A/N: I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated! I haven't forgotten about this story. I hope you haven't either!

Chapter 11

"Are you sure you don't want me to go in with you?" Arielle asks, peering inside the entrance to the cave.

We'd spent the morning finding food but still had no way access to clean water. We're dehydrated.

I smirk. "And what do you plan on doing in there, Arielle? Politely asking the vines not to strangle us to death?"

She scowls. "Just make it quick, pretty boy."

I laugh. Arielle is the only one who can refer to me by that name and not anger me. I hold my trident out and enter the cave alone. The vines immediately spring forward, but it's not nearly as scary as the last time. I easily slash my trident through their thin, vulnerable forms. I try to cut as many vines as close to their roots as I can. This is difficult, but not impossible and I have some success with it.

The green sludge sprays everywhere, splattering onto my clothes and dripping down my face. I don't realize that some of it has dripped down my cheek and onto my lips until I lick them. The taste is unbearably bitter. All in all, I finish the job relatively fast.

"Come on in! It's got that 'just walked into a house with a home cooked meal' feeling," I call out to Arielle when it's over.

She comes in and wrinkles her nose at the stench. Then she sees me, covered in it and grimaces.

"You're welcome," I say pointedly.

"So now we…"

I nod. "We make the nets."

It takes an awfully long time to teach Arielle how to make the nets I use to fish back at home, and even I have to teach myself how to using the strange vines. Arielle eventually gets the technique down, but her nets aren't good enough. The knots aren't tied tightly, and her handiwork just isn't practiced like mine is. Still, she does offer help since I figure out how to make her hard work pay off by making the necessary adjustments, retying an uneven section here and tightening a section there.

"Are you sure this will work?" Arielle asks, looking at the nets skeptically.

"Positive. I've been making fishing nets out of ropes all the time. We just have to make sure they're big enough to hold people instead of fish. These vines were able to pick me up and throw me across a cave. They can lift a person," I say.

"Well…if you say so."

To make her feel better, I start explaining the mechanics of my traps. How the way we tie the vines will help, how we'll design them to close up and trap a tribute as soon as they walk on it. Arielle feels better by the end of it.

Soon we have a few nets, and then we go to another cave. When Arielle's fingers are sore, she takes a break to hunt for food using my trident. It makes me anxious to be in the cave alone, but we have no choice. We can't run low on food, and anyway I suppose if anyone does come I can throw one of our finished nets at them. We spend the morning like this, moving from cave to cave. Since Arielle has never used a trident before, she doesn't find much food. By the late afternoon my hands are tired, I'm hungry, and worst of all, parched.

We can't stop, though. Now we have to set the traps around the woods. When the evening comes and the island floods the tributes will have to swim to this last island. We try to predict where the tributes will go once they make it here, and hide the traps in the tall grass and leaves.

After we set several traps at the edge of the woods, I venture deeper into the woods. If the tributes miss the traps I already set, then hopefully they'll fall into these. The woods looks the same for a while until I find a lining of bushes. Scattered about them are beautiful white flowers with pointed petals, and a black center. The smell is positively seductive. I begin to daydream about draining the nectar from one. I imagine it tastes like honey…

I shudder. I have to get away from here. These are definitely flowers that were genetically modified by the Capitol; the scent is way too powerful to be anything else. They're most likely poisonous. I turn to go back where I came from.

That's when a bright, shimmering orange powder bursts out of one of the flowers and into my face.

As soon as I inhale it, the effect is instantaneous. The powder burns my skin. I move my hands to cover my face, but then my hands start burning too. I fall to my knees, my vision blurred. The world is spinning and my head is searing in pain. I grip my trident so hard my hand hurts; an attempt to stay grounded but that doesn't work. Then I retch until I have nothing left in me, and I dry heave after that. My throat is burning. If it means I can escape the effect of this powder, then I welcome death.

Eventually my body relaxes. I stop dry heaving and, though I'm still dizzy, I can make out what's in front of me. I struggle with shaking legs to stand again. When I lift my head up, I'm inches away from another flower. Before I can retreat more of that sickening orange powder hits my face.

Turns out, there was more left in me. I learn this because as much as I want to scream out every swear word I know, I can't. I'm too busy vomiting again.

I hate the Capitol. I hate the Capitol, I think. As a Career, it's a thought that I've never allowed myself to have. I've always known that the Hunger Games were wrong, but I have never allowed myself to admit it. I couldn't, if I wanted to survive Career training. But now I think it over and over again.

When I stop vomiting, a scream rips its way up my throat. I'm screaming so loud I know I risk attracting the wrong attention, but I can't help it. I scream, tasting vomit, tasting bitterness. I crawl away from the flowers and then look up through bleary eyes. I see Arielle standing at a distance.

"Finnick!" she cries. "What happened to you?" She starts to run to me.

"Arielle, stop!" I say. "It's dangerous here. Let me come to you."

