All-Stars: Non-Careers

Chapter 37

Gizmo Torrens

I looked up the tube, but there was only darkness. I knew from last time that I should have been able to see the sun by now. The only solution was that the sun wasn't there. I'd never heard of a Games starting at night before. But this was no ordinary Games.

Serena Hyland

This is no place for a very small and timid girl.

The Games hadn't started, but I couldn't have been more scared. My skin prickled with goosebumps, both from fear and the cool air around me. I was surrounded by graves. Some of them were open.

Vera Busattil

I was a Career. I was still scared.

We were in a graveyard. There was nothing blocking my view, and I still couldn't see the end of the rows of headstones. Mausoleums were scattered among the simpler markers. At least seeing a Cornucopia would be something familiar, but there wasn't even that. Instead there were two statues facing each other. They were some sort of freaky angels with their arms over their heads and their hands clawed. They were glaring down at the ground between them and their tongues were out. Anyone who wanted supplies had to run right between them. I didn't know if I was brave enough.

Jay Dallas

It should have looked more familiar. We'd all been here before. I tried not to look at the Arena and to focus on finding my allies. It was so dark it was hard to tell who was on any of the pedestals. Only the statues were lit by a full moon shining through the only hole in the clouds. Of course it was a full moon. It would probably be full the whole time.

The timer started. After five seconds, there was an explosion.

Miller Thresher

Did it have to start so early in the morning? We couldn't even see anything it was do dark out. Couldn't they let us sleep in one last time? I was barely awake as the timer started. It was taking forever. I leaned over as I waited.

Gabriel Farad

48, 47, 46...

I looked down for an instant and my heart froze all over again. Everyone was looking in the same direction, away from the timer, and most of them were screaming. My head snapped over to see what it was. I expected a mutt charging straight at us. It wasn't much better. There was an empty platform. The air above it was moving. I thought it was birds. It was chunks.

Silver Flower

There were so many of them. I was only two platforms away. I could see the pieces falling on Miller's- it had to be Miller, no one else had that many chunks- neighbors. Frankie just brushed them off, but Hadley was kneeling over the edge of her platform heaving. I hoped the vomit didn't set off the explosives.

45, 44, 43...

Asper Fin

We're already in a graveyard. They don't even have to bury him. They won't bury him. No hovercrafts this time. We'll lie where we fall. The living can scramble over the dead. They're all dead here. We're trespassers.

40, 39, 38...

Vextrix Webb

They left no stone unturned. The ground around the platforms swirled with wisps of fog. Behind me, outside the circle of platforms, I saw an iron gate set into a brick wall that lead off into the distance. The wall was too high to see over. It looked like an exit, but I knew none of us would try to use it. I didn't want to know what was outside that wall.

Ravens flew around overhead. A chain rattled in the nearest mausoleum. Somewhere far in the distance, a man screamed. An owl called. It might just have been black and white everywhere, but it was worse. Some of the graves had flowers.

33, 32, 31...

Castiel Wickham

There were crosses everywhere. I was in the only place in Panem where I could still see a cross.

29, 28, 27...

Alice Silvin

Mommy. Let me leave.

I crouched on the platform and clung to my deer. You never went in a graveyard after dark. Things lived in graveyards, especially after dark. Things like the creatures in the middle of the circle. They were pretending to be angels, but angels weren't scary. There were real angels here. I tried to find one.

One of the angels was four platforms away from me. The angel was scared too.

24, 23, 22...

Apollo Wilson

It's so dark here. I blend right in.

18, 17, 16...

Emmeline Blythe

There would still be more tricks. This wasn't it. I didn't watch the Cornucopia statues as the timer ticked down. I watched outside the circle. Something was going to come for us. I alternated watching the perimeter and the skies. Then I had to add another direction. They might come from below.

10, 9, 8...

Pandora Sent

There wasn't very good lighting. For me, it was pitch black. The air was cold. Maybe we were on a mountain? There was no snow in the air. It smelled like dirt and mildew. Were we in an abandoned garden? The only thing I could see were the brightly lit statues.

Someone stepped off the platform early. I heard the explosion and the reactions. I tried to pick out my allies' voices. I hoped I wasn't near Beth or her friends. The gong sounded. I was about to find out.

Happy Halloween.