Kill List

Training; Day 1

D1: Whittier Lively

I had already begun making a mental kill list.

When I had gotten to the training center, the male tribute from District 7 had been working with the axes and the girl from 6 had been at the throwing knives so I was stuck with practicing with spears, which I hate.

Umeko, the District 4 girl had tried to take over the Careers before I could even begin them but I managed to wrestle control from her.

Luke, My own District partner had declined my offer to be part of the Careers but the pathetic, weak girl from District 2 had insisted on joining.

And because of that we were down to only 5 Careers, but none of them were very strong, so I'd had to begin thinking about any other options for Career tributes.

So pretty much, I was already having a bad day.

"Get out of my way, freak." I spat when the District 3 boy bumped into me.

"Sorry." He muttered and ducked his head. That's when I noticed what was in his hands. Wires and metal plates were intertwined in a complicated fashion but my eyes were drawn to the red wire that connected to a small button.

"Wait." I commanded. "What does that button do?"

"Uh, it sets off a small initial explosion, then a few minutes after it sets off a huge explosion." He said hesitantly.

"What's your name, 3?" I asked.

"Rys, Rys Harris." He said, holding his hand out for me to shake. I scrunched my nose and glared at his hand until he dropped it back down to his side.

"I'm Whittier Lively." I replied.

"I know." Rys said quietly.

"I think that the Careers could really use someone with your," I trailed off, searching for the right word, "talent."

"You really think so?" Rys said hopefully.

I nodded, "Definitely."

Then I walked away. I wasn't kidding when I suggested it; Rys was smart and definitely capable of doing something good for the group.

I looked around the room for other prospective Careers; the District 12 tributes had teamed up already, the District 6 and 7 girls formed an alliance, the pair from District 5 were helping each other over at the archery area. So many alliances were already forming and it was still the morning of the first day of training.

The Capitol girl was at the hand-to-hand combat station. She had metal claws on her fingers and was doing serious damage to a training dummy. I thought about it, the odds of this girl getting a lot of sponsors were 100%. I walked over to her.

"Hey, that was really impressive." I said to the girl.

"Oh, thanks." She replied looking at the carnage.

"What are those?" I asked, pointing to her hands.

"They're called tiger claws." The girl answered.

"Cool, well I'm Whittier." I said, smiling at her.

"I'm Skylark, but most people call me Sky." She introduced herself.

"You should come meet my allies, I'm sure they'll like you, maybe you can even join with us." I offered to Skylark. She nodded and followed me.

We walked over to the other Careers and I grabbed Rys on the way and pulled him and Skylark over to where Urban, Umeko, Blossom and Tucker were standing.

"Guys, this is Skylark," I pointed to the Capitol girl, "and this is Rys." I pointed the District 3 boy.

"Hi, I'm Tucker and this is my District partner Umeko." Tucker gestured to himself then Umeko, smiling at Skylark.

"And I'm Blossom and this is Urban." Blossom introduced herself and her District partner to the new recruits.

"So what kinds of talents do you two have?" Urban asked.

"Well, I'm smart and good with traps and explosives." Rys said hesitantly.

"I am fast and agile, I guess. And I can use throwing knives and tiger claws." Skylark offered.

"Whit, could I speak with you for a moment?" Umeko asked, then, without waiting for a response, she dragged me away from the group slightly.

"What is it?" I demanded, irritated.

"I don't think that letting in either of those underdogs would be a wise choice." Umeko stated. I crossed my arms and huffed.

"Too late." I retorted and spun around. "Welcome to the Careers." I announced to Rys and Skylark. They both looked pleased and Blossom, Urban and Tucker didn't seem to mind my decision. As Umeko stalked past me I could tell that it was going to be a long couple of weeks until she died and I got out of the arena.

D13: Amanda Faith (from now on is only Faith)

I leapt over a fallen tree and ducked under the swinging branches of another tree. I ran towards the red post that signified the end of the course.

