Chapter Four: Haunted

It was time.

Clad in a black tee shirt and loose, gray basketball shorts and thin, slender shoes that were made of cool material, Blayne waited impatiently beside Tiffany, wearing the same outft, except her shorts were short. The outfit was comfortable, yet confusing. Maybe the arena would be a desert. Tiffany was pacing again and she was running her hands over her short, black ponytail she was required to have for the Games.

"I'm about to die," she reapeated as a mantra. "I'm about to die."

"Way to be hopeful," Wright said, pulling them in for a hug. "Don't let them get to you. Both of you are fighters, and if you can survive the bloodbath, you have a good chance of winning anyway. And please, please be smart. Loosing your head in there is like signing a death sentence." Another hug for each of them. Quinn and Kurt hugged them tightly and smiled. Tiffany and Blayne looked to each other and shook hands.

"Good luck," she said earnestly.

"You too," Blayne responded.

"Ok, it's time," Wright said mournfully. "Remember: keep your head."

"And our lives," Tiffany mumbled, clutching her leather bracelet. Blayne gripped at the music note tightly and walked out to where the platforms were in the arena. Closing his eyes at the flash of white light, he looked around at his surroundings.

An island. The platforms were hovering over water. They had to swim to even reach the gleaming, shiny Cornicopia on the island. It had a dense jungle in the center of it, filled with who knows what. Blayne gulped and waited until everyone else began to dive into the swirling water before jumping in himself. He opened his eyes and saw jagged spikes in the water, so anyone who couldn't swim was doomed. He saw Hannah swimming a ways off and quickly chased after her, occasionally getting some oxygen. He already saw people climbing on shore when he reached Hannah, her short blonde hair falling around her face. She looked scared out of her mind.

When she noticed Blayne she visibly relaxed, grabbing his hand and swimming the two to shore, where the immediately went into defense mode. Beside them, a blonde boy got stabbed in the throat by a viscious looking Tanner, who simply glared at them. He almost made a move for Hannah but backed away suddenly, as Blayne went into reflex mode. The three quickly split ways, and Hannah was grabbing things as Blayne fended off attackers with a flimsy spear he found by the shore. A green backpack, some sunscreen, a pack of crackers, and some beef jerky was seen in Hannah's hands, and Blayne went into attack mode as he stabbed some guy in his chest when he tried to attack the two. Blood spurted out, coating Blayne's hands, who began grabbing more weapons as they got closer to the Cornicopia.

Hannah began crying as she observed the dead bodies, and Blayne triumphantly smiled as they reached the Cornicopia. Alex was there, with Austin and Tiffany, who looked pretty bad. They all had something in their hands, and most of them were weapons. Seeing people grabbing things and running, they decided to let them all go, assessing the overall damage. The boy from District 8 was crumpled in a ball, clutching something underneath him. Blayne whistled slowly and looked at the white, sandy beach stained with red.

Hannah was fanning herself in the sweltering heat. "We need to relocate," she breathed. "Now." Maybe they were Careers but they were still at risk.

"Are we the Careers?" Alex asked, her Latina features contorting in the bright sun.

Hannah shrugged, remembering the scary look on Tanner's face, and opened up her lime green backpack. The color was atrocious but what was inside was not. "Sunglasses," she grinned, "and some basic foods. Dried fruit, crackers, and there's even a thin silver blanket! It's made of some weird material..." She put the items back in the bag and looked at what everyone else had gotten. In haste Alex had grabbed a dagger, some knives, matches, and some string. Hannah smiled and put them in the bag, too, along with her crackers, sunscreen, and her beef jerky. "Anyone else?"

The only thing Blayne had was a bloodied spear and, for some reaon, a piece of paper was in his hand. When that had gotten there, he had no clue. Tiffany had grabbed some invaluable things like a water canteen filled with clean water, and a small vial of something medicinal. Maybe aloe? Austin only had a small first aid kit, with band aids in it. All of the items were packed in the backpack. Hannah was unnaturally calm as she dodged the bodies and wet the lime green bag in the sea water surrounding the island, then rolled it in the sand, making the color less obvious.

"There," she smiled. "Now we should scope the island. It has to be pretty big from what I could tell."

"Wait, hold up," Tiffany retorted. "Who died and put you in charge?"

"About a third of the tributes, actually," Blayne said, saying something for the first time in around thirty minutes. "Hannah, are you okay?"

She was swaying slightly and looked kind of green. "Nothing, I just hate blood. Let's go, now," she said quickly, trying to walk away. Blayne caught her arm.

"You will not live ten minutes if you leave our group."

"And we don't really want to go anywhere, no offense," Austin said.

"I'm staying," Alex agreed.

"Me, too," Tiffany said, plopping herself down on top of the Cornicopia's floor. Blayne sighed and shrugged.

