Day 1

1 Quinn

As soon as I'm out of the tube I look around nervously. The other tributes' eyes all search over the wares in and around the Cornucopia, but I'm looking for Dave, the boy from my district. We promised our mentor that we would stick together, no matter what would happen. He's standing four platforms from my right. We look each other straight in the eye. He nods his head in the direction of a forest of pine trees.
I try to think of the food we can find in there, but I don't think there's another option, since the other side of the arena seems to be just swamp.
I confirm our destination to him right before the gong sounds. I turn to the left and run into the forest as fast as I can. When I have passed the first rows of trees I look back to see where Dave is, but what I see instead is so threatening that my body freezes and forces me to watch. The tributes are killing each other in ways people of our age shouldn't even think about. The boy from district 1, Noah, who was staring at me in the training centre constantly, has a knife and stabs everyone who's in his way. The girl from district 5 is laying behind him. Blood comes flooding out of her mouth. I hear the first canon as she suddenly lays still. I see the boy from district 3 and the girl from district 8 fighting over a bag of - I suppose - food.
Her districts partner shoots an arrow through his stomach right before Dave runs up to, grabs me and tells me to run. He's carrying two backpacks, a spear and an axe. He throws one of the backpacks at me and tries to hand the spear carefully. We keep running until I'm too exhausted and ask him to wait. We rest for a few minutes in which we open our backpacks and see what's in them.

2 Santana

I'm walking near the edge of the forest. I hold the knife in my hand with all the power I have. The boy from my district, Jesse, just got killed at the Cornucopia. We promised our mentor to stick together, make friends and kill everyone who's not in the pact, but I guess that doesn't really matter anymore. I'm just going to kill everyone.
Suddenly I hear something behind me. It's far away, but I know what to do. I turn around and look through the trees. Then I see she isn't walking through the forest. She's dragging herself through the swamp. I raise my knife and get ready to throw it, but then she sees me and stands still with a horrified look on her face. We'd met in the training centre. I insisted having her in our team, but Jesse didn't think she was smart enough. I drop my arm and look at her. Somehow I can't help but smile. She sees it and starts walking again. When she stands right in front of me she looks at me the way she did in the training centre. Somewhat flirty. I stick out my hand to shake hers.
"Are you going to kill me?" she asks.
"No," I say. "In fact, I think we would make a great team." She shakes my hand.
"I'm Brittany," she says.
"I know, I remembered. I'm Santana." She smirks.
"Do you have any weapons?" I ask. She shakes her head. "Food?"
"Everybody was running to all that stuff and it scared me, so I watched from behind a tree."
"That's very smart," I say. "We can share." I get another knife out of my backpack and give it to her.
"Thanks." I smile at her.
"Where's the boy from your district?" I ask.
"I don't know. We don't really like each other."
"So do you have a plan?"
She shrugs. "Not really." Maybe Jesse was right, but her presence makes me happy.
"Let's set up a camp and find things to eat," I suggest.

3 Mike

I'm trying to run harder, but the arrow in my upper leg hurts too much.
"Let's stop here." Tina says. I stumble and fall and try to sit back up. Tina keeps walking. She's looking for something.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"I need something to patch your leg with."
"Maybe there's something in the backpack." And there is. She takes a bandage.
"Do I just pull out the arrow?" she asks.
"I don't know, just do something." She pulls it out fast. Blood streams out of the wound. She winds the bandage around my leg.
"Better?"
"Better." I smile. She leans over and kisses me.

4 Rachel

It's getting dark. I'm sitting against a tree and I'm staring at a squirrel. All of the courage I had before the Games started has sunk into my shoes right when the gong sounded. I panicked when I saw the horrible slaughter at the Cornucopia and ran into the woods without taking anything. I think I walked half a mile before I settled down here and stopped moving, waiting for someone to finish me.
Suddenly an arrow lands near my foot and the squirrel shoots away.
"Damn it!" a voice yells. He whispers some curse words to himself for being so loud. Then I see him. When he sees me he looks shocked.
"Don't worry," I say. "I won't do anything."
"Oh," he says. "I was trying to shoot that squirrel, not you."
"It doesn't matter."
"You're Rachel, right? I'm Sam."
"Hi." He settles down next to me. For a few minutes we just sit there, without moving. Suddenly my stomach snorts loudly. He laughs.
"Do you have anything?" he asks.
"No," I answer.
"You can have some crackers." He's already grabbing them, but I stop him.
"Save them for yourself. It's no use giving them to me. You actually have a chance of surviving, I will be dead in a day." He looks surprised.
"I heard you never gave up on things that you really wanted."
"Who told you that?"
"The boy from your district. Joe."
"He doesn't know me."
"He says your whole district knows you. He says you can sing very well."
"So? That's not gonna help me win. I don't even want to win. I can't."
"You shouldn't think like that. Here," he says, while he hands me a cracker. My stubborn attitude can't win from my hunger and I take it. He eats one too and again we don't speak for a while.

5 Kurt

I try to think of anything I could do for Finn, although I don't think anything would help. He's so dismantled I'm worried he won't even make it to the sunrise. He's laying on a pile of moss I put there for him. He's breathing slowly, but with a lot of sound. I'm scared the other's might hear us from far away, but I can't really care.
I lay next to him when I hear the anthem of Panem. Finn has his eyes open, but I'm not sure if he realizes what's going on. The faces of the first dead tributes appear on the screen under the hovercraft.
The girl from district 1, the boy from 3.
When the girl from my own district shows up I shiver. Her father was a co-worker of my dad. I never really talked to her, but she was in my class and she had many friends.
The girl from Finn's district. I believe he's trying to say something, but he can't.
Both tributes from district 10. I met the boy in the trainings centre. His name was Artie. He could barely walk. He threw himself into the fight at the Cornucopia. That was his plan.
The girl from district 11. I met her too. We were having fun together two days ago. Her name was Mercedes. I really liked her.
She's the last one. I try to hold back my tears, but I can't. Seven innocent lives have been taken today. I'm laying besides a boy who'd be better off dead too. There are fifteen kids in this arena who all want me dead to survive. I'm not strong, I'm not tall, I don't have a weapon and I don't have food. Unless I get myself into a pact I'll be dead in two days. But I don't want to be in a pact. Because that means making friends and betraying them later on. And I'm not going to do that. I just can't.

Day 2

6 Santana

A sound from not very far away wakes me up. It's like someone is walking there. I sit up straight immediately, pulling Brittany up with me in the sleeping bag.
"What!" she screams. I put my hands in front of her mouth quickly. I look around and get out of the sleeping bag. I grab my knife and give Brittany hers, but she still doesn't really know what's going on.
"San, what's-"
"Shh!" I hear someone breathing a few trees away. Then she steps in my sight and yells: "Please don't kill me!" I laugh and get myself ready to throw the knife.
"Please!" she screams.
"Santana, don't!" Brittany walks up to the girl and stands in front of her.
"Brittany, move."
"But I like her, I met her in the training centre! We can work together!"
"Brittany,-" I want to tell her only one of us can survive and having a third mouth to feed can only lead to less chance for us. But I can't say it.
I walk up to them.
"How do we know we can trust you?"
"I never lie. I basically can't. So I'm telling the truth when I say that I will do anything you say," she says.
"And you won't hurt us," I say, with my face very close to hers.
"No, I won't."
"What's your name?"
"Sugar," she says.
"Welcome, Sugar." Brittany hugs me. We walk back to our camp. Sugar doesn't have anything from the Cornucopia, so it seems like we need to search for food and weapons again.

