Once again, River and Carter found themselves stuffed into the back of the elevator, squashed in there with all of the other kids, all on their way down to the second day of training.

The careers were by the doors, happily chatting away with one another, but none of the others were so comfortable. It seemed, River noticed, that the career kids were already so comfortable with the idea of killing one another that they simply looked past it as if it didn't even matter. Looking across at them, they almost looked like a group of friends. River looked around, briefly wondering how many of these kids she would have been friends with if they'd met in school, quickly dismissing the thought though. The longer she could pretend they weren't human beings with lives of their own, the easier it would be to take a life if she had to. When she had to.

When the elevator stopped, they all clambered out in a relatively orderly manner, walking almost single file into the training room. The head trainer gave a small, brief speech, telling them all to be safe as they trained, then sent them on their way. The only rule of the room, it seemed, was that they couldn't harm one another.

"Where to?" She quietly asked Carter once they were all dismissed. She eyed a station that would teach them how to make a fire, but was shocked when Carter pointed.

"There." He said surely, pointing at one of the weapons stations.

She looked back at him, unsure, with a raised brow, but he didn't wait. He simply began to approach. River, not looking to argue, followed.

All too soon, two kids with bold numbers on their shirts and pants stepped into their way. "I'm using that." The male sneered down at Carter.

The bold "1" stood out in white against his black shirt. River quickly made to grab Carter's arm, but he shook it off, eyeing the boy in front of him. To say that the male tribute from One was a brute would have sold him short. He looked like he could have snapped them in half and used their femurs to pick his teeth clean. Still, Carter stood his ground. River could all but smell the fear, but Carter didn't step away. "You're using all of them?" He shot back sceptically.

River made brief eye contact with the girl beside the male. She was also from One. It was, of course, the girl who had looked at her like she was a snack in the elevator.

Laughing, the boy stepped closer until they were almost chest and chest. Then, his smile was gone. He looked as though he was either going to punch Carter in the face, or simply walk right through him. River could feel herself shaking with the anticipation. She chanced a glance back at the girl, partly hoping that she would say something, talk some sense into her fellow district mate, but she just looked amused, as though she was having the best time. She was so very clearly loving the conflict, finding joy in the butting of heads.

"Kid," The boy from One growled, stepping yet another step closer, all but forcing Carter to stumble back. "I can't wait to see you in the arena. Hear me? I'm gonna rip you in half." Then, chuckling, he turned around and went to the very weapons that River and Carter had been on their way to with the girl trailing behind him, chuckling wryly.

A training aid arrived a second too late, but Carter didn't even seem to notice. River, however, noticed as Carter seemed to space out for a second. She reached for his arm again, ignoring the fact that other tributes were looking their way, but when he snatched it away this time, he turned and all but ran from the room, almost falling through the door on his way out.

That sure wasn't going to do him any favours and she knew it.

"Carter!" River cried after him, somewhat helplessly, but she didn't follow. After all, she still had to focus on her own survival. She wished she could have said that it ha been a difficult decision, that she'd been aching to follow him, but it hadn't, she hadn't.

She was, of course, a little shaken, but instead of showing it, she simply kept her head down and went over to where an instructor was just starting a demonstration on how to start a small, controlled fire. Away from the careers. River, of course, knew that fire was an important heat source, but she also knew that being able to control a fire was just as important. After all, you didn't want to wake up, ablaze in your sleeping bag. That was though, assuming you woke up at all.

For the remainder of the morning, she could feel the eyes of the kids from One on her. She, it seemed, had interested them. She didn't know why, but she hoped that, at the very least, Carter hadn't stuck a target on her back by association.

What truly shocked her though was when, at lunch, the girl from One, plate piled high, joined her. Until then, River had been alone at her table, keeping the careers in her sights, so why had she chosen to approach her? Why now? Why her? "Twelve." She greeted, taking a seat directly across from River. Something about her, perhaps the way that she moved, reminded River of one of the feral mountain cats that she'd seen. Something about her, despite her calm surface, seemed ready to strike. It was as if she was toying, just waiting for the moment to snap and to kill. River, it seemed, was the mouse caught in her paws.

