The Hunger Games Tribute Guide (10 page)

“There is one girl I’ve had a crush on forever — but I don’t think she even noticed me till the reaping.”

“Well, I tell you what you do. You go out there and you
win
this thing and when you get home, she’ll have to go out with you.”

“I don’t think that’s going to help. Winning won’t matter in my case.”

“Why not?” Caesar asks.

“Because — she came here with me.”

M
entors give their tributes a last few pieces of advice before they are taken to the arena. Then the tributes step into a hovercraft, to be flown to a staging ground beneath the arena.

They sit in two long rows of seats. Peacekeepers watch over them, strong and silent. The tributes are all very aware of one another, of where they are going, but no one makes eye contact. A woman in a white lab coat goes down the row, inserting a tracker into each tribute’s arm so the Gamemakers can follow everyone’s vital statistics and positions in the arena. She pushes a thin syringe into their arms, and the small device is in place.

The windows of the hovercraft darken as the vehicle approaches the arena, so that the location will be obscured. It pulls into an underground bunker. Each tribute is escorted by Peacekeepers down a long hall and into their private Launch Room, marked with their ID: “FEMALE 12.”

T
he Launch Rooms are located directly underneath the arena — below the Cornucopia. They are brand-new. The arenas are used only once, then designated as historic sites. Preserved, they become popular vacation destinations for Capitol travelers. So this is the only time these rooms will be used by tributes.

In the Launch Rooms, the tributes receive their clothes for the Games. The outfits are the same for all the tributes, but each district has a distinct color to distinguish them in the arena.

Each tribute has a moment alone with his or her stylist in the Launch Room before being brought up to the surface. They may exchange a few private words, a few last pieces of encouragement.

Once ready, the tributes go stand in the cylindrical tubes that will bring them up to the arena. The twenty-four cylinders begin to rise. For fifteen seconds, the tributes stand in utter darkness, hearts pounding. Then the metal plate pushes them out into the open air, to whatever future awaits.