7 Rachel

I fell asleep before the dead tributes were shown. Sam has guarded over me all night and he said Joe is still alive.
He thinks we should find people and start a pact. I'm going to help him find some and then I'm leaving them to let at least one of them win.
"Do you want to sleep now?" I ask him while we're eating crackers again.
"No, I'm fine." When we've finished our crackers, he stands up and grabs his bow and arrows.
"We need to hunt," he says.
"You didn't seem very good with the bow yesterday."
"That was… Maybe you should try it." He hands me the bow and walks up to a tree 25 feet away, where he pulls off a little husk. "Aim for this," he says.
I lay an arrow on the bow and pull the string. Sam takes a few steps backwards. I try to aim for the spot on the tree, but I've never done this before. I let go of the string. The arrow lands in a root of the tree. I wasn't pulling hard enough.
"Good enough," Sam says. "Let's go."

8 Quinn

I woke Dave up early this morning. He'd been asleep for only two hours, but we need to find a better place to stay fast.
Last night I saw a big animal only twenty feet away. Dave threw his knife to it and then it was gone, but we need to find a place where no one, or nothing, can see us.
We've been walking for over an hour now. I threaded a rabbit to my spear which we will eat when we get hungry.
"We need to make friends," says Dave, after a while.
"Why?" I ask.
"Because we can't do this on our own. We need help. And some more sleep."
"I'm sorry."
"It's my fault. I let you sleep to long."
"You didn't have to."
"I know."
We walk some more, but after a while he suddenly stops.
"What?" I ask.
"Shh!" And now I hear it too. Footsteps. Voices. They're getting closer. Dave grabs my arm and pulls me behind a big tree. It's a boy and a girl. Dave grabs his axe.
"What are you doing?" I whisper.
"We have to kill them."
"No! Dave, if you miss they know we're here! And there's two of them, the other one will come after us."
"Grab your spear."
"There's no way I'm gonna hit them!" He looks at me irritated.
"Let's follow them," I suggest.
"And then what?"
"We grab them at night."
"You want to follow them around a whole day and you think they're not gonna notice anything?"
"They don't seem to be very careful." He sighs and we agree to give them a big advance.

9 Kurt

Finn is still asleep. I keep checking if he's still breathing every few minutes. I stand up and check if he's safe before I take my knife to find food. I can't find anything but Nightlock around our camp, so I walk a little farther. I find a little stream of water, but I don't have anything to put it in.
When the gong sounded I grabbed some stuff that was close to my platform. I have a knife, a rope and a can with sustainable meat.
There's a family of rabbits drinking from the stream. Killing them wouldn't be hard, but I can't do that. They're so innocent. They didn't do anything wrong.
I assume that if they can drink the water, I can too. I'm taking quite a risk, but I'm so thirsty that I don't mind. It tastes amazing. I look around for a big leave to save some for Finn, but since we're in a pine forest, there aren't many leaves. Then I notice the trees change on the other side of the stream. I stand up and jump to the other side. The leaves aren't very big, but if I can drag Finn closer to the stream I can give him small drops. On this side of the water I also find some eatable berries, but I decide to get Finn first.
That's when I hear the canon shot.

10 Mike

The sound of the shot pulled me back into reality. Me and Tina aren't here together. We're two different tributes and only one of us can survive. We can fight and protect each other, but it's no use. At some point we'll have to split up.
"Who do you think it was?" she asks. I suppose she isn't thinking the same.
"I don't know. It's gonna be one of us one time. Maybe tomorrow."
"Don't think that way," she says.
"Why not? It's the truth. Were you gonna stay positive throughout the whole Games?"
"Yes. It's the best way to spend your last days. Positively."
"Oh yeah, we're in the Hunger Games! That's the best thing that ever happened to us, isn't it?"
"Of course it isn't, but I don't want to spend my last hours being sad and depressed."
"But you are. Just admit it. You can't not be. One of us is going to die, if not both." We stop walking. She's looking at me shocked.
"Mike, you have to win. You are the strongest of them all. You're going to win, you have to."
"But," I shiver. "That would mean…"
"I'm willing to sacrifice myself for you."

11 Kurt

I run back to Finn as fast as I can.
"That canon was for him, right?" someone asks. When I reach the camp there are two boys standing next to him. The one with long hair is holding a bow. An arrow sticks out of Finn's chest.
Before I realize what I'm doing I throw the knife I was holding in his direction.
"Woah, chill!" the other one yells, but the knife has hit the boy's stomach.
"Oh my-" I yell. "I didn't-"
"We were only helping him!" the boy yells with a lot of effort.
"Did I- Are you okay?" I stumble.
"No he's not okay, you idiot!" the other boy yells. "Joe, can you see me?" He stands in front of him. Joe drops on his knees.
"I-" he starts. "I think it hit my liver."
"I'm so sorry!" I yell.
"I think I'll live," he says.
"Do you think I should pull it out?" the other boy asks.
"No, Blaine, you need something to-"
"Yes, wait!" I pull out my coat and take the rope. I ask the other boy to move, pull out the knife and remove Joe's coat and shirt as fast as I can. I wrap my coat around he's stomach and tie the sleeves on with the rope very tightly. It's a very inept bandage, but it stops the bleeding.
"Thanks, man," he says.
"I'm sorry." I say again. "I would never kill anybody, I swear."
"I believe we just saw that," says Blaine.
"No, it was an accident, I swear! I was mad, because-" I look at Finn and instantly regret helping Joe. He killed him. Finn was completely innocent. He didn't do anything wrong.
"Listen, man," Joe starts. He tries to explain that he did it to relieve him from his pain, but I've already turned my back on him. I walk off slowly. To be honest I wouldn't mind if he'd shoot me right now. I return to the stream, but I don't cross it. I don't drink and I don't eat the berries. I left my few possessions at the camp. Joe and Blaine can have it. I don't have the heart to kill people, they do. There's not the slightest chance I'm going to make it out of here.

12 Santana

"San, look!" Brittany yells while she and Sugar run up to me.
"Shhh!" I warn her.
"Oh, right. We found these berries!" She now whispers.
"You haven't eaten them, right?"
"I've had some," Sugar replies.
"Then I guess it's not Nightlock." I sigh. I inspect the berries, but I've never seen them before. Sugar isn't dead, but I can't be sure enough.
"What?" Brittany asks.
"Never mind. Just promise me that you'll never eat anything before I say you can, okay? And throw these away."
"Okay," they both say. Sugar turns around and returns to the place they came from. I want to continue hunting, but Brittany stays around me.
"Are you mad at us?" she asks.
"Not at you," I say. But maybe I am. She wanted Sugar with us and without Sugar, she would be a lot safer.
"Can I help you?"
"You were doing good finding berries." She just looks at me. I smile.
I throw my knife and axe on the ground and walk up to her. I take her hands in mine. She quickly kisses me on the cheek. I let go of her hand and strike over the side of her face. I pull her face to mine and I kiss her on the mouth.
We stop and look at each other. We laugh a little awkwardly and I bow to pick up my axe and my knife.
"Can I help you now?"

