Author's Note: HEY YOU GUYS! I'M BACK! (And weirder than ever...)

I am extremely sorry. Like, really, really, really sorry. I really shouldn't have gone without updating for so freaking long. It's literally been months, and I highly doubt that anyone is actually going to still be reading this. But I honestly owe it to y'all to get it finished, so I promise I will try my best, even though I'm extremely busy and have lost most of my drive for writing this...

Anyways, if you're still reading, I love you so much! :) Don't forget to review with your vote for this chapter (and feel free to continuously bug me via private message if I begin to take forever to update again!).

Cirstea(6):

Adena is already out for a swim by the time I wake up. I watch her through bleary eyes as I munch on a piece of dried fruit. She keeps diving under the water and coming back up with handfuls of stuff that she piles in the shallow water. I walk over to the pile and see an empty water bottle and a few vials of iodine. What are they doing in the water?

When Adena comes back up with an orange backpack, I realize that another tribute must have dumped all of the stuff from the Cornucopia into the lake to keep other tributes from getting it.

"Does this mean someone else can swim?" I ask Adena, who has just brought up a thin sleeping bag like the one she slept on last night. She suddenly looks quite worried.

"I think you're right," she says. "It's not a good sign. We might not be safe here."

"Did you see any food down there?"

"Not yet."

I sigh and sit down on the sand, taking off my shoes and letting my feet hang into the shallow water. Soon Adena finishes swimming and comes to sit next to me.

"So?" she says.

"So what?"

"What do you think? Are we safe? Should we move into the trees where we can hide?"

I think for a minute, letting my gaze wander to the forest around us. "I guess we should stay here," I say finally. "There can't be too many people who can swim, so we're more likely to actually run into someone out there. For now, I think we're safe."

"Alright, we'll stay here," she says, getting up and leaving me alone again. She sounds really worried, though, almost paranoid.

A little while later, I hear a sound. I scan the trees and see the girl from Two emerging onto the beach. I run for the cover of the Cornucopia and get in as deep as I can. Adena, who has already been sitting inside, asks why I've come in so fast.

"That girl from Two, the scary-looking one, is on the beach!" I tell her. Her eyes widen and she looks terrified.

"What are we going to do? Should we just hide in here?"

"What will that do? If she can't swim, does it matter if she knows we're here?"

"Do you know she can't swim?" Adena asks.

"No . . . But still, we need to get water and stuff. We can't stay hiding in here as long as she can wait out there. And besides, what good can she do? Unless she has a bow and arrows, she can't get her weapons at us. She has to swim out here."

"Yeah, but what if she makes an ally who can swim? Then we're trapped out here!"

I think quickly. "You're right, it's dangerous for people to know we're out here. We need to get out of here soon. Our best bet is probably to swim out onto the opposite side of the forest from where she is and then find a new water source."

For a while we stay in the Cornucopia in silence, watching Xena set up some of her stuff. I guess she doesn't care if she's out in the open, because no one wants to mess with her anyways. I don't know how much time passes, but after quite a while she disappears into the woods. She's left her stuff behind, though, so I can tell she'll be back.

"Let's go right now," Adena says. "We might not get a better chance."

I agree with her. We quickly pack our things and move to the edge of the water. I'm not exactly ready to go swimming again, but I really have no choice. And, after we get started, I realize it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I'm feeling stronger, and swimming isn't as hard for me as it was on the way to the island.

We swim as quietly as possible, and soon reach the beach. Wanting to find cover as soon as possible, we don't take a break to rest, but instead run as fast as we can into the woods, sand sticking to our wet bodies.

"Alright, I think we can stop now," says Adena finally, when we get quite a ways in from the beach. She slows to a stop and sits on a fallen tree, and I follow her lead. We take some time to get our breath back, and then I take a long drink.

Suddenly, I hear a rustling behind us, and Adena is gone in a second, taking her bag with her and leaving me behind. "Adena! Wait!" I say, hurrying after her, but something heavy and painful hits my back and I stumble to the ground. Why didn't she stay and help me? I think, tears falling down my face as I try to get up.

Twigs snap nearby, and for a wild moment I don't know where the noises are coming from. Then the girl from Two appears between the trees, an expression of rage on her face evident for a split second before it turns into a horrifying smile and she throws her spear at me. My world goes black.

Tana(8):

The Games are different with an ally. I wish I'd allied with Carbon from the start. He's smart, and knows how to do things that will help us survive.

