Training day 1 during lunch
District Twelve's Colin Aldrin's POV
I swear that they put every object in my way on purpose. I couldn't go a few feet without hitting something, nearly tripping over at times. Why were all these things in my way? It was so annoying. Couldn't they of put them some place else?
I heard the others around me, Careers and others alike snickering, trying and failing to contain themselves while some were full out laughing, and I knew it was at me. And I knew what it was for.
They weren't just laughing at me getting shin fucked by the inconveniently placed items, which I swear they put there on purpose, they were also laughing at the way I had been beaten up. They were laughing at how I had gotten beaten up by that District Eleven bastard. That was what really got to me. That some nobody thought that they could beat on me and get away with it. The smeared medicine, wrapped bandages, and pain were constant reminders of my humiliation.
And my district partner. She was playing hard to get to, but she wanted me, that much was certain. I had a way with people, though they always played hard to get to, I knew that they wanted me and just didn't want to admit it. Just like my parents had always told me, they were afraid to show it, so they denied it.
I showed her that I was interested in her, that I knew that she was interested in me as well. But she attacked me, and I got the blame for defending myself. Damn her. Damn her and those other two. If she had just went with it things would have been a whole lot easier, and better.
We weren't allowed to fight each other until we got into the arena, so revenge had to wait. For now, I just had to worry about idiot careers and the other stupid tributes that thought they could point and laugh at me. Talk about me like I wasn't there. There was seriously something wrong with them if they thought that they could get away with it for long.
I turned to them and flipped them off. Fuck you guys too, we'll be seeing who's laughing in the arena.
When I finally made my way to a table, I sat down and started to eat.
"Hey," A voice near me called out bitterly. "What are you doing here?"
"Duh, eating." I told him, stating the obvious. Was he stupid or something? He had to be if he was asking that.
"Do you have to eat here?" The boy asked.
"Yeah." I told him. I had to eat at a table, I wasn't going to eat on the floor. I wasn't some Seam rat, I was better than that.
"Whatever." The boy sighed. "While you're at it Twelve, eat my food as well, I hate these breads."
"Gladly." I told him grabbing his bread from him. I then started eating again. My parent's food was way better than this, but I still had to eat, so this was good, I guess. Couldn't wait to get back to the upper levels where they had real food.
After a bit, I heard him ask.
"So what's your plan? You just going to run and hide or what?"
No, I've got a better plan than that." I told him. He then seemed intrigued by it, and who wouldn't be? It was an ingenious plan. Looking at him for the fist time, I could see that he was that boy from District Eight.
"So what's your genius plan then?" He asked like he didn't believe me. I leaned in closer to him so that he could hear me better.
"You know the cornucopia right?" I asked him.
"Dar, yeah," He said like I was an idiot. "What about it?"
"I'm going to get there before anyone else." I told him. He gave out a snort.
"A fat ass like you? How?"
"I'm going to run before the gong goes off." I told him. I then heard him laugh like it was the funniest thing in the world. What was so funny about that? It was perfect.
"You can't run off the land mine before the gong you dumb ass, you'll explode." That's what everyone thought, but it was a trick, a trick to scare them. But I knew better.
"You'll see." I told him, I was going to get the best equipment because I wasn't going to be scared, like everyone else.
"And then what?" He asked. "Let's say your plan does work, but then what? Everyone will see that the mines are fake and run towards the cornucopia as well." I then saw him smile wickedly, like he thought of something funny or something. "And let's not forget, you got reduced to a blubbering baby when you got taken out by Aerin."
"He caught me by surprise." I growled at him as I ripped a piece of bread in half, imagining that it was Aerin. "If I were prepared, I would of taken him out for sure. So don't think that I can't take him out during the bloodbath."
"Sure man." He said with that stupid smile of his still on his face. "I'm sure you'll be able to crush him under your might."
"That I will." I told him, glad that he finally understood something. Though for some reason, all he did was snicker. I didn't find what was so funny about this conversation, but, whatever. He'll see that he was wrong about me. They'll all see that they were wrong about me.
Training day 1 after lunch
District Ten's Max Starling's POV
Fire making went fairly well for me, I managed to make a small fire from matches pretty easily, but making it from flint was much harder. I couldn't do it just yet. Making fire by rubbing sticks together was all hard. Maybe I'll try again later.
Plant identification didn't go so well, there were about twenty different plants and I mostly choose to eat the poisons ones. But that was okay in a way, I could live with that, I could go a long time without food, so I didn't need to worry about it too much. But it would be nice to learn how to feed myself in the arena, I mean, what if my food ran out and I couldn't hunt? I'd have to resort to plants, and I choose the ones that were poisonous, here, I had unlimited chances, in the arena, I had one chance.
