Finally a new chapter, and it's longer than most so this evens out the wait.

Disclaimer: Nothing.

Chapter 14

An axe falls sharply, cutting the ground. I look up to see Emmy with blood dripping from her arms. She turns to look at me, grinning. Behind her I see tributes, lying spread across the floor. They each clutch a weapon in their hands, slowly they each raise them towards the sky, I look to see an image of Desmond printed across the sky, laughing heartily. His face fades away, replaced by that of the Game maker, he begins lowering his glasses before the screen turns to static, the sky breaking into pieces and falling. It's right above Claire. I have to get to her, but I'll be killed. If I jump in front of her, I can save her but I'll die. There's no way to avoid this .I run towards and leap, feeling the air leave my body.

I didn't expect to sleep at all, especially not so soon after entering the arena, with all the ongoing sounds from outside, but I must have managed at some point as I find myself waking up when it's still dark, covered in sweat. I'm not exactly desperate to fall back to sleep, the dream's made it near impossible to shut my eyes. Claire's asleep beside me, there's no point waking her now. Perhaps it's a better idea to switch shifts with Emmy, she'll want her rest. I call her name quietly, hoping she's close enough to hear, but there's no such luck. When I crawl outside the tent, I don't see her either.

She's definitely not here. But she must be fine, or I'd have heard the cannon.

Unless I missed one.

I panic for a moment, expecting the worst. Though I notice my sword has gone as well, so she's protected. And even if I didn't hear the cannon, I'd surely hear a hovercraft. I pick up the bow from inside the tent, planning to take guard until she came back. Claire hasn't stirred yet, so I leave her asleep. Emmy comes stumbling back to the shelter a few minutes later, clearly jumping back in surprise when she walks into me. It's too dark to fully see her, but she sounds tired.

"Hershel?" she looks up at me, through the darkness. "What are you doing?" I look down to where I assume she is.

"You weren't here; I was keeping watch over the shelter. Where'd you go?" she stops talking for a while, but she's breathing very heavily. As if she's been running. She waits a few seconds, simply breathing.

"I heard a noise… It sounded like the careers."

"Why would you go find them by yourself?"

"I didn't want to wake either of you. I had the sword, I'd be fine."

"Why don't you go sleep, I'll take the rest of the watch.

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I think nothing more of Emmy leaving, and so the next morning, we pack up the shelter and continue on our way, trying to find the water. There's none left in the bottle now, and we've eaten all the fruit. I can feel the hunger a lot now.

"It's a little weird that we haven't run into anyone. Surely there'd be someone by now." Remarks Claire without even taking her eyes off the path. It's true, besides Jakes, there's been nobody. I wonder how large this arena actually is.

"Don't say that, or the Capitol will find a way to bring us all togeth..." Emmy trails off as she turns her head to the side and stops, gazing up at something. Claire and I turn to see as well, expecting some kind of announcement over the sky. But instead, there's a large wave of water heading our way, flooding the further parts of the forest. If we stay here, there's no way to avoid it.

"Run!" We turn in the opposite direction and sprint away. There's no time to question what's happening, we just need to be away from here.

"I wanted water, but not like this." Mumbles Claire. A cannon goes off. As we're running I notice that the sound of the water has died down. I look back to see something… unusual to say the least. The water moving towards us and then lapping up as if it had hit a wall, despite being nothing there.

"Is it some kind of barrier?" I walk closer to it, And poke the pole through it slightly. The water covers the end but never moves past.

"It can't be, you can move through it." States Claire, putting her hand through.

"It's a Capitol trick then." Emmy walks along the line. "It's stopped all the way along, we're gonna have to try and go round it."

"HERSHEL." I look around, but can only see Claire. I could have sword someone else was yelling me.

"How far is it though?"

"Did either of you-"

"HERSHEEEEEL." That was definitely someone, but there words are slightly garbled as if they were… in…

I run over to where the 'barrier' is, and catch a glimpse of the red hair bobbing just above the waves. He catches my eye and flails his arms to keep him afloat whilst still yelling.

