All-Stars: Non-Careers

Chapter 5

Miller Thresher

I was so hungry. Didn't they have any food in this joint? Those bonehead doctors better get their butts in gear. Didn't they ever think of the patient?

Those first two times didn't count. This was the real deal. I was ready to go back into the Arena and wipe all those other suckers out. It was too bad they didn't have three trips through the Capitol. Maybe they could have learned enough to stand a chance.

Tariq Bluegrass

I clawed my way out of the bed and tore my clothes off. My throat closed and I whimpered as I waited for the tickle of spider legs in my mouth. I scraped my hands over my skin and, feeling for anything alien. I shuddered and trembled as I huddled against the wall.

I couldn't have imagined anything this terrible. My allies abandoned me and what happened next was unfathomable. I was alone except for the festering, skittering legs and bodies under my skin. Every breath reminded me of how they clogged my lungs and the wall at my back pressed onto me like the sticky, itchy cocoon.

I didn't want to be alone. I didn't want anyone to be with me. I didn't want to be.

Emmalie Bluebell

The suspense was the worst of all. When I was dead, I wasn't scared. It was only after I was revived that I could appreciate that they might not have picked me. The danger was over, but the thought of what might have happened terrified me.

Each time I failed was a chance for them to lose interest in me. Even death wasn't certain anymore, and it only made it worse. I might wake up again like nothing happened, or I might not wake up at all. I wouldn't ever know it if I didn't.

Felix Veaux

There she was again, as beautiful as the last time I saw her. She had our boy with her. He must be twelve years old now. I'd seen him age in blinks. First he was nothing but a bump, too small to notice. I didn't even know he was there. Then he was a little boy, old enough to know who I was but not to understand why I couldn't stay. Now he was old enough to join me. Next time he'd be older than me.

He was twelve years old. I could see Tillo was thinking the same thing I was. She already lost me twice. She was strong enough to survive, but it meant a lifetime of watching me die. Our son might be next. I would have done anything to protect him, but I couldn't even protect myself.

Castiel Wickham

This was the last thing I wanted them to do. I wasn't part of this world. I was happy in the next one. They dragged me back to a world of pain and murder and death. I'd left all those things behind.

I wasn't afraid this time. They thought the Games were the worst thing that anyone could go through. For me, they were the best thing they could have done. I didn't have to be scared of death. It was the transition to something better and to a place where there was no evil. They could bring me back as many times as they wanted. I wasn't playing their game anymore.

Rory Harris

I'd heard about this happening. I'd even seen it on the screens. But I wasn't prepared for it to happen to me.

It was like waking up from a dream that never started. It wasn't a continuation of what was. It was like a rebirth. My body felt new and different, even if it looked the same. I knew it wasn't really mine. None of the atoms were the same. But people changed like that even in normal life. I was still me. There was something more than just my body, and that was what carried on.

I thought the Resurrection Games gave Tributes another chance. It wasn't that simple. I'd never understand what happened, and Kazuo and Ava must have felt the same. We were a new breed.

Calista Corral

I was a new person. I wanted to be different from what I was. It was the ultimate chance to reinvent myself. I didn't understand the science, but I could still change how I acted.

I was going to be more mature, for one. Less thinking about silly things like clothes and more thinking about life and the future. I wanted more friends, and that meant I had to be a better friend. I had to think about other people and remember they were as complex as I was.

I wanted friends, and I wanted to be less selfish. The change I wanted most was that this time, I wanted to be a survivor. I wasn't sure how I could do both.

Delilah Clementine

It wasn't cold anymore. Was I freezing to death? No, the Arena wasn't inside. It was something else.

Resurrection Games. It was like a punch in the gut. I'd seen them before. There were dozens upon dozens of children, and still only one winner. Galba always ramped up the Arenas and the mutts. I remembered the mutts from the first Resurrection Games. They were the most horrible things any of us had ever seen. That was what I was about to go into. I didn't ask for any of this.

Zinnia Fraser

I sat up and drew back a fist to punch the Careers. They weren't there. I was in a hospital room. I couldn't have won. That only left one thing.

I died. I never wanted to admit it, but I knew it was almost certain. I was just one girl and there were a lot of nasty Careers. At least all but one of them died, too. And that was only if one of them won. And it served them right.

I never liked the Resurrection Games. It doesn't count as doing a good deed to bring people back if you only do it to watch them die again. They were an excuse for the Capitol to watch even more death than usual and call it a mercy. Now I was stuck in one. I didn't think it was possible for me to like the Capitol even less, but I surprised myself.

Serena Hyland

I screamed and tried to bat away the dogs. But they weren't there. I threw the sheets over my head and huddled under the covers.

I hadn't started the Games at all. It was just a nightmare. I was still training, not that it would do any good. Whatever was in the Arena would be even worse. I couldn't dream up something like that. I wasn't like the Gamemakers.