Okay, don't freak out Max, calm down, you can try later. And who knows? Maybe you might not even have to resort to plants. Maybe you can just make whatever you get at the cornucopia last the entire game. The thought of that cheered me up. I had lived with little back home, I could live with little in the arena. Just like one of the victors back home. I can't remember what his name is, but he thought he was a tree, and lived off of nothing but water and bugs that crawled into his mouth. Never moving from the spots that people placed him in.
Yeah. If he can lived off of water and the occasional bug, I could live off of whatever the arena throws at me. No need to worry about plants, I didn't need them.
I looked around and saw that they had an axe station. An axe, my weapon of choice. I ran towards it and meet up with the trainer, a blond haired male with green eyes. And at the station as well was the twelve year old from District Three. Nessa I think her name was. With skin that reminded me of medium toned sap and elbow length red hair, she looked a little like a freak.
I saw the girl swing her axe at a training dummy, and when her axe made contact with the dummies chest it wedged in deeply.
"Nice," I told her, thinking that she was good for someone her size and district. "That went in deep, that was really good."
"Thanks." The girl grunted as she tried to pull the axe out, and was failing. She was pulling hard, but the axe wouldn't come out of the dummy, she pulled and pulled but all she did was rattle the dummy.
"I'd better take it out before-" The instructor started as he reached out to grab the weapon, but stopped when District Three gave a powerful tug on the dummy and it started to quickly fall. She gave a screech of fear before the dummy landed on her making her fall flat on her back. "That happens." The instructor finished before walking over to her and lifting up the dummy. I heard the girl moaning in pain, and the look on her face and the sounds she was making just made me laugh. She gave me a mean glare and I noticed that nobody else was laughing. I quickly quieted down, feeling that me laughing was something that I should have never done.
"What?" I asked not knowing what I did wrong. "Nobody else found that kind of funny? I mean, the dummy fell on her, and then the squeal, then the moaning and groaning." I looked at the instructor who had a blank face on him. "Oh come on, I can't be the only one that found that funny." I said as I felt my smile fading. Maybe it wasn't that funny. But then the instructor cracked a smile.
"It was pretty funny." He said now smiling. Yeah, so I wasn't the only one. I didn't feel so bad now. I saw him help the little girl up before easily removing the axe from the dummy's chest. He then turned to me and asked. "You wanna try little man?" Isn't the why I came in the first place?
"Yeah," I told him. "I want to try the axes, but I also want to try the throwing ones as well, what do you call it? Hatchets or something? I want to try those too. And also the two handed axes. You know what, I want to try all of it."
"Okay," The instructor told me. "One at a time, just try this normal axe first." He then handed me the standard two handed axe. It wasn't as big as some of the other two handed axes, you could hold this one with one hand, but it wouldn't have much power if you only swung with one hand. Me holding it was a different story. When I took the axe from him and walked over to the training dummy that the girl was training on, I had to hold it with two hands. I took a deep breath before saying.
"Wish me luck, this might not go well, but who knows, maybe, I could get something good."
"Luck." I heard the instructor quickly say before I lifted up the axe up high and as powerfully as I could, slammed the blade down into the dummies neck. I wasn't that strong, but the technique that I used made up for that. I had seen the way people used axes in my district. They might not be as good as the people in District Seven, but they were the best that I knew of. My axe had sliced through nearly a fourth, of the dummy's neck. I removed the blade from the dummy's neck and went in for a second strike. This time, the blade sliced through almost a third of the neck. I removed the blade again and used the third strike to get to the half point. After three more strikes, I managed to slice off the entire head. "That's some nice chopping there little man." I heard the instructor tell me. I felt pleased with myself, he said that I had some skill.
"I've watched people do this for years," I explained to him. "I seem to have picked up their techniques and all that." The next weapon he handed to me was the large two handed axe. He called it the executor's blade before it was big and heavy enough for someone to slice a person's head in half. He handled it fine, but when I tried to use it, I could barley lift it off the floor. I struggled and fought the executor's blade, but it was just too heavy for me. I managed to swing the blade, but all I did was cut the dummy's shin. And when I dropped it on the dummy's foot, it looked like I did more damage dropping it on it's foot than I did swinging it.
"It's alright little man," The instructor told me. "You did better than I thought."
"Really?" I asked not really believing him. "Because that looked pathetic, I could barley lift it higher than that dummy's shin, and I did more damage simply dropping it on it's foot. I mean, if that was a real person, I might as well just try and stand it up and hope that some dumb ass runs into it." I didn't like that weapon anyway, it hurt my arms trying to lift it.
