Day Three Training

Felix couldn't believe his bad luck. He had studied several career alliances, looking for the secret ingredients that led to a victory. Perseverance, trust, diligence. To survive, the alliance had to work together.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize this team didn't have any of that. He had barely stepped into the training center and the team had already dispersed. Bjorn had scared off Blair, yesterday Alex and Bjorn had celebrated ousting Blair from the team by hacking a dozen different mummies apart.
Those two were psychotic. He glanced their direction, the trainer was showing them how to sharpen a blade. Bjorn looked particularly delighted. while Alex could be classified as bored.

And Heath was angry, eager to kill Silk for deafening him. Every time Felix glanced over at the District 1 tribute, he was glaring at Silk. She just tossed her hair, completely ignoring him. Those two would be a handful in the arena, Felix wondered which one would kill the other during the bloodbath.

No one was listening to Felix, none of them were listening to their mentors, and not a one of them cared about each other.

It was enough to make Felix wish he hadn't volunteered. He couldn't win this thing without a working alliance. If he ditched them, he knew they would hunt him down. Even his district would hate him, after all they didn't have a clue what happened over training. His friends would be shocked, parents depressingly disappointed, and the rest of the district would scorn his stubborn independence. You stayed together in District Two or the pack abandoned you. There was no other choice.

Maybe he could lay low, let them kill each other off. But Felix knew they might just all kill him, then turn on each other. His mind calculated the risk, but he knew his ideas were pretty hopeless.

He casually twirled a sword, wondering if this whole endeavor was a foolish mistake.

Ruby smiled at Peltier, encouraging him to try the knot again. It was the fourth time, but practice didn't hurt. After all, he needed all the tools he could learn to use for tomorrow. Skinny, mute, the most non-threatening kid Ruby had ever seen; it was going to be hard to impress the Gamemakers.

She closed her eyes as the girl from Two laughed behind her, "I think we already know who's not lasting long this year. Don't they look just so adorably vulnerable?"

Her voice faded away as Alex walked on past, laughing with the show-off from Four. Ruby thought they suited each other; Alex was viciously cruel and Bjorn was a piggish chauvinist.

But Ruby knew Alex was a serious threat, she was still angry over Ruby's comments the night of the tribute parade. The last three days of training, even though Ruby had steered clear, Alex had trailed her, constantly threatening to torture her. And eventually kill her. Bjorn was now hinting he would help out, if Alex let him have his fair share when they tortured Ruby.

She sighed, as she knelt beside Peltier, "Look buddy," her voice barely reached a whisper, "I've been thinking, it may be best if we split up during the bloodbath."

His eyes widened, as he shook his head violently. "I know, but I want you to live." She swallowed, "Alex wants to kill me, I'm a walking time bomb."

She squeezed his hand, "You just run, get out of there. If I get past Alex, I'll catch up with you."

His teeth started to chatter, his cheeks reddening. He pushed into her arms, shoulders shaking. She patted his back, "I'm so sorry, Peltier. It's my fault, but she's not after you." She pulled him back, looking into his reddened eyes, "Just get out of the bloodbath, you know how to make a shelter."

Ruby paused, afraid of giving him false hope. Alex despised her, she doubted she could evade the bloodthirsty maniac, "If I make it, I will find you."

They weren't planning on running into each other. But here they were, staring at the lists of edible plants. Nylon and Tricolette were joking, laughing over the scientific names the trainer kept mentioning.

Josu and Rust stood next to each other, competing to see who could guess the most correctly. Then the trainer reprogramed the computer, "Now all four of you can compete against each other." She smiled, "It's like an actual game, though I don't have any prizes to give the winner."

"Thanks," Tricolette grinned, "This is fun."

They played a round, Josu getting the most plants right. The trainer restarted the program, and Nylon narrowly defeated Josu. Third round, Josu won again.
"Man, you're good." Nylon commented, "I keep getting all the roots mixed up. Guess I should avoid roots in the arena."

"Even the goods one are disgusting," Rust commented. "I've had to eat a few back home; even in soups they're just gross."

"You're from Nine, right?" Tricolette asked, after he nodded, she turned to Josu. "And you're from Five?"

Josu grinned, "Yep, and you two are from the thread place."

Tricolette rolled her eyes, while Nylon grinned, "Exactly. Are you two allies?"
Josu and Rust glanced at each other, before Rust spoke, "Not really, we've just run into each other a lot the last couple of days."

