The gong sounded. I ran, just like Haymitch told me. I ran for the woods. In the corner of my eye, I saw the bloodbath begin. I tried to push it from my mind, and I raced toward the trees, away from the horrific scene behind me. I ran for as long as I could. As a started to slow down, I heard leaves rustle behind me. My insides locked up, and I froze. Suddenly, I was tackled from behind. I fell to the ground. I'm going to die. I thought. I heard a familiar laugh behind me. "Rory!" I nearly shouted it, before I remembered that we might not be too far from the other tributes. "Hey there, Primmy," he said with that grin of his. He offered his hand, but I got up by myself. We started walking in the opposite direction of the Cornucopia. "What are you doing? You almost scared me to death!" I said, annoyed. Usually I was more patient, especially with Rory. The arena was getting to me. The fear was already driving me insane. "I thought we could be allies. We're already friends," he said with inexplicable cheeriness. He thinks he's going to win, I thought. Doesn't he know? Didn't he see the others – Cato? Marvel? Thresh? We're both doomed, Rory and I. Since I knew that neither of us would win anyway, I saw no harm in making an alliance. At least, maybe I'd die beside my best friend. We spent the rest of that day getting as far from the Cornucopia as we could. I recognized a few plants and berries that were safe to eat, and we gathered as we walked. Rory suggested trying to get meat. "But… I don't want to kill anything," I whispered to him. He looked at me, exasperated. "You're in an arena full of people you're trying to kill, but you'll get squeamish over killing a stupid squirrel?" I didn't say anything. "Oh," he mumbled, realizing that I never planned to kill anyone in the arena. I planned to die, hopefully as quickly and painlessly as possible. This seemed to make Rory uncomfortable, and he looked down and didn't say much for a while. We walked and gathered the berries I knew were safe in silence. We were quickly becoming thirsty, so water became our top priority. It was starting to get dark when I tripped over some roots and fell right into the stream. We drank deeply and decided to make our camp there since we had no way to carry the water. I found a spot hidden well enough in the underbrush that we could be concealed while we slept. Once the sun went down, the arena's temperature plummeted. I tried to fall asleep a few inches from Rory, but my shivers soon became too violent to control, so I scooted closer to him. His warmth was so welcoming that I snuggled into his chest.