Easier said than done. My legs are weak, I still can't see straight, and it takes me several tries just to stand. When I do, the world is spinning. I stumble around in circles, my hand shielding my face in case another flower releases that powder. When I steady myself again, I have no idea which way Arielle is, which way I came from, and most troubling of all, which way the flowers are. I peer ahead and see Arielle. At least, I'm pretty sure that's her.

Nope. It's Terra and she chucks a knife at me. I turn away, but the blade still tears through my shirt, grazing my skin. Blood runs down my arm. Still half delirious, I'm in no position to fight. I run. I would lead Terra to a net, but I'm so confused that at best I can only hope I don't accidentally step in one myself. I don't know how long I run for, but eventually I can't hear Terra behind me. Even then, I don't stop until I collapse.

Someone is standing over me. I can't make out who. "Finnick, can you stand stand?" she asks, and for once something good has happened. I recognize Arielle's voice.

"Arielle," I say, and I groan. My throat feels dry, like I've just swallowed sand. "Terra…"

"Dead. I picked up the knife she threw and followed her. She set off one of your nets, and I finished her off with the knife. I tried to tell you sooner, but you wouldn't stop running."

The cannon went off, but I guess in my delirium I didn't hear it. So for most of this run I have been fleeing from a dead girl. I burst out laughing, because if I don't I may start screaming again.

With Arielle's help, I'm back on my feet. I drape one arm around her as we walk, leaning against her for support. I'm bigger than her, so this isn't the ideal arrangement. To Arielle's credit, she doesn't complain once. I carry my trident in my free hand. My trident at home in District Four has only ever felt completely natural in my hand. Now that I'm here in the Games, it's a dead weight. I think about the ocean back at home and how the ocean here has done nothing but hurt me, and wonder if I will even recognize who I am by the time the Games are over.

"This is where I got her," Arielle says. The hovercraft already carried off her body. All that's here is a backpack. "I made sure to remove her supplies before they took her body away."

We return to the cave where I cut up the vines and Arielle gently lays me down. She begins digging through the supplies and informing me of what's inside. Her words are muffled though. I close my eyes, not sure of a single item we've picked up as I sink into darkness.

I'm not even sure if I passed out or fell asleep; that's how out of it I am. I sit up and a damp rag slides down my forehead into my lap. Arielle tore this from her coat. She also tied a piece of her coat around my arm to clot the blood.

My stomach is both hungry and sickly. My vision is much better, but I still feel a little feverish. Not feverish enough that I can't still feel the chill of the night though, because that's just the luck I've been having today. If it's night, then that means I've been asleep—or unconscious I suppose—for hours.

Arielle is crouched down in the cave, skinning a fish. When she sees me awake, she holds a water bottle to my lips. "Drink," she says.

I don't hesitate. I drain the water bottle in seconds.

"We have water now," I say.

"Thanks to Terra," says Arielle. "Though she didn't have much else. She was low on supplies, like us. Still, I have a spear now."

"If she was here, then that means the others are. Marina and Gleam," I say.

"I know," Arielle says slowly.

"No more sponsor gifts?" I ask.

Arielle shakes her head. Her eyes have huge dark circles underneath them. She's exhausted. I guess the trident was the last gift that my supporters could afford to give. I understand, though. It was delivered during a time when many of the tributes were dead, making it even more expensive than a luxury gift like a trident already is.

From inside the cave we hear the Capitol anthem. Arielle looks at me for a moment, and then leaves the cave. I stand, swaying for a moment but walking is much easier than it was before. I follow Arielle out.

The seal appears in the sky. Nolan's face appears first, then Terra. Both tributes from District Two eliminated in one night. Then we see the girl from District Ten. I wonder if the flooding killed her, or if she encountered something as horrific as those poisonous flowers.

"Who's still left?" I ask.

We go through it together. There are the boys from Districts Nine and Ten, Gleam and Marina and, surprisingly, little Ivy from District Twelve. Neither of us considered her a threat, but she must be good to have stayed alive this long. I feel strangely happy for her, that she was able to do what no one expected her to.

"There are seven of us left," I say.

Arielle and I say nothing more, but we're both thinking the same thing. Seven remain, but with our traps set, and our food, water, and shelter, we're in okay shape. Besides that, the boys from Nine and Ten and Ivy are hardly threats. For the first time, I really believe I have a chance of returning home, of surviving. Arielle is thinking the same thing.

…This thought would be more encouraging to the both of us if it didn't mean that the other one would have to die.

After the anthem, an announcement is made. There will be a feast tomorrow morning on the southeast island, our island, which can only mean that tonight the other remaining island will flood next. Arielle and I aren't going to attend the feast, deciding that a better strategy is to hide away and hope the other tributes set off our net traps on their way to it.

"Let's eat and then get some rest," says Arielle.

By the time we finish eating the fish Arielle has caught, a steady rain is falling outside. When we look out at the water later that night we see that the pillar is now submerged three levels. The third island was flooded. The one we're on now is the only piece of dry land left.

