Vic sat bolt upright in the soft Capitol bed she had neglected the night before yesterday. She'd been in a cold sweat, and for a blissful moment allowed herself to believe last night's events were some horrible dream. She reached her hand up to her neck, rubbing where the dart had struck her. Her eyes shot open when she realized that pressing the spot hurt, although it wouldn't have if the dart was truly a creation of her subconscious.

She tumbled out of the bed, and threw open the door to the main room for District 1. Thor, Guin, and their mentors were already quietly eating breakfast, and seemed startled when Vic came storming out.

"Would someone please tell me what happened last night?" Vic asked, slowly beginning to calm down from her state of near panic.

Guin gasped. "Good heavens, Victory, you look terrible!"

Vic touched her face and found carpet burn from falling outside the President's office, matching the ones on her hands where she'd instinctively tried to break her fall. "It's nothing, don't call me Victory." The response was habitual by this point.

"Oh, those too, I meant your hair!"

Vic ran a hand through the tangled black stands and decided it wasn't worth the effort to fix. "Whatever. So, again, what happened after I left?"

Thor shrugged. "They love us. I apparently have a likable tendency, as Loki put it, and he can be quite charming as well."

Vic snorted, remembering how he'd told the Peacekeepers where she was, when she was obviously trying to avoid them. "Charming. Yeah, that's exactly how I would describe him."

Will jumped into the conversation excitedly. "Long story short, I've got sponsors on a waiting list a mile long. You kids want something, just ask."

"Three 'get out of the Hunger Games free cards?' No? Well, it was worth a shot," Vic grumbled.

"Theoretically, if such an item did exist, would we be able to get at least one?" Thor asked hopefully.

Natalie shook her head. "Sorry. We can get you anything from medicine to a royal feast, but we can't get you out of the Games. Not all the wealth of the Capitol could do that for you."

The mood in the room dampened considerably for all, even Guin finally seeming to grasp the harsh reality of the boys' situation. "The Games will start soon, you should get ready," she almost whispered before picking up her usual cheeriness. "The clothes the Gamemakers want you to wear are in the dressers."

Vic and Thor returned to their rooms and found the lightweight, heat-trapping clothes waiting. Vic decided it was a safe bet that the temperatures would get much lower that anyone would be comfortable in. She grabbed a comb from the counter and swiped it through her tangled mess of hair a few times before pulling it into a ponytail.

She stared at her reflection thoughtfully. She didn't have the face of a military strategist, or the hardened look of a killer. She didn't appear experienced enough to make the decisions of a leader. But she didn't look like a pacifist either, like the sort of person who would let someone else win the Games. In all, she looked like a perfectly average 15 year old girl, who had perhaps just gotten out of school for the day. That's good. The less they see, the better.


The ride to the arena with the tributes from the first four Districts was uncomfortable and tense, the four Careers eyeing Vic will a mixture of loathing and caution, Ivy in particular glaring at her with the intensity of a missile locked on a target. Vic tried to catch Xander and Brigit's attention, but they gazed rather pointedly at the floor and refused to meet her eyes.

She watched with interest when the Peacekeepers inserted the trackers into their arms. It was the exact same place every time, the right forearm. She could feel it just under her skin, and every so often it would blink red to show it was active.

In the end, nothing was said between the tributes, and they were sent off silently to their assigned capsules. Vic stepped inside hers without hesitation, and waited for it to rise to the surface. For the first time since she'd helped her mother and Katniss lead the rebellion, fear twisted in her stomach, and she hoped desperately that the hackers in 13 had successfully carried out their plan.

The capsule began its ascent without warning, sending Vic staggering for a moment. Just a few seconds after that, she rose from the floor of the arena, at the same time as her fellow tributes.

They all looked at their surroundings in awe. The Capitol had outdone themselves with this arena, featuring enormous mountain ranges ringing a forest of pine trees several miles wide, which in turn surrounded the grain field they stood in the center of. It's a target, Vic laughed to herself. And at the bullseye was the Cornucopia, dazzling them with its wealth of supplies and weapons.

An announcer's voice rang out, echoing off the mountains of the arena. "Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-sixth Hunger Games begin!"