"Hannah, we should relocate," he muttered, grabbing the girl's shoulder. "Guys, we're relocating. I thought we were allies, but I guess not." Hannah looked pleased, and smug, and Blayne thought that maybe he shouldn't agree with her as much, so as to lower her inflated ego.

"You guys are making the biggest mistake ever," Alex said, looking through the pickings of the Cornicopia.

Hannah shrugged and grabbed the backpack, hair still dripping from the unexpected swim. Her thin arms were gripping it like a lifeline. "I'm scared," she whispered after they'd walked into the dense jungle on the center of the island. He was too, if he admitted it. Anything could be in here, sudden death could be lurking around any corner. It was terrifying.

Blayne guessed the fact he just killed someone had hit him yet. Maybe he'd never feel bad for it, when it did hit him. All he was concerned about was making sure Hannah didn't die. Right now they were allies, and Blayne couldn't break his word the petite girl, who'd get killed if he ever left her. He hoped he died before he had to kill her. Would he let her win if it came down to it? He wasn't sure. Yeah, maybe they had a psuedo-friendship going on, but that seemed a little strange, to let someone else take his life when he could live and take theirs. Even if the person had eyes like Hannah.

In the jungle, it was sweltering. Seriously, Hannah was sweating through her thin tank top and shorts. She was limping slightly though didn't seem to be bothering her if she wasn't complaining. She seemed like a complainer. Blayne was unaware of what time it was, though the heat seemed to be getting better, meaning the sun was going down. Hannah sat on a tree log and said, "I'm tired, thirsty, and hungry."

"Me too," Blayne said, listening to his growling stomach. As he lived in the upper Districts, he'd never really gone without a meal before. The Hunger Games would really mean hunger for him. Hannah opened up the sandy backpack and pulled out a few crackers and the canteen of water. Blayne gaped as he was handed three crackers. "Seriously?" He asked, looking at the food in his hand.

"We have to ration," Hannah said. "We never know when we'll get food again."

"We could catch fish," Blayne protested, but Hannah just grinned.

"All of the fish, if any, were scared away by all of our swimming. We have to wait at least a day before fishing," Hannah said knowledgeably, looking around the dense jungle, covered with vines and suspcious looking flowers. She opened the canteen and took one sip of water before handing it to Blayne, who awkwardly took one too.

"Get used to sharing saliva until we find another water source, or another another canteen," Hannah said grimly.

"Why are you suddenly deciding you want to be in charge?" Blayne asked hoarsely, throat still dry.

She blinked. "Someone has to."

"Why you?" Blayne asked, holding out a hand to help Hannah up. She looked taken aback and grabbed it hesistantly. The two continued to walk, not making any noise on the grassy ground. The shoes helped a lot, too. Hannah brushed a dirty strand of blonde hair out of her face and wished desperately for a headband. She sighed.

"I guess I just like being in control," Hannah admitted. "I can't be ridiculed if I control everything."

"You can't control people," Blayne said. "You just can't." The two walked silently through the seemingly neverending woods until it became too dark to see. Hannah was at loss for words as to where to sleep. It was an awkward situation for everyone. Blayne grinned and pointed up.

"You want us to sleep in midair?" Hannah asked.

"In the trees," Blayne smiled, propping up against one in the dark. "It's safest." He began to climb up a pretty solid one before Hannah whispered, "Blayne! What if there are poison frogs in it? Or deadly spiders?"

He grinned from a lower branch of the tree. "At least we won't be murdered. Death by poison in our sleep seems a better option than being exploded or having our eyes forcibly taken out by a dagger." Hannah paled in the moonlight and Blayne stopped joking.

"I can't climb trees..." Hannah said tearfully. "I'm sorry, I guess I'll keep watch down here or something..."

"No," Blayne said. He hopped fifty feet down to the ground and, out of breath, said, "Someone will kill you. We're on the same side, remember?" He quickly grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder, and placed his hand over her mouth so she wouldn't scream. She manuevered herself so she was on his back, so as not to fall to her death.

"You are absolutely ridiculous! If I die, I will come back from the dead to kill you, too!" She said threw gritted teeth. Blayne chuckled and thought she would provide the audience some comic relief. Oh yeah. They were being filmed. Someone just saw him do that, and they can hear everything he's saying. Crap. The two reached a sturdy branch pretty high up in the tree, and they were concealed by the thick leaves. Hannah was gasping for air and was livid.

"I hate you," she mumbled.

"Nope, you love me," Blayne smirked. Maybe the audience likes playful banter.

"Screw you..." Hannah groaned, streching out.

"Not on camera, I hope," Blayne said, and sure enough, a little parachute with a basket was dropped down into the tree. Hannah looked in awe.