13 Quinn

After a fight Tina and Mike have been quiet for a long time. We've been following them the whole day. We think they might stop to eat at some time, but they haven't so far. It's getting dark already. It could be work of the game makers, but maybe it's just really getting late.
Suddenly I hear Tina yelling: "Look!" I look at what she's pointing at, but I can't see anything. Mike laughs and suddenly they start running. I almost want to run too, but then I remember they'd probably hear us. We carefully walk a little faster and then we see what they were pointing at.
Houses. Or at least some piles of brick that once used to be houses. It seems we've arrived in a village. There's a circular square in the middle of the houses with a well in the middle. Some parts of the houses even have some pieces of roof, staircase and second floor left. This seems almost too good to be real.
"There must be some pods," I whisper.
"Let's just let them explore the safe places," he replies. If there indeed are pods, it would mean that we don't have to be the ones to kill Mike and Tina. If there aren't any, we'll have to kill them at night and we'll have our own safe place. Tina pulls Mike into the second house on the left. They're enthusiastic screams could be heard all over the arena. Mike could be strong, but he definitely isn't smart enough to make it through the whole games.

14 Mike

We throw our stuff in an area that, I assume, used to be a kitchen, because there are several small cupboards in a row.
"This is a good place to spend the night." I say.
"Do you think these stairs will break off if we'd walk them?" Tina asks.
"I wouldn't try." She agrees with me. I open my backpack. We haven't eaten all day, my leg hurts a lot and we're very tired. There's a pack of crackers in my backpack. Before we realize it, we've eaten all of them and we're drinking all the water from the bottles we have. There is a well on the square anyway. We fall asleep, but we wake up from the sound of the anthem of Panem.
The face of the boy from district 6 shows up. He was the only one of today. Then we fall asleep again.

Day 3

15 Rachel

Yesterday Sam and I hunted all day. We didn't catch much, but it was enough for two days if we're thrifty. We didn't meet anybody. I'm starting to wonder where everybody is and what they're doing. We heard only one canon since the first day. I was asleep while they showed his face. Sam said he didn't know him.
I wake him up, because I feel well enough to go on. We need to find people, because we can find food now, and we found a little stream which we stay close to, but we're not strong enough to protect ourselves from the other tributes, or the game makers. It's only day three, so I don't think people are being very murderous yet.
We eat some of the bird I shot yesterday and stand up.
"The stream is on that side." He points to his left. "We should follow it. There must be more people with that idea. It's still early, so they might be asleep." I agree and we pack our stuff and leave.
We fill the big water bottle in the stream and add two drops of iodine. Yesterday we saw that the tree species change on the other side of the water, but we spent the night in the pine part, because that would be safer. I shoot a drinking squirrel on the edge of the stream. I'm getting better at this. I feel less guilty about killing animals. Back in district 8 I wouldn't hurt a fly, but here it's my only chance of survival. Sam's help and guarding made me realize something. I came to win.

16 Quinn

After the face of the dead tribute from 6 was shown, Dave and I fell asleep immediately. We were planning to attack Mike and Tina in the night, but we were too tired. He woke me up when the sun was already shining, but I don't know what time it was. Mike and Tina were still asleep. We can watch them safely from behind the trees on the other side of the square.
A few minutes ago Tina woke up. She sat up straight and yelled something, but Mike didn't wake up. She probably had a nightmare. She sat with her back against the wall for a while, but now she's standing up. She walks to the kitchen's cupboards. Mike wakes up when she opens one. He stands up, hugs her and pushes a gentle kiss on her forehead. I feel bad for them.
He says something to her. She nods and he walks towards the well in the middle of the square.
The explosion has so much power it blows me and Dave a few feet backwards. The sound is so loud I can't hear anything after it for a while. I land safely in the moss, but Dave thrusts his head into a tree. I stumble up to him. He's alive, but his eyes don't look at me when I stand in front of him. They roll around in his orbits.
I look over my shoulder. The ruin Tina was in is completely gone now, but the piles of brick are burning. The other ruins might catch fire too, but my real concern is closer to me.
Mike is laying very close to the edge of the forest. He's not dead. He's floundering in a weird position and he's surrounded by a puddle of blood.
Before I realize it, I'm walking towards him. I can't hear him, but he's moving his mouth. The look in his eyes, which is somewhere in between insanity and begging, tells me he needs help. And there's only one way for me to give that.
I kneel down next to him and roll him on his back. I tear streams down his face and I feel mine coming up too. I lay my hands around his neck. My thumbs push against his throat. We don't lose eye contact until he lets go of the tension in his body and his head drops to the side. I let go of his neck and stare at him for a while. My tears are mending with his blood. For a moment I think of how unfair all of this is, while I lay my head on his chest. Then I realize I left Dave against that tree and I walk away, so the hovercraft can pick up Mike's body.

17 Santana

The sound of the explosion followed by the two canons shocked Brittany and Sugar deeply, but it was pretty far away. I comforted Brittany by holding her for several minutes, while Sugar went to see where it came from on my command. She still isn't back, but I don't mind. I want as much alone time with Brittany as I can.
I know it's kind of dangerous to just let her go on her own, without anything to protect herself, but if she gets killed it would only be easier for me.
I kiss Brittany on her forehead and decide to tell her what my new plan is.
"I'm gonna get you out of here."
"How? You think there's an exit?" Her face lights up when she says that.
"There's only one exit. For only one person. And that's gonna be you."
"Where is it?"
"It's gonna take a while. But I'm gonna help you get there. I'm gonna help you win."
"No, I can't win."
"Yes, you can."
"No. My mentor said I shouldn't try to win."
"Why would he say that?"
"I don't know. He said it to the boy too." I wonder why any mentor would say that.
"Well, don't listen to him. You're gonna win."

18 Kurt

I haven't seen or heard Blaine and Joe since yesterday. I guess they stayed at the place I threw a knife at Joe, because he's probably too weak to move. I fell asleep against this tree yesterday. I hoped someone would find me and finish me, but nothing happened.
I'm just starting to wonder where the professionals are when I hear some terrible sounds. I hear Joe's voice screaming Blaine's name and then a canon shot. I hear people laughing. I think Joe is still trying to defend himself, but in a few seconds his nagging stops and I hear another canon.
"High five, bro," a girl's voice says.
"Good job," a boy's voice says.
Despite my unwillingness to survive, I stand up carefully. I try to walk without making any sound. I follow the stream, though it's useless, since I don't have any weapons or food. I don't know why, but I start running.

