I am in a dream again. This is a forest excreting blood instead of sap. I am also losing my teeth at a ridiculous rate. This is a horrible dream. I want to wake up!

Gods, it's getting worse! Starkhunds are crawling out of the trees and chasing me. I'm getting slower whilst they are getting faster. I'm going to die!

Agh! Awake again. Cariah has gone from the bush, so I peek out. She's cooking the nightlock from yesterday, with a corpse, no less.

'Hi, Johanna,' she says, 'want to dine with this chap? He is the Crazy who tried to kill us.'

'Oh, Volneon!' I yell and puke in the bush, 'What the HELL did you do to him?!'

'Stabbed him in the neck during the night after sneaking to where he was and removing his tracker.'

So THAT'S why I wasn't woken up in the night from a cannon.

'How did you rid him off the tracker?' I ask, possibly regretting that.

'I sliced open his upper arm and took it out with my bare hands.' Cariah replies.

Yup. I regret asking. I end up puking in the bush again, feeling worse than before.

'Now,' Cariah says, 'let's replant the tracker.'

Cariah forces the tracker back in the dry but gaping wound.

Boom!

The cannon I was supposed to hear from last night finally goes off.

I eat the cooked nightlock berries she made, which actually taste sweet, and then we hike once again. We go the opposite direction we were going before, returning to the city.

'There is only ten tributes left, you know, including us.' Cariah says with a smile, 'Our chances of survival are rising.'

'Well, yeah,' I reply, 'but there are still eight other people alive in this arena. The city may not be as safe as we think.'

'At least there is no bloodbath.'

'True, but look over there.'

I point to two tributes fighting. One of them is an aggressive fighter armed with twin knives obviously taken from somebody else, a Crazy, I think, and... John?

John uses his axe to cut off the Crazy's arms and then her head. Boom!

'Well, look who we have here!' He yells, 'it's the slummie who ran away from the Cornucopia like the wuss that she is.'

'I was afraid, okay?' I reply, trying to keep up my persona.

'Oh look, you have a Career as your partner. Maybe she's so crap that the other Careers disowned her. I'm surprised she's still alive.

'Now I know why you hate him.' Cariah whispers into my ear, 'What a dick.'

'Anyway, there are six other people left in this arena. Can I be an ally to help you with surviving?'

'How about no, John?'

'What, it's not like the slummie going to do anythi-'

I behead him with my axe. He was being a dickweed.

'What the hell, Johanna!?' Cariah says in shock.

'Well,' I reply, 'looks like my cover is blown.'