That night I slept fitfully, falling asleep, than waking up again, and repeating the process more times than I can count. When the sun begins to rise, I'm grateful to have an excuse to get up. I consider pulling my hair back, but at the last moment decide to leave it down. It doesn't make a difference what I look like to the cameras of Panem.

I unzip the tent flap and grab some of the beef jerky out of the remaining food bag. After a while of waiting I go into Cato's tent and shake his arm, eventually just kicking him, until he wakes up.

Four tributes left, not counting us. Time to start searching. "Get up", I tell him. He does and I survey the arena. I'd like to keep searching for Katniss, and it's likely Lover Boy and District 5 are in there too. Still, my gaze keeps being drawn in by the wheatfield, innocently blowing in the wind. I'm almost certain we should take the offensive and go in there to find Thresh.

"Let's try over there today", I point it out to him. "Who would hide in a wheatfield?" I'm about to answer when he says, "And besides, I would have thought you'd want to find District 12". He's right, I do. I want her to die a slow death at my hands. If only for killing so many of us, so easily it seems. Glimmer, Four, probably Marvel too, have all been killed by her hands.

So, against my better judgement, I agree. We head for the river this time, searching for any tribute we can, but most especially her. If we're lucky we'll find Lover Boy, who quite frankly, I'm amazed has hung on this long. But though we search for hours, we find no one. The sun starts to set in the sky and I say, "We should head back. There's no one out here". He agrees and we go back to camp.

After a dinner of crackers and apples, which was hardly enough, I lie down on the ground to watch the Capitol seal appear in the sky. No new deaths. Not a surprise considering that none of the other tributes have really been playing on the offensive. From what I can tell, they're mostly just trying to outlast the others. As the Capitol anthem stops playing, a voice is broadcast.

Claudius Templesmith, saying, "Congratulations, remaining tributes, for your success thus far in the games. I would like to announce a rule change in the Games! Under this new rule both tributes from the same district will be allowed to win! I repeat, both tributes from the same district will be allowed to win if they are the last two remaining".

I freeze. I replay what he just said in my mind to make sure he really said it. Up until now, the thought that I'd have to kill Cato at some point, or break the alliance and hope for someone else to get him has never left my head. But now I don't need to worry about that apparently.

I cast my eyes over to where he sits and find him standing back. "So I guess we're really allies now", I say without thinking. "So it would seem", he says. I stand to dampen out the fire and say, "I'm going to sleep", turning to go back to my tent.

I do my usual routine of tucking away the food and zipping the tent, but tonight I leave the second flap down, allowing the sky to be visible through the mosquito netting. And I realize that not once since I've gotten picked at the reaping have I looked at the sky and seen the stars. That night, I dream. For the first time in what feels like years, I dream, of floating in the velvety blue sky among the stars.

I'm not sure if it was the dream that caused my deep sleep or the fact that I was incredibly tired, but the next morning I find it's me being shaken awake. I blink blearily, and my eyes try to focus on Cato's face above mine.

"Okay, sorry. I'm awake", I say, unusually calm for having been woken up. I hate being woken up; I'm not a morning person. I step out of the tent, pulling on my boots. I yawn, before munching down on the apple, our last. "We should really try to find food today". "Where?" he asks. "You know, hunt", I sigh.

I've never hunted before in my life, but we only have a bit of beef jerky and an a loaf of bread left. I consider the available weapons we have left. A bow and arrow would be best, but those were probably removed from the arena on Glimmer's body.

"And we'll have to make snares, too". Luckily, I remember how to do this from the training sessions back in the Capitol. I grab my pack and fill the water bottle with water from the lake and put a few drops of iodine in. I take along the beef jerky and the bread too. No point in having that stolen as well.

We head up the mountain just off the river, figuring that that's probably the best place to wait for passing animals going to get water. I set up a few snares along one side and Cato goes along the other. Since there's nothing to do now but wait, I pull off my jacket and sit by the side of the river with my feet in the water. The day's swelteringly hot.

Eventually, he comes and sits next to me. Both of us have our weapons still, and I know that if anyone were to come and find us; Thresh, Katniss, even Five, we'd be unprepared. But just for a moment, I let all of it go out of my head and try to enjoy the feeling of the cold water.

Peacefulness, isn't something many tributes would say they felt in the arena, but this comes as close as anything. In a sudden burst of longing for normality, I cast my eyes to Cato to make sure he's distracted and kick my legs through the water, splashing him thouroughly. He raises his eyebrows as if asking, "Are you sure you want to start this?" and sends a huge splash, soaking through my shirt and pants, which I've cuffed up.

We go on with our water battle for a while, when a twig snaps in the distance. We both stop, alert. I grab for my knife, which I foolishly left abandoned. I haul myself out of the water and realize we must look like complete idiots to the rest of Panem. It's easy to forget the cameras are there, until you see them hiding in trees, poking out of rocks in the ground and suddenly you're very self aware.

I turn and see Cato standing on the side of the river. I can't help laughing, he looks so ridiculous. Soaked wet, hair all messed. I imagine I don't look much better myself though. And suddenly we're both laughing hard as we pull on our boots and I put on my jacket.

I yank my hair back from my face to stop the droplets of water from dripping in my eyes. "Come on", I laugh, before finally making myself stop and take notice of my surroundings. We're in the woods with at least three people out there who want to kill us (I don't count Lover Boy).

And anyone of them could be anywhere. They could be watching us right now. Those thoughts make me straighten up and make an effort to walk quietly. I check the snares in the woods on the side of the river and find I've caught a rabbit. Not bad. Cato's got a squirrel in one of his, so we tromp back down the mountain as I realize the day's passed by quickly. The sun's quickly going down, about to start setting.

I skin the rabbit, then the squirrel, to make it clean for eating, and then roast them over the small fire we've made. We share them, and have a slice of bread each as well. Our clothes have mostly dried by now and as I push a strand of still damp hair back from my face, I consider that Cato and I could be friends