I don't own the hunger games.

I froze. "What?" Tom and Chris tensed up behind me, ready to jump this dude if they need to. Sam laughed. "Don't worry! Tony's dead." Tom and Chris stepped in front of me. "And how does that make anything better?" Tom looked just about ready to punch Sam back to the time of the Ancients. Sam inched backwards, nervously. Tom kept walking forward. Before long, Sam had his back to the rock, and no place to run. "So you kidnap Caro and Abby, then take Abby away, where we can't find her, without explaining anything, then you kill your friend, and you expect us to trust you?" At this point, Tom, despite being at least 4 inches shorter, pretty scrawny, and with the general appearance of a 12 or 13 year old, was in Sam's face. Sam was freaking out. "I-it's n-not w-what it s-sounds like!" Tom gritted his teeth. "What does it sound like?" Sam swallowed. "Um... Please don't hurt me!" Tom balled his hands into fists. Oh crap. Someone's gonna get hurt.

He raised a fist. Tom! Control yourself. You're on a cliff and he's a lot bigger than you. I don't want you to get hurt. Tom paused, giving Abby enough time to push Sam out of the way, making Tom's fist miss Sam's head, and smash into the rock with a sickening crunch, breaking off a few pieces of stone, and messing up his knuckles very badly. Tom screamed, Sam fell, Abby fell on top of him, Chris grabbed Tom so he can't kill anyone, Rick and Rel grabbed me so I don't get hurt trying to stop Tom from punching out Chris, and I fell on Rick and Rel. We all landed in a heap.

Tom was the first to get up. "What the hell, man?" Chris rubbed his shoulder, which apparently was sore from where Tom punched him. "Did you have to punch me?" Meanwhile, I slowly got up. "Ow. You guys are HARD!" Rick smiled. "You like it. Don't deny it." I rubbed my hip. "I'm not saying I don't, I'm just saying ow! You guys are really hard..." They laughed. "What can I say? The ladies love it." I winced, then mumbled, "yeah. And I probably have a bruise the shape of your abs on my back now..." Tom cut in. Oh shut up you and I both know you love it I turned and saw Tom, grinning like a little boy that just caught his older sister doing something she shouldn't be doing, and was about to tell mom. I gave him The Death Glare (this incredibly scary glare that I give people that equates to about an hour of yelling, beating, and guilting). Tom instantly backed off. Sorry just saying! Don't have to get all demonic on me... I smiled, and all was forgiven. I walked up to Chris. "Hey you okay?" He winced, and forced a smile. "Well, Tom's pretty strong for a little guy... But I should be fine" I smiled. "Okay. Well if anything we have cold packs at camp." Something told me he would need a cold pack... After all, I've seen the result of Tom punching someone before, and it gets ugly...

Then, we turned our attention back to Sam and Abby, who were together in a corner. Rick and Rel clapped their hands, startling them. "Okay time to split up this little love-fest now..." Rick grabbed Sam by the arm, and lifted him to his feet, then Rel grabbed Abby, who was protesting loudly. Then, Tom and Rick tied Sam's hands loosely in front of him, not enough to permanently bind him, though, just enough to slow him down enough so that he can't follow.

Then, we walked back to camp. Abby, who was slung over Rel's shoulder, was screaming, crying, kicking, and clawing almost all the way to camp. Good thing she didn't have my nails, otherwise Rel's back would have been gone before we got down the cliff! Anyways, she exhausted herself and fell asleep a few minutes before we reached camp. When we were finally there, Rel laid Abby down on her bed, then walked over to me and Tom. "Hey, can you guys put some alcohol on my back? I think I'm bleeding..." We nodded, and went to get the kit.

When we returned, Rel was sitting shirtless on a log, facing us, his insane abs in full view, and Chris was standing behind him, making a weird face, and speaking in a strangely high-pitched tone. "Well... It's really not that bad... Just a couple of scratches... I'm sure it's nothing!" We came and instructed Rel to sit on our "hospital bed," which in reality was a bed of moss, covered in a tarp, elevated on a few logs. That was when I saw the full extent on the wounds Abby inflicted. His back was raw and bleeding, with some pretty deep gashes from Abby's nails. Aside from that, he had bruises on his chest and back from Abby's kicking and punching. I sighed. Time to get to work.

