Thunderstorms were nothing that I should have put in the back of my mind as I dashed through the forest, a familiar feeling taking me over. From all the running, you would have thought that I would have been tired, but I was not. Flipping, running, being careful... None of this had tired me since the games have begun. I had a stable amount of food that I knew how to save, and now I have the bag that I need. It was filled with food, likely, because that was what I needed, but I could never have been sure because I hadn't stopped to check the bag yet. At least, not until the storm began. It wasn't safe staying under trees in thunderstorms, surely, but it was the one source of cover that I had for the moment as the sky flashed shades of blue, purple, and white.

This was a game. At least to the Capitol it was. For me, it was a fight for survival. I always hated the feeling of starving. I only experienced it a couple of times before, but in this 'game', I experienced it every single day. That's why I was constantly running. I needed to find food. It was my main priority, unlike the careers. I grumbled at the thought. They weren't smart enough, they weren't good enough... But they were strong, unlike me. I was a small girl. And they expect me to fight to the death with people like Thresh? Like Cato? They were nuts if they expected me to kill them.

That's why I had a strategy: Let them kill each other. If I really needed to, I could run and defend at the same time. It might prolong the games a little. It might cause me to get attacked by a mutt or a gamemaker, but it was even more likely that I could get away. I'd done it many times before in these games. When people weren't looking, I was able to get away. When they were, I was still able to get away. I had a really big grin on my face as I sat down and found a place under the tree, taking a look around. I didn't want to run into another bear, like I had only days before. The bears here in this arena were more veracious than actual bears. They ran at you, full charge. That bear was likely the only kill in the 'game' so far, and only because it had been taking my food.

Unlike Cato or Thresh, I could not worry about size with an animal. I led it into one of my traps and that was the end of that. But I didn't get the meat off of the animal like I should have. I was worried that, with genetic engineering that the Capitol did to most of its mutts, it would be poisonous for me to touch. And with the saliva of the bear and the blood of the bear ending up on my reserves, I really couldn't eat that either. But now, with a District 5 bag in my arms, I was sure that I had food. Or not. Because, when I opened it up, I saw what almost looked like jar. Cookies? Sweets? The lid of the jar was unscrewed and... nothing.

There was nothing in the jar. No food. No snacks. No sweets. Nothing that I could eat."Fuck," I clench my sight at the horror. They didn't even leave a note of what I was supposed to do or what the object was for. Why did I expect any less? The Feast was the place where you were supposed to get what you really needed, and with the hunger in my stomach, I knew I needed food. But now, in a ploy to get my food, I'd wasted more energy. And nothing. This is exactly what the gamemakers would do. They would take away my food and kill innocent children like me, just so that one of the precious careers could win their games. Or, that was what I'd thought. It was very likely that the gamemakers wanted the career districts to win. Sure, there were a couple of times that they did not discriminate, but I think that was because they needed people to think their games weren't rigged in some form. Not that it mattered. The districts could do nothing even if it was. They could have easily just lined us up and shot us and the districts could do nothing about it. This, however, was less humane than that and even then, no one could do anything. Everyone was powerless.

My first instinct was to leave this alone, to not do anything because of this... But my heart led me to scaling the tree behind me, leaving the bag behind with the jar in hand. I climbed to the top, despite the thunderstorm, hoping the cameras were watching. I held out the jar in protest, screaming as the wind picked up and thunder rang through my ears, "You fuckers!"Screaming at the wind was futile, surely, but I didn't care. My mind did not process anything except for the fact that I was allowed to be angry, if only once. For the cameras, for the audience... They would see my anger. But they wouldn't care, would they? They wouldn't care that I had been solemnly tricked! However, something caught my eye from the top of this tree.

Even though you could barely see anything because of how strong this thunderstorm was, something did catch my eye. The color of gold, a color that was likely seen by the District 1's and the District 9's quite a lot. But this certain kind of gold was probably most seen by the latter. All of it was wheat. It was a huge field, actually, of the golden color. But, I've seen it before. The first thing that snapped me back to reality was the hulking, olive skinned boy, Thresh. He went into that field and that was where he stayed. I was sure he was still in there... But the wheat that was in there be valuable to my survival. After all, I had to get out of here alive. Climbing down from the tree, I slipped my hand into my pocket, grabbing my knife. The District 5 sack lay on the ground. I tossed the jar into the tree, shattering it as I turned towards the general direction of the field, giving no second thoughts. I thought Cato might have gone for Thresh, when in actuality, he did not. Even Cato knew the power of Thresh, for he did not go into his field after chasing him to try and get him. Thresh had all the power of an omniscient god in his domain, but I knew I had to risk my life to get what I needed. This wasn't like the career camp, where I could take food without being noticed. Thresh, like me, needed to survive, and the wheat was the only thing keeping him alive. Or, that was the likely story.

