Ruins of the past

Chapter 10

It's the last day before the games, the atmosphere is way colder, everyone is more reserved.
I'm sitting on the floor, trying to start a fire. It will keep me warm and I can cook food.
"Hard?", asks a familiar voice.
I nod and look up, Curen now sits to my left.
"So", he starts, "what do you think the arena is going to look like? I hope it doesn't involve water or climbing."
"I hope it's a forest or something like that, they normally don't make the weather too extreme there. But it's a Quarterquell so it could be anything. I'm also curious how they incorperated the ruins."
I want to talk about the rebellion, but it would be my death sentence. We're being watched right now, every second since we've been reaped.
We sit there, training, not talking.
It's this nice kind of silence, not awkward.
"You know, I overheard you and your mentor ealier. Mine isn't much better", he tells me.
"But I'm used to it, living in a poor district and with my situation, nobody thinks I'm going to win anyways so it's fine."
"Your situation?"
"Yeah, my parents died a few years back so now I live with my older sister", he explained.
His voice is cold and quiet.
"I don't have much to loose so I'm not really worried because of tomorrow. What about you?"
Tommorow, the arena.
"I don't really have a great connection with my parents but", I stop for a second, can I trust him?
"But I have a best friend back home", I finish my sentence.
It's a generic information, knowing this won't grant him any advantage.

"Good luck", I whisper when Tato is being called into the trainings room for his private training session.
He smiles at me, then enters the room.
I've decided that I'm going to show them how good I am with swords, they wouldn't care for survival techniques. What they want to see is brutality.
Finally I am allowed to enter the small room.
The  Gamemakers sit there and talk, I'm the last one so they're already bored.
I try to get their attention by announcing what i'm going to do, but all I get are a few short glances at me.

It's late at night, the Interview started a while back.
I'm nervous, this is probably my only chance to get sponsors.
I can't remember much about the careeros, they all said the same.
They love the games, have rich families, think they're going to win, brag and laugh at bad jokes.
Ore being the exeption, he was pretty quiet and didn't talk much at all. His arm looks like nothing happened.
Chryss had some guy with her to translate her sign language.
Lera gets called up, I watch her. She's wearing a light green dress with darker spots at the bottom, her hair in a braid.
I just can't concentrate, it feels like a weird dream, time seems to go by way too fast.
"Vivus Redis! The male tribute for district thirteen this year!"
I slowly stand up and enter the stage, the interviewer smiles at me and points to the comfortable looking seat, black and made out of leather.
After I sat down he begins talking.
"So, welcome! Glad to have you here. Let's start simple: Do you want to greet someone?"
I blink a few times, harsh light blends me. The crowd applauded when I entered, now sits still and looks at me.
"Yeah", I manage to say, "My family and my best friend."
"Oh, a best friend. Do you want to tell us their name?"
I shake my head. Only now I can take a closer look at him. He has extremly short white hair, wears a blue suit and has some kind of horns coming out of his forehead.
"What do you think they're doing right now?"
"Probably watching this, you know. They don't have many options", I reply.
He looks at me, angry, then continues with his questions.
I respond in short sentences, try to not give him too much information about myself. They don't care anyways.
How my time at the capitol was, it doesn't matter to them.
"How did you feel when you were being reaped?"
The question hit my like a train, I see Res crying and yelling again. Now I'm glad about my good poker face that I got when my father asked me about where I was every day after school. I couldn't tell him I was training, he said that it was a waste of time.
"Surprised", I finally get myself to answer his question. "And a bit afraid, but mostly empty."

Now that we're finished we're all standing on the stage.
A big monitor is right in front of us, now we're goint to see our scores!
They changed the way they handeled this a few years back to make it more entertaining for the people watching, they want our honest reactions.
I look at the screen, Glorio got a ten, he seems dissapointed.
His female partner got an eleven, she seems happy with it.
District two, ten for the girl and only a four for Ore. What did he do? He didn't seem that bad? If he got a four what will I get?
District three, low scores as usuall, in four an eight and a nine.
Curen got a seven!
I'm nervous, if my score is too bad I'm not going to get any help from outside, that's for sure.
Nine and four in district seven, the girl has joined the careeros for a reason.
The lowest score is from the guy in district ten, he only got a two.
Both from district eleven got a six, Tato a three.
They're pretty hard this time, expect so much from us.
Finally my score shows up, a five.
It's not good but not bad either. I'm relieved, the audience claps and then starts talking, betting on who will die first.

I roll around in my bed, did I do good on the interview?
They didn't seem to care for our district, or for poor districts in general.
I found out some stuff about the others like their exact age and full name, but nobody said anything useful.
Tomorrow morning, at exactly 10am, the games will start.
I should look around, find a water scource during the sixty seconds we have at the beginning.
If I'm going to risk getting supplies I should pick out what I want instead, but where am I going to go then?
What am I going to get? The last winner from district five got a small backpack that saved his life, the arena was a big desert and he got water.
Most winners get atleast something to help them, but about half of the tributes die trying this.

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Thanks for reading, voting and commenting
What do you think your score would be?
And what would you do at the Cornucopia?
Honestly, I would maybe get a five.
I would also grab something near me, not risk it to go close to it but take something to help me.

Also, one chapter left until the start of the arena!