Tom and I spend a good half hour cleaning out and bandaging Rel's back, and massaging crushed peppermint leaves into the bruises. After all was said and done, Rel looked (and probably felt) a lot better. Then, we turned to Chris, who was still massaging his shoulder. Tom laughed quietly. "C'mon, man! I didn't hit you THAT hard! Stop being a girl." Chris looked at me. "So how about that cold pack?" That was when Rel jumped in. "Yeah I really think we should take a look at it... Because we don't want it to be permanently injured... I mean I'm pretty sure you can trust Caro, like, didn't she fix your leg?" He looked from Rel, to me, then at his shoulder, before sighing, and rolling up the sleeve on his t-shirt. "Okay, but I'm sure it's nothing."

One look at that shoulder told me it was most definitely NOT nothing. It was already turning different colors, and, by the looks of it, it was completely dislocated. This was bad. Very, very bad. Tom swore and left, and Rel looked away. "Damn! That's not good!" Chris started to panic. "What?" I took a deep breath. "Relax, I can fix this. I just need you to bend your arm... no like this... Okay now lift it..." And his shoulder popped back into place. Then, I took a syringe full of healing liquid, and injected that into his shoulder to fix any torn ligaments. Then, gave him a cold pack to put on it. Tom came back after a minute. "So... I guess my punch has gotten a bit stronger..." I turned around. "Yeah just a bit... You know, you only completely dislocated his shoulder!" And with that, we all started laughing. A few apologies later, all was forgiven and forgotten.

After a quick lunch of berries and some rabbit that the boys caught, we all sat down to talk about what we were going to do about Abby and Sam. We all decided that Sam can definitely not be trusted, and can certainly not know the location of our camp. We came to the conclusion that we'll let Abby see him if she must, but only well away from camp, and she can't tell him about us, telepathy, or camp.

We told her all this when she woke up, and, well... She wasn't happy, that's for sure... Upon hearing the news, she slapped Rick in the face, and kicked Tom in the groin before Rel managed to grab her and stop her from hurting anyone else. That was when she started screaming. "Let me go, you f%#$er!" She also started trying to claw his arms, so Rel, who obviously learned his lesson from last time, grabbed her hands, crossed them across her abdomen, and held her tightly against him, forming a sort of human straightjacket. Abby lost it at that point. She was thrashing, screaming, swearing, and kicking anything she could reach; Rel's shins, us, the ground, herself, logs, rocks... Rel wrapped a leg around hers, balancing on one leg, and leaning against the tree to stop her from hurting herself. "Shhhhhhh. Calm down. You're gonna hurt yourself!" She thrashed some more, and bit her tongue. She spat out the blood.. "Why? So you can keep me from seeing Sam? So you can judge him, even though you don't know $h!t about him?" Rel held her tighter. "Stop it! You're seriously gonna hurt yourself!" She apparently didn't care, so she started yelling again. "Get off me, you pervert!" She proceeded to yell at and insult him, even telling him to go f#$ himself, that she's not his whore, and that he'd better stop "rubbing his junk on her" or she'll call rape. (that made everyone but Rel giggle like little kids) In a word, she was furious.

Rel, on the other hand, aside from looking uncomfortable from Abby's previous comment, was calm. "Abby. Listen to me, okay? If you calm down, and I can trust that you wont hurt yourself, or anyone else, I'll let you go. Okay?" She started trying to claw his hands. "No you're not! You're just a sick b$%#d who wants to 'get some,' and you sure as hell wont get that from me, so you'd better let me go right now!" Rel shifted his grip on her hands. I could already tell his hands had claw marks. Deep ones. "Look. Do think I'm taking any pleasure from this? Because if you do, you're wrong. I'd rather not be restraining anyone, much less someone 2 years younger, who I barely know, and wants nothing but to be away from me! I'm not taking any sick pleasure out of this, and I don't want to be doing this any more than you, okay? So just relax! Then, I'll let you go, we'll all sit down, talk, and discuss like regular people in stead of me having to restrain you like some animal!" Abby still didn't calm down. She even tried to hit his groin with a hip once, but it didn't work, so she went back to clawing his hands into oblivion. Meanwhile, we all sat and watched.

