Sun

"I built a hive, became one with the bees, but we fell like rain, got lost into the sea."

Loden Tsiperial (D8) and Barric Yule (D11)

Loden sighed as he watched Dorren Hallow's face fade from the sky that night. It had been a long boring day, filled mostly with long hours of uneventful walking. Barric had talked his ear off, touching on basically every topic from life at home to the random Capitol shows that they would air on T.V. from time to time. Loden had been thankful, of course, for the noise. It made it easier to forget about Sylvan and Paisley when Barric was rambling, and it was a constant reminder that Loden wasn't alone just yet. He still had Barric.

Still, the two cannons that had sounded throughout the day had been jarring. They seemed to echo off the walls when they went off, bouncing around in their very bones. And they were taunting. Who did the canons belong to? Someone Loden had met? One of the careers? Now that he knew, he wasn't sure if he was better off in the dark. It most certainly wasn't a good omen that two outer District kids had fallen today- let alone one of the crowd favorites. Meaning the careers were still together and going strong.

"I hope that they hate it," Barric said suddenly. He had fallen quiet when the anthem started, but seemed to have found his voice again.

"Hate what?"

"That the guy from Six is dead. I'd always thought that it was no fun when the careers just went around slaughtering everyone," Barric elaborated. "I mean, not that it's fun when they're all fighting with themselves, but now it's like nobody else has a chance. The careers are just going to waltz around like they own the place until all of us are dead and then they're going to have to start killing each other, but it won't bother them. Not the way it bothers us. They'll just do it without a second though, and it will be all over. There isn't any underdog to route for, or any hope for some twist. It's predictable and boring, and I hope they chop off Minerva Callaghan's head for it."

"Barric," Loden sat up suddenly. Everyone knew that it was suicide to trash talk the Head Gamemaker. They're lives were technically in her hands, after all.

"What? I'm just saying," Barric shrugged.

"Well how do you know that the careers got both Stoker and that Hallows guy," Loden asked, running his hands through his hair. "It could've been anyone."

"Come on," Barric rolled his eyes. "How could you not know?"

Loden just shook his head in silence. He didn't know what to say to his friend. Nothing was going to change their situation. Not right now at least.

Lying back down, Loden gazed up at the bare cement ceiling.

The pair was situated in one of the cells in D block. After two days of exploration, they'd found that D block was the nicest section of the prison- and A block was the most bare. D block cells had cots, sinks, and toilets in them. It was the only section of the prison where they'd found running water- although B and C block cells also had cots in them.

After the silence started to become uncomfortable, Barric spoke up again. "Well, I'm hungry," he announced.

"And what do you want to do about that," Loden snorted this time. They had gotten two packs out of the bloodbath, but the only food in them was a few bags of nuts and dried fruit. It wasn't filling, and neither of them wanted to eat too much any how, because they knew the bags might have to last them the entire time in the arena. It looked like they were just going to spend their time in the arena hungry.

"We could backtrack," Barric suggested, after a brief pause.

"Are you being serious? Go back to the Cornucopia? That's suicide," Loden said. His voice wasn't steady though. Barric wasn't crazy. He was a little reckless, maybe even a little unrealistic at times, but he wasn't crazy.

"Well, at the rate they're going, they'll catch us off guard out here eventually. Why not bring it to then. We'll go tomorrow, in the middle of the day, and with some luck, they'll be out. You know what? I bet they got lost in the tunnels anyways. The Cornucopia's probably only has one of them guarding it. We could take one of them, if we were smart about it," Barric said. He was sitting up now, like he had just been joking before, but maybe was now being serious. "Dude, let's do it.

"Go to the Cornucopia?" Loden repeated.

"Yeah," Barric nodded. Loden blinked at Barric, and stared for a moment, just checking to make sure Barric was being completely serious. Finally after a moment's thought, he nodded.

"Okay, but we've got to be smart about it," Loden said.

Barric grinned. There was a new light in his eyes, and he seemed to be glowing with his excitement again. It felt good to have a plan.

