Elisha's P.O.V
"Girls, now is the allocated time to speak with your mentors before you go to bed," says Jodie's escort, coming in the door with Jordan's escort and my own.
Jordan and I get up from the couch.
"I'll see you guys later," Jodie says, smiling slightly at us.
"Actually, you won't see each other until your training sessions, in two days time," Bronte Crowsmith says.
"But what about before the Opening Ceremony?" I ask her, "We should be able to see each other then, right?"
"I don't think you'll be able to talk to them, sweetie" she replies, looking at me with pitty.
"Technically I'll still see them though," I reply, smirking. Bronte frowns at me for being a smart ass. Ah, another satisfied customer.
"Well then, I'll see you guys at the Opening Ceremony," Jodie corrects herself, smiling more and waving goodbye to us.
Jordan and her escort leave for their district's cart and Bronte leads me away into ours, which is the cart next door.
Luca is standing outside one of the doors on the right side of the corridor, looking up at us with annoyance. It's not as though we were later, so I don't know what his problem is...
As we enter, one of our two mentors speaks, "Welcome to the Hunger Games, Elisha Bailey and Luca Howard. This is the occasion that will determine the course of the rest of your life. However long that may be."
Shit. This is where it all begins.
An hour, or so, later we are on the subject of alliances.
"Alliances can be useful during the beginning of the games, but if you find yourself in one, you'd need to leave after a few days or less," says the female mentor from my district, Tiana.
"You should probably try to avoid alliances as much as possible. If you become too close to the people in them, you will find it almost impossible to kill them if you end up in the finals together," Mason, our other mentor, says.
Whaaat, I'm not in an alliance~ You know, aside from the fact that I'm part of the Outliners with Jodie and Jordan. Also, I think Luca's in an alliance too, but I can't be sure.
"Or, they could abuse your trust and kill you while you sleep," Tiana says nonchalantly. "That's generally what happens to Career groups that survive too long together."
"Uh, both of us are already in alliances…" Luca says, confirming my suspicions. I wonder who's in his? It's probably just another ragtag team like ours, with people from outline districts.
"I have good aim, I can throw spears and I can use a sword. I'm also a pretty strong physical fighter," I answer.
Luca hesitates for a moment, before saying, "I can use a sword and I can throw knives."
"Now, the question is; how good are you? The difference between the fact that you can hit the target every time or you're slightly off is very important in the Hunger Games," Mason warns us.
Bronte comes into the room, preventing us from answering. God, this woman has terrible timing...
"Time for bed!" she calls into the room happily, "Sleep is very important for every tribute." She said that last part a bit too brightly for my liking.
"Sleep isn't important for the dead," I say under my breath and Bronte frowns at me again. Wow, 3rd time in one day, I'm on a roll here.
As usual, I find it hard to sleep, so I end up rolling around for a few hours before giving up and getting out of bed.
I walk down the corridor and move through the door and onto the District 10 cart. I keep walking, all the way up to the main cart, until I hear several voices.
They're mostly guy's voices, but I can hear two or three girls in the group. The voices are talking about tactics for the Hunger Games. Ha, a few people clearly don't wanna listen to their escorts' orders, do they?. Then again, I'm out of bed myself, so I can't complain.
I stop so that they don't hear or see me.
I realise it's not just anyone when someone brings up who's going first on their kill list. Most ordinary tributes just talk about survival, not who they're gonna kill. Most tributes try not to even kill anyone. This group is obviously the Careers.
"We should kill that girl from my district first. During the talk with our mentors she mentioned a few good skills that she could use against us, so she's probably our worst threat out of all the other tributes. We've got to stop her before she can get any weapons. I also know she's in an alliance too so that makes her even more of a threat." My eyes widen in shock.
The voice belongs to Luca; my co-tribute is plotting to kill me.
I kneel down, crawl quietly forwards and peek around the corner, hidden by a tall fake pot plant. I can see that Luca and the Careers sitting around a small table. There are more people than I originally thought there were, a total of 9 tributes.
There's Luca, Kevin from 12, the boy from 10 and then, what shocks me the most out of everything I've seen and heard in the last 5 minutes, 6 people that look far stronger and healthier than anyone I've ever seen in person, aside from the escorts. It's quite amazing to see such young people looking so alive, considering the fact that what I'm used to is malnourished child slaves.
How could he? How could Luca do this to District 11? If he makes it through the Games he'll be shunned from society purely for the fact that he joined the Careers and even more for killing his district partner.
"I agree. She's fucking dangerous; she almost hit me in the head with a knife earlier," says Kevin, the guy from Jodie's district. "Although, I doubt Jodie would be able to help her overpower us. She's probably the weakest person you could possibly reap out of everyone in 12, I swear. Elisha didn't choose a very good person for her alliance." I resist the urge to go grab a knife from the snack table and slit his throat. He won't stop bullying her, even when he's planning to kill me.
"How about we just kill a few of the weaker ones first and maybe even let her get a weapon," says a girl with long, black hair. "It'll trick her into thinking she's safe from us; until, of course, we hunt her and her alliance down. If both of the idiots she's with are how you describe Jodie, then her friends should be easy enough to get rid of."
"Great idea, Sprite," says a boy from one of the Career districts. Yep, she's from District 1. No one from any of the other districts would think of a crazy name like that. What the hell is with the names those weirdos come up with?
Although at least their children end up more memorable than any of ours…
There's a blonde guy on the far side of the table who doesn't seem too interested in what anyone else is saying. He doesn't look too bad. I wouldn't even think he was a Career if he wasn't sitting with them and if he wasn't so healthy-looking. He's not exactly an eyesore either...
I move forwards slightly to get a better look at this guy, but my long hair accidentally brushes the leaves on the pot plant. I freeze in my position. Damn my stupid hair.
Please don't see me, please don't see me, please don't see me...
"Guys I think I heard something." A guy squints in my direction, trying to see past the leaves. "I think we have an eavesdropper," he says as he gets up, trying to see over the tall plant.
Please don't see me, please don't see me...
"Zack, just sit back down," a girl with straight dark brown hair says. "Even if there was an eavesdropper, it's not as though anyone could overpower all of us by themselves."
From where I am, I think I can see green streaks in her hair and when she turns back to the table I can see her hair is tied up with a ribbon with fish patterns on it. She's definitely from District 4.
"But Cleo, we're fucked if it's Elisha. I'm going to check and if anyone's there, I'll find out who it is," the guy replies, pushing back his chair.
I don't wait to see what happens after that; I crawl from my position at light speed, straight back towards the corridor. I move as quickly and quietly as I can down it and then I make my exit, through the door that leads to the next cart and shutting it behind me.
I stop and lean against the door, panting for breath. That was so close.
Then, I hear Zack's footsteps coming through the corridor. Crap, I mustn't have moved as quietly as I thought.
I sprint down the District 1 corridor and open the door on the other end, running through the corridor and the next and I keep going until I realise that there aren't any more doors to go through. I'm already in the District 12 corridor.
Well, seeing as I'm here I may as well tell Jodie about this, rather than waiting until morning.
I pick a random door on my left and open it.