The instructor than handed me a hatchet. I could hold it in one hand, it was light and manoeuvrable. This was a lot easier then the others. I striked the dummy over and over again with the hatchet until it was full of fairly deep cuts. I then stepped back and was ready to try and throw it. "Everyone watch out, I've got a hatchet and I'm about to throw it."
"Where at?" The twelve year old redhead asked.
"At that dummy," I told her pointing to the dummy that I had been practicing on. "Where else would I throw it? At that guy trying out the tridents?" The girl then looked over to the District Eleven male stabbing a training dummy with a trident.
"I guess not." She answered. I then placed my focus on the dummy ahead. Okay, I could do this, I could throw this hatchet and it will hit the dummy in the chest. Okay, here I go. I took a deep breath before exhaling. I then took another breath and threw the hatchet. And while it did hit the chest, just barley though, it was the handle the hit the chest, the blade was nowhere near the body. Damn, so close.
"I'm surprised that you even threw it." The instructor told me looking impressed.
"Really?" I asked, disappointed with myself.
"Yeah, usually if someone that's not a career or from District Seven tries to throw an axe, they slice their palm open and miss by a mile." That made me feel slightly better. "Some more practice and you could be hitting things with the blade of a hatchet." The instructor told me. Maybe.
"I'll think about it," I told him, wondering if I wanted to focus on the hatchets. "I really will, I could use some more practice on those hatchets. I might be back later." The trainer nodded before I turned around and left. What else could I try? A survival station, that's what I needed to look for. Maybe learn to make a blanket of leaves or something. After all, there were things besides food that I had to worry about.
"Hey, you." A voice behind me called out. I turned around to see the District Three girl behind me. "You're good with those axes."
"Thanks," I told her. "I've seen people use them for years, so I knew what to do, sorry that you had trouble with yours and I laughed."
"It's okay." She said, like it didn't really matter. We stood there in silence for a couple seconds before I turned around and started to walk away from her and walk towards shelter building. "Wait!" She called out. I sighed before turning around. What did she want? "I'm good with traps, that could be good for food." What did that have to do with anything?
"Good for you," I told her. "Now I need to learn that, did you say that to brag or what?"
"No," the girl said innocently, like she didn't mean it that way. "I just thought...you know."
"No, I don't know." I told her. "Thanks for bragging to me, now I need to learn about survival, I guess you need to learn about weapons," I then pointed over to the knife training section. "I've heard that that's the easiest weapon to learn, go try it." I then turned around and started to walk away from her again.
"Wait." The girl said again, getting on my nerves. I turned around and said straight to her face.
"What do you want? Say it and stop bugging me." She looked a bit scared before saying.
"You want to be allies?"
"What?" Asked not getting what she asked, did she want to be allies with me?
"Do you want to be allies?" She asked again. Hmmm, I don't know, I wasn't very good with people.
"Well you're good with traps," I said. "So that could be good for food, and I'm good with weapons so we're good at fighting."
"So you want to be my ally?" The girl asked again.
"Sure," I happily told her, now I wouldn't be alone in the arena. Like I had been back home. "But I've got to learn some survival skills and you've got to learn some weapon skills, I don't want to have to defend you all the time and I'm sure you don't want to always be hunting for me as well." And with that, we became allies.
District Nine's Arrowe Winter's POV
"Show me the hardest obstacle course." I told the trainer at the agility course.
"Are you sure that you don't want to start on an easier one?" The trainer asked as he looked at me straight in the face. Nah, I knew what I was doing, I was good at agility, but how good was I really?
"No," I told him confidently. "I want to see how good I really am." The trainer just shrugged and said.
"All right then," In a bored kind of voice. "Follow me." And then he led me to a course that involved climbing, running, jumping, and dodging. Wow, this looked tough. It was perfect. I could test everything I had. "Ready to start?" The instructor asked.
"Not yet." I told him looking over the course. There were nets that I had to climb, walls that I had to scale, tracks that I had to run, ropes that I had to swing, it had everything. It even had swimming. I looked at where I had to begin and started to make a plan out of it. I examined the height and length of every obstacle. This was going to be fun.
When I was finished looking at the course, I said to the instructor "Okay, now I'm ready."
The instructor then led me to the start of the course. A forty meter ran followed by a net around twenty five feet high. Easy, I could do this part in my sleep.
When I heard the instructor say go, I was instantly off. I was a fast runner, I knew that much, and was proud of it. My speed had helped me along with the rest of my abilities.
I quickly got to the net and started to make my way up. But it was easier said then done, my feet kept on getting tangled in the square holes and the net kept on shaking, making it tough to get my feet in and out of the gaps. It wasn't a matter of strength, it was a matter of finding your footing. It was tougher than I thought it would be, but I still kept on going, not wanting to quit this early. This course was just getting started, and so was I. I eventually made it to the top, and felt good that I hadn't been defeated this early.