Ayla Forester (D12)

Ayla gripped the ladder tightly as she climbed up it towards a strange glass room above. The morning had been shorter than she had expected. When she had drifted off the night before, she had expected to spend the next day walking aimlessly around the arena. About an hour after setting out though, the tunnels she had been traveling in had started to change. She came across a steel door. It had seemed out of place amongst the black stone and dark iron that made up most of the tunnel behind her.

With a mighty heave she had pushed it open to find herself in a wide empty room. Immediately, she had noticed that the air had changed. It didn't seem quite as stuffy as the tunnels she was coming from. There was a window set high on the wall, and it wasn't barred. She could see the sun peaking in through it without construction. Just below the window there was a glass room. It was too high for her to see what was inside of it, but she wanted to know.

Walking towards it, she saw the ladder. And that brought her back to the present. It wasn't a long climb, but her limbs felt like jelly as she tried to push herself upwards. She still hadn't eaten anything since she'd entered the arena, though she'd had enough to drink from some of the sinks that she'd found in the cells. It took every ounce of her strength to push her way up into the room.

Her breath hitched when she pulled herself into the the glass room.

It was a control room. One long wooden table sat in the center with it, and electric panels lined the walls. There was a lone television screen in the corner of the room, and just as she looked at it, it flickered to life. Her stomach twisted. Brodus Battles's hulking sillouhette had appeared on the screen. He seemed to be walking down some dark corridor, flanked by Siobhan and Jeremite. Every now and then a random foot would appear in the front of the screen- as if the other members of the pack were walking just in front of Brodus, but off the screen.

The image changed then, and she found herself looking at Cobi Kasper. She was sitting in a barren cell with her face pressed up against her knees. Ayla didn't think she was crying, but it looked like she had been recently. She remembered Dorren Hallow's face in the sky the previous night, and her heart squeezed. She felt bad for the girl.

Then it changed again, and she saw the faces that she really wanted to see. Ayla soaked in the little television image of Ernest. He was walking behind Keela Monroe with a sword in his hand, looking completely and utterly unharmed. She let out a sigh of relief. Her District partner was still out there and kicking. There was still a chance that she could find him and they could reconnect.

She wasn't alone in the arena just yet.

Suddenly, the television shut off all together, and an alarm started to sound, loudly. A red light began to flash through the room, and bars dropped above, blocking off the open window above her. Ayla jumped back. She hadn't touched anything. What could possibly have triggered this?

Panic began to set in as the blaring noise went on. Someone was going to hear it and come running. This was going to be the death of her. Stumbling backwards, she made for the door, but she had forgotten about the ladder. There was a drop out the open door, and she didn't realize it until she was falling.

All she remembered afterwards was a dull pain in her head, and then darkness.

Jeremite Garnet (D1), Biathyst Darlucaan (D1), Brodus Battles (D2), Zync Olssen (D3), Calder Hannigan (D4), Ula Taylor (D4), Siobhan Jay (D9)

The career pack, for the most part, was feeling pretty good about themselves as they made their way down the corridor of C Block. Earlier that morning they had rounded back to the Cafeteria to have a good breakfast before setting out again to look for another kill. They were searching around the area that they'd found Dorren Hallows the previous night in hopes of finding his ally. Unfortunately, the gate that had barred their way the previous night hadn't lifted, and they were trying to find some way around it.

Biathyst was annoyed.

"It's like they're trying to make things harder for us," she complained to Jeremite. "It's a nuisance."

He didn't respond to her. The boy from District One had been rather silent ever since the Gamemakers had saved Bo. He said nothing, but every time they crossed some new obstacles, his eyes would flash with the same annoyance that Biathyst was vocalizing. It was rather peculiar actually. Even Ula was beginning to gravitate away from him now.

Outside of those two though, all was well. Siobhan was walking in step with Brodus, and thought the two weren't talking, the two seemed content with the silence. Zync meanwhile was with District Four. He was chatting with Calder while Ula walked only a step in front of them.

"It's funny, my mom always used to tell me I was going to end up behind bars," Zync was saying casually as he kicked a rock on the ground. "I never took her seriously."