19 Rachel

There have already been four canon shots and a massive explosion and it's probably not even noon yet. I don't know who or what caused the explosion and killed the other two so fast after each other. It's getting serious now.
"Hungry?" Sam asks.
"Yes. Let's rest." We sit down and he takes the bird he caught from his belt. We're both becoming good hunters.
"Who do you think died today?" I ask him.
"I don't know," he replies. He obviously doesn't want to talk about it.
"Who do you want in our pact?"
"Strong ones. That can actually help us further."
"How are you going to get them to help instead of kill?"
"I… I don't know." His mood isn't so good, so I decide not to say anything for a while. I think he's worried about the girl from his district.
"She's very strong. She's probably fine," I say after a silence, to make him feel better. He looks at me strangely.
"Who are you talking about?"
"The girl from your district." I try my best to remember her name. "Lauren."
"Okay… Why are you saying that?"
"I thought you were worried. Or perhaps we can team up with her."
"I wasn't worried about her. And I don't think that's a good idea."
"Why not?" I ask.
"She didn't listen to our mentor. She doesn't care about anything, she just wants to win. She would be glad to kill me, despite everything she was told."
We eat the rest of the bird and continue our trip without saying a word. I think he knows exactly who he wants to team up with.

20 Quinn

After I finished Mike, I went back to Dave, but I didn't know what to do, so I just sat next to him until I felt a little better.
The look in Mike's eyes keeps haunting me as I'm trying to make Dave normal again. I think he has a concussion, but it's not that bad, because he knows how many fingers I hold in front of his face when I ask him. He also knows his name, and mine, but he doesn't really know where he is and what happened. My ears are still very weak. I can barely hear anything. Then I come up with the most idiotic idea, but I don't have anything to lose, so I decide to try it anyway. I hit him with my fist as hard as I can.
"Ah!" he yells.
"Where are you?" I ask. He looks around.
"In the woods, apparently, what the hell happened?" I hit him again, but it doesn't work. I give it up, apologize and sit down next to him again.
"Quinn, where am I and what happened?"
"You're in the Hunger Games."
"You're kidding, right?"
"No." Then we're both quiet for a while, but then I realize I should tell him what happened, so it might all come back to him.
"It's the third day. Yesterday we started following Mike and Tina, the lovers from district seven. They found a small village of ruins. We watched them fall asleep from behind a tree. When they woke up, Tina was looking for something in the cupboards. She didn't think of any possible pods in there. She blew up the full ruin. The explosion blew us backwards and you hit your head against a tree. That's what happened." Then I start crying.
"It's my job to get you out of here, isn't it?" he asks.
"Yes. I'm so sorry." He puts his arms around me.

21 Santana

"Sugar!" Brittany yells.
"Not so loud!" I say. We heard two canons since I sent Sugar away and she still isn't back. Brittany is very upset, so I won't give up looking for her. She can't be dead.
"Sugar!"
"Brittany, be quiet!" We've been searching for over an hour now. I grab Brittany's hand.
"I'm so sorry," I say. "This is all my fault, I shouldn't have sent her away like that. She's dead."
"How do you know that?"
"The canons, Brittany. That means somebody is dead."
"I know, but there were two canons. Sugar is alone." This doesn't have to mean anything, but we're not sure, so there's no reason to give up.
"You're a genius, Britt." She smiles and drags me forward.
Then we see a pair of legs from behind a tree. If she was dead, she would have already been picked up. We run towards the legs. It's her.
"Sugar!" Brittany yells again.
"Water," she moans. I grab my backpack and reach for the water bottle. I hand it to her and she starts drinking immediately. It's almost empty now.
"I couldn't find where the sound came from," she says, looking at me with shame.
"It doesn't matter," I say. Brittany and I sit down by her and we eat one of the animals we shot yesterday.
"We're almost out of water," I say, remembering why I didn't want Sugar with us. "I think we should go back to the swamp. I found some iodine in one of my backpacks, which we have to use to clean the water. We'll go in the night, so no one will see us on the open ground."

22 Kurt

When I stopped running, I heard two voices from very far away. I walked some more and I found a boy and a girl. They were eating something and after they stood up and continued following their pace by the stream, I walked to the place they sat and ate the things they left. I wasn't sure if it was healthy, but I'd rather die from food poisoning then being brutally slaughtered.
Now I've been following the boy and girl for quite a while. I think they heard me a few times, but I hid behind a tree as soon as I could so they wouldn't see me. It's getting dark, I'm tired and those few pieces of bird were not enough to fill me. I feel even more terrible then I did before.
I slap my hand on my cheek and force myself not to give up. I think about my father. He's probably been alone for these past days. He doesn't like sharing his feelings with other people. He knows I'm not going to make it, but he won't give up before he's sure about it. He won't sleep until he knows I'm safe. Whether it's back home with him, or up there, with my mother.
Tears threaten to stream down my face. I bite my lip and try to stay strong. The idea of being with my mother is so beautiful. I've missed her so much. And I'm so close now.
I look around, while some sort of smirk takes over my face. I search for a shrub of red berries. Nightlock.
No. I won't. I can't commit suicide on live television, right in front of my father's eyes. I'm not taking the easy way out. I'm not weak. I'm not that weak.

23 Quinn

When Dave and I were ready to move again, we grabbed a few pebbles and walked towards the well on the centre of the village square. He bowed his head over the edge.
"It's very deep," he said. "But there is water." He threw a pebble in the bucket. Nothing happened. I threw another pebble towards the lever. Again nothing happened. He started twisting it. The water that came up in the bottle was quite clean, but yet we used the iodine to clean it and we took the whole bucket to one of the ruins, carefully throwing pebbles on our path.
We built up a safe shack with the second floor of the ruin as our solid roof. We slept for a while, until we heard the anthem and we stepped outside to look up at the sky. First Tina's face shows up. I felt a lump in my throat when Mike's face was shown. The look in his eyes when I was pushing my thumbs on his throat will haunt me forever. I shiver when his face makes place for the boy with the long hair from district 8. The boy I met in the training centre, Blaine, is the last one.
I let a tear come out and walk back to my improvised bed without saying anything. I helped him. He was in pain. I try to tell myself. He would have died today anyway. But it doesn't help. His family watched me kill him. And he might be thankful, but they will never forgive me. And neither will I.

Day 4

24 Rachel

When Sam and I woke up the sun was already shining brightly. We got to work as soon as we had breakfast. We haven't been hunting that long now, but we've already caught a lot. While he shoots his second squirrel I decide to ask him something.
"So what's up between you and Lauren?"
"What? Nothing!" he says. "Literally, nothing."
"Are you sure?"
"What makes you think there's something up between us?"
"Well, you were worried yesterday, and when her face didn't show on the screen beneath the hovercraft last night you seemed relieved."
"Eleven other faces didn't show."
"So you were worried about someone!"
"Why do you care?" he asks irritated.
"Who is it?" For a while I think he isn't going to answer me.
"Quinn Fabray." Then it's quiet again. I saw her in the training centre, but I didn't have the guts to actually talk to her. She's the prettiest girl I have ever seen.
Now I remember why I gave up on the games so fast. It was her. She looked so determined to win. The furious look in her eyes made her look even prettier.
If I hadn't forgotten about her I would have been relieved too when I didn't see her face on the screen. Her death would be very upsetting. Knowing that it's probably going to happen soon is ruining the mood we woke up with.
We move ourselves along with the stream and now I know who we're searching for.

