Author's Note: Reminder that there's a poll on my profile, and to vote for who you think the top two should be!
The world seems so different from this morning. Clem looks around the room, taking in the imagery splayed throughout the room, golden vinery creeping across the walls and roof. It all feels so surreal. Her name was called. She cannot believe her name was called. All it took to change her life was for Juturna Clay to pluck a little slip of paper with her name on it. She leans back into the plush couch and takes deep breaths. There's a fruit bowl on a little table in the center of the room. It's clearly fake, but she focuses on the assortment to ground herself and stop from crying. She does not want the cameras to see even a hint of red around her eyes.
The room is nice, but it's impossible to trust. She's being prepped for slaughter, and it's hard to appreciate. She's beginning to wonder where her visitors are when Florina, Logan, and Winnow walk through the door.
Clem stands up but can't seem to get anything out. It doesn't matter. Florina links her fingers with hers and holds her close. Her body shakes, but no tears come.
"I'm going to talk to Ma when I get home, and she's going to talk to Grandpa. The mentors are going to try hard to get you home."
"What about the boy?" Clem asks. "Isn't that unfair for him? Besides, they can't do anything once I'm in the arena. No sponsors this year, remember?"
Winnow shakes her head. There's grief on her face that hasn't appeared for almost a year.
"Please, Clem. Please tell me you'll fight. You took down a couple of Peacekeepers, you can make a go of it."
Clem knows she can. If she makes it past the opening bloodbath (where no one is safe in the chaos) she could really go far. Thresh made it to fourth place last year, and they worked together. She could hold her own against some of the careers if she has a weapon. But what if all six of them rush her at once? She's tall and muscular, she'll likely be noted as a threat by their mentors, and skilled competition often gets taken out early on.
Winnow crosses her arms and stares down at her, waiting for an answer.
"I can't promise anything," Clem says. "But I'll try."
Logan, who's sitting on the arm of the couch, pats her on the shoulder awkwardly. The four of them sit together in silence. There's nothing to say. When a Peacekeeper comes in to take them out, Clem holds onto Florina's arm.
"Please take care of my dad."
Florina nods, gives her a peck on the cheek, and they leave. Clem sinks into the couch miserably. She knows who's coming next.
Pa doesn't last a second. The moment he opens the door and sees her on the couch, he bursts into tears. Clem opens her arms, he falls into them without hesitation, and they sit there for a while, holding each other. He pulls back a bit and puts his hands on her cheeks.
"I look at you on this couch, and all I can see is Danica all those years ago."
Clem holds back the tears threatening to spill out onto her cheeks. If she dies in that arena he'll be alone. She owes it to him to show no weakness. Now, and in the games. She's going to fight until her last breath.
When a Peacekeeper comes to escort him out, he squeezes her hand.
"Whatever happens in the arena, I'm proud of you."
Clem can't speak, or she'll cry. So she hugs him. She's alone for a while once her father leaves. She figures the boy who got Reaped has a lot of family or something. This would be a good time to let herself break down a bit, but there are cameras at the train station, and the games use that footage during the opening ceremonies. She will not be seen with red, swollen eyes on national television. She strokes the fabric of the couch until a Peacekeeper comes to escort her out.
Clem and the other tribute come face to face at the backdoor. He's a lot skinnier than she noticed on the Reaping stage, and he has that worn look that a lot of the lower-class kids at school wear. She doesn't know his name, probably because she blanked out on the stage, but it won't really matter if she does know or not. She has no plans in forming an alliance.
She gives him a curt nod but doesn't engage with him beyond that. The trip in the truck would be awkward because of how they're sitting shoulder to shoulder, but Juturna Clay's senseless rambling eases the tension. As Clem suspected, there are dozens of cameras at the station, calling out her and his names. Apparently, her district partner's name is Thatcher.
Juturna Clay leads them into the train, and Clem has to remind herself to keep her composure. It's so lavish, so unbelievably lavish, and she wishes she was here under other circumstances, but she's not. She clenches her jaw and forces herself to look unimpressed. Thatcher doesn't make any efforts to hide his amazement. He looks out of place with his scruffy old clothes and shoes anyway, so it wouldn't be believable if he looked unimpressed.
