Clove I

I am awakened by a gentle shove, and I swing my legs off of the cot and tackle the tribute before I realize that it's Marina.

"Knife away from the throat," she says. "It's your watch." I get off of her and take my place outside the tent.

The sky isn't even that dark, dark enough to know it's night, but it's just a dim blue-gray. I scan the edge of the forest first, then look at the gaps between the trees for a glimpse of flickering orange. Finding none, I go to the other side of the tent and perform the same actions there. It's useless, though. No one in their right mind would light a fire now. They would know us Careers are watching for any sign of them.

I drag an empty crate over to the front of the tent and sit down. This is going to be a long two hours, I think.

Somewhere around thirty minutes in, Marina comes out of the tent and pulls up another crate. We sit in silence for a few minutes until I speak.

"It's my watch. And anyway, Marvel's next. You just finished yours."

"Can't sleep," Marina replies. She's staring in the general direction of the forest, but she's not focusing on anything.

"Is it Breck?" I inquire. Cato himself killed Marina's district partner in the bloodbath.

"No." She's quiet for a minute. "It's the Games."

The Games? I know she's going to die—I'm going to win, but why didn't anyone who had a better chance volunteer? I think. Anyone who doesn't want to go into the Games has a volunteer that wants to in my district.

"Just, even though I'm trained, I'm scared," Marina says. "In addition to everyone killing whoever isn't their ally, allies can still turn on you. You could starve. Dehydrate. Get killed by an earthquake or something. Mutts. The arena is made of fear." She's trembling now, on the verge of tears. "I know this sort of talk can get me killed, but I'm dead anyway. It's not like I'm going to win. I don't have a chance."

"Get back in the tent," I snarl. She can't talk like that in the arena! But she'll be dead soon anyway.

She begins to slink back into the tent, but then stops. "We should hunt. It's early enough so the tributes won't expect it."

"Saying that just to cover up your little speech, the one that'll get you killed?" I taunt, but then get serious. "Yes. I did suggest it in the first place, last night."

"I'll wake up Glimmer and Marvel," she says. "And Lover Boy." I can't argue with her and make her wake up Cato; he'll probably snap her neck. I will be able to get away fast enough, or defend myself.

Finch I

I hug my knees to my chest, trying to keep the warmth with me. I have to keep the cold from settling in my bones, otherwise I would freeze.

I try to plan for tomorrow to distract me from the cold. Food, food, how to get food. I know a few edible plants; I should try to find something. As for water, I think the only source is the lake. With the Careers guarding it, it will be nearly impossible to get the water. And forget water purifier, I'll never be able to get that!

My mouth is already dry with thirst, and my stomach is rumbling with hunger. I had eaten a lot in the Launch Room, also drank enough water to sink a ship, but that was yesterday morning. I estimate that it's around four or five a.m. now.

I shiver against the cold. It's settling in my bones, I hope the sun rises soon. I need its warmth. I need its light to find food with.

Light. Not just the sun's light, I need the light of life. I'm half dead here in the cold, starving and thirsty, fingers numb.

I should have run for the Cornucopia, grabbed a blanket or water, then I'd last longer! Huh. I'd been worried about the other tributes killing me mostly, I'd known that these sorts of things can kill me too, but I didn't much expect to be killed by them. At least a knife in the back would have been quick.

I stand on the broad cedar limb to get my body moving again. It's about the fifth or sixth time I've done this tonight, but it does little to improve the temperature. I flex my shoulders and fingers first, then grab at the trunk of the tree so I won't fall as I stretch my legs. Then I sit back down and grit my teeth, waiting for dawn.

Clove II

We enter the forest through a patch of trees that we use for weapons practice. All the trees are scored with slashes from Cato's and Marina's swords, my knives left slitted holes, and there are also larger holes made by Marvel's spears. Glimmer has close to no tiny arrow holes in the trees; she misses most of the time. I wonder why we keep her in the alliance.

We tested the edges of the forest around the dirt plain yesterday afternoon, to see which area we would be able to exit through the most silently. The path we are walking now, the pine needles are less brittle, less likely to snap. Lover Boy and Cato can't really keep quiet though, but we should still be able to find someone.

"Fire!" Marvel stage-whispers. "Over there!"

All six pairs of eyes are drawn to the flicker. Glimmer breaks into a run, and the rest of us follow suit. I hope it's Fire Girl, hope she's idiotic enough, hope that it's her death that will be next. Ha, I imagine. Fire Girl killed because she lit a fire. I like that.

The fire starter has apparently dozed off, but she's awakened by our loud footsteps cracking branches and pine needles.

Cato draws his sword, and the blade glints in the firelight as he advances. The girl, who I now recognize as the one from District Eight—not Fire Girl, sadly—whirls around and backs away, whimpering.

