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I throw eance Eat, live, and breathe the workouts, drills, weapons practice, lectures on tactics A handful of us are ives me hope I may be a contender for the actual war The soldiers simply call it the Block, but the tattoo on my arm lists it as SSC, short for Simulated Street Combat Deep in 13, they&039;ve built an artificial Capitol city block The instructor breaks us into squads of eight and we atte a target, searching a hoh the Capitol The thing&039;s rigged so that everything that can go wrong for you does A false step triggers a landchild leads you into an ambush, your squadron leader - who&039;s just a voice on the prograure out what to do without orders Part of you knows it&039;s fake and that they&039;re not going to kill you If you set off a land mine, you hear the explosion and have to pretend to fall over dead But in other ways, it feels pretty real in there - the enemy soldiers dressed in Peacekeepers&039; uniforas us Johanna and I are the only ones who get our ets knocked out for ten fuls of gives me a wicked headache for the rest of the day

Cressida and her crew tape Johanna andfilmed as well It&039;s part of a new propos series to show the rebels preparing for the Capitol invasion On the whole, things are going pretty well

Then Peeta starts showing up for ourworkouts The manacles are off, but he&039;s still constantly accouards After lunch, I see hiinners I don&039;t knohat they&039;re thinking If a spat with Delly can reduce hi how to asseun

When I confront Plutarch, he assures e of Annie getting ets, but all of Panehting for the rebels, not for Snow And et a couple of shots of the two of us, not kissing necessarily, just looking happy to be back together -

I walk away fro to happen

In my rare moments of downtime, I anxiously watch the preparations for the invasions See equipment and provisions readied, divisions assembled You can tell when soiven a very short haircut, theinto battle There isoffensive, which will be to secure the train tunnels that feed up into the Capitol

Just a few days before the first troops are to move out, York unexpectedly tells Johanna and me she&039;s recommended us for the exam, and we&039;re to report immediately There are four parts: an obstacle course that assesses your physical condition, a written tactics exam, a test of weapons proficiency, and a simulated coet nervous for the first three and do well, but there&039;s a backlog at the Block Soroup of us exchanges inforh alone There&039;s no predicting what situation you&039;ll be thrown into One boy says, under his breath, that he&039;s heard it&039;s designed to target each individual&039;s weaknesses

My weaknesses? That&039;s a door I don&039;t even want to open But I find a quiet spot and try to assess what they th of the list depressesAnd sojay doesn&039;t see to get us to blend into a pack They could nail s

Johanna&039;s called three ahead of ement I wish I had been at the top of the list because now I&039; By the tiy should be Fortunately, once I&039; does kick in It&039;s an ambush situation Peacekeepers appear almost instantly and I have to make my way to a rendezvous point to ate the street, taking out Peacekeepers as I go Two on the rooftop to ing, but not as hard as I was expecting There&039;s a nagging feeling that if it&039;s too si the point I&039;in to heat up A half dozen Peacekeepers councarelessly in the gutter This is it My test To perceive that blowing up the drum will be the only way to achieve my mission Just as I step out to do it, my squadron leader, who&039;s been fairly useless up to this point, quietly orders round Every instinct I have screaer, to blow the Peacekeepers sky-high And suddenly, I realize what the est weakness is Froe backpack, to the firefight in 8, to my impulsive race across the square in 2 I cannot take orders

I sravel out of as tank The Peacekeepers die I make my rendezvous point When I exit the Block on the far side, a soldier congratulates me, stamps my hand with squad nuiddy with success, I run through the halls, skidding around corners, bounding down the steps because the elevator&039;s too slow I bang into the room before the oddity of the situation dawns onmy hair buzzed The people around the table aren&039;t freshlythe shots

Boggs smiles and shakes his head when he sees me "Let&039;s see it" Unsure now, I hold out my stamped hand "You&039;re with me It&039;s a special unit of sharpshooters Join your squad" He nods over at a group lining the wall Gale Finnick Five others I don&039;t know My squad I&039;s With my friends I force myself to take cal up and down

We must be important, too, because we&039;re in Cojay Plutarch stands over a wide, flat panel in the center of the table He&039;s explaining so about the nature of ill encounter in the Capitol I&039; this is a terrible presentation - because even on tiptoe I can&039;t see what&039;s on the panel - until he hits a button A holographic ie of a block of the Capitol projects into the air

