Garden of Eden

Chapter 9

Waking up stiffly on the couch, I discover a thin blanket pulled over me.

Heading into my room with the blanket wrapped around me, I find Alex crouched low beside the bed.

"What are you doing?"

He looks up at me. "Maysilee, there you are. You weren't in bed so I figured you must've fallen under it in your sleep." Alex gets up and hands me loose clothing to change into.

After changing, he leads me up to the roof. There a hovercraft appears and a ladder drops down. As soon as my feet and hands are touching the lower rung of the ladder, I'm frozen in place by some kind of electric current. With me still glued to it, the ladder is brought up safely into the hovercraft.

A doctor in a white coat appears with a syringe in hand. She explains that inside it is my tacker. The doctor warns me of the sting of the needle but it does little to lessen the sharp pain that comes. The needle injects a tiny metal tracker under the skin of my forearm. In this way the Gamemakers will always be in the know as to where I am while in the arena.

Once the tracker is placed I'm instantly able to move freely again. The doctor with the syringe moves off somewhere and Alex is brought up to the hovercraft.

An Avox appears and ushers us to where breakfast has been placed on a table. Ignoring the queasiness I'm slowly beginning to feel, I eat the cinnamon roll, bacon and egg muffin, salmon and pea quiche, cottage cheese omelette, and freshly sliced mangoes.

"Don't forget what Konrad said about finding water," says Alex. "After the other tributes, dehydration is your most immediate danger."

Drinking water and staring through the window, I'm taken aback at the amazing birds-eye view of the city and the wilderness beyond.

The windows of the hovercraft black out after about two hours, indicating we are close to our destination. Alex and I head down the ladder once the hovercraft lands. The ladder takes us down underground, where the catacombs lie, directly under the arena. Following specific directions, we soon arrive at the chamber I will use. Here preparations are made in the final minutes before tributes enter the arena. The official name for this place is the Launch Room. It has a more fitting name that is known throughout the twelve districts; the Stockyard. A place occupied by animals waiting to be slaughtered.

As I will be the first and last tribute ever to use this room, absolutely everything in the Launch Room is new. Arenas are turned into historical sites once they are no longer actively used. Capitol citizens often visit them for month-long morbidly grotesque vacations. Where they can rewatch the Games, tour around the catacombs, visit sites where the deaths took place, and even take part in re-enactments.

The food is supposedly superb.

After hazily taking a shower I dazedly clean my teeth, fighting to keep breakfast down. Alex then ties my now smooth hair into a tight ponytail.

"Could you tie it into a bun, please?" I ask after a second thought.

"Certainly, don't want your hair getting in the way, now, do we?"

He proceeds to twist my ponytail very gently as I answer with, "Right."

Once my hair is in place, we move onto attire. It's the same for every tribute. Designed by the Gamemakers so even the stylists have no idea what lies within the package that arrives. After the white undergarments are on, Alex helps me into black leggings, a black cotton singlet, thin woollen socks, and a pair of black sturdy leather boots that just reach the top half of my calf. Just as I'm about to voice my opinion that these clothes don't appear sufficient enough in keeping anyone warm or dry, Alex holds up a military-styled camouflage thermo jacket. Turning around, I extend my arms slightly so as to allow Alex to pull the hooded jacket on me. The aforementioned jacket is surprisingly warm and falls several inches past my hips.