'Abbey, Abbey! Wake up!' Kara was pulling my arm. 'We need to go. We will be late for the health checks.'

'Okay' I said sleepily. I was sweating because of the heat around me, but I managed to get out of bed. Everyone was waiting downstairs. Rose, Flora and Jess clearly didn't dare to complain, but Laika gave me a lecture while in the elevator.

'…Need to take authority serious…tomorrow you won't be that happy…attitude'

I wasn't listening at all. The hall on the ground floor was filled with tributes and their mentors. Charlotte was half asleep. She had used morphling again. I couldn't help staring when Indiana passed with her group and their escort, a lady in her forties.

We were pushed to a car so we didn't have time to look at all the other tributes. Tomorrow only a quarter of them would be alive. All of them were still nameless to me.

There was an awkward silence when we were driving on busy roads. Laika had taken place in an other car so I could finally say what I wanted to Jess, who was sitting next to me.

'There's a spot on your shirt. I think it's from lunch' She said eventually.

'Thanks for noticing, stupid cow' I said harshly 'shut the fuck up'

She obeyed and remained silent for the rest of the way.

It turned out that the health checks were done in a big, steel building outside of the Head City. It was some sort of laboratory. When we were in the hall, Laika told us to stop walking.

'Ok, I will leave you here. We are not allowed in. Charlotte and I will wait here, along with all the other mentors and escorts.'

We said goodbye and Kara and I proceeded the other three while opening a door which should lead us to the checks. When we see what's behind it, our mouths drop.

A huge hall, maybe three gymnasiums, is in front of us. It is rather dark and the only light comes from tubes on the ceiling. There were no windows but a lot of doors. The place was crowded with the other tributes. They were sitting on benches or nervously walking around. I entered the hall, timid and scared, and sat down on the first bench I saw.

'Maya Dubrovnik, District 23, door 6 please' a robotic voice called. The voice came from speakers everywhere on the walls. I shook. I looked around the space, but it was too big and crowded to be able see neither where Maya Dubrovnik was nor where she was going.

'Nice. It would be nice if they'd explained this stuff' Rose said. Flora nodded.

I was staring at the other tributes. It was a mix of everything. Little thirteen-year olds, big eighteen-year olds, girls, boys, slender, anorexic, fat. You could easily divide them into West and East – children from East were thinner, smaller and unhealthier, although I knew some of them must be as good as hand-to-hand combat as I was. But then again, they looked like I would break their arm if I touched them.

The Head City and the Capitol desperately tried to hide the extreme poverty in East, without success. We knew little about the other Districts, but we did know the conditions in which the Eastern lived in. Certainly when you came from the Main City of District 1. In that case you experienced them.

Time flew by. Once in a minute, a name was called. Some of them were strange and ridiculous ('Inuit…Park…Ukrin…Jogh…Zakaria…'), others pretty normal ('Hayden…Annika…Justin…Michael…'). By the time the first one of us, Flora, was called, the hall was half empty and we could see there the people called were going.

Flora didn't come back after she disappeared behind door 2. Five minutes later Kara was called. Nerves were kicking in. What if those doctors saw how much morphling I had used over the years? What if they saw I'd used it while staying here in the Head City?'

'Abbey Kingsleigh, District 1, door 1 please.'

I tried to breathe steadily while standing up. I looked around and saw door 1, hundred meters away on the other side of the room. Children were staring at me while I passed. Most of them would be dead by tomorrow.

The doorknob was cold. I opened the door and went into the room. Inside it was even darker than in the big hall. The only light came from a couple of lamps on the wall. The light was white and cold. In front of me was a table with three people wearing lab coats sitting behind it.

'Hello' said the man in the middle. He was older than the other two. 'District 1?'

'Yes' I said. 'Have a seat.' Said the man.

I walked to the table and sat down on the cold chair. On the table were notebooks, papers and other stationary.

After they measured and weighted me, they made me fill in some tests. After I finished a woman gave me a pill.

'What's this?' I asked.

'It will delay your period for at least two months' said the woman without any embarrassment 'We are giving them to every female'.

'Oh' I said. They gave me a glass of water and I swallowed. It was disgusting. 'Well, you can go now' ordered the man. I stood up and wanted to go.

'Stop, wait. Why do we detect unusual things in your blood? The device says so' I heard behind my back. One of the three was holding a little thing with my blood sample in it. It was probably electronic.

'I have no idea' I said. Then I rushed out of the room.

When I came back, the big gym-like space was emptier than before. Kara was still waiting to be called. While I was walking to her, I imagined last year's tributes all sitting here. The idea that that really happened, exactly a year ago, was frightening. Their thoughts, their hearts still beating. All hoping for that one place in the kingdom of the living.

'How did it go?' Kara asked.

'Meh. Not really that special. They found the Morphling in my blood though, you need to watch out.' She nodded and said I had to go outside to look for Laika, Charlotte, Flora, Rose and Jess, who were all waiting in the entrance hall of the building. I said goodbye and good luck.

I did find the others in the entrance hall, like Kara said.

'Everything OK?' Laika asked.

