Kayde Roberts

District 2 Male Tribute

It's been two days since the bloodbath and tensions are running high. I can't relate to any of my allies, most of them come from privilege. Rook's father is a rich bearcat, Barnon's is a Victor and Mina's parents aren't exactly poor either. The only one who knows what it means to struggle at all is Leighann and she is completely insane.

Growing up in the slums has hardened me, much more than these pampered idiots. I've had to learn things the hard way, and that gives me the advantage over them. If I hadn't grown up with a father who worked in the quarries I'd have no idea what type of stone the walls of the arena are made of, but I can easily recognize them as obsidian.

It's a valuable and very useful rock. It's both brittle and sharp, it was used by ancient peoples to make weapons, and if I ever need to I'll use it myself. Luckily I don't think I'll need anything that makeshift, I have my whips from the cornucopia, they've already gotten me one kill. I may need them again soon. I'm not sure how much longer this group can stay together, the only thing that has kept us from murdering each other so far is the fear of the antis, but I'm not sure how much longer that will last.

The arrogance of everyone else in this alliance, expect for Mina, is astounding. They all seem to think they could almost take everyone else out single handedly. Not that Mina isn't much better; I don't even think she cares that much about getting out alive. Once a few more tributes die I'll escape, maybe when there are eight of us left.

Being on my own won't be easy, but I can do it. I can survive. I can't die, I won't. I can survive out there in the arena away from the cornucopia; the other careers don't know what it means to be hungry, to struggle to survive every single day. They need the supplies from the cornucopia to survive, and when that runs low they will turn on each other. I can make it out there like the tributes from the lower districts.

If I stay sharp I can come out alive, just like my mentor Chace did three years ago.

Jasper Jarrah

District 11 Male Tribute

I'm on the verge of death again, but this time it's not because some tributes are coming after me with weapons trying to murder me. Now I'm starving to death and dying of thirst. I haven't found much water around, a little pool here or there, and of course I can never find my way back to any of them in this damn maze. Food is even more scarce; I've only found a couple berries growing out of the gravel next to a pond.

I don't know how much longer I can hold out without something substantial. I've been hoping for a sponsor gift of some type, but my chances don't look great anymore. This place is a nightmare, a horrible death trap designed by the Capitol. I fell over out of exhaustion this morning, the combination of hunger, dehydration and lack of sleep did me in. I've been crawling a lot since then any time I feel lightheaded. I don't want to risk falling into one of those walls.

I don't know if it's my imagination, but I think there is something in the air too. Sleeping is a whole other ordeal. I haven't gotten any real sleep the whole time, I've been caught between sleep and waking over and over. If it weren't hard enough to fall asleep on the gravel, I am in constant fear every time I close my eyes. There are no real hiding places in the arena, so whenever I need to sleep I'm risking being found by somebody. Whenever I'm close to falling asleep I hear something, and I wake up scanning the surrounding area. It's never anything, but the fear keeps me up.

Fear dictates pretty much everything I've done for the last three days. Fear kept me alive in the bloodbath. I ran from that insane battle and got out with my life. Now, though, fear is slowly killing me. It isn't keeping me sharp anymore, it's stolen my sleep and instead of being alert I'm in a constant haze.

I'm crawling right now actually. It's humiliating, I can just imagine that they cut back to me every once in a while just to give the people watching in the Capitol a good laugh. Look at this pathetic little tribute crawling, his life is slipping away from him slowly. My life will continue to slip away unless I can find some way of surviving, something, anything. What are the chances of that when I'm just crawling?

I go for a few more yards and just give up. I need to stop, the sun is out and anyone could find me, but what's the point? I'll just keep crawling and crawling till I'm dead. A quick nap will do me some real good. I sprawl out, stretching my arms and legs as far as I can, and I notice something strange.

My fingertips graze something strange, there is something beneath the gravel. I haven't felt anything beneath the gravel this entire time, it's always just more gravel, but here there is something. I get up and examine it closer. The thing is smooth, it seems to be made out of the same rock that the walls are, but without any sharp edges. It's a circle. It's level with the ground, but if I try I may be able to dig out an edge.

I have no idea what this is, it may mean death, or it might be nothing. It also might be just what I need to live.

Chace Castellan

The Capitol

There is a bar in the Capitol that only a select few are allowed to go to. The elite are the only ones who may attend, people like gamemakers, and other important Capitol figures frequent it. Oh and of course it's open to the victors as well. I don't usually drink, but the stress of watching Kayde in the arena is taking its toll on me. Seeing the games on such a personal level again also isn't great for me.

All those dead kids, and I'm trying to help Kayde kill more. It doesn't exactly bring back good memories. Kayde has already gotten two kills, a pair of anti-carriers. It's almost like I've killed them myself. Arto and Lucian. I know both their mentors well; both are members of the secret rebellion. In fact I see Lucian's mentor passed out at the end of the bar.

I don't blame Haymitch for trying to drown his troubles in booze. He is the only one of us who has to mentor two tributes, since he is the only living victor from 12. Every year he sees both of the children he was mentoring die, some years, like this one, neither makes it past the bloodbath. It was the same way in my games.

I order a drink and glance up at a TV overhead. There hasn't been much action for the past few days; they seem content to show the boy from 11 digging around something he found in the ground. I wonder if it's a trap or something good. Hopefully it's a trap, then Kayde will be that much close to winning. I down my drink; I need to think this way to bring my friend's brother home alive.