Up at the top, there was a board that was about two feet wide that stretched about fifteen feet. I walked across it while keeping my balance, it wasn't too hard for me, two feet gave me plenty of foot space. When I got across that, there was a rope swinging stage where I had to let go of the rope and grab the edge of the wall I was supposed to scale. I didn't know if I could do that, it was risky, I had a high chance of falling, but that's what made this interesting, the risks.
I grabbed the rope with both my hands and jumped off the board. I felt the air rushing past me as I got closer to the wall. It was a shame that I could only swing for a couple seconds, that feeling made me feel like I was on top of mountain with a nice breeze to add to that.
I let go of the rope and grabbed the edge of the wall I was supposed to climb over. I felt my fingers grab onto the edge as they slammed onto the hard wood, and it hurt, a lot. But I endured it and kept my feet kicking and pulled myself up, clenching my teeth all the way. It was hard work, but if I didn't get up in about thirty seconds my fingers would start to slip. I pushed myself, pulled myself up, kicked my feet on the wall, and eventually got over the wall. I gave a quick sigh of relief. I didn't slip.
I climbed down the wall before planting my feet onto solid ground again. I turned around and saw the agility stage. I had to follow the yellow tape, easy enough. But the yellow tape went through cones in the middle of the track. I also had to go in a zig zag formation. Well, I did want to test myself.
I ran at the cones and followed the yellow tape. I ran between cones and jumped over hurdles before making it to the end. I felt myself hit a couple of cones along the way, but I didn't check to see if I actually did. Because now I had to go with the swimming course. I jumped into the water and felt refreshed as the cool water ran though my clothes and onto my skin. It felt nice, but at the same time, I was worried for my safety. But I focused on the task ahead, I wasn't alone, and if anything happened to me, the instructor would come and save me, I hope.
I started to swim to the end, but I soon realized that swimming wasn't one of my strong suits. I expected as much, considering my fear of drowning, and considering that there weren't many places to swim anyway. I made slow progress getting to the other side of the pool, and my arms were sore from stroking the water.
When I finally got to the end of the pool, I grabbed the edge of the pool and made myself climb out. Water splashed on the floor as I climbed out. Glad to be out, I focused on the last obstacle, tree climbing. It wasn't a real tree, but it was basically a poll with pieces of wood sticking out like branches in a tree.
I rested for a couple seconds before running towards the tree poll. I grabbed the lowest branch and began climbing up. But it was harder than I thought, it didn't look hard, but the water still on me made me slip and fall. The added weight didn't help either.
If I let go of the branches to early, I'd tumble to the ground. But I was good at climbing, it was one of the things I lived for. I reached for a higher branch, then went from there. My hands finding the best route and my legs soon followed. Soon, I was at the top of the tree poll, tired, exhausted, but at top. I had done it, I did the hardest obstacle course this center had to offer. I was happy, so happy. This Capitol training course was the hardest one they had, I felt confident that I could handle just about any kind of thing like this in the arena.
When I got down, I saw a curly red haired girl along with a pretty brown-blond girl with golden eyes standing by the tree poll. What were they doing there? Were they trying the course and waiting for me to get down? I then noticed the numbers attached to their sleeves. One and four. Careers. What did they want?
"Impressive stuff." The blond girl from District One said looking up the tree impressed.
"Yeah, that was something." The red head girl from Four said, but not with as much enthusiasm as One.
"Thanks." I told them, wondering if they were here to insult me. I'm good at what I do, but so were they.
"So," The girl from One said, now looking at me. "You've got skills, and we like people like that."
"Okay." I told them. I think I know where this was going.
"We'd like you to join us." The girl from Four said, answering my thoughts. "With you by our side, we'd make a better, stronger team. Your skills could come and handy, and with us around, you can rest assure that you'll be safe and survive the bloodbath." The careers, they thought I was good? Wow. I must be really good to get their attention. "So what do you say? Want to join us?" The careers, the best of the best. This could be interesting. And with them beside me, I'd have a better chance of surviving. And when I didn't want to be with them anymore, I could just run away from them in the middle of the night. But for now, they'd be my protection. I'd have to show them that I could be useful in the arena though. But, I'll risk it.
"I'd like to join." I told them.
"Great," The girl from One said happily. "Come with us and meet the others."
Alliances so far:
Career pack: Griffin, Lynsa, Lucifer, Helena/Howl, Shoney, Evaline/Eva, Arrowe
Tribute pack 1: Sami, Angel
Tribute pack 2: Nessa, Max
Loners: Zap/Tharizdun, Alexander, Valerie, Ricky, Rayne, Bo, Dav, December/Ember, Thallina, Life, Aerin, Colin, Evanlyn/Eve.