"Don't kill me, please—AARRGH!" She screams as she trips on the rock rim around the fire, falling into the flames. Why can't you be Fire Girl?

Cato moves toward her, and I can tell the only though in his head is, kill, kill, kill. But he doesn't stab her directly, just her leg, deep. That should be painful. But she'll be gone soon. She's just rolling on the ground, moaning. She doesn't have enough energy even to scream.

"Twelve down, eleven to go!" yells Marvel, sure Eight's a goner. We all cheer, but I'm thinking, Including you. I'm winning this thing.

Glimmer checks the girl for supplies, but she doesn't find anything good. A backpack filled with an eaten apple, a bit of string, and some extra kindling. Useless.

We get only a few hundred yards away from the girl's carcass before Marina says, "Shouldn't we have heard a cannon by now?"

"I'd say yes," I add. "Nothing to prevent them from going in immediately."

"Unless she isn't dead," Marvel argues.

"She's dead," Cato says confidently. "I stuck her myself."

"Then where's the cannon?" I challenge defiantly. I'm the only one brave enough to do that.

"Someone should go back. Make sure the job's done," Glimmer interjects.

"Yeah, we don't want to have to track her down twice," says Marvel lazily.

"I said she's dead!" Cato yells.

We all start arguing whether Eight's dead or not, me taking Marina's side. Lover Boy interrupts,

"We're wasting time!" he shouts. "I'll go finish her and let's move on!"

"Go on, then, Lover Boy," Cato urges. "See for yourself."

Once he's out of earshot, Glimmer whispers, "Why don't we just kill him now and get it over with?"

"Let him tag along," Marvel says. "What's the harm? And he's handy with that knife."

Has that District One boy met me? I can best anyone with a knife, I bet I could even beat the victors Enobaria, Aksia, Ellanus, anyone! You just got on my bad side, District One!

"Besides, he's our best chance of finding her." Surprisingly it's Marina, but she's probably still just trying to cover for her rebellious speech.

"Why? You think she bought into that sappy romance stuff?" says Cato.

"She might have," argues Marvel. "Seemed pretty simpleminded to me. Every time I think about her spinning around in that dress, I want to puke."

Me too, I think. "Wish we knew how she got that eleven."

"Bet you Lover Boy knows." It's Glimmer.

I hear the mentioned Lover Boy returning and silence everyone.

"Was she dead?" Cato growls.

"No. But she is now," says Lover Boy. The cannon fires to confirm his words. "Ready to move on?"

We all jog back to the camp, and the sun breaks over the horizon as we arrive.

We got someone before the day even started.

Finch II

I feel myself slipping into a sleepy trance and pinch my thigh to keep me alert. The last thing I need is to succumb to the urge to rest and plummet to the ground, breaking every bone in my body, including my skull and spine. I'd be dead on impact.

I pinch myself at least ten times in the next five minutes. It's harder than ever to stay awake. I've been awake since the night before the arena, it's killing me.

Ha-ha-ha. So funny. 'Killing me'.

Sometime around half an hour later, I hear a distant scream, and flinch at the sudden noise. It's far enough away from me that I don't worry about the Career Pack, and I try to tell myself that it's one less opponent, but I still feel horrible that someone is dying.

It's a few minutes later that there's a cannon, and I inwardly shudder at how long it took. The hovercraft's claw descends around where I estimated it would, and drags up the carcass.

There's a hint of orange-white at the horizon and my head snaps around to stare at it. The sun. It's coming up. I don't tear my gaze away from it's life-giving light until it's too bright to bear. I just sit there smiling slightly as I look down at the cedar wood.

I clench and unclench my fists to get my fingers moving again. I grab the smaller cedar, which is pretty much my ladder to up here, and swing onto it. Where I am to the top of the tree shakes for a few seconds, but then levels out. I breathe out a sigh of relief as I climb downwards.

Due to my exhaustion, it takes longer to get down than it took to get up yesterday. I somehow get it through my muddled head that I should hide my red hair; anyone who's not blind can see it! I climb up the cedar again, but only a few feet high. I went higher because if someone saw broken branches and shoulder height, they would know that I was here. Higher, Careers won't see. I rip out a few small sticks with needles on them and stick them into my hair. I try to make them stick out as haphazardly as possible, so that my shape is less humanoid. If someone were to see my shadow, it would be in the shape of a person. But if I mess up the shape of my shadow, it won't be as noticeable. I learned about this in training; I think it's called 'breaking up your form' or something.

I grab more branches and stick them in my sleeves, the needles hiding my hands. I attempt to put some in a position so that they would cover the gap in between my legs, but there isn't a good angle to do that. I settle for putting some surrounding my head and thrusting upwards, hiding the outline of my head.

When I finish, I get down again and crouch behind a bush. After glancing around for other tributes, paranoid, I get out and make my way stealthily through the forest.

