Hi everyone! I know it has been forever and a day since I last updated. Between school and work, I have just been so busy and tired that I haven't had time to write! Anyway, I am really sorry that you guys have been waiting for so long for Chapter 11. As usual, a huge thanks to Artemis Rose for editing my chapter. You rock, love! Anyway, I hope you enjoy. I don't know when I'll be able to update again, it just depends on my schedule. Please be patient with me, I will update as soon as I can. Anyway, here is Chapter 11. I hope you enjoy! :)

Chapter 11

As I look around the arena, I see the other tributes preparing to run towards the Cornucopia. We have one minute, only sixty seconds, to decide what we are going to do. Run into the bloodbath, or run away from it. Those are our options.

I take in the arena. There is a flat plain, with grains and grasses that are tall, almost as tall as me. Next to the Cornucopia there is a lake. I'm hoping that isn't the only source of water; that would be horrible. Finally, I turn my head, and in my peripheral vision I see a forest behind me.

"Yes!" I think. "Katniss has got this!"

Katniss, the forest has brought my mind back to her. I scan the circle for Katniss, praying that she isn't on the side of the Cornucopia that is obscured from my view. Finally I see her, a little ways to my right. But she's not looking at the forest, planning her escape. No, she's looking quizzically at the Cornucopia, as if deciding whether or not to run into the bloodbath.

"No!" I think. She can't do that. Why would she? Then I see it, right at the mouth of the golden horn, lies a bow. That's what she wants. But I know that she doesn't stand a chance. By the time she gets there and grabs it, the other tributes will be there, and ready to slaughter her. Yet, we both know the bow is her best chance of survival. Still, she would never make it out of the bloodbath, and then my whole plan is done. She won't come home, and I probably won't survive the day.

As Katniss stands on her circle, thinking, I try desperately to get her attention, without drawing notice to myself. That task proves extremely difficult. I can't jump and call out to her, but I also can't let her essentially commit suicide. Just when I'm thinking she won't notice me and is going to run to the Cornucopia, I see her eyes turn in my direction. I look at her, and shake my head, trying to tell her the bow isn't worth it. She could probably make one, or some other weapon, and would have a better chance of winning the Games than if she ran to the horn.

As I stand there shaking my head, I see the confusion spread across her face, like she doesn't know what I'm trying to tell her. Then the gong sounds. Katniss lunges forward but stops suddenly. As much as I want to see what happens to her, I have to get out of there myself. I run towards the forest.

As soon as I'm at the edge of the trees, I crouch behind a bush, and watch. I'm hoping I'm well hidden enough to not be spotted by those taking part in the gory scene happening before my eyes. I search the bloodbath for Katniss, and I can't find her. I continue looking, my hope dwindling with every second I don't see her. Finally, just as I'm about to accept defeat, I see a girl with a braid and an orange backpack running into the trees at my right. It's unmistakably Katniss. My heart lightens. My girl is still safe, and I am going to try my absolute hardest to save her.

The battle continues in front of me. Axes are hurled, spears are thrown, and swords are stabbed. The repeated cutting of flesh causing lethal injuries. Before long, the ground is soaked with the blood of fallen tributes. The bloodbath goes on for what seems like forever. Bodies litter the ground, cold and empty. Finally, as the afternoon sun bakes the arena, the canons go off, signaling the end of the fight.

Eleven booms blast through the arena. Each explosion represents a dead child. With all the murders during the initial battle, it can be hard to keep track of how many blasts are needed, so they always wait until the end.

Once the cannon finishes, I decide that I've wasted enough time in my hiding place. It's time to be a man, and put my plan into action.

I emerge from the bushes, and begin to walk over to the Career pack, as they are dividing up the loot. The remaining group consists of both from One and Two, the girl from Four, and, surprisingly, the boy from Three. I wonder why they let him live. It's abnormal for those outside of the select few who actually train for the Games to make it into the Career pack.

The huge, male tribute from District 2, Cato, I believe his name is, lunges at me with his massive sword.

