A/N : Another update guys! Warning for a bit gory scene, and blood. I think that's all, for now ...

Thank you for the nice reviews, faves, and new followers! Special thanks to starkidllamas-llama for spreading this and earning me some lovely feedbacks from her watchers, you're the best!

Thanks again for reading and I hope you like this chapter!

Joey and Bonnie were thrown out of the ground when suddenly a loud explosion blasted from behind them. They were lucky that the trees were protecting them from most of the impact, but nevertheless it still knocked them off.

Thick smoke started to cover the entire forest. From his side, Bonnie began to cough heavily from the lack of oxygen. Joey himself felt as if his lungs were on fire; and also warm liquid trickled down from his hair to be added to his bad luck list.

As he groaned and tried to drag himself up, he looked through his shoulder and found the part of the forest they just left were being consumed by fire. Whatever exploded earlier must have been causing the sparks.

They need to move quickly before the fire caught up with them or worse, there was going to be another explosion.

"Bonnie, you alright?" Joey knelt beside his still coughing partner and tried to check on her condition. Her right sleeve was torn badly from the flying debris and tinted her sea storm green jacket with blood, making his heart clenched at the sight.

In quick move, he took her backpack, moved the water and first aid kit box to his, and leave the rest to lessen the weight he carried. Then, slowly, he maneuvered her left arm to his shoulder and slowly dragged her up with him while using his spear to support him.

"Wait," she gasped, making a sign to her abandoned bow and quiver before coughing again.

"Leave it, we need to get out of here now!"

As they was about to walk away, few rabbits and squirrels were passing them, possibly to a safer place. Joey followed one of them and rely their fate on the animals' instinct.

They walked slowly but the crackling of burnt trees started to fade away on their back. Joey prayed that there would not be another explosion and luckily they had not heard one since the last one. From time to time he glanced at Bonnie; she had stopped coughing but blood still dripping from his right hand and her face started to look pale.

They kept walking for about an hour until Joey saw something white covering the ground in front of them.

"Is that . . . snow?" Joey squinted his eyes in disbelief.

Apparently, he was right. They had reached the other side of the forest and at the open space they were heading to lay a small mountain covered with snow. The air suddenly turned colder on the contrary of the heat they just left.

Joey helped Bonnie rested on the tree where the snow started to appear. While she was catching her breath, Joey put his spear on the ground then knelt beside her. He fetched the first aid kit and a bottle of water from his bag.

"Here," he unscrewed the cap and gave the bottle to her, which she accepted gratefully and gulping it in a second. Joey then walked toward the nearest pile of snow and scooped some of it before going back to her.

"Can you take off your jacket?" he asked as he knelt on her right side with the snow. Bonnie nodded; after putting down the bottle, slowly she unzipped the jacket and tried to slip her right hand from it. She bit her lips to hold back groan when the blood made the fabric stuck with the torn skin beneath it when she tried to pull it off.

"Okay, forget it. Just leave it there," Joey quickly stopped her when he saw the problem. Gently, he pressed the snow onto the wound and held his hands there. Bonnie gasped but did not dare to look at him; she simply continued to bite his lips and concentrated on not crying.

Joey maintained the position for a couple of minutes before letting it fall into the ground and took out the bandage. He moved quickly by wrapping it above the jacket, no longer trying to pull it off. He heard Bonnie sighed slowly in relieve and let herself leaned back in less tense pose.

"Thanks" she murmured slowly as he finished trying the bandage. Joey shrugged it off; he leaned back beside her and took the bottle which he emptied it in a second.

"What just happened back there?" he said in disbelief, now having time to think of it.

"Quarter Quell. That's what happened."

Neither was talking for a moment after that, each tribute trying to cope what had happened few hours ago. It was supposed to be a clean hunting mission, now that they got the tracking device. They did not expect to end up like this. Joey considered themselves lucky, though, for getting out of there only with concussion and bleeding arms.

One wrong step and their names were going to be announced as dead tributes.

"I still think this is a stupid idea, Elona," Chris grunted, removing the knife to the other hand as he used the right one to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

"You're the one who stupid," she retorted back. "The Capitol won't just blow out an area if there are no tributes near it. This is our chances to get more supply from the injured ones. Besides, no one will think we're going toward there so stop your yapping already!"

"I just hope whoever we met later have at least food with them. I'm starving," he sighed.

Elona did not appear to be listening to him and continued to talk."I'm pretty confident about us winning this, Chris. Sixteen tributes left, can't you believe it! No one will see it coming," she finished his words with a big grin on her face. "No one will see us as a threat. Let the Careers hunt the others and then kill each other; and when they are weak enough, when no one will interfere, we kill them."