"58 seconds, not too bad." The trainer at the speed and agility section commented. I sighed and walked away without saying anything. I haven't been a big fan of talking since 'the incident' and coming to the Capitol made it worse.

I walked around the ginormous room and tried to decide where to go to next.

"I'd suggest the edible plants station." A voice said from behind me. I whipped around and was staring directly into a pair of grey eyes. "Hi, I'm Gwen, from District 12, and this is Mercutio."

"I'm Faith." I said quietly.

"We saw you at the long range weapons station, you are great with throwing knives." Mercutio added.

"Thanks." I muttered, my eyes darting around the room, looking for an escape from this conversation.

"Do you maybe want to eat lunch with us?" Gwen asked when the lunch bell rang. I shrugged but figured it was better than eating alone.

I filled my plate with the most nutritious food I could find on the table. I knew that I needed to keep in shape and not over eat, even if the chocolate cake looked really delicious.

"Faith, we're over here." Gwen called over to me. I walked over to the table that she was sitting at with Mercutio.

They seemed like nice people, they were trustworthy enough too. I felt like I might even be able to be in an alliance with them if they asked me to.

"So, what's District 13 like?" Mercutio asked me. I looked up at him.

"Boring and bland. That's about it." I told him honestly.

"It's got to be better than District 12. Starvation from the comfort of your own shack." Mercutio said with a bit of a smirk. I raised an eyebrow at him but didn't say anything.

I looked around the room to see that the leader of the Careers was glaring at me. I could resist it. I smirked at her and lifted my hand in a mock wave. Let her chew on that one for a while.

D8: Rowan Rayon

I finished my lunch quickly, head bowed down over my bowl. I didn't want anyone to take notice of me. I'm not exactly the smallest tribute here. I'm not the smallest boy either. Honestly I just want to blend in and pass by unnoticed. That's the best way for me to go through the games I think.

I gave my plate to an avox and walked back into the training room. I walked over to the fire building station and got to work. Since you never know what you might face in the arena, it's always safe to learn a little bit of everything.

An instructor came over to me and handed me a flint.

"Start with this; if you can do this properly then I can help you move on to other forms of starting fires." The man told me. His dark hair was cropped short to his scalp and his brown eyes were steely. Most of the trainers here had the same eyes, steely, harsh and unwelcoming. There were a few kind ones but they were rare.

I took the offered flint and set to work on starting a fire. I gathered a pile of twigs and dried leaves and set them up with the leaves sitting under a pyramid of twigs. I struck the flint but nothing happened. I adjusted my hands and tried it again. This time a spark leapt out and danced across the dried leaves. A small flame licked at the twigs and soon they were on fire. I added a few bigger logs and watched as everything went up in flames.

"Good job." The instructor said, admiring the fire in front of me. He took the flint from my hands and tossed me two sticks. "Try these now."

After I'd learned to make fires with almost anything, I decided to move on to another station.

I walked over to the trapping station and began picking at a few pieces of rope. I knew how to knot well enough from sewing back at home. I made a noose like loop out of a length of rope and attempted to set it up as a trap.

I tested it out, using a long stick to spring the trap. Nothing happened. I groaned and ran a hand through my strawberry blonde hair. A small chorus of laughter echoed across the small station. I looked around but the only two people here were an instructor and the District 3 girl, both looked solemn.

I turned around but I couldn't see anyone near enough that I would hear them.

I was going to investigate further but a bell clanged and the tributes cleared out of the training center gratefully alone, in pairs or in the case of the careers, a huge group.

I walked towards the elevators alone and began the slow ascent to the eighth floor and my warm, welcoming bed.

I am terrible and neglectful. I'm so sorry guys! But I have a new chapter for you now.

I hope you guys haven't given up on this yet, even though it's be practically forever!

Well...

Leave some comments, I love comments. And you should favourite/follow this if you haven't already!

Until next time.

xoxo, Xylia