I woke up early that morning. The first few seconds I couldn't remember why I was feeling so down, but then I realized today was preliminaries day. In 24 hours most of this building would be empty and at least half of the people on this floor would be gone.

I was still wearing the clothes I wore yesterday, but I didn't care. All I needed was a good pair of running shoes. I got out of bed, pressed some buttons on a device and opened the curtains. They revealed some weak sunlight creeping over the mostly sleeping city. I stumbled to the shoes part of the closet, which I had never opened before, and started raiding. Most of the pairs were high heels imbedded with jewels or something, but after a minute I managed to find a pair of sneakers that would do. It was hard to tie my shoelaces with a mind so empty.

I went downstairs. The only person already present at breakfast was Kara. I sat down next to her and all she said was: 'promise this isn't the end'.

'It isn't, for both of us' I responded, and ate some stuff I didn't recognize. It tasted like peanut butter with cheese or something and it was disgusting.

The next person to join our company was Charlotte. She seemed confused and depressed, but not under influence. Kara said hello but she didn't respond.

'So, what should we do today?' I asked. Charlotte looked up, disturbed.

'How should I know? Just survive it' she said 'at least you can'

'Us?' asked Kara. Our mentor nodded. 'Yes, you. I don't care about those other chicks, even I can see they suck'

I was slightly offended. I mean, she could say that kind of stuff to Jess anytime but not about the twins. I ate the rest of my food while the rest of the company arrived.

'I've been watching footage of all the other tributes all night' Laika said, looking extremely fatigued. 'You can expect some pretty tough competition, various Districts have a healthy group of seventeen year olds like you. There are not many very young tributes this year, maybe three or four groups of thirteen year olds.'

The idea of being dead in a few hours still hadn't reached me. I was determined to survive. And when Laika announced it was time to say goodbye to the apartment for now, I didn't. Rose, Flora and Jess looked unhealthy, pale, anxious and their limbs were trembling when we got in the elevator to go down. We would go to the preliminaries by hovercraft. I had never seen one in real life, let stand travelled by one. In the hall it was busy and we could already see the press waiting behind large gates in the courtyard. I saw them pushing to get a good picture of the 160 tributes boarding the hovercraft. I didn't know where we were going, actually. The preliminaries were in a maze on the other side of the Head City isle last year. Now they had a different concept, so a different place. I heard they were using the maze as a tourist attraction, just like they did with the arenas in Panem. Atrocious idea.

I pushed some tributes in the mass waiting to enter the big hole in the hovercraft aside to be one of the first to take place. We were led to a large, long sort of corridor with chairs attached to both walls. Apparently there was room for everyone, but I doubted it. I dragged Kara through a group of little girls to get her to two empty seats. We took place and waited. It was noisy, crowded and hot in the hovercraft. Most tributes were looking ill. The bony ones from East even more. A black-haired boy took place next to me and opposite of me sat one of the little girls we pushed. She looked afraid. I was trying to feel sorry for them, trying to imagine how the tributes who knew they hadn't a single chance were feeling, but I couldn't.

Eventually most of the seats were filled. Rose and Flora were all on the other side and I didn't know where Jess was. Didn't care, though.

'Dear tributes, please put your safety belts on' an announcer said.

Yeah, right. Safety belts for kids they were going to kill. The irony. I put mine on and waited.

After a few moments I felt the hovercraft moving and the small windows, the only source of light in the steel space, were darkened immediately.

People wearing uniforms came in and did something to the tributes on the other side of the corridor I couldn't see properly, but when they came closer I saw they were putting some sort of bracelets around the tributes' wrists. For the first time today I felt some nerves and I fetched Kara's hand. When one of the people reached us she brutally ripped our hands apart and put the bracelet around my wrist. It was a strange metal thing with a small timer indicating ten minutes left. As soon as the uniformed lady was gone I tried to take it off, but it was impossible somehow. It was too tight. I saw many children trying to move it, but it was absolutely not possible. The timer scared me. After a few minutes every tribute was supplied with a bracelet and the automatic voice started talking again.

'Dear tributes, welcome to the second annual New Games. We are pleased to witness your motivation and life force. Today you are writing history by competing in the preliminaries, where we'll get to know the select few who prove themselves worthy to compete in the next round; the actual Games. Now, as you may have already noticed you have all received a special device made by the finest technicians our City has. We'll come back to that later.'

I was staring at the girl in front of me, who was still trying to get it off.

'This year we want to stay close to the City who leads this whole operation; our magnificent Head City. That is why we designed a suitable arena. You will be competing in-'

I heard everyone holding their breaths. '…a skyscraper.'

Countless whispers flew around the room. 'How are they going to do that?' I asked Kara.