25 Santana

We wanted to go at night, but when Sugar saw Blaine had died she was very sad and refused to go anywhere. I should have just gone without her, but Brittany felt really bad for her, so I couldn't. I gave her the night to mourn and we left when the sun came up.
She's still very sad, but we literally don't have a drop of water anymore, so we'll have to go. I figured out the way to the swamp pretty soon and we're almost there now.
When our feet touch the mud Sugar screams.
"What's wrong?" Brittany asks shocked.
"This stuff feels weird!" she yells.
"Shut up, Sugar!" I yell at her. "We would have gone in the night, so nobody could see us, but we stayed for you! Everybody can already see us here and now you're just-"
"Santana," Brittany says calmly, which makes me realize that I'm screaming at Sugar for doing the same.
"I'm sorry," I say to Brittany. Sugar is sobbing and whining quietly. I decide to just ignore her while I pull my feet out of the mud to put them back a few incher farther. I don't know how exactly I was planning on getting water from here, but I'll keep walking until I come up with something, because I don't want Brittany to see that I'm clueless.
"Brittany?" Sugar says quietly from behind me. I keep walking. If she wanted my attention she could have said my name.
"Just keep walking," Brittany says.
"I can't!" Sugar tries to stay calm, but I can hear the panic in her voice. I turn around. She's ten feet away from me. Maybe I should have said they had to stay in my foot path, but I didn't realize there could have been quicksand.
"Brittany, don't!" I yell to the girl who's already attempting to pull Sugar out. Sugar's ankles are fully gone in the sand. I run towards them and pull Brittany away.
"We have to help her!" she yells. I keep moving my feet up and down quickly while I grab Sugar's leg and try to pull it out, but if I put too much effort in it I will fall and drown.
"Britt, help!" Brittany does the same with her feet and grabs Sugar's leg too. Brittany does try too hard and falls.
"No!" I scream. I instantly let go off Sugar and pull Brittany up. Our stamping only seems to make the quicksand drown Sugar faster.
"We have to find a stick, Brittany!" I take her hand to make sure she's coming with me. Sugar is now crying loudly and Brittany obviously doesn't know what to do. As soon as we're back in the forest I look around for a stick or a branch, but it seems that everything I pick up falls apart.
"Shit!" I yell.
"Santana, we have to do something!" Brittany yells.
"I know, I'm trying!" I look over my shoulder. Sugar's legs are almost fully sucked into the sand.
"It's too late."
"No!" Brittany wants to go to her, but I pull back, her into my arms. To comfort her, to not make her watch Sugar panicking while her neck is getting sucked in too, but mostly to hide my own tears from her.

26 Quinn

Dave and I wake up from the canon shot. He looks at me immediately and lets out a sigh of relief when he sees I'm there.
I had couldn't sleep last night, because the tears kept me from closing my eyes, even though I was so tired. Dave was asleep right away, so I just went outside for a while and stared at the place where it happened. Then there were no more tears left, so I went back inside and fell asleep.
My dream was a like a movie of Mike's life. I saw his parents, although I've never seen them in real life, I saw his little brother and sisters, I saw Tina and all of them were smiling. Then I saw the reaping in District 7 and the smiles were gone. I saw the same people again, but now they were screaming horrible curses at me.
Dave hands me a small water bottle. I didn't tell him about what I did, so he doesn't know why my eyes are swollen, but he doesn't ask about it. In my mind I thank him for that.
I take a sip.
"Thanks." I say.
"Do we have any food?" he asks.
"There's some dried meat in one of the back packs." I'm hungry, but it feels like I have a brick in my stomach, so I don't eat with him.
"Do we have a strategy?" he asks.
"We have to find people to help us. We have to convince them not to kill, but protect us."
"How?" he asks.
"We met some kids in the training centre who would help. The boys from two and eight. They'll bring some people with them." He nods in understanding. I give him his axe and I take my spear.
"Let's go hunting." I state.
"No, that's not safe!"
"For animals."

27 Kurt

The boy and the girl woke up much later than I did. I took some of their food while they were asleep, but they had so much they didn't even seem to notice when they woke up. It wasn't a very smart thing to do, but I didn't care. It was food or dying.
After I ate I just sat in the sun with my bare feet in the stream for a while. I felt a little better. Best, actually, since the reaping. I washed my hands and my face, and when the sun dried all the wet spots, the boy and the girl woke up.
They went hunting again. They sure won't starve from hunger, and neither will I, if they keep sleeping in like this.
Suddenly I hear the girl cheering. At first I think that she's seen me and is already getting happy for getting one opponent less, but then I see it too. It looks like a small village. I get a little closer to them. The girl wants to run towards it, but the boy holds her back.
"It could be a trap," he says.
Then I see two other people. They're standing a few trees next to them. The boy raises his axe and gets ready to throw it, but the girl yells something at him, so he drops his arm. He looks past them. For a few seconds we make strong eye contact, while the boy and the girl I'd been following walk up to them. Walk? The boy runs towards the girl and locks his arms around her, while the other boy still looks at me.
Why doesn't he throw his axe at me?

28 Rachel

We found just Quinn and Dave. Sam ran up to her like she was his long lost lover. She could have easily killed him, but when she didn't I figured it was safe. Dave looked kind of distracted, but he seems really strong.
Though Quinn looks sad, messy and tired, she is still as beautiful as she was during the interview, to which she was wearing a beautiful sea green dress, that, I think, gave me quite an accurate impression of real waves in the ocean. Her stylist was a genius. The dress did not only match her district, but also her eyes.
They take us to their shack carefully. Dave says that the explosion we heard yesterday came from here. Mike and Tina, who stayed in one of the ruins across the square, apparently activated a pod. Dave says he got injured and doesn't remember anything from after the reaping. Quinn just keeps quiet. When I look at her face I see she's crying.
Dave asks us to lay our food into their shack carefully. When we come back out we make a plan.
"Do we all know the main mission of this team?" Dave asks.
"Yes, I told Rachel this morning." I nod.
"Alright," Dave says. "Let's start the real hunt then."

29 Santana

I caught a bird just near the stream we found. We drank some water, but Brittany refuses to eat.
"Brittany, baby," I try. Brittany sighs. I move a little closer to her and lay my arm around her shoulders. "It was going to happen sooner or later."
"But she didn't do anything wrong," Brittany pleads.
"None of us did," I say, looking around madly, hoping a camera will capture my words.
"You have to eat something," I say.
"San," she starts. "You said you would help me win, right?"
"Yes."
"Does that mean you have to die, like Sugar did?" I don't know what to say to that. If I tell her the truth she wouldn't let me help her.
"I will feel no pain. It's gonna go very quick. And you won't even have to miss me. Because when you're back in district 12, the boys and girls are gonna love you, and you can pick out the best one."
"You're the best one." I close my eyes. Then I just shake my head.
"I'm not. I'm a bitch. I hurt people. Both physically and mentally."
"No, that's not true! You make me feel everything but pain!"
"I hurt myself too. By just being who I am. I'm lonely."
"You're not now."
"Yeah, but this is gonna be over soon. Brittany, nobody cares if I die."
"But I care!"
"You have much more people who love you. Who would cry for you. And I know that because you are the sweetest, nicest and prettiest girl I've ever met." I lock her tear wet face in my hands and look her straight in the eye. "The sun is a black hole compared to you."
My own tears start flowing over my cheeks as we get captured in a deep, meaningful kiss.

