AUTHOR'S NOTES: And here we get our first glimpse of the training center. Cadence is still fixated on keeping Lucia safe, while some of the other tributes find this amusing or intriguing or some combination of the above. Whatever the case,we get another tease of this year's ensemble of tributes, and we'll get a much more detailed reveal in the next couple of chapters.
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 7: The Training Center

After the chariots returned to the Tribute Tower, the tributes were essentially locked into the building, but they had a little free reign as to where they wandered. Mentors and victors had much more freedom than they, but otherwise this was their home for the next week or so before the games took the tributes and ended the lives of 23 of them and destroyed the mental and emotional stability of the survivor.

Lucia stayed close to Cadence, not wanting to have to prod her way around to find where things were, but even as they went into the elevator, they were joined by a couple of other tributes: Serendipity had the audacity to join them instead of heading down to the training center to get a sneak peek at it the way many career tributes often did; and the golden-clad pair of tributes from District 9 of all places.

"Going up?" The girl asked the three of them somewhat rhetorically. "1 and 5, I presume?"
"Aye," Cadence spoke up, while Serendipity nodded. The girl hit 1, 5, and 9 in that order and a few seconds later the door closed.

"Nice job in the parade by the way," Serendipity broke the silence as the elevator moved upwards, "all three of you. I'll see you around." Since her stop was the 1st floor (a floor above the ground floor where tributes congregated when going to and from the underground training center), she stepped off only after a few moments, before the elevator continued up to the 5th floor. Lucia waved goodbye as she and Cadence stepped off, and the District 9 girl went up presumably to the 9th floor.

"I still don't trust her," Cadence warned Lucia.

"It's the Hunger Games," she reminded him, "everyone will be out to kill us in a few weeks. That does not mean we should strip ourselves of all humanity so early though."

It was hard to argue with Lucia's logic, but at the same time he knew that he should not get too emotionally attached to anyone in the games, not even her. Everyone would have to die at one point, and while he would love to sacrifice his own life to ensure that Lucia returned home a victor, he knew that that was simply not in the cards unless they pulled off an upset akin to the 77th Hunger Games where a tiny 12-year-old had upset the entire nation by electrocuting seven powerful high-scoring career tributes in a single move. Cadence was confident in his skills but he knew that even he couldn't pull something like that off, especially watching after Lucia.

Still, he would protect her as long as he was able, and perhaps still even give up his life for her even if she was not the only other tribute remaining. Whatever the case though, that was all still a long ways off, for they would have at least a week of training before that came around.

Johnny and Bethany showed back up a little bit later, conversing about some of the other victors and possibly even sizing up the tributes. Cadence, being the curious fellow that he was, had to pry.

"Were you sizing up the competition or something?" he asked them.

"Not really," Johnny shrugged, "although a couple of the careers were down in the training center getting a sneak peek at what you're up for using over the next week or so. They do that pretty much every year though, so I don't imagine it's much of a cause for alarm."
"My question is what is Lucia going to do," Bethany pointed out, "I don't exactly think they're going to cater to her just because she is blind."

"I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to defend her," Cadence asserted. "and that's exactly what I am going to do, starting tomorrow."
"May the odds be ever in your favor then," Johnny replied. He and Bethany both knew that they weren't going to be able to shake Cadence's will, and so they figured he would learn for better or for worse by tomorrow afternoon after a few hours of training. "Just don't stay up too late. Nephenee won't hesitate to remind you that you've got a big day tomorrow that you can't exactly skip."

"I don't plan to." Cadence retreated to his room, this time leaving Lucia alone as well. He changed out of his costume, showing again to wash off the makeup and other effects, and then changing into something a little more comfortable. He knew that his mentors were right about Lucia, but what could he do? Was he supposed to just let her get ostracized by the stronger tributes and then killed in the opening seconds of the games? Cadence might have been a fierce murderer, but he was not completely without morals, and Lucia, to him, was someone worth fighting for.

The next morning, he woke up to find a neatly folded uniform at the foot of his bed. It was mostly black, although had a few red stripes, as well as the number 5 on the back and shoulders of the shirt, and on the hips of the pants just below the pockets. He got dressed with little fanfare, and to his slight surprise, found Lucia already dressed and eating breakfast. He wondered how she got around so well without a cane or some other way to guide herself, but perhaps she was keener than her gentle personality let on about. He was not afraid of betrayal (that would honestly come as quite the shock to him, actually), but he wondered if there were tricks up Lucia's sleeve that she wasn't telling him.

Perhaps he'd find out in a few minutes. They caught an elevator heading down, and found it occupied by a couple of tributes from one of the upper floors. The dark skin, red face paint, and the number 12s on their uniforms gave them away as Mani and Sudi. They both glanced at Cadence in unison before shifting their focus towards Lucia, making their way up to her glazed, milky-white eyes. Cadence glared at them threateningly, but all this made them do was raise their eyebrows in amusement. After they all stepped out at the underground training center, Lucia put a hand on Cadence's shoulder.

"They were sizing you up," Cadence warned, "probably figuring you're easy-pickings. Those painted tributes are nasty pieces of work."
"Assuming they act like their predecessors," Lucia pointed out, "just because they come from the same place doesn't mean they're going to behave as savagely as the other Painted Tributes."
Lucia obviously couldn't see what Mani and Sudi looked like, but Hunger Games commentators never failed to mention of a tribute was "painted" or not, and she knew of their reputations. After all, she was not given an exception from watching the games; they were just as mandatory for her as they were for anyone else, so she picked up the audio commentary to make up for her lack of visuals.

"I admire your sense of trust, Lucia," Cadence sighed, "I really do… but there's going to come a point in these games when literally everyone is out to get you. I just don't want to see you make a friend and then get stabbed in the back over it."
"I'll be okay." She smiled. "I don't imagine my closest friend and ally will be backstabbing me any time soon." To Cadence's slight surprise, Lucia turned to him and smiled. She was talking about him. She really did have an enthrallingly beautiful smile, and Cadence couldn't help but tug at the neckline of his shirt for a moment.

"I promised I would protect you with my life, and I will keep that promise as long as humanely possible," Cadence asserted, "now come on… let's go learn some skills and size up some enemies."

Lucia did not do much training the way Cadence did, and instead she simply kept her ears open and listened to the surroundings, mentally noting whose voice sounded what way, while Cadence was more watching the visuals and sizing up the competition. The pair from District 9 actually appeared somewhat formidable this year, although that didn't necessarily mean they wouldn't still end up as bloodbath fodder when the games came. Sometimes tributes that scored as high as 9 were taken down in the opening minutes. It had happened a few times in the last couple of years even.

Cadence's preferred weapons of choice were daggers—harsh, swift, and very in-your-face, which was more or less an embodiment of his personality as a weapon. Lucia didn't really pick up very many weapons, but did spend time at one of the non-combat stations, identifying plants and other hazards for better or for worse. While he trained, Cadence's focus was not completely on what he was doing, since his other focus was on what the other tributes were up to. He was mentally noting their styles and what kind of alliances might form around him. All of this would culminate in his strategy not only to preserve himself, but at the foremost, to keep Lucia safe. He certainly had his work cut out for him…