Planets by Avenged Sevenfold

Take heed, the violent march is closing in,
You can't defeat them on your own.

Training

Adriel Maynard, 17, District Five

It seems like we all just arrived in the training room a few minutes ago, and already my alliance options are dwindling. I guess it's my own fault for being so picky, not that I could have ever brought myself to make such an important decision at the drop of a hat. I'm a planner, always have been, but even with all the nights of staring at the television in my room looking at the other tributes I still don't have the slightest clue who to choose.

I think I might be running out of time.

Already I can see the small groups of tributes huddled around various stations in deep conversation. Some of their names I can remember, but most of them evade me completely. There is the blonde girl from District Three who seems to have allied herself with the girl from District Nine and Hollis, the boy from District One. Unfortunately that's one of my strongest options gone. Hollis Bale was initially my first choice, seeing as his volunteering peaked my interest and probably helped with his ratings. The possible impulsivity was the only thing that turned me off of him. It doesn't matter anyway, seeing as both the girls he is with are near the bottom of my desired ally list.

Another one of the tributes I was interested in is also already joined into an alliance. Santana Belmont, the girl tribute from District Two, who appeared so calm and collected in every frame I saw her in. I would have preferred Hollis to her, personally, because though her silent strength might come in handy it also makes her difficult to read. I don't quite fancy an alliance where I have to question what the others are thinking, I'd like to know by looking at them.

Not that it matters what I think of her anyway, she has been hanging around with the boy from her district and Venice Durante from District Four. In all honesty, the alliance looks strong and I might have tried to move myself into it if I was more certain I would be able to control them all.

I need people between Hollis and Santana. Someone that has their emotions written on their forehead, but also someone that would be able to do what I need them to do. Unfortunately I'm running out of options.

Dallas, the girl from my district, rushes past the station I am sitting at. Following close behind her is our mentor, Warren, who is mumbling something under his breath. Warren has already told me about his annoyance with the girl, how she doesn't do anything that he tells her to do. I don't see why she wouldn't, personally. His advice makes sense to me and I almost always agree with what he tells me. Maybe that's why he's opted to leave me alone, knowing I don't need supervision to accomplish what I need to today.

I decide to get up and walk around again. I was told that training would last until four o'clock today, and it's nearly ten now. I have time, but not much. I had planned to have my alliance members sorted out half an hour from now so that we could spend the rest of the day actually training. By the looks of things, I am going to have to alter my schedule a bit.

I pass by a rather technical looking station, which is occupied by far more stray wires and metal scraps than tributes. I've passed it by a few times, and the station's only occupants have not changed except when a mentor stepped in to talk to one of the boys. I don't remember either of their names, and it took me a while to even match them to their districts- Three and Seven. Neither made much of an impression, but I guess it makes sense that two mediocre tributes would end up in an alliance together.

I am just about to continue on when a loud beeping sound makes me pause again. The boy from Seven throws a clear bubble over a small metal piece on the ground and the two boys scramble away from it. Not seconds later, a loud bang echoes through the room making everyone look over. I look at the spot of mat under the bubble and see that it the metal piece has made a smoking crater in the floor under it.

Suddenly I'm a bit more interested. As the two head back over to the bubble I decide that this is the perfect opportunity to introduce myself.

The boys go back and lift up the bubble, the boy from Three looking shocked at the mess underneath it. I step onto the mat and take a few steps closer before speaking. "Wow, what was that thing?"

Both of them look over their shoulders at me, but it's the boy from Three who speaks first. "I don't even know. I built the casing earlier and Jonah here said he could make it work."

The boy from Seven, Jonah presumably, shrugs.

"That's really impressive," I say, making sure to add as much awe as possible into my voice. "I'm Adriel by the way, and you are?"

"Danican," he says, and I extend my hand to shake his. I note the millisecond of confusion that flashes over Jonah's face when I reach for his hand, but I don't comment on it for obvious reasons.

"Would you mind if I hung around with you guys?" I ask, feigning a bit of shyness. "I haven't really had any luck with this kind of thing, but maybe you could show me a thing or two?"

Jonah gives Danican a somewhat odd look but I pretend not to notice it. I look at Danican expectantly and after a second of silent exchange with Jonah I get my answer. "Sure thing, Adriel. We'd be happy to."

Carina Ricter, 14, District Eight

This whole training thing is kind of weird to me. Aubin said it was going to be important for us to learn skills that would help us in the arena, but so far it looks like everyone is just sitting around and talking. Not that I'm complaining about finally being let out of that awful room I've been cooped up in for days. Believe me, I'm glad to be out of there. I'm definitely not used to being so restrained, and I don't like the feeling at all.

"Hi!"

I scream and jump nearly a foot in the air, my hand grabbing at the side of the platform I am sitting on at the same time that another hand reaches out and grabs the back of my shirt to keep me from taking the twenty foot plunge down the climbing wall.

