There is UNCOUTH language in Walcott's POV

FABLE ANDERS- Wangari Kariuki

There weren't many left even in the Career Districts. Who's even left in One? I ran through faces in my head, each one bringing up an image of them against the ceiling. Was she the last? I hadn't even known. It felt significant, somehow. Fable hadn't been just a person. She'd been an entire District's last hope. She was more than just a person to her family, too. No matter how many times they lost her, I bet they never stopped hoping.

FLINT KENYTE- Tuesday Erelle

It was just me and… Wagri? Wongri? I know there's a W in there… I couldn't say I wasn't relieved Flint was gone. I hadn't wanted to fight him, that was for sure. He was huge, for one, and he was also a trained non-Career. They were the hardest for a Career to fight. We were so highly trained. That made it easier to fight non-trained people, but if someone else was experienced with fighting, but in a different way from the formal movements in Career training, it messed us up something fierce. Wangari might or might not be stronger than Flint, but at least she wouldn't be as unpredictable.

VULPES KERR- Toddward Howard

Awww, there goes the Nine supremacy.

I hadn't known much about Vulpes, but the little I'd known of him gave off some bad vibes. I was sorry for the loss of life but I couldn't say I was really affected by losing Vulpes specifically. It sucked losing a Nine, though. It was really nothing but silly superstition, but I'd felt protected knowing three Nines were still left. That meant when a Nine next died, it was only a one in three chance it would be me, which gave me a better chance than the non-Nines. Because that's how statistics work, am I right?

Ophelia Veleno- District One mentor

What are you gonna do? There's only so much I could give my mentees. In the Res Games there was always an atmosphere of reduced pressure on the mentors. There were so many variables and unexpected twists that you just honestly couldn't do much as a mentor to improve your District's chances. It was also impossible to even get to know everyone on your team, so I wasn't that torn up about losing them. Except Diamond, that is. I'd kind of been rooting for him.

District One

We were the first Career District out, which was always fun. We were also the Career District with the most entrants, so that was a bit of insult to injury. We never did get that wound up about Resurrection Games, though. All these people had tried before. There was a reason they hadn't won.

Walcott Patel- No Way Down D3F

I drummed my nails on the desk as I checked Tuesday's blog. Her latest post was something about the different challenges of all the arenas she'd been in. Interesting stuff, I was sure, but I didn't care. I was here for the comment section.

Everyone out there who has encountered a vampire, what were they like?- ILikeTigers

I'd posted the comment about fifty minutes ago. Fifty-six minutes, specifically- I could tell because I'd been staring at the clock as I waited for responses. When more text jumped onto the screen, I leaned forward in excitement.

I thought I was the only one who could see them. People tried to tell me I wasn't seeing them, but I knew the truth. It's true about the silver. I haven't been bitten since I started wearing a silver chain. Not everyone knows they can talk to you when they're not there, though. They can. I've heard them ever since I hit puberty. I think they can smell my blood after the change.- 622622622622

The silver thing wasn't news to me, but the telepathy was interesting information. 622 had mentioned that they hadn't been bitten since they wore silver. That would imply they had been bitten before that. But did the telepathy come before or after the bite? Vampires could talk to people they'd bitten, but I'd never heard of one projecting thoughts to an unbitten person. I started to type out a reply, then stopped as something else caught my eye.

I've heard them ever since I hit puberty.

I wrinkled my nose in disappointment. Puberty? This guy wasn't seeing vampires. He was just schizophrenic. I hoped he got better, but he couldn't help me at all. I felt bad thinking it, but people like him made the real vampire hunters look crazy.

The rest of the comments were mostly small talk or curious questions. I scrolled through them, reading some of the more interesting ones but mostly just skimming. At the bottom there was something I hadn't noticed before.

MODERATOR REMOVED COMMENTS

Oh, what's this? Clearly the comments were being censored. If not, we'd have rubberneckers commenting things like Arielle is on the third floor on the west side. Look out! Or Gabriel, there's a mutt down the hall from you. I clicked the button even though I was sure there would be nothing but heavily redacted comments. Surely the Gamemakers wouldn't include the real things. Still, I might be able to learn something.

Once the comments popped up, my eyes picked out my name right away. I skipped over the other comments to read the one about me. Maybe there was someone close by?

God if I had just one night with Walcott. I want to grab those fat peaches of hers and just blarghghahghagh. Sexy as hell how she pulls her hair back. You know what I'd do with that ponytail.

LazerBlazer described what he would do with my ponytail. He described many other things, some of which didn't even sound fun at all. He had very little grasp of female anatomy. I knew I shouldn't, but I just had to peek at the rest of the comments. The consensus among the users was that Wangari was a "chocolate queen" and Gaius had the most kissable lips. I, meanwhile, had a "tight ass". I craned my neck to look at my butt, laying a hand on it.

Yeah, I'd say it's pretty tight.