Somewhere between scared and confused, River simply gave a nod of acknowledgement and trained her eyes back down onto her food. Had Carter's outburst been the cause of this? Christ, were they going to torture her now thanks to him?

Then, as if things couldn't have gotten any worse, the male from One followed her over. He too took a seat across from River, shovelling in a mouthful of something before practically leaning across the entire table at her, hunched over his lunch tray. "Twelve." He greeted in a low grumble.

To put it nicely, he was muscle piled on top of more muscle. He was a gargantuan and definitely not someone River had intended on having as an enemy so early on.

Swallowing nervously, River set her jaw and let her eyes stray up to meet them both. "One." She croaked. "Ones." She then added, wondering which of them she was meant to have spoken to. She didn't want to make things any more tense than they already were.

Sniffing, the male stared at her for a long second, seemingly assessing her, before looking back at his female counterpart with a raised brow. She, on the other hand, seemed entirely amused by the whole situation. With her tall, lean frame, she was clearly every bit as much a threat as he was. To whatever his silent question was, she shrugged, still smirking a little. She hadn't once taken her eyes off River.

"You a survivor, Twelve?" He grumbled across the table around yet another mouthful.

River sighed a little. This was it. This was the confrontation that she had known deep down that Carter's moment of idiocy was going to bring her. "I don't want any trouble." She replied calmly but firmly, picking up her cutlery. All she wanted was to eat and the get back to learning. "Carter- the boy from my district, he's-"

"Your ally?" The male interrupted, looking intensely into her eyes when she looked up at him, searching for something in them.

Oh. He wanted to see her eyes when she replied. Was he so confident that he could spot a lie? River made sure to answer honestly, just in case. After all, she knew that she was a sucky liar. "He's a good kid, but we can't both win. Allying with him wouldn't be a smart as going it alone." And there it was. The truth. Because really, at the end of the day, there could be only one Victor. Neither of them was going to lay down and die for the other one, so they shouldn't even consider being allies. The best thing for either of them was if the other one wandered off and died by someone else's hand and that was the truth of it.

Seeming convinced, the male nodded, glancing down at his food before stuffing yet another mouthful in. He chewed a couple of times before swallowing and speaking again. Tributes from One always looked tough, but something about his imposing physique and hair buzzed almost down to his scalp just made him extra terrifying. she tried to remind herself that, thanks to the beauty team, she was almost sporting the same cut, but it did nothing at all to help. "Not your ally." He nodded, pondering his words. He chanced one glance across to the girl beside him before looking back to River. Then, truly shocking her, he reached out his hand. "Rook." He said, pinning her with his eyes.

Unsure of what was going on, River looked between them for a second. "Sorry?" She replied, unsure of what to do or say.

Sighing, he shook his hand a little, raising his brows expectantly. Oh! He wanted to shake her hand? "Rook." He said again.

Obediently, she reached across and took his hand, fearing that he may crush hers.

To her shock, he shook it perfectly well, gently even. Rook, she realised, was his name. "Oh! River." She supplied, glad to get her hand back a second later.

Then, the girl reached across, a smirk tugging at her lips. "Billie."

Billie. River wanted to know why the hell Billie had been watching her so often. All the same, she shook her hand with a small nod.

"So," Rook started. "You a survivor, Twelve?" He asked again, this time a little less imposing.

River swallowed hard again. She wasn't too sure what the expectation was. After all, she didn't really expect to be sitting and chatting with the people who wanted to kill her. "Most kids from Twelve are. I'm nothing special." She was, if anything, honest. She was just trying to make sure that they didn't see a threat. It wasn't uncommon for the career kids to hunt kids from the poorer districts, so she just hoped that they weren't planning that.

"Know how to get clean water?" Billie asked.