'Yes, a very high building with a hundred and sixty floors, so one for each tribute to start on. You are free to move around the building, use elevators and stairs, hide under desks or behind bookshelves, but here comes the twist and the connection with your time-bracelets: you are not allowed to stay on the same floor for longer than ten minutes. In other words, you need to move around constantly. Your timer will indicate how long you have left. If you don't move to another floor within ten minutes, there's a nasty catch. Each bracelet contains a tiny but very powerful bomb which will explode and kill you guaranteed. Also, if you try to take it off by yourself it will explode too. So be careful!'

Now almost everyone who was trying to rip off their bracelet stopped. I felt some sweat welling up. Even I was afraid now. I looked at the innocent looking watch-like thing. It was giving me an evil silver sparkle.

'Your starting floor will be completely random, so don't expect to find your friend one floor below you. You'll hear a cannon every time a contestant is out of the running. We'll put their photo up on every computer screen in the building. It is now half past ten in the morning. You'll start at ten. At four in the afternoon we hope to meet the brave competitors of the second annual New Games. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor'

There was a deadly silence in the room. Even I didn't want to speak to Kara. I felt even more nerves coming up. Shit just got real. Now was the time.

We flew for about ten minutes of so. It couldn't be that far away. And when the hovercraft started descending, a lot of people seemed to become really sick this time.

We all felt the hovercraft touching the ground and after a few seconds it stood still.

Suddenly people from the other side of the corridor started screaming. I saw people wrestling in their chairs but they were unable to move. Even more panic broke out. I couldn't see what they were so afraid of until I smelled it. Gas. It was gas. They were pumping gas in the space.

I grabbed Kara's hand when I saw people around us falling asleep.

'We'll see each other soon' I said 'very soon'

'Be brave, Abbey' she whispered. I noticed my thoughts were getting slower and slower and my head was getting heavy. No, I mustn't fall asleep, they can't make me, sleeping gas…

I felt Kara's grip loosening. 'No, no, come on' my voice was no more than a whisper too. I saw everyone around me sleeping until my own eyes closed and didn't open anymore.

Everything was so light. Featherlike. I wanted to move my limbs, but I didn't feel anything. I opened my eyes and realized I was laying my side, like an unborn child. What was going on?

I couldn't identify the room I was in. I didn't recognize the strange furniture. There was a boring, wooden floor. I placed my hands on it and pushed myself up. I was dizzy and colors were everywhere. Strange sounds were flowing through my ears. They hurt me. I saw a chair, tried to walk in a straight line to it but I couldn't. I fell on the ground again and had to drag myself to the object. Once I reached it, I sighed, crawled up and sat down.

The room finally took a realistic shape. It was some sort of office. An office? Yes, there were desks and things that looked like computers, and there were windows!

I buried my face in my hands, tried to clear my mind and tried to recall where I was or what I was doing here. I had to get to the windows. I stood up, reached for a wall and slowly moved to the window while touching the solid stone wall. Ok, this was some strange shit.

I almost tripped over something laying on the ground – an axe, what the hell was that doing there- and while taking little, careful steps I wandered through the glass, nervous and curious at the same time.

Water. Sea, ocean everywhere. A dazzling height. All I could see from the window was a grey mass of high waves. I was in a high building on a really small island, something really high, on one of the highest floors, I was…in a skyscraper.

My hand automatically touched my wrist and slowly I lifted it up. The steel bracelet was still there. Holy shit. Jesus Christ. The fucking preliminaries. 1:27, 1:26, 1:25. It was ticking away.

It took me a few seconds to realize I had to get the hell out of here. Now. I had a minute to get to another room or floor. My heart was beating so fast it wasn't normal anymore. I was seeing black spots when I started running. Where was the way out? Where were the stairs? I was looking for neon green emergency exit thingies, like we had them in District 1, but when I finally found one I remembered the axe where I almost tripped over. That was my weapon. I had to get back and get it. I turned around, ran as fast as I could to the place where I woke up and reached for the axe. I grabbed it, ran into a random direction. Thirty seconds left. I saw I door I hadn't seen before, sprinted to it, prayed that it wasn't locked…and it wasn't. It opened without any difficulties. Thank God, there was a ladder. Fifteen seconds. I jumped on the ladder, tried to hold the axe in my one hand while climbing with the others. The climb seemed to last forever. Then I saw the next floor, gave all I had and threw myself up to the next level.

I saw the timer, which indicated 0:05, jump to 10:00. I took a deep breath, and when I was done, I heard a loud explosion, really close to me. I shook, fell on the ground to hide and heard explosions everywhere in the building. Some really softly, some slightly harder. Holy shit, the first explosion must have been on this floor, it was extremely loud. I was shaking when I tried to raise and realized there must have been at least twenty explosions all over the building. Bracelets from people who weren't clear enough to realize they had to get off their floor. Twenty kids. Dead.

