Sorry if this is a really short chapter. This is the last POV for day 3, so I can't really add anyone else.

Merryn Circa, District 6, 13 years old

It's the first cannon that finally jolts me back into reality. I jump to my feet, taking a deep breath and brushing my hair out of my eyes. Diana and Sascha have both run off into the woods, leaving me here alone in the clearing.

I'm at a total loss as to what to do. I can't just sit here while my entire alliance gets massacred, but how in the world could I help? I glance down at the small knife in my belt, trying to imagine myself facing down a Career with it. The idea is laughable.

I finally give up and start running toward the voices. I hate going into a situation without a plan like this, but I don't really see any other option.

A cannon fires, and I wince. I know, no matter how hard I try to convince myself otherwise, that either Emerianne, Jendra, or Diana is probably dead. I pass Sascha, who is blinking dazedly on the ground. His face is a strange combination of angry and confused, but he's breathing, so I don't stop.

Another cannon.

I duck a low-hanging tree branch and dive into the underbrush. It was leafy and green on the first day, but now it's dry and brown, barely thick enough to conceal me. As soon as the scene hits my eyes, I have to look down and cover my mouth to prevent a moan from escaping my lips. Jendra is lying face-down in the middle of the clearing, a spear rammed into his back, a horrifying amount of blood sinking into the already-rain-soaked dirt around him.

For a moment, I gape silently, unable to register anything else. Jendra is dead. Dead. Even though I talked to him last night. And honestly, out of the whole alliance, I probably knew him the least, but…

I'm going to die. I really, truly, am going to die, and so is Emerianne and Diana and…

Emerianne and Diana. I realize that Emerianne is lying on her stomach right in front of me, so close that I just noticed her. A Career boy is also dead, his neck torn open. There have only been two cannons. She's still alive.

And then the District Two boy looms into my vision, stepping backwards. I wince as his shoe narrowly misses Emerianne's arm. Diana lunges after him with a wild, furious yell, wielding a spear, and I realize that she must have killed the other Career boy. But she's in over her head, I can already tell. She is going to die. But maybe I can save Emerianne.

I know that I'm taking a risk, but I think I can rely on the other Careers being distracted by the fight. I reach my hand out of the bush tentatively and pat the side of Emerianne's face. My hand comes away wet with tears and rain. Her eyes shoot open instantly, and I realize with a pang of sympathy that she's been conscious the entire time, afraid to open her eyes.

I gesture for her to follow me, looking around the clearing as best I can and checking to make sure that the other Careers aren't looking. She scoots forward on her stomach, and I wince every time the dry brush crackles, but none of the teenagers in the clearing are paying attention. There is a bloody slash across her back, but it doesn't seem terribly deep.

My eyes widen as Diana charges at the Career boy, and I realize instantly what's going to happen, what she doesn't notice in her berserk state. I know that I should look away, but I can't. Emerianne sees my wide eyes and starts to turn, but I lean to the side, blocking her view just as Diana charges onto the saber. I know that we're the same age, but for some reason I don't want her to see.

I can't hear anything through the rain, but I imagine that I do, and it's the worst sound I've heard in my life. My mouth opens slightly, and I sway, feeling sick.

Emerianne mouths my name questioningly. I close my eyes and shake my head, repressing my reaction for later. We extract ourselves from the underbrush as silently as we can, flinching simultaneously when Diana's cannon fires.

We run until we're sure that we are out of earshot. "What now?" she asks quietly. I can't tell if she's crying, with the rain dripping down her face, but her voice is choked-up.

"The castle," I decide after a moment. I'm not crying. All I feel is a dull, cold weight in my stomach, because I think that, all along, I was the only one who fully understood that something like this was going to happen. Of course, I had assumed that I would be one of the first ones lying dead. "We'll find Sascha first."

Emerianne looks a little confused, but she follows me as I jog the path between the clearing and the… place. When we get to where Sascha had been sitting, though, there's nothing there. I continue on to the clearing, but he's not there, either. But there have only been three cannon, and I know who they were. I don't understand. Where would he go? Why?

"He left, didn't he?" Emerianne whispers.

"He's around here somewhere," I say testily. "He can't exactly leave the arena." I can't help feeling a bit abandoned, although I guess he might have felt exactly the same way. I suppose I sort of ignored him when I ran by, but he had to understand, didn't he? Of course, I don't know why he was sitting there in the first place… "We've got to go to the castle anyway," I finally decide. "The weather's getting worse. We have to get in before the Careers go back. They won't look for us there." The last part isn't necessarily true, but I figure that if I have to get murdered I'd rather do it in comfort than in a flood or blizzard or whatever the weather worsens to tomorrow.

"Nine. Three out of nine…" Emerianne whispers to herself. I don't ask her what she's talking about, because I already know. I nod in silent agreement. She gives me a sad, mournful look, and I can't believe that this is the same Emerianne I met during the Reaping. The Emerianne who loves the color yellow and apples and fresh-baked bread, the one with seven siblings, the one who wouldn't drink the orange juice on the train but adored the cider and hot chocolate.

And now she's standing in front of me in the pouring rain, looking like her entire world just collapsed. My sympathy isolates itself on her for a moment, even though I know that I should be feeling worse for the dead, and just as bad for myself. And suddenly, I have a new motivation to survive. I don't want her to look like this for me.

Next up will be Kendal, Ariele, and possibly Eliza.