'Yeah' I said 'I mean, they didn't ask me to take of my clothes or something, so that went better than expected.'

Charlotte suddenly laughed, high-pitched and completely insane. Laika grinned.

The day was ending. Orange beams of sunlight falling through the windows became weaker. Maybe the last sunlight I would ever see. However, I seemed less nervous than the others. Finally Kara came back and we drove back to the Tribute Center. We had dinner.

'So. Maybe the very last meal we share all together' Laika said while I was killing a lamb stew with my fork. 'All I can say is that you were an interesting group and I hope the odds will be in your favor tomorrow. Competition's gonna be tough though. Don't underestimate them. In the preliminaries everything you have is your brutality and your strength.'

I glanced at Kara. We knew we were definitely stronger than Jess and the twins. I was hoping really badly that Kara would survive, so we could just have some more weeks together. Maybe two. Not more. One of us would finally be dead at the end of the Games.

'I know some of you enjoyed your stay here more than the others…' continued Laika. I smiled wickedly and thought of my behavior towards Jess. Still I couldn't help feeling some very slight regret. Very slight.

'…and I cannot express how sorry I feel for you.' His voice was nothing more than a whisper.

'Are you allright?' Kara asked.

'I'm s-sorry' he mumbled 'This are the hardest moments of all. I'm glad I might be you of any help the past days. I just- thinking of last year, those poor boys, they were only seventeen…just like you.'

This was the first time he'd said something about District 1's tributes of the previous year. Only one of them survived and made it 'till, I don't know, maybe halfway the first arena before he was killed by that brute from District 2.

'There were five of them, and I know it was already huge that one of them survived, but it still hurts, you know? Well, not even for me, but also for him, for Lex. Losing four friends in one day isn't just something you can take.'

Everyone was silent. It was awkward and I focused on cutting my stew. I was happy when Charlotte decided to quit the table and stumble to the stairs to disappear in her bedroom.

'Anyway' our escort said 'Maybe you want to go to bed to get a good rest or just hang around before you leave.'

Almost everyone left. I was the last one to be sitting at the table together with Laika. He smiled. 'You don't seem that nervous for tomorrow.'

'I know I can do this' I said 'I haven't done anything else for the past ten years of my life but fight with people and provoke them.'

'I must say; I trust you'll survive this. It isn't going to be easy, but I think you can do it too.'

'Hey, thanks' I said. Suddenly I remembered the woman, Tiara, this morning and I became uncomfortable. Maybe it was time I went to bed too.

'Goodnight' I said.

'What? Don't you wanna stay and talk?' he asked.

'No, thanks. Need to prepare.' I stood up and went upstairs. I opened a door without any thinking. Shit, this was Jess' room. She was sitting on her bed and looked up.

'What do you want?' she whispered.

'Nothing. Why would I?' I said. I turned around.

It's now or never, said a strange voice in my head. Now or never to approve your behavior.

'Jess?' I murmured. I felt my face becoming red and for the first time in my life I felt genuinely ashamed and intimidated. Then I hardened myself.

'I want to apologize' I began 'For my behavior to you for the past years and especially these days.' I couldn't believe I was doing this. 'I've been a complete hell for you and I have harmed you and I know your life sucked because of me.'

The vulnerability was killing me. This was nothing like me. But I had to keep Mrs. Johnson in mind. When in the arena I would show her I was able to make good, ethical and social decisions. Her sponsor gifts could save my damn life, especially after seeing Charlotte behave. And now I was opening up my soul to the most pathetic girl I knew.

Jess' eyes narrowed. She put the book she was reading down and got off her bed.

'What?' I said.

She sighed. 'Do you really think I'm going to take this crap?' she said 'You've tormented me for so many years now and even now that those years are suddenly running out you became even worse. You've injured me, verbally assaulted me, and you think I will accept your sudden apology?'

I felt anger coming up. 'Listen, you little whore. This is maybe the first time I tried to be nice to you. This is really something big for me, ok?'

Jess stepped forward. 'I said apology not accepted. Too bad you don't have time to figure out how to make truthful apologies since we are all going to die this month or the next. Maybe my time will come sooner than yours but I just want you to know it.'

I couldn't bring myself to being nice again. 'I hope you die in the arena!' It was the meanest I could come up with in a time like this.

Jess took another step so she was almost nose to nose with me. She was exactly my height. 'I'd rather die in the arena than accept your apology.'

Her injured forehead was clearly visible. 'You are so wrong' I whispered.

'Maybe. But someday everything we do will be judged, Abbey Kingsleigh, and I know you will burn in hell that day.'

When I raised my hand to slap her, she just said 'do it'. I did. She fell on her back.

I turned around and closed the door. Furious, I kicked a wall and the painting hanging on it fell on the ground. The glass frame shattered and made a lot of noise. I went into my bedroom and for the first time in a very long period I cried. Tears were running over my cheeks and dripping on the ground. I couldn't bring myself to stealing more Morphling, but the idea was tempting. I was exhausted and fell asleep on my sheets without even taking off my clothes.

Preliminaries in the next chapter!