As Juturna Clay leads them through the cabin, talking more nonsense, Clem ignores her in favor of the beauty adorning the room. It's five times more luxurious than the room in the Justice Building. There's a shelf with geometrical glass bottles, each filled with a differently colored liquid. Gold flakes swirl through one, and tiny black pearls through another. The floor is a lush carpet of deep green and looks softer than a bed. The light bulb in the roof actually hangs down from the ceiling, surrounded by crystals and metal framing.
Clem notices the mentors standing in the center of the room, watching them. Seeder is the only girl from District 11 to come back alive in the seventy-four previous Hunger Games. She's the only female name on their list of winners, which doesn't do much for one's confidence.
Despite being in her sixties, she's tall, hale, and straight-backed. Her skin is considerably lighter than everyone in the room's, but she's not pale. More of a light brown. Clem guesses she has heritage in one of the other districts (before travel was strictly regulated after the rebellion) because her black hair is as straight as a ruler. She'll likely be Clem's mentor, as tributes are mostly advised by a victor of the same sex.
Chaff must be around 6'5'' because he's huge. Not just in height either, he's well-built and broad-shouldered. It's no surprise that he won his games. His left arm ends in a stump where his hand should be when the girl from Four cut it off in a fight. He notices Clem looking at it, and her eyes dart away ashamedly.
"These are your mentors, kids: Seeder and Chaff," Juturna says. "Whilst I get the last few wrinkles ironed out, you should become equated with them."
Seeder steps forward and offers her hand. They shake it. Chaff puts his right hand out.
"Usually, we handle our respective sexes, but I'd like to work with Clem this year." He puts a hand on her shoulder. "I was your aunt's mentor."
"How did you-"
"When you have to do this job, you never forget the names."
Seeder gives her a small smile, and she leads Thatcher into another room. Chaff leads her to the dining room table and sits across from her.
"We're not being coached together?" Clem asks.
"No. Seeder and I prefer to keep you kids apart to avoid the risk of any tension within the district. It'd be unfair to Thatcher too, as I intend on putting all my energy into bringing you back alive."
Thinking about it, the kids from Eleven seem to avoid each other like the plague if they both survive the bloodbath. Rue McKissak, even though she was so young, avoided Thresh for the whole time.
She puts her chin on her hand.
"So what advice have you got for me? How am I getting out of this alive."
"I tell my kids to avoid the Cornucopia, but this year I can't get you anything from the outside. You're on your own in the arena. Sorry, kid."
Clem knew this going in, but somehow actually hearing it from her mentor hits her hard. Will she be six feet under in a few weeks' time, like the kids from Eleven have been for the past thirty years?
"So you're saying I should join the fight."
"No. Don't go near the actual Cornucopia, that's a good way to die quickly. There are usually supplies spread out around the center, decreasing in usefulness the further away from the Cornucopia they are.
If you're up to it, I'd suggest going about halfway, getting a backpack, and booking it out of there. The Career pack will be expecting everyone to run in, and you need to get out of there before they reach the weapons. It'll be your only chance to get anything because they're going to control that area for the rest of the games."
She moves her head into her hands. Chaff puts his hand on her arm, and they sit like that for a few moments. In any other circumstance, Clem would threaten to break this stranger's fingers, but she allows herself to be comforted. It helps that he reminds her of Pa a little bit. Did Chaff comfort Aunt Danica twenty-five years ago on this train? She wonders if they were talking about what strengths to play up in the arena. Chaff would've been much younger then, closer to Danica's age. Maybe he felt like an older brother instead of a father.
Clem lifts her head out of her palms and leans back in the chair.
"Okay, so I skirt the edges of the Cornucopia and pick up a bag and anything else useful. Then what."
"It depends on the arena. Usually, the arenas are pretty stock-standard, they tend to rotate between the same biomes with a few changes. But the Quarter Quell arenas are different. The first was a labyrinth, and the second was a poisonous forest. I can only really give you advice based on what I usually see, and then you'll have to adapt. What are your skills?"
"I'm one of the tallest girls in our zone, so I'm usually given a lot of the heavy lifting. I actually worked with Thresh Robinson. I can also handle harvesting tools well enough."
"Can you run?"
Clem squeezes her hands under the table. After a lifetime of watching tributes run for their lives, she knows what happens when you're too slow.
"I haven't really tried to before, but I'm assuming I'm alright."