As soon as I am no longer in danger of falling, I spin around to face a girl about my size with her long, blonde hair tied into a messy ponytail. Her eyes are wide and one hand is covering her mouth, the other still holding tightly to the back of my shirt. "I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"

I nod, still a bit too stunned to speak. I don't recognize the girl, but apparently she recognizes me. "You're Carina right? District Eight?"

"Yes," I nod, almost apologetic that I don't know her name. I'm not sure how I would considering I've never seen the girl before, but still.

"Oh thank Panem," she says, the shock dissipating off of her face to be replaced by a wide smile. "I'm Kyra and I'd like to be allies."

The confidence in her statement almost makes me laugh. I like Kyra, she seems like a good time. Even reminds me a bit of one of the girls I was friends with during the war when I got to live in a barracks with the other runners. I only just met the girl, but I find myself accepting the offer a few second after she makes it.

"Oh good," she sighs, letting out the long breath that apparently she had been holding. "Man, that was way harder than I thought it would be."

I giggle but the sound is cut short when Kyra jumps past me and over the edge of the wall. I hurry to the edge and stare down, terrified that I am going to see my new ally lying on the floor with a broken arm or leg.

She is on her feet and I sigh in relief. "And that was a lot easier than I thought it would be."

"Are you okay?" I call down at her, already pretty sure of my answer but certain that it's polite to ask it anyway.

She looks up at me with a smirk. "Of course! Come on!"

I begin climbing back down the wall before Kyra calls up at me again. "It's not that far of a jump, it didn't hurt a bit."

With nothing really to lose, I allow myself to drop and hope at the very last second that I will land on my feet. The impact comes and I bend my knees to absorb it. I brace for some sort of pain, but I guess Kyra was right. It wasn't nearly as high as I thought.

"Where are we going?" I ask, my breathing a bit unsteady from the fall.

"We need more allies," she says simply. "I know exactly who, too. I think his name is Harley? I don't quite remember. He looked nice. I think I saw him hanging around somewhere over there."

I decide not to argue with her, even though I'm unsure about meeting more people so quickly. It's impossible to doubt her, though. She seems very sure about what she's doing, so I just follow her over to the far corner of the room. I only see two tributes there, sitting near the edge of a mat with a couple of discarded knives between them. I have to guess that one of them is Harley.

Kyra seems uninfluenced by the fact that they are clearly in conversation. Just as she did earlier with me, she jumps right in and sits beside them. "Hi, I'm Kyra and this is Carina."

I raise my hand in a small wave when the two boys look over at me.

"I was wondering if you two would be interested in an alliance?" I am oddly appreciative of her ability to get to the point so quickly. It makes the awkward meeting a little bit shorter, at least.

"Um, hi," one of the boys says shyly.

"Hi," Kyra says again slowly.

The two boys look at each other and the taller of them shrugs. "Sure, I'd be in. My name is Flint."

"I'm in if he is," the second boy says. "I'm Harlan."

"Perfect!" Kyra exclaims then turns to me. "I guess we're done, this is all the people I think we need."

I smile and shrug, not really sure what to say. Harlan looks just as uncomfortable as I feel, but Flint's face almost perfectly mimics Kyra's excitement. Not sure what else to do I go and sit across from Kyra and between Harlan and Flint. It's silent for another few awkward moments and then Kyra jumps to speak as if she had just remembered something very important.

"One more thing before we make this alliance official," she says. "My mentor told me to find people that I can count on, so I need all of you to promise me something."

"What's that?" Harlan says unsurely.

"I need us all to promise that we're never going to leave anyone behind," she says seriously. After a second she puts her hand out into the centre of the circle.

Flint is the first one to meet her hand. "I promise."

"I promise," I say solemnly, putting my hand delicately on top of theirs.

Harlan puts out his hand after another second of hesitation. "I-I promise."

Radimir Ankratij, 17, District Six

I feel bad after ignoring Melita on the train and now these few days of not seeing her, but I meant what I told her this morning about needing to spend today working on training alone. I'll see her in the arena anyway, if what Cavin told me is true.

The main thing I am worried about is allies. I know that Melita is not the most socially apt person in the world, and first impressions are everything with such a small timeframe to meet people. I am definitely not even considering leaving her out of the alliance, but I think it would be easier for all involved if I find the rest of our members on my own and introduce them to her later.

She seemed alright with me asking for some alone time, but of course she has never said no to me before. I saw her sitting with a makeshift fire pit in front of her, head down to avoid anyone even considering coming over to talk to her. That's just how Melita is, it's very hard to get her trust. But I know she at least somewhat trusts me, and I can just hope that she will be okay with having others around because we need other people.

