The 122nd Annual Hunger Games: The Anti-Careers

Let The Games Begin

XXI, i - Fearcher Triggs, District 9 Male

Bailey and I were ushered into the stale, tiled room not wildly decorated, the tube for sending me into the arena standing proud in the back untouched as the arenas were always new. We were then seated at a table for two, another table set up about a meter from us carrying all our choices in breakfast. I sprang from my spot to grab a few biscuits and fill myself up on sausage, forcing everything I ate to stay down which I washed down with a tall cup of apple juice. Bailey on the contrary simply filled herself a cup halfway with coffee but did not add anything to the black mixture like she normally did.

For a while, nothing was said as Bailey took tiny sips from her coffee and I stuffed small bits of food into my mouth, anticipating that to be my last full meal. We would exchange the occasional worried glance and simply try to breath calm to focus our minds off the games. But that was inevitable.

The time we were meant to stay inside the room was approximately one hour leading up to ten in the morning. When there was thirty minutes left, Bailey me left alone so she could spend the other half of the time with Saffie. The other tributes had one whole hour with their mentor unlike District 9, where we had only one available mentor for the 122nd games; I was sure even District 12 had two mentors.

I wasn't sure quite how but I contracted some sickness which left my nose feeling clogged, my eyes itching for seemingly no reason, and my throat with a warm, rough feeling. When I revealed to Bailey my problem, she refused to lift me to the nurse and instead diagnosed me herself, claiming I had a simple illness which she helped me treat by forcing me to gargle a salty solution and finding the right medicine in one of the cabinets of our apartment.

Time was soon dwindling more rapidly than before, my safety within the tile room soon to vanish. An announcing system gave time reminders; thirty minutes, fifteen minutes, ten minutes, five minutes. I refrained from eating for the last fifteen minutes to let my stomach settle but I could feel an increasing pain throughout my body, anxious for the next hour; I could die very soon and I was on the verge of crying vigorously during the last few minutes. About a second after the system announced that there was only one minute left to enter the tube to send me straight up into the arena, Bailey barged in out of breath, her face scarred with her newly found tears. After regaining control of her breathing, she engulfed me in a hug which I reciprocated quickly.

"Fearcher, I'm sorry, really sorry," she said with tears bleeding onto my shoulder.

"Sorry? For what?" I questioned, not understanding her sudden feelings. Before that moment during the entire process, Bailey had been distant from Saffie and I and refused to be engaging about The Hunger Games process. Her crying forced me to fall apart finally, me pouring tears with her.

"I-I'm just sorry, sorry this has to happen to you." Her strength increased, locking me in place. I found it odd that she was the one who couldn't let go. But maybe just because I would rather collapse on the ground unless if I had Fletcher, perhaps.

"Thirty seconds," the announcer rang, more stern than ever. Peacekeepers showed up to ensure that I would be entering the tube.

Bailey and I held tight until one of the guards was standing right in front of us, his tall demeanor striking fear in us; it was time. He pried me from Bailey and shoved me into the tube which was followed up by Bailey's final speech.

"Fearcher!" she shouted quickly. I jabbed my head towards her who was being constricted from getting closer to me by the guard. I listened intently to her instructions as time ran out. "Figure out where you are. Locate any type of basic weapon, a good knife. When the timer starts, watch yourself. Grab that weapon. Get out. Run. Go far. Run for your life, dammit! Get away as fast as you can. Find water, stay hidden, avoid all fights unless it's the last! And- "