Chapter Thirty-Five: Moments of Weakness
Training Day Three
Godric Runestone, District Two Male
The way this night's been going, I'm not going to get any sleep.
It's three in the morning, yet my mind's been racing at top speed since I got into bed four hours ago. Every time I've managed to almost drift off, something else has gotten in the way. The first time, it was when Crag went to bed and started snoring again. The second was when someone got up for some reason and tripped.
This time, it's because something's banging around upstairs. I have no idea what kind of projects have requirements involving them being done at this hour, but it's not like I can stop them. It's probably best for me if I just ignore it, anyway.
The noise keeps up for a few minutes, but then everything goes blissfully silent after one final thud. I start to drift off once more and almost get there this time.
That's before something hits the ground. Suddenly, that something… swears under its breath? Okay, now I'm getting a bit unsettled, but it's probably just Galadia or one of our mentors going to the bathroom. Nothing to be worried about.
A few more seconds pass. Then, Galadia screams.
It's not a battle cry or any sort of dignified noise. Just a sound of fear I never thought I'd hear come from her. In an instant, I'm awake and throwing on the shorts I tossed by my bedside. Sure, I might not like Galadia, but she's still from home. She's proven herself as at least somewhat tough if nothing else, so I doubt it's just an insect or something that's making her scream like that.
Suddenly, there's a loud crash, and a voice I don't recognize yells, "FUCK YOU!"
As I sprint into Galadia's room, arriving on a scene that's somehow both horrific and ridiculous at the same time. Galadia has leapt out of bed, wielding what appears to be a broken lamp, parts of it scattered across the bed. Standing in between me and her is what appears to be an Avox, wearing a uniform that hangs loosely around them. It's clearly a woman because her reddish hair is tied back in a braid, but that doesn't stop her from brandishing two knives with confidence and poise. And based on how aggressively she's advancing, whoever this is wants Galadia dead.
Galadia blocks the next attack with the lamp and swings it at the Avox's face, but she ducks out of the way, taking a step towards me. Galadia moves forward, but now the Avox is focused on me. With a snarl of fury, she swings at me, but I manage to sidestep, just barely. She winds up for another attack, but by now, Cassidy's woken up from all the commotion and come to investigate, making it three against one. At this point, the Avox is getting desperate. In an instant, she winds up and hurls her knife at Cassidy.
Unfortunately for Cassidy, the Avox's aim is pretty good. The knife doesn't land anywhere lethal since Cassidy shields herself, but it instead embeds itself in her forearm. She yanks it out and follows that up with a plethora of curse words. The Avox doesn't pause for a second, though. She charges Galadia with her remaining knife, screaming, "DIE, BITCH!"
Galadia doesn't respond to that with words. Instead, she swings the shattered lamp towards her head with all the force she can muster.
Lucky for Galadia, it's a direct hit. With a nasty crunching noise, the Avox wobbles for a brief second before dropping her knife and face-planting on the ground. We wait for her to get up, but after about fifteen seconds, it becomes pretty clear that she's down for the count.
Crag, with the worst timing imaginable, stumbles into the room, yawning. "You guys woke me up. Did I miss anything?"
"That. You missed that," says Cassidy, pointing at the Avox. Crag wanders over to get a good look but then leaves the room without another word, presumably to go back to sleep.
"Well, that was weird," I say. "I know there's probably plenty of Avoxes who aren't happy with their position, but even if that was the case, why target Galadia? Aren't there a ton of other people who hold way more of the blame in that category?"
"I'm… I'm not sure," Cassidy says between ragged breaths. "Convenience?"
Speaking of convenience, the intercom comes to life at that very moment, and the room is soon filled with the voice of a sleep-deprived woman.
"Sorry to wake you at this hour, guys," she says, "but have any of you seen where Fox went? I searched the entire floor top to bottom, plus the roof, and I still can't find her. Could you just tell me if you see her anywhere?"
Cassidy strides over to a machine that I've never seen used before and turns it on. I have no idea how that's supposed to help at first, but once she starts talking, it becomes pretty clear what this thing's supposed to do. "What does she look like? Because I think we might have found her."
