I walked outside. It was a grey, windy afternoon and it was raining. My head had slipped in some sort of depressing trance and my mind begged me for some morphling. Kara walked next to me. She wasn't crying, but her eyes were red.

Two cars were waiting for us. There was room for three in each car. We looked at each other for a short time.

'Well, how are we going to split up?' Kara asked eventually.

'I'm not going in a car with her' I said, pointing at Jess, who was crying again.

'Me neither' Flora and Rose said at the same time.

'Well, the four of us will go in one car hen. She takes the other one' Kara said. The drivers didn't object while we installed ourselves on the back seats without putting belts on. While looking trough the wet window, I saw Jess going to the other car. I tried to think about how she would be feeling, but all I could think of was black.

The car's motor started and while we started driving, I took a last look at the school, which seemed a scary ghost house in this depressing rain. I would never have to go to school again. Never take classes I hated, never again conversations with Mrs. Johnson, never go back to the orphanage with all those screaming kids. We were leaving District 1 and we would never come back, only if there was an arena here. The first thing was surviving the preliminaries.

'Where are we going?' asked Rose.

'The train. It's not an Intermanche, you know, the one they use for long distances. It's a Civilvehicle because the journey won't be that long.' the driver answered.

I didn't feel like fighting with anyone, so while scratching my hair I just looked outside. Maybe I had to be happy for going into the Games. This would be the end of my useless, crappy life. Maybe I had to take a giant dose of morphling before going into the preliminaries, so that I wouldn't have to experience it all with full sense.

Everyone remained awfully quiet in the car. Usually Kara and I were always the one speaking, but now she was scratching off her nail polish and I was trying to look at something, it didn't matter what. Tonight we would be in the Head City and it would take days before all the other Districts had arrived. We were going to spend a week in all luxury we could imagine. At least that was a happy thought.

'Why did Jess have to come with us?' Kara asked, clearly annoyed.

'It's too bad for her they made a stupid mistake. She really doesn't belong here.' Rose said softly. We all shook our heads.

'You know what? I've got an idea. What if we all shut the hell up and soak our brains with our own, depressing thoughts' Kara suggested.

Eight years ago the war between District 1 and District 33 ended. District 33 was located on the island next to hours and one day they attacked us for no clear reason and without any negotiation with the Head City. Later it turned out they wanted more ground. Our District used to be very rich, maybe one of the richest of the whole Continent. But this war had ruined it all. The Head City never stopped the violence for unknown reasons and they let it all happen. They almost seemed amused with the bloodbaths. That was the year the Hunger Games in Panem started to become weak. And after twenty years of war it seemed that the Head City and the Capitol felt it was enough and suddenly our District was supplied with tons of heavy weaponry. One last, epic battle was fought at Llelywynn, District 33, and we crushed them. Almost the entire male population of 33 had died when they surrendered, while only several hundred thousand people from District 1 were killed.

That included my mother and father. My father fought in the battle of Llelywynn but was one of the scarce victims, and mom was killed during an air attack on the Main City. Around that time I was at school and I remembered I wasn't allowed to leave until the alarm stopped. I sat in front of the window with Kara, staring at all the danger outside. Her father was killed that day as well. Her mother had died during a plague epidemic twelve years ago.

And when the war was over I had to take care of myself. I was nine. Emergency camps were raised out of nowhere. The inhabitants of District 1 didn't know what to do. The riches they were used to being a part of West had all vanished. The Main City symbolized anything that you'd find in East. District 1 became terribly poor and had to rebuild everything. Nowadays they had progressed a lot. Living in the countryside was quite agreeable, but the cities were still horrible, dirty places. And I had experienced all sides of the crowded towns.

It was going to be weird, being in the Head City. Seeing all the glamour with my own eyes. Would it rain a lot, like it did here?

I thought of Jess, whose parents both survived the war and who didn't seem affected at all by all poverty our District had to face the past decade. That was one of the reasons I couldn't stand her: some people had everything, some people had nothing.

'We're there' the driver said. We pushed each other out of the car, silent and annoyed. I looked up and saw a small train station. It had to be around 3 PM, but because of the heavy rain it looked like it was already evening. How long would the journey to the Head City be?

A train was waiting for us. It was a shiny thing from the Head City, the Civilvehicle, produced in District 11, which was responsible for travel over land.

I zipped my jacket, because it was cold.

'Come quickly!' shouted a figure who had appeared at the vehicle's doors. The shadow bid us to come in. We ran across the platform and without paying attention to anything or anyone, I jumped into the train. I was standing in a small hall. I shook the water off my clothes.

