Ryx Marker- District Three male
I blew on the tiny curl of smoke nestled in the wad of paper. The ember glowed bright and spread across the paper, leaving a black trail. I carefully added twigs and grass until I had a tendril of fire that would last as I built a teepee of bigger sticks over it.
Made it. I'd made fire. It took half a dozen tries, but I'd made fire. There was a primitive rush in it that made me want to take off my shirt and dance like a hooligan. Instead I just crouched by my little fire and smiled at it.
"Hey, cool fire."
I looked up and saw Joy regarding my labor. I knew his name because you don't forget a boy named Joy.
"Thanks. It was hard," I said.
"I heard it's harder than it looks," Joy said. "Pretty cool."
It was pretty cool, and I was glad he'd said that. He seemed to be a pretty good guy and a good judge of character if I did say so myself.
"You gonna ally?" It came out so suddenly I almost didn't realize I'd planned to say it.
"Yeah, I think I should," Joy said. "I'm not really that good at... anything. Why? You looking for allies? But I guess that wasn't a very appealing pitch."
"No, it's okay," I said. "Everyone's good at something."
"I'm kind of good at running," Joy said.
"That's probably the most important thing to be good at," I said.
Joy Wincenty- District Twelve male
Aurelia was at the shelter-making station trying to wedge threw logs together to make a corner for her lean-to thingy. She jostled them and they all fell apart. I saw the fear and frustration flicker in her eyes before she picked them up and got back to work. I walked over and started helping her pick up the pile.
"It's okay. It just takes a few tries," I said.
"I don't feel like I'm any better at anything," she said.
"It's our first day. If people could learn to build a house in one day architects wouldn't be paid so well," I said.
"What have you been learning?" Aurelia asked.
"I've been trying camouflage," I said.
Aurelia perked up like a light was lit inside her face. "I always wanted to do that. Is it hard?"
"I don't wanna brag, but I've been finger-painting for at least four years," I said with a cheesy grin. "You must be learning a lot from Erwin," I added.
"Stuff that worked for him won't really work for me," she said, and shrugged. "He's way bigger than I am."
"Pretty much everyone is way bigger than I am, which is why I've been learning camouflage. Can't kill me if you can't see me," I said. I pointed a finger at my temple to show my genius.
We got the shelter back in place and started wedging the sticks together to hold it up. There was something primally satisfying in constructing a home with your bare hands.
"Ryx is learning how to make fire," I said. "We're allies now. But I guess that kind of doesn't make sense, me learning to hide and him learning to make fire."
"Do you need another ally who knows how to make a shelter?" Aurelia asked.
"By golly, we do! How perfect is that?"
Aurelia Jackson- District Five female
No more crying. No more moping around and acting like I was dead already. I had a chance. I had allies. I could learn and you never know what could happen. Sometimes some random girl from Five wins the Games. Look at Meenah.
Once training time was over the fun could begin. To be honest, I wasn't really learning much. I tried, but there were just too many stations. I would get started on one and then another would catch my eye. I'd been to every station. I just hadn't learned anything.
It was my idea to have all the allies gather together just to hang out and get to know each other. We ordered food to the room and piled onto the couches.
"Everybody pay attention! He's about to try it," I said when it arrived.
"I can't believe you've never eaten pizza. When I preach about income inequality, this is what I mean," Camille said as Joy opened the box.
"Smells good," he said. He picked up a slice. Strings of cheese stretched from the piece to the rest of the pie. "Wow, cheesy."
"Like you," I said.
Joy took a bite of pizza. He squinted and kept a pensive expression as he chewed.
"S'good," he said.
"It's just about the best," I said.
"So, what's everyone's story?" Camille asked. "What brings our motley crew together?"
"I just got ridiculously unlucky. I had one slip in that lousy bowl. Not a single tesserae," I said.
"Me neither, but at least I had four slips," Camille said.
Soon enough the conversation drifted into things that were actually interesting, like how Ryx could make an origami crane or that Joy caught toads and fed them flies. That was what made my allies interesting. It wasn't that we had certain skills or benefits. It was that we were people.
Camille Igawa- District Nine female
There was no railing around the roof of the Games building. I could lean far over and see the tiny people dotting the ground like ants. I could climb up on the ledge and walk back and forth, my arms stretched out on either side of me. And I could take a step off and fall.
My stomach disappeared and my guts seemed to rearrange as I dropped about ten feet. Then The air around me gradually thickened until it was like falling through water and then through mud. Like a rubber band I reached the end of my fall and rebounded upwards. Some Capitolite shape-matrixing technology let the shield latch onto my extremities so my legs dropped under me. I floated over the ledge and landed neatly on my feet, feeling something like a dramatic avenging angel.
Even though my brain knew I wasn't going to fall, my body didn't appreciate the trick. The adrenaline rush I'd been hoping for pounded through my veins and made me feel like life was bubbling under my skin trying to get out. Each breath seemed fuller and more important. My cheeks were tight and flushed with the thrill of it all.
So... what happens if I do this?
I dove headfirst off the ledge. I felt a funny twirling sensation as the force field tumbled me over and lobbed me back up the wall. I landed leaned forward and almost fell.
How about this?
I stood with my back to the air and leaned back. The panicky feeling of leaning just a little too far back in a chair washed over me as I neared the point of no return. I rode the wave of disorientation and exhilaration I fell horizontally, then floated horizontally, then rose.
I tried every configuration that came to mind. Swan dive. Cannonball. Long jump. Flip. Each time the force field gently deposited me back on the roof, giddy and eager to go again.
As I geared up to do a sort of twisty torpedo jump, there was a crackle of feedback.
"Please stop jumping off the roof," a bored-sounding voice droned. In the background I heard half a cacophony of artificial noises. "You keep making my alarm go off."
I waved at nothing. "Sorry, security guy," I said. "Have a good day."
Calvary Warsaw- District Ten mentor
"You want to be allies... with a tree," I said.
"Yeah!" Joy said.
"Just, why?" I asked.
"If I have to explain it to you you probably won't get it," Joy said.
Well you're not wrong.
