I hold Tsara by her collar. I hold my knife high above my head. I slowly let it go down. Yet, while I do that, I look into Tsaras eyes. My knife stops. She looks so scared and alone. Do it, Hallie, says the voice in my head. That voice is often right. Yet, I have no been listening to that voice this whole Hunger games long - I might as well do it again. I lower my knife. Tsara looks confused. What do you have? I ask. She shakes her head.

Nothing, I only have soap! I, eh…

Where you seeking water? She nods. I let go of her collar. She immediately tries to run away, but I get a hold of her wrist. It is almost pitiful, how she tries to wiggle herself out of my grasp. With one hand, I rummage through my bags. I get my bottle out and hold it in front of her.

She looks at the bottle for a few seconds. She looks like she cannot believe it. She pulls it out of my hands and takes a few gluttonous sips. When she takes the bottle away from her lips, I pull it back. Careful! I do not have unlimited water. She looks at me with big eyes. For a second, I think that this might be a trap to manipulate me - until I remember that she has exactly nothing. I look around, to see if there is a potential teammate lurking behind a kitchen isle. There is no-one. I still clench my fist around the knife.

Tsara squeaks. I roll my eyes. I just gave you some of my valuable water. Why would I kill you? That seems to calm her down a bit. Meanwhile, I realise that I am stuck with her now. I do not want to waste that water and killing her after I have made peace will not make me popular with the sponsors. I sigh and pat her on the back. I'll explain to you what I already know.

I show her the maps, while I tell her about the flickering lights and the monsters. Tsara looks at the map. Her face gets darker. This does not display the entire arena, I gave her a weird look. What do you mean? There is the storage room, the three sections and the restaurant with the copernica. Tsara shakes her head.

I know that there is more. I hung around by a set of stairs. Not the one that leads to the storage room, but another one. I heard mechanical growling downstairs, so I was too afraid to go in.

Mechanical growling?

That is how we call it in district three. On the other side was a glass door, with one of those kiddie places. I did not dare to go in there as well.

I bite my lip. It was stupid to think that the entire arena was just there, on this map. Why don't we go back to that corner? There is nothing over here, except for kitchens, bathrooms and beds that want to kill you. I don't know, maybe there is something we can use down those stairs. Tsara looks at me like a little rabbit at headlights.

What? But… I pat her back.

We are together now. Do you want a biscuit?

When I see Tsara stuffing three biscuits into her mouth, I realise that my stomach had been growling. Cookies and fruit are not enough to win a Hunger games on. We need meat, or bread at least. Maybe I should ask Falacenia for those, now that the prices are still relatively low. I stumble around the kitchens, trying to find water, while thinking about it.

Is the male tribute of your district still alive? Tsara nods.

Yes. He is tall, with a lot of muscles, a light skin and blond hair. He has a scar on his cheek. He got one from one of those bloodseeker wasp things. For a moment, I look around. It is really something for a gamemaker to hang a bloodseeker nest in a kitchen cabinets, so that they are angry enough when you walk past. He is strong, Tsara continues, Our mentor looks after him only. I nod slowly.

Mine, Yarrel, is dead.

Oh. That is terrible.

Yeah. In silence, we start to make our way back to the copernica, helped by the map.

My stomach growls again. We need sustenance. Something filling. Otherwise, we will not make it, I declare. Maybe I should ask my mentor… I stop talking, as a silver parachute lands in front of me.

I can remember from previous Hunger games that there are usually silver capsules hanging from the parachutes. Yet, this time there is a carton box attached to the parachute. A small one, with the logo from IKEA on it, and something in a language that I do not understand. I grab it from the floor. I cut through the tape with my knife. In it are three plastic boxes (How do they call them again? Tupperware?). I grab the largest one. Meat. Fresh meat. The smell alone makes me lightheaded. Tsara looks in a smaller box - it has actual, fresh vegetables. I shake my head, trying to ground myself. Tsara, I think we should eat all of it now. It will only go bad if we do not. She nods.

I agree. We stuff the food into our mouths like a pair of hungry dogs, until there is not a single crumb left.

From who do you think the food came? I ask, as we walk further.

Probably from your mentor. As I said, mine does not really care about me. I thought that too, which is why I immediately teared that box open. Yet, now I am not so sure. Falencia is way too smart to give away donations on things we do not need. Which means that we are either going to be in a lot of trouble really soon, or it comes from Tsaras mentor. I hope that it is the first one.

We start to get closer to the copernica and Tsaras stairs. We peak from around the last kitchen. Slowly, we pad past the first stairs and the collection of murder beds, closer to Kid paradise. Next to that lay Tsaras stairs. I did not tell her why I wanted to go downstairs, because it is really stupid to be honest. You see, in every IKEA, there is a parking lot. If Tsara heard mechanical growling downstairs, it is possible that there are cars there, but maybe also those weird shopping carts. Tsara told me she is from district three. If Falencia is half as smart as I think she is, she will send us something mechanical - maybe she can even get District threes mentor to tell her what Tsara can do. I also saw an elevator. If we can get one of those shopping carts to move around really fast, we can tackle people with it and get less tired. Yes, I know it is a really far stretch, but at least it gives me a goal.

As we sneak past kiddie land, suddenly a knife flies past my ear. Tsara screams. I get my knife out. A small group comes rushing towards us. I believe they are Sucy and Harold (Both from district two), and ruby, from district one.

I do not think. I pull the door open and push Tsara inside. Sucy is the closest nearby. As I swing the door shut and lock it, she gets hit in the face with it. She falls over. I take a few steps further into kiddie land (Smaland, that was its name). My gaze is still on the door. I have front view as Ruby and Harold kneel next to Sucy, looking shocked. Harold sticks his hand out and lays it on Sucys wrist. Oh shoot. Oh… no? Yes? Harold let's go of her wrist. He and Ruby get up. I get one more death glare, before they march back to the copernica.