THE CAPITOL:

Belladonna Ericson POV:

We walk up to the hangar door and tilt our head back to observe the place. The metal building is surrounded in a thin film of black dust which still lingers from when this had stored coal. I look to my left and see Tide and Mave wandering around the courtyard that the hanger is located in with their guns drawn ready to fire at any Peace Keepers or Capitol Citizens that happen to wander over here.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Lena asks as she walks up to the door and bangs on it three times. You can hear it echo in the empty building. "See there's nothing in there. They lied to us." Lena adds as she turns around and walks over to where Terra is sitting on a broken bench with her face in her palms.

"They wouldn't have lied to us? Would they?" I ask Gavin as I squeeze his hand in fear of them abandoning us.

"No they wouldn't do that, they rescued us." Gavin says reassuringly as he lets go of my hand and grabs his gun out of his waistband. "I will never get used to holding one of these, you know?" He says as he turns the gun over in his hands looking at the cool metal shape that can end a life in the click of a button.

"I know what you mean, I would rather have knifes any day over this," I say to him as I move my jacket back to show him the black gun hidden in the hem of my skirt. "It just feels like I am a Peace Keeper now, even though I will always be a tribute.." I say to him as I put my jacket back and look back at the building.

"I am going to look around back, to see if there's another entrance." Gavin says as he turns the safety of his gun off and walks around the corner of the building disappearing from my vision. I turn around to face my friends. Tide is still looking down the street we came but Mave is now missing to. Lena and Terra are still talking together on the bench. I walk over to them.

"Are you guys ready?" I ask them as i flip my black hair over my shoulder as I kneel on the ground next to them

"We might be little but we are coming for the crown." Lena says to me as she stares towards the hangar her cracked eyes opening wider.

"The doors are opening!" Terra screams as she points one of her fingers at the hangar where I just stood. I turn around and listen to the groan of the mechanical tools as the doors open wider and wider. Gavin runs back towards the front of the hanger and joins us at the bench. Tide and Mave follow soon after.

The hanger is completely dark no lights at all.

Just darkness.

"Are we going in?" Mave asks as she leans forward letting her brown hair fall forward over her face.

"Do we have any other options right now?" Tide says as he takes a step towards the hanger. We all follow him deeper and deeper into the darkness.

"How long does this go?" Terra asks us in the darkness of the hanger as we get further and further away from the door.

"THE DOORS CLOSING!" Lena shouts as we hear the groan of machinery again. "This is just like the cave…" Lena whispers to no one in particular. We can hear her breathing getting heavier and thicker by the second. After Lena had been trapped in that cave with Anselmo in the Arena last year we all knew she hated being trapped inside spaces, no matter how big they were. We all saw replays of the Games when they were in the cave, and we saw how they reacted towards each other growing more hostile once realizing only one could escape alive.

"Everyone calm down!" Gavin says in a cool voice. Where is he? I thought he was next to me! I say as I listen to his voice realizing that the voice is no longer right by my side.

"I can't see anything…" I say as I fall to my knees and start to grope the ground looking for anything. I don't even touch anyone else's feet or shoes. I hear their feet shuffling on the ground all going in different directions.

"Where's Lena!" Mave screams into the darkness. I turn my head towards the voice and i try to look for an outline of the figures of friends.

"MAVE!" Tide screams. He isn't near her though I turn my head towards the opposite direction and look for Tide now. I can't see anything. Voices are floating throughout the air like the wind when a storm is about to hit. I try to find my friends but just end up staring in different directions.

BANG!

A gunshot…

Everyone goes silent as they listen to the echoing of the gun.

And then we scream.

We are all screaming each other's name and looking for each other. The only voice I didn't hear though was Mave's…

BANG!

Another gunshot. This time Terra stops screaming.

BANG!

Tide falls silent.

BANG!

I feel something wrap around my body and the gas starts to come out of a small can slowly filling my mouth with it's poisonous gas slowly pulling me under.

And then my vision goes black…

My eyes slowly drift open and I look around the room. It's circular and seems to be made of metal with plates covering where windows should be. I feel the cool metal pressing against the bare skin on my neck which seems to be the only skin showing, I look at the clothes I am dressed in and observe them. It seems like something a tribute would wear in the arena but not quite, it seems to high tech for a arena outfit.

"Is anyone awake yet?" Terra says from a few feet away. I prop my head up and try o move my hands but they are restrained by metal cuffs attached to the table. I look around and see that we are all situated in a circle around what seems to be a stool with buttons on top of it, we are all dressed the same and on metal tables like we are all about to go into operation.

"I am," I say as I put my head back down on the table and listen for the other voices of my friends.