"What about swimming?"
"Never tried before."
They go back and forth like this for forty minutes. She considers revealing her time in jail for attacking a few Peacekeepers during the riots last year, but opts not to. The compartment is definitely bugged. There's a lot of information to internalize, and it all begins blending together towards the end. When they finish, Chaff seems happy enough with her, and he leaves the room to speak to Seeder.
"I want you to double your body weight before the arena, so eat every chance you get."
There's a bowl of fruit in the middle of the table, real fruit, and she grabs an apple. It's gone in a few minutes. She reaches for an orange. She feels guilty but reminds herself that she needs to do what Chaff says. This is all for the tributes, anyway.
Chaff eventually returns, this time with Seeder, Thatcher, and Juturna Clay. Thatcher makes a point to avoid eye contact, but Seeder gives Clem a smile. Chaff calls her over to the lounge to watch the recap of the Reapings around the country. She picks up the bowl and follows them.
The girl from District 1 is the younger sister of a boy who won a few years ago. The boy from Four has skin as dark as she does, and she can't help but wonder if his family crossed through Eleven at some point. The boy from District 6 is the nephew of the female victor sitting on next to the mayor. Seeder must be friends with the woman because she makes a sympathetic noise when he takes to the stage.
When the girl from Seven steps out of the crowd, the camera focuses on the streaks of white throughout her brunette hair. The boy from Ten leaves the crowd of fifteen-year-olds, but he's taller than a lot of the eighteen-year-olds he passes. When he gets to the stage, he spits onto it.
Juturna Clay makes a noise. "Isn't he lovely."
Clem watches herself climb the stage and stand there; arms crossed in front of her and scowling slightly. She's pleased with how her muscles bunch up. In comparison, Thatcher looks pathetic. A weedy, malnourished kid.
District 12 passes without a note, and the Capitol commentators awkwardly try to move on to speculation. Thatcher and the others leave for bed. He's probably upset and overwhelmed by the day, but Clem stays on the couch despite her exhaustion. The commentators don't offer much information that could help, but they do mention Clem and the pair from Seven has potential underdogs. Like always, the front runners are the tributes from One, Two, and Four.
She sits for a while, allowing the squawk of the colorful Capitolites to drill into her brain.
Katniss Everdeen's status as the reigning victor is discussed, and how by the end of the month, she won't be the 'newest, freshest, baby victor of the bunch'. They then transition to discussion of the past two Quarter Quells and District 12's other victor, a pudgy middle-aged man named Haymitch Abernathy. Clem's seen him on the television, passing a bottle back and forth with Chaff. The programming actually plays the tapes, so Clem watches earnestly. Anything for a leg up.
The first Quarter Quell has the districts vote for their own tributes. The kids called up to the stage tend to fall into one of two categories; they have some sort of physical illness or disability, or they're hardened criminals. The pair from Eleven fall into the latter. The eventual victor, Marlowe Ware, is the younger sister of a man in Four who lured women into quiet areas and had his way with them for years before he was caught. She stands next to the escort, eyes full of rage.
The arena is a stone labyrinth, with a cubed area in the middle and four tunnels leading out into the labyrinth on each wall. These games are held in the Capitol, in a huge stadium where thousands of Capitolites could watch the slaughter live.
An alliance between a few of the criminal tributes seems to have been formed, and they take out half the field within the first hour by focusing on the sickly competitors. The alliance is split up when some of the passageways close, and Marlowe has a run-in with the boys from Six and Eight.
The boy from Eight is quick and grabs her arm, raising his knife to bring it down on her. She remedies this by slicing through his wrist with her hatchet. He's only just started to scream when the hatchet is buried in his skull. The guy from Six tries to knock her down while she's distracted, but she's light on her feet and maneuvers around him. Her fist grasps a handful of his hair, and his face is slammed into the wall.
He staggers back, blood dripping down his face, completely dazed and likely concussed. She pushes him back into the wall and leans into his ear, putting all of her body weight onto him.
"Your district will thank me when I see them on the tour."
He dies from an axe through his spine. Marlowe rushes through the maze, ignoring the cowering, ill tributes. She hunts down the members of the criminal alliance, and when the dust clears and the walls lower into the ground, it's between her and the boy from Seven, who was voted in for doing the exact thing Marlowe's brother was imprisoned for. They charge toward each other. The fight lasts thirty bloody minutes, but the trumpets go off for Marlowe, kneeled over next to the corpse of her opponent.
