleep I'm aware of every passing hour that ticks by. No matter what, it's going to end.

The day begins with me heading out of this lounge and looking for the center of the floor, where there were going to be elevators. The plaque of gold is still dangling from my neck as I take a rather long walk through the center of the mall. It doesn't take long for me to get to the clear glass towers that go all the way up to the fourth floor.

I take a step back to wait for the elevators to fall. I look through my duffel bag and chug down the last of my drink. I'm gonna need whatever energy I can muster for this final battle. Or as it would, final battles.

A blast of cool air welcomes me into the elevator as I step in when it finally makes a stop onto my floor. I hold my sword out of my duffel bag tightly as I slowly feel adrenaline rush through my veins. The elevator makes another stop on a floor that I recognize as the cornucopia floor. The cornucopia has been shifted to the side ever so slightly to make room for this giant elevator. The doors close again.

I'm doing my best to calm by breathing down as the elevator rises. My necklace bumps against my chest as I'm vaguely aware of the camera watching me. After that there's another chime as the elevator opens up to the floor with the rock climbing wall. I don't really remember much else from this floor so there's no sentimental feelings lost. The elevator door closes and if I counted right-

No, I know I counted right.

I grab my sword in a ready position and prepare to face whoever is outside the door. What I don't expect when the doors open is an arrow flying straight to me. It bounces off of my makeshift necklace into the elevator.

"Piss-Stige!" A name I'm all too familiar with.

Eir rushes towards me with a bow on her back and a nasty looking spiked club in her hands. She swings the club at me but I roll out of the elevator. "YOU KILLED ANDROCLES!"

"It wasn't me!" My counter comes out at the same time as she swings her spiked club where my head was mere moments ago. I get her in the shoulder and she lets out a hiss.

She looks at me, fury in her eyes, as I wind up with my back in the direction where she came from, obviously where she got the club. I have to counter her every swipe with my comparatively flimsy blade and she's able to almost entirely knock me off balance. I wind up grabbing onto a railing and holding out my sword as she swings the club onto my leg. I hiss in pain and with all the strength I can muster I pull my sword back as she rushes in. It hits her in her nose and she recoils. I swing the sword again into her stomach and her guts spill out. I stomp on her hand and kick her club away with my uninjured leg.

4th, Soltana Lynth, District 5 Female, 15 years old, Axed by Sherman Vance Wulliger (D7M)

"It wasn't me," I barely catch my breath as I plunge my blade into her back.

3rd, Eir Walkerson,, District 2 Female, 17 years old, Disemboweled by Prestige Calloway (D1M)

Two cannons fire. I'm still curled over Eir's body. My suspicions were correct. She did think I killed the other three.

Two.

One more left to go and I'm going home.

I grab onto the railing to stand up and prop myself up on the good leg, hobbling over to where the bounty of prizes are. It's an arch over four weapon stands and along the weapon stands, below the messages of well wishes, presents line the floor as though this was to represent the winter ceremony. I move over to my stand where a larger sword is available. It glistens in the small lighting and has some jewels over the side.

My foot brushes against something as I move forward to grab it. I take a quick look down to see the girl from District 5, holding what looks to be a dagger, and she has a massive gash on her back.

There were only two cannons.

I barely register this thought before I turn around, swinging my sword. "Nice shot," the boy from District 7, the only other opponent left, my only rival after all these days, my last obstacle, titters. He's got a cut on his head and blood dripping own his chest. Most distressingly is the massive axe in his hands. He's a bigger tougher kid but I don't think he made any kills before this.

"Don't' have to tell me twice," I retort.

He swings his axe again and I throw myself against the stand. It's a clumsy mistake but not a fatal one. He trips over the girl that died not that long ago and in that time I recover to give him a stab to the shoulders with my new flashy sword. He swings his axe into my good leg. I let out a roar of pain as I swing my sword again. Axe and sword collide almost causing sparks to fly. Bits of the handle for both of our weapons fly off as we regain our strength. I kick him in the stomach and he punches me in the jaw.

Even though I feel my bones breaking, even though I feel the blood pouring out, somehow, I have the height advantage.

And that's all I need.

My sword lops off his arm at his elbow as I stumble over myself. He tries to stand up and follow me but I swing my sword into his other arm. It's not a neat, pretty, climactic death, but it gets the job done.

2nd, Sherman Vince Wulliger, District 7 Male, 18 years old, Dismembered by Prestige Calloway (D1M)

The final cannon.

The trumpets.

I plant my sword into the District 7 boy's back and use it to steady myself as the mall opens up high above the arches that are for us. Sterling, you don't have to worry anymore.

---

Prestige Calloway's victory marked a new era of the Hunger Games very early in the Hunger Games' long and storied lifespan. After a two day long recovery period under the security of the capitol and supervision of fellow victors, he took to the stage and celebrated his victory, being notably decried as a lap dog by later victors.

District 1 was stunned that their seemingly stupid and suicidal tribute of the Eighth annual Hunger Games managed to make it home. The District celebrated their second economic boom in a decade as the Capitol deemed the District a suitable tourist destination. On the first Parcel Day, Prestige's brother, 18 year old Sterling Calloway, received the first of many surgeries for the health and wellness of District One's population, regaining the ability to walk normally after nearly a decade.

Prestige proved to be a divisive figure in many of the lower Districts during his Victory Tour. For killing a tribute in District 13, District 12, District 11, and District 10, he received a staunch amount of hate. His reception improved as the Victory Tour moved down the districts, but a noted incident occurred once he reached District 8. When a fire started at his Victory Tour, he and Paisley Harper of the Third Hunger Games were ushered into the basement whilst the Victory Tour and celebrations were delayed.

Upon reaching Districts 4 and 2, he developed a fast friendship with the victors of the lower Districts. It was there he learned that he had inspired many siblings to volunteer for their younger siblings should they unfortunately be reaped for the Hunger Games. His Victory Tour in the Capitol was a smashing success and the festivities were rumored to last for five days.

This partying attitude would persist with Prestige for the rest of his life. Even after he developed his talent of music, he chose to perform for others in the highest parties of the capitol elite rather than use his talents for the more mundane utilities.

A notorious playboy, Prestige Calloway became a serial dater and spouse. He would marry four times, three times to a woman and one time to a later male Victor. He would become the step father to three children and have a reported twelve children of his own. Prestige Calloway died at the age of 80 during the year of the 72nd Hunger Games to a heart attack. He was survived by his legacy in District One.