Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
District Four Male, Zale Tulius, 18
He'd been right.
There was something wrong with the twins from Two.
None of the mutts went near them, and it was only as the last of the tributes in the hall were either dragged under the water or escaped through the passages that they decided to open their door and shout their alliance through.
Zale decided to stick with the door he was closest to, though it separated him from Arika.
He was perfectly happy with that. Their relationship had been deteriorating for years; she was their parents' prodigal golden child, while he was just… him. He could be second in his year academically, he could be one of the Academy's top trainees since he turned fourteen, and none of it would ever matter, because he wasn't Arika. Nothing he ever did would be good enough for them.
This passageway was almost empty, other than a handful of kids from one of the outer Districts turning a corner ahead as the door slammed closed. It didn't matter. It seemed kills wouldn't be so important in this Game. More of them could live.
With any luck, he and Arika wouldn't have to kill each other.
Zale jogged on towards the end of the passage, his backpack banging against his back. Abalone was here somewhere, though she'd refused any alliances on the hovercraft. But there were plenty of other tributes. He could find a new alliance.
District Two Female, Freya Slate Harmon, 15
"What are we waiting for?" she asked Aelianna, clutching the pledge the older girl was sitting on. "We have the keys, and there are mutts in the water!"
"Just watching," replied Aelianna as she rose to her feet. "But you might be right. Alexios, I think we'd best get going."
Alexios nodded and slid from the ledge into the water before climbing up alongside his sister.
"You two wanna hurry up?" asked Arika, glancing around anxiously.
"We're opening it, we're opening it." Alexios rattled the keys hooked around his wrist. "Here we go."
The water was rising up far too close to the ceiling as the door hissed open. Aelianna grabbed Freya's arm and yanked her through as water poured into the passageway.
"Finally," muttered Arika, climbing inside.
Prophecy was last, scrambling up and through the door as the countdown reached five. There couldn't be many left in the hall now, though any that remained would be facing a sure death, either by mutts or drowning.
"Why'd you wait so long?" asked Arika.
Alexios shrugged. "Thought it might be fun."
They were District Two. Everything Freya had been taught said the three of them needed to form the Career pack, to fight together and make sure one of them, if not all of them, in this Game, went home alive.
But the Macedons were treating this like… well, a game game. Freya wasn't sure what to think of that yet.
"We're not here to have fun," said Prophecy.
Alexios laughed. "Sure we are! Have fun and menace the other tributes, that's us!"
Freya glanced at Prophecy. She was District One, but she understood their position better than the twins.
And it was still the rule that the alliance would have to break eventually. Zale was already gone.
Maybe he'd known something she didn't.
District Eleven Male, Bakula Kalanit, 12
He had pressed himself against the metal wall of the passageway as more tributes poured through the door.
None of them were Saigon.
He reached for one of the District Twelve boys. "Have you seen my brother?"
The boy shook his head and pulled away, disappearing down the passage. Bakula scanned the others there with him and found Cash, grabbing her arm. "Have you seen Saigon?"
She looked at him, wide-eyed. "He was gonna get through one of the other doors. Come on, we gotta keep going. There's mutts–"
"I can't leave without him–"
"He'll have got through that other door! Come on!"
Bakula didn't know what to do. He couldn't leave without Saigon, surely Saigon wouldn't leave without him – but he couldn't stay here either. Not if there were mutts in the area now. He and Cash would never stand a chance.
"Bakula!"
He closed his eyes and pressed his hand to the door. "I'll find you," he whispered as tears burned his eyes. "I promise I'll find you."
"Come on!" Cash shouted again.
This time, Bakula turned and ran.
District Seven Male, Micah Bradley, 14
He'd found himself amid a crush of other tributes, led by the older girl from Twelve, who was calling for them and waving them on.
"Keep going, stick together! Don't get separated! We don't have to fight!"
"Tributes always end up fighting!" shouted someone Micah couldn't see.
He couldn't see anyone from his District either. He'd lost Iris and Terro while he was swimming, and Sage was so small she'd get lost in the rush.
All he could do was keep moving.
He wasn't sure that was what the Harvest King would do, he should make sure his subjects were safe – but if they'd already gone ahead, or gone through another door…
Micah kept moving.
Around him, some of the tributes were crying, or calling out for each other. Some replies came from much further up, but others went unheeded.
No one shouted for him.
But that was expected. No one ever shouted for him, just like no one ever chose him for anything. He was the outcast.
Up ahead, the passageway split into three, one branch that continued straight ahead and sloped upwards, and two staircases at either side.
"Which way?" called the boy from Nine.
The girl from Twelve glanced around, as though trying to calculate. "I… don't know. Just– straight on, let's just keep going!"
Micah slowed as he passed the staircases, peering up them. It was tempting. But then he'd be alone. He didn't want that.