The second Quarter Quell has twice the amount of tributes. Twenty-four on a regular year seems like a lot, but forty-eight is overwhelming. When Aunt Danica climbs the stage, Clem inhales sharply, realizing how similar they look to each other. The arena is beautiful. Fluffy clouds, lush flora, and a snow-capped mountain. On the first night several tributes die from the poisonous nature of the arena from drinking the acidic water or inhaling the toxins from the flowers too directly.
Aunt Danica is stung by one of the butterflies on the second day and takes shelter on the mountain. Four days in, the mountain turns out to be a volcano. Danica is at the bottom, but the ledge she's under conceals what's happening above. She's one of twelve tributes killed by the lava.
The cameras follow Haymitch Abernathy and one of his district partners, who've allied together when she saved his life from three Career boys. She becomes increasingly frustrated with his desire to get through a hedge that spans one of the sides of the arena, and when it hits the final five competitors, they split up. She dies a few minutes later to birds with razor-sharp beaks. He holds her while she dies and spends the remaining hours sitting aimlessly by the hedge. Meanwhile, the girl from District 1 turns on her district partner and kills him, and the boy from Eight is devoured by fluffy golden squirrels. She begins the hunt for Haymitch shortly after.
She finds him when the sun is still up, flicking her tongue across her two front teeth like some sort of snake. It's apparent that she's not all there. The fight between them isn't pretty. He manages to stab her eye out before she buries her axe in his stomach, and he flees to the hedge. She follows him through it, and they come to the edge of a cliff. Realizing Haymitch is trapped and that she's bleeding out, she heaves her weapon at him. He collapses to the ground, and the weapon sails over where his head was, plummeting over the side of the cliff. She stands there panting, watching him convulse and waiting for him to die. What she didn't count on was the forcefield at the bottom of the cliff sending her weapon back up. There's a sickening crunch as it's buried in her head, and the trumpets play.
It's been a few years since Clem watched that tape, and she decides if she lives, it will be several more before she watches it again. She's in some sort of daze from watching the television for hours, and she realizes how late it is and how early she has to wake up. She quickly turns off the television and turns to go to her quarters, but she jumps when she makes eye contact with Thatcher, who's leaning against the back wall.
"How long were you standing there for?" She asks.
"Well, I watched both tapes in full with you. If we were in the arena, I could've killed you, like, two hours ago."
"Well we're not in the arena, so don't do that again."
He shrugs and walks over to the table, picking up a banana from the fruit bowl. Clem watches him warily.
"Why are you awake?" She asks. " We're supposed to be up pretty early tomorrow."
"I tried watching the television to fall asleep, but the program was all about the Hunger Games. The Capitolites seem to be really excited about this 'special event'." He makes air quotes with his fingers. "Amaryllis keeps being brought up as a frontrunner because of her brother."
"Amaryllis?"
"The girl from District 1. Her older brother won the seventy-second games."
They stand there, staring at each other. A flicker of irritation licks at Clem. What does he want? The only reason she can think of as to why he's hanging around is for an alliance, but telling her that he could've killed her when she wasn't looking isn't a friendly thing to do. She trusts Chaff's advice
She mentally scolds herself for not hearing Thatcher. He's right. If this was the arena, she'd be dead. It's dangerous to write someone off in the games, and she'll definitely be keeping an eye on him from now on.
She purses her lips.
"Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow."
He nods. "See you tomorrow."
She slips into the dark hallway, uneasy, and briskly walks to her room. Unnerved by the whole thing, she makes sure the door is locked behind her. If he was standing over when she woke up she wouldn't be shocked.
There are pajamas laid out on the bed, but she pushes them to the floor and climbs under the sheets in her day clothes. The bed is soft, softer than anything she's ever laid on, but she understands the illusion. She doesn't trust anything the Capitol is gifting her.
The exhaustion of the day hits her, and her eyes grow heavy as the train rocks hypnotically, but sleep doesn't come. Her mind flits through the faces of her fellow tributes and the idea of how difficult the next few weeks are going to be. She's over it already. Somewhere in the train, she swears she can feel Thatcher slinking through the darkness.