"Don't get too close." Says Claire, holding my arm.

"Claire, we have to go past. Randall's in there." Claire's eyes widen as she spots him, he's managed to pull himself up to one of the branches now, but is barely hanging on. "How do we get to him?" Emmy takes the chain and loops the ends together.

"Hershel, put me on your shoulders, I should be high up enough to throw it to him."

"Will that even work?"

"Don't know, but I'd rather try it than wait and let him be washed out of reach." She swings it over her head and throws it past the barrier "This better work." She whispers to herself. There's a tug on the chain, but no sign of him yet. It's unlikely that Emmy will be able to pull him back herself, but if she can just hold on. After a few minutes, the flood begins to die down, seemingly just being absorbed into the ground, another clear sign that we can't trust anything in the arena. Randall's hooked up on the tree branch, gripping the chain with one hand and absolutely soaked. He coughs a couple of times as we approach him, after checking it's safe to go past the barrier.

"Oh that's not how I wanted to meet you guys…" He sighs as we help him down.

"How did you want us to meet you?"

"Preferably with me rescuing you. From a pack of wolves or something." I notice that he seems to have lost his glasses in the flood, but he doesn't seem at all concerned by this. Perhaps it's best not to bring it up. As he goes to take his jacket off, he swears under his breath, grabbing at his other arm.

"Has something happened?" He winces as he Claire helps him take the jacket off fully. His arms hanging loosely by his side, he doesn't seem to be able to move it. Claire moves down to take a look at it, Randall bites his tongue.

"I'm not sure how bad it is. All we can do for now is keep it elevated." Remarks Claire "Does anyone have anything we could use?" Randall looks down at himself.

"Take my ascot." I look over at his neck; the orange accessory he wore in training is still there.

"Isn't that your district token?" He closes his eyes for a second.

"Yeah but… use that, it'll be fine." Claire takes it from round his neck and opens it out fully, before folding it into a makeshift sling. "Maybe one of the sponsors will send something to help." He adds, looking to the sky. A couple of seconds pass and he kicks the floor, evident that nobody's going to help. "Well I'm sorry Capitol for only getting an 8. I'm sure you'd help the careers if they needed it." As he complains, I become aware once again of how much I need a drink.

"Randall, Is there anywhere we can get water?"

"Two minutes since I've met you and you already want stuff." He laughs "But yeah there was a lake over the other side of that sector. That's what I was getting."

"We should go over then" So he did manage to meet up with his allies, so if we all get back together we should do better. I've still got the bow to give to Angela anyway"

"Have you seen any of the others? I lost them by the Cornucopia yesterday." A Cannon went off during the flood, but I hope they'd got out before then.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As we see the river across the trees I nearly scream. It's seems like an overreaction but I didn't think we'd ever find it. The four of us run towards it, though carefully as the floor is still damp from the flood.

"Yes! This was the one I found earlier." Cries Emmy as she takes the bottle from the backpack. "Is there anything else we can fill up?"

"I think that's all there is, everyone be sure to drink some now as well." She passes the bottle round to us all; it feels good to actually have a drink now. Randall sits himself on a rock by the side of the lake.

"Has anyone got any food? I had some in my bag but I haven't a bloody clue where that's gone." Nobody answers, so he just huffs as he takes another swig of water. As everyone finishes their drinks, Claire places the bottle back into the bag for Emmy to carry.

"What do we do now then?" she asks "We can't stay here; a lake will be a top spot for the careers to find." We don't know how much water there is, if it's scarce then everyone will be on the lookout for it.

"We also don't know if it's going to flood again." I can't tell if it will do that often or if it's a one-time event, but I don't want to be around to find out.

"I hope this is the only place it happens." We get up, and I notice people approaching from the forest. The smaller one holds a weapon in their hand, the two behind walk slowly, one supporting, and half dragging the other under the arms. I quietly point them out to the group.

