I don't waste any time watching the now empty tube and turn around to head back to the hovercraft immediately. Thankfully, the hovercraft has screens on which the games can be followed. As soon as I'm sat down, my eyes are glued to the screen, anxiously looking for Dustin.

The area around the tributes and the cornucopia is a light shade of brown, but I can't really make out where exactly they are, since the camera is still focused on the cornucopia and tributes. But then the gong announces the start of the game and the camera zooms out, revealing a vast area of sand. A desert. They can't possibly be in a desert!

The bloodbath is exactly what it's name suggests, as tributes are being killed by the second. Dustin has managed to grab a bag and two swords, using it to fight off the boy from District 10.

"Come on, Dustin," I whisper frantically. "Don't waste your time fighting him now. Get out of there."

I suddenly remember Jean, the 'other tribute from 7', and try to find her in the mass of fighting children but there's too much chaos and blood to really recognize anyone, apart from Dustin of course.

The hovercraft lands but I don't get off as long as the bloodbath is going on. Too much can happen now so I'd rather wait until night has fallen and most of the tributes are asleep to get back to the monitor room.

My eyes are glued on Dustin's figure the entire time. He's doing well fighting off other tributes before deciding it's been enough and running away from the cornucopia towards … nothing. There's nothing to run to. Absolutely nothing. Nowhere to hide. Why the hell would the gamemakers design an arena like this? The tributes will be dead within the first couple of days!

I take the hovercraft phone from the wall and call the monitor centre.

"District 7," I bark at the Capitolian who picked up after the first ring.

"Right away, miss Mason," he says.

"Johanna," I hear Darren's voice say with a sigh.

"A desert!" I screech into the horn. "A friggin' desert!"

"Calm down."

"Calm down? When's the last time they used a desert as the arena?"

"I don't know," Darren replies, sounding somewhat defeated. "But this is designed by the gamemakers. I'm sure they made a few adjustments to it."

"Adjustments," I scoff. "As if this arena in itself isn't deadly enough already."

"Dustin will manage, Johanna," Darren tries to comfort me. "By the way, where are you?"

"I'm in the hovercraft," I say, not taking me eyes of the screen.

"Still?"

"Yeah, we've already landed though, I just can't leave right now."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to miss anything."

"Johanna, we need you here."

I roll my eyes at the phone in my hand. "You'll manage."

"I know. But you won't."

"What do you mean?" I sigh.

"You'll have to leave at some point."

"Yeah, I know. Listen, I'll get there eventually, okay?"

"If you say so."

I hang up as soon as I see Dustin change his tactics. For some reason he's emptying his backpack and then throwing it all away. Why the hell would he do this? This isn't what I had in mind. I should've discussed this with him, but no, I was too busy getting into his pants to really get to the how-to-survive-in-the-arena part. Why didn't we talk about this?

I reach for the phone again but then decide it's better to just go to back to the monitor room in the training centre instead of yelling at Darren over the phone.

"Is the car here?" I ask the pilot before getting of the hovercraft.

"Yes, ma'am."

I get into the car as fast as possible and start urging the chauffeur to drive faster immediately.

"No can do, miss Mason. There's a thing called speed limit –"

"You can shove your stupid speed limit up your ass if you don't take me back to the training centre right now!"

The chauffeur sighs and I can see him roll his eyes at me through the mirror. "Well, you're nothing if not direct. Right away, miss Mason. Anything else? Maybe a coffee for the way? A sedative?"

"Oh drop the attitude, will you?"

The driver is silent for the rest of the ride, except for his extremely polite goodbye when he drops me off at the training centre.

I run through the giant hall to get to the elevators – the monitor room is in the basement – but I bump into Snow's nephew. I don't have time for this.

"Johanna! What a pleasure running into you!"

I really don't have time for this.

"Hey there," I say, already taking a few steps towards the elevator. Very subtle, Jo.

"How are you, love? Shouldn't you be in the monitor room?"

I motion towards the elevator. "I'm actually on my way."

He looks confused. "But, where did you come from?"

"I dropped off Dustin, at the arena," I reply, raising my voice a bit at the end.

"But isn't that the escort's job, or the stylist's?"

Oh shit. This could go wrong in so many ways. Why didn't I just stick to the plan and let Chadara take him.

"Yeah, I know, but Chadara was feeling a bit under the weather and well, I volunteered to take her place," I ramble. "I mean, if she's not feeling well she should rest a bit instead of taking a flight on a hovercraft. She's so fragile."

I try to give him my best puppy eyes and smile and apparently it's working, since he's almost tearing up. "Oh Johanna, I knew you were a softie at heart. You're just like me, tough exterior but when it comes down to it…"

Yeah right, just like him. But I just keep smiling, you never know he might throw in some extra cash. I have the feeling Dustin will be needing it, considering he's being a total idiot in the arena.

"Right, well, I really need to go now so if you'll excuse me," I say with my brightest smile and cheeriest voice.

"Oh yes, go ahead. Go District 7!"

Yes, go District 7.

"What the hell is he doing?" I fume when I enter the monitor room and see Darren looking intently at the screen focused on Dustin.

"I have no idea," he replies slowly.

"This is absurd! How does he expect us to help him if we don't even know what his next move is going to be! He's totally unpredictable! Decisions like this could kill him," I say furiously.

Darren suddenly looks up at me with a grin on his face. "You do realize you were just like him, right? Unpredictable?"

"That is not the point!" I almost yell. My unpredictability was a good kind of unpredictability. One that kept me alive.

"Jean's not doing great, by the way," Darren says, now looking at the other screen.

"What's happened?"

"She's hurt. The girl from District 1 got to her. She got out of the bloodbath though, but…"

I glance at the District 1 cubicle and see Cashmere grinning at me.

"Is she going to make it?" I ask Darren.

"No, not without sponsorships. And even if we do send her a medicine, I doubt she would –"

"Then we ignore it," I cut him off mid-sentence.

"What?"

I close my eyes for a brief moment. "There can only be one Victor, and we both know it's not going to be her. Ignore it, and keep the money for when Dustin needs it."

"She's only thirteen."

I look at Darren. Even years of mentoring cannot train you for the emotional breakdown you get every time you have to give up a tribute.

"When she dies, it's on me," I offer, a desperate attempt to take away his guilt. And honestly, it's really going to be on me. I made the call. My decision. My sacrifice.