Finally, the 38th Hunger Games have arrived. Thanks to everyone who's reading the story, I hope you enjoy it. Special thanks go to Skyclaw for reviewing every chapter so far.

The screen blared to life once again as the countdown began to the start of the Games. I'd had to move to get food and use the bathroom, despite the fact I wanted to watch every moment of what might be the last day of Ross or Victoria's lives.

I sat bolt upright, staring intently at the tiny pixels on the screen as the buzzer counted down.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

Suddenly, the tributes appear on tiny silver plates. The arena looked like some type of oil rig with heavy metal bars making up the platform they stood on. Beneath them, the sea raged with waves up to three metres high spraying the bottom of the platform.

The cornucopia was in the centre of the ringed platform, with a one and a half metre gap from the discs the tributes stood on while the other side was a flat walkway leading away from the cornucopia towards various corridors and sets of stairs.

Ross jumped immediately while others either paused or bolted down the corridors.

The careers all followed quickly but so did the others I'd noticed in the interviews; Locke, Storm and Raven, while the District 6 girl, Laira had run with Victoria. It appeared there had already been alliance arrangements going on as the two pairs went back to back as they dashed to the cornucopia. The Careers were stocking up quickly in preparation for an assault and Ross' pack, even protecting each other's backs as they were, grabbed all they could carry before sprinting and leaping over the gap and following the corridor I'd seen Victoria take.

Locke took a throwing knife in the shoulder and Raven was cut across the ribs but they all made it across.

The camera had cut away from Ross to show the Careers creating a nest as they prepared to follow the runaways.

Their preparations were apparently too uninteresting for the impatient populus of the Capitol as the camera followed the fleeing group.

It turned out to be a short pursuit as they cut into the first room along the corridor. Inside, there were crates of supplies which had been totally emptied by the game makers so that the entire squad could hide in the biggest crates if necessary.

The sounds of the Career's rifling through the supplies had stopped and the entire group dived into the crates. Locke and Raven were beginning to look slightly off-colour but for the first time, Ross looked towards the screen and it became apparent that he'd been smacked in the face with a morning star. His nose was pulverised across his face, his right jaw was clearly dislocated and broken and one eye was already swollen closed.

His face was cut off from view as the top of the crate closed as the District 2 boy, Toro, smashed the door open, showing that the locks had been removed on every door to make it impossible to hide forever.

"What's in there, Toro?" Cerron, clearly taking charge, called.

"Crates and boxes, want me to check them all?" Toro grunted in reply.

"Don't waste your time. There's no way they'd leave supplies so close and you'd have to be a moron to hide so close to our base. We need to get going to catch up to those other gits before they can get to us," Cerron commanded as several sets of feet walked away from the crate room.

Before Ross' pack left the crates, the camera cut to some more interesting action back at the cornucopia. It seemed, in their rush to catch Ross and his gang, the Careers had taken the whole group seeing as they were one down after Locke joined the alliance. The move looked planned as the other tributes appeared from the opposite side of the rig to the main alliance to pilfer the Career's supplies with no risk of retribution.

In a final kick in the pants for the Careers, they made sure to leave enough supplies so it seemed as though they weren't near the cornucopia so the Careers wouldn't follow them.

Once they had shown enough of the supplies being stolen, they showed the Careers smashing down doors to find every room empty before finally showing Ross, Victoria, Locke, Raven, Laira and Storm.

Locke and Raven were lying on the floor as Laira, who was from the medicinal district and had pulled some kind of numbing salve and some sterile cotton out of an equipment pack, sewed up their respective wounds.

Meanwhile, Storm was sitting across Ross' legs to stop him kicking as Victoria was doing something with his face.

When the camera moved to show his face, I almost cried out for him as I made out the tears streaking down his cheeks and his pained panting as Victoria tried setting his nose straight to shove tissue up it and stem the breathing.

Finally, when his writhing became impossible to work with, she pinched the vein on the side of his neck, knocking him unconscious almost immediately.

I'd known she could do it since I was a little kid, she always showed off since it seemed she found it hilarious to knock out her friends, but seeing her do it now felt odd… like she wasn't just my harmless-but-annoying big sister anymore. She really was in a competition that would undoubtedly cause her to kill or be killed.

When she finished with his nose, she held his face gently before cracking his jaw quickly into place. His eyes opened wide and Storm had to quickly jolt forward and muffle his scream.

As the camera zoomed in on his agonised expression, I recognised it all too well. It wasn't the pain that had made him yell, I'd seen his crush his hand in heavy machinery with barely a whimper; it was sheer terror.

It happened occasionally at our house. He'd lived alone most of his life as an orphan but he would wake up in a house filled with the sounds of several other people breathing in an unfamiliar room and his reaction was to scream in terror.

Originally, I'd always go downstairs to calm him down until finally, about two months before the Games, he stopped doing it.

Now, it seemed as though the unfamiliar setting of the rig combined with Storm's hand clamped over his mouth, despite trusting him enough to go back-to-back with him at the cornucopia, had totally set him off.

Eventually, his brain registered where he was and what was happening and he settled down, but I hadn't.

I was shaking in terror at what was happening to Ross, forcing myself to watch but at the same tame, terrified as to what might happen.

When the group organised their supplies, it seemed they'd hit a minor jackpot. They had a pack full of medical supplies, several small packs with supplies of preserved food, some lighters, two water bottles and a pack of water purification tablets as well as a small cache of weapons.

