"I don't want to kill anyone, Dan," Tom said, sitting on his bed after another day of training with Danny, walking around together and trying out new things. He had been please with himself today, and had learned a few things he thought might be useful, but he still hadn't told Danny that he didn't think he could kill another person.
"Me neither," said Danny, without hesitation or even looking up from the cake he they had swiped from the food hall earlier. Tom took a deep breath, trying to find the words to express how he felt, without sounding like a five year old girl.
"I mean, I don't think that I could kill someone. If there was someone else about to run at me and kill me, and I had a gun or something, I don't think that I could do anything. I wouldn't want to be a killer, Dan," Tom said, aware only after he said it how his fears could sound to someone who might end up killing him in the arena in only a week or so, all the training together and late night conversations aside. Danny seemed to sense something in his voice though, and looked up, licking icing from his fingers as he did so, looking thoughtful.
"I know what you mean, and I understand, but I think it could be different when you're there, y'know?"
"I know, but I just don't think that I could do it. I've pictured myself a thousand times and I can't do it, I can't kill another human being, even to save my own life."
"Well, that settles it then," Danny says, looking determined. "I don't want to kill people if possible, and you won't anyway. I think we should be a team."
Tom snorted. "Dan, two of us who don't want to kill in an arena filled with twenty-two other people who need to kill us to save themselves. Do you realise how ridiculous we sound?"
"No, it's not, don't you see?" Danny says, looking excited now and sitting up on his heels, uneaten cake forgotten in front of him. "At the beginning, everyone's always fighting to get the best stuff, but if we just take the minimum to stay alive, and fight our way out of there, we can hide away in some forest or something, and wait it out!"
It sounds a little bit crazy, and Tom's inclined to ask Danny how in hell he thinks that this plan would work, but he wants it to so badly, he thinks maybe he can convince himself it might work, and they can get away, at least for a while, if they work together.
And so they plan together, what might be there for them to take, and how much of it they would need. Tom says they need some way of carrying and purifying water, or they'll die in a matter of days anyway. Danny wants a bow and arrows, because his friend taught him archery in the forests where they worked to fell the trees, so that could help. Tom knows that Fletch can try to raise money from the districts for them, but they are both from some of the poorest districts anyway, and no-one would be voting for a couple of boys without any way of winning, would they?