"Well, I mean we're technically not behind them," Calder pointed out with a smile. "I mean, it's not like we're all locked up in one of the cells."

"True," Zync nodded thoughtfully as he eyed one of the cells.

That was when the alarm sounded. The entire hallway lit up with a red light and the noise began to blare through the halls. They had their weapons out in an instant, but there wasn't a clear enemy. Ula's voice sounded above the noise:

"Jeremite and Calder take the rear," she called. "Biathyst and Brodus, take point with me. Siobhan, Zync make sure nothing is jumping out of the cells or the side tunnels."

Jeremite glanced up at Ula and nodded, stepping away from Biathyst and towards the back. He knew that Ula's direction was clever. They needed the real careers to have the permitter. Moving in a relatively tight knit group they began to proceed down the hall with caution. The alarm was unnerving as they moved through the hall. In the front Biathyst began to pick up the pace, against Ula's warning. She was itching to find the source of the noise and cut it off.

Ula knew better though. The game makers were making that noise, and right now the game makers were the only ones that posed a real threat to the pack right now. The entire situation was making her nervous.

"Biathyst-" she began to say as she and Brodus quickened their pace to keep up with her. Her voice was cut off though. A familiar groaning noise cut began to rumble through the hall, and Ula's stomach twisted in despair. Everyone was looking up when the gate dropped, cutting the passage in half. Zync yelped and leaped backwards, right into Jeremite as the iron bars narrowly missed his foot.

The alarm cut off the second the bars hit the ground. Jeremite quickly shoved the boy from Three off of him and leaped to his feet. His fists gripped the iron bars and he shook them furiously- or at least he tried to. They didn't budge. Realizing what he was going for, Calder quickly hopped to his feet as well, and though he wasn't nearly as bulky as Jeremite, he figured that whatever help he could give would be welcome. Jeremite didn't want help though. He elbowed Calder out of the way when he tried to start shaking the bars.

This wasn't according to his plan. The careers weren't supposed to split like this.

"Stop wasting your energy," Brodus said grimly from the other side of the gate. "It looks like they've gotten bored with us."

"We're stuck like this," Ula agreed quietly. Her expression mirrored Jeremite's though. Both of the pack's tactical leaders had identical looks of devastation.

"This can't be it though," Zync spoke up suddenly. "It's just a gate, there's got to be a way around it."

"We couldn't find a way around the other gate," Siobhan said.

"No," Jeremite cried out, as he kicked the bars.

"No Zync's right," Ula said slowly. "There's got to be a way around. We can meet up again."

"We've got to try," Calder nodded quickly.

"The Cornucopia," Jeremite growled letting go of his attempts to physically break the barrier. His cheeks were flushed and his hair was all awry. "We'll all round about and meet at the Cornucopia."

"Do you remember the way?" Siobhan asked quietly. Nobody answered her.

"We'll see you there," Ula spoke up after another moment. Biathyst meanwhile stood a little ways apart. She was the only one who didn't seem bothered in the slightest by their new predicament. In fact, she seemed mildly amused by the fit Jeremite was throwing. A light smirk played across her face as Brodus and Ula started to turn around and start walking.

"Or maybe not," she said quietly, her words directed solely to her District partner. A fire lit in his eyes as she turned around, one of her throwing knives spinning lightly in her hand. The careers were split, for better or for worse. It appeared not even the careers were safe anymore.

Sun by Two Doors Cinema

A/N No deaths, but I felt like this chapter didn't necessarily need any since it had a major plot turn in it. In case it wasn't clear. The career pack has been split in half, Brodus, Biathyst and Ula were together on one side of the gate, and Jeremite, Calder, Zync, and Siobhan were together on the other. I've been pretty excited for this chapter for a while now. I've never written about an alliance being unwillingly separated. And I like that by doing it this way, I could put a new spin on the inevitable breaking of the career pack. Also, with such a big pack, it's hard to focus on everyone's individual development (certain characters tend to fade in big groups). Now I can give everyone a bit more individual facetime without killing anyone off just yet. Hope you guys like what I did there.

Until next time,

Tales