73rd Hunger Games

Chapter 11

At around 8 am, Will, Jacob, Sarah and I made our way down the lifts and into the training centre. Explaining again to listen carefully and to try everything. Don't make any allies yet, we don't know what they are like. Learn everybody's names, this may come in handy in the arena.

We had now made it. The training centre.

There were peacekeepers at the doors of the lifts to make sure that none of the mentors were to come in and help any tributes improve. Awesome. We farewelled our mentors and turned to face our training centre.

District 1, 2 and 7 were already here, getting in a few extra minutes of training. It was the biggest training centre I have ever seen (I actually have never seen a training centre before, this is all new to me). Complete with a weapons range, weights, ropes, a rich forestry landscape to train in, area devoted to finding water, fake trees to learn how to climb, monkey bars, a weaving station, an Encyclopedia of berries and other edible and non-edible foods, a fake area for fire starting, plants and animals (lethal or not) and plenty of instructors to teach you at each station. All of the tributes were at the weapons range.

Okay, which one first. I need to know how to find water. So the water one first. Will went to the food station to learn about all of that first.

I was taught about damp areas being the first key sign. A few simple insects that live around the water. Anything that is wet means that there is water close by. If I can't seem to find that, find a higher point of view to search for water.

About half an hour later I realised that nearly three quarter of the tributes were here. So I moved on to food. I went to the meat section first and learnt about all the poisonous side to things. I learnt that cooking the animal kills some or all bacteria making it even more safe to eat. I then moved onto berries. I only wanted to learn about all the safe ones to eat and the most poisonous ones. I might be able to lurer in some hungry prey. I then learnt about all the different types of roots and other plant-like features that were edible.

By this time it was around nine-thirty and it looked as though everyone was here. A sort of head instructor started to round up all the tributes to the middle, forcing us into districts and gender to check that everyone was here.

Then she started to talk about how important it was to listen to these instructions; try everything out. You never know when it is needed. Then sent us to work saying that we will get lunch provided at 1pm.

Then it was over and we were aloud to go back to any station we wished. I went straight to the weapons range and picked up a trident.

"Are you sure you know how to use that". A polite young girl evaporated from behind me. It was the girl from seven.

I turned and threw it at the furtherest dummy and hit it straight in the heart. I turned back to meet her mortified face. I'm glad I was good at one thing. "I'm sure". This was then followed by a wink, making the young girl even more astonished. 

"Is there any other weapon you're good at?" I see where she's going with this, she wanted to know my weaknesses and what I was good at.

"Well, I haven't really tried the others." I stated as I picked up a knife. It can't be that much different to throwing a hook, can it? I threw it at the closet dummy, about ten meters away. This time I hit the chest, though I was aiming for the heart.

"Well, that's two things your good at! Your such a natural!" She looked about 14 maybe even 15, I didn't really know. Somehow, she was onto me.

"You're from seven, surely your good with an axe." She was now smiling as she picked up the closet one.

"Yeah, I am." She looked as though she was talking to her axe. Then her faced changed into sudden aggression as she threw it at the dummy that I had hit with my trident. It sliced off the head. Note to self; don't get on this one's bad side.

"Wow!" We became instant friends. I don't know what clicked us together, but what ever it was, it was a strong bond. We then moved to the tree climbing station.

"So, what's your name?" I asked curiously.

"I'm Neyomi, and you?" She replied diligently.

"Hazel, nice to meet you. Have you seen the careers, they're so scary." I wasn't kidding. They sliced, diced and murdered those dummies. They walked around like they owned the place, but as soon as we are in that arena, I'm going to take every chance I've got to attempt to put them off.

"Yeah, I know. It's crazy! They're liked possessed killing machines. I wouldn't want it to come between me and one of them". Totally.

"Agreed".

Neyomi climbed that tree like she was a tree-snake in disguise. (Note: teeth are poisonous, wouldn't recommend you eating them). She climbed so fast I lost her for a second and found her dangling from the top branch. She then dropped, doing a full body roll to save her skin like she has been doing it all her life.

I was next. I started out slow and gradually got faster. Making my way to the top, I figured out that it was taller than it looked. That or it was growing really fast.

None of the above, it was a mechanically growing tree that stretched every second you were on there.

I decided to climb back down, it was sitting a little too far off the ground for my liking. It was frustrating though, as I climbed down, it moved up.