"Now you sound like them."

"I'll do anything to go back, including become their pion."

Chris rolled his eyes and continued to walk. Her ambitious actions like now started to frightening him. If she was not his partner, he would definitely kill her on the bloodbath.

He tried to avoid talking to her and pretended looking at their surrounding. That was when he saw something on the grass on his right.

"Elona, look!" he abruptly stopped her and pointed at the ground they were passing at.

A trail of blood was heading toward the West part of the forest.

"See?" she put a smug victorious smile on her face as her eyes trailing the blood.

"We got them."

"At least we broke the alliance," Joey suddenly said, breaking the silence.

Bonnie sighed. "But I lost my bow and arrows."

"I save you the knives, don't worry," he tried to comfort her but her attitude suddenly went back to the old Bonnie from the train.

"You don't get it, do you? That weapon was like my right arm! I can't believe you prefer saving the knives instead."

"You know I was a little bit occupied that moment, right? Trying to save you, remember?" Anger started to boil inside him but he tried his best to hold it down.

"Save me to die next time! You know I can't use a damn knife! And there you are, carrying a spear like an idiot. Why don't you leave it instead? I think a Victor's Blood will be just fine with any kind of weapon." Her voice was a bit weak to call it as shouting but the words did not fail to hurt him nevertheless.

"Well, sorry if I thought you value the bow more than your own life," Joey retorted sarcastically, now moving away from her side to face her instead. "Next time I'll . . ."

When he shifted his gaze, he suddenly caught a flash of Foie Gras Grey jacket from behind a tree, about fifteen meters from them. He cursed when the color did not disappear and instead splitting into two tributes, who now ran toward their direction.

"What are you doing?" Bonnie asked him confusedly when he scrambled to his feet and searching for something from the backpack.

"We've been trailed." He held the set of knives in front of her while picking up his spear. "Find a place to hide; I'll hold them."

Bonnie's expression was a mix between fear and hesitation when she saw the upcoming tributes and back to the knives. "But I don't . . . "

"Yes, you can!" he shouted in frustration, shoving the weapon onto her uninjured hand. "GO!"

She quickly pulled herself up with the help from the tree and moved slowly toward the snowy area. From the corner of his eyes, he saw her clutching her right arm while holding the knives on the same time. Hoping that Bonnie could escape, he turned his gaze back to their enemies.

Now that they were getting closer to Joey, he got a clearer vision on them. He recognized them as the tributes from Ten, Elona and Chris he thought; he saw them wandering at the combat station after the Careers left it. It seemed that they managed to get something from the Cornucopia before they monopolized it; both of them were having a big knife on their hand.

Elona was the first one to lunge at him. Without any hesitation or fear in her eyes, she swung the knife toward him. Joey moved quickly by blocking it with his spear and twisted it in the air making a slashing move to force her back, but she bowed her body and continued to fight back viciously.

Chris soon caught up with his partner but to Joey's fear he did not stop to help her but instead he ran passed him toward Bonnie's direction.

"Hey!" Joey was ready to leave her and ran after the other one but the distraction earned him a scratch on his left arm and torn his jacket.

"Going somewhere?" she asked, grinned like a lunatic.

Joey dropped the entire 'I-can't-fight-a-girl' attitude and went all out after that. He stabbed the spear onto her direction but again she sneaked away from it and almost got him again if he did not change the spear's direction to block her knife.

After exchanging attacks few times, Joey managed to get even with her by making a big scar on her right leg and upper arm, but she still had not given up yet. Few times he took a worry glance to his back to find Bonnie or Chris but he saw nothing. For a non Career tribute, Elona was pretty good with the weapon. He knew she was only stalling him here so Chris could kill Bonnie then helped him after that.

Bonnie was right; he should take the bow instead of the spear. He never realized that he was not that good at using one until the very moment.

With that conclusion in his mind, he threw the spear toward her direction and without bothering if it landed on the target or not, he ran toward Elona empty handed.

Elona's eyes widened from shock for a second but she recovered quickly and raised her knife to anticipate him. When he went inside her weapon's reach, she lunged toward him but Joey smacked her hand hard and knocked the knife off to the ground. She tried to throw a punch but Joey caught her fist and twisted it until it made a sickening crack. Elona screamed in pain but Joey did not stop there; he pushed her onto the ground and pinned her on her back. She frantically kicked her legs to get him off her but he planted both of his knees firmly on both side of her body and locked her there. His right hand held both of her hands while the other searching for Elona's knife.