"Short, red hair, really small," the woman says. "I have no idea what she wore to bed, so I can't describe that."
"Then this is her, Corinne," Cassidy says. "Also, she tried to murder my trainee, so I'm not sure what they're going to do with her, but I doubt she's just going back to bed like nothing happened."
Corinne groans. "This might shock you, but I'm not even that surprised. I always thought something was wrong with that girl. You feel like you can sort this out?"
"I got it," Cassidy says. "You just go to sleep, I'll handle this."
"Sure thing," Corinne says, and then the intercom goes dead.
Galadia's shaking from a combination of adrenaline and fear, but Cassidy barely pays any attention to that. "Okay. Now that that's dealt with, why don't you get some sleep? You guys need to be well-rested for your private sessions. I'll make sure the girl is dealt with."
Based on the expression Galadia has, I doubt she's getting any more sleep tonight, however.
I probably wasn't going to get much anyway, but this confirmed that the number of minutes I sleep tonight will be zero. Especially when actual Peacekeepers enter the room, talking with Cassidy in what they think are hushed tones but I can hear through the closed door. Thankfully, their conversation concludes shortly, with someone saying, "We've got a place we can hold her until private sessions. Chances are, she won't be missing much."
As they exit the room, I'm left alone with nothing more than my thoughts to disturb me. However, something tells me they'll be enough to keep me awake until morning.
Aryion Hylus, District Seven Male
Breakfast has been a rather quiet affair today.
Alexa's been inhaling everything in sight, but the rest of us are barely touching our plates. Ash still looks hungover from last night, and Mahogany never seems to eat, period. Finally, I'm wound up so tightly that I know whatever I put into my stomach is more than likely coming back out. And last I checked, vomiting isn't a skill the Gamemakers are looking for.
"So," Alexa says, "what are you doing for your private session, Aryion?"
I really need to figure out the answer to that question, especially since whatever I do there is the only thing the Gamemakers care about. Should I have figured this out by now? Yes. Am I nervous about my score? Also yes. Have I been known to make the best decisions (hence, why I'm here)? Of course not.
Once we've bolted down our meals, the two of us hustle to the elevator, making sure to make ourselves look halfway presentable before we get in. The announcement calling us down was a couple of minutes ago, so we need to move fast if we don't want to lose time.
Halfway to the training room, the elevator stops, and the kids from another District- Three, I think, since they're too small to be Careers- pile in with their mentor and crowd the elevator. After a few uncomfortable seconds of being packed in like sardines, the doors open to reveal the hallway we've grown familiar with over the past few days. It's empty this time, since the doors to the Training Room are both open, leaving us with plenty of space to fit in as Cutter finishes off his final speech.
"Just remember, you only have a half period today," he says. "After lunch, we'll hold private sessions for everyone. You'll each have fifteen minutes to prove your worth in them, and your scores will be revealed on live television at 9:00 tonight. Remember, everyone, what you do here counts. Your time starts now, make the most of it."
He strides away after that, leaving us to our own devices. The Careers all clump together, as usual, and I make sure to steer well clear of them on my way to the weapons rack. Half a dozen other tributes join me, each of us preparing for the worst to come. Just like yesterday, I grab two axes that feel right in my hands and then head over to the dummy station.
The same signs displaying the correct angles to slash people remain, although I don't really need them anymore. I've gotten enough practice that all of these slashes feel somewhat natural now.
Over the next fifteen minutes or so, I get back into the groove of slicing these things to pieces. It's immensely satisfying watching something built like this fall apart by your own hand, I can say that. The only thing missing is that it feels a little too easy to be useful once the Games hit. Maybe I should try the scenarios or something.
All three rooms are full right now, so I'll have to wait for a few minutes. I'm fine with that, it gives me some time to figure out how I'm going to make this private session work. I already know I'm going to focus on axes, since that's really the only weapon I've practiced with, it's just a question of how I'm going to use said axes.
"Probably for cutting something," I say to myself. "Just a question if what I'm cutting is going to move or not."
I return to slicing up dummies for a few more minutes, but then one of the scenario doors opens, releasing Alexa and her new ally from Eight. Without hesitating for a second, I charge for the door before someone can take the spot, slipping in just as the door closes.