I gripped my axe tightly while peeking around the corner. The preliminaries had begun. But when I saw the space I was in, the axe slipped out of my hands and I felt goose bumps coming up everywhere.

The big window opposite of me was splattered with blood and tiny pieces of human. The color red was overwhelming me and the stench of fresh blood was dwelling me. I had never smelled blood before but now I did it was very clear and disgusting.

When I woke up from my shock I asked myself if I dared to come closer. Yes, I did. I was Abbey Kingsleigh, not Jess Woods. I had promised myself I could do this.

I bit my cheeks while getting closer. The stench was unbearable. I noticed blood splatters everywhere. Damn, those bombs were powerful. Then I saw it, behind a desk.

There was a burn in the ground and the remains of a human being. My mouth dropped. I had never, ever seen anything like this. The people that had to go to the hospital because of me just had a scratch compared to this. I couldn't even recognize this as a human, let stand identify if it used to be a boy or a girl. The only part intact was a small part of the head and the under legs. I grabbed my axe from the floor, came closer once again and poked in one of the remains with it.

I felt vomit coming up. I turned around and tried to reach the main stairs. On my way I crossed a simple knife, probably from the person who just got blown up. I took it, put it under my belt and slowly opened the door to the stairs. I had to be careful. There were probably people on the move right now. Still, twenty less than before, so maybe only 140. How much time had passed since I heard the explosions? A minute?

While carefully observing the stairs, I heard another kind of explosion. This was a cannon, I recognized it from last year's Games. Someone had been killed, but not by their bracelet.

The only sound I heard after that came from way down, footsteps on the stairs too far away for me to worry about. Still I chose to go upstairs once again. I crept up the stairs, almost glued to the wall, more nervous than ever and still ill because of the unsanitary events I had just witnessed. God, I needed morphling. I was going mad.

I didn't see anyone on the next floor as well. The cannon went off again. I could feel the tension in the building. Somewhere, a door closed. I gripped the axe tightly and entered the office on this floor. It was light and looked peaceful, so I chose a chair in front of a desk and sat down. In front of me was a computer, which showed the picture of Artie Reilley from District 33. The latest victim. I sat there for a minute or so, the sun shone on my face, and just when I was about to think this wasn't that bad, I heard a noise on the stairs, rather close.

Shit! It made no sense, thinking this isn't that bad. There were still 140 tributes left somewhere on these 160 floors. I looked around, then dove under the desk I was sitting behind. There was a large gap in the wood, so I was visible if you were really looking for me.

The office door opened and I saw a large pair of boots enter. I couldn't see the face, the gap wouldn't allow me. My heart was beating in my ears when the boots and the belonging legs slowly walked around. They passed me on one meter distance and I didn't dare to breathe.

Then they continued their way. I realized I wasn't trapped – I could attack the person if I wanted. I could just do it. It would be good for the sponsors and good for my image. This was the time they would want me to attack. But I wasn't ready! Yes, I was, I had been telling myself that the last week. The large person was already going away! One down would be a good things, one less person to worry about!

I raised as fast as I could and suddenly everything went very quickly. The person, it turned out to be a dark-skinned giant, turned around as well and for the first time I saw his weapon - a big, curved sickle. There was no time to think, and before I knew it, the axe was planted in his chest. I had thrown it by instinct, it hit, it was a miracle. The boy seemed to be surprised at first, but when the blood started pouring down his chest, he looked up at me, disturbed. Then he fell to the ground and with a –bam- he was dead.

I just stood there, watching in silence. I had just killed somebody. Adrenaline was running through my veins while slowly my mind filled with facts and statements about the thing I just did. Murder. A crime that would cost you your life in District 1. Here it would earn you sponsors and therefore your life. I was a murderer. I killed someone. It was so sadistically easy.

I was seeing everything with a strange red color while approaching my victim and I pulled the axe out of his body. I tapped his face with my shoe, the one I picked out this morning. The head moved a bit. The cannon probably already went off, because the only computer screen I could see was showing his face. District 22.

I gripped the sickle out of his fingers. It was sharp, but was I able to use it? I think the axe would do better. I held the sickle in my hand, walked to the window, opened it (wow, the windows were open?), a cannon fired, and I threw the sickle out of the window. I turned around and wanted to go away, but when I heard a strange windy sound becoming louder I ducked automatically, and that was a good thing, because suddenly the sickle flew right over my head, back into the office, breaking a big vase before falling on a desk. Great, a force field around the building.

The vase made a loud noise and I realized I had to get off this floor. I stepped over the dead body and went back to the stairs. How many cannons had gone off since the start? Six? Seven? How long since the start? How long still to go?

Explosion from deep down in the building. I looked on my bracelet. Three minutes left on this floor.

Long chapter! New one, idk, maybe in 1 or 2 weeks?