I've always been more extroverted than she is, but it's not just my social needs that have helped me make this decision for us. Out of the two of us, Melita is the more likely to be able to fend off another person and I don't like that. I want there to be someone around that is able to protect her, maybe even just so that I won't have to make the fatal decision to try.

"Hey." The voice is soft and I almost think I imagine it because I don't immediately see anyone around me. As soon as I turn around, however, I nearly have a heart attack. Just inches from my nose is a girl with blonde hair and wide eyes. I don't recognize her by name, but I know that I've seen her around or at least on the television in my room.

"Um, hi," I say in response, my heart still beating quickly from the scare she gave me.

"I was wondering if you'd like to, you know, talk," she says sweetly, nodding with her head towards a nearby wall where I see a brown-haired boy standing alone.

My forehead creases in confusion but I shrug as if I completely understand what she means "Who's asking?"

She sighs. "Vera. Come on and I'll introduce you to Verden, he wanted me to come see if you'd be interested."

"In?" I ask even though it's pretty clear what she's implying. My heart rate increases, this time for a completely different reason. Maybe I won't even have to look for allies for Melita and I. Perhaps I'm just that good that I can get them to come to me.

"He'll explain," she says, rolling her eyes and taking me by the arm with a smile.

When the boy, Verden I assume, sees me approaching him with Vera I can see the beginnings of a grin come to his lips. He reaches his hand out and I take it, giving it a firm shake. "Verden, nice to meet you."

"Radimir," I say in response. "She said you wanted to talk to me."

"Thanks Vera," he says, tossing another grin towards the girl. "I'm in need of trusted people, and I've been watching you. I think we might have some shared values."

"What would those be?" I try to make the question sound nonchalant, as if I might already understand what he means by it. The truth is, I'm not completely sure. Him and Vera look capable, though, tough even. I would not be opposed to having them on my and Mel's side if a fight were to break out.

"Look," he begins. "I'm sure you mentor has explained why we're really here, why the Capitol brought us here. It might sound a bit obvious to say, but I don't fancy dying this young and I can bet you don't either. Whatever it takes, we're going to make sure that one of us makes it out of there. We're not going to wait around for someone to do what's going to happen, we're going to beat them to it."

"Kill them before they kill you," I swallow, sudden understanding taking over. This is even better than I could have hoped for.

"Precisely," he says, grin widening. He reaches out and slaps his fist against mine. "So can I count you in? Three's the magic number I've been hoping for."

I'm about to answer when I hear another voice enter the conversation. "So this is why you didn't want to be around me today. You were afraid I'd mess up your alliance."

I spin around and see Melita standing a few feet away, her fists clenched and her eyes glazed with unshed tears. "Melita? No that's not-"

"I don't mind," she says, but the crack in her voice gives her away. I take a couple steps towards her and reach out to her, but she slaps my hand away from her. "Have fun, I'll be just fine. Not that that probably matters to you."

"Melita you're being ridiculous," I say, grabbing her shoulder again.

"Take care," she says, the anger and hurt making her voice sound distorted in my ears. She rips my hand off of her and turns away from me, taking quick steps away.

I begin to follow her, but a hand on my shoulder stops me. "Leave her, you're better with us anyway. Someone that emotional isn't going to be good for someone like you."

I wipe the hurt off of my face before I make myself turn to face him. "Someone like me?"

"Someone that has a chance," he breathes. I want to scream at him to take the words back, but the apologetic look on his face stops me. I look once more over my shoulder and see Melita already approaching a curly-haired boy with his nose buried in a thick book. It sure didn't take her long to move forward, but that's also just how Mel is.

I nod in agreement and allow Vera and Verden to lead me around to another training station, all the while wondering how Melita could think I would do that to her.

Song: Planets by Avenged Sevenfold.

A/N: This was definitely one of my favourite chapters to write. I know that the tribute interactions have been severely lacking, and will continue to be until the arena really. It's just the way I have the Capitol set up. Anyway, hope this chapter was up to standard!

Lots of alliances fit into one chapter, I know. Hopefully it wasn't too confusing. I have posted all of them on the blog, but I'll list them here as well just as a refresh for all of you.

August/ Eileen

Carina/ Kyra/ Harlan/ Flint

Hollis/ Jalissa/ Leina

Vera/ Radimir/ Verden

Melita/ Sampson

Santana/ Connor/ Venice

Danican/ Adriel/ Jonah

Dallas/ Merryn

Loners- Ariella and Caprice

Hopefully any of you still reading will take the time to leave me a review, each and every one is appreciated. I'll put some questions down for you guys to answer, should you find the time to do so.

Have your opinions on Adriel, Carina, or Radimir changed from this chapter?

What do you think of the alliances? Any predictions for how they'll work out?

Favourite alliance?

Also very exciting news is that we are now over halfway done the Capitol, with only three more chapters and then we will be in the arena. I'm pretty excited about that, I don't know about you. Anyway, see you all next update.