The 200th Annual Hunger Games - The Ultimate Games

Interview 2 - Arwin, Benji, Dianna, Ali, Tatiana, Phillip

Universal POV

"Welcome back to the interviews, Panem! Without further ado, let us welcome our next batch of tributes onstage. Put your hands together for Arwin Yates, Benji Watts, Dianna Barrett, Ali Richardson, Tatiana Whiteman and Phillip Gilbert!"

The crowd roared as the six tributes walked onstage, smiling and waving to the crowd. They sat down, and the timer started.

"So Arwin, how's your sister?"

"She's alright," Arwin answered, "Her leg obviously isn't doing much better, but she's relieved that I'm still alive."

"As any good sister would be," Jakub smiled, "Now Benji, how are you doing after the Qualifying Rounds?"

"Not the best, to be perfectly honest," he admitted, "Nightmares are recurring, it's not great. In fact it's pretty downright awful."

"Aww, that sucks," Jakub simpered, "Dianna, how is your alliance going?"

"It's a little tense at the moment," Dianna said slowly, "Toby and Summer are both gone, and now Thomas has gotten a bit..."

"Coo-coo?" Jakub joked. The audience laughed, but both Dianna and Ali had faces of stone.

"That's not funny," Ali snapped, "His girlfriend was torn apart by mutts right in front of him, of course he's unstable!"

"Well, I apologize," Jakub said with a smile, although anyone with a brain could tell he wasn't sincere, "Ali, how is your family doing?"

"Terrible." Ali snapped bluntly.

"What happened?"

"Well if you must know," Ali snarled, "A pretty nasty virus has gone through District 6, and now 4 of my siblings are sick. My baby sister, who is only one year old, has it the worst, and at the rate she's going this disease is probably going to kill her."

"Oh..." Jakub stammered at Ali's outburst, faltering, "I'm very sorry about your family."

"I don't want your fucking pity," Ali snarled.

"Okaaay..." Jakub said slowly, "Tatiana, how are you?"

"Fine," she answered.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Well, when everyone got to go home for a few weeks after the games, I wanted to go back to working in the daycare centre and see the kids again, but..." Tatiana's breath hitched for a moment, "T-They found me unfit to work. I'm not allowed to go near the kids or the daycare because they think I'll lash out."

"Aw, that must suck,"

"I saw one of the girls from the centre when I was in the market," Tatiana said, "Skye, she's one of the kids who they look after, she saw me in the market and tried to run to me but the workers took her away. They didn't even let me visit."

Phillip looked over and put a hand on Tatiana's shoulder, a look of sympathy on his face. Tatiana looked over at him and smiled sadly.

"It's just... weird. I wanted things to go back to normal so I could forget about these whole games for a bit but..."

"We understand," Jakub simpered, "Now Phillip! How are you?"

"Alright," Phillip said quietly, his hand still on Tatiana's shoulder.

"How the knife wound healing? It looked pretty nasty."

"Yea, they managed to fix my broken arm and the wound in my stomach, but I've still got some bruises and swelling," he answered, "Should be completely fine before I go into the arena, though."

"Good good," Jakub smiled, "Now, I have some general questions for the lot of you. Firstly, what are your thoughts on killing?"

"It's inhumane," Benji said, "We shouldn't be killing."

"We kind of have to, though," Ali said, "If we throw down our weapons and refuse to kill, we'll be the next one to perish."

"I didn't say that we didn't have to," Benji retorted, "I said that we shouldn't. It's a moral thing."

"Killing is wrong," Tatiana said firmly, "These are other teenagers we are murdering. They aren't just an obstacle, they have family, hopes, dreams, we can't just snatch it from them without regard."

"I agree, but it pains me to say that we do have to kill," Arwin lamented, "It's not good, it's not right, but we have to do it if we want to get out of here. We have people to get home to."

"What makes our lives more important than the lives of whoever we kill?" Tatiana asked, challenging Arwin, "It's not like they don't have family as well."

"That's not what I meant," Arwin said in a clipped tone, "You know that's not what I meant."

"I don't think killing is good," Phillip piped up, "but it's necessary."

"Dianna? Anything to contribute?" Jakub asked. Dianna shook her head.

"Okay, clearly you are all against killing, but you all draw the line at different points and although your mindsets are similar, they have their differences," Jakub summarized quickly. The six onstage nodded.

"Now, another question - how far do you honestly think you will make it?"

"I mean..." Benji began, "I want to make it far but, realistically, I'll probably end up getting killed in the bloodbath. Everyone's gonna be even more determined to kill this time, and I barely scraped by last time."

"You won't die in the bloodbath," Arwin stated sharply.

"I might-"

"No, you won't. End of discussion."

"How far do you think you will make it, Arwin?" Jakub prompted.

"I don't know. I think I'll make it past the bloodbath, but after that... oh jeez, I don't know. Maybe Day 3?"

"I think I'll make it halfway," Ali said, "I doubt I'll die in the bloodbath, but with Valentina and the twins running about my chances at survival are quite slim."

"Wow, what happened to the optimism?" Jakub joked.

"It died," Phillip stated bluntly, "Along with the 48 teenagers that died in those three arenas."

"It's hard to be optimistic after having your life pulled out from underneath you and your humanity tainted," Tatiana said slowly, almost as if she wanted to be sarcastic but was refraining.

"Oh, that's a shame," Jakub said. "Now, how-"

The buzzer interrupted Jakub and he laughed. The six tributes stood up and walked offstage, and Jakub turned to the crowd.

"Well, that was Interview 2! Our third interview will be live soon, don't miss it!"