Raven grudgingly took first pick of a sword seeing as he had never been trained in any weaponry. Locke, unsurprisingly, took a long-bladed spear and a length of rope that no one could think of a use for. Laira took a series of knives of various sizes, both for throwing and fighting. Ross surprised me, taking a one-handed, cut-down broadsword despite the fact he'd never used a sword. A second glance showed that it was weighted like a wrench, something much closer to Ross. Victoria looked over the weapons distastefully before picking up a light long sword and a crossbow. This left Storm, the District 11 prisoner, to take a falchion, a morning star which Ross had shied away from and a bow and arrow, leaving them all wishing they'd asked someone from District 9, the hunting district, to join their group.

They ended up back in the crates, arranging themselves and trying to sleep when the viewers must have gotten bored because once again, it showed the Careers on the prowl.

"Grr… still none of those stupid hick-pricks dead yet," Toro growled as he continued bashing open doors on his way along the corridor with the other tributes trailing behind.

"Come on, there's no way they're going to let us get away with no deaths on the first day, seriously," Vanity replied, looking over her nails.

"I just can't believe that git from my district, Locke, would rather go with that jumped-up District 8 lover boy than his own district partner," the District 4 girl, Avanna, moaned.

"Speaking of jumped up," whispered the District 2 girl to Avanna, giving Cerron and Vanity a glare.

It was impressive timing as Cerron was twirling a piece of hair around his finger and Vanity was picking at her nails while talking to each other about the show they'd starred on. It was clearly well received in the Capitol as the presenters laughed way longer than the joke deserved.

Finally, when they reached the stairs, they found the top blocked off by a heavy metal grate.

"Shit," Toro swore as he reached the grate and tried rattling it, "They must have gotten here first."

"No way," Cerron shook his head, "It's locked, this must be the game makers; those little pricks must have tricked us. On a lighter note, that means the runaways are locked in on the other side. As much as I'd like to deal with that group first, we need to either recruit or tire them out, it'd only take a lucky shot and they'd outnumber us by 2 and that's if there is only the 6 of them. They got 10, 8, 8, 9, 7 and 10 as their scores, we'd be pulverised unless we outnumber them. I suggest killing off stragglers and recruiting the boy from 9, he was obviously a hunter and we need strength from afar, the girl from 3-"

"The thirteen-year old?" Toro scoffed.

"Have you not watched the Games, like, ever?" Cerron asked, exasperated, "District 3 always blow stuff up and set traps and it works great. The little alliance has that District 3 boy but we need the brains, a.k.a the little girl. Agreed?"

"Yeah," Avanna replied grudgingly.

"I guess," was Vanity's answer.

"Fine," the District 2 girl said.

Toro looked angry for a few seconds before shaking his head dismissively, "Fine, whatever."

As the Careers started to run to the other end of the arena, the camera showed Ross and his pack again.

"Hey, guys?" Laira began as the other 5 grumbled, but clearly none of them had been asleep, after all, who could? "I was just thinking. Why did we get empty water bottles and water purification tablets if the water is so hard to reach?"

As she said it, it occurred to me, and obviously the rest of them, that the water sounded much closer than it had previously. They jumped out of the crates and tooled up, with Ross wearing some type of light-weight body armour that earlier I'd assumed was some kind of extra shirt.

He led the way out, sword raised, a few seconds after the Careers had sprinted past.

They were at the cornucopia now, trying to pick up all their equipment. The water level was now such that the waves were washing over the platform, knocking small pieces of equipment over the edge.

It was rising quickly and the waves were becoming stronger and eventually the Careers sprinted across to the opposite side of the arena and down one of the corridors.

Before they made it, a huge wave hit, only around two metres over the platform at its peak, but it was like a steamroller in its force.

Most of them made it to the corridor, protecting them, but the District 2 girl was slower than the others.

The wave smashed into her, sending her flying off the walkway and smashing her into the water below.

Theoretically, it should have been possible to grab a pole and haul yourself up, but the waves were monstrous. Even so, the girl was unconscious before she hit the water and dead before she came back up.

The Careers saw the pack as the cannon fired, but it was now too dangerous to cross and far too dangerous for a fight.

The camera switched to the Careers as the two groups split, leaving Ross' group's fate uncertain.

They cannon balled down the corridor as water started lapping at their feet. It appeared, like native animals, most of the other tributes had already run for the safety of the stairs.

The two District 12 tributes were only just exiting their hiding place, clearly not having realised the danger until they heard the smashing of the waves.

Instead of running to safety, however, they stood like rabbits in car headlights until they were ruthlessly gutted by Toro and Cerron then tossed into the sea as the cannons fired.

Finally, they reached a grate like the one that had locked the stairs at the other end. It was now open and despite the fact some had tried to close it and lock the Careers out, it seemed the game makers wanted to see some blood and guts before letting them die. Apparently drowning was far too boring.

As soon as the Careers were through the grate, the camera flicked back to Ross and Victoria's group as they reached the grate.

Ross was last in line to go through, but when he reached the ladder he threw his pack up and yelled, "Look after it!" over the sound of the waves before running down the stairs.

Victoria tried to follow him but Storm grabbed her arm and shook his head, his dark eyes slightly sad.

The camera tracked Ross as he ran down the corridor, despite the fact that even the calmest waters were around his shoulders. He pushed forward through the wall of water, pushing himself off the roof as the waves carried him.

Finally he reached the cornucopia and his plan became apparent.

When the Careers had fled, they'd left some of the heaviest supplies behind. The water had risen too quickly for the breaking waves to knock them off, instead letting them sink against the platform.

Ross grabbed the two biggest packs and started wading back to the door.

The problem was that he was now much heavier and the resting water was up to his neck. When waves hit, he struggled to push his arms up to protect himself and started panting heavily every time the waves went down.

He was only around five metres from the grate when he lost the strength in his arms, slamming him against the roof with nothing to protect him as a trickle of blood escaped his mouth.

Yay for massive cliff hangers! What will happen next?

I hope you enjoy the story and keep reading on.

Next Chapter: Ding, ding! Second Floor.