The Hunger Games: A New Journey Begins

Chapter 7

I woke up to the sound of banging on my door, which got me right up. I went to answer the door, only to see Rapqa standing there.

"What is it?'' I asked.

"Today is training day" She replied, acting like it was obvious. Oh no, not training day. How could I have forgotten? The day where you go and you have to see your fellow enemies, and have to show them and your fellow gamemaker what you're made of.

"Oh no."

"Oh yes" she said, shoving me over to the lounge. Torin was there. He still had his pink streaks of hair, but his usual pink suit was now a robe that was made of pure unicorn, if that was a thing. Torin walked up to me and handed me a pair of black jeans with the wood texture on the sides of them, with a short sleeve black shirt with tree bark texture on the shoulders.

"Don't ruin it." He commanded. I grabbed it, eager to put it on.

I came out of my room, making sure my mockingjay necklace was still there, seeing Cyrus, who had come out earlier in the same exact suit but she had a jacket on too. No fair. A squad of peacekeepers guided us to the training room. I couldn't even see how to get there, or anything besides backs until we actually got there. The walls slid open and then a lady with dark brown hair directed us to a circle where the other 22 tributes were.

The place was enormous. It was a grey and white room, plain, with lights that majestically showed down on all the tributes. In the center of where we all stood was some kind of lunch table. The room split off into four parts, probably the stations. There were doors around, but they were barely visible.

"Just stand right here until I say so," the lady said. As I stood there I saw the other tributes, a big variety of ages. Some were probably about 16 to 18 and the others seemed like they were around 12 or 14. It obviously wasn't fair. I noticed one tribute still crying, and others doing some weird stuff. I was already trying to guess who the careers were, when some kid gave me a nasty look. I looked away.

"Okay tributes, I'm going to explain what you each are going to be doing here today, now my advice would be to listen closely, and don't fight any of the other tributes here. There will be enough time to do that in the arena." She started pacing. "So there are four stations; the weaponry station, the survival station, the camouflage station, and the location station, so let's get started, you can start at any station you want! Oh, and by the way, you have 8 hours, so use them wisely."

That explanation sucked.

I went over to the weaponry station because I already knew enough about the other stations for now. As I walked over to the weaponry station I saw maybe four or five tributes all laughing and showing off to each other. They're probably the careers, the 'elite' team of tributes that allied to go kill everyone and then turn on each other. Most of the careers are people that have trained for the hunger games their whole life. Once they're of age they will volunteer to be tribute in the games. I reached the station, trying to ignore them. To the side was a wall filled with a plethora of weapons. There were daggers, swords, axes, bows, spears, and about every hand manual weapon possible. I saw the axes, the weapons that the district was known for. I grabbed one instinctively, rubbing my hand over the blade and handle. I had to admire the craftsmanship from District 2.

I went over to the targets and watched the other tributes shoot things at them as I waited. The first one up was the boy from District 2, Maximus Kin. He had dusty brown hair, pale skin, and was pretty short. He laughed hysterically as he threw the giant golden spear in his right hand right into the bullseye of the target. That was some competition. After he grabbed his spear, apparently making fun of another kid while he was doing it, the boy from District 3, Jethro Vance, walked up. He had a knife in his hand, spinning it wildly across his palm. Gees, if he knew both how to fight and set electric traps, I was in big trouble. He threw it a ways away from the bullseye. Luckily, he missed by much. Afterwards, I watched the other careers laughing like it was the best day of their lives. I wanted to throw my axe at them... The girl from district 6, Artemis Evergarden, stepped up to the plate, still laughing. She seemed very full herself as she carried sometype of red ball in her hand. She threw it and it landed right at the bullseye, exploding after it hit the target.

Next, it was me. The careers watched me, and I could feel their eyes glued to where I was standing. I could prove them wrong, I could do this. I could still feel their eyes looming over me, and I tried to ignore it. I prepared myself, setting up my stance. I held the axe over my shoulder and aimed it. I could feel sweat coming down my face. Either fix your reputation or destroy it. I flung the weapon fiercely. The axe pivoted, ingraining itself in the bullseye, I turned around, grinning at the other tributes as I bowed. I walked off, noticing Cyrus walk in the station, she joined near them, high fiving Maximus.

"I can see that your district mate can throw an AXE." He joked.

"Yep." She replied sarcastically. "It was probably just the luckiest shot with the smartest weapon of all." One of the others that I thought was, maybe Ludek, laughed.

Cyrus stepped up to the plate, smirking. She had a silver knife , aiming it, then aggressively throwing it straight into the bullseye. She passed me on coming back, not even giving me a sideways glance, and another career went up to the plate. I couldn't believe this, she joined the careers and left me? I guess I was the worst tribute after all. I left the station, much saddened while I think Ludek shot a bow and arrow, Robin Hood like.

I headed over to the climbing station, grabbed some rope, and started heading to the wall. Yes, I could free climb, but I definitely didn't want to hurt myself in training. As I began to climb the wall, the boy from District 2 came over to me. "Hey, don't act so cocky just because you hit one bullseye. It's not like you are actually going to have the time, resources or standing target" he said, grabbing some rope to climb too. His voice was almost raspy but not quite. He was still surprisingly short after I didn't have to look up at him much.

"Same goes to you" I responded, "Oh it's going to be fun beating you in the hunger games, In fact, I bet you won't even last a day." Did I just start some type of fight? Will I be the careers' new target in the arena? Whatever, I told myself. He didn't respond, leaving.

I continued climbing, and I didn't even know why I was doing it. After hopping down, I finally decided to go to the survival station.

I had been tying ropes for what seemed to be an hour. I had already made 5 nooses, and that was a record for me. I looped off my end, pulling the rope loop, making sure it worked. There were others in the station, but I was pretty much isolated in a corner. I grabbed the list next to me, checking off nooses. I decided I would do fires. I walked over into the middle, grabbing some tumbleweed and dry wood, along with some rocks. Another kid came to join me, gathering fire supplies. I watched him as he grabbed some dry wood, shoving them into his pockets. His uniform was the same, but instead of a wood textile on the sides, it was just red. He continued hoarding dry wood. Apparently, he saw me watching him.

"Wood is cool." He said as he continued shoving it down his pockets. He grabbed some tumbleweed and a rock, than turned to me again, asking,

"Oh, wait. You are from the lumber district. That is so DOPE man. Do you ever yell TIMBER as a tree falls down? Do you like wood?"

I confusedly responded. "Yea, No, yes."

"Great!" He pulled me along with him, coming to where he was sitting. I remembered who he was.

"Are you Benjamin Doc?"

"Why yes, Sherlock." He replied, hyped. He sat down, pulling me down with him. He had beady eyes, and a close cut haircut, which looked almost bald with his light hair. He was musclily, and he sort of looked like those old-fashioned military guys.

"You see, the REAL reason I got the wood was because I knew that wood has sap in it. SO I am going to surgically remove the sap. You see, in the butchering district, we only get the leftover meat."

"Umm... I don't think it quite works like that." I replied. Benjamin looked at it, then tossed it aside on the ground.

"Cool, so want to be allies?" he asked. I considered it, he was yes, a little weird, but I didn't want to go in alone.

"Sure."

"Okay then. Do you want to head over to the weapons? I haven't been there yet."

"Sure." I replied, although I had already had a bad experience there..