After a quick trip around the City Circle, and an address by President Snow the horses brought us into the Tribute Center, a tall, fourteen story building. After we unboarded our chariot, Velorum, Blight, Teres, Brava, and us, all mushed in the elevator.
"Each District has their own floor," Velorum explained, "so we are staying in the Seventh room, which is technically the ninth floor, but, whatever, haha!" We got out of the elevator and stood in a gorgeous apartment. Fake trees lined the back wall, the dining room was raised, and the living room was two steps down. Our stylists said good night, and went to their quarters. We each had our own room. I walked into the one, farthest from the door, and closed myself in for the night. I stripped out of my costume, and laid down on my olive bed. For the first time since the Justice Building, I cried real tears.
In the morning, I didn't eat. Me and Catax, alone, went down to the training center. All twenty-four of us, lined up. A tall dark skinned woman, with thick arms walked into the center of the wrestling ring.
"Hello tributes," she said in a loud, powerful voice, "I am Atala, and I am the head trainer. In less than two weeks, twenty-three of you will be dead. You may want to pick up a weapon, and fight, but do not ignore the survival skills. Infection, starvation, dehydration, frostbite, can, and might, kill more of you than a knife to the back. The rest of the day, we did group exercises, the Gauntlet, which was an obstacle course, and running.
The next day, we were free to train alone. I chose mostly survival skills, I got through fire making, edible plants, shelter, swimming, which was very hard for me, and, once people cleared out a bit, hand to hand combat. The second day, I went to the Gauntlet on my own, I cleared it in four minutes. I spent a lot of time at animal hunting, because I knew most of the edible plants, and had no idea how to get meat. Once it was me, the careers, and the small girl from Five, I went to wrestling, careful not to appear to strong, but I did take in a lot of his tips. I went back to shelter, and then to fire making, where I trained with a stone and sticks.
"Hey," a small girl's voice came up behind me. I turned, and it was the girl from Five. She was short, and had ratty brown hair. It was evident that along with Ten, Eleven, and Twelve, Five was a poor District. Seven, Three, Eight, Six, and Nine were well off, but One, Two, and Four really had it good. They had it in cahoots with the Capitol. "You still there?" the little girl asked.
"Oh, yeah," I said, "you wanted something?" I tried to sound weak.
"We should ally, you know? The two weak girls, doing okay, together?" she sounded so lonely.
"No, I ... My mentor ... um said not to ally with anyone before the games, so I just ... sorry," I said.
"Yeah, yeah, OK," she said like she was about to cry. "Well, see you inside the games then?"
"If we meet up, then, yes." I told her. She left, and I realized I was all alone. Finally.
It felt so good to throw axes around. They had big ones, small ones, aero-dynamic ones, chopping ones, slicing ones. I hit almost every dummy in the face. After I while I worked my way into the knife and spear section, and found I had pretty good aim with knives, but horrible with a spear. After I sweated my butt off, teaching myself how to use different weapons, I went into the public shower right off the training room. I took my training outfit off, and discarded it.
The shower was like warm spring rain. I loved the rain, it always rained in Seven. I took the soap bar from the sink, which smelled like honey and oranges. I put a thick blue shampoo in my hair, and it felt so good to scratch and run my fingers through. Just as I brought my head down, I felt a large hand on my shoulder. I turned, and standing there, naked, in the shower, was one of the most attractive men I have ever seen. He was tall, tan, and buff as hell. He looked like he could throw a boulder across the nation of Panem.
"Hey," he said. Even his voice was a sexy purr. "Don't you have a shower in your room?" he asked.
"I...uh," I was speechless.
"It's okay, I do to. He didn't have a Capitol accent, but his hair was turquoise, with gold tips. I guess he saw me looking at his hair, because he said "Atlas Wellwood, District Eight victor of the Sixtieth Hunger Games." He stretched out his hand. I shook it. He was warm. "You are very beautiful, I couldn't take my eyes off you during the Tribute Parade, and I never thought I'd catch you alone." he smirked "But here we are,"