"Let The Games Begin."

She looked dangerous. She looked willing to kill anything that got in her path, so she was probably in the perfect situation. Hell, she probably volunteered. Just like me. Let me take you back a bit...

My name's Dean Winchester, and I'm currently the only surviving tribute from District Two, of Panem. I'm actually one of the eight currently surviving tributes in this 71th Annual Hunger Games. Big whoop. There's still seven left to kill.

At least one of them won't be on my hands; I'd allied up Benny, from Seven, pretty early on. He's protected my back for the past ten days, and I wasn't complaining. First night of being stuck in the arena, Benny'd dropped down from a tree and stuck a knife to my throat. Little did I know at that exact moment in time, but he was trying to keep me silent from a pack of wild dogs that were moving right around us. Once the dogs had passed, not catching our scent up wind of them, I took a chance and punched Benny square in the jaw while his head was turned, watching after the rabid canines. I laid another blow onto his back. He stumbled forward. I reached down and grabbed hold of my machete, ready for my first kill, when Benny held his hands up quickly in surrender.

"Easy, Tiger." He had a deep voice, with a Southern twang to it. "Allies?"

I had squinted at him. I'd been told that other tributes might try to form alliances with me, but I never thought it'd actually happen. Something about, oh yeah, I didn't trust any of these suckers. I was here, and I had a job, and one job only. But, Benny had technically saved my life. He could have easily let the dogs kill me, and all that would have meant to him was a cannon boom. I sniffed and wiped my sleeve across my face. "Allies." I nod, then reach out a hand to help steady him on his feet.

"I like your style, kid." He grinned at me. Kid, I scoffed under my breath. We're the same age, and we're stuck in a cage, being forced to kill other kids also our own age. But I let it slide.

We'd been staying together even since, wondering around the arena, looking for others to kill. One night, Benny received a tiny silver parachute from the sky. We huddled over it as he twisted the jar open, and we found a small loaf of bread. I'm ashamed to say I almost fainted away at the slight of the food. We'd been living on bunnies and leaves the last week. Benny broke the loaf in two equal pieces - which he didn't have to do - and we had a feast. While we were eating, Benny started getting chatty.

"You got anyone waiting on you at home?"

He must know. They showed the clip of me volunteering for my baby brother during my interview with Caesar Flickerman. The ugliest bubblegum pink hair I'd ever seen on a man.

"Yeah, my, my kid brother." I swallowed a hunk of the bread. "Sam. He's thirteen. He," I pause and look up at the starry sky. I know cameras lie behind those points of light. "He wouldn't have made it, I don't think."

Benny nodded. "That was brave of you."

I wiped my sleeve across my face. "Yeah, brave. Awesome."

The truth was, I did kinda think Sam would make it out here. Maybe even better than me. Kids shouldn't have to put up with this. Kids should get a chance to be kids. I rolled my eyes. Well, not according to my father. Both Sam and I have been working since as long as we can remember, providing for ourselves. Even so, I couldn't let Sammy take that chance. I can't sit back, and watch my brother on the screen at home. I won't do it. So I volunteered. And hopefully saved his ass.

So then, one day, Benny and I were out hunting for lunch, when I heard something. I signaled to him, and he stopped and listened. Then to my right, I saw a girl step out from behind a clump of trees. Her hair blond hair was a wreck, and her clothes were streaked with blood. She looked dangerous. She looked willing to kill anything that got in her path, so she was probably in the perfect situation. Hell, she probably volunteered, just like me. I'd seen her face before. She received a really high training mark - impressively high. I kept eye contact with her, not moving an inch. Benny stood silent and deadly behind me. The girl took a step toward me, but it was slow, and looked painful. She reached out, and gently dropped her weapon; a sledgehammer. The bloodthirsty look disappeared from her eyes, and she stumbled forward. Apparently I momentary forgot the situation I was currently in, because as she crumpled forward, I reached out and caught her, carefully holding her up. I looked down at her, shocked, and watched her eyes flutter closed. I looked back at Benny, dumbfounded, and he looked as lost as I was. Well, I don't know about him, but I'm not about to take a unarmed, unaware girl's life. I slowly set her down onto the grass, and flipped her jacket open. The blood that covered her, came from inside her. There was a large knife wound right on her side. After ripping up some leaves and playing Mr. Nurse, we left her to sleep while we made up camp for the night. The next morning I woke up, and saw that the girl had moved. I expected to see her with a weapon pressed against me, ready to spill my life away, but I looked and saw that she was a tiny ways down the hill we were on, standing on the side of a stream. Benny was still snoring, idiot could alert any predator to us. I shoved his boot as I walked past, making him hiccup his snore. I made my way down to the water, and stood next to the girl. She looked over at me, and I saw that she was pressing fresh leaves into her side.

"Thanks," She said, quietly.

"Uh," I fumbled. "Sure. No problem."

She looped a free piece of hair behind her ear. "I'm Jo."

Her eyes were big and wide, and she was smiling at me. "Oh, I'm Dean."

"Nice to meet you, Dean." She held out her free hand. "Allies?"

I started at her skin, that was stained from the scarlet blood. Her wound must not have been that bad, considering she made it all the way down to the water like this, without making a sound. I gripped it tight. "Allies."

We heard a few cannons over the next few days, and by my calculations, there were five tributes left. We moved along the stream, figuring that it eventually had to end up somewhere. And it was a fresh body of water so, win win. Jo left Benny and me to make up camp one evening around dusk, looking for berries for dinner. After she vanished behind some ferns, Benny stopped and stared at me.

"What?" I asked, irritated by the laughter written all over his face.

"You are plum head over heels for that girl." He chuckled.

"Shut up."

"Ha, okay. Mr. Grumpyface."

"What are you, four?"

Benny didn't reply, just chuckled to himself as he started laying branches over a rock formation for cover for the night.

Okay, he might be possibly correct. But I most for sure was not 'plum head over heels'. Who even says 'plum' like that? I was contemplating how correct he truly was, when I heard Jo scream. And it just about shattered my heart. The wild dogs had found her, we discovered. They ran when Benny and I wielded our knifes, but it was too late for Jo, who laid haphazardly against some rocks.

I ran up and knelt down next to her.

"Jo?"

Her eyes were closed, but she opened them slightly, and looked up at me. I didn't even want to look at the wounds the dogs had given her-I knew that some leaves wouldn't patch her up.

"Dean?" She whispered up at me. I ignored Benny standing behind us, and I gripped her face between my hands.

"You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be just fine, okay?" My words tripped over themselves. "It's just a little scratch, nothing to worry about."

Jo grinned halfheartedly, and slowly reached up and gripped one of my hands. She stared at me, her eyes dangerous and haunted, just like the first time I met her. "You have," She wheezed in a breath. "You have to win." She whispered. I blinked slowly, and swallowed. Then, I leaned forward, and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. When I met her eyes again, I saw that her tears had spilled over. She was as quiet as could be, and as I looked at her, something inside me began to change. I reached toward her once more, and let my lips connect with hers. They were cold, and wet, and I tasted saltwater. She gripped my hand with what little strength she had left. It took everything inside of me to pull back. And it broke my heart to whisper: "Okay."

That night, Benny and I stood next to the stream. We heard some tributes calling and taunting us from somewhere in the woods. I glanced at my reflection, and saw that it had hardened. I didn't even recognize myself. This wasn't over. This was war. And it was just beginning.

"Come on," I said to Benny. "Let's end this."