We got 13 reviews for chapter 13! And we now have 111 altogether :-) Thanks guys! And well done to all of you codeword people! You all get a virtual packet of gummy bears!

That's: Tessabelle94! ILovePeeta0000! pinkgiraffe10! MissDizzyD! nb1998! CloveDiedForYourSins! newbie11! anon! (:-S) DizzyPotter!

And to The Phantom Mockingjay who wanted a "super awesome mega shoutout" for using all the codeword in one go... - You just got one! X-D

Chapter Fourteen – A Lack of Logic

A course of action. That's what I need. A course of action. But what?

I have a list of choices.

Go over it. Go under it. Run to the left. Run to the right. Run directly away.

Going under or over is impossible.

Running to either side would mean the fire would catch up.

If I run away I'll surely run into another tribute, that's why the Gamemakers have made this obstacle in the first place. And then I'll die. So it's hopeless. Every action leads to death. Especially a new one that has just entered my mind...

A sudden lack of logic. That's all it takes.

Four litres of water pour over me.

Wet fabric is clutched tight.

Eyes are closed.

Feet run.

Heat rises.

Wet becomes damp.

Damp becomes dry.

Dry becomes burnt.

Heat becomes coolness.

Air becomes ground.

I roll about on the dirt, patting out the last remnants of flames from my trousers and jacket, which is now little more than a shawl. Now I really do have fiery hair. But I can barely breathe. Did that just happen? I ran... through a fire. Wow. Not many people can say that.

I'm alive.

I'm alive.

The word feels full of all kinds of knots, tangled up, meaning so much and yet so little. But it fills me with a warm, flickering feeling of hope. Because if I can run through a twelve-foot fire and survive, I can do the same for the Games, can't I?

The trees are unscathed from the fire as I watch it advance on. I'd better hope that the water bottles will be unscathed, too, but I think that really, I know they won't. The only reason I wasn't burnt was because I was fast, and the water bought me time. And the trees... well, who knows if anything in this arena is real, anyway?

This is my last thought before I hear a cannon's boom, and my whole mind freezes up.

One thought. There is just one thought pulsing through my mind as I move on.

Was it him?

I tread carefully on the balls of my feet, never crunching a leaf, nor cracking a twig, nor crushing a pine cone. Was it him? whispers the wind. Was it him? sing the birds. Was it him? yells Death.

'No,' I say, though anybody close-by would be able to hear it. 'He's not that fragile,' I say, repeating what I said about myself just two days ago. No, less than that. One day and... well, it's nearly been two days.

I trek through the woods, trying not to cough, because if I do, it might mean I'll throw up, and I need all the strength I can have inside of me to carry on.

Smoke lingers in the air like a bad smell, which it is also. I'm still in shock that I actually ran through a wall of fire. I was lucky it was just a wall, and not a sports field of fire or anything. Still, a newspaper of fire would have been more preferable.

I'm totally lost now. There's no clue to what direction I am going in, so I just keep moving in an odd sort of zig-zag. Which day is it today, I wonder? One... two... it's Day 4 now. So that's... the 3rd of June 74 ADD. Not long until my birthday, then. I don't like these thoughts, but I prefer them to the other lingering one that still pulses in the background. Because the truth is, I can't answer that thought.

Was it him?

I find a pond, and coat myself in all the nearby mud the water has created. My startlingly-red hair is now a common-place brown. That will be good for hiding in trees. I drink the water, because I don't really have a choice; I don't have iodine, and I need to hydrate. It has a slightly sweet taste to it, but I don't worry, because if I'm going to die, then I'll just die. Plus it actually helps me to want to drink more.

Thick black smoke hangs in the air, but luckily I'm always low enough to avoid the most of it. I've only been here - what, ten minutes? - when I can hear signs of a tribute in the distance. And I mean the distance. They must be several hundred metres away, in fact. I sprint off to the left, and find a large tree, so I hide behind it, hoping not to leave tracks as I go. In less than two minutes, somebody walks straight in to my little pond. That's MY pond! I feel like shouting, but resist, because I do not yet know who this is. Maybe it's Raven! But no such luck. It's Steal-a-name-niss, of all people.

