Thank you EmberLex, I love this beauty. Did I get her personality right? If not let me know please. Also I gave her claustrophobia if that's ok?

Also, I've been trying to write longer chapters so now they are about 700-900 words long. Plus, my reviews aren't showing up until like a week after they are posted so it's super hard to reply to people, sorry.

But, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! :)

[Zella's POV]

After the timer was finished, I ran. With all of the chaos of the bloodbath, nobody had given the arena a thought.

Now, I look up at the tall, green hedges that tower about thirty feet above me, and I'm reminded what the battlefield is this year.

A maze.

A cramped.

Compact.

Claustrophobic.

Maze.

I take a deep breath. I'll be okay. My claustrophobia isn't that bad. Not as bad as it used to be anyway.

It's day... 3 now? 4? 2? I've lost track already. I look at the sun, a skill I picked up during training, and see that it's around 10:00am if I'm correct.

Then I swing into a tree. it's right next to the wall of the maze. Maybe if I climb high enough, I can escape the boundaries of it and gain an advantage over my opponents.

I throw my heel up onto the nearest grip of the tree and start climbing. I twist my hips and try to jump to grab the next branch.

Once I'm at the top, my claustrophobia wears down a bit and I can see far more than I could on the ground. I try to reach over to the wall that's so close now. So close.

I slip and stumble on the branch; falling means death, and I'm not going to fall.

I hurl my body at the maze wall and my fingers grip the top. Grip life. Falling means death, and I'm not going to fall.

I hang for a moment, dazed. Then I find the strength to pull myself up and onto the top of the metal wall.

The ground is so far beneath me now but falling means death, and I'm not going to fall.

I laugh. I laugh and yell a curse word out to the Capitol. Then I start to walk.

I break into a sprint and for the first time since I entered this wretched arena, I feel alive.

Not free; alive. It's nice really. I like the feeling. I haven't had this feeling in a long time.

I hear faint whispers to my right and I look down on the sound. It's Jaycen, my District partner, and somebody else who has their back to me. All I can see is that he has black hair.

The black-haired boy turns around I see...that's Markus! A handshake, then a bear hug and they both sit down to eat. So Jaycen Thorne and Markus Dilson have allied.

I wonder if maybe I should ally with somebody, but I don't want to risk betrayal. I'd also probably have to tell them about myself too. No. I'm not going to ally.

A cry for help shakes me from my thoughts and I stop dead in my tracks. It came from right beneath me.

I peer over the side of the wall and gasp. The mangled body of Timin Rosh, a brutal Career and District 4 male, lies there, unmoving. Blood spills from open wounds on his throat, abdomen and thigh.

I step backwards and try to swallow but I feel as though there is a ball of wax in my throat.

He's dead. There's a dead body right beneath me.

A hovercraft appears in the sky and a second later, he's gone without a trace.

So who killed him? There was no evidence of his killer. It could be any of the seventeen remaining tributes.

I carry on walking and somehow his mangled corpse slips back into my mind.

His bood flowed, thick and dark, from a slash across his gut, spilling out a disgusting mixture of stomach juices and red liquid

"It had to be done. Repeat it to yourself. It had to be done."

I spotted maggots. They were flecks of white embedded within his mangled flesh. Squirming and wriggling in the mass of skin, beaten black and blue.

"It had to be done. Repeat it to yourself. It had to be done."

His once alive features were dotted with bulging bruises, and death had frozen his face into a stiff position that looked as if he were shouting, a final, cry for help before descending into heaven.

"It had to be done. Repeat it to yourself. It had t--"

My stomach lurches, and a churning mixture of what little breakfast I had fills my mouth. I swallow the bile which only urges me to bring it back up again.

It's disgusting. That image. That horrible, gory image that will plague my dreams tonight. Tonight only. I stop and fall to my knees, my forehead pressed to the cool metal of the wall beneath me.

One

I swallow a little more vomit.

Two

Forget, forget, forget.

Three.

I stand.

I have to forget about it. People die and you have to move on. So, I move on.

I run again.