Arielle and I eat, and then I take the first watch since I've been sleeping for hours. I stand at the entrance to the cave, watching the rain turn into a downpour. I look out into the woods and see a blur of something running by. The figure was standing on two legs, another tribute.

I contemplate letting them go, hoping they hit a trap, but then I realize that I have the element of surprise on my side. The rain is helpful too. Rain creates mud, which leaves footprints. I turn to Arielle and gently shake her awake. "There's someone out there," I whisper, even though the tribute is nowhere near us. "I'm going out there."

She nods groggily and reaches for her spear. I leave the cave.

The footprints are narrow, not too big. It's probably a girl, but then again I think the boy from District Ten is pretty small. I follow the footprints with my trident out. They lead me through the edge of the woods, the shoreline not far off. I follow them until they take me to a tree. Did they climb it? I look up.

I hear a high pitched scream, and then something heavy is coming at my head. I turn away just in time. The girl wasn't in the tree, but simply hiding behind it. She has long dark, filthy hair, dirt from her hands up to her elbows, and manic eyes.

It's Ivy, armed with a wooden baton. She snarls at me. This isn't the meek girl I met in training. She screams again and comes at me with the baton. I deflect it with my trident. The I hold my trident horizontal, and push it into her. I use the trident to slam her against the tree she'd hid behind.

This close I can see her eyes are red, but not from crying. That's when I see small little pink specks on her face, twinkling bright lights in the night. It's just like the powder I'd inhaled, but pink. She's been poisoned like I had, and from the looks of it, whatever got to her is much worse than the orange powder. She's so delirious that it doesn't look like she can hold out much longer. I keep her pinned against the tree with my trident.

I can't do it. I can't kill this little girl. The best I can do is hope that the arena finishes her off. I lift my trident, releasing her. She comes at me with her baton and smacks it into my back. I fall to my knees.

So much for her being so weak. The pain shoots through me. I scramble to my feet and use the staff of my trident to block her next hit. It goes on this way for a while, her striking and me parrying. Because of the delirium from the poison, I only have to block a third of her hits. The rest of them are a miss. All the while, Ivy is screaming and snarling as though she's lost her mind. Maybe she has.

"I'll kill you!" she screams, the first time she's used words. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

The ground is slippery and wet beneath us. At one point when she swings the baton I bump the staff of my trident against her arm. She recoils. The force of it causes her to drop the baton, but wait. She dropped it seconds after I hit her. It's almost as though she dropped it on purpose…

I dismiss the thought. Why would she do that? It slipped out of her hand, because of the rain. But then she just stands there, unmoving, arms at her sides with her palms turned out…like she's inviting me. There are tiny scars running up and down the length of her forearms. Most of them are at her wrists. Scars on her wrists? Why would someone cut her wrists like that?

"No," I blurt once I piece it together. She wants me to kill her. I don't move.

"Do it," she whispers.

We stand in silence, the only sound is the pouring rain. I shake my head furiously. "I won't," I say. My mind goes back to the Training Center, and what she said to me that day.

"I'm trying to figure out which one would kill someone the fastest while causing the least amount of pain."

She wasn't worried about the pain others would feel…she was worried about herself. She wanted a safe, easy way to finish herself off in favor of a slow, painful death…Like if poison were to slowly kill her off. That's why she has those scars all over her arms. She was trying to kill herself, but couldn't bring herself to do it. I suddenly have the urge to cry.

"Kill me!" Ivy screams. She runs at me and punches me in the gut. For someone so small, she can throw a punch. I don't stop her when she punches me over and over again. I don't have the will to fight, or even survive. This girl has drained the life out of me.

"Kill me!" I eventually collapse, mud coating my back and hair. Ivy sinks to her knees next to me, sobbing. "Please…" she whispers.

I don't understand how a world like this could exist, a world where a little girl who's been living in poverty her whole life now wants me to kill her, and if I do I'll be doing her a favor. I close my eyes.

My throat closes and I blink back tears. "Okay," I finally whisper.

At my confirmation, Ivy's anger fades away. "I don't know what to do," she said. "I can't—"

But I never find out what Ivy was trying to say, because then I ram my trident through her, aiming to kill. Her face freezes in shock. She falls to the ground dead. I did it before she could change her mind, before I could change mine. Quick and easy for her.

I retrieve her baton, the only thing she had on her, and run. The cannon fires. I swallow back tears, and my sadness is replaced with rage. Only the Capitol could make it right for me to murder a young girl.

As I get closer to the cave, I hear screams. One of them is Arielle's. The other is a boy. I run in that direction, and pass a net. There is a boy trapped in it, desperately thrashing about. I hesitate only for a moment before I kill him with my trident. Then I keep running. Another cannon goes off.

Arielle is either fighting Gleam or the boy from District 10. It must be Gleam. She sounds like she's struggling, and she wouldn't be against that other boy. First Terra, now Gleam. She can't be far—

"There you are, pretty boy."

I turn to the sound of the voice. Marina lunges at me with her spear.