"Crap!" I think, I'm going to have to think of what to say to him fast, or else I am a goner. I can't save Katniss if I die this early in the Games.

Just as the blond boy is about to reach me, I throw my hands up in a submissive maneuver. Hopefully this will work, and that they will take five minutes to listen to me. I know they believe that I'm a weak and helpless boy from District Twelve; so let them think their assumptions are correct. It could buy me some time.

"Wait!" I call, "you don't want to be killing me."

Cato pauses for a second, looking highly amused as he glances back at the other Careers. They meet his eyes before they all erupt in laughter.

"Well great," I think to myself. I'm done for. I had this whole plan. I was going to save Katniss. But at this rate I'm going to be returning to District Twelve a cold, dead body within the day.

"I think I do want to kill you," I hear Cato say, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I shake my head vigorously, "your loss."

At this, Cato frowns and to my semi-relief, lowers his sword. I see confusion etched on the other Careers' faces, and I think I might just be able to put my plan into action.

"What are you talking about, bakery boy?" Cato asks.

I give my best attempt at a wicked smile, allowing my natural charisma to take over. "I know you want her," I tell him, and pause for a moment to enjoy his dumbfounded expression. I can see he's clearly too moronic to understand, so I decide to help him out a little bit. "Katniss," I finish, trying to make her name sound bitter on my tongue, which is extremely difficult

Cato grins maniacally at her name, and I resist the urge to break his neck then and there. Chances are that if I attempted to do that, he'd kill me before I killed him.

"You offering something, Twelve?" the blond giant asks.

"You bet I am," I respond. "I can take you to her." Cato immediately raises his eyebrows with interest.

"This is going to work," I think. "It has to."

"You know where she is?" calls the blonde female Career from District One. Glimmer, I think her name is.

I nod, "we had a plan to meet up and form an alliance. Well," a smug grin spreads across my face. "That's what I let her believe." I hope my story is good enough for Haymitch.

I see Cato's eyes narrow. "I thought you said you loved her," he practically spits.

"As if," I try my best attempt at scoffing at the truth he just stated. "That's what I want her to think. It's all part of the plan."

"A plan to kill her?" Cato still looks suspicious. I know I'll have to do better to convince him I want Katniss dead.

"Yeah," I respond, immediately cursing myself for not coming up with a better response. "Yeah?" I think. "Really Peeta? You couldn't do better than 'yeah?'"

I look up at Cato, expecting him to laugh in my face before delivering my deathblow, only to see that he is grinning from ear to ear. I resist the urge to blink, as well as the one to laugh at him. Does he seriously buy it? Wow, that was easier than I thought it would be. He must be dumber than I initially believed.

However, my relief quickly becomes short lived, as the brown haired girl from Two speaks up. Clove, I remember Caesar calling her.

"Seriously?" she calls. "You're going to believe that?"

Cato looks back at her, a frown taking over his mouth. "Why not?" he asks. "What do we have to lose? If he's lying, we can always kill him. There's one of him and six of us. It couldn't hurt."

"Yeah," Glimmer speaks again. "But what if he's leading us into a trap?"

Cato shrugs, "so? We still outnumber them. I'm not afraid of the stupid 'Girl on Fire!'" Cato uses air quotes as he says Katniss' nickname.

"You should be," I think. But I remain silent; I can't give myself away yet.

Clove rolls her eyes. "Whatever. But don't say we didn't warn you."

Cato turns back to me then. "Alright, Twelve. You got a deal. Lead us to that bitch, and we won't kill you…yet."

I nod. "Understood," I tell him.

"Good," he responds, and leads me back to the others. "Well, since you're going to be around for a while, do you know everyone?" he asks.

"Two seconds ago, he was ready to kill me. Now he's making sure I know his buddies. What's up with that?" I think, before responding aloud. "I know most of their names. I'm blanking on the ones from Three and Four."

"I'm Nishell," the girl from Four pipes up.

"And I'm Newton," the boy from Three tells me.

I nod at both of them. "Peeta," I say.

"Yeah, we know," Nishell replies with an air of superiority.