30 Quinn

After we met Sam and Rachel we started our real hunt. But we've been searching kids for over an hour now and we can't find anyone. Besides, I wouldn't really know what to do when we find one. I can't do it again.
Dave is making the route, but he seems to be avoiding something. He decided to walk around the square in growing circles, but he keeps bowing to the left when we reach the place where we met Sam and Rachel.
Then I hear something from my left. I look up and I'm just in time to push Rachel away from an arrow that almost hits her chest. Before I realize what I'm doing I throw my spear to the source.
Sam grabs Rachel's bow and arrow and shoots at the boy, but he misses. It doesn't matter. The boy is already threaded to a tree with my spear. Blood flows out of his mouth. Then the flowing stops, his eyes close and he falls forward, which causes the spear to make its way all way through him. The canon shoots.
"Good one," Dave says. I don't reply. I don't do anything. I just stare at the boy. This one wasn't dying anyway. This one was completely fine. And I killed him. After a very silent minute, Sam says: "Quinn, are you okay?" I turn around and start making my way back to the shack. The others stay where they are while I start running.

31 Rachel

"Quinn?" I say, while I slowly enter the shack. She doesn't say anything. For a second I think she isn't there, but then I see her sitting in the corner.
"You saved me. You did a good thing."
"I killed him," she whispers.
"He was a thread to us," I say, while I settle down next to her.
"I killed him! And I killed Mike! I'm a murderer!"
"You would have never done that in district 4. This isn't you, Quinn, this is what the Capitol has turned you in. When you're home, you'll be yourself again."
"No." She lifts her head and looks me in the eyes. "I will always be a monster to her." There's nothing I can reply to that. I put my arm around her and allow her to put her head into my chest as she cries.
I hear footsteps outside and I hope that it's Sam and Dave. They enter the shack too. Sam wants to say something, but he changes his mind and sits down. So does Dave.
"We caught some fish, if you want?" Sam asks after a while. He starts cutting them and hands two pieces over to me. I take them. Quinn looks up, but she doesn't want it, so I eat them both. We keep eating in this silent position for a while.
Then Dave stands up.
"I'm going to find more stuff to eat." It's not really necessary, but nobody holds him back.

32 Kurt

The group started walking in circles and I had to make sure they wouldn't see me. I think it worked, which is quite a good thing, because they killed someone else. That could have been me.
I'm just sitting against a tree now. If there were more people around they would have killed them too and I can see them coming from here easily, so I think I'm safe.
Suddenly I hear footsteps. It's the boy who didn't try to kill me when he had the chance. I stand up carefully. I want to hide behind a tree, but he's already seen me. He's smiling at me as he walks up to me. I just can't move.
"I'm Dave," he says, when he's standing in front of me.
"Why didn't you kill me yesterday?" I ask.
"Why didn't you run away?"
"I-" I just smile at him. He smiles back. That's why.
"I'm Kurt." He takes my hand in his and we just stand there for a while. Then he asks: "Are you hungry? Let's find something to eat."

33 Santana

I got Brittany to eat and even smile a little before we got into our sleeping bag for the night. We take our eyes off of each other when we hear the anthem. I pull her even closer to me before Sugar's face will be shown.
And there she is. Smiling down at us. Brittany sobs quietly, but I bite my lip. I stroke her hair backwards as the face of the boy from Brittany's district shows up.
"Sebastian!" she says, but she doesn't really cry over him. She wipes her tears from her eyes and crawls into my arms when the picture fades. She falls asleep right away.
"That could have been you," I whisper. I can't hold back the tears. This is all too much for me. I'll have to give everything to protect her, and I will, but what if it doesn't work? What if she doesn't want to win without me? What if she decides to protect me instead?

Day 5

34 Quinn

Tonight I didn't sleep at all. After I saw Sebastian's smirk on the screen I didn't even attempt to. I snuck out of the shack when the rest was asleep and kept walking around the square so I couldn't fall asleep.
Sam is the first one to wake up and he walks up to me with some plants in his hand when I have just set my back against the well and sat down.
"These are eatable," he says. "Dave ate them yesterday and he's alive. They actually taste pretty good."
"No thanks," I decline. He settles down next to me.
"Did you even sleep at all?"
"No," I say, while I try to suppress a yawn. I take the plant he's holding in front of my face now and I take a bite from it.
He was right. It tastes sweet, with a subtle sour aftertaste. It reminds me of the rhubarb that my mother used to make as an special treat on holidays.
I eat the whole plant, even the leaves. I'm still hungry, so I grab another one out of Sam's hand.
"You haven't eaten since when?" he asks.
"Since before we started hunting yesterday."
"Why didn't you take the fish?"
"It reminded me of home," I say.
"Isn't that a good thing? I heard four is the most beautiful district of all."
"Oh, it sure is beautiful, if you like the ocean and the beach and the smell of rotting fish every single second of the day." He laughs a little.
"Two is kind of boring, really. There's a mountain, the rest is quite normal. Nothing special." He looks at me and I can see his question is still not answered.
"It's just… When I come back home, I mean… I don't know if going home is worth all of this."
"Of course it is," he says.
"Have you ever killed anybody?" I ask.
"No."
"If you had you would understand me."

35 Kurt

After Dave and I hunted for a few hours yesterday he said he would meet me on the same place today. He wanted to bring me to his team first, but he didn't think it was a good idea. He said the team has to split up at some point and then he will come to me and we will stay together until the end of the games. The end of us.
I eat some of the plants we found yesterday. I recognized them from my mother's garden, which I took care of after she died. Dave didn't trust them, but I told him they were okay.
I hear footsteps and then I see him. He starts running and slaps his arms around me when he reaches me. I hug him back tightly.
"I made a new plan," he says.
"Really?"
"We're getting away."
"What?"
"I took as much stuff as I could carry and snuck out the window. We have to go before Quinn loses it again and kills you."
"We're going now?"
"Yes, why not?" I shrug my shoulders. He's going to betray his friends for me. I'm worth that. I smile at him. We start walking away from the ruins.
After a few minutes something falls out of a tree, almost on Dave's head. Right when he looks up to see what it was or where it came from another stone falls right in his face. He falls down before I can do anything.
Then I see it didn't fell. It was thrown by the boy from district 11. He jumps out of the tree and hits Dave in the face hard. He grabs another stone and hits again.
Before I'm able to move the canon sounds. My feet are stuck to the ground and I can't move. I should run now the boy is still busy with Dave. I should be mad at him, I should scream and cry, but my emotions are frozen for a second.
He stands up. I take a step closer to him and I smack him hard on his nose. I can hear something crack. He hits me in my eye, but I push him to the ground. I slap him again and in my rage I barely notice that he pulls out his knife. I can hardly feel anything because of the adrenaline, as he stabs it in my stomach.

