One Fell Swoop { A Banana Bus / Hunger Games Story }

Chapter Six - Bridges Built and Burned

Training was taking too long, Marcel concluded, but he needed to relish the time he had alive. His district partner, Jay, had receded into the corner of the survival side of the room. The first two days Jay was confident with his abilities in training, but then he stepped back and observed everyone else, which caused him to break down. District 11 rarely won the games, so there were two routes Marcel could take. He could grovel about his misfortune like Jay, or he could take initiative and build a support base, an alliance. It was definitely the second choice.

Marcel swivelled around the room, he was looking for an idle group, or a group that was doing something he enjoyed. Spears clattered to the ground and knives hit their mark, but Marcel's eyes were drawn to two men at the archery. One was muscular, tight fit clothing and side swept hair, he was aiming at the target. In one movement the arrow soared and sunk into the fabric left of centre. The smaller man clapped, immediately asking how to aim the bow properly.

Marcel walked up to the two men and picked up a bow for himself. He drew a single arrow and shot it at the muscled man's target, landing right of the bullseye. The duo swivelled around to face Marcel, stunned by his presence.

"Oh sorry, didn't see you there. I'm Scotty and this is Ryan, but he prefers to go by Smitty," the muscled man, Scotty, introduced them. Marcel grinned and nodded his head.

"Sweet, I'm Marcel. I have a few things down about archery but I was hoping you'd be able to show me a bit more?" Marcel asked, raising an eyebrow at Scotty.

"Yeah, you can learn along with me, the more the merrier, right?" Smitty chimed in, smiling at Marcel. Marcel nodded and stood by Scotty's other side as he drew another arrow.

"When did you two meet? Did you know each other at the reaping?" Marcel asked, eying the two men. They looked at each other quizzically.

"Oh, we aren't from the same district, I met Scotty on the first day by the axes. He was hurling them like no tomorrow and I thought, damn, I gotta learn how to do that," Smitty explained while Scotty shot an arrow, missing the bullseye by mere inches.

"There's not much to do out in District 9. Grain, seriously? My brothers and I spent a lot of time fighting when we were younger, so I'm not too bad with my fists either," Scotty said, smirking a bit. Marcel raised an eyebrow. Was Scotty trying to intimidate Marcel already? Was he trying to squash Marcel into his personal hierarchy in the group?

"That's awesome, we'll have to have a fist fight over there soon," Marcel challenged, vaguely gesturing in the direction of the hand to hand combat.

Scotty met Marcel's eyes, clearly shocked to have received a rebuttal. They stared at each other, Marcel taking in the shape of Scotty's jaw and lips. Then a knife clattered to the floor by Smitty's feet.

A small, stocky man ran over and knelt down to grab the knife. His wavy blonde hair fell in front of his beady, bloodshot eyes. He was at least half a foot shorter than Marcel, who wasn't tall to begin with.

"O-oh, I'm sorry for disturbing you, I'll just get back to defusing my bomb," the man said, before scampering off. The three men looked at each other before hurrying after the boy.

"Hey wait! Did you say defusing a bomb? Is there a way you could show us some things about bombs? We're Smitty, Scotty, and Marcel by the way," Smitty exclaimed, holding a hand out to the jittery stranger. He smiled when he realised he was about to gain some allies.

"Not a problem, I know a few things about electronics, I'm John, but I go by my last name Kryoz," Kryoz introduced. He set to work on the wires and bits of metal, showing the trio how to harvest parts of a bomb to make a fire.