Thank you to anyone reading this, it really means a lot to me right now! Hopefully you enjoy!
River lay awake for most of the night after the chariot rides. She had always prided herself on never needing to be too comfortable in order to sleep and had even slept up a tree once or twice, but the whole experience was just too much. First of all was the sound of the party below them. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people were celebrating, excited for the Games. As if their constant thrum wasn't enough, all she could think about was that she was, in that moment, trying to fall asleep in the same building as the person who would take her life. Hell, maybe even someone who's life she herself would take.
How was she meant to sleep with those thoughts?
Her saving grace was when exhaustion took her, but it wasn't for long. Dreams of scrambling desperately on the ground flooded her, relentless in the feelings of panic and distress.
When she woke, still exhausted, it was with a deep, gutteral gasp.
She had no damn idea how she was to make it through the day.
The evening before, she, Effie, Carter and Haymitch had watched the charriot rides on the television, then they had feasted. Alas, River had been in no mood for food as fear took her body. She had, however, taken a moment to smile upon seeing Carter sneaking some food down into some napkins in his lap. In any other setting, it would have been adorable, watching him squirrel food away. It still was, in a way, but there was also such a sadness to it.
Breakfast that next morning was a quiet affair. River and Carter respectively were given their outfits for training in and told that, as if they didn't know, they would spend the next three days training with the other tributes before their final interview with Ceaser Flickerman on the night before the Games.
Carter had been brave enough to ask Haymitch for advice, but River had felt his snide comment coming before he even raised his eyes to look over his drink. She had been right to expect them. He told Carter, in so many words, not to worry about advice. He'd said that dying didn't require any skill, so they didn't need to concern themselves.
In the elevator, on the way down, Carter took the time between floors to get River's attention.
"So, uh, in there. Stick together?" She knew why he was asking. It wasn't so that they could be allies or friends, but because there were often stories about kids getting knocked about a little by career kids. Hell, not more than five years back, a kid entered the games with a broken leg. The victor that year, upon being asked about it, laughed and said that the poor kid was just "so damn clumsy."
Nodding, River looked back at him. "We should try and learn as much as we can. Together." She agreed with him, but she did feel a little stab of deceipt. After all, she wanted to know what he knew. She didn't think that she had it in herself to outright kill Carter, nor did she want to, but it would be advantageous to know what his knowledgebase consisted of. Was he smart, or was he just strong? She hoped the latter. She hoped, as cruel as she felt, that he died a quick, painless death. She also hoped that his parents, by some miracle, found a way to survive losing him.
To put it frankly, she hoped that he died to the elements so that they never ended up at one another's throats, perhaps that he passed in his sleep from the cold, feeling warm in his final moments.
Before either of them could say anything else though, the doors of the elevator opened and the tributed from Eleven stepped in, cautiously eyeing the two from Twelve. The training centre, it seemed, was on a basement level, below all of the floors that housed other tributes. So, patiently, they all waited as more and more tributes boarded the elevator until it was finally descending below ground.
River noted that no one seemed to be looking around near her, so she chanced a glance up and caught the eyes of a tall, lean girl across the small crowd with an odd head of hair. Well, not too odd considering where they were, but this girl's hair was faintly blue of all colours, looking like it had been dyed and left to fade in the sun, but the colour was definitely there. They held one another's gaze for a second before River dropped it, afraid. Whoever that girl was, she had looked ready to kill already. There had been something else in her eyes, too, something terrifying. She had looked amused.
They all stumbled out the second that the doors opened, spreading out into the hallway and then again into another room.
Almost all of them seemed stunned by it all, by the aray of weapons and aparatus before them, but not quite all of them. Where most of the kids stopped and looked around the room in awe, a few from the career districts simply sauntered confidently across to their weapons of choice and eyed them greedily.
It wasn't another minute before a woman with skin as dark as night stepped into the room, commanding attention simply with her walk. Whoever she was, she carried confidence, clearly knowing her worth. All eyes turned to her just as she strode into the middle of the room and politely asked that all eyes turn to her. Everyone did as told and gave her their full attention.
She introduced herself from there as the head of the training room. She told the kids that she and her staff would be there to help them to prepare for the Games in the next three days leading up to it. While she encouraged them to pick up weapons of their choice, she also made sure to warn them that a large number of them would perish to the elements. River and Carter knew all about the elements, but other than wrapping up warmer and fixing leaks, neither of them were experts.