"Everyone ready your weapons and head for those trees." I whisper, as they look over I can see them realising the danger. "I can't tell who it is." Randall is currently weapon less, so I usher him to the back of the group. We wait behind the trees until they come closer. I need to see their faces so I can decide whether we need to run. As their faces become clearer, I lower my sword.

"The alliance is finally together!" Randall leaps from behind us, over to where the two stand looking rather shocked. Henry slowly lowers Dalston to the floor as Randall hugs Angela. I'm delighted to see them again, though they all look a little disoriented. Dalston seem absolutely exhausted and can barely hold himself upright. Henry looks like he's been through a lot, while Angela seems pretty upset as she cries into Randall's shoulder. I notice that her hair is still perfectly curled though.

"Randall-" begins Angela, her voice is shaking. "We hadn't seen you since the start, I was so worried that…" she trails off as she clings to him. "You're soaked?"

"It's fine, I had a bit of trouble just now but their quick thinking got me out." Angela draws back slightly, trying to dry off her clothes; Randall jokingly pulls her back and rubs his shirt across her sleeves. Henry turns to look at us.

"Really?" he asks with deep concern. We nod at him and, for a moment, I think he's going to smile. "Thank you. I don't know what I'd have done if we'd lost him." As Randall and Angela pull away from each other, I notice that she has a handful of arrows in her grip.

"Angela?" She wipes her hands on her face quickly before coming back over. "This bow was meant for you." I take it off my back and place it in her hands.

"This is yours though, I can't just take it. You can use the arrows."

"No, it's yours. Dalston got it for you.". She turns to look down at the boy, who's breathing heavily on the floor.

"Is that true Dalston?" he stares up blankly.

"I guess so…" she thanks him and turns back to me apologetically.

"He's been quite out of it since we found him." She lowers her voice "I think he hit his head. Someone attacked him, but he can't remember who it was." I look over at Dalston again.

".Do you really not remember?" He shakes his head.

"I've got no clue." As he adjusts the way he's sitting, I notice the dark stains on the back of his shirt. "You… You don't happen to know what went on at the bloodbath do y'?" He wheezes as he speaks.

"We were both there at the Cornucopia. You ran forward to get this for Angela and… you saved my life when Bloom tried to attack me." It's true that he saved me by warning me about the knife. But I refrain from going into detail, not wanting to scare anyone. I've already tried to block the image of the knife from my mind.

"Bloom… so that's the one who stabbed me, hey. If any of you see him, make sure to return the favour. I can't even describe how my shoulder feels right now."

Angela takes the bow and puts it onto her back.

"And to think I was here complaining about my arm" Randall doesn't have anything much more to add, likely due to the teasing between them in training. Claire and Emmy, who've been rather quiet during the meeting, understandable as they didn't really know them, assure him that he's fine to be upset. The new allies quickly use the water to drink from and to clean themselves.

"Now come on, we need to move away from here." Emmy takes over with helping Dalston. It feels a lot more comfortable walking with such a large group. We're silent for a while; the three new allies seem unwilling to talk about anything. This silence is broken by the rumble of someone's stomach. We all turn to look behind, where Randall is stood sheepishly smiling.

"Is there any chance we can go and find food?"

"There's a mountain up North" Says Henry, looking over in that direction. I can see the top of it above the treeline. "There's a chance that we can find food and shelter over there." He better be right, because last time we followed someone round, it ended in disappointment. We start anyway, trusting Henry's judgement. Being the only ones with weapons, Emmy and I lead the group and Angela brings up the rear.

"How many tributes are left in the arena then?" Emmy asks.

"Well… There were 3 cannons on the first day, and one earlier." Says Claire, counting them on her hands "And so, without counting us, there's about fourteen others, right?." 14… So there are the career tributes still here, and the rest will likely have allied together. So as long as we don't run into any of the other large groups, we should be fine.