I ran as far as my feet would take me, to the edge of the golden field of wheat, and sighed lightly, looking forward. The fields were going to be rough. The stalks were taller than I was and it was likely there might be a snake somewhere in there. But my main concern was Thresh. I needed to find a way to avoid him if I could, but considering he knows this field like the back of his hand now... In the field, it is his game and not mine. But I have to try. Stepping into the field is easy, clenching the knife is easier, but looking around and making sure that Thresh wasn't in the field, at least in my area of the field, was more difficult. I was a stalker with prowess, but he was a boy who had probably been through fields like these so many times. I had been constricted to the factories back where I lived. We produced power, which was different from what I assumed to be District Eleven. Why else would he go for this field? Why else would they dress their tributes up like those sorts of laborers for the chariot rides?

But I didn't hear his footsteps through the sound of the rain, beginning to collect the wheat heads while looking around every once in a while. I didn't notice his figure until the very last second, until I stared him in the eyes and he began to shout, tossing a rock at me. Luckily, I'd managed to move my body into a positioned where the thrown rock had only hit me on one side of my face instead of smashing my forehead like he'd done to that career. "Shit!" I manage to yelp, clenching the knife and falling over purposefully, rolling back and getting on my feet, looking at the boy with the olive skintone.

"What are you doing here?" He asked with what seemed like malice in his voice, but I knew better. He was more like the guardian of this area than anything. He did not mean to be full of malice, but he did not want anyone to get into the supplies that he might need. However, I needed them too. Still, I didn't like to talk to anyone. I was supposed to be silent, steady, careful... I could not care about those that died in here because I needed to get out. My eyes widened slightly, as his body moved into the stalks and I lost him for a second, but I managed to glimpse as he tossed another rock through the stalks, bending down to completely avoid the rock this time.

I moved my small body into the stalks as well, trying to avoid him as he tossed more rocks at me, but he watched me. He had more control over this situation than I did because, even though I came in here, I did not know the way out. I was not tall enough to see over the stalks and a jump would not let me be able to see the way out of this field. With the knife and wheat in hand, I grinded forward, looking for relief, looking for the exit, but to no avail. There was no exit. I was going to die. Another rock was tossed at me, causing me to fall over as it crashed into my leg. No broken bones, but my leg was probably going to bruise pretty badly because of the size of the rock. I quickly rose, waiting for another rock to be tossed at me, my leg still throbbing.

With the next rock throw from the stalks, I may have toppled over, but I, again, managed to avoid the rock completely, hurdling my body into the direction of the rock and taking a stab at the taller boy. Blood covered the knife as I pulled it out of him. Even though the knife punctured his abdomen, he almost seemed less than affected. His arm swung down on my face. As a last resort, I hid the knife as I fell, making it seem like the knife had fallen away into the stalks when it hadn't. Thresh had already grabbed another rock, ready to come down and smash me in the face, but he whispered something under his breath, "I'm sorry."

The words had never touched me more, but the moment of mercy had given me a chance. The hidden knife under my side as I laid on the ground was quickly taken in my hand again, "No, I am." I whispered back, uttering the first words I'd spoken since entering the arena. That was when the rock came down, causing me to roll right despite the pain still in my leg. I quickly leaped up from the ground as he began to hoist the rock again, spinning and creating enough momentum to stab him yet again. This time, however, the knife plunged into the back of his neck because he was still bent over. The boy's hulking body toppled over onto the rock under him. I could hear a thud as he hit the ground. Thunder roared over the sound of the cannon, but I could still barely hear it. Looking down at my leg, I grumbled lightly. I looked back over to the boy's body and shook my head. Thresh was the last person that I wanted to kill. He had been the kindest tribute, and now me, a District 5, had managed to kill him, contradictory to what I had thought earlier. Shaking my head, I raised my body onto his back, trying to see above the stalks, which I was able to do.

It might have seemed cruel to any ordinary person to get up on a corpse's back simply to see above the stalks, but I had to do it to get out. Standing on the tips of my feet, I saw above the stalks, jumping off of the body and nodding at the body as I rushed. First, however, I quickly collected more wheat from the stalks. But I needed to get back to my domain, the forest.