Kayde has always been a good kid, sure he is misguided, but he isn't a bad kid. I wonder how I would have ended up had I been raised like he was. I had every advantage in the world with my mother the victor, and I was raised to idolize the games. He grew up with nothing and was told how evil the games were. We both volunteered, both to prove something to our parents and about our way of life, but while I was fighting to retain my life and legacy he is trying to escape his. I wonder if either of us would have wanted to go into the games if our positions had been reversed.

Of course we both were also influenced by absent parents as well, my father, who died in the Games, killed by my own mother, and his mother who left to become a peacekeeper. I know for a fact that she is here in the Capitol; I've made sure to avoid her. If I do fail to bring Kayde home alive then I don't want to know the face of his grieving mother.

Aly River

The Capitol

I haven't been able to see River since the night before the games. I've gotten some of the higher ups to move some things around to give me a chance to talk to her. I don't know what to expect, she's had to put on a strong face for the past few days, pretending that Maya's death hasn't affected her. I don't know how she's done it.

When I get to her quarters I don't see her immediately, she's bundled up in some blankets crying in the corner. "River…" I walk over to her and lightly put my hand on her back. She turns around and hugs me tightly. We just sit there for a few minutes, letting her cry on my shoulder. She lost her first love all those years ago, and now she's lost a sister too.

After a while she finally composes herself and gets out a pen and paper so we can communicate.

It's all my fault she writes.

"No," I respond, "It was the Capitol."

If I hadn't rebelled and dishonored our family the she would never have had wanted to volunteer.

"You can't blame yourself for the choices that others make."

I'm a monster. It's my fault all those people died, the people I got to rebel. I took advantage of them, they must have been feeling like I was now, hopeless and angry. I tricked them into rebelling using their grief.

"You didn't trick anyone; they agreed to fight against the injustice of the Capitol because they didn't want what happened to their family members to happen to anyone else." River just shakes her head. "You should be proud of your sister, she was brave in there, she fought honorably and didn't lose herself. She was a good person."

I hate Cal.

I take a deep breath. I understand what she is feeling, rage at the person who murdered her sister. Cal is a sadistic unhinged jerk, but he is only a pawn. The Capitol is the real enemy and River knows this, but it's a lot easier to be mad at one person than an entire government, especially if you've just seen that person impale your sister.

"Cal will get what he deserves, I'm sure." I know this isn't the most enlightened thing to say, but River is angry and the fact of the matter is that I hate Cal too. I really hope someone takes care of him soon.

Leighann Ash

District 11 Female Tribute

Night has fallen. It's not my shift to be on watch, but I'm awake anyway. I hardly ever sleep especially now that I'm in the arena. I don't trust the careers; they are the kind of people who would kill me in my sleep. That's probably why I ended up allying with them; I'm just as despicable as they are. That's why I plan to kill them all in their sleep tomorrow night.

Using some kind of weapon is too risky, after I killed one the others would wake up and they'd attack me, defeating the entire point of killing them in their sleep. No, my plan is much more ingenious than that. It's brilliantly simple actually, all I need to do is poison them.

During training I managed to learn about deadly poisons and what they smell and look like. On the first day I managed to find a vial of poison, stashed there by the gamemakers just in case any tribute actually had paid attention to that training station, and luckily for them I had. Once I was sure none of my allies were watching I grabbed the vial and it hidden in my clothes at all times.

I'll poison them one by one, they will silently slip away into death. This is what they get for falling asleep and trusting me. I never trusted any of them. With the careers gone I'll have taken out my only real competition.

Who else is there? Three idiots claiming to somehow oppose us, calling themselves anti-careers. No, I'm sure one of those people will turn on the other two just like I'm about to turn on my allies. Then there are the two girls trying to kill each other, neither is a threat. Here's my partner Jasper, who has no real skills, the girl from 9, who I don't think has a weapon and the one from 5, who is a joke and I doubt could kill anyone. Soon they'll all be dead and I'll be crowned as the victor of the 71st Hunger Games.

Just one more day and I'll put my plan into action. I think about just doing it tonight on my shift, but why rush it? I should just stick to the plan, with any luck someone else out there will die tomorrow.

So last chapter I got a lot of very different responses to almost all of the characters, which is great because I'm trying to avoid traditional heroes and villains (for the most part) and make more complex characters. Anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as well even though it was a bit mild.

Rook Delacroix
Kayde Roberts
Mina Sablier
Baron Aleric
Maya Blake- Killed by Cal in the bloodbath
Leighann Ash

Ekronik Rodell- Killed by Maya in the bloodbath
"Nesie" Keiberger- Killed by Mina in the bloodbath

Safyra Hope
Arto Green- Killed by Kayde in the bloodbath
Ivan Hill
Cal Barnes
Lucian Night- Killed by Kayde in the bloodbath

Charlie Watsen- Died on the second day from a wound inflicted by Leighann
Violet Prior
Brooklynne Satire- Killed by Rook in the bloodbath

Reid Meyer- Killed by Rook in the bloodbath

Terya Wylie

Isabelle Catcher- Killed by Safyra in the bloodbath

Chel Byrne

Adian Kay- Killed by Arto in the bloodbath

Darcy Eowyn

Jasper Jarrah

Marly Gray- Killed by Baron in the bloodbath