Under the Moon

Chapter Thirty Eight

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

I felt Shayne's body shake as he sobbed. "I knew that you had a chance to survive, Zeze, but we all know that Tesla can't!"

"Why not Shayne? He's smarter than the both of us," I said.

"Zeze, do you think he was reaped at random? Snow is doing this to punish me. He will make sure that Tesla dies. And anyways, you know about Tesla," Shayne said. I did. Tesla was scared of nearly everything but he had a huge phobia of injuries, blood, and organs. He would freak out, run away, and even faint if he saw a seriously injured person. Everyone thought this was such a pity, since with his great intelligence on biology, he would have made an excellent doctor. There was no way he was going to tolerate the games. He would rather die than see the gory deaths of forty-seven other children. Shayne was right; Tesla had no chance at all. I glanced back at the screen. Nobody volunteered for Tesla and it shifted to District Four. "Zeze, do you think I can volunteer for him? I look exactly like him; if I got rid of my glasses and put on a pair of contacts, no one could even tell the difference. I don't live in District Three, but I'm from there. And Snow hates me anyways," Shayne asked.

"First of all, Shayne, you know that I'd never let you. Second of all, you live here, and even though no one would be able to tell, Snow would never let you. He wants to watch you and your family suffer," I said.

"What if I run to the Training Center one night and switch with him?" Shayne asked.

"How? There are Peacekeepers everywhere! And I would never ever let you, Shayne! You are the last person I would ever want to lose. You know that if you go, you will die. And think of my parents. You're almost done with making the program. If you give up now, they will die! You're a gamemaker, Shayne. You can help Tesla in the arena, you can! You can do what they did for Copper last year. Nothing came in his way to harm him, except other tributes! You can do the same for Tesla. Just a few little changes; no one would even notice. And then just think if Snow's expression when Tesla becomes victor," I said. I grabbed his hand, "Please, Shayne!" Shayne bit his lip, thinking about his options. Finally, he nodded. "Alright, Zeze. Whatever you say," he mumbled. I breathed a sigh if relief as I held his hand comfortingly. I turned back toward the screen. We had missed the reaping for Districts Four through Eleven. The reaping for District Twelve had just begun. The escort said, "Rivka Greenlands!" A girl with blonde hair and dark eyes walked up to stage. "And Maysilee Donner!" the escort called. A small frightened looking girl hesitantly went up to the stage. She had tears spilling over the brims of her eyes. "Sael Boughman!" the escort said, as a slim boy in torn clothes and bare feet walked up. "And finally, Haymitch Aberthy!" the woman said. A boy with light brown hair and dark brown eyes confidently strutted up to stage. In his hand was a bottle of root beer, which he threw on the ground after his name was called. His confidence reminded me of Copper; both seemed destined to be victors. But he was from District Twelve, the poorest district of all. They had only ever had one victor before and she was so sickly she was barely even able to help mentor them. If he had no sponsors, Haymitch would have a harder time surviving. The Capitol seal showed on the screen and the anthem played. The screen switched to the Head Gamemaker, Ludum Factorum, who's name literally meant gamemaker in Latin, and Julius Flickerman discussing the tributes. "The tributes this year have to be survivors, not only killers," Ludum told Julius.

"What do you mean?" Julius asked.

"This year's game is going to be very long. Twice the number of people will take twice the number of days. In the previous, shorter games, if you could kill, you could survive. Kill off the remaining people and you're victors. But with forty seven competitors, you must survive. Unless you are a killing machine, you can't kill off so many people," Ludum said.