It then occurs to me that I have no idea what this session even is- well, that's the disadvantage of rushing straight for it. For a few seconds, it looks like nothing's going to happen, but then I hear the voices as lights turn on overhead.
"Hey, look," one of them says, clearly a guy. "We found another one. Time to up my kill count a little."
Another voice, this one female, replies, "Ones to the left, Twos to the right! It's four against one, let's not make any stupid mistakes!"
Well, crap. Clearly, they'd gone for the highest difficulty setting on 'Fighting Alliances.' If my attackers aren't supposed to be Careers, I have no idea what they are.
In seconds, I have four large orange silhouettes that are supposed to represent people rushing me. I leap backwards out of the way of the first one's strike and manage to block the second. However, I'm hopelessly overmatched- every second I'm in there, I'm losing ground, until I feel the wall at my back.
I make one last, desperate swing to fend them off before the boy in the front slashes my throat…
And then the lights power off, leaving new ones to bathe the room in a pale-blue hue. A new voice, this one not belonging to a Career, says, "Your endeavor was a failure. Please try to improve before you enter the arena."
Well, what does this thing think I was trying to do? Get worse as I went on?
The voice follows that up with, "Calculating percentile ranking… your attempt ranks in the 31st percentile. In case you do not know…"
"Don't know, don't care," I say to no one as I step back into the training room, letting the pair from Five take my place.
I think I should just stick to dummies or maybe a trainer at this point. I probably looked like an absolute fool in there, even if I must have done better than some people. However, I need something I'm good at for my private session.
If I look like an idiot in there, there's no coming back from that.
Toren Laris, District Nine Female
I'm pretty confident by now that Marius is crushing on me, since he's been about as subtle about it as an ink stain on a wedding dress.
I've noticed him trying to initiate hand-holding quite a few times by now, and his attempts at starting a romantic conversation are so ludicrously over-the-top it feels like it belongs in one of those soap operas that are always on in the living room back at home. (Dad claims he hates them, but there's no way he does if it's playing almost 24/7.)
Funny enough, they played it in the Capitol, too. I tore up a little watching it the first time, just because it reminded me of home. Fortunately, both my escort and mentor thought I was crying about the show itself and not its subtext.
While he's been falling head over heels most of today, I'm trying to keep us somewhat in line. "So, Marius, do you have any stations you want to visit?"
"I'm indifferent," he says, "You pick."
"Okay then," I respond. "Looks like we're doing more survival stuff."
The two of us stick together closely, making sure to stay out of the way of the bigger tributes, especially since the group consisting of Districts 10 and 11 looks like a pretty solid threat. The last thing we need is to make more enemies that can (and probably will) kill us.
We stop at the edible-plants test. It's pretty simple, thankfully- it's a touchscreen that draws information from a database of every plant that has ever appeared in the Games before, and all we have to do is identify if it's safe to eat, mildly toxic (it usually can't kill you, but it'll wreak havoc on some part of your body) or very toxic (can kill you in a hurry if you're not careful). And if you're wondering how I know that, the screen itself tells you that the second you start a new test.
Marius lets me go first, as is to be expected. The first plant pops up on the screen, some beautiful purple flower I've never seen or heard of in my life. However, pretty and edible are usually detached from each other, so I guess very toxic, which is (to my pleasant surprise) correct. The screen reads, "Foxgloves, also known as Dead Man's Bells. Do not eat under any circumstances."
Nineteen more plants follow, most of which I manage to get right, either by coincidence or just knowing what they are. Final score, sixteen out of twenty.
"Not bad," I say as I move and let Marius go. He doesn't fare quite as well. Sure, I don't think I would have done as well on that test either, considering it took a lot of far-flung plants I'd never seen before either, but I don't think I would have tanked quite as badly. He only manages to answer correctly about half the time, and he still takes about twice as long as I did to finish mine. His final score is only nine out of twenty.
"Oh well. Not every try's going to be a winner," he says, although he looks noticeably unsettled. If two days, plus an hour and a half (give or take) of training only got him there, he might as well have just wasted his time. At least I can say I picked up something from doing this.