Josu raised an eyebrow, frustrated at the way Rust answered, "Not really? You straight up told me we couldn't be allies." He crossed his arms, "I haven't intentionally been running into you either."

"Sorry," Rust's ears reddened, before he blurted out, "I was rude. And I would make a terrible ally." He had been rude, and every time he saw Josu he regretted brushing him off like he did. The kid didn't know his weird past or straight-up-nuts family. It didn't help that he kept seeing Josu everywhere.

"Why?" Tricolette questioned, "You're not a bloodthirsty freak, I mean, you just want to get home like the rest of us, right?"

His mouth felt dry, and he ran a hand through his thick hair, "Sorry, I just, I've never had friends. I'll mess up stuff, and hurt you guys."

"That's a lousy reason," Nylon commented dryly. "If you're planning on dying, at least go down with some friends."

Josu laughed, before straightening. They all looked at him strangely, "Sorry, I thought he was joking."

"It's fine," Nylon shrugged. "Tri and I are allies. Our district, we like to stick together."
Tri spoke, "Josu, if you want an ally, I mean we're not the best, but at least we can work together."

"And you'll keep me from poisoning myself," Nylon retorted lightly, "We'd love to camp out with you in the arena."

Josu's face lit up, "That's awesome. Yeah, I'll be your ally."

Tri glanced at Rust, noting that he was fidgeting with the edge of his sleeve. She touched his arm, "You really can't mean to work alone. We'd love to be your friend."

"Yeah," he stumbled, "I'll let you guys down." Was this really how friendship worked?

"Don't be a such a downer," Nylon chuckled, slapping Rust on the back, "No one expects you to be perfect."

Josu chewed his lip. He hated that Rust had rebuffed him on the first day, but if Nylon and Tri were going to be nice, he would try to as well. "Look, none of us are perfect. We don't care what you were like back home, who your parents were and all that. We just want to survive this together."

Rust felt his throat burn, his eyes blinking, "You guys are nice."
"You'll be our ally?" Tri grinned hopefully.

"Yeah," he nodded, "I can help out."

Oliver touched his fingers together, wondering if he should ask for some cream. He had been climbing all morning, making his way up the intensely tangled set of ropes. At first, he wasn't sure of his footing, and had been pretty nervous.

He'd slipped a couple of times, and several tributes had laughed at him. That was frustrating, but he tried again. It wasn't that hard once you got used to it. He'd hung up in the rafters, before coming down at the end of the day. His palms ached from his long grip on the ropes, but it was worth it.
During lunch, Sadira had walked around, searching for him. She wanted him to eat; every day she hunted him down, begging him to come eat something.

Today, she couldn't find him. Oliver grinned as she became more and more worried. She finally returned to the table, but Oliver stopped watching her.

The bells rang, indicating the training center was closing. Oliver slipped down the ropes, watching his footing. It wasn't until he landed that he realized his hands were chapped, the skin raw. If he asked for cream, the mentor would fuss. He just wanted to be left alone. He stuffed his hands in his pocket as he boarded the elevator, Sadira just a few feet behind him.

"Where have you been?" Her voice was sharp, "I looked all over for you! Are you being weird like this on purpose?"

He didn't answer, simply staring at the floor. The elevator came to a gentle halt, opening unto their suite.

"Howdy, kids." Snider nodded at them, "Ready to be done with training?"
Sadira sighed, "If Oliver ever started. But yeah, I'm done."

Snider smiled sympathetically, "I know it's been tough. Just take tonight off, we'll discuss the Gamemakers sessions tomorrow."

Raquel seemed to appear from nowhere, "Oliver, I'm not sure we have much to talk about."

Oliver shrugged, hoping Raquel would let him go. The mentor spoke some more, "I hope you have a plan for tomorrow, cause I straight up have no ideas."

"Thath's thine." His version of that's fine was meant to brush her off, to let him escape.

Instead it riled her, "You mean it's fine? To just give up and die." She snorted, "Literally the worst decision ever."

"Raquel," Snider warned, as Sadira slipped away. The girl didn't want to get caught in-between Oliver and the mean mentor. Sadira was too frustrated with the boy to stand up for him anyway.

Raquel sent Snider a sharp glance, "You're too easy on him, Sni. And you're the one with at least a decent tribute." She faced Oliver, "I tried helping you. Against my better judgment, I wasted time talking to sponsors and thinking of ways for you to live."

