All-Stars: Non-Careers

Chapter 6

Jay Dallas

There was another bed next to mine, which was odd. The Capitol was definitely too rich to need to put two beds in one room. Then I looked at the boy in it. He looked horribly familiar.

No way. There was no way my family was so unlucky that Austin got Reaped too. And also unlucky enough that he died, and unlucky enough that he got picked to go through all this again.

He wasn't even old enough to get Reaped. But even as I said it, I knew it was just an excuse. This was obviously another All-Stars. It could be fifty years in the future. He might have already fought five Games. He might not even remember me.

Austin Dallas

Just when I thought it couldn't get weirder, I saw Jay. The metaphysics of cloning were already unfathomable, but Jay and I made things weirder. Last time I was in the Arena, I kept getting these weird feelings like Jay and I were connected more closely than even brothers. If I was a hippie, I'd have thought I was his reincarnation. But I was looking at him. That was just weird.

Olivier Fowler

Now you see me, now you don't. Now I'm dead, now I'm alive. The Gamemakers were the best magicians of all. They made twenty-three kids disappear every year. Next to them, I was an amateur.

What did I have to offer? Some doves and scarves. Sleight-of-hand that would only be useful if I wanted someone to be dead before they knew what I was doing. It didn't work the first time.

The people didn't want magic. They wanted to see us die. They never cared about me outside the entertainment I could give, whether mixing up shells or dying onscreen. Magic was nothing but a trick.

Frankie Disney

Every time it happened I hoped the process would knock something loose in my head. It never did. I was as cold and flat as ever. I could think back on my death and the awful mutt that did it and not even shudder.

I didn't want to ask about Vera. She wasn't in the room with me. If she'd won, she'd moved on with her life and I wanted her to be happy. If she lost, she was either waking up just like me, or she was gone forever. If she was gone, I'd feel her loss forever. Not "feel" like the emotions I didn't have. I'd feel her inside like a black hole where something should have been.

If she was somewhere else in the building, I didn't want to make the first move. She might have changed her mind, or maybe seeing me was painful. I wouldn't blame her for leaving me. She knew I was the only one whose heart she could never break.

Apollo Wilson

Death made me stronger. Life made Pepper weaker. Before the Games, she was always the leader. It was always her idea to steal an apple or try to jump across a river. I always went along with it and it always seemed like if it was her idea, it couldn't go wrong. She was like a good luck charm protecting me.

I had to protect her now. Pepper looked as pale and delicate as ice. She was standing across the room, not looking at me. I could see the tension in her as she warded back tears. She was too afraid to look at me. We looked so different now, even though we were twins. We were farther away every time. She was afraid the next time she looked, I wouldn't be there.

Leo Serrocold

I had no idea what to expect after death. I felt myself separate from my body and then I snapped like a rubber band across I don't know where. I landed in a hospital bed.

This doesn't look like Heaven. But it doesn't look like Hell. Maybe it's limbo, I thought. I was just a normal person. Maybe they still had to sort out where I belonged. I wasn't evil, but I wasn't that good.

There were still Capitolites wherever I was, which did not bode well. The nurse seemed surprised that I was so confused.

"Oh, this is your first time, isn't it? Welcome to the Resurrection Games!" he said.

That just wasn't fair. Couldn't Hell just have been a fire pit or something? Eternal Hunger Games was something even Satan couldn't have thought up.

Arden Grake

They chose me to do it again. Lovely. I wasn't sure what was so impressive about getting eaten by a plant-eating dinosaur. I must have given them such a laugh they wanted me to do it again. Well, the joke was on them. It wasn't likely there would be dinosaurs again in my second Arena.

Oh... the joke's on me. They'd add them anyway, even if the Arena was tundra. Shoot. Only the good die young.

Azalea Meadows

Perhaps I was a little overconfident. I had what it took, but a little caution never hurt anyone. This time I'd lay low until after the Bloodbath. Anything could happen there. Sometimes even Careers died. I didn't have to be crazy daring. I was smart, too, and I could win with that instead. There were a lot of Tributes this time. I should learn to look before I leap.

Vextrix Webb

"So I'm a clone?" I asked the nurse as she tried to check my vitals.

"That's right," she said.

"Where'd you get the DNA?" I asked.

"We took a sample the same time we put the trackers in," she said.

"Did you make everyone ahead of time, or did you make us to order? How long did it take? Did you have to get an egg from someone? If I win, will I live a full lifetime, or a lifetime minus seventeen years? How-"

"I don't know. They didn't tell me either. You probably shouldn't ask," she said. Maybe Hoban had more luck.

Dominique Rindelle

I was going to have a full life after all. I was just going to live it in pieces.

It was wonderful to hear there wouldn't be Careers this time. I begged the question, though, of how so many of us were going to die. Most of us didn't want to kill anyone. Most of us were scared stiff of each other. It was going to be a long, boring Games. All the more time for me to live, I suppose.

But it wouldn't be that easy. The Arena would be a volcano, or there would be more mutts than ever before. I didn't even know what dangers I was about to face.

Willow Trill

Fragments of memories and otherwordly images flooded my head. I was somewhere else, somewhere that wasn't even Earth. Then I was back where things were real, and I could hardly imagine the place I'd been.

"How are you feeling?" a nurse asked.

"Dead," I blurted. She gasped.

"I didn't expect that," she said.

"What did you expect?" I asked.

Anise Haeffele

How could they do this? I already gave everything. I was dead. I should have been safe. I died the way I wanted. I did something worthwhile and I knew it was okay to go. Now I was alive again. I didn't want that pressure. Maybe this time I'd be a coward. I could ruin all the good things I did.

I didn't want to be brave anymore. I used up all my bravery because I wouldn't need it when I was dead. They brought me back because they hated goodness. They wanted me to fail. They'd probably get it.