River shrugged. "Sure, with the right equipment-"

"Know how to make a fire?"

Again, she shrugged. "I guess. Still, with the right-"

"Know how to fight?" And there it was. The question she hadn't wanted.

She clenched and unclenched her jaw, glancing between them "I-I'm not a threat." She admitted, breathing a little deeper to try and centre herself.

Scoffing, Rook shook his head. "Come on." He nudged Billie, standing a second later. She, obediently, followed him. Together, without another word, they left River's table, leaving her with a feeling of dread.

All too soon lunch came to and end and they were all shuffled back into the training room. River had eaten as much as she could without feeling sick, but after her little encounter it hadn't been much. Just a couple of eggs and a couple of slices of ham.

Upon seeing each of the stations again, she opted to go toward a trapping station. After all, if she could get fire, water and shelter, she would still need food. Kids from the poorer districts didn't tend to get enough sponsors for food, so she knew that she'd have to find it herself if she made it past the bloodbath. If she made it far enough, it wouldn't matter how many sponsors she had. The way she understood it, a sword at the beginning of the games was worth almost the same amount as a hunk of bread towards the end. So yeah, it was important to know how to do everything for yourself.

Luckily, it seemed that she was actually pretty good at the knot aspect of trapping. All of the traps that she set involving rope worked brilliantly. Some of the others, not so much, but her rope work was proficient enough that she wasn't too worried. Plus, she had all afternoon to pick the trainer's brains about it. After all, all she really had to do was out-survive everyone else. She didn't have to be the best fighter or the strongest competitor, she just needed to last the longest.

Living in Twelve was all about survival, so maybe she could do this, right?

As the afternoon progressed, River's skill improved. She tried to think about it as though she was doing a simple day-course in trapping, like how at school they used to have day-courses on mining. Not that it mattered all that much since almost all the kids ended up in the mines, learning on the job, anyway.

Later on, when the head trainer announced that they had ten minutes left, River thanked the trapping trainer for their time and stood up, looking around. She wanted to get out quickly enough that she could tuck herself into the back of the elevator and avoid the kids from One.

Alas, no such luck. "Twelve!" Rook, the huge boy from One, boomed across the room.

River, shocked, glanced across the room to see him and the girl, Billie, standing on some raised platforms. It was the hand-to-hand section. They were clearly beckoning her over. She could feel the concerned eyed of those around her, but still she went. Even the other tributes, it seemed, were somewhat concerned for her. After all, they weren't meant to hurt one another in this room, but they'd all heard stories.

Invited, she hopped up onto the platform beside Billie. They were all only about three feet by three feet, but each was a different height, varying from only a foot all the way up to seven or eight feet high. Each platform was simply a square, all of them next to one another, forming a giant square -almost a multi dimensional chessboard- on the floor, ten platforms in each direction. She imagined it was meant to simulate some kind of uneven terrain, or maybe simply an obstacle course of some kind to practice jumping safely. She hadn't ventured to this part of the room yet, before now at least.

Rook, looking amused, hopped heavily down onto the floor, leaving River with Billie as he strolled off and stood a few feet away, watching. Watching what?

"Come on, Twelve." Billie spoke, getting River's attention back just as she stepped onto the same square as her.

Taken aback, River jumped to the next one, lowering her standing by about a foot. Slowly, intentionally so, Billie punched out. It was close enough that she could have hit River, but slow enough that it was easily dodged. "What are you doing?" River asked, taking a step back and bumping into a higher square. She quickly righted her footing, stepping up onto the next platform.

Not replying, Billie stepped too. This time, she jumped from square to square, forcing River to spin to keep her body angled toward her. Once she settled on a square, she kicked. It wasn't hard, nor was it fast, so the instructors simply watched from the edge of everything. Sure, they couldn't hurt one another here, but River was wondering just how heavily they actually enforced that rule. After all, if Billie kicked her hard right now, what the hell would the instructors do? It wasn't as though they were superhuman.