'Hey, you make things filthy' said the person who let us in. I looked up. It was a man with light brown hair, around 30 years old.

'Probably' I said. He raised his eyebrows and I shook another time. Rose and Flora giggled.

The door automatically closed and we were officially out of the rain. We were in a very small room with six people.

'Well, let's go to the living coupé.' Purposed the unknown man, while he was trying to avoid the puddles we created. He showed us the way and opened a door. 'After you'

Kara was the first one to enter and I pushed Jess away to follow her. I had never seen something like it. Golden doorknobs, leather couches. This was a train, damnit! The rain blew against the windows.

While we were all walking around and admiring everything, the man said: 'Er…welcome'

We murmured something.

'I am Laika, District 1s escort. Maybe you recognize me from last year.'

'You were on Head City TV after the preliminaries' Jess said.

'That's right. Well, lovely to meet you. The weather is horrible.' He noticed.

'It's november' Kara said.

'Luckily the Head City doesn't like seasons. Always summer, it's absolutely fabulous. Please, have a seat. I'm going to find Charlotte.' Laika announced.

'Who's that?' I asked.

'Your mentor. A very important person.' He answered. And as fast as he had come into our lives, he disappeared. I chose a big, brown sofa to sit in and leaned backwards.

'It sucks we are here to fight to the death, but I can get used to this.' Kara said.

'Hm-hm' I said and I took a quick look at the bottles on a table in front of us. 'Fancy' I said. I opened one, took a few sips. 'It's delicious'. Alcohol was just what I needed.

'Give me some' Rose said. I gave her my bottle and I took another.

Jess pulled her nose up and stared out of the window.

Suddenly some disturbing sounds could be heard. A high-pitched scream in another coupé, struggling sounds and running footsteps. We stood up and tried to see something through the door from the coupé we were in, but there was nothing to see.

I kicked against one of the table's legs, which made the delicate furniture tremble. Why wasn't I trying to jump off this train? Back to my boring, poor life on the streets, some morphling when I needed it…

Rose and Flora sat next to each other on a couch and held each other's hand. If you did not know them well, you wouldn't see a difference between them. The Head City probably liked that, siblings in the Games. Three times hurray for them.

Our escort, Laika, entered the coupé. He looked stressed and had a big, wet spot on his shirt.

'I'm so sorry' he said 'It got out of hand. Here, have a seat, and I will explain.'

He pointed at some couches and Kara and I sat down again. Laika sat down opposite of us and crossed his legs.

'I'm truly sorry this has happened to you' he said softly 'I wouldn't want this to happen to anyone and certainly not to you, but there's nothing more we can do.'

'It's ok' I said sharply.

'Dear girl, do you realize you are a tribute in the second annual New Games?' he said 'chances of winning are one in hundred and sixty, not twenty-four. That's six times less. It's absolutely horrible to tell you, but prepare yourselves for the worst.'

'So what? We're tributes, why are we prohibited to hope for the win? Maybe we're prepared to fight!' Kara said.

Laika smiled a little bit. 'That's the spirit.'

It was silent for a while.

Eventually the opened bottles caught his eye. 'Please ask if you want some. You can.'

We nodded. 'When will we arrive?' Flora asked. Laika looked surprised, as if he just realized they were twins.

'About 9 PM. But let's not talk about the future. Tell me your names.'

'Kara' Kara Said

'Flora, and that's Rose' Flora said.

'I'm Abbey.'

He nodded at us one by one, then he spotted Jess. 'What about you?'

'Does it matter?' she cried. She stood up, ran to the bathroom and disappeared.

'That's Jess' I said coldly.

'Why is she so…sad?' Laika asked, having no better words to describe it.

'She is angry because she's in the Games while she isn't one of our friends.' Rose said.

'But that's better, right? No friends to worry about.' He answered.

'We are not, er, particularly nice to her.' Kara murmured.

'So why is she here then?' our escort asked.

'They probably made a mistake' I answered.

'Painful.'

Suddenly the train started moving. I saw the train station disappear. Faster and faster. We were leaving District 1 and heading for the island where the Head City was located, a few hours away.

Rose started sobbing. Laika gave her a tissue.

'So, what just happened?' Kara asked.

'O, there are some problems with Charlotte.' He mumbled. He sighed and continued.

'Your mentor is addicted. Heavily addicted, to morphling. Because she's from Panem she can consume it legally and it's really regrettable that you…were assigned her as a things get out of control and then she's sick or insane…but there's nothing to do.' He added, sounding more powerful: 'I won't let you die, I promise. I'm going to help you as much as I can!'