A knock at the door makes me jump. I expect Briggite, Sylvia, maybe even Isaac to enter my room, but no one does. It must've been an Avox waking me up. For what reason, I do not know. It's not until I see the training outfit on the far side of my bed. I soon realize that training starts today. Today starts it all. Where I meet my friends and enemies, where I learn how to survive for the games.
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All twenty-four of us stand in one full circle around a raised platform. I stand next to Isaac and the boy from 6. On the platform stands a tall, dark skinned woman."My name is Atala," she states, "I'll be your instructor for the time that you are here. Two days to be exact." Two days. Two days to learn all the essentials for surviving. "The only advice I have for you is to not get into any fights with the other tributes and not to ignore the survival skill stations." Her voice hardens, "As a reminder that twenty-three of you will be dead in a couple weeks. Off you go." She finishes. Already, the Careers sprint off toward the weapons.
Some tributes seem shy to the situation, not knowing which station to go to, or to try and form an alliance. I take a glance around at the different stations and finally choose the tree climbing station. I figure this is a good choice as I most likely will have to climb one in the arena to survive. At the station is a young man.
"Hi," he says, "my name is Albus. Not many people come to this station," he laughs, "so I'm surprised you came."
"Well, I need to learn how to climb a tree well so I can have a chance at surviving. Oh, and by the way, my name is Lyra."
"Okay. Let's start off with the basics." He says. "First, you'll need to find a tree with sturdy branches so when you're fifty feet up, the branches won't snap and you plummet to your death." He talks about how to place your feet and hands, and many other stuff. "Let's see how much you've learned." He says and points to an artificial tree behind him. It goes about a hundred feet up. No harnesses or roped or a mat to cushion me if I fall. Also, there isn't any branches that stick out for me to hold on too, only little stubs of one. The branches get longer about forty feet up. I'm going to have to climb forty feet just to make sure I don't fall in the cement.
I place my hand on a little stub of a branch and my other hand, on another. I lift myself up, pulling myself up and now placing my feet where my hands were. Foot by foot I climb getting higher and higher. Finally, I reach to be the point from where the branches stick out. I hoist myself up and look over the training center. All around I see the tributes throwing spears, practicing hand-to-hand combat, and starting fires. Albums calls from below. "You can come on down now! I honk you got the hang of it, but you can go higher if you want!" And higher I go. I'm picking up my pace, when my foot slips on a branch. I go down, but grab a branch. I'm now holding myself up by two hands. Albums shouts for someone to come and help. Tributes gather all around the tree. Some look worried, but the Careers sneer at me. Gravity takes over, and starts to pull me down. With all my might, I lift myself up. Once again, I'm standing on the branch from where my one foot slipped from. My heart is pounding. Once I climb down Albus says, "You gave me a heart attack there for a second. But I'm glad you managed to pull yourself back up. I'd say that you could be from District Seven by the way you climbed!"
"Thanks." I smile. "It was nice meeting you." I walk away, to go to my next station.
From behind me, I hear a shout. "You can do this, Lyra! Even though you've shown so little, you can win!" I can't help but smile. If he thinks I can win just by climbing agree, maybe I actually have a chance the pull this off.
After learning how to set snares and start a fire, a bell rings. We're all called into a lunchroom. I sit near the back of the room and wait for Isaac. He comes in with a boy by his side. I recognize him as the boy from 3. Acer Oleski was his name, I think. He has golden blonde hair down to his ears and has bright green eyes. They sit down across from me.
"Lyra, this is Acer." Isaac says. "We met up at the spear station. We've been thinking about an alliance."
"Already?" I argue. "Don't you think it's a little too early?" Acer butts in.
"Listen here, just because we just met doesn't mean we can't be allies. I trust Isaac, and he trusts me." Acer gives me a cold, hard smile. Whatever this kid wants, it's to kill Isaac. I can't let that happen. I won't let that happen. I leave the table and walk over to one and sit down by myself. At 12:30 the bell rings again.
Again, Atala stands at the center platform. "Over there you can see the Gauntlets. The Gauntlets is an obstacle course in which all of you will jump from platform to platform and try to finish in the fastest time possible. To make it more difficult, trainers will swing clubs at you. You'll have to dodge those and they are padded. We wouldn't want to injure any of you before the games." All of us form a line, the Careers first in line. I stand in about the middle in between the girl from 8 and the boy from 9. The girl from district 2 is up first. She sprints across the gauntlets swiftly. Trainers swing the clubs at her, but she dodges them all. She reaches the landing in eight seconds. She starts shown the next one. A trainer swings at her legs. She jumps and ducks at the next club swung at her. Finally she finishes in seventeen seconds. Tribute after tribute attempt. The boy from 11 gets hit in the back of the head with a club and the girl from district 6 was hit at the legs. Now it's my turn.
I start to run to the landing platform. One trainer swings at my head. I see it coming and duck. I'm surprised at how well I'm doing. So far. A club is swung at my legs. I jump, then another is swung at my head. I duck, feeling it as it passes over me. I reach the landing. I run even faster. I jump onto a platform and a club is swung in front of me. I jump back to the platform behind me. Then I see an opening and run. As I'm running, I barely register the club as it barrels towards me. I hit the ground hard. My jaw slams off of it. I get up as fast as I can to finish. My time was twenty-seven seconds. I don't consider it all that bad.
The Careers stick to the Gauntlets for a while. I head over to the knife throwing station. After another hour, I've learned quite a lot about how to throw them. That the knife travels three rotations per knife length, and you have to know how much force to put on the throw. Tomorrow I'll learn some new weapons and more skills, but I'll focus mainly on the other tributes. What they act like, their strong and weak points, and what weapons they use.
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After a filling dinner with Isaac, Briggite, Sylvia, and the two stylists, I go to bed. I don't want anyone bothering me for now. Tomorrow, is our last day to train. On the third day, I'll show the Gamemakers a skill of mine. I still have yet to figure out what I'll show them. But for now, I'll just think about tomorrow and how my death is getting closer and closer.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE:
ugh this chapter took two hours to write no joke. but it's finally done and I hope you enjoy it ! yay it's getting closer to the actual games yas I can't wait to write that part!
"Exposure can kill as easily as a knife."