Turning away from the staircases, he continued with the others down the passageway.
District Nine Male, Wolf Willows, 18
They had been the first into this passage, and although voices were echoing from behind them, no one had come this far yet.
"Can we kill more?" asked Wren, fingering her blade.
Wolf shook his head. "That sounds like a big group, and there's only two of us. I don't think we should start a fight yet."
They reached a branching point in the passageway, where one route became three. Wren pointed upwards. Wolf nodded and took off after her.
The staircase there led up and up, twisting in a tight circle. Wolf really hoped they weren't running straight into a trap.
Up ahead, thin lights illuminated the darkness. Wren slowed, glancing down behind them.
"If anyone catches up, we kill them," replied Wolf.
It was more possible in an enclosed space like this; they had the high ground. But they didn't know how many there were, and if there were many.
Wren paused, looking back down the stairs. "I can?"
He grabbed her arm. "Not now!"
They continued upwards as the space got tighter and tighter. If the walls closed in any more, they might not be able to continue. They might have made a bad decision, choosing the stairs.
"There's a door!" Wren called from ahead.
"Perfect!"
District Twelve Male, Gregory Reagis, 13
He wasn't sure how or when it had happened, but he'd lost Sally. Probably when he was swimming. Cali too. Kai was still with him though, racing ahead down the passageway and pausing every so often to wave for him to continue. Greg glanced back over his shoulder. The boy from Eleven that had been looking for his brother was finally on the move, stumbling along behind the girl from his District.
They'd lost both their leaders in the chaos, but all he could do right now was keep moving. He'd stuck to the main passageway instead of taking off up one of the stairways, as had most of the other tributes. It was growing narrower the further they went, forcing them to thin out and move in pairs.
"There's a door!" shouted a boy ahead.
Kai grinned and tugged at his arm, though he stayed quiet.
"Does it need keys?" asked someone.
"No," said the boy from Three, and pushed it open.
A red counter appeared above it, counting back from sixty.
Cries of horror and alarm echoed through the passageway. Kai yanked on his arm, dragging him forward. Someone pushed him from behind.
"Get out the way!"
"We need to get in!"
"Move!"
"Go!"
"Go!"
"Go!"
Someone shoved him into the wall, knocking the air from his lungs. Kai pulled him onwards. Greg barely avoided tripping over his own feet as they crossed the doorway threshold. Behind them, others were still still shouting to enter what turned out to be a small, round space, with bunks fixed to the wall. Kai scrambled onto one and held his hand out to pull Greg up alongside him.
"You're not so bad for a weird kid," said Greg.
The last tribute, a girl, had barely fallen inside when the door slammed shut with an electronic hiss.
District Seven Male, Terro Fields, 18
Squeezing through the narrow opening at the top of the staircase was no easy task, and Terro tumbled into the little room at the other side. Two and the girl from Eight, who had gone before him, had had a much easier time, being thinner and smaller.
The door slammed closed behind him.
Two giggled. "Cut that one close."
"Could you maybe not laugh at my near death?"
Two shrugged. "You've made it."
"That's not my point!"
"Then what is?"
The girl from Eight raised her hands. "Maybe you should both just calm down. None of us are dead, focus on that."
Two turned to investigate the room, running her hands along the walls and across the bunks inset onto the walls. "Looks like barracks."
"So what are we meant to do here?" Terro snapped.
"Please await instructions," said that same voice from the preparation rooms.
Terro jumped. "What?"
"Please await instructions."
Two shrugged. "Well, I guess we know what we're doing here."
"You are not helpful."
District Eleven Female, Cashew Murphey, 12
The room was painfully small, as though the walls were closing in on her. Cash clung to Bakula's hand. He brushed her off.
"Is this it?" asked Cash, peering around the room.
"Where's the rest of the arena?" asked a boy.
"There must be another door!"
There were far too many of them in here. Maybe she should have tried a staircase. Cash grabbed one of the upper bunks and scrambled up out the way. On the next bunk over, the two boys from Twelve had done the same.
"What now?" she asked.
"Maybe they're going to crush us," said the boy from Three.
"Then they'd have just done it in the big hall," reasoned Cash.
"Maybe they wanted us to suffer," said one of the boys from Twelve, before turning to grown at the other. "You look smug."
The other boy shrugged and did something with his hands before crawling to the other end of the bunk to lean against the wall.
"This can't be the end," said the boy from Three, beginning to check the walls and tap his hands against them.
"Please await instructions," said a voice. The woman from the preparation rooms.
"Instructions?" asked Cash.
"Please await instructions."
"Well," said the boy from Three, climbing onto one of the lower bunks, "I guess that means they're not gonna crush us."
"So we just wait?" asked his District partner.
"I guess so."
Cash grinned, dangling her legs from the bunk. "So. I'm Cash."