The sixty seconds began, counting down agonizingly slowly. Vic scanned the other tributes, looking for her allies and anyone who would be a threat. She found Loki just a few spots to her right, but she couldn't see Thor. She would just have to hope that he'd run, and not be taken in by the temptation of the Cornucopia.

It is certainly something to fight over, she thought, looking at the bounty of food, supplies, and weapons. Food and supplies she could probably get from the 'miles of sponsors' Will had claimed they had, but weapons were a rarity, and she felt that they'd need something a bit more substantial that wit to survive.

The gong sounded, reverberating around them. The Careers surged forward as one, followed by a few other alliances foolhardy enough to take them on, while nearly everyone else turned to run. Everyone except Vic, who stood still and raised her arms above her head defensively.

The explosion shook the ground, the fireball that was the Cornucopia giving off enough heat to melt a glacier. None of the Careers had gotten close enough to be hurt, and stopped just short of running into the flame. Before they had recovered from the shock, the spoils of the Cornucopia fell back to the ground, ruined and on fire.

The tributes tried, and mostly succeeded, in dodging the twisted shrapnel of metal that many of the weapons had become, as well as the miniature fireballs of food. Out of the corner of her eye, Vic saw a boy she thought may have been from District 9 whose hair had caught fire. A knife nearly impaled her, but she moved to the side so it fell harmlessly to the ground.

Once things had stopped falling, Vic looked around. None of the food was edible, and almost everything except the metal weapons had been burnt beyond use. The weapons were damaged for the most part, but to her complete amazement, Vic saw an intact war hammer just a bit to her left. She grabbed it and the knife before making her way to the the forest, her speed severely hampered by the necessity to drag the hammer that was as heavy as the mace she had trouble with the day before.

An acrid smell was the first indication she had of the disaster that was unintentionally caused by setting off an explosion in a field of grain. She threw a glance over her shoulder to find flames licking up from various places in the field. The other tributes had already come to realize that nothing from the Cornucopia was worth salvaging, and were racing to the forest like she was. A steady wind picked up, doubtlessly sent by the Gamemakers, and the flames grew, chasing down the tributes.

Vic turned her attention back to the forest. The green plants there would be harder to catch fire than the grain, so she just had to outrun the fire for fifty more feet. She didn't risk glancing behind her and slowing herself down, but she knew the fires were getting worse because the low crackle had quickly become a roar mixed with screams. A cannon sounded, encouraging Vic to run just a little faster into the relatively damp forest.

Vic didn't stop until she was a good ten yards past the tree line. Once she felt safe enough to stop, she leaned against a tree, panting hard. A crunch of pine needles behind her caused Vic to turn, knife raised in defense.

Loki froze, hands in the air to show Vic he was unarmed. Recognition took hold after a moment, and she relaxed enough to lower the knife. "We need to find your brother and get out of here. I don't know if the fire will come into the forest or not."

A crashing sound from the direction of the grain field caught their attention, and Loki scrambled behind Vic. Thor burst into view from a clump of bushes, out of breath, but not injured aside from having slightly singed hair, much like the Careers who had rushed to the Cornucopia would have.

"Oh, don't tell me you tried to take the Cornucopia by yourself," Loki complained.

Thor glared at him. "I coulda done it if hadn't blown up. And, really, are you hiding behind a girl?"

"She's the one with the weapons!"

Thor's eyes lit up when he realized what weapons Vic had. "Perfect!" he said, snatching the hammer from her.

Vic rolled her eyes. "You're welcome. We need to be far away from here before nightfall so we can sleep without worrying the fire will catch up. Come on!" She waved for them to follow her deeper into the woods.


Zach ran full speed into the forest, plants clawing angrily at him until he came to a stop. He dropped the heavy objects that had slowed him down, and leaned against a tree. He'd stayed behind just a bit longer than he should have, trying to find things his alliance could use, and the smoke in his lungs weighed more than the pile of weapons at his feet.

"Well, someone looks pleased with himself," a light, teasing voice rang out. Zach snapped to a state of alertness, brown eyes quickly finding Ashley above him, hanging upside down from a thick branch like a bat.

"Hello, Ash. Come on down, let's go find the other Careers."

She grabbed the branch and kicked her legs all the way over, dropping neatly to the ground in front of him. "One of these for me?" she asked hopefully, eyeing the weapons Zach had found.