Camille Igawa- Let The Good Times Roll D9F

Maybe it was in poor taste to be wandering around a hospital looking for cool morbid stuff. Everyone watching was probably going, "Oh heh heh, she's the GOTH GIRL, so she's looking for GOTH STUFF" How about "I'm stuck in a living nightmare and I'm really scared and far away from home and I want some tiny little sliver of my old personality"? I was almost certainly going to die within days. I might as well spend my last few moments on this Earth looking for one last discovery.

Ooh, neonatal ward. I saw the sign outside the wing and went on in. Maybe they'd have a fetus in a jar or something.

I walked into the nurses' lounge, hoping for some food, and saw someone else had thought the same thing. Gabriel was sitting at one of the tables and eating a sandwich. He looked up as I came in.

"Oh, sorry," I said reflexively, getting ready to back out the door. It was weird, seeing a person for the first time in two days. I'd never been much of a lonely person, but even dark edgy goths needed connection sometimes. Not all of us were even edgy. Some of us just honestly thought black things and skeletons were pretty.

He made some signs. "It's okay," came a voice from his wrist.

My curiosity got the better of me. "How do you read lips that well? Don't all the letters look the same?"

"It's not exact, no. My interpreter is translating," the voice came again. Gabriel held up his wrist, showing something like a watch. On a little screen, a woman waved at me.

"That is so cool." I felt myself smiling. What an ingenious way to bridge a gap. More than that, I was tickled that the Capitol would do something like that. Maybe there was more hope in the world than I'd thought.

"Can I see it?" As I reached out my arms, Gabriel flinched back. My smile fell along with my arms.

"I hate this," I said, gripping the door frame. It was such an innocent connection. I'd wanted to know more about Gabriel and his world. Because of what they'd done to us, he'd flinched away. "I hate that we have to be afraid."

Gabriel nodded. "Me, too," he said through his interpreter.

"You mind if I grab some stuff? I'll stay away," I said. I probably should have been more afraid than I was. People did things they wouldn't normally in the Games. I just still had faith that sometimes they didn't.

Gabriel ended his signing with a flourished arm. "Be my guest."

I diverted around Gabriel's table on my way to the kitchenette. It felt gross, always having to assume the worst of people. We were already so desperately poor- most of us- and the Capitol forced us to be divided even further.

I filled my bag with shelf-stable foods and walked back to the door, lingering in the doorway. Wouldn't it be nice if I could stay? Make a friend, maybe? Be together with my peers instead of working against them? But it wasn't possible.

"Pretty cool you got this far," I said as I turned to leave.

Gabriel smiled. "What, am I disabled or something?"

Maxson Deloria- Swing Vote D6M

It felt wrong, having a gun. I'd seen them before in movies or being held by Peacekeepers, but never in untrained hands. There was nothing good about a gun. It was made for nothing but killing. You could say you just happened to find them interesting, or that it was a historical piece, or that it was for your own defense, but there was only one reason anyone wanted a gun. If you wanted a gun, you wanted to be able to kill someone. For all the Capitol did to us, I was glad we didn't have people with guns trying some harebrained scheme to seize power. It would only end with more dead people, most of whom were nothing but innocent bystanders.

It was an older gun, at least. The shotgun had a dull metal barrel and a wooden stock. It looked like something out of an old-timey movie- nothing like the sleek and seamless weapons Peacekeepers used. It only had three bullets, too. We couldn't go on a crazy killing spree even if we tried. Are they called bullets? I thought maybe shotgun bullets were called something else. They were hardly bullets as much as they were tiny grenades. Gaius had been aiming at Jessie- and he'd very much hit her- but he'd sprayed half the hallway as well. But so much went into Jessie. I still couldn't get her body out of my mind. It was like we'd run her through a shredder.

I'd been feeling especially morbid lately. Todd seemed to still be riding the high of eliminating the last Career pair left, though it was possible he was just faking. He was more compassionate than I was. What we did to Jessie probably hurt him a lot more than it hurt me.

It won't hurt me at all, will it? When we broke up, I meant. It had to be coming soon. Plucky friend trios just didn't make it to the endgame. If one of the other Tributes didn't break us up, the Capitol would send something to force our hand. Then we'd be alone. Well, Todd and I would. Gaius wouldn't last long. It didn't matter how smart he was. The deck was just too stacked. Gaius would be dead, Todd would be lonely, and I… wouldn't be. It had to mean something that I wished I cared more. I couldn't help it that I'd never been able to care about other people like I should. I still tried, and I still acted like I cared. That had to count for something.

The Tribute walked into the hallway like he owned it. He didn't even hesitate when he noticed the three of us. On the contrary- he smiled.

"Oh, hey. What are you three losers up to?" Braddock was halfway through his sentence when I figured out what it was. Something was different about him- something in his face. His lips drew back for the ee in three and I saw it.

"Hey guys? I think Braddock is a vampire," Toddward said.

"No kidding," Gaius said grimly.

"No kidding," Braddock sarcastically echoed. He put a finger to his chin. "Now who am I gonna kill first? I think I'll kill…"

He launched himself at me. Great, I thought. We have a literal shotgun and we ran into the one person in the entire arena who doesn't care.