Chapter 9: Caesar Flickerman and the Arena

Amanda, Blaze, and Lisa had just left the main field that held the cornucopia. They headed in the direction that their ally Hector Ardaman most likely had went.

"Well, what in the hell was that about?!" Amanda shouted angrily.

"What?" Blaze asked questioningly.

"There were no weapons at the cornucopia!" she said in irritation.

"I know what it is." said Lisa in a voice of comprehension. "Television entertainment."

Blaze and Amanda just had looks of confusion on their faces.

Lisa elaborated. "The Gamemakers probably thought if there were no weapons, it would make for more entertaining television if at the opening bloodbath at the cornucopia, we, the Capitol raised kids, were to come up with more inventive ways to kill."

Blaze raised his eyebrows in comprehension consideration.

"You know, that would actually make sense." said Blaze. "Well, let's find Hector and then we'll set up a campsite for the night, then hunt down the other tributes in the morning."

Lisa pulled out the compass that she had found in her backpack and looked back and forth from it and the sun, trying to find Hector's direction.

It was a few minutes later that they broke through the trees and they came to a river.

"Over there, a bridge." said Amanda as she pointed several hundred yards down the beach.

"Wait." said Lisa as she got down on her hands and knees near the water.

Lisa got a funny idea as she could smell the tangy stink coming from the water. She stuck her hand in the water and then touched her fingers to her tongue.

"I think it's seawater." said Lisa.

"That doesn't make any sense. Rivers are not seawater. Fresh water flows into the sea, saltwater doesn't flow out of it." said Amanda.

Blaze examined the water a little bit more closely with his eyes. He observed the movement of the water.

"Does that water look like it is flowing to you?" asked Blaze, less of asking for information from his fellows, and more for persuading them to grasp an obvious clue.

The water was not flowing, at all.

"The water is completely still." observed Blaze.

He looked up stream as far as he could, and then he looked down stream as far as he could.

"Answer me this," said Blaze, "when a river of salt water is completely still, neither flowing upstream or downstream, then it's not a river. This...is a canal."

The banana yellow girl, and the pink haired girl realized that Blaze was correct; the ocean was on either side, and the sea water was flowing in from both sides and meeting in the middle.

"How did you know that?" asked Lisa curiously.

"I know a few things about canals." said Blaze, "from my father. My father was a city planner and architect. He always loved seafood. He was unsatisfied with the low quality of the food that was coming in from District 4. So he used his own authority as a high ranking official, to design, and have built, in District 4, a network of canals to mass breed higher quality sea animals for slaughter. My father was a greedy, power hungry man who always gets what he wants; the making of the canal network required many overworked fishermen to do double shifts for years. Anyway, in answer to your question; I saw and studied the complex details of the canal network blueprints that my father designed, and when I saw a saltwater river that was not flowing, it just seem obvious."

Lisa twitch her eyebrow, clearly impressed.

'BOOM!'

The sound came out of the sky from an unknown direction. The three Hunger Games allies knew from watching past Hunger Games on TV to know that the Gamemakers were firing a cannon to indicate that a tribute has died. The Gamemakers always wait until the opening bloodbath at the cornucopia is over before they fire the first cannon. But the cannon shots didn't stop at one.

'BOOM!' 'BOOM!' 'BOOM!' 'BOOM!' 'BOOM!' 'BOOM!' 'BOOM!' 'BOOM!'

And then the cannon fired no more.

"That's 9." said Amanda, thinking that by normal Hunger Games standards, that was a relatively mild cornucopia bloodbath death toll. "Come on. We'll cross the bridge and find Hector."

And they headed for the bridge that they saw down the beach that they believed would lead in Hector's direction.

Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith we're on the television:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are now 32 minutes into the Games, where the opening blood bath at the cornucopia is now over and the deaths stand at 9, and we are down to the top 15." said Claudius Templesmith.

Caesar Flickerman then averted his gaze from the camera and placed his index finger on his ear, waited for a moment then turned his attention back to the camera.

"Right now the situation with each individual living tribute is, uneventful, so I have been asked in my ear piece to go to 'Death Recap'." said Caesar Flickerman. "And the Fallen now are;" each death was accompanied by a small box on the TV screen showing footage of the tribute dying, in the order that they were pulled out of the Reaping Bowl, "Breanna Crane, that's surprising and disappointing, she was one of the favorites among the potential sponsors. Sherman Griffin. Neil Jones. Joyce Harrison. May Salmon. Harley Dillon. Chaz Zoltan. Belinda Rogers. And Klay Randolph. May they rest in peace."

"We will continue to give you updates on the progress of the Games, additional deaths that take place, and exciting events that happen within the arena as they happen." Said Claudius Templesmith.

"Now," said Caesar Flickerman, "while the secrets of the arena are to remain mystery for tributes to find out as the Games progress, I have been instructed by the Gamemakers to inform you, the viewers, on what exactly the arena is, and what makes it up."

