All-Stars: Non-Careers

Chapter 20

Frankie Wilson

I was going to have to be the bad guy. There were so many Tributes and only a handful of us were killers. They weren't going to be able to do enough damage to satisfy the Gamemakers. If the Gamemakers didn't get enough blood, they'd shed it themselves. Last time that meant two unstoppable mutts that struck every night if we didn't kill someone. That was how I ended up dying: in a slaughter that decimated the entire alliance.

Vera was willing to kill, but she was more a defender than an attacker. She didn't go out of her way to hunt. She just knew what it took to get through the Games, and she had the training to do it. Reiner had Peacekeeper ties. I could count on him to pull his weight. Felix did what he had to. He wasn't as strong as Tillo- that was why she won- but he had a reason to get home. Then there was Lyte, who was actively working exactly in the opposite way the Gamemakers intended. It was my job to kill people faster than he could heal them. He must hate me already.

It was hard to even know what I wanted. Even though I didn't feel anything, I'd long decided that I loved Vera. That meant she was the most important thing for me. I wanted her to stay alive. But I also wanted to win, because that was my only chance at ever being normal. If the Capitol could bring me back to life, they could fix whatever was wrong with my brain. But the only way I could know I loved Vera was to put her first. It didn't seem like a happy ending was possible for me.

Felix Veux

Everyone else had a reason to be here. Frankie and Vera were in love, no matter how weird that seemed coming from Frankie. Reiner and Lyte were best buds forever. They hardly minded dying over and over if they could play in between. I was the odd man out. I'd allied with them before, but I was always closest to Tillo. She wasn't stuck cycling like us. She won.

I would probably never get back to her. I had a third of the chance I normally had, and I'd already failed back when I had the greater chance. It was hard to want to be a father anymore. I was so removed from Felix Jr. it barely mattered. It was too late to help him grow up. He'd lived this long without me. He could go on. I wanted to see Tillo again, but if I didn't, it was enough to know she was alive.

The world kept spinning, and I stayed the same. It was passing me by, and I wasn't sure there was still time to catch up. Maybe I should fade into the past and stop giving my love and my son false hope. Every time I came back it must be dimmer for them. They knew I kept dying. It was harder to believe I'd ever live.

Vera Busattil

Beth and her friends were monsters. I looked at her alliance and I saw something I used to be a part of. Training was part of life for me. It meant you were the best, and it was the only way to keep my restless mind occupied. Now that I was on the outside, I could see what we really were.

I wanted to go back in time and shake some sense into myself. I had it good back in Four. Whyte and I never should have volunteered. We could have had a good life. Maybe we would have fallen in love. Maybe we would have stayed friends. Either way, we'd still be alive. We wouldn't be in limbo like this.

But if I hadn't volunteered, I wouldn't have met Frankie. He thought he was so broken, but all I saw was what he did, not what he felt. He was noble and courageous. He was a great man. It wasn't betraying Whyte to like him. Whyte had his own relationships. It was okay to move on.

But back to Beth. I saw her and her allies waiting for the Games to start so they could start killing. If I'd really been brave, they'd have been my first targets. I was trained. I could stop them before they killed innocent kids. But I wasn't going to. If they didn't kill the others, someone else had to. And it didn't make me innocent if they did the killing. I was letting them go exactly so they could kill the others. That way I could live. And I might start killing too in the end. My life depended on the Capitol liking me enough to bring me back if I lost. They didn't like peaceful Tributes. Just thinking things like that showed what kind of person I was. Maybe I was still a monster after all.

Reiner Ludwig

Life is cheap. I learned that after I lost mine twice.

Sometimes life is short. Some people die when they're still babies. Others get sick as kids or maybe a tree falls on them when they're barely twenty. Yet their lives, even though they were short, were complete for them. Someone who dies young doesn't know about growing older and all the stuff they missed. Maybe you can live a full life in just a few years.

I'd certainly done a lot. I'd seen more of Panem than almost anyone in the Districts. I'd seen rainforests and humongous shopping malls like nothing we had back in Seven. I'd made friends and lost them. I only lived a few weeks at a time, but I lived more than a lot of people.

It didn't matter as much who lived and who died. If someone had something to get home to, like Frankie, that was one thing. But I'd "lived" in the Capitol as long as I'd lived at home. If my destiny was to forever live a few days here and then fade again, I could accept that. I didn't know how long it would last, but nobody knew when they were going to die. It was no different for me, even if I lived in cycles.

Lyte Anderson

"You put the balls in so the crust doesn't rise in the oven," Reiner said as we prepared our pie. He might have been tough as nails, but he wasn't always fighting. He also liked baking cute little tarts and fancily frosted cakes. And I liked to eat cute little tarts and fancily frosted cakes. We put the crust in the oven and made the other stuff while we waited.

The chocolate filling was already in the fridge, so only the topping was left. Reiner poured some cream in two bowls and handed me a whisk.

"Bet I can get mine whipped faster," he said.

"You're on!" I said. He may have been a better cook, but I was more determined. The kitchen echoed with clicks and scrapes as we frantically whipped our cream.

By the time the pie was done, the cream was sweetened and ready to go. We plopped it on until it was about to tip over the edges. Reiner artfully sprinkled chocolate powder on top and arranged chocolate curls in a circle. We put the finished pie in the fridge to cool.

It took forever, but finally it was cool. Reiner took the tin out carefully and examined it at all angles.

"It's ready. All that's left is the most important step," he said.

"What's that?" I said. He smashed it in my face. He may have been laughing, but the real joke was on him. I got all the whipped cream.

The loners are going to take more than one chapter this time.