"Let's just move on," I add. "Again, any preferences?"
"No, none at all," he says, although he starts trailing off a little at the end. "Take your pick."
I'm not sure what we even have left to do at this point (other than maybe try and take in someone else, but most of the people who I think could help us have either been taken already or declined to join an alliance), so I decide, just for the heck of it, to try a little experiment of sorts. Maybe it's kind of cruel, but we're going into the freaking Hunger Games in a few days. If I'm all he's got, he'll probably forgive me for this. "Why don't we build a shelter together? We haven't tried that yet, and if the arena's conditions are really bad, it could be super helpful."
"Okay," he says, nodding his head rapidly. With that, we move to the proper station, which (fortunately for us) is empty. However, a half-finished, probably abandoned shelter is already put up, so we decide to just add to that. It's a quick process, thankfully- add wood, make sure the roof is waterproofed, and then crawl in and hope we don't knock the thing over.
Once we're inside the darkened space, we're forced to bunch up together anyway so we can fit, but Marius makes it a whole lot closer than needed.
"This is amazing," he whispers.
"Let's hope," I say, hoping that he thinks it means one thing while I know it means another.
Before that goes on too long, though, we hear the sound of simulated rain hitting the shelter. It holds up fine for the first minute or so, but then the whole thing starts falling apart, quickly soaking us as we scamper out of range. Once the structure is completely flat, the rain dissipates, leaving nothing but damp wood blocks on a muddy surface.
"Could have gone worse," Marius says, but I'm not quite sure what he's referring to anymore.
Thus, I just reply with "You said it best."
It's official, he's gone head over heels. Not that I want to wreck his emotional state or anything, but that just isn't going to work here. I have to let him down, and I'm not quite sure how to do it.
Whatever. That's not the focus of the moment. I'll ask Anisa before private sessions.
Right now, I need to focus on not wanting to die.
Lacey Loveless, District Eight Female
I sent Alexa to scout potential allies about half an hour ago.
Considering I'd already tried and failed several times before managing to snag Alexa (boy from Four and girl from Twelve, respectively), I've concluded that I might be scaring people away. Sure, Alexa might not be much better, but slim odds are better than no odds whatsoever.
She's currently engaged in a conversation with a girl I've deduced is from District Six (every girl except for the ones from Three, Six, and Twelve have alliances already, and she's too tall to be the girl from Three or Twelve). I can't see their facial expressions from here, so I have no idea how it's going, but I hope Alexa's better at persuading people than I am.
The Careers have five people. The anti-Careers have four. We need to have more than two people if we want to be any sort of competitive. While three against four or three against five still isn't exactly balanced, at least we'd have a chance.
Alexa is either getting frustrated or getting close to her goal because her gestures are getting more and more exaggerated by the second. Then, after a minute more, they stop entirely. Lucky for us, when that happens, the girl trails Alexa as she returns.
As soon as she sees me, she smiles. "We got her. I'd introduce her, but I think she can introduce herself."
The girl steps into the spotlight, at least six inches taller than me and three inches taller than Alexa. She tries not to look down at us, but it's probably way harder than it seems. "Uh, sorry this is so awkward, but we should probably learn each other's names…"
"Makes logical sense," I reply. "Lacey Loveless, District Eight."
"Interesting name," she says. Thankfully, she doesn't push it any further. "Zari Morelett, District Six. Nice to meet you."
She extends her hand, and I shake it more out of courtesy than anything else. "Same here. Now, we only have a few hours left to train and get to know each other. Should we try and come to a consensus on what we should do next, or are we just going somewhere?"
"The Careers are all in the Scenario Simulators right now," Zari says. "I don't have a ton of practice with weapons, and if we want to win, we're going to have to use them at some point."
"I agree," Alexa says. "Lacey here-" she points to me- "had a lot more experience with weapons than I expected. However, the two of us need to prepare so we can help her if it comes to that. I'd suggest the target range, just because as far as I can tell, none of the Careers specialize in throwing weapons, so they probably won't bother us."
Anything that prevents us from having to talk to or see the Careers works for me. "Target range sounds good."