On the TV screen, Caesar and Claudius both turned sideways and displayed another screen that was behind them. On the screen showed what appeared to be a criss-crossing of blue lines, and a checkerboard pattern of squares. There were also flashing blips, each blip with the name of a different tribute on it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what you are observing is a map of the arena." said Caesar, "The Gamemakers have christened this arena, 'Archipelago'. The blue criss-crossing lines that you are observing are a network of 100 meter wide canals separating the borders of exactly 121 man-made islands, each island is exactly one square kilometer. Each island will also consist of a different environment by means of various climate control methods. As well as a few hidden surprises on each island, each surprise varying depending on the island."

"As always," said Claudius, "we will be broadcasting a live feed of the Games around the clock. We will be alternating the live feed between all living tributes every so often." said Claudius as the current live feed on the screen was just uninteresting footage of Gloria Goldwater bushwhacking through some dense foliage one island over from the cornucopia directly to the southwest. "However, if a good fight is going on or another suspenseful moment, the live broadcasting of that will take priority."

Claudius then touched his finger to his ear for a moment.

"Statistical factoring;" said Claudius, "I have just been asked to read off the 'Tributes Kill Count'. Giovanni Leon, and Amanda Snow both have made 2 kills. David Crane, Martha Filmer, Janice Miller, Dennis Green, and Irene Avion have all made 1 kill. The rest of the tributes currently stand at 0."

"Throughout the the Games we will be having guest commentators, as well as interviews with mentors, and family members of tributes." said Caesar. "If you are not at home, the Games will be broadcast from Super Jumbo Screens at the corner of every other street throughout Panem, in the Capitol, all thirteen Districts, and as well as every park, public square, pub, and restaurant. Please tune in for recaps of exciting moments in the Games; so if just in case you are not always tuned in, we encourage you not to worry, for you won't miss a thing."

Author's Note: For the sake of this fan fic, let's call Panem's units of currency 'Panem Credits'.

Katniss Everdeen stood in what was called a 'Mentors' Private Control Room' with Peeta, as well as Blaze and Amanda's mothers. Also there in the room were the mentors of Lisa Derrek and Hector Ardaman which just happened to be their friend Annie Cresta, and their old mentor Haymitch Abernathy, they were watching the Games, particularly, a specialized personal live video feed that always featured only their own tributes. There was a status control board that displayed and indicated who and how many people were placing bets on Hector, Lisa, Blaze and Amanda, as well as a collection pool of money that gradually got bigger as individual smaller donations kept on piling into it from many different sponsors, some donations were just one or two credits here and there, some were semi-generous. The pool of accumulated money was for generalized gifts; basically Katniss or Peeta could send Blaze or Amanda any reasonably priced gift that they wanted to with the money from the pool, at any time if they wanted, but it was not always necessary. The mentors were not generally supposed to send their tribute a gift every single time the pool got high enough to afford a gift, for the sponsors were being very generous, and if the sponsored tribute were to lose the Games and a gift was never sent, then the sponsor would get their donation back. When a sponsor makes a donation and a gift is sent and that tribute were to lose, then the sponsor would not get their donation back. But whenever a sponsor sends a donation, what they are also doing, is they are placing a bet that that tribute will win, and if the tribute does win, then the sponsor not only gets the donation back but they also get paid their betting winnings based on the statistical odds of that particular tribute. An individual tribute's statistical odds are based on a variety of factors; their training score, facts about the tribute that people give, as well as fluctuations in the statistics during the Games, such as how many kills they make during the Games, their ability to evade an opposing tribute that's bigger, stronger, and faster than them, etc.

Peeta, being the better talker, was on the phone trying to setup sponsors for Blaze and Amanda, and persuade people to make more generous donations. Peeta was a good salesman and a slick talker with sales pitches.

"Well honey," said Peeta, "it looks like things are going to be going a little slowly. The pool is only up to a thousand Panem credits, and most of the good gifts are a lot more expensive than that, and they're only going to get more expensive as the days and weeks pass."

"Thanks Peeta." said Katniss.

Katniss patted the mothers on the shoulder and tried to reassure them.

"Well, even though they broke our instructions and went for the supplies, they gambled and they won, then got away with six backpacks and a first-aid kit, which basically means they're loaded down with useful supplies." said Haymitch.

Then they received another alert on the display console.

"Well, we just got something big here. An anonymous sponsor." said Peeta. And then his eyes went wide. "They have just donated one-million Panem credits! To Amanda Snow specifically, not to her alliance."

"Add it to the pool." said Katniss.

Peeta pressed a few buttons to do just that, but an odd reprimanding buzzing sound came out of the speakers indicating that his request has been rejected. And then more detailed instructions came up on the screen.

"I can't," said Peeta, "It seems that the donation is coded; the donation can only be used to buy a certain item, and it can only be sent directly to Amanda Snow when she's in private, such as after she steps away from the group for a few moments to go to the bathroom, or something, etc."

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(Keep reading for Chapter 10: Camping)