After a good half hour or so, Abby calmed down, then started crying. Rel turned her around and gave her a hug. "Shhh. It's okay. You'll see him tomorrow." As he patted her on the back with his bleeding hands, leaving bloody stains on the back of her shirt, she sobbed. "No... I'm so sorry! I-I didn't want to hurt you..." At that, we laughed. Rel shot us a dirty look. "It's okay! We have Caro here, and we have tons of medical supplies, so if anything, she can always patch me up, and it's just a couple flesh wounds, nothing serious!" She cried a bit more, then walked out of camp.

Chris decided he'd go look for her. I quickly bandaged Rel's hands and arms, and put some stitches in Tom's knuckles, then I caught up with him. We walked around the woods for a half hour, when we finally found her in the oasis. She was sitting at the creek, barefoot and with her toes in the water. She was smiling, staring into the water, and giggling every time a fish came and tried to nibble on her toes with it's tiny toothless jaws. In a word, she was happy, unlike how she was earlier with Rel. Chris stepped on a twig. Hearing this, Abby turned, smiling. "Sam?" She saw me, and the smile left her face. "Oh... It's you." Then, I got it. She was waiting for Sam, and, by the looks of it, he wasn't coming. She looked at me. He's not coming, is he? I shook my head. "No, I don't think he is." She sighed. "I didn't think he would..."

She got up, and slowly walked along the creek, finally stopping to sit on a large flat rock. I sat beside her, as she started crying. Meanwhile, Chris stood awkwardly behind us, unsure of what to do. I smiled at him. "Sit!" I said, patting a spot on the rock. He sat down, relieved, and tried to say something to help the situation. "Look, I'm sure this Sam guy's gonna come sooner or later, and if he doesn't it's his loss, okay?" He looked at me, wondering if he said it right. I smiled and nodded supportively. Abby sniveled. "O-okay." I gave her a hug. "You don't need him! You're Abby Triv! Independent genius child extraordinaire! You don't need a man! You got yourself, and you're so strong, and smart, no man can surpass that, because let's face it! They're MEN! All they can hope to do's keep up!" Chris looked at me defiantly. "Hey! Are you insulting my gender?" Abby giggled. "Yeah I think she is."

He got up. "Oh then that does it!" He picked me up, and carried me over to the edge of the rock, which was overhanging a deep pool, and swung me over the edge. I laughed then screamed, and held onto him, as if that would change anything. He smiled, and whispered. "One... Two... And three!" At that, he threw me off the rock, and sent me falling into the pool 7 meters below, laughing and screaming the whole way down. I hit the warm water hard, and swam out of the way, while Chris jumped. I splashed him. "What was that for?" He laughed. "That's what you get for calling men dumb!"

Then, Abby's head peeked over the edge of the rock, mentally calculating the distance, human terminal velocity, and the force of impact she will have on the water, no doubt. We cheered her on. "Come on, Abby! The water's great!" She started to withdraw her head. "B-but it's high! What if I bellyflop, or hit a rock? I'll die!" Chris and I laughed at that comment. I yelled back, "c'mon! Chris threw me down here and I'm fine!" At that, I tried to shove him, but only ended up sending myself floating sideways. Abby's head re-appeared. "O-okay..." Then, it disappeared over the cliff again. I laughed. "Don't make us come up there and get you!" A second later, Abby flung herself over the edge, screaming "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" the whole way down. She landed with a huge splash.

We swam and relaxed in the oasis for a while, when I heard a noise from above. I raised a hand. "Shh! I hear something." Then, an arrow whizzed by my head and made a little splash in the water. DIVE! follow me! I screamed into everyone's head. We all dove, and swam into an underwater tunnel I noticed while I was swimming. It opened up into an underwater cave, and we followed that up, surfacing in a subterranean beach, illuminated by small holes in the roof of the place. It was exactly like my cove.