"Sponsers..." she breathed before tearing open the basket. Inside was a medium sized brown backpack, and it was much better than the green one. Blayne grinned as he saw another canteen and water purifier drops, plus a small vial of something yellow. Hannah looked at it curiously, then gasped.

"It's poison," Hannah groaned. "District 4 style. We coat our fish crates with it. I think we should poison the bottom of the tree..." she whispered. Blayne nodded, but then the signal to show the dead that day sounded. Looking through the branches, Hannah and Blayne watched as around ten faces flashed across the sky. That means fourteen people remained. That was a lot. More than Blayne wanted to be alive. Hannah bit her lip as the screen diminished. She grabbed the small vial and quietly crawled down the tree, Blayne rolling his eyes in the background.

"Always wanting to be the hero..." he murmured, before checking on the pint-sized girl to make sure she wasn't dead. She had dipped a stick into the vial and was spreading it all over the tree. He remembered she couldn't climb back up so he steadily, and hopefully quietly, climbed down it to assist her.

He watched as more poison was laid at the foundations of the tree. Hannah heard a slight crunch of leaves and quickly grabbed onto Blayne's arm, who hadn't heard anything. "What are you doing?" He asked, amused. She shook her head and put a finger against her lips. She pointed up to the tree and he picked her up to climb back up the tree. Unfortunately, it meant they were slower, so when a few of the lower District's tributes walked tiredly past the huge tree, they had to book it...

"Oh crap crap crap..." Hannah muttered, sighing when they reached the top of the tree, where a huge branch was holding their few belongings. She fingered her oversized bracelet slowly, peering down at the tributes. There seemed to be about six, so three districts had allied together. She recognized two from District 11.

"Let's sit down," a redhead muttered, spotting Hannah and Blayne's tree. Hannah gaped as he leaned up the poison-coated tree and two others joined them, all three (one a very small girl) falling over, motionless the the contact. Hannah was quiet for a while after the Capitol collected to bodies and the few allies remaining from the previously allied Districts ran, muttering warning about poisoned trees.

"I just killed three people," Hannah said, curling up into a ball. "If I can't sleep and I wake you up, I'm sorry."

Ah, sleep. Blayne's favorite thing in the world. He leaned up against the trunk of the tree and dozed off, eventually falling into a somewhat deep sleep. It was dangerous to sleep too deeply in a place like this, and Blayne guessed his body knew it. At a time right before the sun arose, he blinked his eyes open to see Hannah rummaging through the brown backpack, looking for something unknown to Blayne. She seemed to cut her hand on something sharp and Blayne was startled.

"Ow..." she mumbled, holding up her hand, which was pretty much sliced through. Blood was pouring out of it and Hannah looked on the verge of tears. Blayne, bleary with sleep, crawled over to Hannah and looked at the bleeding wound. "What'd you cut it with?" he asked sleepily.

Hannah shrugged and looked. Inside was a knife, pointing straight up, traces of Hannah's blood dripping down the sides. Blayne gingerly pulled it out and tucked it into the waistband of his basketball shorts. "Hey..." he mumbled, observing them once more. On the inside lining of the waistband of his shorts was almost like a belt, with little loops meant for holding daggers or knives. He grinned and stuck it in there, surprised that the blade didn't cut him. Apparently they were designed well.

However Hannah was in a lot of pain and was losing blood fast, so Blayne pulled out the small first aid kit from a pocket inside of the brown backpack. The sun was beginning to peek over the trees, and in the faint sunlight Hannah looked very pale. He dug through the tiny container, frustrated, and didn't find any gauze. Instead he washed the wound with some water from the canteen, and patched it up with pretty much all of the band aids.

"This thing is useless..." Blayne complained when he was done.

Hannah bit her lip and brushed hair out of her face, saying, "I could've done that."

"No, you couldn't have," Blayne responded, exasperated. "You were half asleep."

"I didn't even go to sleep," Hannah muttered, "but the point is that I can do everything by myself, I don't need help."

"Freaking stubborn as a mule..." Blayne groaned, stomach growling loudly. Hannah glared and handed him some packaged fruit.

"Eat so your stomach won't let our enemies know where we are," Hannah said, taking a few crackers for herself. She could handle a little while without food, at least until they could fish. She planned to use the light string they technically stole from Alex, Austin, and Tiffany to make a somewhat decent net to catch some fish in. Maybe there would be good fish in the sea surrounding the island. Hannah took a swig of water and Blayne did the same, leaving around half of the canteen left.

"We can use the water purifier on the sea water, maybe," Hannah suggested, yawning.

Blayne raised an eyebrow. "If you say so..."

The two realized that they weren't alone, however, when the faint smell of smoke drifted up past the tree, darkening the sky.