Still confused, River knocked the leg away with ease before it hit her only for Billie to follow it with a gentle fist that hit her immediately in the jaw, knocking her a little. What the hell? In retaliation, River reached out and shoved, seemingly catching Billie off guard. "Look, I'm not playing your fucking game, okay?" She could feel herself getting hot as fear began to creep in. Were they toying with her?

Billie laughed as she stumbled, clearly shocked when River's hand made forceful contact with her shoulder. "That's more like it, Twelve!" She egged, ignoring River's protest. This time, when she advanced, she jumped down onto River's square again, trapping her against the taller one behind her. "Come on." She shoved her, hard.

River made quick work of scrambling up onto the platform to the side of her, looking and seeing that Rook was watching with an amused smirk. Was this the price of Carter's actions? She mentally cursed him out. She didn't have time for more though as Billie jumped up onto the platform beside her, throwing a much faster and harder punch than last time.

River hadn't been in many fights, but she'd been in enough that she knew not to get punched in the face. Instead, she skipped out of the way and onto another platform, but another hit came. Billie seemed undeterred and unrelenting. As more punches came, River made an effort to block and evade. She did her best, but one particularly rough one to the gut had her fall to one knee, hunched over. She reached out a hand, silently begging for Billie to stop, but it was batted aside.

It seemed, in that moment, that River realised that this wasn't going to stop. Billie would carry on until someone stepped in and that wasn't going to happen by the looks of things. Not until they decided that things had gone too far. These people trained kids to kill one another, so River didn't exactly have a lot of faith in their judgement.

As a leg came flying to her head, she saw her shot.

From her crouched position as one of Billie's legs was in the air, River launched herself.

She very clearly caught Billie off guard as they collided with one another, knocking her immediately off kilter as River speared her somewhere between the crotch and the stomach. In a mess of limbs, they flew from one of the higher platforms. River's head and shoulders flew into Billie's midsection, winding her, as one of her arms hooked the leg that had been thrown to kick her.

When their bodies hit the ground, Billie grunted loudly. River landed on top of her but shot up quickly, this time throwing a panicked fist into the other girl's stomach, further winding her.

Still, no one came. River even saw that Rook was laughing. What about all of this was amusing? Before she could question it further though, her legs were swept from beneath her. She hit the ground with a thud, knocking the very air from her lungs. With a sickeningly loud THWACK of her head against the floor, her vision blurred for just a second. It was long enough though for Billie to jump up and sit across her hips.

Panicked, River's hand shot up, grabbing anything she could. She still couldn't see clearly as she managed to flip them, somehow landing them both on Billie's back. She managed to pin her for a single second, just long enough to shake the fog from her eyes. She wanted to ask what the hell was going on, to demand an answer, but something in the other girl's face didn't sit right. She looked pleased with herself. Just as River opened her mouth to ask, Billie's legs were around hers, moving her as her arms were knocked from under her.

Even in a seemingly dominating position, she was losing. Quickly, so quickly that she couldn't stop it, she found herself spun onto her back. She tried to fight back, but an arm came up around her throat, cutting off her air. Just as she began to panic, she felt Billie's other arm behind her head. They came together, pressing. She didn't even have the awareness of what was going on to begin swatting the other girl, not right away.

Things began to fade to black somewhere between the lack of air and the panic.

That, of course, was when a trainer ran past and grabbed her, yanking her from the other girl just in time to see that Billie was... laughing? "We're fine." Billie groaned up at the trainer, shocking both him and River. "Maybe if she hit harder than a fly, but no. We're good."

With that, the end of the training session was announced. River, before her feet were even stable beneath her, was dragged away. She faintly heard someone reprimanding the girl from One, but everything was still hazy. She felt weak and humiliated, especially when she had to rest some of her weight on the trainer.

As the other tributes all filed out and toward the elevator, River could hear Rook and Billie laughing together. Clearly her telling off had done nothing at all.

