Into Thin Air: The Forty-Second Hunger Games

Chapter 19

Slater Hematite

Life is so fragile. It took a million steps for something alive to knit itself together from raw materials. The simplest amino acid had ten different atoms in it. If they didn't fall together just right, there was no amino acid. If they didn't fall in the right order, there was no amino acid. Amino acids came together to make proteins. The simplest protein had seventeen amino acids. If any of them were damaged, if any of them were in the wrong order, if any of them didn't fold at just the right angle, there was no protein. There were around 50,000 proteins in a human body, most of which had more than 100 amino acids, all just in the right place. The number of chances, coincidences, and perfect, unbroken sequences required for life astounded me. The odds against it happening by chance were so ridiculously astronomical I sometimes thought it wasn't chance at all. But there was something else that also astounded me, something much more relevant: how easy it was to wipe all that away.

Life was a mathematical impossibility, as unlikely as me getting struck by lightning once a day for my entire life. But something that required one perfect set of acids, proteins, and so much more had a million and one ways to destroy it. I favored a bow and arrow, or sometimes knives. There were a million weapons I could have used, and a dozen spots that were fatal if damaged. Killing was a science as much as life was. I may have seen magic in the impossible coincidences of life, but I had no such sentimentality about death. It was the result of lack of oxygen to the brain, and nothing more. I didn't do it if I didn't have to because I'd get in trouble and because everyone knew it was wrong, but it didn't bother me. I was doing what I had to do to get back to my daughter. I felt bad for the Victors who weren't Careers. This actually bothered them.

I killed a Tribute fascimile with an arrow to the head. I killed another with a shot to the chest. I stabbed one with a dagger and knew it wouldn't die immediately, but its blood would leak out until there was none left. I was glad my victims weren't real, but I knew that for the ones that were, it would be just the same.

Gray Eamon Arden

I only had a few days. I couldn't learn to fight like a Career. The best case scenario was I learned enough to give me an edge and that the edge was exactly the one I needed.

Fighting was beyond me, but surviving was mandatory. I stared at the pictures at the edible plants station. They all looked the same at first. Skinny leaves, furry leaves, fat leaves. It was impossible to tell parsnips from hemlock. I could only try to memorize a few of the obvious ones that didn't happen to also look like poisonous plants.

One of the plants was familiar. I wished it wasn't. The plant, called "lamb's quarter", had wide, club-shaped leaves. The description said it was edible. It should have been good to see an edible plant I knew I'd recognize, but it broke my heart. I recognized the plant because it grew all around our house. All those years we starved, every day that Ella grew thinner, we were surrounded by food. When I left the house, I stepped on plants that could have saved her.

Why couldn't they teach this in school? This could have saved lives. We learned about Panem, and the Capitol, and the Dark Days, but we didn't learn about plants that could have fed us. It would have been so easy. It would have taken ten minutes to show us a list of plants. It took them ten minutes to play that stupid video before every Reaping. It took longer than that to prick all of our fingers.

I didn't want to look at more plants after that. I moved on to the hand-to-hand station. I wanted to punch something.

Kuma Swain

The Careers were something else. Most of us dreaded them and so did I, but I could still admire them. I saw them training together, matching weapons and learning each others' strengths and weaknesses so they could be a better team. Their movements showed the result of years of disciplined training- the repetition and monotony of thousands of drills and exercises, repeated until everything was mastered. They gave their entire hearts to their goals. There was nothing I hated more than someone who didn't pull his weight. For all their faults, the Careers weren't like that.

It was their goal that was the problem. The Capitol tried to divide us by marking out the Districts and pitting us against each other in the Games, but there was one thing that united us all. We all hated them, and we all hated the Games. We all hated the government-sanctioned murder of twenty-three children every year. The Careers not only accepted it, they embraced it. I couldn't understand how they could do it. They worked so hard- they devoted their entire, often short, lives- to something like murder.

I'd always hated and begrudgingly respected them, but I was starting to pity them. It was a loss for us all that they were so twisted. The Careers I saw pushing their bodies to the limit were warriors. They earned their skills with determination and perseverance. If they'd only been devoted to good, Panem might be entirely different. People that determined might have found a way to feed everyone in Panem. They might have invented something that meant nobody had to work in the fields. The Careers were some of the brightest young men and women in the nation. If they wanted to, they might be able to overthrow the Capitol. But instead they worked for its glory. That was the Capitol's greatest victory.

Tillia Raven

I needed to show the others I wasn't someone to be messed with. I went to the knives station and got to work. I picked a wicked-looking dagger and started to savage my opponent. The dummy didn't stand a chance against my assault. I tore right through its tough fabric exterior and spilled its stuffing on the ground.

Physical strength wasn't enough. The greatest part of the battle was fought in the mind. Tributes wouldn't fight me if they were terrified. I needed to intimidate them. I didn't have to be this savage in the Arena. I just needed them to think I would be.

I raised my voice with each new strike, until I was shouting as I ripped the dummy apart. I made my strikes more sweeping and brutal, hacking at the dummy and ripping its limbs until the stitches tore loose and it fell to pieces. I ran the knife lightly along my finger like I was relishing the violence, being careful not to nick myself. I shoved the blade through the dummy's head and left it sticking out as I turned, leaving the dummy behind like I'd never cared about it.

My plan was obviously effective. Half the Tributes in the room were looking at me. The girl from Five was looking at me with big bug eyes. Eddin was backing away from me slowly. The boy from Four was so disgusted by my brutal display that he had his hands over his mouth and he was shaking. They were all terrified. I had nothing to worry about in the Bloodbath.

Slater's a Career but I forgot so I wrote him here. Allecia commented on the lack of alliances because I don't assign allies. Submitters can decide who they want to ally with and send messages amongst themselves. So at this point, the only alliance is the Careers. Kuma wanted to ally with some Tributes but I forgot who they were and lost the message, so I'll write that once I find them.