The 25th Hunger Games

The Training

"Rise and shine!" a voice wailed from the other side of my door. As if the stupid Capitol alarm clock wasn't enough, now I had Sariel waking me up, too.

"I'm up," I groan as I flipped out of bed.

"And ready to train, I hope," Sariel replied.

I only groaned. "Give me a few minutes."

"The tributes trying to kill you won't give you a few minutes!" With those words, the events of the night before came flooding back to me. Apparently Sariel had held true to his promise and waited until now to bring up death, and in the flashiest way possible. I couldn't help but crack a smile I was glad he couldn't see.

I found an outfit already on my bed. A black top and pants, stretchy enough to run in, strong enough to hold up for the day. I wondered if Angeline picked it out for me after what she saw me in yesterday. We would never know, I guess. I tossed it on and met Sariel in the hallway.

"Great, let's go," he said, not even waiting for me as he started walking. "The other tributes will be there already, including Kane."

"You mean I have to deal with people?" I grumbled. People who wanted to be better than me, who wanted to live longer than me, who wanted to kill me.

"You need to have a better attitude about this," Sariel said, all joking aside. "Not all of these people are bad, and you need allies. Meet at least a few people you don't want to kill today."

In the elevator ride, I thought of the reaping videos I watched. There were certainly some strong people out there, and I was from the career district. Maybe some allies wouldn't be a bad idea.

The elevator opened to a huge room, all open spaces, filled with racks and racks of weapons. The walls were lined with hi def screens and keyboards, and different stations were scattered around the room.

There were hardly any people in there at all. Just two boys talking, one of them the from One, and a boy and girl who appeared to be tying knots.

Great, everyone was paired up and I was all alone. I discovered Kane in the corner, throwing spears at a hollagraph, but I didn't dare join him. I wasn't that desperate.

Sariel told me I either had to focus on fighting or surviving today, because I'd do the opposite tomorrow. I figured since there was no one to impress today, I was better off learning some practical knowledge. Plus, it was a good reason to go everywhere Kane wasn't. The Academy had given me enough basic knowledge on things, but that was something One and Two would have in common. I'd have to think outside the box if I wanted to survive.

I walked over to a screen not far away from the boy and girl. I heard the boy asking about allies, but the girl appeared to be on her own. They ignored me as I tried to focus on the screen.

Touch the plants safe for eating. Seemed simple enough. The keyboard turned into a picture filled with a hundred leaves. I recognized a few, burdock and pigweed, but others I had to guess on until I fixed my mistakes. It was a painstaking process, and it made me wish I had just decided to fight today.

I moved on to the fire station because I already knew that. I made a few fires, each with different material. After one of the Capitol people went into a detailed explanation of how long it would take to cook each animal I might catch (in case you were wondering, it's 8 minutes for squirrel meat), I decided I knew more than I wanted to and it was time to move on.

After playing around with knots I would never remember and testing water for salt content, training starts emptying out and I'm hungry for dinner anyway. I was heading towards the elevator when a voice stopped me.