Ironically, the only thing his skills haven't helped us with is the hunt for clean water. We've been searching all day, and part of yesterday, and we've found nothing. All we've had to drink is one water bottle each, sent this morning by our sponsors, but we've both polished them off. It's late afternoon, now, and we're thirsty again.

"Maybe we should go back to the lake. At least there's water there, right?" I say.

"No," Carbon says quickly. "That water isn't safe. I wouldn't drink it even if I had no other choice."

After we trudge on for a few more minutes, we hear a hovercraft, and soon after we find a silver parachute sailing down a few feet in front of us. I rush to grab it, and I find a vial of iodine and two large plastic jugs. They're empty.

"Huh," Carbon says. "If they were going to send us water jugs, they could have at least filled them with water first . . ."

My mind, however, is racing. Why would they send us water jugs if we have no water? And they wouldn't send us iodine if they actually sent water anyways, right?

"What if . . . What if they sent the jugs to us because we're near a water source?" I say. Without waiting for his answer, I quickly move to the nearest tree, taking hold of the lowest branches and pulling myself up. Once I am high enough, I look around the entire area until I spy it—I would never have seen it unless I had been looking for something like it specifically; I can't see any water itself, but there is a line cutting through the trees where no trees are growing.

I climb down, trying to remember the general direction. "I'm not exactly sure, but I think there might be a stream or a river over there," I point when I am safely on the ground. "There's a line where the trees are taller, and right in-between them there's a gap."

Carbon nods, and we head in the direction of my pointing. We walk for probably forty-five minutes before we can hear the soft sounds of rushing water and begin to celebrate. "We did it!" I say happily.

It's not so much a river as a stream, but the water looks pretty clean. After purifying it, even Carbon drinks it without hesitation. It's cold and refreshing, and we take turns bathing before we begin to search for a good place to set up camp.

Daunté(1):

Serina and Ash left us early this morning. They must have not wanted to have to turn on us, so they decided to make their own way now that they had supplies. Toggle, Myeeka and I, however, have set up camp a little ways away from the lake, so we can refill our water when necessary.

In fact, that's where Toggle is right now. Our water supplies were getting low, so he decided to go fill up the empty bottles while Myeeka and I hang our food in a tree so animals can't get at it. She's really good at things like this, and she's creating a makeshift pulley system so that we don't have to climb the tree every time we need to get our food down.

"There," she says with finality after making sure it works properly.

"Done?" I ask her.

"Yes." I watch as she sits down on a fallen tree and takes a sip of her water. She looks pretty even while she's drinking. She catches me staring, and I decide to join her on the log, taking a few water sips of my own.

"So," I say.

"So," she replies. Silence ensues. I notice goosebumps on her arms, and I become aware of how chilly it's getting.

"What happened to your sweater?" I ask her. She points to the food hanging in the tree, and I realize her sweater has become part of the contraption. "Oh," I say.

Silence again.

Her teeth begin to chatter, and I decide to say, "Well, if you're cold, do you want my sweater?"

She hesitates. "I'm fine . . ."

"Are you sure?"

"I guess . . . I mean, then you'll be cold."

"Well, I guess so, but it doesn't really matter . . ."

"Keep it, then," she says slowly.

After another minute of silence, I get up and pretend to search for something in my bag. When I don't find anything good, I decide to just repack it to kill time.

Suddenly, I hear footsteps behind me. I turn around, grabbing my sword, and get ready to strike, but it's only Toggle, carrying three full bottles of water.

"We've got water!" he announces almost too cheerfully, setting the bottles down. Myeeka gets up and moves towards him, letting him pull her into a hug.

"You were taking forever. I kept just listening for the cannon, hoping it wouldn't go off . . ." she says, anxiousness in her voice as she pulls away from him. Toggle doesn't take his hands off her arms; he rubs up and down as if to erase the goosebumps.

"I'm fine. The girl from Two was by the lake, so I had to take it slow and be extremely careful." Without skipping a beat, Toggle takes off his jacket and holds it open so Myeeka can put her arms in and pull it on.

"Xena?" Myeeka asks, her eyes wide. "Oh no. We need a safer water source." She pulls the jacket tight around her and adds a "Thank you".

"You're very welcome. And I think that you're right. We do need a safer water source. We can start hunting tomorrow."

I turn away from them. I can't watch anymore, and my own thoughts are drowning out what they are saying. This isn't fair! He knows her so well, and I don't have a chance.

Please submit your vote for this chapter. Among the dead are:

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