Zari simply nods and starts off. Alexa begins to follow, but I quickly pull her aside to whisper something in her ear. "She's perfect. As far as I can tell, she seems competent, but worst comes to worst, I have a feeling we'll be able to outrun her. Now, let's hit the target range and see if she's any good at throwing weapons."
"Sure thing," she says before the two of us hustle in the general direction of Zari. We find her in the 'light weapon' section, picking up half a dozen knives, a slingshot, and some kind of disc-like weapon I've never seen before. I add a couple of more knives to the collection, while Alexa gets another slingshot, two more pointy disc-things, and a small ax.
Then, we arrive at the target range, pleased to find it mostly empty except for the small boy from twelve, who's heaving knives at seemingly random angles and speeds. Out of the dozen or so he throws, only one or two actually hit and stick.
We move out of the way, since we don't want to appear that intimidating. Not yet. Save it for later.
"So," Alexa says. "Single file, youngest first?"
The rest of us just nod, seeing as that's the easiest way to go. Alexa gets in front, and I fall in behind Zari. Alexa goes for the ax first, throwing it as hard as she can.
It's not in the silhouette of a human superimposed over the target, but it sticks off to the side. Zari tries with a knife, but it misses the target entirely and bounces off the wall. Then I make a move, also with a knife. I don't have much throwing practice, but it can't be too hard.
I'm swiftly proven wrong. My first knife falls about five feet short.
Three throws later, we're starting to get the hang of it. Alexa has ditched the knife for a slingshot and ammo, whereas Zari's trying out some of those disc things. However, I'm sticking with knives, considering both my last two throws successfully got inside the silhouette. Everything seems to be going perfectly, until the boy from Twelve suddenly grabs his knives and leaves the area.
We probably should have left as well, considering the implications that probably had, but for whatever reason, we either couldn't or wouldn't see the obvious signs. Less than fifteen seconds after the boy leaves, he's replaced by literally every female Career in the Games. The girls from One and Two take the lead, while the girl from Four hangs back, watching from the periphery.
They settle into the target next to us, seemingly ignoring us for a while. They grunt and make a lot of obnoxious noises as they throw their own weapons, but otherwise seem to ignore us for a while. Even when the girl from Four briefly joins, hurling a trident into the center of the target from ten yards away, they don't bother us, which I see as odd.
Until Alexa misses again, that is. After tiring of the slingshot, she switches back to a knife, and her throw is just a few inches to the right. At that, the girls from One and Two both burst into snickers, which makes Alexa's face go bright red.
"Just as I suspected," the girl from Two whispers to the girl from One with every intent for us to hear. "Nothing more than amateurs."
Oddly enough, the girl from Four proceeds to groan and vanish from sight.
It's my turn now. I'm not exactly mad, since what she said is technically true. I just feel like that's the kind of girl Taffeta would verbally eviscerate if it came to that. "This is for you, Taffeta," I mutter under my breath as I pick up three knives.
The first one hits the target in the chest.
The second, the head.
And the third? Right where the target's crotch would be.
I don't say anything. No need to piss the two of them off any more than I already have. Thankfully, that's the end of our interactions. The two of them go back to hurling knives, and we do the same. However, when it's Zari's turn to throw, I whisper to Alexa, "Was that awesome, or was that awesome?"
"It was," she responds as Zari returns to the back of the line.
Zari appears to have heard, since she smiles at the two of us before we resume throwing stuff at the target.
This isn't exactly what I'd expect in a friendship. But in the Games, even a tangential friendship is a gold mine; you'll get returns from it as long as you can keep putting something into it.
Alliance Tracker:
Careers: Nascar, Clara, Godric, Galadia, Sienna
Anti-Careers: Faolan, Artesia, Thomiah, Odysea
Six, Seven, Eight: Zari, Alexa, Lacey
Opposites Attract: Spark, Catarina
One-Way Romance: Marius, Toren
Unaligned (For Now): Rhaemyr, Sotia, Vick, Remi, Aryion, Romeo, Maxxer, Fox
Author's Notes:
-The scene at the beginning was a scene I was looking forward to writing for a long time. I'm happy to finally put it on paper.
-I don't have much else. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and see you next chapter!