"Great," I think. "Just what I want to deal with, spoiled, little brats."

"Sit down, Lover Boy," Cato instructs. "We were just going over the spoils."

As it turns out, most of the other surviving tributes didn't make it away with much. What the pack has left consists of a huge amount of weapons, everything from knives and swords, to axes and spears. They even have Katniss' bow. I hope I have the opportunity to get it to her before I am killed, so that she will stand a chance. Other than the weapons, there is a mountain of food. Dried fruit and meat, nuts, fresh produce, grain, oil. There are even bottles of water, in addition to the iodine we can use to purify the water we find in the arena.

"How are we going to protect this?" I ask. "We can't exactly just leave it out in the open."

Cato smiles, "that's why Newt is here, right, buddy boy?"

"Right," Newt says.

"So what's the plan?" the boy from District One, Marvel, asks.

Newt smiles, "I'm going to reset the mines."

"Excuse me?" Cato scoffs. "That's impossible. They're disabled after sixty seconds."

Newt smiles again. "Yes, they are. But I'm from Three, electricity, remember? I know how to reengage them."

"No way!" Marvel sounds impressed.

Cato lets out a laugh, "that's freaking awesome!"

"Glad you think so," Newt says.

Glimmer still looks skeptical. "You sure you can do this?"

"Absolutely," he responds. "First things first, though. We need to get all the supplies together in one location, so I can activate the mines around the provisions, without activating the ones that they rest on."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Clove asks, a snobby tone in her voice.

Newt looks at her, "I'm open to ideas. I can work with pretty much whatever you guys decide."

"There's not really anywhere to hide anything out here," Nishell points out.

"We shouldn't hide it in the Cornucopia," Cato decides. "The mines don't go that far, right?"

Newt thinks for a moment. "There are probably some. The whole arena is rigged. But that's really more so the Gamemakers can use them if they need to."

"Where do you think they will be safest?" I ask Newt, hoping that we can get this all sorted out sooner, rather than later.

Newt takes another moment to think. "My best bet is near the tribute entrances. Those are usually the most powerful mines."

"Okay," Cato nods. "Let's pile it all up near the discs."

There is a murmur of agreement from the rest of the pack, and we begin to move the massive amount of stuff. It takes hours to get it all situated. Not only do we have to get it all to the entrances, but we have to arrange it just so, to ensure that nothing will topple off the pyramid and set off the mines. The boys have to lift the girls, to get some of the lighter items on top. By the time we have finished, it is just after dusk, and the darkness is encasing the arena.

"Should that be okay?" Marvel asks, as soon as everything has been stacked.

"This is perfect," Newt replies. "Now I just need to activate the mines."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" I ask.

Cato laughs, "we're not going to help. We need to go hunt."

I look at him, "There are six of us. Not all of us need to go. If Newt needs help, shouldn't we make sure he gets it? This is going to benefit all of us."

"Look, Lover Boy," Cato starts. "Just because I let you live does not mean you can get smart with me. I can kill you any time I want."

I nod. I need to not let my temper get the best of me. I just need to protect Katniss, and picking a fight with Cato is no way to do that.

"Now," Cato begins. "While Newt sets up the mines, the rest of us are going to go hunting. So, everyone, grab what you need, and a couple of torches so we can get out of here."

As I go to the pile and grab a sword, I see Newt kneeling near one of the discs, digging. "You sure you're okay here, alone?" I ask, in a whisper.

He smiles at me. "I'll be fine. This is what I've been trained for in Three."

I nod at him, "if you're sure."

"I'm completely sure."

"Lover Boy! Let's go!" Cato shouts.

"Now go," Newt tells me. "Before the giant vein in Cato's temple explodes."

I chuckle, and leave. I feel bad. I like Newt, but he is going to have to die if Katniss is going to make it home alive.

"You ready?" Cato asks. We all nod. "Great. Clove, Marvel, carry the torches. Now let's go get some tributes."

