A/N: So now the REAL fun begins. I present to you the first part of them going into the arena. I really hope you enjoy this!

Ladies and gentlemen, may the 74th Annual Hunger Games begin!

Katniss POV

I sat in the Launch Room, scared out of my mind. Cinna was holding my hand. Somehow that made things seem a lot better.

"I'm so scared…" I whined, looking over at Cinna, resisting the impulse to cry my heart out.

Cinna sighed and tightened his grip on my hand.

"You'll be alright. I'm betting on you," he said.

It was now time to get in my little tube and go up into the arena.

When I let go of Cinna, any sense of security I had was gone. I took a deep breath and walked onto my platform, and the tube came down around me.

I looked at Cinna one last time before I rose to my death. As I headed up, I could have sworn that I saw a tear slide down his face.

Tori POV

As I rose into the arena, all I could think was if I'm going to die, at least save the little girl. There were two little girls I was thinking of: Rue and Cat. Cat was my age, but she was so scared, so sweet, that it kill me inside to see her die. And Rue…she's only 12. That should explain everything.

I took in my surroundings. I saw a lake to the side, and the Cornucopia was about 20 feet ahead of me. I saw a forest in the distance.

I had about 45 seconds left before the gong rang out. I looked around for my allies. I saw a few of them, and they saw me, too.

I remembered what my mentor said: "Good job at finding allies. Smart move. When it comes to the Cornucopia, just go for it! Watch your back, tell your allies to look too."

30 seconds. I took a deep breath. I had to go into my cold as steel state now.

15 seconds. I looked to my right and saw Jade. She nodded at me, her teeth gritted and her jaw locked. Her cheeks and nose were red as if she were trying so so hard not to cry, like I was.

5 seconds. This is it.

4….3….2…1. The gong rang out, and we ran for the Cornucopia.

I saw Katniss fight for an orange backpack, and the District 9 boy got stabbed in the back. He spit blood in her face. Katniss snagged the bag and ran to me.

I saw a good majority of people fighting, not really focused on the Cornucopia. Cato and some other people were at the Cornucopia already and were on their way.

Jade ran up to me, a sleeping bag, some bread, and a sword in her hands.

"Where's Cat and Rue?" she asked me and Katniss.

We looked around, and we saw them. Rue was running full speed toward us, a knife in her hands. She shoved it into her pants around her waist and ran even faster.

Cat, on the other hand, was running but someone was chasing her.

I looked around for a bow and arrow, and finally found one. I jumped up and grabbed it, loaded it, and sent an arrow straight for Cat's chaser.

Cat POV

I started running as fast as I could toward the Cornucopia, where I saw Rue running to the others. I heard heavy footsteps behind me and I knew I was not alone.

I turned and saw the District 8 boy tribute running after me.

I tried to keep running tirelessly towards the others, but he was gaining on me. I knew I was going to die if he wasn't killed beforehand.

Suddenly I saw the girl named Tori send an arrow flying towards us, and I immediately felt betrayal, as I thought she was going to kill me after being my "ally".

Instead, the arrow went through District 8 boy's skull, and I nearly gagged at the sight. But, nevertheless, I continued to run until I reached the Cornucopia.

Jade snagged a knife from the edge of the Cornucopia and handed it to me. I put it in my waistline of my pants like Rue did. Jade also shoved a sleeping bag into my hands. I saw a huge black pack that I was sure would have something useful in it and threw it onto my back.

The 5 of us ran for our lives into the woods. We ran for what seemed like an hour until we found a reasonable place to stay, far from the others.

We fell to the ground, panting hard.

After about 2 minutes, we decided to look and see what we were able to get from the Cornucopia.

Obviously we had our weapons. In the pack I grabbed, there was an extra knife that was huge. Tori and Katniss exchanged weapons.

Anyhow, so in my pack was a lot of good things. A sleeping bag, belt/strap type things, some crackers and bread, iodine, a siphon-type thing, pieces of fabric, and two bottles of water.

The items in Katniss' backpack were a pack of crackers, a pack of dried beef strips, one thin black sleeping bag, a bottle of iodine, a box of wooden matches, a small coil of wire, a pair of sunglasses and a half-gallon plastic bottle that was empty.

"Well this is good to start with," said Rue, who sat next to me.

I nodded and sighed.

