AUTHOR'S NOTE: I did it! I fulfilled one of my promises :D three chapters uploaded in one night. Now that I'm all wrote out, I hope you enjoy it~

Gaius took Freya and Merlin to the helicopter, where all the tributes were getting onto. Once on the helicopter, the tributes were injected with trackers. Merlin winced when he got his, but he couldn't help the jab of pain that shot through him when the tracker was forced into his body.

The ride was very short and must've only taken a few minutes. When they landed, the tributes were hoarded out and taken to their respective tubes to go into the arena.

Ata, Merlin's stylist, looked at Merlin's outfit before he got on the tube. It was an all black outfit that suggested two different extremes.

"Your uniform for the arena is really strange," Ata commented. "There's the jacket, which makes me think you're going into a cold climate. It's like a long trenchcoat and it traps in heat. But your shirt and pants practically let heat escape, so that makes it seem like you're going into a hot climate. And your boots are made for long walks. And, of course, you have your scarf token..."

Merlin nodded at Ata's words. "So, I'm going into a really hot and really cold area?" Merlin asked.

"That seems about right," Ata assured him. Merlin gave her a forced smile and left to go to his tube. The tube sealed around him when he walked inside and the tube lifted him upwards.

Merlin reached open air and looked around him. He knew he couldn't step off just yet else the bombs will explode around him. So instead he looked for Freya. He thought he saw her outline coming up from the tube directly across of him, but he couldn't be sure. But he did feel extreme heat on his back. And, of course, the cornucopia right in front of him.

Merlin looked at the items scattered around it. There was a large pink backpack near the outside of the pile, somewhat close to him. Near that was a dagger. That's when Merlin noticed that the ground was a mixture of sand and grass. What type of arena is this? Merlin thought to himself as the countdown got closer to zero.

Closing his eyes and counting the beeps, Merlin took a deep breath. When the countdown reached zero and there was a shot sounding for them to go, Merlin rushed forward. He needed the backpack and the dagger.

Merlin reached the backpack without a problem, noticing fights starting all around him. He had the single-strap backpack slung around his shoulder and was about to dive for the dagger when a boy the age of twelve with black hair and piercing blue eyes grabbed it first. He threatened Merlin with the dagger, but Merlin could see that the boy didn't really want to hurt him. Merlin put his hands up in submission and backed up, showing he meant the boy no harm. They shared eye contact for a short moment before the boy turned around and ran for the other side of the cornucopia. Merlin turned around and ran for the scalding heat he had felt on his back.

Merlin ran and ran into the desert until he found a large overhanging of rocks that could conceal him very well. It was there that he stopped and took off his jacket. He was sweating from the crazy heat and the running he'd endured. Merlin put his jacket on the ground and sat on his jacket so he wouldn't have to sit on the sand. Then he took out his bag and looked into it's contents.

It had an empty water bottle, two water purifiers, crackers, dried meat, rope, some knives, and a water bottle that had water in it. The water was hot by then, but Merlin gulped it all down greedily, then realized that he hadn't seen any source of water since he ran into the desert. How would he get water necessary for survival?

Merlin shook his head and snacked on a little bit of the crackers. There was still light in the day, so he decided to go find a water source.

Merlin put his jacket in the bag and carried his bag with him as he walked around. Merlin had strapped a knife to his right boot with the rope for easy access and had another one on his pants. He had to be prepared, after all.

Suddenly, Merlin heard the cannon shots that they reserved until the bloodbath was over. There were only six. So a lot of people survived the bloodbath. That rarely ever happened.

Merlin wondered if Freya was one of the six, then shook his head. Of course she wasn't. Freya was still alive. She had to be. And Merlin had to find her somehow.

While Merlin walked, he came back to the cornucopia. He heard the voices of Arthur, a woman, and boy with a very deep voice. Merlin snuck away from the cornucopia and hoped they hadn't heard him. He followed the point of the cornucopia's tail and realized something: on his right side he felt extreme heat, and his left extreme cold. So the clothing was in good manner. A desert on one side of the cornucopia and a tundra on the other. Two extremes, no water anywhere.

It took Merlin a few minutes before he found the lake. It was on the desert half of the arena. He filled his two water bottles with the water and went back to the hiding spot he'd chosen in the desert.

By the time he got back it was night time, and he wasn't sure whether he could trust the water or not, so he poured the contents of one water bottle into a purifier and decided he needed a way to test the water in the other bottle without drinking it tomorrow.

The Captiol anthem started playing and Merlin looked up. They were about to announce who all died.

The female from District One, the girl from six, the girl and boy from seven, the girl from nine, and the girl from ten. Freya was not one of the people in the sky, and Merlin was glad. The boy who'd tried to kill Arthur was one of the faces up there, however. Merlin didn't want to say he deserved it, but he knew it was a safer place for Arthur now that he'd gone.

Merlin shook his head, lay down on his jacket, and let the heat of the desert serve as his blanket through the night.