"This, for exa one of the Peacekeepers&039; barracks Not uniets, and yet look" Plutarch enters soin to flash They&039;re in an assortht is called a pod It represents a different obstacle, the nature of which could be anything from a bomb to a band of ned to either trap or kill you Some have been in place since the Dark Days, others developed over the years To be honest, I created a fair nuram, which one of our people absconded e left the Capitol, is our most recent information They don&039;t knoe have it But even so, it&039;s likely that new pods have been activated in the last few months This is what you will face"

I&039; to the table until I&039;raph My hand reaches in and cups a rapidly blinking green light

Someone joins me, his body tense Finnick, of course Because only a victor would see what I see so immediately The arena Laced with pods controlled by Galow over a doorway "Ladies and gentleh the rooin!"

I laugh Quickly Before anyone has tiister what lies beneath the words I have just uttered Before eyebrows are raised, objections are uttered, two and two are put together, and the solution is that I should be kept as far away frory, independently thinking victor with a layer of psychological scar tissue too thick to penetrate is maybe the last person you want on your squad

"I don&039;t even knohy you bothered to put Finnick and , Plutarch," I say

"Yeah, we&039;re already the two best-equipped soldiers you have," Finnick adds cockily

"Do not think that fact escapes me," he says with an impatient wave "Now back in line, Soldiers Odair and Everdeen I have a presentation to finish"

We retreat to our places, ignoring the questioning looks thrown our way I adopt an attitude of extre et a better view, all the while telling et to the woods and scream Or curse Or cry Or maybe all three at once

If this was a test, Finnick and I both pass it When Plutarch finishes and the &039;s adjourned, I have a bad moment when I learn there&039;s a special order for me But it&039;s merely that I skip the jay to look as irl in the arena as possible at the anticipated surrender For the cath&039;s a matter of complete indifference to me They disravitate toward each other in the hallway "What will I tell Annie?" he says under his breath

"Nothing," I answer "That&039;s what h that we knoe&039;re heading back into a fully equipped arena No use dropping it on our loved ones

"If she sees that holograph - " he begins

"She won&039;t It&039;s classified information It must be," I say "Anyway, it&039;s not like an actual Games Any nu because - well, you knohy You still want to go, don&039;t you?"

"Of course I want to destroy Snow as much as you do," he says

"It won&039;t be like the others," I say fir to convince myself as well Then the real beauty of the situation dawns on me "This time Snoill be a player, too"

Before we can continue, Hay, isn&039;t thinking of arenas but so else "Johanna&039;s back in the hospital"

I assumed Johanna was fine, had passed her exaned to a sharpshooters&039; unit She&039;s wicked throwing an ax but about average with a gun "Is she hurt? What happened?"

"It hile she was on the Block They try to ferret out a soldier&039;s potential weaknesses So they flooded the street," says Haymitch

This doesn&039;t help Johanna can swi around some in the Quarter Quell Not like Finnick, of course, but none of us are like Finnick "So?"

"That&039;s how they tortured her in the Capitol Soaked her and then used electric shocks," says Haymitch "In the Block she had some kind of flashback Panicked, didn&039;t knohere she was She&039;s back under sedation" Finnick and I just stand there, as if we&039;ve lost the ability to respond I think of the way Johanna never showers How she forced herself into the rain like it was acid that day I had attributed herwithdrawal

"You two should go see her You&039;re as close to friends as she&039;s got," says Hay worse I don&039;t really knohat&039;s between Johanna and Finnick But I hardly know her No family No friends Not so ulation clothes in her anonyo tell Plutarch He won&039;t be happy," Haymitch continues "He wants as many victors as possible for the cameras to follow in the Capitol Thinks it makes for better television"

"Are you and Beetee going?" I ask

"Asand attractive victors as possible," Haymitch corrects hioes directly down to see Johanna, but I linger outside a few s couess he&039;s the one to ask for any special favors When I tell hio to the woods during Reflection, provided I stay within sight of the guards I run toto use the parachute, but it&039;s so full of ugly o across the hall and take one of the white cotton bandages I brought fro

In the woods, I find a pine tree and strip handfuls of fragrant needles fro a neat pile in the ive the an apple-sized bundle

At the hospital room door, I watch Johanna for a moment, realize that most of her ferocity is in her abrasive attitude Stripped of that, as she is now, there&039;s only a slight young woainst the power of the drugs Terrified of what sleep will bring I cross to her and hold out the bundle