In response, he picked up a compound bow and held it out to her. It had somehow held together through the explosion, as well as the corresponding metal quiver, with arrows hot to the touch, but not melted. Ashley pulled on the metal string, testing the weight. "Not too bad. I usually like the wooden ones, but if metal's the only thing that survived the fire, it'll do."

Her eyes flicked to Zach, who was still wheezing from the smoke. "Sorry, Zach. You're the weakest." She whipped an arrow out of the quiver and before he had time to blink shot it through his chest. "Thanks for the weapons," she trilled after the cannon faded.

She inspected the weapons he'd found, four shuriken, a few small knives, a double edged sword, and a single katana. They weren't as twisted as some she'd seen raining on the field, and didn't snap in half when she picked them up. Ashely pulled the arrows out of her quiver, finding the shuriken to be the perfect fit for the circular quiver. She put the arrows back on top of the shuriken, leaving behind the one she'd shot Zach with since she couldn't get it out of the tree.

She slid the sword into the quiver and slung it over her shoulder. It was a tight fit with everything she'd put in it, and it weighed her down, but she could still draw and shoot unimpeded, so she didn't complain. She snatched three of the small knives and walked off, leaving the rest to be melted by the spreading fire.


Linda kept a tight grip on Penelope and Phillip, forcing the two smaller tributes to keep pace with her. They'd spent precious time in the burning field, looking for Rebecca, but when the wind picked up, Linda had made the decision to escape alive with the two she had found. So far, the fire hadn't gone beyond the field, but it was only a matter of time before it got into the forest, and she wanted to be as far from it as she could.

A rustle in the bushes nearby stopped her maniac progression deeper into the forest. She pushed the younger children behind her, turning towards the sound. The rustling increased in volume until the girl from 9 and Rebecca stepped into their small clearing. Rebecca was clearly hurt, keeping pressure of her left leg as much as possible. Linda's hazel eyes flicked hesitantly between the two, before grabbing Rebecca by the wrist and pulling her back.

"What do you want?" she demanded of the girl.

In response, she held out a partially melted piece of metal, probably once part of a sword since one edge was razor sharp. Linda pushed the younger ones further behind her and took a step back, eyes as wide as saucers. The girl from 9 shook her head and lowered the shrapnel. "No, I want to join you. Henry's dead, and I don't want to be alone in here. Please, let me help you. You don't have any weapons, or experience, right? What happens when a mutt comes?"

Rebecca tugged Linda's arm to catch her attention. "Bella got me out from under a bunch of stuff from the explosion. She could have let me die in the fire, but she didn't."

Linda glanced back at Bella, eyes saying she didn't trust her, but she nodded anyways. "Okay. We need to go, the other tributes could be right behind us."

"Hey, don't Penelope and I get a say in this? We're part of the alliance too!" Phillip protested.

Linda groaned inwardly at the loss of time, but decided it would be quicker to humor him. "Fine, what would you like to say?"

He turned his large green eyes to Bella, without a trace of distrust or fear. "Thanks for finding Becca. Is it time to go now?"

Bella nodded, a smile creeping across her face, then set off in the direction Linda had been leading them. Penelope wrapped an arm around Rebecca so she didn't have to put as much weight on her leg, and they set off as fast as they could after her.


Andrew jumped at the sound of pine needles crunching beneath two pairs of feet. He whirled around to see Amanda and Alice, and instantly relaxed. "There you are. I was worried when I heard the cannons..." His voice trailed off when he saw the blood dripping from between Alice's fingers pressed to her side.

She gave him a humorless smile. "It's nothing, just a little scratch. Lot better than being stuck out there. Although, I suppose it will ruin my manicure," she tried to joke, but the pain in her voice was far too evident to allow her allies to believe she was actually okay.

"Sit," Amanda ordered, pushing Alice gently to the ground against a tree and pried her blood soaked hand away. Slowly, with great concentration, she began pulling tiny shards of metal out of the cut. Alice winced, but kept quiet.

"Andrew, let me know if you see any other tributes, or if the fire seems to be getting closer," Amanda instructed without looking up to see if he compiled. She fished the last piece of metal out, and then seemed at a loss for how to stop the blood. Andrew held out a small plant with clusters of little white flowers to her. "Andrew, now is really not the time."