"I am awake too." Mave says as she tries to break free of the restraints, her voice is follow by Gavin's, and then Tide, and Lena. We lay on the tables still as rocks and cold as ice. And in silence to the only sound is the occasional struggle to get more comfortable or try to break free of the restraints.

Whishh

One of the many metal plates slide open and a girl no older then us walks in with long white hair and silver eyes she stares at each of us before speaking.

Clio. I think to myself as I remember seeing her for the first time and not being able to forget her eyes.

"Hello, as you know my name is Clio and I was one of the people directly picking you to be rescued from the arena and in that case each and every one of you owe me your lives, we could have easily made you all die in the arena like the Capitol had planned for." She clears her throat and goes on. "Today we will be putting you in a simulation, in which you will be given a mission and have a array of weapons that you are able to choose from to complete the mission. You will all be working together as a unit to try and complete the mission with as little of you dying as possible." Terra clenches her fist at the last part. "Are you ready?" Clio adds as she touches the end of her long white hair with her small hand.

"So if we die in the simulation… What happens?" Lena asks as she tries to get some of her blond hair out of her face as she looks at Clio. I knew someone was going to ask that question.

"If you die in the simulation you will just wake up here and watch the remaining players on the Holo that will appear out of this." She motions to the stool type thing. "You will have your weapons of choice and you will all be working as a unit to try and complete the mission." Clio says as she pulls a syringe out of her pocket and walks over to me. "Are you ready?" She asks me as she uncaps it and squeezes the air out.

I nod my head and close my eyes.

The pain of the needle is barley anything compared to what I felt in the arena…

I am wake up by a rattling of metal. My eyes jerk open and I am on my feet almost instainatly looking around for my friends and Gavin. I look and see some of them slowly starting to materialize on the ground next to me and I move out of their way so when they wake up. I look at the cart we are in more and see the is almost identical to the one we were previously in except this one now has weapons lining the walls and metal operation tables were missing. I run over to a wall that has a belt of throwing knives on it and I quickly take it down and strap it against my body. I count 24 knives, I take another 10 just to be safe.

"Get the weapons you can use and only those." Terra says to me and Tide as they both finish materializing. Tide goes for a shiny black sniper rifle that looks deadly with out the bullets in it, Terra grabs two twin katanas and she straps them to her back and draws one out ready to fight anything that comes in her way.

Lena, Mave, and Gavin all materialize at the same time, they say something about Clio dropping a needle and having to wait a while longer. Lena grabs two pistols that she has started to be getting good at and loads them quickly and quietly. Gavin, unsurprisingly grabs a black bow and arrow with a matching quiver while Mave grabs a pair of throwing axes that easily can be carried.

I look at all of their outfits and then at mine. We are all wearing black skintight shirts with matching black pants but the pants being a little looser than the shirt.

"Does anyone know where we are going?" Lena asks as she puts her hair up in a pony tail and grabs one of her guns and turns the safety off. She is answered by the door that Clio had came through opening and revealing a quiet Capitol street.

"Should we go?" Mave asks as she moves to the side of the cart to get out of shooting range of any weapons, we all quickly do the same. Gavin and I quickly grab a knife or arrow to defend ourselves with.

The stool that is still in the middle of the cart starts to lower itself into the ground, we all aim our weapons towards it. A Holo flashes on and the light fills the cart as we all lower our weapons seeing the family face of Clio.

"Welcome to the simulation, in this one you will be located in the Capitol. Your mission is to successfully survive in the simulation for 24 hours; you either all die or complete it. When dead or champions, you will be transported out of here." She says as she nods in no particular direction and then she vanishes along with the blue light.

"Move fast, stay low, out of sight and out of range." Tide says as he hops out of the truck and raises his gun towards the buildings looking for any snipers that might try and pick us off from above, once he sees its clear he motions for us to come out and join him on the street. We all scramble to get out of the car as we rest our feet on the cement that has been painted like its citizens.

"Which way is the house?" Gavin asks us as he lowers his bow and spins around looking for anything that might give us a clue to where we were. We all quickly do the same trying to find a building that we would recognize.

"That way!" Lena almost screams as she points her finger and gun towards a building that we soon recognize as the training center. We need somewhere to hide and fast.

"Lets go into one of these building first, we could look for a map, a holo, and see what's going on in this dimension." I say to the group as I walk over to a building covered in purple paint with a yellow roof. It looked like something from a candy store. We walk into the store keeping our heads low and weapons ready, not entirely sure what we will be expecting…

Hello everyone who is reading this and or has a Tribute still trapped whiten my reaches. As you know i haven't updated this in awhile and I might do so more often if you guys review! Iu don't really have any questions like i do with my SYOT's so feel free to review whatever!

~Living in Ruins