I've been hiking for about forty-five minutes, with constant breaks to rest, when I come across a clearing. At first I plan to skirt around it—the Careers might see me—but then I realize that they shouldn't be anywhere in the area. This is where they were last night. And how do you find a tribute in the middle of the night? They light a fire. I stride into the clearing, search for the remnants of a fire. I see some ash, but the fire is out, dirt kicked over it. But this is good, great actually, I found some ash! I quickly streak it all over my face to hide the light color of my skin; it's pretty much human-only.

Now that I'm sufficiently camouflaged, I should focus on water. Well, purifier first—water's no good when you can't drink it.

An idiotic, foolish plan begins to form in my head. One that'll get me killed for sure.

I'm going to steal from the Careers.

Clove III

Cato, Lover Boy, and I have been combing the woods for an hour and not yet found anyone.

Glimmer and Marvel are taking the east side of the arena; we're taking the west. Marina's guarding our supplies, Lover Boy not being trustworthy enough, and the rest of us wanting to search for tributes.

Cato scores the ground with his sword in frustration. Then he stabs a fir tree.

I aim a knife at a thin branch over Cato's head. It is severed and falls on my district partner.

"You're not helping, Cato," I snarl. "We're tracking here." I stride ahead of him and yank the knife out of the spruce it's embedded in.

Wait, maybe I should have dropped the branch on Lover Boy. He's the one who's being loud here.

Surprisingly, instead of going crazy and destroying more stuff, Cato just nods and keeps walking. Huh.

Finch III

I'm at the edge of the dirt plain, observing their guard system. The girl from Four is guarding the supplies at the moment, and the thought that I'm lucky it isn't one of the District Two tributes crosses my mind.

Just her, between the camp and pile of supplies. Nothing and no one else. I can sneak around to the other side of the pile that she's on, and then find some supplies.

Once I've snuck to what I think the angle is so that I won't be spotted, I begin to mentally make a list of what I need. Water purifier, I need water. A blanket or sleeping bag, to keep warm. Food, I'm starving. Rope, to tie myself in at night so I'll be able to sleep. Oh, and already-purified water is good too. Save me the trouble of trying to get to the lake.

The plain is empty, now's a time as good as ever to make my move. I dart out onto the flatland, and quickly make my way to the pyramid. I find a large green backpack, and I unzip it to find some packs of nuts, pepperoni sticks, rope, two medium containers of water purifier, and an empty water bottle. There's a blanket a yard away, so I grab that and stuff it as quietly as I can into the backpack.

But I'm not quiet enough. The District Four girl must have heard me, and is screaming, "Thief! Thief! Cato! Clove! Glimmer! Marvel! Cato! GET HERE NOW!"

She rushes at me with a drawn sword, but I'm halfway across the plain by now with the backpack. I make it into the cover of the forest and don't stop running despite my fatigue.

Somehow I wind up at the cedar I spent the night in last night. I manage to haul myself up the ladder tree and onto the broad limb of the big cedar.

I dig the rope out of my pack and get it around the branch I'm sitting on. I lay down flat and tie the rope around me, securing myself to the tree.

Sleep comes within five minutes.

Clove IV

"Thief! Thief!" I hear Marina yelling. "Cato! Clove! Glimmer! Marvel! Cato! GET HERE NOW!"

Cato and I wheel around and go at a sprint towards our camp. I get the feeling Lover Boy is following, but I don't really pay attention to him as we charge to the camp to catch the thief. Stealing from the Careers! How dare they?!

We burst out on the flat plain just to see Marina storming furiously out of the woods on the other side.

I know she didn't get the thief from the enraged expression on her face.

"Who was it?" I ask, because if Fire Girl got away, I'm killing Marina myself.

"Don't know. Think it was either of the girls from Five or Eleven," Marina answers. "With any luck, Marvel or Glimmer'll get her. She ran into the area they're patrolling."

"What'd she take?" Cato demands.

"Nothing much; just a backpack. Big green one. I think it had rope and food in it, but no weapons," reports Marina.

I hear footsteps running in our direction. I whirl around, knife ready to throw, but then realize the footsteps belong to Marvel and Glimmer.

"So?" asks Marvel. "Did you get him?"

"Does it look like we got her?" Marina snarls, stabbing her sword into the earth.

Hmm. I wonder if I would be doing that too if I had a sword. It seems like a popular thing to do with that weapon.

"All of us search the part of the forest she went in to," Cato orders, stalking forward with his sword in front of him, determination glinting in his eyes. "No one steals from the Careers. We're gonna find that thief."

We fall into the same wolf-stalking-prey gait, drawing our weapons, intent on bringing the death of the thief.

Whoo, longest chapter yet! How was it? Remember, review—constructive criticism, suggestions, please!