Hunger Games: All-Stars

Chapter 10

Emmalie Bluebell POV

"I suppose you'll ally with your District partner. He's here too," the head doctor said.

Oh no. Farlon again? I already had to put up with him once. Why would anyone want him back?

"I don't think so. Last time I tried, but he double-crossed me and left me to the mutts," I said. Hopefully none of them had watched the tapes. Apparently not, since they gasped and tutted over me.

"Oh you poor thing! You stay away from him. This time you'll win," an older man said.

"I'll try to stay brave," I said pathetically. The irony of the situation was not lost on me. This was the second time I was going into the Games and both time it was because people voted for me. This time, though, it was because they liked me. Whether it was my looks or my smarts, they wanted to see me fight again. I could use that. If I played my cards right, I could have sponsors eating out of my hand... and I could eat from theirs.

As usual, I wasn't as confident as I looked. It was weird knowing I'd died once. It made death seem more real, but at the same time, being alive again made it seem unimportant. I didn't dwell on it long. I was built for cunning, not philosophy. Why I was alive wasn't my problem. How to stay alive was.

Farlon Harlon POV

"Emmalie? Not again," I said. It was weird enough to wake up after I knew I was dead and have a bunch of doctors confirm it. It was unbelievable that I had to go into the Games again and die twice. It was unbearable to have to do it with Emmalie.

"But she's your District partner. You were together in your last Games," a doctor said.

"We were in the same Arena. We weren't together," I said. I tried to focus on the mild inconvenience of Emmalie to avoid the crushing thoughts of death, mortality, and resurrection. Better to focus on something I could comprehend.

What's Gio up to? I thought. It had been seven years. He didn't seem that old, but life expectancy is short in our profession. Was he excited I was back or had he forgotten about me? He was the only one I had left. I didn't know what I'd do if he was gone too. Nine didn't have a mentor. I might as well not have had a District partner. I had one person left.

"Is Kitty around somewhere?" I asked.

"Kitty Leek?" a nurse answered. "She died a while back. Chimera Ilium is your escort now."

Well scratch that.

Dominique Rindelle POV

My room was packed full of doctors, reporters and visitors. I heard people clamoring outside and pounding on the door. Evidently I was popular. I could hardly hear the doctors explain why I was alive and what was going on.

"Part of the All-Stars-" one stared.

"Dominique I love you! I want to be your sponsor!" someone yelled from the hallway.

"All-Stars-"

"Will you mention Felicia Daye in your narration in the Arena?!" someone else called.

"ALL-STARS GAMES!" the doctor yelled.

"Dominique! Do you have anything to say about your new found fame?" a reporter asked as he shoved a microphone in my face.

"I was just dead! Give me a minute," I said. One of the doctors- he seemed to be in charge, since he had a white hat- slipped between me and the reporter and held out his arms.

"That is enough! Everyone out!" he yelled. The reporter slunk out with the rest of the crowd, leaving only me and the doctors. The others continued to bump around outside the door, which the doctor slammed shut.

"Anyway... do you have any questions?" he asked. A dozen voices shouted through the walls.

"Not as many as they have."

Miller Thresher POV

What kind of i***t doctor doesn't bring food when he revives a patient? I'd been dead eight years. I was starving?

"Thanks for bringing me back. I'm hungry," I said. The doctor could have used some food himself. He was skinny as a rail. But why did he look so surprised?

"You shouldn't be hungry. We generated your body in healthy state," he said.

"I'm healthy enough to eat," I said.

"Hold on. You're healthy but your actual body is just hours old. You shouldn't eat anything yet," he said.

"Shouldn't I be the judge of that?" I asked. "You must have some food around here." The doctor looked at a clipboard and flipped some pages.

"All right, if you're really hungry I suppose we must have miscalculated. I'll get some glucose solution." he opened a drawer and took out a tube of clear paste. It didn't look very tasty but it would do. I grabbed it and tore the pouch open with my teeth. I squirted it in my mouth and almost spat it out. It was like fat and sugar mixed together.

"This is terrible! How does anyone ever get better around here?" I asked. The doctor took the tube back.

"You don't eat that! It's intravenous," he said.

"Intra what? What kind of doctor are you?" I asked.

"That goes into your bloodstream, not your mouth," the doctor said. I recoiled in horror. That i***t doctor didn't even know how to eat! What's wrong with the Capitol?

Heidi Garrett POV

I never expected to see Earth again. I was dead, after all. I felt like I'd a bonus life from some twisted arcade game. I almost felt blessed instead of robbed. I knew my second life would be even shorter than my first, but I was here and I was going to enjoy what I had left. I'd try to win the Games, of course, but while I was in the Capitol I might as well take advantage of all the wonderful things. Maybe some of the other girls would explore with me.

"Are you going to do another All-Stars Games later?" I asked the nurse taking my temperature.

"I suppose so," she said.

"So I could just keep getting resurrected, playing in the Capitol for a week, and dying?" I asked. "As long as they keep picking me?"

"I suppose so," she said, looking like she'd just thought of that.

That might not be so bad. Even if I died again I might keep getting one week at a time of luxury. Eventually they'd stop picking me, but after all those deaths staying dead wouldn't be so bad. Surely after all the stuff I went through I'd be allowed wherever it is good people go. I couldn't control whether I died or where I went. I could control what I did in the Capitol, though, and I was determined to make the best of it.

Barley Sturridge POV

Sky was looking at me from the top of a pool of water. She was all that was left between me and victory. She abandoned me before and I felt no mercy. I lunged from the water and grabbed her hair, trying to force her head below the water. Arms grabbed me on either side and pried her away from me. She fell back onto the ground and scrambled away.

"What did you do to him?" she screamed. I snarled at the men holding me back and thrashed at her. I had to kill her.

"I don't know! Something went wrong in the lab!" one of the men holding me replied.

"You can't get away!" I yelled. The men wrestled me to a table and strapped me down.

"Barley, what's wrong? You don't have to fight me. I'm not in the Games," Sky said. She was trying to trick me.

"You left me to die. But I'm coming for you," I said.

"You did die. I cam here to say I was sorry," she said.

"You're lying. You're trying to trick me again," I said. The others could wait. Sky was my target. I pulled at the straps as she talked with the other men. They didn't make any sense. I knew they were lying too. One of them put down a phone.

"They said they were ordered to. It was to make things more exciting," he said.

"They made him a monster!" Sky said. She was crying. "What did they do?"

"Most of the Tributes' memories were cloned directly from their tissue," the man said. "Barley's... they're a mix. Some are his, some are manufactured, and some are from other Tributes. Dangerous ones."

None of that mattered. It was all lies. They'd let me out eventually, and then I would be in the Games. I'd kill them all, and then I'd kill Sky.

Nine's a full crowd. They don't even get a mentor, so it's all on Chimera. Heaven help them. Also, Barley's form called for his change. I didn't just randomly change everything about him.