Oliver sucked in a breath, hurt but not surprised by her words. She continued, "You've thrown it all away. You've not eaten a decent meal, trained or given me even a scrap to work with." Her eyes threw darts, "I should have just gotten drunk and passed out the last three days." She turned on her heeled boots, stomping away.

Oliver trembled, disturbed by the mentor's anger. Snider stepped forward, placing a hand on the boy's thin shoulder, "I'm sorry, kid."

He wrapped his arms across his chest, "Ith's ok." Snider didn't look convinced, "I'mth ready to thie."

Snider didn't look convinced, instead Oliver was surprised to see pain reflected back at him, "You deserved better. I know your life sucked, I wish it didn't have to end this way for you."

Oliver shrugged, as Snider glanced down. "What happened to your hands," he pulled one towards him. "They're going to get infected."

Oliver winced, as Snider probed, "Blisters are nasty stuff. We better get some cream on this. Want to tell me how this happened?" He didn't need to add that Sadira kept them al informed on his daily activities. Of course, Snider would wonder what he had done without Sadira noticing.

But Oliver didn't want to talk about it, he just shook his head. "No problem. But try to be a bit more careful in the future."

Gamemaker lounge

Rows of numbers, faces, and the swirls of opinions were enough to make you nauseous. Gemini balanced her clipboard, intently tapping out data, measuring probabilities.

The Head Gamemaker was trying to make sense of Gemini's plan, but as he explained it for the third time to the room, the instructions were still muddled. Finally, Lafayette waved his arms in frustration, "Please, Gemini, make these people understand." He stepped back, collapsing unto a soft seat.

Gemini controlled a sigh, barely concealing her disdain. "It's fairly simple." She let the clipboard rest at her side, forcing her fellow Gamemakers to make eye contact, "Instead of walking into the private sessions with no clear idea of the tributes current ranking, we collaborate on our current expectations."

"Current expectations?" A voice whimpered. Gemini wasn't surprised it was Claudius, the man was currently trying to see how much of his strawberry he could cover in chocolate.

"The score you except the tributes to earn after 3 days of observations during training." Gemini smiled, though the cheerful façade didn't reach her scornful eyes, "We are all required to register 5 hours of daily training observations for a reason, Claudius. I put the idea to Lafayette that we put that time to good use."

Lafayette nodded eagerly, tapping his rings together. "It's a brilliant idea."

Gemini continued, "During the sessions, we will upgrade the tributes scores based on how they met or exceeded our expectations. Take Heath of District One. Some of you already have a fairly favorable impression, and you may submit an expected score of 9."

She held up the tablet, "Tonight, submit your score. The computers will calculate the averages, so by tomorrow we all will have the same general expectations."

Nods around the room as her fellow Gamemakers understood, "If Heath outperforms our expectations, then we increase his score. If he performs as anticipated, we leave the score be. Underperformance means his score will be docked."

Lafayette clapped his hands together, "Isn't it brilliant. Save us so much time tomorrow, creating scores. Now we just dock and add as needed!"

Gemini smiled, "Thank you, sir. In the essence of saving time, you are required to submit your scores by midnight." She pointed at her tablet, "All of you have access to the program, use your current ID and password."

"Ah, yes." Lafayette ran a hand through his hair, "I think if you don't, I will have to ask the President to consider removal from your position."

The room murmured slightly, as several Gamemakers reached for their devices. One raised a hand.

"Yes, Sylvania." Gemini managed a patient smile.

"What if your expectations are hardly more than a zero. Like that cripple from 12? I can't see him earning more than a 1."

"Good question," Gemini cleared her throat, "Always submit your expectations, do not doctor them. Our system only works with honest evaluations."

She met several pairs of eyes, relieved they seemed to understand the point, "You may realize this system will likely benefit the lower, generally underperforming districts. Our expectations may be low enough, that a good private showing may increase their score dramatically. Not enough to get a high score, but to go from say, a 2 to a 4."

She smiled, "I think in the end this will benefit tribute confidence. And the games work better when the tributes are confident."

Gemini didn't state the opposite effect; it wasn't exactly in her best interest. The Careers, naturally already had high expectations, but if they were boring in their private sessions, their scores could be lowered. For years, Gemini had witnessed the Careers getting high scores, simply because of their district. It was time to even out the chances.

Ok, I loved writing this update. I've gotten a list of the alliances, maybe I'll post that in the next chapter. So many ideas, so little time.

Now it's your turn! What is your reaction to the forming alliances, and Gemini's ideas for the private sessions?