36 Rachel

I woke up from a canon shot and immediately looked around. There was no one in the shack. I panicked and ran onto the square screaming the names of the others. Sam and Quinn were running towards me too.
"Where's Dave?" Sam asked.
"I don't know!" I had to keep myself from yelling it.
"You two go back," he demanded.
"What are you gonna do?" Quinn asked.
"I'm gonna find Dave," he said. Then we hear another shot. I try to stay calm, but the chaos is becoming too much for me.
"We're going with you," Quinn says after a few seconds of silence.
"No," Sam says.
"No, Sam, if you get killed we don't have anyone to protect us."
"There's only eight kids left. You won't have to meet half of them and we all know what you can do with a spear."
"What spear?" Sam thinks for a moment, but then he shakes his head.
"Quinn, Rachel, get in the ruin, I'll be back." And before we can say anything he turns around and walks away.

37 Santana

"We made it to the last eight," I say when Brittany wakes up an hour after the last canon sounds. She smiles.
"So we can almost leave?" I laugh a little and I nod.
"Almost," I say.
"San?"
"Yes?"
"I wish I could freeze time right now." I push a gentle kiss on her forehead. She knows we can't leave. She knows what's going on. But like me, she won't say it out loud. We're both too afraid to face the truth.
"I dreamt about us tonight," she says, to break the silence. "We were dancing."
"Really?" I laugh. I picture her and myself in those ridiculous leopard outfits making the weirdest moves. That's what people call amusement in 3.
To be honest I'd have no idea how the people in 12 dance.
She stands up and gestures me to do the same. She lays her hand on my hip. She takes my hand with the other and puts it on her shoulder. I lay my other hand in hers.
"Let me lead you," she says. I look at our feet.
"Don't look down," she says. "Look at me." I laugh as I keep stumbling over her feet. The longer we go on, the better I become. And I can't get enough of it.
"Exactly how I dreamt it," she smiles.

38 Quinn

After Sam left, Rachel and I sat in the shack for a while, but then we realized it didn't make sense. If Dave is dead, the killer is probably close to us and we are no safer in here than if we would have been running and screaming through the woods.
"You go to that side of the well," I suggest. While I hand her her bow. "I'll stay here. We'll look after each other." This is probably not the safest idea either, but at least we have sight from both sides now. I watch her as she walks away.
In the beginning I didn't really like her. She kept smiling at me with this strange look in her eyes. A mixture of compassion and determination. It didn't seem natural, especially in this situation.
But yesterday, before we came across Sebastian, she sang a little. It was dangerous and it's probably what led him to us, but nobody said anything about it. Her voice was so beautiful we almost forgot about danger. Even the mocking jays kept quiet before they started singing with her in the most beautiful harmony. It made it hard for me not to like her.
After that she came to talk to me. She trusted me, though I could have easily killed her. She said I wasn't myself at that moment.
And as I'm staring at her right now, I'm starting to doubt that. It may have been her hypnotizing voice that drove me mad for some reason, but maybe I did it because he was a thread to her.

39 Rachel

I'm standing on the other side of the square now. It's kind of dangerous, but Quinn said it was a good idea. I look at her and I notice she's looking back. And when I look around to see if we're still safe, she's still looking at me. I awkwardly look another way.
Then she suddenly starts running towards me. Was this a trap? The look in her eyes gets stronger by every inch she gets closer to me.
She pushes me to the ground. This is it. I close my eyes and wait. But nothing happens.
"What are-" She slaps her hand in front of my mouth.
"Shut up," she whispers between her gasps. She keeps her head up, as if she's looking at something. I try to escape from her tight grip, but she keeps pushing me down.
"He's gone," he says after a while. She takes her hand of my mouth and lets her head down. Her face is now very close to mine.
"What the hell?"
"The boy from 11," she explains.
"You… You saved me?" I ask.
"Did I hurt you?" she asks. I shake my head. She could get off of me now, but she doesn't. And I don't mind. We keep looking each other in the eye for a while. Suddenly I laugh.
"What?" she asks.
"You…"
"I just-, I'm sorry," she says while she stands up. I get up too.
"Thanks," I say. For a moment she just stands there. She bites her lip and walks up to me again. This time she slaps her arms around me and hides her face in my hair. I just stroke my arms over her back as I listen to her sobs.

40 Santana

After Brittany taught me the dance of her dreams we decided to have a big meal to celebrate that there's only six tributes left for us to end. Actually it was so that we would have a nice time and a filled stomach before we went on our hunt, but we didn't say that out loud.
We finish or last pieces of raw squirrel and I ask her if we're good to go.
"Yes," she says enthusiastically. We set our pace aside the river.
I knew it. I knew this couldn't last. I knew at some point other tributes would come and find us too. And I expected that I would be able to kill them before they could touch Brittany.
"Well, well," says the girls from 2, when she and the boy from 1 show up right on our path. "Look who finally decided to move their asses." They walk towards us slowly. We can't runaway anymore. They're too close.
The boy raises his knife and throws it at us. I want to laugh when I think he missed, but when I look around I choke. Everything after that happens in slow motion.
My arm lifts up the axe and throws it. It hits the girl in the back. I run at her and pull the axe out of her body to chop it back in a place beneath her ribs. The canon sounds. The boy grabs my hips and pulls me off of her. He hits his fist right in my stomach, but I can't even vomit when I see his face. He has another knife in his hand, but I pull it out. I cut my hand on the blade, but I don't care. I push him against a tree and pull the knife over his throat. Another canon sounds.
After the meal comes out I run back to Brittany while I'm screaming her name. I fall on my knees next to her. I look at the knife in her lower stomach. Her lips are forming a word. My name. I can't manage to hold back my tears any longer and I bow my head to hers.
"Don't!" I scream.
"Santana," she whispers weakly.
"No! Brittany, you're strong!"
"I-"
"I'm gonna give you a band aid, and you're gonna be okay. We're gonna continue our hunt and you're gonna win this. Just-"
"I love you," she says as hard as she can. I shake my head and my sobs are almost screams now. I bow my head a little closer and I kiss her, but she doesn't give in like she used to.
She isn't gonna be okay and I know that. I figure the last thing I can do is holding her tight. It's already getting dark when the fifth canon of the day canon sounds.

41 Quinn

Three canons this afternoon. There's five tributes left on the fifth day. These might be the fastest Hunger Games ever.
Sam came back right before the last shot, so Rachel and I were worried sick about him. He probably felt the same about us. He didn't find the boy from 11. When I told him that I saw him he got a little mad.
"Couldn't you have done anything?" he said, but then he saw I was already pretty upset and Rachel told him that I saved her.
He also didn't find Dave, which means he must be dead. If he wasn't he would've come back to us right after the first shot.
It's probably almost midnight now and we went into the shack, hoping that the boy won't come back here tonight. We're watching over each other in turns. It's Rachel's turn now, but I can't sleep either. Sam on the other hand doesn't even wake up when the anthem sounds.
Though I expected to see Dave's face on the screen it still hurts me. He was in all my classes and our fathers worked on the same boat. I've known him all my life. Rachel grabs my hand as she sees the tears streaming over my cheeks.
And there's the boy from 5, whom Dave was with apparently. I hear a soft sob coming from Rachel's mouth.
"Lauren," she says, when the girl from Sam's district shows. "Should we tell him?"
"Tomorrow," I whisper.
Then I see Noah's face. That's the smirk he gave me in the trainings centre.
And there's the blonde girl from 12.
The screen turns black again. For a moment we both just stare at nothing. But then her eyes are looking at me. I look back, but I feel really uncomfortable. I'm probably gonna have to watch her die in a few days, or even hours.