I got out of the water and sat on the sandy beach. Chris followed, then finally Abby emerged, gasping for air. "Couldn't you have told us that we were going scuba diving, and maybe we should take a deep breath first?" I blinked. "We didn't go scuba diving... Just a short underwater swim..." She sighed, exasperated. "Caro, not everyone has superhuman lungs like you do!" I brought a hand to my mouth in realization. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I forgot..." I immediately felt terrible. I forgot that I could hold my breath much longer than anyone else... Oops. Chris laughed. "Well at least we're safe now, right?" I nodded. "Yeah. I don't think they can follow us here." Abby snorted. "A dolphin can't follow us here, and they can hold their breaths for 20 minutes!" I looked downward. "Oopsie?" Abby freaked out. "Oopsie? That's all you have to say? OOPSIE?" Thankfully, Chris came to my aid. "Hey at least we're in here, safe, and not out there under fire!" That shut Abby up for a while, and she just sat, disgruntled, wile I walked around the cove, smiling at the similarities.

I was sitting on the soft sand watching the water softly ripple, when Chris came and sat down next to me. "You look like you know this place." I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, there's a place like this in 4... but it's the inside of a hollow island. That's how I knew to go this way. I went to my cove almost every day back at home..." He smiled. "Your cove? I guess you must have been the only one that could hold their breath long enough to get there, eh?" I nodded and sighed, as I felt a wave of homesickness rush over me. My eyes welled up with tears, and soon, the tears were rolling down my cheeks, leaving soft, wet trails of betrayal down my face, and collecting in salty puddles on the corners of my lips, before finally rolling down the sides of my chin, and falling onto my soaked pants. I took a shaky breath. Calm down, I told myself, Just relax. Don't show him any weakness.

Too late. He looked at me, concerned. "Are you okay?" I took an other breath, this one even more shaky than the last, and the tears turned into waterfalls, cascading down my soft, blushing cheeks. I swallowed. "I'm fine.. It's just..." Ant then it all came out. "I-I just miss home so much! This place, it's so scary. We can't be safe anywhere! And I don't know who to trust, who to be careful around... I don't know if I can trust Abby, Rel... Hell, I don't even know if I can trust you!" My chest was heaving now, with shaky breaths, as I tried to keep the tears at bay, but to no avail. He hugged me. "It's okay. We're all homesick, and everyone here's just as scared. Don't worry, you can trust me."

I took a shaky breath, and relaxed into his arms. For the first time since the reaping, I felt safe. I smiled through my tears. I wished I could stay like that forever, safe and sound. I deeply wished it didn't have to be that way, that one of us didn't have to die, for the other to be able to live. I knew in my heart that I couldn't kill him. Not after everything he did for me. Abby's voice drifted through my mind. Awwwwn! Caro's in looooove! I closed my eyes, ignoring her. I didn't know what this feeling was. I was pretty sure it couldn't be love, though. I barely even knew him, so how could I have fallen in love? No, I decided. It can't be love, at least not yet. That's when Tom, apparently hearing Abby, came in. For God's sakes, Caro, just admit it! You want him. I sighed inwardly. Oh shut up! I wished I could turn off my telepathy for a few minutes, because I knew this wouldn't last forever, and I wanted to enjoy it.

Soon, too soon, the moment was broken up by Abby screaming. I slid away from Chris, and we both ran to see what Abby was screaming about. She was pointing at the water, terrified. That was when I noticed what she was screaming about. The water was rising, and fast. Then I remembered that my cove did that too, every day at 6 o'clock. The water would rush out of the roof like geysers, making "the 6 o'clock geysers of district 4" I immediately knew that if we were going to get out of here, we had to act fast. I raised my voice. "Okay, listen. I know what to do." Although, in reality, I did know what to do... In theory...

My heart started pounding harder as the water passed our necks, and soon, we were forced to tread water. By the time we were halfway to the roof, my stomach was in knots. "Okay, now here's the tricky part... Just pick a hole, and as soon as you're out, move out of the way, okay?" They agreed. I smiled, building up my confidance. "Okay."

Suddenly, the water started rushing up super fast. Abby reached her hole first, and was out, then Chris climbed out. I was last, and I missed my hole by a foot. The water slammed me into the rock above. All of the air was pressed out of my chest. I was trapped down there, and nobody could help me.