Once she was done talking, the career kids all immediately went back to playing with their favourite weapons in terrifying displays of skill.
River and Carter, much like others from the outer districts, stuck together. They didn't speak much as they made their way around the room, deciding which stations to go to, not that either of them minded. They were both so clearly exhausted and terrified, just like most of the other kids in the room. There were just so many different stations to choose from, from plant life to weapons, to climbing frames. In any other situation, River knew she would have loved it.
Their first stop that they agreed upon was a survival station along with the two kids from Five, one from Eight and one from Three. Clearly not all of the duos had stuck together, but River saw the benefit in that too.
On that station, for the next few hours, River and Carter eagerly learned about how to filter water. They learned about technology created by the Capitol that allowed one to breathe under water for up to two hours, they learned about a single straw that would purify over a gallon of water and about a small tablet that would purify up to five gallons of water. There was even a bottle that filtered and purified the water as it went through the nozzle and into your mouth. They both agreed that these were things that they needed to know.
After a brief lunch break, they spent the rest of the day learning about shelter. How to make it, how to find it, how to best find materials that would suit different types of shelters. River found it much easier to absorb than Carter, having been helping to fix her family home since a young age, plus she had at one point in time attempted to build a cabin on her patch of land. The key word, sadly, being "attempted".
It wasn't until the end of the day that River noticed that the career kids hadn't gone to a single one of the survival stations. Instead, they'd spent all of their time hogging the weapons and the strength equipment. Was that their plan? Did they really think that anyone was stupid enough to expect to gain muscle mass in three days? Or that restricting access to weapons through intimidation was going to work?
In the elevator, on the way back up, she found herself feeling a little more bold. As did most of the others by the looks of things. It was clear that a couple of the kids had formed alliances already by the way they were standing together. She mentally noted that the kids from Eleven and Nine were looking pretty chummy. What caught her off guard though was when she saw the same girl from that morning looking across at her. The girl, she knew now, was from One.
Every single time River had looked around the training room, this one girl had been either going back and forth on the climbing frame, or she'd been throwing spears. It was clearly her weapon of choice. River just hoped that she wouldn't be on the recieving end of one any time soon.
That evening, as River and Carter retired to the joined living area, they found Haymitch and Effie sharing a couch. Before entering, River could clearly hear Effie almost begging him to "give them a chance" and, had she not been so sure that they hated one another, she almost thought she meant the two of them. She knew, however, that she meant her and Carter. Haymitch was, after all, their mentor and he was sure as hell meant to be giving them some guidance. River didn't expect anything other than him possibly pissing his pants.
The four of them watched a few hours worth of recaps and speculative theories on who would win. It wasn't at all shocking to see that, not only we she and Carter at the bottom of most lists, but they also even got their names wrong more than once. River was "adorable, seeing the Capitol for the first time, but not cute enough to spend a coin on" and Carter was "some scrawny mine kid with a nice enough smile", so naturally neither of them were noticed when the career kids all looked so promising. River almost felt offended on Carter's behalf at them having called him a mine kid. After all, what the hell did that make her?
River smiled later that evening when Carter pulled a small bundle of food from one of his pockets, opened it quietly, then offered it out to her. They both knew that Effie would have scolded them, but once glance across the room showed that she was too into whatever stupid show was on to care about what they were doing.
Appreciative, River took one of the many sausages in Carter's bundle, smiling amusedly as she nodded her thanks. He smiled that classic Carter Grin back at her and began to quietly eat.
They only stayed up for another show before Effie ended up ushering them off to bed, both laughing when she saw the greasy napkin and scolded them for sneaking food after mealtimes.
That night, River slept a little better. Granted, it still wasn't a specifically good, restful night of sleep, but she was just so damn exhausted that she was snoring within minutes of her head hitting the pillow. All the same, her dreams were still terrifying. She dreamed of Skylar at first, of their trysts, but it soon turned sour. Before long, they were in the arena together, neither one wounded, but River somehow knew that they were the last two tributes. They hacked at one another with knives, swords, even axes, but neither would die. River woke in the night, tears strewn down her cheeks, and simply cried into the dark of her room. She slept a little easier to morning after that, but she still wasn't at all ready for the day.
Apologies, I know it was a bit of a "nothing" chapter, but I swear things will kick off a little next chapter. I'll post it soon, I'm considering posting as far as I've written but I don't want to catch up to myself too quickly.
Please feel free to let me know any thoughts or feelings thus far, but further than that have a great day and thank you again for reading my bullshit!