Day 6

42 Rachel

"Lauren didn't make it through yesterday," I say while we start our breakfast.
"I figured," he replies. He continues eating and doesn't even look up.
"Don't you care?" I ask.
"It had to happen anyway. I'm just glad I didn't have to do it." He really didn't care for her when he said that. He was really worried for Quinn and somehow that makes me feel angry for just a single second.
"So," Sam says. "The plan for today is to find the boy from 11 and the other tribute that's left."
"Santana," says Quinn. "The girl from 3." Sam and I give her a strange look. "What? I trained with her a few times." I stop chewing. I could have trained with her those few times.
"Was she good?" Sam asks.
"Yes," she replies.
"What did she use as a weapon?"
"Nothing. We only practiced the physical stuff." I spit out my water.
"Bug," I say as fast as I can to cover it up.
"Have you found her weak spot?" Sam asks Quinn.
"Everybody has several weak spots in their neck and shoulders," she replies. "If you push the exact right places you can easily knock them out."
"You didn't learn that from fishing, did you?" he jokes. She giggles.
"Alright let's go!" I say a bit too enthusiastic. But they don't even seem to notice and agree.

43 Santana

I had a hard time walking away from her yesterday. But the hovercraft wouldn't pick up the boy and the girl as long as I was around, so I had to leave her. I gave her a last goodbye kiss and walked until I heard the hovercraft. Then I immediately sat down and I haven't moved since then.
I don't think I slept at all, but I did stop crying at some point.
At first I thought I failed. But I wanted to get her out safely and I think I did. Or the boy did. Where ever she is now, nobody can hurt her. She's probably safer there than in this messed up country where the government likes to put 24 kids in an arena to let them kill each other and laugh about it. She's better off now than if she had won. There was an exit all along and she found it.
Now I'm just sitting here. My sobbing has made enough noise to lead the other four tributes to me, but apparently they're not even close to me. I'll just wait right here. I won't move until it's over. Maybe I'll even win, if the other tributes are stupid enough to kill each other. Not that I want to win. Not without her. But maybe that's how she wanted it.
I owe her at least that much.

44 Quinn

We're walking through the woods, looking for Matt. We finally got his name after Rachel thought about it for a while. She's singing again. This time we don't care about the dangers, because it's one or two against three now and we need to find them. Rachel is armed with her bow, Sam has a few knives and I have Dave's spear. Sam found it in the woods yesterday.
Her voice is even more enchanting then it was the first time. And maybe it's because of that that I didn't notice anything until she stopped singing.
I turn around and I see an arrow sticking out of her head. She looks at me for a few seconds before she falls down.
Then I see Matt, his arms reaching for another arrow. Sam grabs my arm to hold me back from attacking him. With the other hand he takes a knife and throws it. I'm not sure if it hits him.
I kneel down next to Rachel. Her whole body is making weird movements. The arrow has probably hit the part of her brains that had control over her muscles. Her ability to speak also seems to have disappeared. I strike her hair from her face and try to comfort her and distract her from the terrible things Sam is doing to Matt behind me.
The horrific screams of Matt stop and the canon sounds. Sam comes stumbling back. He sits down with me, but he doesn't pay attention to Rachel. He stares at an invisible object in front of him with a mad look in his eyes.
"Sam?" I cry. He just shakes his head. I know how he feels right now, and that he doesn't want to decide over Rachel's fate right now, but I need him to help me.
The compassion en determination have made place for pain and only pain.
Sam looks at her and then at me. I nod.
I turn around as Sam lays his hands around her neck. His thumbs push against her throat. I wait for the canon, but she doesn't give up very fast. When I finally hear it Sam stands up and lays his hand on my back to push me forward.

45 Santana

Two canons. Three tributes left.
I've thought for a while. I can try to win, now that I'm so close to it. But I don't want to. Not winning means dying. And I'm not gonna throw myself into a fight.
I'm not gonna starve myself. When I'm hungry, I eat. No matter how bad I want to die.
Mother Nature and the Capitol once compounded their forces. They made a solution for situations like this. They made it so easy for me. Now I'm just gonna have to find a shrub of sweet red berries.

46 Quinn

"You can do the rest alone," Sam says.
"No, I can't! I don't even know where she is."
"You were right."
"About what?" I ask.
"Home isn't worth this. But for you it is. Listen, if Santana was out to kill everyone she would have already been here. You'll remember why you did all of this when you're home."
I think for a moment.
"There's a shrub of Nightlock behind you." I look around and see he's right. "Go to the Cornucopia. She has to come or the game makers will make her."

47 Santana

I hear a canon. The next and last one will be mine.
I decide to go to the Cornucopia right away, so the game makers don't have to get me there by some sick effect and I don't have to die a painful death. My emotions run up high as I think of what happened these pas days. I want to scream. Well, why not?
I see Quinn coming from the other side of the Cornucopia. I knew she was strong, but to be honest I didn't really expect her to win.
She's carrying a spear. I raise my arms so she can see that I'm not going to harm her.

48 Quinn

I drop my spear. She doesn't look like she's going to do anything. As she gets closer I can see that she's crying. We're standing face to face now.
"Congratulations," she says. It's a trick. She reaches in her pockets. A weapon.
But instead she takes Nightlock. She's gonna push it down my throat.
But instead she falls in my arms.
"You're so close," I whisper.
"To being with her," she finishes my sentence. "That makes two of us, right?" Images of two different faces shoot through my head when she says this. It doesn't really matter what happens next.
I can feel her hand going towards her mouth. I hold her tight as her soul cuts loose from her body. The last canon sounds.

On My Way I'm kidding just make up something fun for this later.

49 Quinn

Was it all worth it? I can't help but wonder on the train ride home. I suppose we're almost there now.
I dreamt of Mike. Not of how he looked when I was choking him, but of how he was in district 7.
I dreamt of Sebastian and his life in 12.
I dreamt of Dave, and all the good moments I ever had with him.
I dreamt of Rachel, her enchanting voice and all the other beautiful things about her.
I dreamt of Sam as he was helping his little brother and sister with their homework.
And I dreamt of Santana and Brittany, having a life together in no particular district. Maybe there was no Panem in that dream. Maybe they were free.
And though these dreams were all so beautiful, they made me feel incredibly bad about myself. I wish that I was the one who explored the ruins and activated a pod. I wish Sebastian and Matt had aimed their arrows at me. And I wish that I had taken the Nightlock instead of Sam.
I feel the train is slowing down. I make my way to the exit, not saying a word to anybody. But when we arrive at the station and the doors open, I remember how I held it through these past weeks. The beam of sunlight that has pulled me through everything is waiting for me in my mother's arms. And though everybody is trying to hug me, shake my hand and applauds for me loudly, there is only one thing I can concentrate on.
"Beth!"