We head out into the forest. As we walk, I take in what weapons the other tributes selected. Cato, obviously picked a sword, as did Nishell, and Clove has quite a selection of knives in her jacket. Marvel grabbed some spears, and Glimmer…I'm shocked at what Glimmer picked. She grabbed Katniss' bow. I take a deep breath. They don't know that Katniss is good with a bow and arrow, and I have no desire to clue them into that information.

Right as we enter the tree line, Cato turns to me. "So, Lover Boy, when were you supposed to meet up with her?"

I meet his eyes, "Sometime between tomorrow night and day four. Don't worry, I remember our deal."

It's almost ironic how quickly the anthem begins to play. It seems that no sooner have the words left my lips than the faces of the eleven dead tributes light up the sky.

The dead include the girl from Three, the boy from Four, the boy from Five, both from Six and Seven, the boy from Eight, both from Nine, and the girl from Ten. Katniss is alive.

"Looks like you both made it through today," Glimmer says, her voice annoyingly superior.

I smile, "one of the few days that will be." I hope that my acting is good enough and they will buy it.

Cato chuckles, but his expression quickly turns serious. "How will you know where to find her?"

"She'll be leaving me clues," I tell him. "She's leading me to her. That's also how she's telling me when she's ready to meet me."

Cato nods, "Okay, we can stick to your original plan. I hope you know, Lover Boy, that if you're lying, or she lied to you, you're not going to live to see day three."

I nod, "I know."

"Oh, no," I think. I can't save her if they kill me. Maybe I should run for it at some point tomorrow? But that might defeat the whole purpose of teaming up with the Careers. I can only hope that my acting holds up, and I can convince them that Katniss is sending me signals to meet up later, or something.

We continue to trek through the forest, oddly enough not running into any tributes.

"Anyone know what happened to Thresh?" I ask.

"Went to the field," Marvel answers. "Only one who did, too."

"We'll deal with him later," Cato cuts in. "For now, let's just focus on the kids who are in here."

After we have been running around for an hour or so, Cato begins to get angry. We have seen nothing but animals, and I know his patience is wearing thin. He has a thirst for blood and needs it quenched. I'm worrying that he will choose to take his anger out on me when we see it. A fire.

"Yes," Cato says in a hushed tone, and begins to run towards the flames. We all take off after him, and soon, we are face to face with the girl from District Eight.

"Hi there," Cato smiles, mocking her.

"Please," she begs, her small voice tugging at my heartstrings. "Please, don't."

Cato smirks at her, "sorry, honey, but this is how the Hunger Games work." And he stabs her.

Her scream pierces the near silence of the night, causing me to become emotional. Here is this little girl who had her whole life ahead of her, and now she's lost it because the odds were not in her favor. But I can't do anything about it, I just have to stand and watch, because Katniss is the most important thing.

The rest of the group is laughing at the slaughter of the innocent girl, and high fiving Cato for murdering her.

"Twelve down, eleven to go," Cato shouts. "Let's look at the loot."

They quickly look around to see what she has, but it's only a water bottle and a pack of dried fruit.

"Oh, come on!" Marvel snorts in annoyance. "This is it?"

"Whatever," Cato says. "Let's keep going. Better clear out so they can get the body before it starts stinking."

As we walk, Marvel realizes something. "Shouldn't we have heard a cannon by now?"

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

"Unless she isn't dead," Clove points out.

Cato looks irritated, "she's dead. I stuck her myself."

"Then where's the cannon?" Marvel asks.

"Someone should go back. Make sure the job's done," Clove suggests.

"Yeah," Glimmer agrees. "We don't want to have to track her down twice."

Cato is enraged now, "I said she's dead!"

The others try to reason with him, while he continues to insist that the girl is dead, despite the lack of cannon. Finally, I just can't take it anymore.

"We're wasting time!" I stop the argument. That poor little girl is out there suffering, and I can't bear to make her sit in agony anymore. "I'll go finish her and let's move on!"

I turn back towards where we came and jog off to put the little girl out of her misery.

Thanks for reading. I would really love to know what you think. Any and all reviews are welcomed, and I would love to hear from you all.