"No, it's yarrow. Look, the leaves help with blood clotting." He crumbled a few leaves in his hand and pressed them to Alice's wound. She held her hand over the leaves and struggled to her feet, despite Amanda's protests.

"We can't stay here, the fire will come into the forest soon. I'm fine. Really. We need to go."

Amanda and Andrew nodded their consent and the trio headed further away from the fire. "Hey, Amanda, you remember what you said about now not being the right time? It's not now anymore."

"Shut up," she said with a grin, punching him lightly on the shoulder.


The light shone through the pine needles, bouncing off them and making the world look a lush shade of green. It was beautiful, but Brigit couldn't appreciate it with the worry clawing at her. There had been two cannons and she had two allies, neither of which she could see from her position at the Cornucopia. So she had run, hoping that they would find her.

A light touch on her shoulder woke her from her paranoia. She spun around, sword swinging in a barely controlled arc. Xander jumped backwards out of the reach of the blade. "Turning on me that early, huh?" he asked with a laugh. Brigit lowered the sword, her face turning bright red.

"Sorry. Have you seen Daniel?"

Xander shook his head. "No, we need to find him."

A rough, scratchy voice from the direction of the fire startled them. "Find who?" Brigit didn't think twice before dropping the sword and gathering the younger boy into a hug. She and Daniel had become fast friends in the short time they'd had together in the Capitol. Daniel squirmed away from her, coughing hard.

"What's wrong?" Brigit asked, inspecting him as he put a little more distance between them in case she tried to hug him again.

"My lungs feel like they're on fire." He took a deep breath, wincing as he did. "I can't talk much."

"Did you breath in the smoke?" Xander asked, and Daniel nodded in reply. The motion made the world around him spin. He put his hand out to a tree to keep from falling over.

"The fire's moving really fast, I was just barely staying ahead of it. You need to go further in."

Brigit wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "I think you mean 'we.'"

Daniel looked up at her, surprise showing on his face. "I can't move fast like this. Aren't you going to leave me?"

Xander rolled his eyes. "I think you misunderstand the term 'ally.' We keep each other alive. That's the point of staying in a group. I can hear the fire now, we probably need to go." He turned and headed away from the Cornucopia, Brigit and Daniel following behind.


Loki stopped walking suddenly, and Vic plowed into him. "Why'd you stop?" she complained, and he shushed her.

"Hear that?"

Vic was about to respond no, she couldn't hear anything over his paranoia, when she thought it might be best to actually listen. Sure enough, she could hear something, a sound that sent shivers crawling down her spine.

"What's that buzzing?" Thor asked.

Vic's face drained of all its color and she turned back towards the fire, running as fast as her legs would allow.

"No, seriously, what is that?"

"They look like tracker jackers," Loki responded, finally catching sight of the swarm emerging from a hive above them. "Keep up!" he shouted, running in the same direction Vic had gone.

Vic didn't stop running until she was right on the edge of the inferno. The fire had come further into the forest, and the flames licked at their faces, but the large wasp-like mutts didn't come closer than 10 feet to the fire.

"They hate heat," Vic shouted over the roar of the fire and the buzzing of the tracker jackers.

"So what now? You've gotten us trapped between a blazing fire that is advancing on us, and a bunch of hallucination inducing bugs that are locked on to our position and will leave us as easy prey for the other tributes. This is a brilliant plan, Vic, truly genius," Loki growled sarcastically.

"It was an instinctual reaction, okay? I never said you had to follow me. Now, seriously, how do we get past them?" They had to take several steps forward because the fire was advancing, but the bugs seemed to be getting braver, and every now and again one would break off from the swam to fly a bit closer to their prey.

"How the hell am I supposed to-"

Thor's voice broke into their argument. "Do you think he's trapped by the tracker jackers too?"

Vic and Loki both turned the death glares they'd been giving each other to him. "Who, and why should we care?" Loki snarled.

Thor pointed to the hazy outline of a person a stone's throw from them. "Well, he's not panicking. Maybe he knows something about the trackers that we don't."

"Worth a try," Vic said, already walking towards the person.

Loki stepped in front of her. "Oh, no you don't. You got us into this mess, from here on out I'm calling the shots."

She gave him an expectant look. "And, you've decided..." she trailed off, and motioned that he should finish the sentence.