Jade POV

"So…obviously we're going to have to sleep. I'll take first watch with whoever. Are we going to belt ourselves into the trees?" I asked, thinking it was a good idea.

"Yeah…sounds good. I'll take first watch with you," said Katniss, brushing some stray hair out of her eyes.

No one protested. We were all exhausted, but someone needed to take watch and whoever volunteered could do it. Simple as that.

I took a deep breath and lay back on the ground, my sword clutched in my hand in case anything happened.

"What do we do now?" asked Cat. She sounded scared.

"I don't know…find a source of water maybe?" I suggested.

"Well we have two water bottles…is that going to be enough for now?" asked Tori, shifting her position and wincing as she did so.

"Yeah…should be," I said. I closed my eyes, for my head was starting to pound.

We sat in silence for a little while.

"Is anyone hungry? I can go hunt if you want," said Katniss, breaking the silence.

"I'm sick to my stomach. Couldn't eat if I tried," said Cat. I nodded, agreeing with her.

"Same," said Rue and Tori.

"Good, cuz I don't feel too great either…this whole thing's scaring me too much…" said Katniss.

I sighed as we continued to sit in silence.

Peeta POV

Night was starting to fall already. The time in the arena had gone by very fast.

Andre, Beck, Robbie, and I had found a place far off in the woods. We were not at the exact corner of the arena, but I'm pretty sure we were very far away from the others.

We were sitting quietly in the forest, our supplies laid out in front of us. We were waiting for the Capitol seal to show in the sky.

All of the sudden, Andre sat straight up from where he was laying down and started having a breakdown.

"Amelia! My sister! Oh my god, where is she? DON'T LET HER BE DEAD!" he cried out, jumping up and screaming her name.

His screams were interrupted by the Capitol seal.

"Oh god…" he muttered, afraid of what he would see. I was scared too. Of seeing Katniss on the screen. Or that little girl Rue. Or even that girl named Cat.

Only 5 of the tributes died. There was the boy from District 3, the girl from district 4, both from District 7, and the boy from district 8. Thankfully, Andre's sister was still alive.

Andre was still scared.

"Peeta, we have to find her," he said with such urgency that it was scary. I nodded.

Robbie and Beck stood up and followed Andre and I as we ran through the forest in search of Amelia.

Rue POV

It had been about 10 more minutes, and us girls were still just sitting here. I was kind of lost. I mean, of course we had to watch the Hunger Games every year, but I always felt sure there was action going on no matter what. In all honesty I was kind of bored.

In the silence, I heard the sound of someone running.

I immediately sat up and looked around. Jade looked at me, and I knew she had heard it too.

"Did you hear that?" hissed Cat. We all nodded.

The running sounds continued, and I grabbed the knife out of my belt and stood up. The others grabbed their weapons as well and stood facing every direction.

Suddenly a young girl, no older than 14, bounded into our view. She screamed as she saw our weapons drawn, ready to shoot.

Scared, she put her hands behind her head and got down on her knees.

"Please don't kill me," she sobbed, already crying as it was. "Please!"

I noticed a huge gash in her leg that couldn't go untreated. I was worried about her.

I guess Katniss saw it too, for she threw her bow on the ground and went to look at the wound.

The girl flinched as Katniss came up to her.

"Shh, its ok. I'm not going to hurt you," said Katniss in a soothing voice. The girl looked up at Katniss and put her arms down, still crying.

Everyone else put their weapons down.

"What happened to your leg?" asked Katniss in her same soothing tone.

"I was running through the woods trying to escape one of the tributes, and he tripped behind me. He threw the knife he had in his hands at me and it hit me in the leg," said the girl, trying as hard as she could to keep her voice steady.

"Ok. Well we'll fix it up," said Katniss. The girl nodded and took a deep breath.

I grabbed a bottle of water out of my pack. Katniss took it and used it to clean out the wound. In the meantime, I went and found some herbs that make it sting less and remove any infection. I gave them to Katniss.

"Chew these up and then apply them to the wound," I said, and Katniss did as I asked without questioning it.

Cat reached into my bag and got out a piece of fabric.

"My brother told me about this thing where you wrap fabric around the wound and then tighten it and keep it in place with a stick, called a tourniquet," she said, picking up a decent stick as she did so and handing it to Katniss.

Katniss nodded and put made a tourniquet on the girl's leg.

The girl sighed with the relief as some of the pain went away from the herbs.

