Dead Trees

Chapter 4

Maple stared into my eyes with her own wide and puzzled look on her face. What did this mean? What plan were we supposed to follow once the games started. Trench congratulated us on our scores and I couldn't tell if he was being genuine or not but I decided against reading into it, whether our mentor truly was satisfied with our result or not wasn't something I needed to worry my mind about.

Tomorrow would be the interviews and would be our last chance to gain some favor with the sponsors before the games started, in the opening ceremony the crowd loved Maple and I assumed she was going to be play the same cute, loveable girl in the interviews. I, however, had no idea what I was going to do, I hadn't distinguished myself in the opening ceremony and my only real trait that the viewers would find desirable was my strength and size but getting a six in the assessments paired with the fact that some of the tributes from districts one, two and eleven looked like they would be able to break me in half made me doubt that even the capitol would fall for this act.

Trench struggled to think of anything else I could lean on in the interview so we decided that I should try to stay as mysterious as possible by giving short answers and staring off into the distance.

"The people here love that sort of thing, and don't smile, they love when tributes are brooding."

He asked me some practice questions so I could get the hang of this behavior but even for me it didn't take long, all I had to do was focus on a point in the distance and reply with a "yes" or "no." We finished our interview prep with an hour left before Trench would school Maple, so we discussed tactics for the arena.

"Don't trust any animals you don't recognize." Was a piece of advice that he emphasized, I didn't recall watching the games Trench won, his grey hair indicated it might have been before I was born, but I wondered what he encountered in his arena that made him think this was the most important piece of advice he could give. It brought back a memory of a few years ago when I watched a beast that looked like a bull with one horn coated in armor impale three separate tributes. I made sure not to hint at the strategy I had in mind for the opening minutes of the games, Maple and I still had not decided on how we were going to deal with us getting identical scores in the assessments.

After some more time talking, I traded Trench for Sergius. Fortunately, my time with him went by quick, he lectured me on an interview etiquette and criticized the way I walked, calling me an angry chimp; I didn't know what a chimp was but the comment didn't sound complimentary. After a while I was presented with my attire for the interview, the hideous brown and green checkered tuxedo made me miss my tree costume from the opening ceremony. My disappointment with my outfit was magnified when I saw Maple in her puffy orange dress with a green pattern, it was the nicest outfit I had seen since arriving in the capitol.

The interviews began with Caesar Flickerman introducing the games and began working through the tributes starting with District One, these tributes were very charismatic, joking with Caesar and concluding their interview with thunderous applause from the audience. The District Two tributes came off as confident and lethal, talking about the large arsenal of weapons they were able to use. The District Four girl; whose name was Cove and had the highest individual score, seemed like she couldn't care less about Caesar and the audience and this only made their applause at the end of her interview even louder. Capitol people are strange.

When it got to Maple, she naturally won over the crowd almost instantly, curtsying at Caesar and laughing at everything he said, it was clear she was nervous but in a way that made her seem more likeable and genuine. In my own interview I did what Trench and I had practiced.

"So, Blight, you seemed a little shy during your reaping, are you nervous to be here?"

"No."

"How are you feeling about your competition."

"I don't think they'll be a problem."

It was clear I was losing the interest of the crowd and Caesar might have been suspecting I was mentally deficient, so I began putting a bit more depth into my answers.

"So, you got a six in your assessments, is that what you were expecting."

"It's just a number Caesar, once the games start it won't matter." The audience seemed to become a bit more attentive after this, it didn't sound very interesting to me, I had never been very good at speaking on the spot, but if it made the crowd more interested then it couldn't be a bad thing.

The district eight boy after my interview was the only standout after District Seven, he was dressed in a much more tasteful suit compared to his absurd costume in the opening ceremony. He looked a bit weaker and shorter than me but he was very talkative and even put his arm around Caesar at the end of his interview.

When we went back to floor seven Maple and I sat down in the main room, either one or both of us could be dead by this time tomorrow and so neither of us was in a rush to go to sleep. Trench had reminded us not to stay up too late, we didn't know when we would get a good night's rest again.

We sat in silence until Maple said, looking out the window "let's do it."

At first, I wasn't completely sure what she was talking about, I looked in her direction.

"You think we can get in and out of the cornucopia before the bloodbath kicks off? Fine let's do it."

I was not sure if I was imagining this or not.

"Are you sure?" I asked, after the District Two tribute's speech about the ways they knew how to kill people, I was having second thoughts.

"If I am going to die in that arena I am going to die with an axe in my hand." She said with certainty.

It was settled then, tomorrow once the gong sounded the District Seven tributes would enter the cornucopia bloodbath.

Maple got up and without saying anything hugged me, then in silence she went to her room. With nothing else to do I went to try to make the most of my last night in a bed.