He thought for a second, then deflated. "... that we should find out why whoever that is isn't running, and hope they don't kill us." He matched Vic's smug grin with a scowl and wiped away the sweat that was dripping into his eyes.

They walked just outside the edge of the fire, a few tongues of flame occasionally jumping out at them. Far more worrying was the fact that the entire swarm of tracker jackers had definitely locked onto them, as they flew right alongside the trio, no matter how fast they ran. The heat wouldn't keep them out forever, and Loki tried to block the horrible images he'd seen of tributes killed by tracker jackers from his mind. Even the ones who survived the stings eventually went insane.

The haze from the heat made it hard to see, but before they got within 20 feet of the other tribute they could tell that something was wrong. He was standing straight against a tree, but his head lolled over, like he had fallen asleep on his feet. He made no effort to move away from the fire, or gave any indication that he noticed it at all.

When they got a bit closer they could easily see the problem, but Vic was the first to say it out loud. "He's dead."

Loki edged closer, scanning the surrounding area for signs of who might have killed him. "It's the boy from 4."

"Someone already killed a Career? Maybe the others are tougher than we thought," Thor said.

"There's an arrow. It was probably Ashely," Vic said, kneeling down to look at the weapons scattered on the ground. "Too bad these won't work on a bunch of bugs."

"You mean the girl from 2. The one with the bow," Thor corrected her.

"That's what I just said," Vic responded.

There was a burst of pain in Loki's left arm, but he moved further into the relatively safe area of heat and didn't say anything. The tracker jacker poison wouldn't have a major effect for a minute or so, long enough to get of danger.

"No, you used her name," Thor argued. "Don't use their names, you'll get sentimental."

"Whatever." Vic put the katana and the remaining knives in her belt. She had decided that was all that was there when she noticed a gleam from under Zach's foot. She moved it aside and picked up the shuriken that was pressed into the ground. She stood up and looked around, noting that the tracker jackers were edging into their space, as was the fire. "Ideas? Anyone?"

"They've been staying away because of the fire, right? Why don't we just take it with us?" Loki asked. He picked up a fallen tree branch and held it in the fire. The dry, brittle needles caught fire instantly, but the sap in the branch burned slower. He waved it around near the bugs and they flew away, only to regroup when he lowered the branch.

"Good idea!" Vic spotted two more branches a little further from the fire. "Could you scatter them again?"

Loki waved the branch through the tracker jackers again and they dispersed long enough for Vic to dart away from the fire and grab the branches. She swung them through the fire, and they sparked to life. Thor took one and they held the branches out to the bugs. The mutts stayed further back this time, wary of the moving flames.

"Come on! If we can get to some type of water they'll stop tracking us," Vic said, edging away from the relative safety of the fire. Thor and Loki followed closely, keeping the burning branches between themselves and the bugs. Now that they were away from the intense heat of the forest fire, the bugs attacked viciously. The small fires they had would only beat them back for a second before they came again. They finally managed to get the bugs behind them and ran, abandoning the makeshift torches.

Loki didn't know how far or how long they ran, only that by the time they reached the river he was sure they were all about to collapse. They didn't even know they had found a river until Vic ran straight off the edge of the riverbank and fell into it. It was fairly deep, but not moving fast enough to be dangerous.

She popped to the surface fifteen feet away in time to see the other two jump in after her. The tracker jackers flew away, confused by the disappearance of their prey. The trio swam to the riverbank, exhausted but alive. Their skin was nearly roasted in some places, and was red and raw underneath, but the water helped significantly. Vic could have stayed in the cool water forever, but eventually climbed out and joined her allies on the soft grass.

"Finally, I think we were about due for some good luck," Thor said with a grin.

"Don't be stupid, it's probably got piranhas," Loki retorted, but without his usual bitterness. Vic almost thought he'd intended it to be a joke until she noticed the glazed look in his eyes.

He was clutching his left arm so tightly his fingers were turning white. Vic pulled his hand away gently. His green eyes snapped towards her, suddenly wild. He must have been stung a while before, it's already swollen. "It's just one, you should be fine. Still, Thor, don't let him near any weapons for the next hour, just in case." Less than fifteen minutes in and we're having problems. How are we going to survive three days of this?