"So, what's your name?" asked Jade, her usually harsh voice unusually soft.

"Amelia Harris," said the girl, who I now knew as Amelia.

Andre POV

We continued running until we couldn't move because we were so exhausted. I had given up hope. I didn't think we would find Amelia.

Suddenly, I heard voices.

"What's your name?"

It was a soft voice, yet it had an edge to it. I could tell it was a female voice. I think the others heard it too, because no one moved a muscle.

"Amelia Harris," came the reply.

Without realizing I was running into a group of enemy tributes, I sprung up from my spot in the direction of the voices.

As soon as I stepped into their view, the three oldest girls jumped up and stood in front of Amelia and two other little girls.

Beck and the others soon came to join me. The look on the girl with a bow and arrow's face softened immediately as she saw Peeta.

"Peeta?" she asked, almost in disbelief.

Beck gasped, realizing who she was.

"Katniss…" Beck whispered.

The two other girls' expressions remained cold as steel.

"You touch any of these girls, you die," said the one with black hair.

I saw Amelia peek out from behind the girl who I perceived to be Katniss.

"Andre!" she cried, running and jumping into my arms. I dropped my knife and held her close to me, swearing over and over never to let her leave my sight.

The others looked on a bit confused.

"Hey…you two are the brother and sister from District 5 aren't you?" asked the girl with brunette hair that stood in front of a little girl with red hair.

I nodded and set Amelia down.

I noticed that the girls' weapons were still poised and ready to shoot.

"We're not going to hurt you," said Robbie from behind me.

"Promise?" asked the girl with red hair behind the girl with brunette hair.

"Promise," we all echoed.

Reluctantly, one by one, the girls dropped their weapons.

Almost immediately, Katniss leapt into Peeta's arms. They were the "star-crossed lovers" after all.

"Please don't leave me," said Katniss into Peeta's shoulder, sounding like she was on the verge of tears.

Peeta held her even tighter and promised he wouldn't.

Finally Katniss stepped back, and we introduced ourselves.

"I'm Jade. This is Rue," said the girl I presumed to be Jade. She moved out of the way to reveal a small girl, who I recognized as the 12 year old from District 11.

"I'm Tori. This is Cat," said the brunette, aka Tori. A girl who looked to be about Amelia's age stepped in front of Tori. She was the redhead.

"I'm Katniss, if it isn't obvious," said Katniss. I smiled.

"Obviously I'm Andre and he's Peeta," I said, nodding in Peeta's direction.

"I'm Beck," Beck said. "Katniss, I'm an old friend of Gale's."

Katniss half-smiled as she seemed to remember Gale was back at home, watching her in these Games.

"I've heard lots about you," she said. Beck smiled.

"I'm Robbie," said Robbie. Everyone sort of muttered their hellos.

"So…are we just gonna be a group of 10 now, or…?" asked Katniss hesitantly. Peeta was the first to nod and agree.

"Alright," said Jade.

We sat down on the ground sort of awkwardly, not knowing where to go from here, since we were pretty bored and there was no action going on.

Tori POV

Night was almost here, and there was little light left.

"We already agreed that Jade and Katniss were going to take first watch when we go to sleep. Which of you boys are taking watch with them?" I asked, knowing at least two boys should take watch too.

Robbie and Peeta raised their hands.

"Alright then," I said. I got out the 3 sleeping bags we had. That meant we had three sleeping bags for the 6 people that were going to sleep.

In a total of 10 minutes, we were arranged and ready for the night. Our packs were being held worn by Peeta and Jade. Robbie, Peeta, Jade, and Katniss each sat on the limb of a tree.

Andre and Amelia, Beck and Cat, and Rue and I were in the three sleeping bags, strapped onto limbs just below the other four.

"Wake us if you get tired," said Beck.

"Will do," replied Peeta and Jade. "Goodnight."

We all chorused our replies and I shut my eyes.

I had a sense of security, knowing Rue was lying next to me. I don't know why. I just did.

Before I could feel scared again, I drifted into a light but satisfying sleep.

A/N: Yay, no one dies today! Well no one in the "groups".

So…yeah. Hope you liked this! Another chapter coming tonight/tomorrow. Not sure when. I'm also not sure how long this is going to end up being.

I will tell you only one thing about the next chapter. There will be a death within the group.

Review please!