She stumbles across the clearing, carrying on through the pool until she is ankle-deep. Then she realises her feet are wet. Well done, I think, you know what water is. Then she lies on her stomach and sticks her bloody, burnt hands in. And then she tears up her trouser leg and sticks in her calf. Eww, no way am I drinking from there again. I want to move on, but I just find that I can't, Steal-a-name-niss just seems too close, even if she is injured. I'm actually quite surprised she got hurt, because on the first day I saw her run, and she was pretty fast - maybe as fast as me, or even faster. From the positionings of her burns though, it seems that it must not have been the initial wall of fire that created them, but perhaps a secondary form of attack on the Gamemakers' part. I'm just glad that I was lucky enough not to run into it too.

Steal-a-name-niss is still there in the late afternoon. So am I. Why can't she just move? Pond-hogger. Even in the evening, she's still there, drinking and bathing, bathing and drinking. While I stand here, clothed in mud, thirsty and starving, as the pockets with apples in got burnt off in my enflamed charge. Steal-a-name-niss starts to lose consciousness eventually. She's not asleep, just not entirely awake - in a stupor. So I take my chance and run, sensing that more danger could come at any moment.

Taking off, I don't stop to look back for even a moment, and I come to another clearing that's much larger than the first, though it does have a few trees in it, so perhaps it doesn't count as a clearing, though the open space is about the size of a basketball court. Slowly, I walk up to one of the trees in the clearing and begin to climb it. Using my body weight against myself to make it easier for me, like Raven showed me. Oh, Raven. I wish I knew where you were. Even if you were dead, it would put my might at rest at least.

Trying not to look down, I swing this way and that between branches until I'm about twelve metres up. But then I see it, right above my head. A wasp's nest. And knowing the Gamemakers... Twice as quickly as I went up, I manoeuvre myself down the tree. I can hear voices and the sound of feet running not that far away. The Careers will be in there somewhere. And I'm not safe yet. I dash to a slightly smaller tree on the edge of the clearing, and climb at top speed, not taking as much precaution as previously, meaning that I nearly fall seven metres. I stop after another two metres, and just perch on a branch, having a breather. I should be all right now, shouldn't I? I doubt the Careers will be able to get up here after me.

A small figure runs into the clearing not long after I've gotten this high, and starts to climb the wasp tree. It's little Rue that I thought looked just like a pixie. She'll die if she meets them up there. If they are what I think they are, it'll only take one or two stings, and then she's done for. But she isn't my ally. I don't even know her. If the wasps do take her down, it will just mean one less opponent to face, right?

'No!' I shriek, and Rue turns her head towards my voice. I point at the nest. 'Jackers!' I yell. She nods at my finger – the one part of me not hidden by leaves – and runs to the tree's next-door neighbour. And she climbs it just in time, because even more tributes come rushing in – Steal-a-name-niss, with the Careers tight on her heels.

I don't want to look. I don't want to look. So I don't look, and just face into the tree-bark, but not before seeing Steal-a-name-niss begin to scale the wasp tree.

I suppose that at some point, I fall asleep.

I follow a bird through a scorching desert. I do not know where we are going, just that wherever it is must be better than this barren wasteland. The bird promises a better future.

Sand blows into my eyes and the grains get lodged between my teeth as I slowly progress onwards. The grey bird still flies and guides me. I trust it, because it will be able to see everything far better in the air than I ever could do on ground.

All of a sudden, the grey raven disappears into nothing. I call for it, but it does not return. The sun is beginning to burn the back of my neck. I won't survive for long. I need my raven to guide me through this mass of sandy yellow. But I can't find him. Raven is missing. Raven is gone.

Did you like it? Tell me in a review! And it's a bit non-canon now! :-O

Also, I was wondering. What do you think of the chapter names? I would like to know :-)

Codeword: Hairbrush (you can probably guess how I come up with these by now)

Review please! :-D