After a quick check in with a medic, it was determined that the only thing bruised was River's ego. They applied a gel to the back of her head that immediately sucked the pain from her, then told her to close her eyes as they sprayed a mist cool directly into her face. Just as immediately as the cream, the mist took away any and all discomfort. "What the hell was that?" River asked upon being told that she could leave.

The medic, not too helpful, simply told her that it was one of the many forms of morphling. River knew what morphling was, but no one in Twelve ever had it. Even the Undersees wouldn't have had enough money to have it on demand. Sure, they could have ordered it, but not immediately. She knew that a couple of healers claimed to have it, but it was widely known that the stuff that they called morphling back home was far weaker and was nothing compared to this stuff.

With nothing to do but head back up to her floor, River made her way out of the now empty training room. The others had only been a minute or so ahead of her, but she hoped it was enough time that they'd be gone. When she walked through the doors though, whatever god watched over them all clearly ignored her. There it was. The elevator. Just as the doors began to close, a hand shot out and held them. As River neared, the doors gently opened again long enough for her to see that all of the careers were inside. All of them.

That was when the fear set in. She knew that they couldn't kill her before the games, but if the medics had just proven anything, they could sure lay some pain on her and she wasn't stupid enough to think that they would be happy to heal everything. Hell, she still wasn't sure why they'd stepped in to help her today.

Quickly, in what felt like a fight for her very survival, just as Rook nudged one of the others, she ran. She knew she'd have to run past the elevator to get to the stairwell, but she luckily had the element of surprise. She heard "Twelve!" boomed out just as she shot past the doors. She wasn't sure if anyone reached out to grab her, but damn, she wasn't about to stop to find out.

Her legs carried her faster than ever before, not stopping even as she crashed into the doors to the stairwell. Through them, she didn't waste any time, throwing herself up three or four steps at a time.

She knew that she couldn't realistically beat them all the way the the up to the twelfth floor, but surely they wouldn't chase her further than that?

It wasn't until she reached the seventh floor though that she slowed, almost falling to her knees in exhaustion, but she refused to fall down. Instead, clinging to the bannister, she continued up. In her panic, she hadn't paced herself at all, so as she went, she panted, raking in each breath as if it would be her last.

Almost two minutes later, finally, she reached the eleventh floor.

Still worried that they may have gone all the way up, she stood by the doorway and gathered her wits for a second before she eventually swung the doors open.

She peered around the doorway, looking up and down the hall. Nothing. Had they really stopped? She wasn't sure, nor was she willing to risk it, she made the decision to walk all the way along the eleventh floor. In the elevator the day before, she'd seen another couple of staircases, so she decided that they would probably be safer.

Something about being on this floor felt wrong to her. She felt as though it may have looked like she was spying on the competition, but the honest truth was that she was scared. She didn't want to get her ass kicked, not again. It was embarrassing enough that all of the other tributes saw her getting choked out, but if she had to rock up the next day and get seen to by a medic again? Well, not happening.

It wasn't much longer before she was finally up on the top floor, looking across the open space at the doors that would lead her to safety. Still panting, seemingly unable to catch her breath, she decided that this wasn't how she wanted to walk in and see the others. This wasn't what she wanted Effie, Haymitch and Carter to see. No. So instead, upon seeing that the stairs continued, she opted to go up to the roof.

Up there, tired and with a bruised ego, she lay back against the floor. It was cold and hard to the touch. If only she could have drowned out the noise, it could have reminded her of home. For what felt like hours, she lay up there, lying on the floor, trying to think of home, of Skylar, of her family, entirely unaware of what was going on behind closed doors.

Hopefully this was a little more interesting/fun than the previous chapters!

As ever, thank you for reading this far, I really truly appreciate it. Please feel free to share any thoughts or feelings, whether they're positive or negative. I'm well aware that I'll only ever improve with criticism, so (polite, preferably) being told what's right or wrong is always appreciated.

Have a great day!