For the first time since he saw Elona, he sensed fear on her; but still, she refused to go down without a fight or beg for mercy. Joey gritted his teeth as he tried to hold both of her rebellious slender wrists, broken or not. His fingers finally found the knife and with that he raised his hand above her.

"JOEY!"

Bonnie's broken voice made his mind blank for a second. He turned his head to find her but again he found no one. The voice was pretty clear, which meant that she was not too far from him.

He looked down to Elona again. His moral problem that he had since before the game came back. He knew what he should do, but he just could not. Then again, Bonnie needed him right now and he was wasting their time.

"Your friend is going to die and here you are, having a moral dilemma," Elona laughed soundlessly despite the tears that smeared her face, recognized his hesitation. "How cute."

Joey brought down the knife's butt and slammed it hard to her head, which instantly shut her up as she passed out.

Without wasting more time, Joey ran toward the direction Bonnie headed earlier still carrying the knife with him. His boots immediately sank into the snow but kept running forward, following the footprints that apparently headed to a lower hill. The footprints soon accompanied by drops of blood, much to his worry.

"Bonnie!" Joey shouted from the top of his lungs, running faster when the amount of blood on the snow was increasing worriedly.

Please be safe. Please be safe . . .

After what seemed like a year he circled the hill he finally, finally found them.

The sight made his whole body frozen in pure horror.

Bonnie was slumped on the ground, hand clutching onto one of the knives he gave her but looked ready to pass out any time soon. The snow around her was red with her blood that oozing from her already injured arm and the new one on her waist. Chris, on the other hand, was standing above her. Joey could only look at his back but the way he stood limply showed that Bonnie also managed to hurt him.

Joey stood only few meters from behind Chris and it seemed that both of them had not notice his presence yet. He carefully walked slowly toward them; knife was ready when he heard Chris talking to Bonnie.

"You Careers are so arrogant," he wheezed the word, sounded out of breath. "Elona was right; we can actually win this."

"Joey," Bonnie gasped, still calling for him. Her voice was almost gone but she did not stop; Joey's heart sunk every time she said his name but he did not dare to move carelessly when the man stood too near to her with a knife was still on his hand.

"He won't come!" he shouted suddenly. "Elona probably have killed him by now, or maybe he ran away. I bet for the last one since you're just a bunch of cowards who are lucky to have the big weapons."

Joey now stood less than a meter from Chris and his eyes suddenly met with Bonnie's. She blinked few times to see if she was hallucinating or not. Joey put a finger on his lips and that was when she let tears fell from her eyes and sobbed with relief.

"What are you . . ."

Before he could finish his words, Joey grabbed onto Chris' shoulder and stabbed his back with Elona's knife.

"You just lost the bet," Joey spat it on his ear and gave a twist on the knife. Chris gasped in shock and when Joey pulled out the knife, he dropped unceremoniously to the ground followed by the sound of cannon echoing on the air in the next second.

Joey threw the knife away and quickly came to Bonnie's aid. "Bonnie, are you okay?" He dropped himself in front of her and let her head rest on his shoulder while he supported her and tried to stop the bleeding on her waist at the same time. "God, I'm sorry I'm too late!"

"'s kay," she murmured tiredly. "Sorry, for earlier."

"Just forget it, okay?" he told her, leaned his head to her head and gave a hug they both needed.

Another cannon suddenly exploded, announcing another dead tribute for that day. Joey did not care who it was for that time.

All that matter was it was not for Bonnie.

"I can't believe he didn't kill her," Jamie frowned, coming from behind a tree as Joey left Elona for Bonnie. Jeff appeared from next to her and both of them approached the unconscious female tribute, observing her.

"They should teach their Careers how to take off their heart first before learning anything about killing," Jeff shook his head in slight disgust. He squatted beside Elona while pulling out his cleaver from the jacket and positioned it on her neck.

"No matter, we'll do him the favor." With that, he ended her life in just one movement and the cannon blasted above them.

"Should we go after him?" Jamie asked in casual tone, looking toward the direction where Joey disappeared just now.

"Nah," Jeff said, now stood up and put his cleaver back to its place. "The game hasn't even begun. It would be a shame if the strongest ones were dead already, wouldn't it?"

I hope that wasn't too gory for your taste. Please let me know what you think by reviewing!

Spolier : Next chapter will be a confrontation between District 4 and District 12, you know where this would be heading to right? ;)