[Flowers] • The Hunger Games

Five

"Okay. This year's careers." Asteria began at dinner. She hadn't touched anything since breakfast. Everyone in the room could tell her mood was a lot worse than when they'd last seen her, but no one dared as her about it.

"Careers are tributes from the richest districts who train in special academies to be the best killers they can possibly be. That's almost always one and two, sometimes four. Career districts typically have a line of volunteers, so there are systems in place as to who gets chosen when. They're agile, strong, and usually skilled with an array of different weapons. But a lot of them are stupid. Their own hubris gets in the way of them making rational survival decisions." Asteria told them. "From district one, Marvel and Glimmer. They're fierce, but no noteworthy strength or skills above that of the average career. The tributes from district two are much more lethal. Cato and Clove. Don't let Clove's small frame fool you, she is deadly. Stronger than she looks. Cato is utterly convinced he's going to win the games. And he's got enough strength behind him to crush a windpipe almost instantly. No doubt, these four will pick out a few other tributes to join their pack."

"Is that a good or a bad thing?" Madge asked her.

"Depends," Haymitch chimed in. "Could be either. If Cato is as egotistical as he seems, it might cause the group to turn on one another. Less tributes for either of you to have to deal with."

"Actually- Gale." Asteria turned to him. He'd been listening in on the conversation, but hadn't really said much since he'd gotten back from training. "Did the careers see you shoot today?" She asked.

"Yeah. I guess so, why?" He tilted his head a bit as he leaned back in his chair.

"What did they think?"

"How am I supposed to know?" He asked, a bit annoyed.

"They loved it." Madge spoke up. Gale shot her a look, but she continued anyway. "Everyone was watching him. He definitely kept up the careless and confident exterior you told him to. He was getting headshot after headshot without breaking a sweat."

"Good." Asteria nodded, thinking for a moment. "Gale, I want you to get involved with the career pack. For your first few days an alliance isn't inherently an awful plan."

"But you said-" Madge started.

"I know what I said." Asteria told her, before sighing. "That was assuming you were an average tribute. But Gale isn't. He's already gotten the attention of the careers. He can use that to his advantage if he's smart about it."

"Why would I even want to team up with them? They train their whole lives to be these perfect little killers. Darlings of the Capitol. Careers are no better than the game makers." Gale argued with her.

"Sure, I completely agree with you. But the fact is they can keep you alive past the first day. Look-" Asteria sighed, standing up from the table. She moved to change the screen in the living room where they could all see. Since she'd left her notebook with Finnick, she'd started keeping numbers virtually. On screen was a bunch of statistics, numbers that didn't mean anything to anyone but her. She clicked on a specific set and projected it for them all to see.

"There are 24 tributes in every game. On average, 10-14 of those will die in the cornucopia bloodbath alone. 2-3 more typically die in the following minutes or hours on their way away from the center. Even taking the lesser of those numbers- surviving until the second day takes your odds from 1/24 to 1/12. Doubling your odds of winning." She explained, the numbers on her chart backing up her deduction. "Being a part of the career pack, hunting down other tributes, usually yields another 3 or so dead tributes in the first few days. That takes your odds to about 1/8, assuming that one of the careers will most likely die of natural causes or planted traps in the first 10-14 days. I would advise you to gauge how trustworthy these careers really are. If the group already has infighting, I suggest you either disappear or start taking them out by the time there are only 10 total tributes left. If they seem to be more co-operative, you can wait until there's only 7 or 8."